For The Workin' Girl

This entry is dedicated to every woman who has ever been hurt while working or walking the streets. It's for every prostitute who's been raped, every young girl who's been molested, every woman who has been frowned upon for her sexuality and mostly, for every woman who fought for my rights and gave me the gift of freedom. A friend of mine said she feels like she was born into a world where there's nothing left to fight for. I guess in a lot of ways, she's right. But really, when the aforementioned is happening right next door frequently and boldly, it seems to me as though there is still a big war to be won. The war against society and the narrow minded views it represents.

Tanya Brooks is the reason I was inspired to get writing ...It's been three years since police found her battered body shoved into a trench near St. Patrick's-Alexandra School. I've been to the scene of the crime. The trench is just a hole into the ground around a basement window. It was dug out around the window, filled with cement and guarded with iron railing. She was probably dead before she was thrown there. It was raining, and being early in May, still cold outside.  So, picture it. 

http://www.halifax.ca/police/PressReleases/2012/05May/PoliceContinuetoInvestigateMurderofTanyaBrooks.html

How many other unsolved murders are there in Halifax, exactly, you may ask?

http://www.halifax.ca/police/UnsolvedMurders/MajorUnsolvedCrimes.html

59. 59 unsolved homicides in Halifax starting in December, 1955. In 2011, there was a shocking total of six unsolved (most likely drug related) homicides. 3 of them were women. Her sister was also stabbed at the same time and survived, but for some reason no one has been arrested for the crime and it remains unsolved. This just doesn't hash up in my mind. The paranoid side of me says there's something bigger happening here that I'm not aware of. The police report has an undercurrent of filth running through it. Why hasn't anyone come forward? Are you that afraid? I wouldn't want to be in that position, but I would want to stand up in any way possible, she didn't die for nothing! Her life was precious and her death deserves justice.

http://halifax.mediacoop.ca/fr/story/1596

Support the cause. Stop violence against women. Now.

I'm sure that Miss Brooks was an addict, like myself. I guess that's why it weighs on me so much...

Thankfully, I have never sold or solicited sex in exchange for money or drugs. Most women with the disease of addiction end up doing just that. I did, however pan-handle for a couple of years. Rain, snow or shine, I was out there making $ and spending it, making and spending, making and spending ...
I won't forget how tanned my feet were the first summer and how sore they were the next. Winter was shittttt-ay! I often made more money, though. I had a partner for the first year, my ex boyfriend. It was better that way. He made decent money, better than myself, in fact. Between the two of us we stayed high and kind of fed. I lost tons of weight though, opiates make you vomit when you eat fast or even if you have just done a lot ... I think they slow down your digestive system and make it difficult to pass food therefore being full faster with less food. Sometimes I just feel full and bloated all the time. I still have been eating a lot of crap, but I don't care. I quit heroin, I'm entitled to gain weight. I can always, always loose it. Food's better for me than heroin!! I still feel gross and fat a lot of the time though. Oh well, I guess that's part of the illness. I'm a nut bag! Wheeeeee!

Actually, when I talked to a councilor, she said that I seemed to be very bright and didn't show any signs of severe mental illness. It was really great to be given a clean bill of health, even if it was only a first impression. She made it clear that her opinion was based strictly on our first time meeting and obviously would have to talk to me a lot more in order to make any assumptions about the state of my mental health. She seemed really confident that I am going to be .. just .. fine. I can't say how good that makes me feel. Light, at the end of a long dark road. Finally. Yippieee!!

Gots some stuff to do now...

Keep it real, Ladies! <3