Four Michigan men left Point Reyes National Seashore in California on Wednesday to walk to Washington, D.C., and teach others about sexual assault on the way.
Three former Central Michigan University students and one current CMU student will travel on foot and they plan on camping as they travel from state to state.
Steve McAllister, Mike Charbonneau, Pat Hanlin and Joe McCarthy are the founding members of One in Four: Men Empowering Men. The group educates people about sexual assault and how it affects women. Its name comes from the statistic that one in four U.S. women will be the victim of sexual assault.
Hanlin said the four of them work to help survivors realize being raped is not their fault.
“If somebody is sexually assaulted we ask, ‘Why did you go home with him, why did you drink so much, why did you wear that?’” Hanlin said. “Sexual assault is the same as every other violent crime and it is not treated as such.”
One of the ways One in Four attempts to educate the public is by predominately focusing its message on all-male groups. The group has met with fraternities, sports teams, all-male residence halls and even spoke with 4,000 midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md.
“Generally you don’t get the same response from a coed group; they don’t ask the same questions,” Charbonneau said.
The four men held a press conference Tuesday in San Francisco to spread the word of their journey. They also spoke last Thursday at Michigan’s Capitol before leaving for California.
McAllister said the group would like to do the same in every major city it passes through.
“We are working right now with all the state coalitions to work up speaking opportunities, but nothing is cemented yet,” he said.
Hanlin said while the group will go right through Washington before ending the journey in Delaware, the four do plan on letting their presence be known in the nation’s capital.
“The specifics of what we are going to do in Washington, D.C., is unsure; hopefully we can get some large event going, like a march,” he said.
While on the road the group also hopes to talk to different organizations and schools, McCarthy said.
“We definitely want to try to contact any colleges and schools and we are hoping the media will come,” he said.
Susan Shoultz, executive director for Lansing’s Council Against Domestic Assault, said more men should stand up for this issue.
“I think it is wonderful that we have men that are willing to stand up and say this is not OK and that they are spreading it to other men,” she said. “When we have men willing to stand up and say that it is not OK, then we can make a big difference.”
