Take Joseph and Mary. Mary was a teenager and Joseph was an adult carpenter. They became parents of Jesus. ~ Jim Ziegler, Alabama state auditor
And that makes a 32-year old guy hitting on a 14-year old okay?
We are inundated with "Me, Too," stories. Every single one of those stories represents the freedom to recount and retell, coupled with freedom to finally move forward. I seriously doubt there is a woman in America who has not experienced an unwanted sexually motivated event. There are extremes, of course, and there are some that make us squirm and some that make us so angry we cannot fathom how anyone could offer an explanation. And some are just passed off as guy stuff.
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Yeah, and to some degree that's the explanation....but absolutely not the excuse. There is no excuse, but if something has always been tacitly permitted, It's because it was to be tolerated. If something is tolerated, no matter what it is, it's gonna happen because it's gonna be seen as okay.
I better use some Tic Tacs just in case I start kissing her. You know, I’m automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Donald Trump - caught on tape- 2005Let's try this again: BECAUSE IT IS TOLERATED.
The support Roy Moore is getting is because in Alabama, this kind of behavior is common. These are the same people that would have insisted that same 14-year old girl carry a baby to term in the event that harassment turned to rape. They don't give a flying fart in space about the girl, only about preserving the ejaculate of a rapist.
BECAUSE IT IS TOLERATED.
Girls in Afghanistan are sold into child marriages, raped, and abused all the time. The GOP rants about Muslim child brides and sharia law, but hitting on a 14-year old kid in Alabama... if you're a white guy with power... is okay.
BECAUSE IT IS TOLERATED.
Guys like our Congressclown Jason Lewis are totally teflon guy. Nothing sticks to him. He can vote 100% with Feckless Leader and his loyal cabal sticks with him. Doesn't matter he votes against the people of the state of Minnesota at every turn, but he's against abortion and equal marriage rights. He says this isn't discrimination because gays are free to marry a person of the opposite sex. And he calls transgender people abominations. And it that's not enough, he supports the rape of the environment as well. In February 2017, he voted to repeal the Stream Protection Rule, a regulation that required coal companies to restore streams and mined areas to their pre-development conditions. We won't even talk about his poison positions on tax reform and health care. But all of that means nothing because he refuses to meet with his constituency in open, public forums.
BECAUSE IT IS TOLERATED.
We, the People sure tolerate a whole lotta stuff that is fundamentally bad for us. We currently have a sitting government that is stripping away the rules that keep the food chain safe. We have a sitting government that has offered to pay anyone in the State Department who wants to leave...but there is no move to fill crucial vacancies.
To reach that number, [Secretary Rex Tillerson] has already frozen hiring, reduced promotions, asked some senior employees to perform clerical duties that are normally relegated to lower-level staff members, refused to fill many ambassadorships and senior leadership jobs, and fired top diplomats from coveted posts while offering low-level assignments in their place. Those efforts have crippled morale worldwide. New York Times, November 10th, 2017
And the GOP went after Clinton because Benghazi was understaffed?
BECAUSE IT IS TOLERATED.
Inexplicably, We, the People tolerate leaders who clearly hate us. Our sitting president uses twitter like a 7th grader and no one can take that damn phone away from him. His endless stream of embarrassing tweets has not abated despite his promises to be more "presidential." He obsesses about Hillary Clinton, as if he is still running against her. But he's not. It's smoke and mirrors because he thinks if he does that we can't see him. That's the real fake news. We, the People may be dumb, but we are not that stupid. Or are we?
We must be that stupid BECAUSE THIS IS TOLERATED.
Feckless Leader, Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey, Lewis C.K.....their behavior is not aberrant....it's borderline normal. That doesn't make it any less disgusting, inappropriate, or outrageous. They got away with this for years BECAUSE IT WAS TOLERATED and they did more and more and more because no one ever said they couldn't do that.
