Being Woken Up to the Screams of An Abused Woman Is Up There On my List of Traumatic Experiences…

Are You An Interjector?

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If I were to rank it, it would absolutely be on a list of the top 5 worst things I’ve ever experienced. Naturally, I’m an interjector, and I like to think of myself as a disrupter. Most of the time, these qualities show up in the midst of confrontation (or to advocate for a justice issue). So hearing a woman scream “somebody help me please”, will have me unlock my door at 2 AM to see if I can get her to safety. I know. Not exactly the smartest thing to do. So I paused, waited, and contemplated. I did eventually unlock my door, and the hallway was empty. After a couple of minutes of nosiness (my ear planted to my front door), I was relieved to hear the police tend to the woman’s needs.

This left me in my thoughts. As a woman, it’s not easy for me to turn a blind eye when seeing another woman attacked. I recalled the time I interjected on the path train. It was a long day, and I was heading to teach an evening class. I heard a woman and a man enter into a verbal dispute. It was quickly escalating, and I told the woman to move away from him and to stand next to me. When the train got to the platform, I walked with her up the stairs and encouraged her to ignore his insults. She thanked me, and we went on our separate…