Category Archives: Women

Blood Boiling Material

General, Social Justice, Women, ,

My blood has been boiling over in recent days due to the mass murder on March 16th, 2021 in Georgia. A young man aged 21 killed eight people – seven women and one man at three different massage spas.

He told investigators he targeted these places because he wanted to “take out that temptation” from his “sexual addiction” issues. And according to some reports, he had spent time in rehab for sex addiction in 2019 and 2020.

Robert Aaron Long, the gunman, has been described by former classmates in news reports as a highly religious baptist who took a bible to high school with him every day and was on a crusade to remove “temptation” when he opened fire in the massage spas.

Oh, it’s the women’s fault, is that what you mean by removing “temptation”, Mr. Long?

It’s so easy to blame others for your problems, isn’t it?

What happened to personal responsibility? Like avoiding places you claim “tempt” you?

Or managing your problem by pouring ice cold water on your junk?

Mr. Long, I think your deep religiosity has fucked up your head. Badly. Bringing a bible to school every day doesn’t make you a “good” person. If you believe your heavenly father is in control, then why did you wrest that control from him and take out eight people’s lives yourself?

Those people whose lives you took weren’t responsible for YOUR feelings of “temptation”. You decided to end their lives.

You told police you were not motivated by race?

That is hard to believe given that you went to three different Asian spas and that six out of your eight victims were Asian women.

And news reports have you saying you told authorities that you claim you targeted Asian women to eliminate “temptation.”

Your objectification of Asian women as “temptation” is disgusting. Dehumanizing.

Eight lives are gone, eight families are suffering a loss of their loved ones because of you. On top of that, since you nearly killed another man during your killing spree, that man will now have a long and painful recovery thanks to you.

And you’ve shaken the Asian American community not only in Georgia, but across the nation. To date, nearly 3,800 anti-Asian hate incidents have been reported over the course of the pandemic by reporting forum STOP AAPI (Asian American Pacific Islander) Hate. Women make up a far higher share of the reports, at 68 percent, compared to men, who make up 29 percent of respondents. (The nonprofit does not report incidents to police.)

Mr. Long, you’ve just shone the stadium lights on anti-Asian hate in the worst possible way.

America will be much safer with you in a cage.

There is someone else who has got my blood boiling.

He is Capt. Jay Baker of Georgia’s Cherokee County Sheriff’s office, who has come under fire for his comments on gunman Long:

He was at pretty much fed up and kind of at the end of his rope, and yesterday was a really bad day for him and this is what he did.

Well, golleeeeee, Capt. Baker! We all have bad days, don’t we?! Would there be any human being left on earth if we each acted out on our “really bad day” as Mr. Long did?

Just a “really bad day”? I think a lot of people are having trouble wrapping their head around that. Apparently Mr. Long’s parents kicked him out the night before the shootings, according to the news reports – and they also turned him in after the shootings. Small comfort to the families of his victims.

Saying a mass murderer had a really bad day is beyond the pale. I’m sure the victims’ families really loved hearing that from you, Capt. Baker. Must have felt as comforting as Arctic air biting their skin against their burning, overwhelming grief.

It’s not helpful that in defending you, your colleague, Cherokee County Sheriff Frank Reynolds, said,

In as much as his words were taken or construed as insensitive or inappropriate, they were not intended to disrespect any of the victims, the gravity of this tragedy or express empathy or sympathy for the suspect.

And noted that your remarks launched “much debate and anger.”

Really?!

Are you wondering WHY your remarks launched much debate and anger?

I’m not.

And now the public learns that you apparently promoted shirts on your now-deleted Facebook account that featured racist language and blamed China for the pandemic. “Covid 19 IMPORTED VIRUS FROM CHY-NA,” the shirts said, in the same spirit as former President Donald Trump.

Your alleged words:

• “Place your order while they last,” – with a smiley face emoji alongside a picture of the shirts in a post on March 30 last year.

• “Love my shirt… Get yours while they last,” you reportedly wrote alongside pictures of the shirts in April.

If this is true, then Georgians deserve far better in a public servant. Especially one entrusted with the power to ensure the safety of their fellow citizens.

How can anyone in their right mind implicitly trust a law enforcement officer with a record of racist and/or misogynistic behavior to keep them safe on the streets?

I would not want to be in the presence of that officer. At. All.

May the eight victims killed by Mr. Long rest in peace and may their families find some measure of solace in community support and solidarity with them.

