So this is what I want to do...

*DISCLAIMER*
This is going to be FAR more gruesome than my last blog. If you can't handle the truth, then don't read this. Though I hope you all at least attempt to read this, because it may help make you aware of how much what I am about to propose really needs to be done!







Okay, many of you read my last blog about Sylvia Likens and the poem I wrote for her. Her story and one other have touched me and I really want to do something, to help prevent horrible tragedies like theirs from happening anymore.

The other young woman was named Junko Furuta. Ruki from The GazettE wrote a song for her, called Taion. I think that was a beautiful thing to do. These two women (Junko and Sylvia) deserve to have as many people as possible hearing about them. Because NO ONE should ever have to live through what they lived through.

Junko Furuta, 16 year old Japanese Girl. She was kidnapped on the 25th of November, 1988. I would have been two months old. She was held by four different boys from when she was taken to January 5th 1989 when the four boys disposed of her body in a 55 gallon drum filled with cement. The girl was tortured, raped repeatedly and murdered. She might not have died, except the people who knew what was happening to her didn’t do anything to help. IF you can handle the grisly details, here is a website that lists all the things that happened to Junko before she died. If she had lived she would be 36 years old. I hope you do read it, because she deserves to have her story heard as well: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junko_Furuta

Sylvia Likens, 16 year old Indiana Girl. She was left with a woman named Gertrude Baniszewski, who eventually tortured the young girl to death. Yet again, she could’ve been saved if a neighbor had reported the abuse the she witnessed happening in the Baniszewski house. But she didn’t and no one else did. IF someone had spoken up, Sylvia would be about 60 years old today. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvia_Likens)

I want to start two different foundations. One for Junko and one for Sylvia, as no one should EVER have to live through what they did and should never have to die, the way they did. I’m not saying that I can stop the evil in the world that causes people to do these things, but I can at least help educate people to help try and prevent this from happening again!

I know that there are several foundations for abused children, but I believe that there is room for one more. One that goes toward educating people and forcing them to STAND UP. So many children and women die each day from being viciously beaten, they could’ve been saved if people who heard what was going on had Spoken Up. I haven’t quite worked everything out in my head, but I want to teach not only adults, but children as well. Everyone should have the right to life, especially young children who haven’t even begun to live. Children are being abused and no one speaks up, just like Sylvia Likens.

The other foundation is going to be one that educates young woman as to how to defend themselves from abuse, any kind of abuse. To defend against getting kidnapped or raped or murdered. Once again people need to stand up, if they see anything suspicious, but mainly this will go towards help young women everywhere regain power over their lives. Many chauvinistic men are going to say I’m only going towards making all woman to be bitches, but the truth is We can be kind, caring, loving and still know how to defend themselves. Women disappear every day or are murdered by their partners and no one makes a move to really help them, just like Junko Furuta.

I don’t know why these two particular stories seem to have latched themselves onto me, but I feel a connection to these two young women and I think they would others to be educated and helped, like they were not. All I know is that in a different time Sylvia could be my little sister, Hannah or could’ve been my Mom! These women that get tortured and raped and murdered could be our sisters, our mothers, our cousins or friends. And something needs to be done! I am tired of sitting back and watching women I love deal with the abuse they suffer. Stand up and be heard, we are not going to be abused anymore!

Its funny, when I was first talking to my mom about this, I sounded so much more passionate. I told her some of the details that still make me want to throw up, I almost cried, thinking about those two women. Just a little older than Hannah, just a little younger than me. I just want to make people more aware. No more abuse! So this is what I am working on and what I want to accomplish. In a way, this has been a healing experience for me, reading about Junko and Sylvia. It made me realize that we shouldn’t have to live like this, we shouldn’t have to take the abuse. So, let’s try to stop it!