Written Word

I have been trying to figure out how to express my feeling for the past week.  The appropriately powerful and precise words and phrases have escaped me.  I wanted to talk to my closest friend about it and I struggled with the words even with her. My gut reaction is that I am incredibly heartbroken as I watch a country I love tear itself apart.  While I have been aware of the divides in our country for most of my life, especially my adult years, I haven’t known how to have an impact outside of my own views and actions.  I still don’t, to be honest, however I want to figure it out. One theme I have read and heard in the last few days is that staying silent isn’t an option.  If staying silent puts me on the side of hate, I am going to speak up, even with imperfect words.  I am not on the side of any kind of hatred.  I am not on the side that makes people I love scared for their lives and those of their children.  I don’t know what it fee...

Note:  This article is written for a mature audience using explicit imagery Gone, Baby, Gone Violence and Girls in Africa               In the blink of an eye childhood is gone as it dissolves into adolescence and then into adulthood.   Girls, through-out the world, face unique issues as they mature into young women.   In sub-Saharan Africa those issues can be not only challenging but life threatening as well.   Violence is a major obstacle placed in the way of a happy and healthy childhood for young girls.             Violence is so prevalent throughout the sub-Saharan region that a study by The African Child Policy Forum in Ethiopia found that every girl interviewed had experienced some form of violence at one time or another (Mugawe & Powell, 2006) .   Poverty, cultural traditions and lack of ed...