<\/p>\n

I was 17 years old and vacationing in Germany with my parents, who sat facing me on the train. I stared out the window, the seat beside me empty. As the train traveled through the Rhine Valley, we picked up more passengers. Eventually a middle-aged man boarded the crowded train, sat down next to me, and unfolded his newspaper. I continued to stare out the window. After a while, the train entered a tunnel and everything went dark.<\/p>\n

Suddenly, the man was all over me, pressing his face into mine, groping my breasts, my thighs. I froze, too shocked and embarrassed to move or utter a sound. The instant the train emerged from the tunnel, he returned to reading his newspaper.<\/p>\n

My parents looked at my ashen face and asked what was wrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing,\u201d I mumbled.<\/p>\n

I hadn\u2019t thought much about this incident over the years.<\/p>\n

Until Donald Trump was caught on tape bragging about forcing himself on women.\u00a0 Then I was back in that dark tunnel again, along with millions of women remembering the unwanted advances we\u2019ve silently endured.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Trump\u2019s doubled down on the disrespect that\u2019s been evident throughout his campaign by demeaning and threatening those who have come forward with allegations against him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know these women,\u201d he says dismissively.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s right about that–though not in the way he intended.<\/p>\n

Trump did not know the woman who says he groped her on the plane, just as the man on the train didn\u2019t know me. No one who views others as simply there for the taking bothers to know\u2014or care\u2014anything about them.<\/p>\n

Trump may not know us, but we know him. And we\u2019re tired of putting up with him and his kind.<\/p>\n

I am no longer that scared-silent girl on the train. I have found my voice, and I intend to speak up.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

Please feel free to share your experiences and your thoughts.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was 17 years old and vacationing in Germany with my parents, who sat facing me on the train. I stared out the window, the seat beside me empty. As the train traveled through the Rhine Valley, we picked up … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Your vote is your voice:\r\nThe Girl on the Train","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,8],"tags":[545,546,547,548,549,550,551],"class_list":["post-1742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-political","category-personal","tag-donald-trump","tag-sexual-assault","tag-sexual-harrassment","tag-access-hollywood-tape","tag-trumps-treatment-of-women","tag-womens-vote","tag-women-speaking-up"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2F8Ch-s6","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shrinkrapped.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shrinkrapped.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shrinkrapped.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shrinkrapped.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shrinkrapped.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1742"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/shrinkrapped.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1742\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1744,"href":"https:\/\/shrinkrapped.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1742\/revisions\/1744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shrinkrapped.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shrinkrapped.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shrinkrapped.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}