And may the gentleman Mr. Long gravely wounded recover fully; I hope he can give damning testimony against Long so that justice may prevail.

Sources

The New York Times
NBC News – Asian America
NBC News – ‘Stop AAPI hate: Around 3,800 anti-Asian incidents recorded in the past year (video)
ABC News
MSN
USA Today
USA Today – Asian women: Shooting points to racist tropes (video)
heavy
CBS News
CBS Atlanta
WWL-TV
The Wrap
Hide Out
My Central Oregon
The Independent
Newsweek

Celebrate Women!

General, Social Justice, Women, ,

March is Women’s History Monthh in the United States, established by Congress to coincide with International Women’s Day (IWD) which falls on March 8th. The latter is observed around the globe to commemorate the cultural, political, and socioeconomic achievements of women and is often an event organized as a rallying point to build support for women’s rights and participation in the political and economic arenas.

I don’t know if I’ve been asleep at the wheel (I hope not!), but only in the last couple of years did I notice that major network news as well as my own local news actually mention International Women’s Day.

What took so long?!

Didn’t US media want to recognize half of humanity? Just for a day?! Or are we as the United States of America – the wealthiest, most powerful nation on the planet, so full of ourselves that we don’t need to to participate in acknowledging women’s contributions to society on a global scale? We’ve got Women’s History month – which covers women in the US (though the UK, Australia, and Canada have their own versions) and that’s good enough?

Let the rest of the world and countless NGOs (non-governmental organizations) address and celebrate women’s achievements and call for addressing inequality?

International Women’s Day isn’t titillating news?

This year marks the 110th anniversary of the first official International Women’s Day, which was on March 19th, 1911, and which was observed by over a million people in Austria, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland. Across Europe, women demanded the right to vote and to hold public office, and protested against employment sex discrimination.

This event was preceded by the first “Woman’s Day” celebration which took place in Chicago on May 3rd, 1908. Organized by the U.S. Socialist Party, it brought together an audience of 1,500 women who demanded economic and political equality, on a day officially dedicated to “the female workers’ causes.”

The following year, on February 28th, 1909, in New York City, the Socialist Party of America celebrated “National Woman’s Day“, with 15,000 women who protested long work hours, low pay, and the lack of voting rights in New York City.

Inspired by these American initiatives, an International Socialist Women’s Conference was organized in August 1910 ahead of the general meeting of the Socialist Second International in Copenhagen, Denmark. Leading German socialists Luise Zietz and Clara Zetkin proposed the establishment of an annual International Woman’s Day as a strategy to promote equal rights, including suffrage, for women.

More than 100 female delegates from 17 countries unanimously endorsed the proposal!

International Women’s Day became an official holiday in Russia in 1913; however, women still experienced difficulties caused by WWI. While men were off at war, women dealt with food shortages and a government who wouldn’t listen to them.

Not listening has consequences…bad move, dudes!

On March 8th, 1917 (February 23 in the former Russian calendar), tens of thousands of Russian women took to the streets demanding change. The unified cry for help paved the way for Russian women to be granted voting rights soon after. The official International Women’s Day eventually switched to March 8th.

Though gaining broader recognition in the United States only recently (according to my observations), it’s been widely celebrated worldwide.

According to Wikipedia:

IWD is an official holiday in several countries worldwide, including Afghanistan,Angola, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, China (for women only), Cuba, Georgia, Germany (Berlin only), Guinea-Bissau, Eritrea, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Madagascar (for women only), Moldova, Mongolia,Nepal, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, and Zambia.

In some countries, such as Australia, Cameroon, Croatia, Romania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, and Chile; IWD is not an official public holiday, but is widely observed nonetheless.

Regardless of legal status, in much of the world, it is customary for men to give female colleagues and loved ones flowers and small gifts. In some countries (such as Bulgaria and Romania) it is also observed as an equivalent of Mother’s Day, where children also give small presents to their mothers and grandmothers.

Can you imagine having a day off of work for International Women’s Day?! Woo hoo!

I was quite pleased to see my local news station as well as a major network news channel mention IWD on March 8th this year (finally). Kudos to them.

On the national level we have Women’ History Month, which began much later in our history; March was designated as Women’s History Month by Congress in 1987. Women’s History Month is a celebration of women’s contributions to history, culture and society, inspired by the first International Women’s Day in 1911.

