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I woke up this morning with a heavy heart as I learned of the passing of the President of Poland.   As I read through the morning headlines about the tragic plane crash, I didn’t notice the numerous emails and tweets that I had received overnight.  Finally, after a small prayer for the people of Poland, I looked through my messages and was struck by one in particular which read,

“rape’s not a joke use your influence to send a message of hope to victims. Rape should not be a trending topic”

Immediately I went on to twitter to check the trending topics and didn’t see anything as most of the topics were about Poland.  As I dug deeper and searched for the word RAPE, my heart sunk upon finding the trending topic.

#ItAintRape

This morning I went into my closet and pulled out my bright orange jacket that reads “Peacekeeper” on the back.  Russell (Simmons) and I are traveling to Trenton, New Jersey this afternoon to help launch the Peacekeeper Program in Trenton.  The Peacekeeper initiative deters crime and violence by introducing a strong presence of community men into unstable neighborhoods to make streets safe for our women, children and seniors.

After a seven year old was GANG RAPED last week in Trenton there was no other city in America that we could get to quicker.

 

 

#ItAintRape

I wonder for all of those who played the silly game of trying to be cool on twitter would participate if that seven year old girl was your daughter or your sister or your cousin or your niece or your neighbor or maybe if she was just another girl in America whose life has been devastated by being so tragically violated.

But, nah, f*ck it, #ItAintRape. 

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I have a few very close friends in my life who have been raped and after hearing their stories and absorbing a piece of their pain, this is a topic that I could never joke about.  I am all in favor of a good laugh, as life without humor is not living.  However, for those who think they are comedians and want to use #ItAintRape as material, I humbly question your ability to make anyone laugh.  And for those who are laughing at your sad jokes, it is evident that your only audience is other hurt people.  For those who are strong, compassionate and hopeful, we could never laugh along with your obvious personal pain that would manifest itself with stupid twitter trending topics.

 

Today, I will stand with deep sadness with the family of the seven year old girl who was gang raped last week in Trenton, as I know that our generation still does not respect women in the way that we should.  I hope that the healing process can begin for this young girl and her family, but knowing that people are still joking about rape, may only delay what is the rightful process for this young girl to experience.

The next time you want to type the words #ItAintRape, I hope you envision the face of this precious, innocent seven year old girl as she was brutally gang raped.  Think about her blank stare looking at you in the eyes, thinking ARE YOU F*CKING KIDDING ME? This is no laughing matter.  We know we can and we know we w