I have been known to say that we really don’t know anything for certain.
But I don’t think that is all the way true. Some of us know a lot of things for certain.
Prior to yesterday, I did not think they would make Bill Cosby serve any time in a prison. I thought they would give him a pass for being old and in poor health. I figured on him living out his sentence, under house arrest, in his luxury home in Pennsylvania.
He was sentenced Tuesday to 3 to 10 years in a state prison for drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand at his home 14 years ago.
He broke the law.
Even if the United States didn’t have a law against sexual assault, it is still wrong. Any time we impede someone else’s right to freedom and choice, we are doing something wrong.
As it stands right now, the United States has laws against this.
Barely.
The words are there on the books. But the consequences are rarely carried out.
We live in an extremely male-dominated culture. We live in a place, a country of freedom, where men in power “look out” for other men.
Strike that. We live in a place where most men look out for other men.
I see it in the eyes of our leaders in Washington. I see it in the eyes of my neighbors and “friends” on Facebook. The excuses. The explanations. The justifications. When President Trump was accused of sexual assault, by a long list of women, he was excused from it. The accusations went away. The women were not heard. He is innocent until proven guilty. But the question of this was never answered. It was merely buried from notice by the network of men, looking out for other men.
The same thing is taking place with Brett Kavanaugh. The excuses. The justifications. “He was in High School.” “They were drinking.” “He only groped her.” And on, and on, and on. Again, he is innocent until proven guilty. But there needs to be an investigation to conclude this. And so many of the men in power are trying to push him through without an investigation. Are they soulless? Do they not have women in their own lives that they care about? Mothers, wives, daughters? Would they care if they were sexually assaulted?
I have a father who was busting at the seams with integrity. I have two brothers, too, who have followed his example. This is my measuring stick.
In the case of Kavanaugh, the band of male conservatives wants to keep women from having the freedom of choice. They think Kavanaugh, as a Supreme Court Judge, will give them their clearest path to this.
The sustenance of the male-dominated culture.
The playing of this on the world stage is abhorrent. It is not right, and it has to stop. The backslapping and cajoling. The elbow nudging. The smoking of cigars behind closed doors, and saying things they say, because they are “boys.” The power plays and attacks. The discrimination. The humiliation. The misogyny.
The good old boy network simply has to stop.
Because. We are all equals. The sex relationship on the planet is 1:1 without sex-selective abortion and genocide of women.
One to one. Equal by nature’s standards.
But there it is. Corrupted by men. It isn’t right.
And this, I know. For sure.
================
The earth is the mother of all people, and all people should have equal rights upon it. — Chief Joseph
=================
I never doubted that equal rights was the right direction. Most reforms, most problems are complicated. But to me there is nothing complicated about ordinary equality. -Alice Paul
==================
Equality is not in regarding different things similarly, equality is in regarding different things differently. -Tom Robbins
==============