Just confess what you’ve done! Ask for forgiveness. Apologize. Take what you have coming. Lose that job. Let go of whatever power you have. If you are a male, and you were born before the year 2000, chances are you have felt up, groped, pinched, tapped the butt of some girl, or worse, things you maybe should be in jail for.

There is a reason there has been a rash of sexual misconduct against women that has recently come to light. It is because we are guilty. When I was elementary school aged the culture was the same as the one everyone seems so surprised about today. Even as little kids we were, those of us who had forgotten what our mothers had taught us, mistreating the girls in our classes. Now, some of the boys had no one who taught them the rights and wrongs of how to treat girls. Unfortunately, they were an influence on the boys who had actually been taught better.

That was the culture. It still is the culture today. And culture wants to change. Women are tired of being abused. And it’s about time that all of this mistreatment comes to light. It’s about time for someone to stand up for women and their rights. It’s time for women to fight back. It’s time for men to say, “I’m sorry. I was wrong and I should not have treated you that way.”

When I was a kid in school I did it. In elementary, junior high, high school, and as a young adult. I am so sorry. I was wrong. I didn’t know how much I was offending, hurting, insulting, demeaning and treating as sub-citizens and human beings, the females in my circles.

That behavior in my life stopped an extremely long time ago. I am still ashamed though. And the men in our society who have been guilty of doing unconscionable things to women should be ashamed as well. We have been wrong for a very long time. And the famous and powerful men who have multiple women accusing them of sexual misconduct, I simply find it hard to believe that those claims are unfounded. That is simply because in the 50 plus years I have been alive that has been the culture we live in. It’s time for it to change. And it can’t change until we admit there is a problem. It happens in grade school, college, the military, big business, and even the White House. Why? Because it has been the culture forever.

Women, don’t back down. Report when you are being harassed. Report offensive behavior. Don’t put up with it anymore. You deserve more. You deserve respect. You are not sub-human, a thing to be possessed, touched, groped, molested, and raped. This is your world too. You deserve a world where you are safe and free to live your life without the worry of being attacked.