But it was not until 1978 – when the school district of Sonoma, California organized a week-long celebration of women’s contributions to culture, history and society – that the seeds planted for the future Women’s History Month. Presentations were given at dozens of schools, hundreds of students participated in a “Real Woman” essay contest and a parade was held in downtown Santa Rosa.

The History website states that a few years later, the idea had caught on within communities, school districts and organizations across the country.

And in February 1980, President Jimmy Carter issued the first presidential proclamation declaring the week of March 8 as National Women’s History Week.

He said:

From the first settlers who came to our shores, from the first American Indian families who befriended them, men and women have worked together to build this nation. Too often the women were unsung and sometimes their contributions went unnoticed. But the achievements, leadership, courage, strength and love of the women who built America was as vital as that of the men whose names we know so well.

As Dr. Gerda Lerner has noted, ‘Women’s History is Women’s Right.’ It is an essential and indispensable heritage from which we can draw pride, comfort, courage, and long-range vision. I ask my fellow Americans to recognize this heritage with appropriate activities during National Women’s History Week, March 2–8, 1980.

I urge libraries, schools, and community organizations to focus their observances on the leaders who struggled for equality – Susan B. Anthony, Sojourner Truth, Lucy Stone, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Harriet Tubman, and Alice Paul. Understanding the true history of our country will help us to comprehend the need for full equality under the law for all our people.

This goal can be achieved by ratifying the 27th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which states that ‘Equality of Rights under the Law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.’

(Carter was referring to the Equal Rights Amendment, which was never ratified, not to the amendment which did become the 27th Amendment to the United States Constitution after his presidency.)

The U.S. Congress followed suit the next year, passing a resolution establishing a national celebration. Six years later, the National Women’s History Project successfully petitioned Congress to expand the event to the entire month of March…after a series of joint resolutions, that is.

In contrast to the creation of International Women’s Day – which took just a few years, it took nearly a decade for the United States to officially recognize and celebrate the contributions of women. Think about that. I thought we’re supposed to be the the leader of the free world. The most powerful nation on Earth that other nations look up to?

Why was it so hard for our elected leaders to recognize and commemorate women’s contributions to America?

I don’t know the answer to that. But I suspect that there was strong resistance from some elected officials and members of society alike to lifting up half of humanity – by recognizing women who throughout history have advocated and continue to advocate for women’s health and freedom to control their own reproductive health without governmental interference, family-friendly workplace conditions, suffrage for just not themselves but every citizen, laws to protect them from domestic abuse, laws to protect them against gender discrimination at work, laws to eliminate gender discrimination in the home (such as in matters of abuse, finance, divorce, and inheritance), and so on.

Maybe this resistance is really rooted in a power mentality, in which certain folks have the idea women should “stay in their place”, that women need to stay put at home – barefoot, pregnant, and uneducated so they can be controlled?

Not!

Women are no less worthy than men. And no one is entitled to have their way with women. We are not property. Not sex objects. Not punching bags. Not cute doggies meant to obey, sit, cook, and clean, at anyone’s whim. Not brainless dolls meant to stay quiet, not think too much, and be told “Don’t worry your pretty little head!”

And certainly not prisoners meant to be told when and where to go beyond the confines of our home.

Women ought to go anywhere they damn well please! I’m not into dehumanizing women, thank you very much.

I don’t think one day internationally and one month nationally to put women front and center of our attention is asking too much. Not when women in the United States and all around the world are still experiencing pay ineqity, gender discrimination at work or school, threats to their reproductive health, threats to their well-being if they are in an abusive relationship or living in a conflict-ridden area, threats to their livelihoods if they’ve lost their jobs due to a pandemic, and relentless misogyny if they dare speak their minds.

Let women speak their minds!

Clearly and loudly. Without fear of retribution. Without any apology for being who we are and regardless of what we look like and where we came from.

I say hurray to all those who made International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month possible!

I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.
~ Audre Lorde

Sources

Wikipedia – Women’s History Month
Women’s History Month.gov
History.com
International Women’s Day
Origins – Ohio State University
Good Housekeeping
Wikipedia – International Women’s Day
ThoughtCo
United Nations

No Badge Needed

General, Media, Women,

Last Monday, February 1st, 2021, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Congresswoman from New York, shared on Instagram her harrowing experience on living through the January 6th, 2021, insurrection on the Capitol. In part, she said:

These folks who tell us to move on, that it’s not a big deal, that we should forget what’s happened, or even telling us to apologize. These are the same tactics of abusers. And I’m a survivor of sexual assault.
~Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), 2/1/21

Take in that last line: And I’m a survivor of sexual assault.

