Just as it was time to light the white candles, the wind whooshed through the outdoor hockey rink, swirling girls’ hair around their faces and forcing everyone to cringe into huddles.

People shielded their candles against the wind with their hands as they passed the flame through the crowd. The flames flickered and fought to burn bright like the sparks of hope fighting in survivors of sexual violence. Despite the untiring wind, those sparks of hope flared with each person who shared a story or offered support.

Take Back the Night ended with a march from the Ceddia Union Building (CUB) to the hockey rink, but the message it brought is far from finished. For about 20 years Shippensburg University has hosted the event to raise awareness of sexual violence and to offer people resources at and around SU.

“Our efforts are working, but much more still needs to happen,” President George “Jody” Harpster said to the audience sitting in the multi-purpose room of the CUB, where Take Back the Night began.

Nothing will change until people break the silence and raise awareness for these issues. The voices of Shippensburg need to be heard, Harpster said, and what they are saying is “no more.”

“Remember this, Harpster said, “together we can and we will make a difference in this.”

The change comes from victims rising to become survivors, but it also comes from taking a look at the perpetrators.

When a child throws a rock at a window and breaks the glass, the rock is not to blame, but the person who launched it through the air, said Kevin Faust, who counsels graduate students. It is a simple analogy, but it is one that relates back to cases of sexual violence.

Faust focused the attention to men in the audience, telling them that there needs to be a cultural shift so that women are not seen as sexual objects, house maids or punching bags, but seen as the mothers, daughters and wives that they are.

“Men, if we truly love the women in our lives, it is time we act like it,” Faust said.

However, men are not just abusers, they are also survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence.

It only takes one instance of sexual abuse for a woman’s story to be heard, but how many times does a man have to be abused by a woman for people to consider it assault or rape? This is the question Raff Iula, graduate assistant for the Women’s Center, asked at the beginning of his speech.

Too many times people make the excuse that it is not rape because men enjoy the sex, Iula said. Men feel embarrassed because the stigma is that the powerlessness of rape makes them less of a man, and so they often do not speak out or reach for help.

“How do we help everyone feel equally validated?” Iula said.

It starts with individual stories.

Sophomore Mary Grace Keller stood on stage as a journalist, a journalist who wants to share the stories of others so that victims know the options available to help them become victors.

Keller, a print communication/journalism major, began her “No More” video last semester and presented the partially finished video at Take Back the Night. “Ship Says No More,” which is a campaign to end domestic violence and sexual assault, was launched at last year’s Take Back the Night. Keller hopes to add more testimony to the video and use it to show at orientation, she said.

SU student Samantha Justice shared her story for Keller’s video, her clear voice never faltering as she described how her boyfriend evolved into her controller, her abuser, her rapist. Her pale skin glowed luminescent like a moon set into a black sky, and she seemed unfailingly strong and untouched from the violence that had seeped into her life.

“I learned in my journalism classes that when you are interviewing people about touchy subjects the best thing to do is to detach yourself,” Keller said. Having already known Justice as a friend, interviewing her about her relationship made it a little easier, she said.

Although Keller maintains a level of professionalism during interviews, she is no less passionate about the stories of puzzle-piece lives that she writes.

“I do have a bias, but it’s a bias that a lot of people have,” Keller said, speaking as a journalist.

She understands how hard it is for people to share their stories, but she hopes that people see her as someone who wants to listen.

For there to be change people need to listen, people need to speak. Sometimes the greatest injustice is silence, and Take Back the Night was all about unifying voices to create change.

“When you are silent you contribute to the problem, instead of the solution,” Harpster said. Even just changing or saving one life makes it all worth it, he said.

After the speeches and videos were presented in the CUB, many of the people gathered to unite in a winding trail that threaded across campus, their unlit candles glinting white in the night. They walked the walk not of victims, but of victors taking back what was stolen. They lit their candles with the flame that was never truly extinguished. It smoldered softly with the strength of someone who was pushed down and stood back up — with two feet on the ground and two eyes raised to face the world. 

Share