Thank you, Mr. Marsh for stating facts that too few people care to check. This isn’t something new. This has gone on for a very long time. I would like to add a few more facts before we head to the poles Aug. 2.

These facts were compiled by the Center for Effective Public Policy (CSOM). It is estimated that one in every five girls and one in every seven boys are sexually abused by the time they reach adulthood. One in six adult women and one in 33 adult men experience an attempted or completed sexual assault.

In 2004, the last year for which official report data was available, there were 26,066 arrests for forcible rape and 90,913 arrests for other sex offenses in the United States. Adults account for about 80 percent of arrests; juveniles for 20 percent. Males account for approximately 95 percent of arrests. Are all sex crimes reported?

Are all sex crimes reported?

Many victims do not report sexual abuse to authorities because they:

• are afraid their abuser will abuse them again.

• do not want to make a very private matter public.

• are worried that they will be blamed for what happened or that they will not be believed.

• feel ashamed.

• feel guilty and/or are embarrassed.

If you follow the news at all, you know that victims are often not believed. This is how abusers get by with it over and over. Abusers hide behind their status across many professions, people we should be able to trust. People with money, people who have potential and we are not willing to call them out. Model prisoners released who re-offend and this time they kill their victim. Do you believe woman and girls have no rights?

Women have rights! We should have the right to control our bodies. Now our court wants to go after birth control pills, gay marriages and who knows what next. Would you want your wife, daughter or granddaughter to be forced to carry the child of their rapist? Haven’t they suffered enough already? I may not go along with all abortions, but I do not walk in their shoes and I have no right to tell women/girls what they should do.

Why don’t we do more to help the victims? What restrictions do men have on their bodies? How far will the Supreme Court go? Please take all this into consideration before you vote.

Linda Barta

Ellsworth