The Verdict

So the verdict over in Steubenville is in.  The two high school rapists have been adjudged juveniles and face sitting in juvie hall until the age of twenty one.  They should have been tried as adults in my unhumble unlegal opinion.  But hey, some time is better than no time.  Having to register as sex offenders would be a "nice touch."  I'm waiting to see if that will be part of the sentences.

Random phrases that peeked out at me from the news coverage, very much paraphrased:

"I hope Jane Doe the courageous young woman who came forward will forgive the two boys someday."
It's too early to talk about forgiveness.  Those two boys certainly haven't asked to be forgiven.

"Please don't tell on us.  My great and wonderful and utterly important football career will be ruined."
Maybe you can play football in juvie.

"We should be getting kudos for taking care of you."
Because you got to sleep on a couch.

"She wanted it.  She was staggering around and drapped herself over me as a prop to help her stand up.  I figured sex was a yes."
What ?

"She lies, lies, lies.  We dumped her as a friend after she told us about her sexual encounter with those two boys."
She is better off without you two girls as 'friends'.

"She is a tramp."
And the boys who raped her while she was very intoxicated or passed out are-- what? -- I can't hear you.

"This trial divided the town."
Huh?

"Social media confused the issue.  Those Anonymous people should have just stayed in their basements.  We would have been better off without them."
Yeah.  Without social media, you wouldn't have had to do anything like arrest anyone or investigate a case.  Without Anonymous, things would have been 'football as usual' in Steubenville.

sapphoq n friends salutes Jane Doe the courageous young woman, Sean, Anonymous and other activists who showed up to protest in Steubenville, and survivors of rape everywhere.



http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/17/us-usa-crime-ohio-idUSBRE92E0ZS20130317

https://www.nydailynews.com/sports/steubenville-high-school-football-players-found-guilty-rape-16-year-old-judge-article-1.1291087

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-57574728-504083/steubenville-rape-trial-verdict-judge-finds-both-teens-guilty-of-raping-16-year-old-girl/

http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/17/justice/ohio-steubenville-case/?hpt=hp_t1

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/17/steubenville-rape-trial-verdict_n_2895541.html?show_comment_id=237711224#comment_237711224

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/03/17/ohio-rape-case-football-players/1993975/

https://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/18/us/teenagers-found-guilty-in-rape-in-steubenville-ohio.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-57574728-504083/steubenville-rape-trial-verdict-judge-finds-both-teens-guilty-of-raping-16-year-old-girl/

http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/national/midwest/2013/03/
ohio_teens_guilty_of_rape_face_year_plus_in_jail

http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/17/justice/ohio-steubenville-case/index.html

Courage

I just found TED talks like today-- a niece raved about them but when I began to investigate them myself, today-- I found a sense of excitement and connection.

Some years ago I went to a Jimmy Buffett concert in Baton Rouge.  Yeah, I'm a parrothead.  And this was back in the days when I was still endeavoring to be a chemist.  I was high.  I reckoned that most of the audience was high. I was drunk.  And so was Jimmy.  During that concert, I had a drug-induced vision.  I "saw" fibrous connections between everyone in that whole place.  It was sort of new agey, and so was I.  Even now in my happily atheist being, I remember that drug-induced vision with a sort of fondness. 

Today I believe that this life is about inter-connection.  It's up to each one of us where we go with that.  We are all alone in our own skins.  [Folks with alters not exempt-- I will postulate that each alter or fragment of an alter is also alone in his or her own skin.  With apologies to physicists].  We can journey together yet there are things that each one of us have to do for ourselves.

I've known for awhile things like, "I am not my disease."  "I am more than my labels."  "I am bigger than my problems."  But today, I learned very clearly that I am not my body.

And so, I present you with Janine Shepherd who learned how to fly:








Because courage, true courage is the ability to dream new dreams and to act on them.

sapphoq and friends