Waiting for answers
October 4, 2021
Another in a series of observations of life as I know it.
If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.
-Todd Akin, former Congressman of Missouri
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I do not like to speak ill of the dead. So I will let the decedent speak for himself now that he has crossed over to the other side. Godspeed. Missouri Congressman Todd Akin said during his campaign for the Missouri Senate seat that pregnancies caused by violent rape are rare. Virtually non-existent. After an immediate howl from all sides of the political spectrum, he backtracked on that comment and asked for forgiveness. Claire McCaskill, his opponent, won handily. Congressman Akin, God rest his soul, passed onto his reward yesterday of unspecified causes. He never recovered from the loss, to a woman no less. But what I still don’t understand is, what the hell was he thinking when he said those fatefully stupid words? For what it’s worth, my interpretation is that a woman of spiritual fortitude, a ”good woman”, has the power, through prayer I guess, to will her uterus to unleash the power of the angels, thereby repelling those nasty spermy swimmers deposited by the rapist. Maybe not. It also implies that females who are less upstanding do not possess this uterine army of God. I’m just taking this on faith, people, so don’t take my word for it.
When I put the words of the dearly departed Congressman cheek by jowl against those of the current governor of Texas, specifically related to rape, I am truly flummoxed. Guv Abbott, after helping to gut Texas women’s reproductive rights, has stated unequivocally that now, this very minute, he will double down on efforts to prosecute and prevent rape. Uh huh. So, my question Guv, is this. What were you doing about systemic rape crimes BEFORE you made Texas into an episode of The Handmaid’s Tale. It’s raining here on Cape Cod so I’ve got all day. I can wait. Indefinitely.
Let’s imagine three scenarios. Bear with me if you will. One. A young woman in her early twenties, a recent grad of UT (Hook ‘em horns!), plans to meet friends at a local karaoke bar in downtown Houston. It’s a Friday night after work, so she quickly dons her Tony Lama boots, grabs her purse, and pockets her debit card. En route she picks up a friend with whom she makes a hasty plan for evening’s end. They will walk back to the car together. Fast forward several hours. It’s 12:30am. The woman with the stylish boots looks for her friend, who seems to be on the cusp of a promising hookup. Just as an aside, I hail from the sex, drugs and rock n roll generation. I came of age in 1970. I judge no one. Period. So Boots must walk several blocks, in the dark, alone. Two. In one of the steel and glass high rises in the business district of Dallas, Sarah, a 48 year old woman is burning the midnight oil in her office. She wears an immaculate power suit, straight off the rack at Neiman’s. It is nine o’clock. A male colleague usually walks with her to the parking lot on late nights like this. Just as she’s gathered her heavy briefcase, a stylish cloth duffle for her exercise clothes and athletic shoes, and a hefty purse, her phone rings. It’s a call from the office in Tokyo. This could take awhile. She gives her co-worker a brisk thumbs up, and mouths “I’ll see you tomorrow” and then waves goodnight. Three. Mary is a divorced mom of three, all launched and out of the house. She retired early in the pandemic and subsequently went stir crazy sitting in her Abilene suburb in the lovely, now too-big home she got in the equitable settlement. Mary volunteers for a food pantry in the warehouse district, filling boxes with goods and clothing for delivery to other regions of the state. She and her friend Sue have locked in an iron clad promise to look out for one another. Only on this day, Sue has just gotten the third Pfizer booster and by 4pm, she is looking green around the gills and totally spent. Mary offers to take the rest of Sue’s shift, planning to stop and grab a salad on the way home at 11pm, once she packs the last of the food crates. Tired and hungry, Mary opts to get a take out meal at a well known eatery on the route home. She parks her car in a large, profoundly dark parking space reasonably close to the restaurant.
What is the common theme here, Governor Abbott? Please tell me, in vivid detail, how you are going to “double down” on rape in these three circumstances in three different urban areas. Do you have enough police personnel to walk the downtown beat in Houston, especially near bars and restaurants on busy weekends? Or what about corporate garages, underground lots, rooftops, or commercial spaces blocks from office buildings on any given day of the week? Do you have cops on foot, on motorcycles, or on bikes traveling these dark spaces used by overtime workers? And what about older women, who live alone, travel alone, shop and eat alone? Do you have Mall officers stationed in the endless parking lots, with frequently faulty light poles? And did you have massive police details in these place BEFORE you made women into chattel?
I honestly don’t know how you increase your police response to rape. Exponentially no less. Women of all ages and walks of life are prey to predators everywhere. And while law enforcement officers can predict and anticipate when and where rape will happen, they cannot possibly be in every corner of Texas at any time of day or night. Nor can they police domestic rape, perpetrated by boyfriends, fiancées, or husbands. Alcohol, drugs, just-below-the-surface rage are ever present, and can fuel an ugly response on a moment’s notice. How do you protect those women, sir? And once these women of Texas are brutally violated and still manage to survive, what must they do to explain and plead and pray for justice and access to a legal abortion. Once they’ve submitted to the invasive rape kit and exam at the hospital, what next? Does the busybody down the block follow her to Planned Parenthood and then file suit, hoping for a $10k bounty windfall?
What’re ya gonna do, Guv? Please explain and give cogent examples. Pretend we’re talking about your wife, your mother or your daughter. I’m listening. As you might expect, the silence that I am experiencing is deafening.