Dear Dr. Christine Blasey Ford,

Thank you. Thank you for your strength and your witness, for putting your personal business and your traumatic history on public display.

I cannot even begin to imagine the courage it took to relive that day in front of millions of people, many of whom wish you'd never opened your mouth in the first place.

Thank you for refusing to be silenced, for speaking out, for putting everything on the line to ensure that this horrible man who caused you a lifetime of trauma wouldn't be able to continue to get away with it.

I believe you. We all know we live in a culture where the Brock Turners and the Brett Kavanaughs get away with everything; where their rich daddies and their private school education and their fraternity brothers will defend them until the day they die. But not anymore.

You've set a precedent. You've ignited a change. You're teaching the new prep school boys and frat bros that their past will come back to haunt them, that even though they think they've gotten away with it now, they'll always need to watch their backs.

And you're teaching the girls too, all of us, victims and non-victims alike, that we matter, that sexual assault is a serious offense and should be treated as such. That who cares if we're ruining his future if he's already ruined hers?

There are plenty of people that claim you're lying. Whether they actually believe that or if their simple refusal to prioritize morals over party affiliation is causing that claim, your testimony has been groundbreaking and will go down in history.

They question whether the attack really happened, since it's been decades and is "only coming out now in time for him to join the Supreme Court." They need not look farther than their own criticisms or the #WhyIDidntReport tag trending on Twitter to see and understand the lasting trauma that the legal process for reporting assault adds to the trauma for the assault itself.

Thank you for coming forward, now more than ever. I understand how terrifying and difficult this process is and the backlash you've received has been horrific and yet you've persevered. Thank you for not backing down.

I hope that your testimony will have the outcome it deserves, that Congress will see the truth and decide that sexual assault is a serious enough offense to disqualify someone from serving on the highest court in the land, that the vetting process for Supreme Court will be even half as serious as that for an entry-level minimum wage position.

And even if it's not, if Congress decides to go forth with the nomination, if they determine that a woman's life, wellbeing, and reputation is a suitable price to pay for a white man to live his life free of consequences, what you've done here matters and will continue to matter long after this is over.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We couldn't have done it without you.