To Anita Hill

I still don't know how you did it. I still can't say I would've had the courage to do it--but you did, and for that I am still grateful.

I thought it was something I'd outgrow in middle school, perhaps high school at the latest. But I was not so fortunate, and it wasn't until my final year at Stanford Law that I realized the exhibition of unwarranted and even explicitly undesired sexual advances was not a characteristic unique to pre-pubescent boys. I've been lucky enough to have thus far been spared of the worst manifestations of their seemingly insatiable appetite. I've been lucky enough to have been part of this nation's finest institutions, but that doesn't mean I've been lucky enough to pursue my education without being grabbed and groped, made to feel simultaneously violated and culpable. You and I both know the extent to which the institutions we belong to seek to keep us on their fringes; even the most minute disturbance of the status quo could discredit and invalidate all we have fought to achieve.

This is all to say thank you, not only for having the courage to tell somebody about your abuse, but also for having the courage to tell all of us about your abuse. The number of women you have empowered through your testimony, including myself, is simply incredible. Your willingness to make yourself vulnerable in front of essentially our entire country has sparked various dialogues in regards to sexual assault namely in the workplace, a phenomenon too many of us have tried to ignore in an attempt to salvage our professional reputations. I am sorry that the Senate failed you, failed us. But many of us are better for having heard your voice and listened to your story, and that, again, merits sincere admiration. Thank you, Anita.

With love,
Saron Dea, J.D.