Mainer accepts award in Washington for victims advocacy

Mainer accepts award in Washington for victims advocacy
Ruth Moore Act of 2013 would make it easier for veterans and service members to qualify for disability benefits due to sexual assault
Morning Sentinel
By Kevin Miller
Washington Bureau Chief

WASHINGTON -- It took Ruth Moore a quarter-century before she was able to speak openly about how she was sexually assaulted as an 18-year-old Navy enlistee.

And even now -- after talking to members of Congress, military officials and countless veterans with similar stories -- the experience is still painful for a woman who occasionally still wants to "run away and hide with my goats" on her farm in Down East Maine.

So on Wednesday, as she accepted a Voice for Change Award on Capitol Hill, Moore said she did so on behalf of all of the others like her out there.

"We carried the battle cry across this nation," Moore, of Milbridge, told several hundred people attending a Service Women's Action Network Truth and Justice Summit. "I will accept this award with the knowledge that we all accept this award together. Because when I look at the people here I see the bravery, courage, pain, anger and conviction that I carry and live with every day."
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