A Woman Called Into C-SPAN During the Kavanaugh Hearing. What She Said Is Absolutely Heartbreaking.

Bravery is contagious.

During a break in Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony Thursday, a woman called into C-SPAN and tearfully recounted a decades-old sexual assault. “This brings back so much pain,” she said. “I thought I was over it, but [I’m] not. You will never forget it. You get confused, and you don’t understand it. But you never forget what happened to you.”

The woman, identified on air as 76-year-old Brenda from Valley Park, Missouri, says her assault occurred in the second grade—nearly 70 years ago. Her words provided a striking counterbalance to skeptics who have made it a point to distrust the reliability of a sexual assault victim’s memory, including Ford’s. “It is such a shame,” she said.

Brenda credited listening to Ford’s testimony as the reason to share her own story of trauma to a national television audience. “I thought I was over this. And I have not brought this up for years until I heard this testimony—and it is just breaking my heart.”

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“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

payment methods

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