Soldier On

This is probably the most outrageous case in recent history - I remain astonished as does the rest of the country how this man could rape an unconscious woman - with witnesses that  stopped him - and be granted 6 months in jail , 3 months for good behavior. His parents are even worse, if you read their letters to the judge they plead for leniency for their son - not one word of compassion or sorrow for his unwilling victim. This case has left women a little more afraid, hasn't it? I find myself turning over and over this - Brock assumed his victim was drunk but there's a lot more reasons to be unconscious, diabetic coma, dehydration, exhaustion - would the judge have granted a harsher sentence if that was the case? Or would he still excuse Brock since there was no way he could have known? And his parents - what if someone had brutalized Brock in that fashion - would his father have still excused it as "20 minutes of bad judgment" on behalf of the attacker? Would his mother have still felt that maybe Brock put himself in that position and there fore somehow deserved it? Two of the women who gave testimony stating Brock's good nature have recanted - I'm glad I'm not the one who sat in court giving him a glowing reference, arent' you? Sometimes it's discouraging, that we have come so far and yet, we as women are still blamed for everything that happens to us. It's our fault if we get pregnant, if we have an abortion, if the man we marry beats us - well, how could you NOT know that would happen? If you're stalked it's too bad - nothing the police can do unless he actually kills you  and if you're raped, well - what were YOU doing that caused it? Most women my age remember one of the first articles written on rape trials, there was a case in Wisconsin where a girl was gang raped by 3 of her classmates. The judge blamed it on her saying in court that if you dress like that you can't expect anything less. The reporter on the case found that the victim was wearing jeans, a turtleneck shirt and another shirt over that. To this day, I remember that. 

But you know what? It is changing, even though the judge made that horrible decision no one is standing for it.The victim's moving letter to the judge read in it's entirety on CNN, Joe Biden siding with the victim and his disgust at the judge, the articles clearly laying out the horrifying one sideness of this. The judge will  most likely going to be removed, he's had close to a dozen jurors dismissed as no one wants to sit for any of his cases - as one juror said what's the point? He'll just do what he wants.  And hopefully the judicial system will remain under the microscope until it does what it's supposed to do  - and it does work. Look at the Catholic Church - once they were exposed everyone just kept hammering. article after article, pictures of the perpetrators all over, no where to hide. Pope Francis was not an accident, he was the result of a thousand voices - if we can fix that, we can fix this. Even though Brock Turner did not get the sentence he deserved, he is certainly getting the treatment he deserves - hopefully the next time a judge decides a felon is worth more than his victim, he'll think again before he opens his mouth.