Ashlee Cobb
senior from
Dyersburg, Tenn.
(This letter is a response to the Cheers and Jeers section in the Oct. 7 edition of The Murray State News)
First, you got your information wrong when you stated people who participated in Take Back the Night’s candlelit march walked through the Quad. That information is false. I participated in the formal program and in the candlelit march. The march did not proceed through the Quad, but started at the Cutchin Soccer Fields and ran through the main thoroughfare of the campus, ending up at the Curris Center.
Secondly, how on God’s earth can you jeer an important program like Take Back the Night? Don’t you know every two minutes a woman is getting sexually assaulted in this country?
Don’t you know we had 98 chairs placed on the soccer field that night representing the 97 women and one man who lost their lives due to domestic violence and sexual assault just in the Commonwealth of Kentucky since 2008? Don’t you know the numbers of sexually and domestically abused victims are not decreasing?
Finally, don’t you know there were five brave survivors there that night who participated in the march? They marched not because they were sexually assaulted on this campus, but because they were victimized and lived. Many never get that chance. The march was not just for those people who had died due to violence, but it was also for those who lived.
So please, before you jeer at the march, you should stop and think about what it meant to those survivors who could look out across the field and see the candles burning brightly, because there is hope sexual violence and assault can be stopped. The candles were a symbol of hope and safety, and a statement to all people that we can take back the night.
Clearly, you have no idea what you are talking about when you jeer the march. And if you have no idea what you are talking about, then why on earth are you writing about it?