Cynthia Dill’s recent column (May 27) attacking Jessie Lacey and more broadly discounting the power of breaking silence was disappointing, disrespectful and largely just plain wrong.

Story sharing provides opportunities for others to know they are not alone and to consider their options; most cases of sexual harassment involve multiple victims. When individuals break silences about harassment, it forces the rest of us to consider questions about complicity, accountability and the cultures within which we are going to school, engaging in our communities and earning livings.

Blaming victims of harassment for disrupting the status quo, as Dill does, shifts responsibility away from perpetrators and bystanders. The problem isn’t the story – the problem is the harassment.

Maintaining the status quo will deprive of us of countless talented workers, keep many women economically insecure and make us all bystanders to preventable suffering. While many of us look back at our interactions with “bosses we knew to be scoundrels” wondering if there was another way, the #MeToo movement brings hope that we might truly see substantive changes in the future. Yet to truly realize the power of #MeToo, we must commit to the work of developing better prevention, intervention and remedies for bias and harassment.

I hope that the Press Herald will devote more space to the #MeToo movement. We are not done silence breaking and bearing witness to painful stories from the past. We are not done reckoning with the injustices of this moment. We have not yet imagined the best-case scenarios for the future. We have not yet protected and cared for all of the victims of gender-based violence and sexual harassment in our communities.

Those grappling with their own stories can access support from the statewide hotline at 1-800-871-7741 or contact the Maine Human Rights Commission.

Kimberly Simmons

Portland

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