R.I.S.E. Together: April 2014

An Important Message from Avenged Sevenfold

To all of our loyal fans, friends, followers and supporters.

Recently we heard about the tragic suicide of a 16 year old from the UK who was listening to music and watching videos of, among others, Avenged Sevenfold and an older project of some band members, Pinkly Smooth, in the hours prior to his death. We want you all to know that we are devastated and heartbroken for his family, friends and community. Their pain must be unimaginable and our condolences go out to them. Experts in the field of suicide have assured us that there are always many things that go into a tragedy like this, and while music can play a powerful role in someone’s life, it does not cause something like this to happen, especially not alone. Research shows that 90% of those who take their life have a brain illness, or a mental illness, going on at the time of their death. This is something most people don’t want to talk about and that keeps them from getting the good help and treatments that are out there.

The news of this young man’s death has shaken all of us in the band. Fan or not, no one should have to feel such hopelessness. It has also made us more committed than ever to do something about it so that it doesn’t happen again. If you’ve been among our faithful followers, you know that we are part of a huge event coming up on May 10^th - the Rise Above Fest. We couldn’t be more honored and happy to be part of this event in support of Seether's efforts to help raise awareness about the realities of suicide. They have partnered with a great non-profit organization that is dedicated to suicide prevention - SAVE – Suicide Awareness Voices of Education, is one of the leading organizations of its kind in the world. We have reached out to SAVE and will do our part to join their fight against the stigma of suicide and mental illnesses. We want to make a difference and you can too.

If you are in the Bangor, Maine part of the country on May 10^th, come to the festival (www.riseabovefest.com). If you can’t be there, check out the online auction where you can find some autographed items that we have provided to help raise money for SAVE – your donation will go directly to helping prevent another tragedy leaving so many to question “why”.

If you want to learn more about suicide prevention, visit www.save.org.

On behalf of all of us in the band, our management, crew, and our families please know that you too can get through it. Don’t ever give up! Together, let’s make sure no one else dies this way.

- Avenged Sevenfold

Read it here at:

https://www.facebook.com/notes/avenged-sevenfold/an-important-message-from-avenged-sevenfold/10151986593821986?fref=

Check out more about R.I.S.E. at any of the following:

Website: avoiceforheather.tripod.com

Myspace: myspace.com/avoiceforheather

Blog: avoiceforheather.blogspot.com

Facebook:www.facebook.com/avoiceforheather

Twitter: www.twitter.com/VoiceforHeather

Email: VoiceforHeather@yahoo.com

1 is 2 Many and the White House Task Force for Students

I could post a long article about this, but the video explains it all.

What is the video for? President Barack Obama released new anti-sexual assault videos with celebrities such as Vice President Joe Biden, Daniel Craig, Benicio Del Toro, Steve Carell, Seth Meyers and Dulé Hill.

Vice President Biden introduced the PSA during the official release of "The First Report of the White House Task Force to Protect Students From Sexual Assault". The main objective of the task force's report is devoted to increasing male activism and awareness surrounding issues of sexual assault. This video in particular is part of the 1 is 2 Many campaign.

The 1 is 2 Many campian is specifically trying to reducing violence against women specifically on teens, students, and young women ages 16-24. The Vice President pushed for the inclusion of vulnerable groups in the 2013 reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, and he remains committed to supporting all survivors.

Vice President Biden also joined President Obama when he created the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault, co-chaired by the Office of the Vice President and the Council of Women and Girls. The Task Force is releasing a new initiative, Not Alone, which provides resources to students, advocates, and universities. By targeting the importance of changing attitudes that lead to violence and educating the public on the realities of abuse, the Vice President is leading the way in an effort to stop this violence before it begins.

The upside to this video is it “It does emphasize the vital role men play in preventing sexual violence…The video clearly condemns victim blaming while emphasizing affirmative consent and bystander intervention.”

The major downside though is the video “utterly neglects male victims of sexual assault and violence — a sorely missed opportunity for meaningful inclusion of a group too often left out of these discussions.”

Overall though I am very excited the White House is making a visuable effort to do something, anything at all about sexual abuse.

Reclaiming Rape and Men Stats

Can good come from a horrible crime? Yes, yes it can.

In a new article When Men Are Raped, by Hanna Rosin, the National Crime Victimization Survey discovered 38% of rape and sexual violence were against men. The only explanation officials could over was the “publicity surrounding former football coach Jerry Sandusky and the Penn State sex abuse scandal.”

In 2010 the Centers for Disease Control invented a category of sexual violence called “being made to penetrate.” This definition includes victims who were forced to penetrate someone else with their own body parts, either by physical force or coercion, or when the victim was drunk or high or otherwise unable to consent. When those cases were taken into account, the rates of nonconsensual sexual contact basically equalized, with 1.270 million women and 1.267 million men claiming to be victims of sexual violence.

Millions guys. MILLIONS. Think on that a second. It’s not 5 people, 10 people in your local neighborhood, it’s M-I-L-L-I-O-N-S.

Let’s look at some more stats to blow your mind.

Recent analysis of BJS data, for example, turned up that 46 percent of male victims reported a female perpetrator.
2010 Chicago reported 86,767 cases of rape but used its own broader definition, so the FBI left out the Chicago stats.
Of juveniles reporting staff sexual misconduct, 89 percent were boys reporting abuse by a female staff member.
Inmates aren’t counted in the general statistics at all. In total, inmates reported an astronomical 900,000 incidents of sexual abuse.
Women were more likely to be abused by fellow female inmates, and men by guards, and many of those guards were female.

900,000 in prisons alone? And it doesn’t even count towards the 1.267 million reported in survey by the CDC?

As Stemple sees it, feminism has fought long and hard to fight rape myths—that if a woman gets raped it’s somehow her fault, that she welcomed it in some way. But the same conversation needs to happen for men. By portraying sexual violence against men as aberrant, we prevent justice and compound the shame.

One of the most powerful points in the article though for both men and women was about the terminology of rape.

Feminists claimed the more legalistic term of sexual assault to put it squarely in the camp of violent crime. Bazelon argues in her story for reclaiming the term rape because of its harsh unflinching sound and its nonlegalistic shock value. But she also allows that rape does not help us grasp crimes outside our limited imagination, particularly crimes against men. She quotes a painful passage from screenwriter and novelist Rafael Yglesias, which is precisely the kind of crime Stemple worries is too foreign and uncomfortable to contemplate.

I used to say, when some part of me was still ashamed of what had been done to me, that I was “molested” because the man who played skillfully with my 8-year-old penis, who put it in his mouth, who put his lips on mine and tried to push his tongue in as deep as it would go, did not anally rape me. … Instead of delineating what he had done, I chose “molestation” hoping that would convey what had happened to me.

Of course it doesn’t. For listeners to appreciate and understand what I had endured, I needed to risk that they will gag or rush out of the room. I needed to be particular and clear as to the details so that when I say I was raped people will understand what I truly mean.

I think this can be very, very powerful. I know when I was first dealing with consuelors I would say I was touched, or molested and it filled me with shame and I would shy away from facing it. When I got to the point I could say rape, my attitude changed. I grew more angry and I could face it more unflinchingly. It finally helped me heal faster because I no longer was sugarcoating it for myself. Words can make all the difference to people, but mostly to one’s self.