Sec. Panetta estimates 19,000 rapes occurring EACH YEAR in the U.S military—that is about 2 rapes per hour. Panayiota Bertzikis, Executive Director of Military Rape Crisis Center and U.S. Coast Guard rape survivor at SlutWalk Phoenix.
Uncivilized civilization
I just got back from the Justice center, downtown. It was raining forty degrees. There was no parking available except under a bridge, by the tracks, near the water, down a huge hill, four blocks away from my final destination.
To make a long story short, I was treated like a criminal. I was disrespected, snapped at, and mocked. I recognized this was happening, and I just let it happen. I wanted to feel it, and imagine what it would be like to be treated that way everyday of my life.
I was dressed casual; jeans, black jacket, no jewelry, my hair was clean but not styled, and I didn’t carry a purse. By design I chose to appear plain. The first person to disrespect me was the white sixty-plus year old male security guard. I remembered him from a different day. He asked where I needed to go and he knowingly sent me to the wrong floor. Not only was it the wrong floor, but it was the wrong building.
I hurried in the sideways rain to the correct building. The next dose of disrespect was served up by an overweight pastey white security woman, her age about 30, her I.Q. about 90. She yelled “You! Come back here! Take this outside or it will be confiscated!” I am stunned she’s speaking to me. “Me? Oh,.. oh yeah.” You see, I foolishly forgot about my miniature Swiss pocket knife on my key chain. To make matters worse, I stupidly asked the she-guard if I could get it back on my way out. In response, she yelled at me again.
Finally, I am in the meeting with the attorney and the mediator. I could see they were sharing mocking glances and eye rolls. The attorney appears to be all of 25 years old. She was seriously special in her own eyes. After several more eye-rolls and sideways glances I had reached my limit. This young female attorney, smart and good-looking, with everything going for her, chose to mock me, she chose to be a bitch towards me. She saw me as a lower being not worthy of her common courtesy.
My cell rang. Following my normal professional etiquette and manners I would ignore any call while in a meeting, but in this situation I took the call. Whether I made my point or not doesn’t matter to me.
All I can say is disrespect ruins everything, absolutely everything.
I can’t imagine being treated like that everyday of my life. I understand the rage. It no longer will surprise me when it erupts.
I stashed my little Swiss under a bench outside; it was there when I returned. How it got through the first security check, I don’t know.
