Sorry Girls
or
There ain't no jive like Harvard jive
Just get right on board. Grab yourself a good seat. Don't take too many dead-end day trips! Your ticket to ride the USA Line will track you to GrownUp just fine, fully freighted with all our commonly held values. When you unpack them, what is righteous, what is evil, what is right, what is wrong, what is good and what is bad will all be reasonably well understood.
Rape is bad. Bad, bad, bad. If not the very baddest thing someone could do, it certainly is one of the badder ones. This disturbing crime informs civilized society of the beasts that live among us.
Historically, one of our institutions that most brightly illuminates the graphic separation of brutes from gentlemen has been the military. Simply stated, this organization is divided into the lower ranks- the “men” – and the higher ranks- the officers. While they have always included fine individuals, the lower ranks in standing armies have also been populated by those sifted from the rabble- characters with “no class”. These have, throughout the ages, and until recently, have associated the militrary with a “barracks” mentality that included boozing, whoring, plundering, and other various and assorted pastimes barely tolerated, albeit with disgust, by society. The officers, on the other hand, were drawn only from higher classes. They had “quarters” not barracks. Officers kept the men under control. Officers were gentlemen.
Today, sexual assault is rampant in the United States military. By their own estimates, the Department of Defense reports that sexual assaults have become so commonplace that over twenty-five thousand are suspected in the past twelve months alone.
This crimewave is now widely understood to result from an undeniable “culture” that is flourishing in our military.
The actual sexual assault was only an opening salvo- subsequent events, peculiar to the military, began a devastating journey to utter humiliation.
Although many armies enjoy loyalty and esprit de corps because of the strong identification the individual soldier develops for unit and mates, when the second wave landed on our girls, that idea was also eliminated. For many, neither their unit nor their mates rallied to their defense. On the contrary, many of these injured service personnel found themselves isolated and shunned.While despicable, this type of herd, or mob, mentality is in theory restricted to the lower ranks. It is precisely the type of thing that gentlemen are honor-bound to prevent. When knuckle-scrapers get out of line, the officers are expected to restore good military order- that is, after all, why they are issued side arms.
Proving once again that the idea that officers are a breed apart from the men is a crock; our “gentlemen”, in too many cases, failed to do their duty as prescribed either in our military codes or the “commonly held” notions of what imperatives honor forces upon a gentlemen. On the contrary, further investigation has shown that some of the miscreants are actually officers themselves. Among these wolves in sheep’s clothing are higher ranks that had actually been assigned to protect our young ladies. Instead, some of these actively took a hand in covering up these crimes and by using their authority as a cover, actually added their own twisted behavior to the problem.
For the girls that suffered a total blitz, the final element of the package was a parting shot fired by individuals calling themselves “doctors”. In order that the circle of collusion remain unbroken, the good ole boy network drafted the imprimatur of science as a fig leaf to cover their sins. To blame the victims for the crime, and divert attention from the guilty, the problem could be swept under the rug by giving the wounded soldiers the boot. This final kick in the ass was provided by so-called medical personnel that were happy to forget their oaths taken as healers and affix the scarlet letter to the records of these girls that would insure they would live in shame forever. The letter “C” was riveted into their resumes: “Crazywoman”
The attrition within our units took place just as assuredly as if they had been attacked by foreign enemies. While the attack on these troopers by our own military was not designed by von Clausewitz or Bomber Harris, our government has succeeded nonetheless in causing more casualties within our own ranks than Al Queada. Those that experienced “the full treatment”, from physical assault to betrayal- including the exquisite cruelty of studied indifference- have endured a medley of pain that suggests the Marquise de Sade could learn a few tricks from Uncle Sam.
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Whether or not this damage to these Daughters of the American Revolution was limited to bodily harm and psychological mutilation; when it came to stitching them back together, that mission predictably fell to primary responders.
It was momma and dad, hermano and sissy, bosom buddies, husbands and lovers, and of course, their own children, that provided the powerful balm of tender loving care.
Everyday, emergency room personnel can save the victims of crime and negligence. As with families, the TLC dispensed by emergency rooms can neither prevent the cause of injury or provide justice. This requires a different agency.
When the victim's voices of outrage were ignored by our government, their cause was taken up by the “usual suspects” - women's groups. They, perhaps better than any other organizations, understood the widespread and age old problem of rape. Males out of control.