Well, the buck is about to stop here. THIS WILL NO LONGER BE TOLERATED
The opening of the harassment floodgates is a spectacular piece of guerrilla theatre. It got the pain out of the closet and into the streets and airwaves. Yeah, there will be some instances of revenge hunts, but by-and-large, this spilling of guts is the real thing. People who have carried this load entire lifetimes are dumping the weight. They are shucking off the shackles of embarrassment and powerlessness to stand tall.
This is but an opening salvo. There are lots of behaviors We, the People don't have to tolerate: rape of the land, pollution of national waters, denial of health care, dismantling of the educational system, discrimination in the workplace. The list is long.
If We, the People get nothing else out of this election cycle, it had better be that destructive behavior, be it sexual, political, economic, or civil, WILL NOT BE TOLERATED.
Roy Moore and Jason Lewis will lose their teflon coating. Feckless leader and his assistants will be exposed for the misogynistic, anti-American bastards they are. Yes, this will take work. This means we open the tent flaps to welcome anyone who wants to see these here United States re-emerge as a force for good, an example of what can be, and a respected world leader.
Respected world leaders don't call other heads-of-state short and fat. Respected world leaders don't embrace other heads-of-state who brag about popping someone, even if it was a drug dealer. And a respected world leader sure as hell doesn't undercut his own intelligence agencies to take sides with an oligarch.
THAT SHOULD NOT BE TOLERATED.
Come 2018, we can only hope we can live up to our own hype.
The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week
Only you can prevent abuse.
One of you best ... Hows your Blood pressure?
ReplyDeleteHow do you feel about Senator Franken? You might want to wait some time for other accusers to crawl out of the woodwork.
ReplyDeleteI am heartsick over this. That said, he addressed the USO tour both in his books and even a speech on the senate floor. He owns the behavior. I am glad _he_ asked for the investigation, but the whole episode must come to light. In the end, the GOP got what they wanted...the best and most viable candidate for president is gone.
DeleteI've been trying to come up with a logical response to the Franken allegations. While we must wait for the results of the Ethic Committee investigation to find out the full story, there is much weighing toward the need for action. I find Franken to be a very reasonable and skilled senator - however, I think the right would use his comedy career to undermine any real presidential bid. I really like the guy. Unfortunately, he's done wrong. Maybe he can be rehabilitated; he's done decently so far, even asking for the ethics investigation on his own. Perhaps the right thing would be for him to resign and then run again - let the people of Minnesota decide if they are willing to forgive after they understand the contours of what he's done. Given his willingness to cooperated in an investigation, it is likely a rough approximation of the truth is likely to come out. If the people decide what he's done and how he's atoned balance sufficiently, and they vote him in, then he continues his strong work in the Senate. If people are turned off by what he's done, knowing the (as much as possible of) the full story, then I hope he finds other ways to serve and contribute to the public good.
DeleteI would hope the same standards would apply to all, regardless of party or whatever else. That would mean the people of Alabama would get to know the stories behind the allegations - not the crazy stories being spun by Moore and his wife - before they make their decision. If that's not possible, then he should be prepared to step back until the stories are known. Unfortunately, I don't see that happening.
Likewise, I think the standard should apply to the President - the guy tossing boulders from the glass White House. Yes, we knew of allegations last fall before the election. Unfortunately, his penchant to create fake news and avoid any discussion of facts preventing the people from understanding the stories behind the allegations before the vote. I don't expect the President to resign, but I would like to see him actually address the allegations. The media should be shining a light on the allegations and making him - Him. Not Sarah Huckabee Sanders and her insulting, condescending lies and innuendo - address the situation. Maybe 14 women are coming after fortune and fame, it's possible. However, maybe if we treated those women like the Franken accuser, or even the Moore accusers, there'd be a different view of the President. I'm not sure that different view would change the focus of Congress, as decimating healthcare and creating tax windfalls for the rich are hard to avoid. Nonetheless, we need the information out in the open. We need it out there in order to be able to provide the proper magnitude of "I told you so" in the future, if nothing else.
Should men be held accountable? Hell yes! So should women. Should they be banned from public life? Maybe not, but they should let the people know the truth before they decide to put them in places of honor and power.