In a crazy year when they very easily could have honored a loudmouthed world leader, a communist lunatic or an unpatriotic out-of-work football player, Time Magazine instead chose to honor not just an individual but a deserving group of brave people who are dragging an unspeakable crime out of the darkness and giving the abusive power structure in this country a long-overdue kick in the teeth.

While the faces and stories of such notable celebrities as Ashley Judd, Megyn Kelly, Taylor Swift and Selma Blair are included in their Person of the Year feature, they are nowhere near alone in their efforts to share their stories as survivors of sexual assault and harassment. Their voices also speak for the thousands of women AND men who have subjected to this abuse for far too long and have helped many realize that they CAN tell their stories and bring their perpetrators’ secrets out of the darkness in full view of the public and the authorities.

I first told my story as a survivor of sexual assault as a young newspaper columnist and have shared the story numerous times in print, including a 2012 book “Call Me A Survivor” that was inspired by the events surrounding the Jerry Sandusky controversy at Penn State University. I have shared my story, and continue to do so, at public speaking events when the opportunity presents itself, so I have a pretty good understanding what kind of courage it takes for these people documented in the Time story are dealing with. Our experiences may be different, but we share the same desire to tell our story and make sure those who commit these crimes won’t get away with it.

Sexual assault and sexual harassment is a crime that knows no boundaries — gender, race, economic or social — and happens far more frequently than we may realize. The crime happens approximately every 98 seconds here in the United States, and people of both genders are on either end of the situation. Most assume that perpetrators are male and their targets are female, but there are also numerous accounts of female perps and male targets, as well as same-sex and LBGT perpetrators and targets.

Sexual assault is an even bigger problem with our youth. A Centers for Disease Control study determined that 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys reported that they were sexually assaulted before their 18th birthday. If you were to apply those ratios to the current K-12 enrollment of every public and private school in the state of Nebraska, you would be able to fill up more than 80 percent of Memorial Stadium. Throw in the UNREPORTED cases — which various studies indicate as many as 3 in 10 kids experience — and you’re looking at nearly half of the entire student body in the state.

And while the Time article focused primarily on sexual violence in Hollywood, the government and the workplace, the fact of the matter is that the vast majority of survivors of sexual assault KNOW their perpetrators. Parents assault their children or stepchildren, school teachers attack their students, and then there is the Catholic Church and its long, dubious history of not only allowing so-called “men of God” to abuse kids in their church, but then shuffle them off to other parishes when their crimes are discovered, only to see them repeat their retched behavior at the next stop.

Many who have not experienced this crime will question the actions of those who have spoken out. For some, the timing and the target of their accusations seem dubious considering the current mess our two-party political machine has become. Why didn’t these accusations become public when they happened, whether it was last week or 30-40 years ago?

For people like Ashley Judd, Taylor Swift and others to speak out and bring their perpetrators’ crimes out in public took an unthinkable level of bravery that those who question their motives can begin to comprehend. People who commit this crime do so from a position of power and influence that, in many cases, is the one thing that keeps survivors from coming out and telling their stories. Perpetrators like Harvey Weinstein, Al Franken, and others count on that power and influence to not only silence the ones they’ve already attacked, but those they WILL attack in the future.

Time Magazine has gone above and beyond the call of duty to honor those who have exhibited a unique flavor of bravery by honoring “The Silence Breakers” with the Person of the Year Award for 2017. They have helped legitimize the voice that we, as sexual assault survivors, have longed to be able to use to better the world we live in. I pray that those who have yet to feel comfortable enough to tell their stories will find comfort and inspiration in Time’s portrayal and that more can escape that sense of fear and intimidation to not only tell THEIR stories, but to make sure those who violated their lives are brought to judgement.