On behalf of the victims- past, present and future- these groups took up the cause. Along with the victims and the victim's extended families, they sought justice. As a result of their efforts and the concerns of other good citizens, these outrages began to attract attention. Even our lurid media, perhaps because rape can be peddled as “sex”, began shining a light on this disgusting departure from our “commonly held values”.
Eventually, members of Congress from the “pro-womens” party
came aboard. One lady from the House of Representatives, and another from the United Sates Senate offered, in lieu of executive action, a legislative remedy.
Obviously, this coalition declared, the problem was systemic.The military's systems and structures were, like systems and structures everywhere, responsible for the results they produced. No solution, these experts declared, could be effective until these systems and structures were updated to address the problems in today's military. What point is there in mopping the floor if the leaky pipres are not replaced? If these proposals were adopted, a substantial reduction in sexual assault would follow.
This was denied and opposed by the military mindset. These insisted that the systems in place were perfectly adequate to the task. The lines were drawn; the battle joined. On the one hand were those clinging to the perogatives derived from business as usual.On the other hand were those demanding the system be modernized.
To date, this legislation, along with our girls, is hung up in “no man's land”.
This cause of justice for women finds itself in the same position today that women without sufficient power to protect themselves have found themselves in since Eden.
Praying for a champion. Please God, send us a knight in shining armor!
In May, in this the year of our Lord 2013, after five years as Commander in Chief, and twelve years after the disgrace called “Tail-Hook”, President Barack Obama strode forth.
He unsheathed his microphone.
While it would be grossly unfair to characterize all politicians as sleazy, it would be equally foolish to assume they are heroic. It goes too far, perhaps, to say that all politicians talk out of both sides of their mouth at the siame time; but we can, however, say with confidence that politicians possess the rhetorical skill of leading us to believe they are doing (or have done) one thing when they have not, or have actually done the opposite. This ability, to include “something for everybody” when they speak is what seperates the outstanding from the pedestrian politician.
There are many that believe, based on his rhetoric, that President Obama is the greatest politician of our time.
Wearing his gravest face, and speaking in somber and serious tones, the President tackled the problem of sexual assault in our military. He said that rape was bad. It was one of the badder things. The other manly-men, of both sexes, that flanked their leader also wore somber masks. They nodded gravely as the Commander in Chief stated, in no uncertain terms, that raping your fellow soldiers was not permissible and would not be tolerated.
The media dutifully reported the event. Hear Ye, Hear Ye! Rape is not one of our “commonly held values”. Stop it! Now!
That's what he said. That's what those few among the public that cared to listen came away with. The President is against raping American soldiers.
If the measure of what changes are being made is not what presidents say, but what they do, then no changes were made. If “doing” meant advancing the proposals of the victims and their advocates, the President actuallydid nothing.
When it came right down to it, when Barack Obama had to either support calls for systemic reform or side with the culture that produced the problem in the first place, while he said he was with the girls, he really threw them back to the wolves.
Sorry girls, Barack Obama is not the white knight. He is not the man you have been praying for.
That's the problem with “commonly held values”. After the USA Line delivers you to Grownup, and after you have been unpacked and around the block a few times, it becomes painfully obvious that something is dreadfully wrong. While what we talk about, our “commonly held values” are everywhere, what we actually do, “common decency', can be pretty hard to find. In some situations, common decency can go missing in action for decades, centuries and even millenia.
This is a curious phenomena. One must wonder how, here in GrownUp, it can be in our advanced state of civilization, when everyone says they are pro-women, this problem can continue to fester and, indeed, actually get worse year after year?
How, in a society that is mostly women, can young girls continue to be abused in this particula fashion by the government this female majority elects and controls? Can it be that the women who do have power in our society, that could speak out, that could influence events, that this talented tenth is pre-occupied with breaking their own glass ceilings and cannot be bothered by the misery of these grunts with bad hair and ugly camos?
How, in a society that has elected a Senate and a President from the pro-womens's party, can it be that neither the legislative leadership or the chief executive has championed the implementation of the simple common sense ideas that would put the beasts back in their cages? Is it possible to be pro-rape and pro-women at the same time? Is it reasonable to expect the continued support of women simply because you make it easier for them to get an abortion after they've been raped?
To answer these questions, to change this ugly reality, to go from talk of values to a life of decency, we can't chug around the turnaround forever.
The USA Line needs to move forward again.
Its time to lay some new track. Right now. Because 25,000 a year is 70 a day. That's a lotta swell girls that are ready to get onboard.