A number of people have taken offense to that, saying that she, as a politician, was using her experience as a sexual assault survivor as a tool to manipulate the public in some way or to make herself the center of attention.

The Spectator writer Amber Athey wrote:

This is gross manipulation, and AOC should be ashamed. Not for sharing that she was sexually assaulted — I have no way of knowing whether or not her story is true and, ultimately, it’s irrelevant to the issue of the storming of the Capitol.

The real story here is that AOC used her alleged trauma as a cudgel against her political opponents. She has weaponized her alleged experience to silence anyone who criticizes her and even went so far as to compare them to the person or people who abused her. This type of behavior cheapens sexual assault.

To which conservative media personality Rush Limbaugh added during his February 2nd radio show:

And to show you how it’s working, I have a friendly supporter who calls and says, “You better be real careful what you’re saying here. It’s obvious you’ve never been abused.” How is it obvious? Maybe I should be proud that I don’t wear that around. That’s also something generational. You just didn’t talk about things. You just lived your life. You dealt with it as it happened.

Now, you wear the badge. Generational changes, generational shifts. But Amber Athey believes that AOC “weaponized her alleged experience to silence anyone who criticizes her.” I know the left does that. They have become champions at that, in fact.

Badge?

There’s no fucking badge. Except in your head.

Generational changes, yes, Mr. Limbaugh. Generational shifts. You said it. Many people change their thinking on different matters over time, like sexual assault and rape. Thanks largely to social movements like #MeToo, survivors of sexual assault can feel safe that they are not alone – that they have the option to reveal they’ve experienced horrific violation, either publicly or privately – rather than burying their emotions.

In more survivors coming forward, they build solidarity in numbers and in shared experiences, so that society, rather than constantly blaming and dismissing them, begins to respect and believe them. And importantly, survivors expose and hold to account their perpetrators.

And maybe you are actually fine with that, I don’t know. But I’m gonna pick on you because you have a record of debasing women to your audience over many years. Notably, women who speak up for themselves: women who might talk about an intimately painful experience in their past, women with whom you disagree politically, or women whom you perceive to be an obstacle to the advancement of your favored person’s position (like a judge or a president). Does the name Sandra Fluke ring a bell? Dr. Christine Blasey Ford?

And now you cast aspersions on Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

You started your broadcast on February 2nd introducing her Instagram video with “Have you seen this video, folks …If you haven’t, it’s amazing acting.”

ACTING?!

So most people besides Amber Athey aren’t gonna have the guts to properly characterize this. But you ought to see this video if you haven’t. I mean, it’s filled with acting and gyrations of the body in order to transmit the nature of the assault she feared was happening all over again. And it was a sexual assault that she was being reconnected to.

So you have no right to be critical, because this is a traumatic event, and so forth and so on.

But when did you ever hear Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez say that you can NOT criticize her for revealing she is a sexual assault survivor?

Those are YOUR words, dude.

YOUR WORDS.

Later in your broadcast, a caller implied AOC and Dr. Christine Blasey Ford were pretending (acting?) when they revealed their traumatic experiences:

CALLER: Right. So when you have Christine Blasey Ford and AOC as someone, you know, pretending — and what they did to Justice Kavanaugh — what it does to people who really lived through it.

RUSH: Oh, yeah.

CALLER: — is it minimizes or diminishes —

RUSH: What a great example.

CALLER: — those of us who go through it.

RUSH: What a greatly [sic] example. Christine Blasey Ford and all these people piling on Kavanaugh.

So you agree with the caller that Dr. Ford and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez were just pretending about their sexual assaults? Do you think they were making stuff up to grab attention and/or elicit sympathy?

If that’s not making light of one’s experience, I don’t know what is.

Or maybe or a more accurate term for casting aspersions on them is cynical.

Cynical, according to Merriam-Webster, means:

Having or showing the attitude or temper of a cynic: such as
a) contemptuously distrustful of human nature and motives
b) based on or reflecting a belief that human conduct is motivated primarily by self-interest

You apologized for a misunderstanding at first. Namely, that you thought Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez said she was sexually assaulted during the January 6th insurrection. Later, you said your primary point was not disputing that she has been abused and you weren’t making light of it or laughing about it, yet you continued to minimize her experiences she had both during the insurrection and her mention of being sexually assaulted (along with some of your callers).

