I've been having a rough go of it lately. I can barely remember the last time I left work at my regular time. Most of it has been waiting for copy, having one of my newswires taken away and try to write columns that people in this area will care about. That's a lot harder than it sounds.
Usually I take the silly route, since being sardonic is a lot easier for me than tackling a more serious topic. Plus, I always figure that someone can write about a serious topic and say what I'm thinking better than I can.
But last week I was stumped for a topic. I wasn't even going to turn in a column. My Managing Editor gave me a list of suggestions for topics to help get the words flowing. One of those topics was February and V-Day.
By now, everyone knows about V-Day and The Vagina Monologues and the slogan "Until The Violence Stops." I have been fortunate enough to have never experienced physical violence myself – I count my lucky stars that I've never been in that situations – but it still gets my ginger rage up to hear about it happening to other women and girls.
I think what really got me writing was the reports of multiple assaults in FSJ were done by the same teen, and a cabbie in Dawson Creek holding women captive in his cab and sexually assaulting them.
What a way to kick off a month that's supposed to be dedicated to ending this sort of shit, huh?
So that's the route I took. I decided to do a ranting column and even though I didn't really quite feel that I expressed it the way I wanted, it was still pretty good.
I turned it in, it printed, I moved on to the next day.
Then, today I came back from getting soup for lunch and found a letter on my keyboard. I just figured it was another letter to the editor ranting about some issue in the area. But then I actually read it.
The letter was from a lady who was in town last week and happened to pick up the friday paper and read my column. She thanked me to writing about such a topic, as she had been a victim of abuse 50 years ago, and it really spoke to her. There was nothing in place back then to help women in her situation, and even though abuse and violence is still out there, at least there are now resources to help women that need it.
She's 75 now and can still remember how she felt back then, going through all that. Honestly, I was so touched I almost started crying at my desk.
I always appreciate any thank-yous I get from the public, but this really got to me. The fact that this woman was moved enough by what I wrote to sit down and write a letter herself just makes all the shit I deal with in this job totally worth it.
Here's the column in question if you want to read it.
So a big giant thank-you to the woman from Wembley, Alberta and the letter she sent me. You turned my whole mood around, and I felt genuinely happy for the first time in weeks. People are good, and you proved it to me. Thank you.
Peace and Love,
Ginger.
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