2008-08-14

As our spell of balmy, beautiful weather continued, after Morning offering Mick set out on his round of mowing and gardening while I came upstairs to spend the day reading Papa’s Journals and writing back to him as I read.

I spent the last hour of the day reading forwards from Rho M, Frank D and Elihu E, learning more about the society in which we live. I greatly value their contributions to my ever ongoing education. They read blogs and newsletters from alternative news sources to which I don’t subscribe, and the mass media never offer these facts and points of view.

I was especially moved by an article on women in the army. Over 90% of them report sexual harassment in two separate but equally informative studies using anonymity to get honesty. The army itself polls its women on this issue and their statistic is 20%. Why the difference? If a woman soldier reports being raped, she may well be reporting it to the person who raped her. And she will certainly become known as a snitch by the people with whom she works day in and day out. It is a no-win situation, since the army simply issues a reprimand to the rapist. So women who wish to be soldiers tough it out, with no recourse to any sort of justice. The belief is held by most soldiers that the reason women are allowed in the army is to provide sexual services to the male soldiers in the field. There is no official policy, but the way the army treats this issue suggests that it is tacitly understood.

We are justly concerned with the plight of women in the Middle East and Africa. But we should be much more concerned with the abuse of the women of our own country! You can read this article for yourself by going to http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3848/.

Gary picked Romi up at the airport this afternoon as the Ro Man returns from Czeska. We’re so glad he’s back! We’ll get together to celebrate with him this Saturday.

Gary joined Mick and me for supper and the Colbert Report. Mick offered the closing prayer at the Gaia Meditation tonight. We finished our evening by watching more Olympic games.