You know, the question that got all of this started about her divulging that she had been sexually abused — the question that got it all started — was, “Why don’t you guys just move on? The January 6 thing was January 6th. The siege of the Capitol is in the rearview mirror. It happened. Why don’t you just move on?”

That’s what triggered her to talk about her alleged sexual abuse, and that’s when she said (summarized), “Look, these instances of abuse don’t ever go away. They compound on one another,” meaning the impact is added to each new instance of abuse and what she went through during the siege on January 6 was abuse on top of — which she then shared — was her sexual abuse and so forth.

So put another way. She was asked why she can’t move on from January 6, and she said because of her alleged sexual abuse. She politicized it, not me. She did.

“…and she said because of her alleged sexual abuse.” Not.

You conveniently glossed over horrific insurrection by dismissing Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez’ revealation as a sexual assault survivor as she spoke about the fears she experienced that day, comparing the tactics of her some of her naysayers as similar to abusers. And you said she politicized her trauma.

How cynical of you.

According to trauma experts interviewed by USA Today, Ocasio-Cortez’s reaction is normal and expected, and her account aligns with what science shows happens to a mind and body under extreme forms of stress. It’s likely, experts said, that Ocasio-Cortez’s experience with sexual assault intensified what she endured at the Capitol. Clinical psychologist Seth Gillihan told USA Today:

Trauma isn’t processing ‘sexual assault’ or ‘Capitol assault.’ What it’s processing is an overwhelming sense of danger, of feeling powerless, feeling my life is out of my hands. From an outsider’s perspective the sources look different, but inside our bodies and minds … it’s exactly the same message.

People died because of the assault on the Capitol! It was a potentially life-threatening attack on members of Congress, and for Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez, it was a trauma compounded by her experience with sexual assault made all the more terrifying by the death threats she has received since she was elected to Congress.

It’s not triggering trauma, it’s trauma overlaid on trauma, Gillihan said.

Experts also said that Ocasio-Cortez’s gender is likely influencing reaction to her emotional disclosures. It’s much easier to suggest Ocasio-Cortez is fragile, oversensitive or even politically motivated than it is to accept the horror of what happened to her. They agreed with AOC and said denial and victim-blaming are common tactics abusers use.

One of the experts, Jennifer Gómez, a psychology professor at Wayne State University stated:

Abusers demand silence. The trouble is such a silence mandate is crazy-making for people who experience the violence and who see the world for what it is: a place that includes such violence just as much as it includes joy.

Screw silence on demand.

I believe as some observers have noted, that Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez spoke in such personal terms in order to reject calls to move on from the events of January 6th. “We cannot move on without accountability,” she insisted. “We cannot heal without accountability.”

Accountability, indeed.

So go take your cynicism to the nearest toxic waste dump where it belongs, Mr. Limbaugh. And throw your imagined badges in there while you’re at it, please.

Y’all stop invalidating @AOC’s experiences because you aren’t hearing about the experiences of other members. Everyone deals with trauma differently, her stories are validating for so many of us with similar experiences and she is showing people that vulnerability is strength.
~ Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Congresswoman, 2/1/21

Sources

Nation
Washington Post
New York Times
Merriam-Webster
Newsmax
The Rush Limbaugh Show
The Spectator
Alternet.org
MSN
USA Today
NY Post
Wikipedia
CBS News
Wikipedia
New York Times
Real Clear Politics
Media Matters

A Young Poet Leads the Way

General, Women

It is young people like poet Amanda Gorman, who recited her poem, “The Hill We Climb”, at the presidential inauguration on January 20th, who give me hope for the future. She wrote it right after the riot at the Capitol on January 6th, and I am awestruck by her words.

To my mind, her words flow freely every time I read her poem. I like it more with each re-reading!

She is our future, and I am glad of it; she’s a young person gifted with words – among countless other young persons you and I are likely unaware of, who sprinkles words of inspiration and fiery determination into our consciences.

Enjoy!

[from Democracy Now!’s broadcast; text of poem and transcript of show included.]

“The Hill We Climb”: Watch Breathtaking Poem by Amanda Gorman, Youngest Inaugural Poet in U.S. History

A Ray of Sunshine

Civics, General, Media, Women, , ,

Do you know who Maria Ressa is?

