The other night my mom and I were talking about anything and everything since we hadn't seen each other in a month. I have been following the Kavanaugh story pretty closely and wanted to hear what my mom had to say about it. I love talking about things I'm passionate about and I always feel comfortable talking about deep topics with my mom.

But what she said surprised me.

Don't get me wrong, I love my mom and respect her opinion, which is why I brought it up in the first place. And I think it's important to speak about your opinions in order to create discourse and discussion. By talking about these major topics, you learn not only what you believe, but get to find understanding in another person's opinion.

She argued that although Dr. Ford's story is valid, the response to the case may be too amplified. Why do we have to bring up something that happened so long ago? Why do we need to protest and march and annoy the media when we've already protested and marched for a previous rape case? Why do we have to make women look bad?

And I think her beliefs are mirrored in a lot of people. They see women and men protesting and see it as pointless or crazy. They may wonder why we have to keep bringing up cases like this and why it's such a big deal. They may ask what the point in all of it really is, especially since it happened so long ago.

But the point to it all is that it matters.

I am not claiming to have all the answers or even the right ones, but I think it's important to understand why the reaction is so huge and why people are reacting the way they are.

Let's start with the basics. The Kavanaugh uproar is not simply about Kavanaugh himself. It's about every man like him, every story that women just like Dr. Ford have.

It's so much more than just this case.

Women (and men) around the country are protesting and challenging the Supreme Court to show that this matters, that how we handle sexual assault is wrong, and that we need to listen to change.

We have to keep protesting and continually bring attention to cases like this until something changes. Yes, it may be annoying to listen to news story after news story of sexual misconduct and allegations- but it should be annoying. It should be angering. There must be something deeply wrong within our society if SO many stories like this are being told, and no one has yet to do anything about it.

Right now, our society is messy and complicated, but we're going to do whatever we can to make sure that our future is a safe one. Maybe right now, we should just start listening to what those "annoying" people on TV have to say. Maybe right now people are loud and annoying, but one day, it can be quiet.

So we're going to keep talking about this. We're going stay in the media. And we're going to continue to protest until there is positive change enacted.