I am not good with certain topics and this current wave of
sexual harassment and assault is throwing me a curve. Even when I was young I
was somewhat of a prude, or at least naïve. Yet, here we are falling apart at
the seams as a society.
Heck I do not even know the exact definition of harassment or
assault. I know you can look these up on Webster’s or the local statutes for
the criminality. What are people calling each though?
I am 100% that we should respect every human being at every
turn so there is no excuse for any behavior that disrespects another. Yet how are we defining these assaults? The news is very ambiguous. And, I really didn’t
want to write about this topic. I see it as a symptom of a much bigger problem
we have as a society. We lost our moral compass. Throughout history men have pretty
much abused women in some shape form or fashion, yet over the last few centuries
we slowly built up the thought process that women are more than property. The direction
of mankind was on an upward trajectory. It was still pervasive, yet up until
the 50’s or 60’s a sense of responsibility towards how we approached women was
growing. It seems our leaders still view their positions of power has a tool to
obtain more than what is rightfully theirs. And the topic is abuse of women;
the reality is the total collapse of respect for others that they feel are inferior
to them.
Take the infamous Supreme Court decision of the 1970’s where
the Court ruled materials were obscene if they appealed to a prurient interest,
showed patently offensive sexual conduct, specifically defined by a state obscenity
law and lacked serious artistic, literary, artistic, political, or scientific
value. The Court was trying to still
protect first amendment rights and simultaneously give communities a guideline
to prosecute people for disseminating pornography. This was never an easy task.
And left many people holding the bag because what has artistic or scientific
value? What does it mean a “prurient interest”? Who is the Judge of these
thoughts?
You can argue all day about what is protected by the first amendment.
You must be more forth coming about what is assault. Why? Because now you are
charging an individual with a crime and most rightfully so. The problem is
prosecuting a crime needs to be tried in front of a jury and the burden of
proof is on the criminal justice system which is arguing for the victim. And in
most cases sexual assault only has two witnesses; the victim and the
perpetrator. This makes prosecution very difficult. It does not mean there wasn’t
a crime committed. It just means obtaining a guilty verdict and punishment are
very difficult to achieve.
The alternative has become lawsuits. And while this can
create a secondary justice for the victim it also allows others to cheapen real
victims by calling them a money grubber or worse. We still blame the victim in our society and
the more money is involved the more we side with the person charged. Why? I do
not know. And there are a few people that do milk the system to achieve
monetary awards they may or may not realistically own. All this plays to the
perpetrators and doesn’t help true victims.
And women historically treated lessor still resonates in our
society. I mentioned it was slowly dying off, but all these current allegations
suggest maybe it wasn’t. We were not as advanced as a society as thought. I think
different. I work, socialize, engage in other projects with many people I am
comfortable. And this comfort level comes from certain levels of trust. Are
they all perfect? No and neither am I. And one or two probably has disrespected
a woman to some extent in their life. They would not brag about this or employ
a disrespectful attitude though on a daily or regular basis. They consciously
understand what is right and what is wrong.
When our leaders are consistently shown to behave this way
though it shows a deep-rooted problem that still exists and teaches young
people the wrong lesson. That is why in my opinion we need to have strong
definitions of assault and harassment and strong legal definitions of both. We
cannot use the vague “I know it when I see it” test that was stated in a 1964
court ruling before the above ruling for pornography. Sexual assault is a crime, not an opinion.
We need to support victims yes weed out the few grifters, but
support the victims. We need to be able to put the perpetrators in jail. Society
needs to send a strong message that this is not the behavior we want to
emulate, project, accept, or teach. Young people need to see consequences apply
to all. And of course, this is more than just the sexual assaults, our leaders
must be held to a higher standard. When we fail to do this, we are failing
ourselves and future generations.
We cannot blame others, neither the Republicans nor the
Democrats can or should take a higher ground. Leadership is not moralizing. It
is defining the path, forging it, and giving it to the people to expand their
own lives on a solid foundation. Respect for others is the first step to building
a great society and country.
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