@16:00, 9/23/18

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https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/23/us/politics/brett-kavanaugh-christine-blasey-ford-testify.html

"The woman who has accused Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when they were teenagers has reached a final agreement with the Senate Judiciary Committee to testify on Thursday, although some details — including whether Republicans will use an outside lawyer to question her — remain unresolved, people involved in the talks said Sunday."

Matters are far from settled.

"Lawyers for Dr. Blasey have strongly opposed having an outside questioner, arguing that it could give the hearing a prosecutorial tone. And Senate Democrats have indicated that, no matter whom Republicans choose to question Dr. Blasey, when she is questioned by Democrats, senators will be doing the talking.

“We were told no decision has been made on this important issue, even though various senators have been dismissive of her account and should have to shoulder their responsibility to ask her questions,” Dr. Blasey’s lawyers said in their statement. “Nor were we told when we would have that answer or answers to the other unresolved issues.”"

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https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/23/us/why-i-didnt-report-assault-stories.html


"Over the past decade, Ms. Smith has treated many survivors who did not want to report assaults, such as women without the resources to leave relationships or teenagers who felt guilty because they had been drinking.

"She recalled patients who felt detached during an assault, and others who had fixated on one or two random details while blocking out others. Our brains, she said, can work differently during trauma. Psychologically, when frightened or upset, a lot of my patients go into fight, flight or freeze mode,” she said. “The freeze mode is a dissociative type of situation, because our brain is so protective of us.” (Ms. Selwyn wrote she still remembered her assailant’s socks and the pattern of the bedspread, but not what month it was.)

Dr. West said sexual harassment and abuse are more common than we know because many people never report it at all. “If it is hard for privileged women to come forward, we have to acknowledge how much harder it is for women who are marginalized to be believed,” she said.

Survivors said sharing these experiences, even years or decades later, can be as productive as it is painful.

“Social media movements like this are potentially life-changing because you see hundreds of thousands of other people sharing their stories, and you don’t feel like you’re the only person this has happened to,” Ms. Leong said. “You don’t feel like it’s you in this vacuum where awful things happened.”"

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Sooner is better. 

As soon as you can is best.

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