With all the terrible things going on in the world, it is hard to see the good. People are dying, killing, raping, mourning and that is all the media wants to report on. It’s hard to look at the news and see any glimmer of good. I’m a communications major and I understand this struggle to find good in the media all too well. But I promise you, there is good in the world and change is actually happening.

My first article for the Odyssey was about Judge Aaron Persky and how he let Brock Turner get off way too easily for raping an unconscious girl behind a dumpster. Since that article was posted, Turner has been released and walks free…or as freely as someone who is known on the internet as a rapist can walk.

This discussion topic came up as I sat watching the news with my mother, aunt, and grandmother. When it comes to political issues, my family and I rarely get along. So, when my grandmother commented how sad it was that Turner would forever be marked as a rapist, I kept my mouth shut. I didn’t want to start a fight. This wasn’t the time or place and I was never going to change her mouth.

I didn’t have to speak up, though. My mom and aunt did.

I watched them argue with their mother about how Turner deserved to be labeled for what he was and his sentence wasn’t severe enough. As they sympathized with the victim for her trauma and corrected my grandmother, I realized that all of the work being done by activists against rape was doing some good.

No, you can’t see it if you focus on it right here now. You surely can’t see it in today’s media coverage. But as one generation corrected another, I saw the slightest glimmer of hope. If over time the message can change from “poor guy being labeled a rapist” to “He is a rapist and poor girl” then maybe eventually there won’t be a need for the message at all because rape won’t happen anymore. Change is slow and at times it feels hopeless, but slowly through generations, we can make a difference.