Anna North
The Washington Post
October 7, 2018
“... This is the power of #MeToo — it’s baked right into the name. Nearly every time someone has made the difficult decision to open up about harassment or assault, others have been there to say, ‘We support you. We believe you. It happened to us, too.’ Women who come forward about sexual misconduct have always been at risk of, as Dr. Ford put it, annihilation. (Dr. Ford, a professor of psychology, is known to choose her words with préciseness of thought.) They have always faced the possibility that their words will be disbelieved, their pain disregarded, their lives upended — that they will be reduced to a mere footnote in a man’s life. What’s different now is that, more than ever before, Americans are coming together to resist this annihilation. It may be easy to erase one woman— it’s a lot harder to erase thousands. Ford’s testimony didn’t stop Kavanaugh from being confirmed. But what she started when she agreed to speak to the Washington Post won’t end today. The midterm elections are coming, and with them the possibility that Republicans at all levels of government will have to reckon with the Senate’s vote. More broadly, a time is coming when powerful people and the institutions that support them are no longer insulated, as they once were, from the voices of those whom they’ve assaulted or harassed. That time has been a long time coming — since 1991, at least, if not before that — and maybe it’s not quite here yet. But it’s closer than ever before.”
Last week, I, being literally unable to
Speak, personified millions (not thousands) of
Women (men and children) who, having
Been assaulted by millions of powerful men
Were not ‘merely’ silenced but annihilated as if
Their lives did not matter, and though The KKK
And neo-Nazis doth not sit upon the highest court in
The land—the fact that thomas and kavanaugh do
Compels my intuitive voice to say—just as
Black lives matter, the lives of women matter
The lives of gay men and women matter
The lives of all children matter
The lives of Jews, Christians, Muslims
Hindus, Buddhists, agnostics, atheists
Israelis, Palestinians matter—Why?
Simply put, throughout history:
People are people wherever we go
Suggestive of my drawing forth creativity
Day after day in hopes of inspiring thee to agree that
Tis high time to cross the picket line by voting
Your conscience over your party line, noting that
This unpaid political announcement was
Dearly paid for by yours truly when my
Intuitive sense of readiness to confront the depth of
My unhealed terror chose to deposit my unrepressed
(As yet unprocessed) fear of confronting
Further abuse, which, while suppressed from
Conscious memory terrifies every silent survivor of
Sexual assault subconsciously, every day, in
Your hands with hopes that you’ll believe me when
I say that tis no small feat to muster the courage to
Stand on one’s own two feet and face the world at
Large while mustering the courage to gently guide
Defensive fear to step aside so as to make room for
Self assertiveness to voice need for change for the better to
Stand tall and be counted on the Senate’s hallowed
Floor, because, ever since Anita Hill’s self respecting
Attitude freed her voice to rise above victim status
So as to ring out loud across the land of the free and
The home of the brave there’s been standing room only
For millions of us who’d awaited the Senate’s most
Recent ridiculous VOTE with bated breath for this reason:
It is vital to note that this most recent mockery of
Investigative work into kavanagh’s personal judgement (or
Lack of such) was ever meant to equate with a trial to
Convict a man with a price on his head of guilt or
Innocence of a heinous crime committed against a
Person more physically vulnerable than he—deeper truth
Suggests that these proceedings are meant to determine whether
A cool headed processor can cut through the mustard with
Objectivity intact whenever the going in our nation gets rough at
The top, and the fact that we all watched the GOP as well as a few
Donkey Kong players turn a blind eye to one particular, hot headed
Elephant in the room, who'd felt free to defecate defensiveness
All over the senate floor while our elected officials’ (who represent us)
Ignored anxiety spiking, transforming Jeckle into Hyde right before
The world’s wide open astonished eyes concerning that which was
Taking place in the center ring of this week's three ring circus, wrecked
The credibility of he whose natural responses under pressure van not be
Deemed the fittest over all other candidates singled out to be considered
To preside over the highest court in the land, which will determine
Our fate in the years to come as to whether or not we will continue to
Feel free to be you and me, which is why this week’s disgusting
Development leaves me thanking God for the fact that
Readiness for The Me Too Movement to finally arise (as did
David before Goliath), suggesting that the time is ripe for
Equality (which had been raped and plundered repeatedly
Throughout history) to smite the sharpened two-faced tongues of
Those Philistines who mistakenly continue to deceive themselves into
Believing that innocent young maidens, wearing red riding hoods, will
Grow up to become the next generation of handmaidens though
Deeper truth suggests that their grandmothers' terrified tales of
Woe, no matter our nationality or religious affiliation, will
Not die within the tongue-tied choke hold with which PTSD strangles
The blocked memories of survivors concerning where, when and
Who else was in attendance, witnessing our torment, which
Our defense systems may deny our conscious minds clear access to
For many a year until such time as our smart hearts feel compelled to
Untie each of those knotted memories, one by one, until all of
Our mental anxiety, which had kept a child’s innocent self image
Blindfolded, gagged and shamefully shackled to unfounded waves of
Self imposed guilt, which separated our think tanks from
Objective reflections by locking our existential sense of self respect inside
The darkest closet corner within a cabin hidden from presidential ridicule deep
Within Memoryland’s repetitive ‘I forgot’ nightmare just as Mother Nature in
All of her benevolent wisdom had silenced MY memory from remembering
Details so grisly as to save this Red Riding Hood from succumbing to
Self destructive behaviors (other than scratching to get out of my skin) by
Casting a sleeping spell of silent submission over MY head until
My world wearied acceptance of MY past fate gave way, layer by layer, to
Today’s uproarious sense of readiness to recuse WE of the fairer sex from
Genuflecting our heads in sweet silent shameful (?) submission to the
Self-empowered, hot-tempered, inflated insistence of false 'innocence' voiced by
Power mongers, who, like trump, work like CRAZY to withhold details of guilt
(As did—and do—those who still prove guilty of withholding the right to
Vote from Blacks in redneck areas, whose ancestors were enslaved, as well as
Withholding free speech from women, who like African Americans along with(
Minorities, in general, continue to suffer unequal pay and representation in
The workplace and at home (under the 'rule of thumb' of abusive husbands, who
Unconscionably beat their wives and children under cover of respectability while
Their conscience, hidden behind their many layered defensive walls deny
personal accountability) just as the vote had once been denied to any deep thinking
Good soul, whose patient, self-respecting, existential power is finally on the rise—
Amass—and though little has changed for the better between yesterday’s
Asinine vote and today's expressive demonstration of self disciplined indignation
One thing has: My present frame of mind feels better having had my say concerning
My take on an outdated politically incorrect, flagrantly foul situation that
Continues to play itself out upon one half of the world stage while upon the other
Half we see an ensemble of Brothers and Sisters who, making up
The Civil Rights Movement, The Woman Suffrage Movement, The Workers Movement
The Sharecroppers' Movement standing in solidarity as would a Greek Chorus
Chanting aloud of what's bound to come: The time of readiness to unite is ripe, because
Rather than erecting walls, united we'll number too many to fail to elect
Representatives and Senators who will represent the majority of the people of
The USA with objectivity concerning common sense and mutual respect intact
As history dictates upon the time line, little by little, progress progresses forward
Hmm ...
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