Dear editor, I wanted to write the East Tennessean staff and thank them for the wonderful story they did on “Take Back the Night.” As a survivor of sexual assault and a featured speaker at the rally and march, I was so excited to see such wonderful coverage of the program, as well as an awesome turnout of people.

I also want to thank all the students, faculty and staff of ETSU, as well as the citizens of Johnson City who came to this event. It was a program that took many months of planning and it was great to see so many people there who supported the issue. The issue of violence against women, whether it be physical, emotional or sexual is a very serious one and needs to be addressed. Many people have the mentality that if they ignore or don’t participate in these types of events, then the problem does not exist. A lot of people think that it is only a women’s issue, when in reality, it is also a men’s issue.

Lastly, I want to thank ETSU for allowing “Take Back the Night” to occur every spring on this campus.

I thought it was a program that occurred on every college campus across the country, but when I asked my friend who attends a college in Indiana if the program existed there, he said that he had never heard of it. Thank you also to the people in charge of helping to organize the event, mainly to Kim Bushore-Maki, the coordinator for special outreach programs, and Dr. Amber Kinser, the chairperson for Women’s Studies, as well as the rest of my fellow “Take Back the Night” committee members. It was wonderful working with all of you.

Jocelyn A. Mooneyhan

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