The Following is a letter I sent in to my school paper. I have yet to see if it will be published.

I have long watched the white ribbon campaign and said nothing about it. In high school, I quietly abstained, hopping not to be bothered by people asking me where my ribbon was. My reasoning for not wearing the ribbon was simple: It is sexist to do so. Why is it that our society sees something wrong with violence against women, yet seems to think that a man being abused is fine? Why is it we hear about male acts of violence against women as if nothing more horrible exists, whereas one woman being attacked by another constitutes nothing more than a catfight? I didnÂ’t understand why it had to be a campaign against violence towards women, and it couldnÂ’t just be against violence in general.

In university, having thought carefully about it, IÂ’ve changed my mind. I no longer refrain from wearing the ribbon because it is sexist; now I refrain from wearing it because it is sexist, disrespectful and it represents an aspect of our society which sickens me.

We all know the basic facts about the Montreal Massacre: It happened on December 6, 1989, it was in Montreal and there were fourteen women killed. Some of us even know their names, their ages and what they were doing when they were gunned down. How many of us though, know anything about who they were, what their families were like or what they were interested in? Yet these white ribbons are supposedly worn to honor them. Not just to honor them, though, to honor them and say ‘no’ to violence against women.

It could just be me, but I see something tremendously selfish in taking fourteen innocent women who were murdered for no reason and turning them into martyrs for your own cause. These women didnÂ’t die to stop violence against women, or to make the world a better place. Their deaths were horrible and senseless. They were violently murdered in cold blood and we honor them by having a campaign that talks about the wrongness of sexual harassment and domestic abuse. These things are wrong and have to be stopped, but they are nothing in comparison to what happened to those fourteen women.

The women murdered that day were not examples; they were people. ItÂ’s high time we start remembering them as such.