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by Amy Herdy | November 8, 2013 · 9:43 am

Help Stop Military Sexual Assault: Call Your Senator Right Now

Want to help stop rape? Then pick up your phone after you read this and call your senator.

I’m on the email list for director Kirby Dick and producer Amy Ziering, the creators of the outstanding documentary, “The Invisible War,” a film about the crisis of sexual assaults within the U.S. military. I’m interviewed in the film because of my work covering the issue, primarily the series I coauthored at the Denver Post called “Betrayal in the Ranks.”

Right now, the Invisible War team need your help. Please read the message below and then make the call. Help end hell.

From Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering:

This is it. Game time. The moment we’ve all been working towards.

Forty-nine people are raped each day with zero prosecutions; it is not conscionable. We can no longer stand idly by.

As soon as next week, #NotInvisible champion Senator Kirsten Gillibrand will be reintroducing the Military Justice Improvement Act (MJIA) as an amendment to next year’s military budget. This single piece of legislation could be a categorical game changer — as it places the reporting and prosecution of assault crimes into the hands of impartial adjudicators.

With this system in place, our service members will finally feel safe reporting these crimes — and perpetrators will stand a better chance of getting caught and punished. Our service members sacrifice so much to defend our rights. Isn’t it time we defended theirs?

Please call your senators today and urge them to support the Military Justice Improvement Act: 1.888.907.6886

A bipartisan coalition of 47 Senators has come together in support of the MJIA, but because of a threatened filibuster, the measure needs 60 votes to pass — not just 51.

Will you help us get to 60 votes? Call your senators TODAY and urge them to support the Military Justice Improvement Act. Call 1.888.907.6886 to contact your senators now and let them know it’s time to create an unbiased system for military justice.

It’s time to pass the MJIA. We’re so close. Please call today and forward this to others!

Together, we can do this! Together, we are #NotInvisible.

Amy and Kirby
http://www.notinvisible.org/

PS: We want to hear from you too! Let us know how your call went and what your senators said by sending an email to info@notinvisible.org.

You can click here to see if your senators have already signed on to the MJIA.

If they have, thank them. Remind them why it’s so important to you that they support the MJIA. If they haven’t, call 1.888.907.6886 as soon as possible to urge them to add their name.

Help Stop Rape in the Military: Call Your Senators!

Note from Amy: The following is from the filmmakers of “The Invisible War,” the searing documentary about military sexual assault. Please read it and then click on the link to find the phone number of your senator–and call to tell them they need to support legislation to help end this crisis of rape in the military:

It’s come to light that not one, but two, officers in charge of sexual assault prevention in the military have themselves been accused of sexual assault. These are the very people who are meant to help ensure our servicemen and women are safe from the very crimes they have allegedly perpetrated.

Bill Briggs, an NBC News contributor, summed it up pretty well:

“The U.S. military seems increasingly incapable of policing itself or ridding its ranks of sexual predators…”

If you’re ready to move forward, call your Senators now and ask that they support legislation to move the decision to prosecute out of the chain of command.

Ask them to co-sponsor the Military Justice Improvement Act – the bicameral legislation introduced this morning by Senators Gillibrand, Boxer, Collins, Johanns, Blumenthal, Begich, Coons, Franken, Hirono, Mikulski, Shaheen and others.

That NBC news clip sums up exactly what our community has been arguing for over a year now. You know the saying… ‘the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.’ Well, we’re not calling the military’s leadership insane, but there’s some pretty damning evidence out there.

The Pentagon needs an intervention. Enter the US Senate. With champions like Senators Kirsten Gillibrand, Barbara Boxer, Richard Blumenthal, Mark Begich, Susan Collins, Mike Johanns, Al Franken, Chris Coons, Mazie Hirono, Barbara Mikulski, and Representatives Tulsi Gabbard, Dan Benishek, Richard Hanna, and Kyrsten Sinema banding together, today there’s a bill before Congress that CAN and WILL help to break the cycle.

This new bill has the power not only to break the cycle of military sexual assault and end years of sweeping this issue (and its survivors) under the rug – it also creates serious accountability and protects future service members from suffering retribution from their commanding officers.

You can help make this bill into law. Call your Senator today and tell them to join the fight and sponsor this bill to take this out of the chain of command, once and for all.

Every 21 minutes another service member is assaulted. Let’s make sure they see the justice they’ve earned.

Thank you for making our fight #NotInvisible,

Amy Ziering and Kirby Dick
Filmmakers, THE INVISIBLE WAR

http://www.notinvisible.org/