A Confederate Yankee
By Bill Mayers
(Town of Sullivan, NY) Well, I just about had all I needed for an article on sex abuse when I heard of the arrest of five Chittenango High School boys for secretly making videos of female classmates changing their clothes. That pointed out that my thoughts are too formulaic and too generalized to make much of an impact locally.
Holy cripes: 26,000 reports of sex abuse in our military in just one year. Half a dozen reports of sex abuse in middle schools just in the eastern sector of the country in the past couple months. A judge in Montana blaming a 14-year-old girl for her rape by her 50-something teacher, saying she “looks older than her chronological age” and “was as much in control of the situation as her attacker.”
Damn it, this latest, local bit of crap has me so ticked, I’m afraid all I’ll do is rant and rave, which gives the perps and their parents cover, or so they think.
“Aw, he’s just a vulgar-talking malcontent! We don’t have to listen to him…”
Aaagh! As the old Captain in the comic strip Katzenjammer Kid used to say: “Gifs moider!”
“Woman need not kneel in supplication to any man or any god, but to rise to dance and sing in true joy. We must never accept any institution which actively suppresses woman or qualifies her potential.” Doug George – Kanentiio
Is this telling? I asked parishioners of three local churches if any of their pastors has said anything, from the pulpit or elsewhere, regarding the charges brought against these local high school boys. The answers all were “no.”
Nobody likes physical pleasure better than me, but forcing myself on another just ain’t in my makeup. We need a community-wide discussion of this issue, but it appears no local official has the [expletive deleted] to call a meeting in order to do so.
William D. “Bill” Mayers RT, RN, of Sullivan is a retired senior U.S. Army Corpsman. A certified healthcare professional since 1964, he holds two professional licenses, including that of Registered Professional Nurse licensed in New York, Alaska, Virginia and Louisiana. He has four children, two stepchildren, two grandchildren and is an avid analyst of current events.