What jailer so inexorable as one's self!"
Nathaniel Hawthorne
The House of Seven Gables
Many times we keep our darkest thoughts and our darkest experiences to ourselves, holding to the belief that a secret once shared is a secret no longer and there are just some things we do not wish aired. And yet, when we look at so many of these secrets we find they have been torturing us for years, decades even and airing them is good for both the individual and the collective soul. At other times it simply exposes the rotten heart that has been hiding or trying to hide itself from the world and as always, one way or another, the truth will out.
We have already had a collective shock with the shocking facts about Bill Cosby, a man beloved in this country, admired and yet now we know that not only does he have feet of clay, but that he is indeed all clay and so to find that another figure of society, a presidential candidate, also is a clay figure - well, here we go again, only this time it is worse,
That such a figure has reached this point, that he could possibly or conceivably have been elected, that there are still people who after all that has been seen and exposed, after all they have heard, still support this man, wow! It is beyond me. The man is a pig - and I believe I am insulting the pigs at this point. His heart has indeed been his dungeon wherein he has kept his darkest thoughts and actions and yet here they are and in denying them he uses the same damning terms - i.e. that the woman is not up to his standards for molestation - he would never stoop so low and then has the nerve to again sexualize his battle with Clinton, using derogatory body image statements. The man never learns - and it seems, nor do his supporters.
But the worst thing about this is the fact that within his dungeon of a heart also lay captured the lives of so many women, women who had kept this secrets for decades lest they be shamed themselves and therein is the crux of the matter - to have been molested by another is not a mark or badge of shame on the victim but rather on the molester and yet, and yet.... How many women have now come forth about Trump and his disgusting behavior and how many legions of women have now turned to their friends, their family and told them of long buried secrets along these lines. I know there are many for I have heard them now, told of, spoken of in low voices, eyes down and yes, I, too, have told of the three times I have been the target of actions, once at 14, once at 18 and several times, a continuing series that took me some time to realize it as such, as an adult - from a respected member of the community - and so we all kept quiet.
Look at what happens now when the first questions that are asked are along the lines of if so, then why quiet so long and what were you wearing, what did you say as if the victim was the aggressor and there lay the fault. Well, no more and kudos to those who have climbed out of that hole of despair and non deserved shame and it is time that the world recognize that yes, there is racial and ethnic and religious bias and all sorts of hatred, but a primary one which cuts across all those lines is the gender bias, the implicit bias that runs like a dark vein through the hearts of many and any woman who does not know this is beyond my ken. We who have worked have all felt that bias, that extra struggle we had to advance, to be recognized, to be able to speak up and over the voices that would drown us out and an example of that use of the voice as a bully tool can be clearly seen in the 18 times that Trump interrupted - 18 times!!!
And if one thinks that this is to be found only within Trump, well think again. Recall past DAs and think of how David Israel tries to outtalk and outshout and overcome the voices of truth and honesty, the voices that ask hard questions, the voices that will not go away. Those voices have been on the receiving end of voiced nastiness, of threats and yet, they are still here. When one sees a national figure behave in this manner then one is encouraged to continue and here we are. These people see nothing and no one other than their own desires and David Israel's insane and monolithic attempts to bring on broadband is an example of this rude and selfish and thoughtless behavior. There is no concern for the fees, no concern for the fact that UCO is entitled only to negotiate cable. Period. Not phone. Not Internet. Period and yet we are hearing from two companies, one who suddenly has all the fiber optics they need though we heard previously that they needed three year lead time, a second company that is so new that the dew drips from behind the ears and why do we want to take a chance on this? Was the almost debacle of DSL and Wi Fi wiring not enough of a message and a lesson? Evidently not! And where is Comcast, the elephant in the room and indeed in the industry, a company which is even giving free broadband in order to keep its place and why can we not try to get some of that as we are a long term customer and have some poverty here as well, so perhaps we can get something of a break though why we are doing this anyway boggles the mind.
So just as the bully Trump tries to override all else in his stomping and hulking around, in his ridiculous comments that when it is "appropriate" he will reveal the proof of his innocence in sexual molestation, in taxes - oops, that was out of the bag - in health and in whatever, so too does David Israel hide and obfuscate and run rampant over the lines of decency and true democracy. Perhaps he will join Trump is his new demand that a drug test be administered before the next debate. This from the man who sniffles and snuffles like a person suffering from an addiction!
How much more can we take of either and how much more can we take of the hypocrites who are either afraid to disavow this nutjob or who believe in his garbage and the same goes for here in the Village. People are clinging to their pieces of power, swimming alongside the shark, imitating the life of the sea.
We all must look into our hearts these days, rummage around and find what is good and true and have the courage to acknowledge where one has gone wrong and then wend one's way back to the proper pathways of life, hard as it might be. Think what is of value, eternal value and remember - "In the end, stories are what's left of us, we are no more than the few tales that persist." (Salman Rushdie in The Moor's Last Sigh). What are the stories you wish to be told about you? I know what I hope for and what I strive for. Do you?
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