Tuesday

12 December 2017

— neighborhood cat visits again, human nearly corners him in the basement.

Good Morning All,

Just to be on the safe side, I asked six fairly sane people (three of the feminine persuasion) if I could in one of these natters be stupid enough to raise the question of workplace sexual-harassment. Not just the matter of sexual-harassment, but the truly remarkable sexual-harassment phenomenon that has swept America. The responses I got ranged anywhere from Well, it’s your funereal and Have you seen a shrink lately? to Why not, since it has at least as many heads as your basic Lernaen Hydra?

So, here goes, if only touching the surface:

First, the obvious and relatively uncomplicated: It is of course a good and healthy sign that people who have in the workplace been sexual-harassed, molested, raped, etc. are coming forward to name names. Like all the boys molested by those sleazy Catholic priests, it has taken—such has been the trauma coupled with the fear—a long time to come forward, but it is now happening. The media seems intent not to let there be a cover-up (as was the case with the Catholic church), although of course the media also understands sex crimes sell newspapers and bolster viewing audiences. Like everything else in America, money is always part of the equation.

Given the plethora of evidence piling up against the likes of Bill Cosby, Harvey Winestein, and Kevin Spacey, it would certainly appear they have used their positions of power to behave like dirt-bags, scum, whatever. If the allegations are true—and the vast majority of the allegations against these three guys come from normally sane and reliable people with no political axes to grind, then these three deserve to be punished to the full extent of the law.

But what the courts may do in their slow and ponderous manner is probably irrelevant. These three have already been tried in the media and found guilty. They are in disgrace, will remain in disgrace the rest of their lives, and will die in disgrace. Which in one way is fine with me, because it certainly seems they are guilty and as such deserving of our abomination of them.

But in another way, well, if we lose faith in our judicial system, even in a good cause, it would seem we are stepping onto a slippery slope.

And what about accused people where the allegations are both fewer and far less explicit? Al Franken and Garrison Keillor, for example. 

Here’s what one of you wrote about Al Franken’s situation:  On the basis of unproven allegations from a right-wing talk radio hostess and Fox contributor and a bunch of women whom he supposedly groped in public while their husbands were taking pictures of the event, we sacrifice one of the best Democratic senators we've got while the Republicans would welcome a child molester [Roy Moore, running for senator in Alabama] with semi-open arms. Is this any way to run a railroad? 

And Garrison Keillor, tight-sphinctered Lutheran that he has always been? A couple of days after he came to the defense of Franken (pointing out that anyone and everyone could see the picture of him “groping” was a set up joke), a woman came forward to say he (Keillor) had molested her. Keillor’s version is different. Keillor says the woman, a colleague, was in distress, and he had put his hand on her back to try to comfort her. End of story. As far as I know, no one else has come forward to accuse Keillor of anything. Nevertheless, the radio station for whom he worked for decades fired him within two days of the accusations. I cannot help but smell the stink of politics on this one.

One of the six people I consulted before writing the above told me her single greatest worry was how hiring would go in the future. She said we could not kid ourselves that the dawn of gender equality was just around the corner. It was still a man’s world, still men doing most of the hiring. Therefore, she said, why should a man take the chance of employing a woman who might one day bring similar allegations—either legitimate or our of self-interest—against him?

I’m over my word limit again, and so will just add briefly that the New Puritanism is a phrase not coined by me. It used to be that one employee could give another employee  a grateful hug for helping out in some office emergency or other, or could provide a shoulder for an unhappy colleague to cry on. Is that sort of normal human interaction now in danger? 

Today’s voting in Alabama will be interesting. It’s a special election to fill the seat vacated by Jeff Sessions after President Trump, liking his brand of racism, made him the Attorney General. Candidate Moore is accused of molesting a 14 year old girl, among another dozen allegations of sexual-harassment. He is a Republican, which we know to be the party that supports Christian and family values. Polls show that 60% of the Republican women plan to vote for Moore.  That must take some fairly complex and convoluted hypocrisy.

Go Well and Stay Well,

Bhekaron

P.S. One Holly snap and one Johs snap: