Comments
Give us the power, the ability to defend ourselves and live.
I am a junior at Gettysburg College in PA. I don't know if you have been watching the news lately, but there has been a murder on our college campus last Thursday. One student (a male senior) strangled and murdered his (ex-)girlfriend of one year (a sophomore). It really shook our campus hard, along with myself, even though i did not know either one that was involved. After breaking down a little tonight, i realized, crying was not going to change the past; nor prevent incidents, assaults, nor murders like this from happening again in the future.
What will? Taking action!
I found your contact information after googling 'self defense for women classes' and wanted to get in contact with you right away. I was hoping you could hold self defense classes for female students, or any woman (faculty, staff or students) on our campus to help protect us if we were to ever get ourselves in this type of situation. It is very scary to know that an innocent 19 year old young woman was strangled, stabbed and murdered by someone that loved her for a year. Not even a stranger, or a crazy drug addict rapist on the street! Her boyfriend! Someone she trusted and loved! How scary is that? She was not able to get away, she was not able to defend herself. She died because of that.
But you... you have the power to give us woman that power. You have the ability to give us woman the ability to defend ourselves. To win. To live. And to help with our recovery of her death on our campus. I believe that immediately holding these self defense classes on our campus will prove that Emily Rachel Silverstein did not die in vain.
Please help me, help us. Give us the power, the ability to defend ourselves and live.
I am wrapping up the semester and showed your story again. I talk to my students about finding a voice, being empowered etc. My goal is to get them to realized the power they have through the tools we learn in my class.
Anyway, after we got done talking about you and others who have found a voice, I let them log onto your website and encouraged to look at "Just Yell Fire", we had already talked about the video's origins and message. At the end of class a very quiet 8th grader who never really speaks out much came up to my desk.
"Do you know how fast they can send the video? I am going to be moving soon."
Maybe that doesn't have the impact for you that it had on me. I have no idea what her personal story is, but the really timid girl making such an inquiry made me wonder.
I don't know how long videos take to ship. But I happily gave her mine. She was stunned and looked at it and then me with a wide eye, then said thanks and walked back to her seat still looking at it.
It was a nice moment, just wanted to share.
Thanks for who you are and what you stand for.
Not only does your video help teen girls & women, but I want to order one to have my young son watch it to help fight off any child predator that might try to abduct him. I really think your video should be shown to all young children as well to prepare them for circumstances that may arise such as attempted child abduction. Unfortunately we see all too often on the news what happens to young children who are caught off guard by these predators. Your video is a wonderful tool to help better prepare children to defend themselves. Again, thank you for making such a wonderful video to help others.
I will pass the word on to everyone I know.
I just watched the 'Montel Williams Show' and saw your segment. I was very impressed with the young girls and their inspirational story. I have a young daughter who we talk to on a regular basis about what to do in an emergency situation, along with weekly classes of karate. Unfortunately for her father and I we may have more reason to be overly protective of our kids...almost eight years ago my husband's sister was kidnapped and later found murdered, the killer still remains unknown. I feel that this DVD could bring us comfort in knowing that if faced with a dangerous situation our children would have a better advantage of getting away safely!
Thanks for your story and God bless you for sharing this with the nation!
I think it is an incredible thing what these girls have done. If any of them wants they are free to contact me by email, or if they don't want to do that I just want to send them all my luck and blessings.
You are an inspiration