Here’s a well deserved letter to the “4 heroes on
skateboards.” They observed a situation that will forever haunt them and remind
them that evil does exist in the world.
Thankfully they didn’t turn their heads and look the other
way. Thankfully they didn’t assume that the world was all roses and that this
guy was an honest individual. They trusted their gut and sprang to action when
the worst case scenario turned out to be a reality.
It’s tempting to look the other way, wanting to believe that
everything is on the up and up. These guys indeed wanted to believe that, but
they knew better. And that made all the difference in this situation.
Check out this powerful letter to find out how this
situation went down and why these skateboarders are true heroes.
“To the 4 Heroes on Skateboards,
Arnaud Nimenya, Carsyn Wright, James Hielema and Starlyn
Rivas-Perez, I don’t have any acquaintance with you, but thank you.
When you saw a sharp looking man bringing an drunk young
woman through a parking structure in Calgary, thank you for being concerned.
When you heard her begin shouting and hollering, thank you
for stopping to ask why.
When he let you know that he was attempting to call her
father to lift her up, thank you for being aware in assuming the best about an
outsider however staying suspicious at any rate.
“You don’t want to really think of the worst in somebody
like that,” you said. “You don’t want the situation to be real, so you just
brush it off and hope for the best.”
But thank you for doing the exact opposite when your gut
intuition told you something was dead wrong.
When he took her back into that nearby stairwell, thank you
for following him to check on her.
And when you discovered the “worst in somebody” unfold
before your very eyes and saw him sexually assaulting that 15-year-old girl
against the stairs, thank you for not letting him get away.
Like true heroes, three of you ran after her attacker and
one of you stayed behind to comfort the helpless young teen shaken with fear at
the brutal loss of her innocence.
You can’t take away what happened to her, but you can show
her that for every Brock Turner, there is a Swede on a bike waiting to come to
her rescue. For every group of men who will stand around gawking at a man
raping an unconscious woman behind a dumpster and doing NOTHING, there is a
group of men who will stop it in its tracks and chase down that pervert until
he’s restrained by the cops and justice is served.
For every man who wants to violate and dispose of her like a
worthless rag doll, there is a man who will cherish her for the treasure she is
and a daughter of the most high King—one who will say:
I’m so sorry.
You are not just “20 minutes of action.” You are not some
girl at a party. You are not alone in your fight.
I’m single. I’m male. I’m in my 20s. I respect you. I grieve
with you.
I don’t want you to think, not even for a second, that you
“asked for it” or that any of this is “your fault.” As men, it’s our job to
protect women regardless of what they wear or how much they drink.
In a society that encourages casual sex, demeaning women and
rape culture, thank you for showing us that there are still good men out there.
Thank you for doing the right thing, being a protector for
the defenseless, and for being the voice that said “NO” when hers was not loud
enough.”
Gratefully,
Kelsey
h/t
Damn