Take Back the Night!

Trafton B.

April 30, 2010 - 8:45 PM

So, I'm sitting on the second floor of the Knight Library. Don't judge me. I know, it's Thursday night and there are obviously other placed I'd like to be, but I have to finish up my work because my parents are coming into town.

Anyways, I'm sitting in the library minding my own business writing a memo for PPPM 494. Then I noticed a few police cruisers - mostly motorcycles - drive by outside the big south window. I didn't think much of it. I figured it was just the Department of Public Safety (DPS) doing their rounds. They didn't look like they were in a hurry to get anywhere.

But then I started to hear a faint sound in the distance. At first, I thought someone forgot to turn off a cell phone, until the noise slowly started getting louder and more pronounced and everyone in the building turned their heads, looking just as confused as me. More cruisers rolled by and, finally, I could make what they were saying.....

"Hey hey, ho ho, date rape has got to go."
"Hey hey, ho ho, date rape has got to go."

I felt like I was missing something, because hearing chants against sexual assault isn't exactly a normal occurrence, even on the UO campus. But, everything made sense as the horde of students and community members marched along the pathway behind a big sign that read "TAKE BACK THE NIGHT!"

Still not know exactly what was happening, I stood up to snag a photo as the protesters marched by and trailed off into the distance cheering.....

"We are women, we are men, together we fight, to take back the night."

Take Back the Night began over thirty years ago at the International Tribunal on Crimes against Women in Brussels, Belgium. On March 4th 1976, over two thousand women representing forty countries attended the event and lead the first TBTN march as a candlelight procession through the city streets. It didn't take long for word to spread across the Atlantic as the first march in North America was held in 1976 in New York City. In the United States, TBTN has returned its focus to eliminating sexual violence in all forms, and thousands of colleges, universities, women's centers and crisis centers have sponsored events all over the country.

If anyone is interested in joining a march or starting your own, visit http://www.takebackthenight.org/. They have a bunch of information about who to contact, how to run official meetings and what music you ought to play to get everyone started.

Truly, there's never a dull moment on Oregon campus, even when you're trying to study at the library on a Thursday night. How's that for student activism.