“I moved on her like a bitch, but I couldn’t get there.” “Grab them by the p***y, you can do anything.”
Like when I was a child playing with a prism and the light changed, the world shifted. The Access Hollywood tape of then 59-year-old Donald J. Trump was a painful beam which seared my mind. Billy Bush got fired for giggling and asking questions, Donald J. Trump is going to be the 45th President of the United States.
The day after the inauguration, in the winter-weak sunlight on Saturday, hundreds of thousands of people will converge on our nation’s capital to protest. And I’ll join my wife and two children in attendance at the Women’s March in Washington, D.C.
Why this protest, why now? My wife, my daughter, my sisters, my nieces, my mom, my step-mom, my cousins, and every other woman in this great country have made it my priority to stop sexual abuse.
As a talk radio host and participant in the media, I am blessed with the opportunity to interact with an extraordinarily wide range of people from all walks of life. Women came out of the woodwork, sharing stories of their experiences of being sexually abused, sexually assaulted, or raped.
It isn’t just now that I’m hearing and reading about these abusive men. Throughout my life I’ve been hearing about date rape, attempted rape by a cab driver, a neighbor exposing himself and making lewd comments, groped on a crowded bus, grabbed while trying to go into a bathroom, and on and on.
No more sexual abuse, this must end. Women’s rights are human rights and not one person should suffer this abuse again.
We must fight back against this evil, exemplified by electing a man who personifies the opposite of what I teach my children. Bullying is wrong, saying horrible things about people is wrong, and sexually abusing women and girls is not only wrong, but must be stopped. This march to me is about fighting back and stopping this abuse.
While women have made many gains in our society since my great-grandmother Bearman was a suffragist in the early 20th century, there are limits to what they can do on their own. Because men are the overwhelming sexual offenders, men need to step up and help stop this epidemic. We need the good men, real men, to stand up and say enough. Males will stop grabbing, groping, and assaulting our sisters, our daughters, our mothers. Starting today we will stand up in public, stop you, and shame you like Moise Morancy did in New York. Starting today, we will stop the “locker room talk” espoused by Donald J. Trump and tell those who use those words that we will no longer tolerate it. Starting today, we say all the girls and women in our country shall be free from this scourge and can be safe from these attacks.
This is why I am going to The Women’s March On Washington. To show my children, one a boy and the other a girl, that my wife and I believe in a better world for them and I am willing to act beyond words on the radio to help make it so. To stand in solidarity with so many others that the time has come to end where males in our society feel free to abuse girls and women.
I ask for you to join me in condemning sexual abuse and to stop making excuses for those who commit these offenses. I ask for you to stand up every time you see a male sexually abusing another. I ask for you to demand our leaders stop making excuses for offenders, to stop explaining it away.
January 21st, 2017 is the day that we shall come together to work together to make our country a better place at the Women’s March in Washington, D.C. And as a result, maybe when my daughter turns 30, she and her friends won’t share stories of being sexually abused.