The Baby Boomer Renaissance: The Boomer Chronicles

Friday, May 20, 2011

The Boomer Chronicles

The Most Heroic People in the World: Lara Logan and Other Rape Survivors

Posted: 04 May 2011 07:37 AM PDT

Lara Logan, a foreign correspondent whose name became a household word when she was brutally attacked and raped by a mob of men while on assignment in Tahir Square, Egypt, on February 11, told her story on 60 Minutes this week. It is extremely difficult to hear her story. But we must, because, to my mind, there is no more heroic person than one who has survived rape — a horrific invasion of one’s body and spirit. The mutants in the mob only stopped their unthinkably brutal attack when a group of Egyptian women protected Lara.

Rape happens in homes, on the streets, in war. Why are so many men capable of raping? How can this be happening in our world?

Our culture creates statues to heroes? No one is more heroic than the likes of Lara Logan. She said this to 60 Minutes: After the assault, “it felt like I was lying in the dirt,” Lara recalls. “I was dirt.”

She says that the cards and messages she received from both colleagues and strangers helped restore her dignity day by day. “It wasn’t just another bouquet of flowers arriving at the door,” says Logan. “When you’re broken like that and they’ve just taken everything from you, it’s those gestures that help you.”

No one should ever have to experience this, to live with the nightmares for the rest of one’s life.

Please speak out about rape and donate to your local rape crisis centers. Rape must end.