I Stood Up, Will You?

It takes two people to speak the truth: One to speak and another to hear. – Henry David Thoreau

On October the 29th, my friend and I attended our town’s Take Back the Night march. Their mission basically, is to “shatter the silence and break the violence.” They believe as a group we can fight to end sexual violence. My friend and I were immediately pumped for the event, and began to brainstorm ideas of what to wear. We decided sort of last- minute that we were going to dye our own shirts and paint on the cause’s slogan. Our ingredients for the dye/craft? TEA BAGS! raspberry explosion to be exact. The colour turned out to be a perfect match for the event, everyone was wearing pink and black! However, dying our shirts was definitely a learning experience as it had its ups and downs. (ie: beautiful colour, horrible process….let’s just leave it at messy!) Who knew that water and body heat plus tea on a dyed shirt equals significant colour change…. boo! RIP beloved shirts.  The annoying part is that we pulled an all-nighter just to finish them! Oh well. Before the march started, there were guest speakers, a  Candlelight Memorial ceremony and a moment of silence to honour all victims. Our local university’s Radical Cheerleaders presented some witty cheers and led the march, we hollered: “Shatter the silence, break the violence!” “Women unite, take back the night!” “Women united/Will never be defeated!” up and down the streets of downtown. All in all, it was an amazing experience – and I will definitely be attending next year’s march! (: