Dortell Williams' Radio Broadcasts
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Dortell Williams is an inmate at the Los Angeles County California State Prison in Lancaster, California. Dortell has been published in a number of community newspapers, including the San Francisco Bay View, The Final Call and The Los Angeles Sentinel. He mentors at-risk kids through San Francisco's The Beat Within and is an inside correspondent for Families to Amend Three Strikes. You can email Dortell at: dortellwilliams@yahoo.com. For more information about the Honor Yard Program, visit: www.prisonhonorprogram.org
Centuries of Female Struggle
Commentary by Dortell Williams, recorded 12/5/07
1) 3:19 MP3 Radio Essay
Centuries of Female Struggle
Copyright 2007/ Dortell Williams
November is the month of domestic and international violence against woman awareness. A month to reflect on the sufferings of women; and a reminder for the next 11 months not to forget the barbarity survivors of today endure, and the atrocities heroines of times past vanquished.
Survivors like Dianna Ortiz, a nun, an American, who was tortured in 1989 by a U. S.-trained army captain and his minions. Co-writer Patricia Davis, in their book, The Blindfold’s Eyes, graphically describe how Ortiz was burned all over, raped repeatedly and forced to perform oral and manual sex. She was made to witness the torture of others, and the dreadful suffering of young, innocent girls – none of which made it.
Ortiz had only been abducted for 24 hours, but the experience will haunt her for a life time.
She continues to wrestle with the enormous guilt of being a lone survivor. She blames herself. Her biggest disappointment is that her own government tried arduously to cover it up.
Refugee Reports, a news service of Immigration and Refugee Services of America, tells of vicious attacks by armed rebels who victimize Sierra Leonian women; raping them, subjecting them to sexual slavery and servitude, along with forced marriages.
A past report by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence found that 72 percent of Sierra Leonian women surveyed had suffered human rights abuses, and more than 50 percent had been victims of violence.
For centuries, all around the world, women have been victim to a variety of abuses; some by individuals, and others by societies with abuse and exploitation ingrained within the culture.
In Africa, women endure the mutilation of their genitals for the sake of myth, or the whim of man’s laws. Millions more are purposely infected with AIDS by ignorant or selfish male counterparts. In the East women were forced into shoes that deformed their feet because men thought their feet were cuter extra, extra small.
On K Street, here in America, women face equal work, but unequal pay; or a myriad of clouded glass ceilings. Women are pimped and prostituted on America’s boulevards. On both the big and small screen, in print and other media, women are called all manner of disrespectful names, while in music misogynistic lyrics are the order of the day.
In uniform, while stepping up to serve and protect, or while adding proudly to the ranks of the battlefield’s brave, women are sexually assaulted, harassed and made the butt of offensive jokes. And while the abuse is even higher in America’s prisons, we’re left only to imagine the macabre that goes on within the darkness of these domestic venues of exile.
Yet the mothers of mankind push forward. I spite of the tragic history of male domination, women are on the rise. Masters of the household, captains of enterprise – from micro-loans to corporate CEOs -- heads of entire states and even countries.
Women are the fastest growing splinter group in the world.
It’s a glimmering portrait of a progressive present that sluggishly overshadows a lusterless past. But millions are still chained to a life of victimization.
Will you join in their noble struggle to break these chains?
Sources:
Salon.com, Patricia Davis and Dianna Ortiz, The Blindfold’s Eyes
Refugee Reports, August 2002
“Citadel Cadets Report Sexual Assualts,” USA Today, August 24, 2006: 3A
Update:
Senate Bill 299 sailed unscathed through the Senate Public Safety Committee, the Senate Public Safety Commission, Senate Appropriations and the full Senate. The bill is scheduled to go before the Assembly Public Safety Committee, August 31st, where it is expected to hit turbulence. Old fashioned, traditional letters are requested of the public for legislative supporters of the bill to offset expected opposition.
Dortell Williams is an inmate at the Los Angeles County California State Prison in Lancaster, California. Dortell has been published in a number of community newspapers, including the San Francisco Bay View, The Final Call and The Los Angeles Sentinel. He mentors at-risk kids through San Francisco's The Beat Within and is an inside correspondent for Families to Amend Three Strikes. You can email Dortell at: dortellwilliams@yahoo.com. For more information about the Honor Yard Program, visit: www.prisonhonorprogram.org
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