Why I didn't report it... My experience. Don't care if anyone reads it. I just had to write it for some equilibrium from this week's news.

I'm sure I'm not alone in experiencing flashbacks triggered by the recent news coverage regarding a high school sexual assault. I can vouch for the fact there are many reasons a teen age girl is not going to call the police about such an embarrassing crime, right after the incident.

When I was walking to high school, alone, back in the early 70's, I was often stalked and followed by an older boy who, oddly enough, played bag pipes for me from across the street or behind me, trying to get my attention at 7:10-7:20am. I ignored him and would cross the street trying to avoid him, yet he continued to play and follow me for several blocks. He was a musical prodigy, so his name and family were known to me.

One day, as I was walking home from school, this boy came at me from around a corner hidden by bushes, without his bag pipes this time. Obviously waiting for me, he sexually molested me right there on the sidewalk. It was brief, but I remember the exact words he said to me as he did it. Then he quickly continued walking past me, while I hurried home. I was shocked and shaking!

I didn't tell my mom when I got home, because to be honest, my dad had been molesting me in the same way, for years and she didn't say anything about that, so what is a girl to do about a weird boy from school doing a similar thing? If that was molestation, then why isn't what dad was doing called molestation too? I was confused and remember being tormented by what I should do about the incident.

This boy knew he did something wrong, because he hurried away and I never saw him again. In person anyway. And funny thing, my mom must have suspected something had happened, or maybe had heard of other attacks in the area, because she began to pick me up from school for a while after that.

A few years later, this guy's picture was on the front page of the entertainment section of The Seattle Times, our local paper. This guy had become a "world class" musician and was giving a concert in Seattle, his home town, while on a world tour, as the article said. This made me wonder how many other girls he had molested in his travels.

I did tell my mother about it then, since this guy was on the cover of the paper, and the article was talking about what a respected musician he was. She said she thought something like that must have happened. (??! Then why didn't she ask me? That's the kind of odd relationship I had with my mother. She had blinders on when it came to what my dad was doing to me, but felt protective against strangers.)

Anyway, fast forward to 2018. Today, I checked to see where this guy is now... He makes and sells musical instruments in Seattle. Okay. BUT if he were to be running for public office, where he could be the deciding voter on big issues that affect the treatment of women, then yes a red flag would be raised, and I'd be waving it.

At the very least, it should be expected that he should admit what he had done, recognize it was wrong, and apologize in honesty. To lie about attacking a woman, or to dismiss it as being inconsequential should be a disqualifying factor in such an esteemed position, as a supreme court judge.

This sexual molestation, which happened to me so many years ago, is only one of many bad experiences I've had at the hands of men, and certainly not the worst, by far. But this is the memory that has been triggered this past week by the recent events happening with the Kavanaugh hearings. #whyIdidntreportit