I only vaguely knew of this renowned journalist who was accused of cyber libel in June 2020, and then the other night, PBS’ Frontline show had a great documentary on the threatened status of press freedom in the Philippines, focusing on Maria Ressa. She is a dynamo! Intensity and reslience packed into a small stature. Check out this documentary:

A Thousand Cuts

With press freedom under threat in the Philippines, A Thousand Cuts goes inside the escalating war between the government and the press. The documentary follows Maria Ressa, a renowned journalist who has become a top target of President Rodrigo Duterte’s crackdown on the news media. …

Her resoluteness, her confidence, and her forthrightness shine bright – so much so that she has remained ingrained in my mind for days. And I’ll venture to say, for years to come.

Ressa is a top target of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, having been an outspoken critic of his policies for many years – in particular, the extrajudicial killings, human rights violations, and fast-rising death toll from Duterte’s brutal war on drugs as well as the alleged pro-Duterte online “troll army” who were pushing out fake news stories and manipulating the narrative around his presidency. She has posted bail 9 times and has endured relentless political harrassment by the Duterte government and its supporters. Yet it doesn’t deter her from battling disinformation.

Bullies like Duterte don’t seem to faze Maria Ressa. (Would you expect less from someone who spent many years investigating terrorist networks in Southeast Asia?)

And she says she will not let herself be intimidated.

I love that about her!

For me, Maria Ressa is a ray of sunshine in these dark days of the pandemic. She is an inspiration for those who are deeply disgusted by the US wanna-be dictator who has repeatedly called the press the enemy of the people and has denounced any journalist who has committed the “crime” of criticizing him. She may be in the Philippines – she is by the way also a US citizen, but she nevertheless is an inspiration to many around the world who value and respect a free and open democracy.

Amendment I of the US Constitution clearly states:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Similarly, Section 4 of the Bill of Rights in the 1987 Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines clearly states:

No law shall be passed abridging the freedom of speech, of expression, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and petition the government for redress of grievances.

Nice to know the US Constitution has inspired others around the globe to enshrine similar rights into their own countries’ constitutions!

But not-so-nice to know that the most powerful man on earth has been inspired by the dictators of the world with regard to how to treat members of the press, as per his own acknowledgment.

Neither the leader of the Philippines nor the soon-to-be former leader of the United States like the press, let alone respect it. Well, arguably, no political “leader” does; however, but when you, Presidents Duterte and Trump, publicly single out journalists by belittling them in front of their peers at a press conference or at a mass rally of your followers because they wrote something you didn’t like, arrest them on allegedly politically motivated charges, insinuate that a certain journalist “could be a target for assassination”, laugh when your dictator buddy calls the press corps “spies”, announce in a jesting tone that you think it’d be a good idea to arrest and maybe “get rid of” journalists who criticize and contradict your mistatements with facts just like another dictator buddy, and worst of all, say that the press is the enemy of the people, then I’d say that you, Dear Leaders – and there’s more than two of you on this planet, have an unimaginable contempt for your fellow citizens. For those who elected you as well as those who did not.

Journalists are here to hold our elected leaders accountable! Every last one of them, from the local level all the way to the president.

It disturbed me recently that CBS News had recently put out a promotional ad about themselves stating the obvious: without a free press, we don’t have a free society. Probably not the exact words – I can’t think of them at this moment…but you get the idea.

I thought to myself: What?! This is what our president inspired – that a national media company felt compelled to remind the public of this?

Fortunately, we have courageous journalists like Maria Ressa here in the US, too. Like Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!, who is one of my favorite investigative reporters and no stranger to having put her life on the line as has Maria, to report the news.

To Maria and Amy and all the intrepid journalists like yourselves out there in the world: you are essential to our freedom to live and breathe safely by keeping check on those in power, informing the public when you expose abuse, corruption, and goodness knows what else has occurred. You shine a spotlight into the dark nooks and crannies of our world for the public good. America needs you now more than ever. The world needs you.

I need you!

We can’t fight monsters by becoming monsters. ~ Maria Ressa

Sources

PBS Frontline
Rappler
Elle
Wikipedia
NPR
The Guardian
U.S. Constitution
constituteproject.org
Vox
Washington Post
National Review
Global News
The Guardian

In Praise of Ms. Jones

Civics, General, Media, Women, , ,

On the morning of December 7th, 2020, former Florida COVID-19 data scientist Rebekah Jones had her home raided by state police. They aimed their guns at her and her family, as seen on video. They seized her phone, computer and several hard drives, preventing her from continuing to publish data on COVID-19 outbreaks.

