Contributed by Bonnye Matthews
I grew up as a child in a military family (USAF). I had parents who insisted that we children love God, respect law, use reason as we interacted with others, learn to swim, learn self-defense and prepare to succeed in life and to give to (not take from) the world we live in as worthy citizens should. Nowhere was there a “me” mentality. I grew and learned and finally in the 60s, I entered the workforce, loving to work. There, I discovered sexual harassment in varied, always surprising expression. There was no real workplace protection then. You learned to do it yourself.
I learned to laugh with derision if someone exposed himself, saying with volume, “Oh, for Pete’s sake, put that away. I know what a penis looks like!” (Back then, nobody said penis out loud, certainly not in the workplace. I didn’t hesitate to be painfully clinical. If they continued trying to block me or fail to stop the idiocy, I’d move to comments on the testicles with more volume.) I could stop anyone groping me in a variety of ways, having self-defense training behind me. I have hurt people. You think a man would complain about being hurt by a female he was harassing? Not on his life back then.
In any new workplace, I learned to let some people know in incidental ways that I’d had martial arts training. Word got around quickly. I’m sure it saved me a lot.
I learned to be loud if someone was out of order - always lady-like, but in a loud voice that was well-modulated without screeching. I could speak with military-order authority, raising that internal chi. If someone was going to play power with me, I would not be silent. I’d stop it the quickest way possible depending on the person. I learned to project my voice in college. I could address a group of >1,000 without a microphone easily. I was an exceptional worker because I loved my work. I was the quintessential self-actualizer. I never had a manager that I didn’t make look a lot better than he or she looked prior to my working there. Frankly, on a performance appraisal in the Navy, there was a comment I never forgot. “She has two warts: (1) She is always over prepared and (2) she cannot be intimidated.”
I included my past here, so you can understand where I’m coming from as I watch a group of democratic senators go after Al Franken, telling him to resign. I am an Independent. I think I never want to be part of the GOP or Democratic Party. Democrats took advantage of Representative John Conyers of the House while he was in the hospital, insisting he resign due to allegations of sexual harassment. He did. The guy is 88 years old. He’s not up to fighting with a mob.
Here’s what I see: Both the GOP and the Democratic Party are acting like fascists. Yeah, fascists. Yeah, both parties. Is it emotion? I’m not sure. Whatever the cause, it’s not appropriate.
The USA citizen has a treasured right called due process. I never actually turned anyone in for sexual harassment, because I took care of it myself. Toward the end of my working career, I saw sexual harassment become part of workplace protection. It lived a short life and died. Sexual harassment returned to life. Now it raises its head again. I would, however, have fought to the death to assure my own harassers their right to due process if they had the need. It is the proper way for Americans to proceed.
On December 6, 2017, a large number of senators attacked Al Franken, telling him to resign. Senators, who do you think you are? Have you forgotten the rule of law? Do you not know that you have just tried him and delivered the verdict and sentence without due process? Ye gods! Are you perfect? The answer is, “No.” Slow down, people, and think. You are doing to him what you claim he did to his accusers, ignoring his rights. And then, there’s Roy Moore. No doubt there are others, not to mention the US President.
There is an ethics oversight for due process in Congress. Nobody has a right to demand Franken, Moore or anyone else resign without due process. Rep. Conyers really was shafted. If we are to remain a nation of law, we must put all potential perpetrators through due process. All of them. Regardless of what they did. And senators, get hold of yourselves and stop depriving people of due process. It is utterly unbecoming, not to mention unconstitutional.
This is still the USA. We have a right to due process. Whoever would deny it to anyone - regardless of suspected crime - is rightly suspected of fascism in my eyes, certainly of failure to uphold the Constitution you swore to uphold.
Bonnye Matthews:
Educator, Trainer, Personnel Management Specialist/Evaluator, Regional Performance Management Expert, Manager, Regional Organizational Auditor of Federal Agencies for Efficiency and Effectiveness in Mission Accomplishment, Management Development Manager, Author of prehistoric fiction on the peopling of the Americas before the conclusion of the last Ice Age glaciation, now occupied writing a children’s book, Arctic Dinosaurs in Alaska: Stories for Children.
