‘Nothing changes if nothing changes’

CATSKILL―For those driving through the Catskill Commons near Burger King and Walmart, or crossing the Rip Van Winkle Bridge, you may have seen her. Just one woman, standing alone, holding a simple hand-made sign that reads, "Stop raping us, please"

That woman is Cassandra Schmitt, a Catskill native who says she can no longer stay silent.

Schmitt describes herself as a survivor of multiple sexual assaults. She says recent events, including an incident that occurred at Cornell University, pushed her to turn her private pain into a very public stand.

"I want to give a voice to the voiceless," Schmitt said.

Her demonstrations have been purposely simple and intentionally uncomfortable. No megaphone, no crowd—just her and her sign.

On the bridge, Schmitt made the decision to remove her shirt and stand facing traffic, topless. She said the act was not meant to be sexual, but to make a point about how women's bodies are viewed.

"For years I have seen men run across the bridge wearing no shirts,” she said. “So, me being topless should not be considered sexual, it should be considered natural.”

"Of course, I was shaking like a leaf when I was standing out there without my shirt,” Schmitt said. “I mean I had never done anything like that before in front of so many people."

That demonstration came to an end when she was escorted off the bridge by the Columbia County Sheriff's Office after some people deemed her behavior to be lewd.

"I was released without arrest, thankfully,” Schmitt said. “I don't want to be lewd―I just don't want my body to be viewed as a purely sexual object.”

Those who know Schmitt in town may know her from a very different kind of work. She is the head of a guided meditation group known as Nature Embodied, a free community wellness workshop she describes as acting as a lighthouse to guide people home to themselves.

The group focuses on guided meditation to quiet the mind, forest bathing concepts, mindful movement, the path of forgiveness, and emotional growth.

"I want to teach people how to slow down and really experience this crazy world again," she said of her work.

For Schmitt, the two worlds—the quiet, healing work of meditation and the disruptive work of protest—are connected. She connects her activism to her own work history, recalling her years as a bartender. She described it as a position where you are paid to be sexually harassed.

Schmitt says she is now researching ways to speak out and bring awareness to the community in appropriate settings to make a stand against sexual assault.

Her message, she says, is simple and deeply personal.

"We have to step up, we have to have hard conversations in order to change the narrative," Schmitt said. "Nothing changes if nothing changes."