Jones wrote on social media after the raid:

“They pointed a gun in my face. They pointed guns at my kids… This was DeSantis. He sent the gestapo [sic].”

She built the much-praised COVID-19 dashboard before being fired over what she said was refusing to “manipulate data”, according to USA TODAY. She was fired from her job as Geographic Information Systems manager for the department on May 5th, 2020. 

The World Socialist Web Site reports that the specific allegation made against Jones that led to the police raid was:

that she was responsible for an email being sent to Florida’s Department of Health employees imploring them to “speak up before another 17,000 people are dead,” which Jones denies having sent. She asserts that, in part, officials seized her devices to determine what contacts she has within the Department of Health, who will in turn likely be victimized in the near future.

Rebekah Jones has since launched her own COVID-19 dashboard after being removed from the state’s project. You can find it here. And explained in some detail, here.

She has also just filed a suit against the Florida Department of Law Enforcement over the raid at her home.

Why am I writing about this?

Because when I think about what happened to her, this is what is going through my mind: This is where hard-earned taxpayer monies go – to use armed state police to harass an unarmed scientist and her family in their home due to an unsubstantiated suspicion? Is this perhaps a retaliation against Ms. Jones from certain leaders in power who didn’t like that she refused to fudge the COVID-19 numbers to make their government look better?!

I personally have never had any really negative encounter with local or state police in my lifetime. Not even from two encounters with state police who issued me the traffic tickets I’ve gotten in the past. (getting the tickets was more painful!) I don’t have any personal grudge against police.

However, I do take great issue with law enforcement officers who abuse the public trust when they engage in corruption, sexism, racism, or employ excessive force against peaceful, UNARMED, law-abiding citizens, be it a scientist or peaceful protesters. Particularly against people of color.

I had a close, late friend who relayed his tale of walking home from work one night when he was suddenly bodyslammed to the ground because…why? He apparently resembled a suspect accused of some offense. It was a case of mistaken identity and he was released. But I don’t know if the officers apologized to him. My friend was a big man, originally from India. And no security officer ever came to his rescue when rocks were thrown at him and his friends by a crowd who supposedly “didn’t want his kind” at a country music concert somewhere in a southern state. My friend loved American country music. I thought part of security personnel’s jobs was to prevent and stop harm to others.

And I think it is deeply dangerous to idolize police, as if they are all angels who can do no wrong. They are human beings, for crying out loud!

To put them all on some fantastical, god-like pedestal and make excuses for those who perpetrate heinous crimes against their fellow citizens is irresponsible and a betrayal of public trust. It’s a willful denial of the lived experiences of those who have been the target of police brutality, especially in the face of overwhelming evidence. Call a spade a spade and quit giving a free pass to law enforcement officers who do wrong to others, instead of trying to immediately shift blame on the injured (or dead) party by casting aspersions on their character or actions. Like, if only he wasn’t swaggering around the way he did, or he should have answered/obeyed the officer immediately (like a dog?), or why was she out at night and dressed like that, or why did she have to be so loud and sassy? That’s bullshit.

Disgusting.

I do not condone crimes; I want public accountability of those who have been entrusted with power – who abuse it and harm others.

What’s so hard about not using excessive force on peaceful, unarmed people? Particularly in the privacy of their own home?

The important point, to my mind, is that Ms. Jones kept her fellow Floridians and researchers around the country informed with facts about the spread of COVID-19. Determined to do so even after she and her spouse were violently harassed by state police, and her young children terrified by them.

(remember, violence is not always physical; it can be verbal, too)

She has stood up for science. For public health. For FACTS. And has not been afraid to tell the truth about what has happened to her — she has refused to bow down to bullies. I respect all of that. Immensely.

If anything, this pandemic has helped me to appreciate and respect science that much more. I’ve always liked science…I just didn’t apply myself very well on science exams during my school years, from elementary school through college. And I felt guilty when I didn’t do so well because I knew instinctively that science was important.

So huge kudos to you, Rebekah Jones, for your work in helping to inform others. For standing up for yourself, for standing up for Floridians’ health, and not letting anyone bully you! I hope you will keep doing your work for many, many years to come. Florida is lucky to have you.

Sources

USA Today
Florida COVID Action
NPR
World Socialist Web Site
CNN
Tampa Bay Times