This weekend something happened across my Facebook feed and I’m sure it was on yours too. 

Countless friends, coworkers, and family, men and women, with the hashtag #metoo. It has been posted over 200,000 times this weekend. This hashtag was created in response to the Harvey Weinstein scandal with the idea that “if all women (later people) who have been sexually harassed or assaulted wrote ‘Me Too’ as a status, we might give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem.”

The magnitude was real and should not be ignored. This is an issue across our country. I sat there looking at Facebook with my close friends, family members, coworkers, even friends of my mom posting #metoo.  The sad reality is I know there are more that didn’t post. The courage of those who came forward, the pain of them and those who did not breaks my heart. 

Sadly, I’ve still heard some, in an effort to ignore the issue, say things that ring of the “but not me” mentality. I did not have #metoo on my status.  There is literally no reason that I have not experienced this other than than dumb luck. It has nothing to do with anything else.

But here is the truth: The fact that I have not experienced being sexually harassed or assaulted doesn’t diminish or erase the issue in our country. No one should have to endure the emotional and physical turmoil in their lives. No one should ever take advantage of another human sexually and not be punished for their crimes to the fullest extent of the law. The fear of the world that we live in for the next generation of my students and children terrifies me. We must take inspiration from those that shared. These women and men had true courage to come forward.

We must not only say “I believe you,” but that this can NOT continue. We must all move forward, as mothers, as women, and as human beings, together with courage to change our status quo in any way we can. 

Kimberly Peña
Hello AMB readers! I'm Kim, a working momma married to the love of my life, Marco. We welcomed our joy boy, Thomas, in 2013 who is hearing impaired and full of energy! I am a history teacher by day and blogger by night. I love staying busy and always have about a dozen projects in my head at any given moment. I love spending time with my boys, creating inquiry based learning units, and blogging about cooking, motherhood, marriage, and womanhood here and at www.thehillcountrywoman.com.

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