LETTER TO THE NEXT PRESIDENT

Dear Next President,

In the United States, as you can see, we have been suffering from everything on the last decade. Gun violence, bullying, racism, discrimination, racism, but one of the main issues you should cover during your presidency is sexual harassment and assault. We need changes, we need solutions for these issues that are not just affecting us, but the next generations as well. Everyone, including men deserve respect and privacy when it comes to physiological and mentally .

First, “Rape survivors are 13 times more likely to attempt suicide than are people who have not been victims of a crime.” from DoSomething.org, we can understand that one of the consequences of this issue, especially women, even when protected, incidents like this can change ours and their futures. We don’t want to lose our people because we didn’t do anything or intervene to prevent incidents like that. We all want to be secure. Imagine one of our family members is going to pass through something like this, makes me realize I don’t want anybody to deal with their loved ones suffering or dying. Nobody deserved this.

Secondly, the quote from DoSOmething.org that says “Over a third of women who are raped as minors are also raped as adults,” this is giving us an example of how women who were raped as minors, they got used to abuse by older people because they were being lacked to say what they were experiencing. When this victims keep things to themselves, they are growing up in another world, they start thinking what is wrong as right, and what is right as something weird, like speaking up for their own rights.

Then, “42% of raped women expect to be raped again.” This quote from DoSomething.org, makes us all think, are we going to permit something like that happen again and again? We could've done something else, like report what we knew already, help those people who were struggling, provide them help and give them advice about who to go to when they needed to talk about it and feel satisfied, make justice for those who couldn't get to this point and encourage the ones are afraid of speaking out loud.

I have a story to connect with this, I have this person, I really appreciate her, it's a woman. We have been connected as you guys can't imagine. One day while I was out of city, she stayed alone with her daughters, her 1 year-old and 6 year-old. We never thought about something like this happening to this person who's really special for me. She never told me what happened, if it wasn't for one of my aunties who was arguing with her ex husband, and started saying details about the incident, she said how those men tied her up and beat her up too, they touched every part of her body with their dirty hands, they almost killed her daughters so she would stay in silence! They robbed her, raped her, and threatened her! It was the worst feelings I ever felt in my life, those women who I really appreciated with all my heart, suffered unimaginable! They reported the case with the police who never took the case seriously, let it happen, and it's been almost 5 years since this happened and there's no signs of justice around.

Future President, I implore you to count our stories, to listen to them, to be in our shoes and understand what's happening to all of us who are voting but for a better future. We believe in changes you can make. We need help for those who are victims of sexual harassment and assault.

Sincerely, Dana.

Foster High School

Tukwila, WA