Tomorrow is December 6th - Part 1

Received this from a dear friend of mine on Friday. I'll assume she would like me to share it (update- yup, she's OK with it. Her name is Jenn, and I just discovered she's on the editorial board of a magazine.):

On 6 December 1989, 14 womyn were murdered at Montreal's Ecole
Polytechnique.  They were murdered because they were womyn, pure and
simple.  They were:

Geneviève Bergeron, aged 21;
Hélène Colgan, 23;
Nathalie Croteau, 23;
Barbara Daigneault, 22;
Anne-Marie Edward, 21;
Maud Haviernick, 29;
Barbara Maria Klucznik, 31;
Maryse Leclair, 23;
Annie St.-Arneault, 23;
Michèle Richard, 21;
Maryse Laganière, 25;
Anne-Marie Lemay, 22;
Sonia Pelletier, 28; and
Annie Turcotte, aged 21.

As always, I ask you to remember these womyn.  To mourn them and to let the
energy of your mourning become action for change.

Over the years, debate has raged about whether this murder was the act of
an isolated madman or a symbol of male violence against womyn.  Having no
wish to contribute to the memory of that individual or to the devaluation
of these womyn's lives, I choose not to discuss him or theorize about the
genesis of his action.  I ask you instead to check
http://www.herplace.org/violence/vaw.html and consider the media response
to the event.  To remember the context in which this event took
place....the context which continues to operate today.

I ask you to consider the way this action echoes the numerous acts of
domestic murder, assault and abuse committed by men.  15 years later, womyn
continue to be killed.  To be stalked and harassed, beaten, raped and
murdered.  To live in fear.  UNIFEM's most recent information indicates
that still, today, 1 in 3 womyn in the world will encounter violence simply
because they are womyn (http://www.unifem.org/campaigns/november25/facts_figures.php).  And don't let that "in the world" line lull you

into feeling secure, presuming that this happens "elsewhere" and we are
safe here in the "civilized" world.  UNIFEM's numbers indicate that, when
it comes to domestic/intimate violence, there is no country in the world
where womyn are safe from this type of violence.  Consider these
numbers:  in Cambodia, 16 percent of women are physically abused by their
husbands; in the UK 30 percent are physically abused by partners or ex
partners; this figure is 52 percent in the West Bank; 21 percent in
Nicaragua, 29 per cent in Canada, and 22 percent in the US.
(http://www.unifem.org/campaigns/november25/facts_figures_2.php).

There are so many people that I speak to who remind me of the positive
changes for womyn in this world...who tell me that things have changed.  In
response, I offer you these comments from UNIFEM (www.unifem.org) about
their "Not A Minute More: A Call to End Violence Against Women" program
(http://www.unifem.org/campaigns/november25/).

"We must make the eradication of violence against women a serious global
priority," said Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Director of UNIFEM. "Clearly
efforts so far have brought results — there are better legal frameworks and
policies, awareness and partnerships, including with men and youth. We have
better integrated services, knowledge and research including knowledge
about the high cost of violence against women to families and societies.
And yet, women do not appear to be substantively more free from violence
than they were a decade ago. We are walking up a down escalator. There are
structures and processes that generate violence. We need to break the cycle
of violence by ensuring that women have the voice and power to assert their
priorities in an increasingly violent world. For this to happen, women must
have access to property, employment and equal wages, to the seats of power,
and to education."

Every year I make a point of explaining that I'm pointing the finger at a
sexist patriarchal misogynist society rather than individual men.  This
year I choose not to do that.  The time for assigning "blame" is so far in
the past (if indeed there ever was such a time), and that conversation
takes us nowhere.  This is the time for action, for change.  Remember
Parliament's 1991 enactment of the National Day of Remembrance and Action
on Violence Against Women -- the glorious moment when every single womyn in
the House stood together and claimed this Day of Remembrance.  Remember
what we can and do accomplish -- all of us -- when we work together.  It is
time to demand change, and to act on that demand.  Let's break the cycle of
violence, and let's do it now.

Remember.  Mourn.  Act.