We Are Here
Tonight, as I prepared, shaking, for the speech that I am giving tomorrow on my childhood sexual abuse, I shared it with an acquaintance that swiftly crossed the gap into good friend. I realized that in our solidarity we are strong, and in our purpose to heal one another we are united. We are here.
We come from all walks of life. We are doctors, students, drive through attendants, IT specialists and engineers. We are Christians, Buddhists, Pagans, and any other stripe of religion you can think of. We are women. We are men. We are children as young as you can imagine and adults taking our last breaths remembering the crimes perpetrated against us, hopefully with some closure and peace. We are fat and thin, sane and insane, wild and cautious, but most of all, we are everywhere.
We are here.
Wherever you look, we are here. We are in your schools, your homes, your classrooms, and your places of worship. Our faces are written with a common sadness, but also with a common strength. We are in your reflection and in the window looking out at you, seeing you look in at us.
We are here.
Together we are unstoppable. We are a wave of force that could tear the earth apart and instead we choose to build it back up, taking all the hate and anger that we feel and turning it into green things growing. All the pain and anger in the world would never erase what we have been through, so it is our greatest gift to rebuild from those ashes and bring our purpose together for a common good.
We are here.
We are stronger together than we would be apart. Together we are one voice, one chorus that calls out for peace, for justice, for tranquility and most of all that no one else be hurt. Our voices demand amelioration for our suffering, but first and foremost, they demand that no other voice be forced by circumstance to join our choir. Our voices demand a time when we will no longer have to cry out. But until that day, we are here.
I would ask that anyone who is willing to speak their voice or give support to a fellow survivor please post a reply to this saying that you are here, and anything else you want to say. Thank you.
Confessions of an Onion Girl 
BEAUTIFUL POST. Was this part of your speech? Maybe you can post your whole speech? Would you mind? What you’ve already posted was beautiful!
My name is Butterfly, and I too am a survivor of incest and child sexual abuse. I stand with you, OnionGirl.
It is now part of my speech. I didn’t mean it to be, but I couldn’t help it after I wrote it. Thank you. I know you are here. I believe I’ll add the whole page as a speech. Some of it is straight from this blog, as that part will be.
Hi OnionGirl,
I e-mailed you privately – I would like to link to this entry in my blog. I’d like other survivors to stand up and say there are here too. How do you feel about this?
I’ve replied privately, but you have my most fervent blessings. By all means. My words are your words, and we all share our words together.
I am here too. Your post was anthemic. It made me want to write music, with drums and driving guitars and voices in defiant powerful harmony. On my blog we’re sharing songs to dance on an abusers grave to. I think your song would be a suitable on. When you give your talk, know that you have other survivors giving you roots, that there are other voices behind your voice and that speaking truth about child sexual assault is a great gift to the world. If you have already spoken, know that our support was with you.
Do you plan to make this into a song? If you don’t, I’d like your permission to give it a try.
I would be honored if you choose to make my words into a song. Please do link me to any work you get from it, as it would mean the world to me.
[…] Nobody could say it better than this 2009 April 15 tags: child sexual abuse, incest survivor pride, incest survivors, Sexual Abuse, sexual abuse survivors by sworddancewarrior I encourage you to read this post from Oniongirl called ‘We are Here’ […]
I am here too. Thank you. What a beautiful post.
[…] | Tags: healing, oniongirl, survivors of childhood sexual abuse My friend OnionGirl has posted a beautiful entry about all of us survivors standing together. This is my favorite part of the entry: “Together […]
Reason #76: We Are Here « Reasons You Shouldn’t Fuck Kids said this on April 16, 2009 at 12:14 pm |
[…] https://oniongirl13.wordpress.com/2009/04/15/we-are-here/ […]
We Are Here « Kate1975’s Blog said this on April 16, 2009 at 7:49 pm |
I am here. Thank you for your courage and bravery. You are one exceptional writer and an exceptional survivor and an exceptional human being.
You are right. We are stronger when we come together. I am here. You are not alone. We stand together with you.
Kate
Onion Girl, this is beautiful and I will definitely blog about it and refer back to your speech. As you said, no one could say it any better. I look forward to reading more of your words.
[…] abuse survivor, childhood abuse, Healing by kerro I can’t say this any better. Please read this beautiful post. Thank you, Onion […]
Wow. I am here, I am a survivor, and those words you wrote are BEAUTIFUL, Onion Girl!! We all stand together!!
Thank you for your words.
Absolutely Brilliant Onion Girl! The intimacy of this left me speechless. Many Thanks for your post!
Thank you very much for stopping by, and your kind words.
I found this thanks to butterfly’s blog. This was beautifully written, I cried. I am a male survivor, still fighting against my abuser (Dad). I would love to link to this from my blog if that is ok? You can email me at murderous.thoughts@ymail.com 🙂 Also let me know if it’s ok to quote a bit of this in my blog and link over to you!
I am definitely going to blogroll you too! I hope you will read my blog as well! Thanks so much for writing this, I smile through the tears!
~V
I would be honored by a link to your blog. Thank you.
i am here. THANK YOU for this.
I’m here too!
Thank you Onion Girl this was very inspirational.
Thank you for stopping by. 🙂
Yay. Thanks for your words. Seems our posts have a lot in common 🙂 Sending love and strength your way!
Onion Girl, my post on your article is found here http://patriciasingleton.blogspot.com/2009/04/we-are-here-survivors.html
Thank you so much for your post. It’s so beautiful, and so kind. I am honored by your referral.
Onion Girl, you are very welcome. Each time I read this post, I feel it more.
I am here.
I recently gave a witness about being an incest survivor to a Catholic women’s group. It was a defining moment in my life.
It is important that we speak out in order to bring child sexual abuse out of the dark. The silence, the secret, is such poison to us as survivors and to others who have no clue they are not alone. We need to know we are not alone. We need to speak out for ourselves and we need to speak for those who have not yet found their voice. God bless. Thanks for a beautiful post.
Onion Girl, I am here too. Appreciated reading your blog and you. Blessings dear one.
Hey Oniongirl,
The song is going well. When I have a draft recording made I’ll put it up on my blog.
SDW
I’m so happy to hear it. I can’t wait to see what you’ve come up with.
[…] night I made some good progress on writing a song to go with Oniongirl’s words (with her permission) and I’m really happy with it. I’ve got to get the guitar part a […]
Thanks to Kate1975, I am here.
Ivory
I am here. Unfortunately.