ben schwart z. ben was attacked in our neighborhood after taking a stand at the verbal abuse directed at his girlfriend he was returning from a party early saturday morning and passed a man making threats to her and after crossing to the other side of the street and being followed ben asked the perpetrator and punches were thrown and ben ended up being stabbed 9 times in the back, face and neck and arms with the knife narrowly missing his spinal cord but puncturing his lung. while there are many men and women women ben made a public statement and he and elevated this issue and in fact one that is so pervasive that there's a consensus not even subconscious often talked about on daily talk shows that harassment is not a big deal in fact women who raise their voice and speak out against sexual discrimination are over reacting woman are told that cat calls are seen as compliments and we should be flattered and even when this flatter y is degrading. i remember i was no more than 11 years old and it continued throughout middle and high school and i remember not being able to understand why men spoke to me when i clearly was not of age to be listening to be listening to those types of comments. and it impacts every single female friend that i had. ben called this reaction