Imagination can enlighten Berenson

Dear Harris Berenson,

I want you to imagine when you are married and have children. I want you to imagine your daughters: little girls and young women, beautiful in their trust, innocence and love of life. I want you to imagine sitting them down and sharing with them your memories, activities and achievements in life. I want you to tell them everything about you and what your views represent. I want you to show them your "golden" cartoons from "the good old days." I want you to try and justify that you are not as callous and insensitive as it "seems." I want you to rationalize that "even though they are female, you really do have respect for them," that your ignorant actions don't epitomize "everything" Rape Awareness was against "because people should have been able to take a joke." Ha. Then I want you to stand by and watch as your little girls grow up, and away, from your oh-so-powerful-and-manly protection. I want you to stand by and watch as they go on their first dates, begin their first years at college and first face the frightening perspectives of people like yourself.

Sometimes, all it takes to understand how just one life can by raped by rape is to imagine.

Bonny Cline

Trinity '95