[Editor’s note: This column was originally published in the July 30, 2016 issue of the Los Angeles Asian Journal Weekend edition]
“MANY women are caught up in ‘not being equal’ dilemma. The moment one sees herself as equal is the moment this country will begin to change.” — Carol Gstadler
I was at a White House Summit on Women in Washington, D.C. on June 12, when I heard the passionate message of Vice President Joe Biden. Since 1970 he has championed the issue of sexual violence on women, where the assault on them is really an abuse of men’s power. That it is up to all of us to consider being a champion of change in preventing harm and inflicting trauma on another.
If such were our American culture, we would find that every woman with the same opportunity as men and we would soon be freeing humanity. Biden emphasized that women hold half of the sky and where abuse is happening, it is a God-awful waste. He went on to say that a man raising his hand to his child is an ultimate abuse of parental power.
Cynthia Hogan went to do a study in the National Football League, commissioned by then-Senator Joe Biden. Her study “ripped the mask off the epidemic of rape.” She found out that 67 percent of women suffered sexual assault and survivor networks were organized in the United States.
“First, it starts with a bonfire, a pep rally, then, the teams get together. In one case, he walked with her to her dorm, where she went to get her coat, as she was getting cold. He jumped her into the shower,” Biden shared with the summit. What made it worst was the resident advisor told her she was not raped at all.
It led him to change the law from knowing the assailant, the only way then to file a rape charge, to one of second-degree rape. He felt that for women to feel they are no longer abused, is to know they are believed, but also the best way to seek justice is for women to identify their attacker.
Seven women, according to the vice president, pulled him aside after the law was passed, to tell him they have been raped. He emphasized, “Every woman has the right to her life, free of violence. We have to take off the social blinders that make it easy to overlook violence. Get men involved. It’s on us!”
Honest Hillary as a dedicated public servant
On July 19, television cameras kept their lenses focused on the crowds at the Republican National Convention. When they chanted, “Lock her up,” as Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn spoke, I was so horrified.
I remembered what Biden said, “We have to take off the social blinders that make it easy to overlook violence.”
Yet, the Flynn went along, and he said, “Yes, lock her up,” as Los Angeles Times reported on July 22, including “having Hillary shot for treason.”
Do you recall such reckless and unacceptable taunting done during a political convention? From an orchestrated climate of fomenting hatred, to now a rush to unconscious calls of violence towards her?
Then, of course, Donald Trump mentioned Libya in turmoil, and hyped up fears of law and order, suggesting Clinton is responsible for all worldwide law and order breakdowns, including the loss of young black men’s lives, to enrage this audience.
Trump spun his zero foreign policy experience into its opposite, equating himself subliminally, as if the Messianic Savior, coming onstage enshroud in white light. Meanwhile, he lied that Clinton — former secretary of state — is responsible for all the ISIS’ assassinations and terror in several countries as if she is part of ISIS.
While the Republican Party’s frontrunner came out of white light onstage, as if to suggest he comes from the heavens, God sent — much like Pres. McKinley’s Manifest Destiny, who proclaimed he prayed to God and the next day, God ordered him to have US expansionism, resulting in the conquest of the Philippines, Cuba and Puerto Rico.
And why not, when Pres. GW Bush can invade Iraq on a pretext that weapons of mass destruction can be found there and repeated those lies to justify 175,000 US soldiers sent to Iraq?
After the effect of clouds onstage, Trump suggested that he himself is God — that only he can save America. In his acceptance speech, he explicitly stated, “Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it.”
He calls it Americanism, making America great again, similar to Pres. McKinley’s expansionism, brought on “by the powerful forces of racism, nationalism and especially commercialism of US actions,” as George Mason University noted as to factors in how McKinley’s war of conquest was justified.
Trump’s disregard for decency, civility, truth and reasonableness have gone to a subhuman low, a reckless disregard of others, misfitting a presidential candidate, and an outrageous low from a man.
Biden spoke of an American standard: of how a man should show decency to any woman, “It is on us!” Even more so, I would think, with a higher regard and respect for a woman presidential candidate.
No modern day Joan of Arc
Who is Joan of Arc and why do I bring her up? She ended the Hundred Years’ War, and one who led France into victory against England. She convinced prince Charles of Valois for her to lead the French army into the embattled city of Orleans and came back victorious against England. When King Charles VII was crowned, Joan of Arc was captured and tried for heresy, witchcraft, and burned at the stake at age 19. Later, she was elevated as a saint and became a symbol of French unity and nationalism.
During one of our trips abroad, it was a scourge to be carrying a blue passport and to introduce oneself as an American citizen. It got scary for a while, while we were in Paris, France, and in Canada, when Pres. GW Bush was in power. It took a dialogue with folks that we are citizens who believe in peace, and Parisians and Canadians spoke of the primary role of the United States in setting the tone for peace.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton embodied that role, for four years, as America’s ambassador of goodwill and peace, and for that period, many felt safer as American citizens, while they traveled abroad.
Yet, now Trump attempts to scourge Clinton, as if burning her on the stake, recalling Joan of Arc.
Trump’s acceptance speech at the RNC attributed evil actions of ISIS, as if Hillary Clinton is the head of the group. When he attributed the destabilized conditions in Libya, though Clinton is not Libya’s head of state, he unconscionably and unacceptably equated her to death and destruction, all that was missing was a physical butcher knife.
When Trump threw her down into the gauntlet of hatred and of verbally abusing her in front of thousands and millions watching television — without fundamentally giving her a righteous degree and full measure of respect — he stopped being a presidential candidate. Instead, he became a street thug who was “politically raping” her, denigrating her to make it easier for her to be physically attacked by anyone, taking her meritorious public service as Secretary of State and disposed of it as if she was dead meat, he kept repeating Clinton means death, destruction, and the only thing missing was an actual butcher knife to cut her up.
Biden is right, “Sex without consent is rape, and if you cannot give consent because you are unconscious, it is rape. If you don’t say, Jack, not at my house, you are an accomplice. It is never, never, never a cultural justification for dehumanizing another human being. It is wrong when a country holds back half of their population, half of their brainpower on the sidelines, they hold back societies. Believe her, comfort her, accompany her in her journey to recovery.”
“The moment one sees herself as equal is the moment this country will begin to change,” as Gstadler said.
I see you, Donald Trump and I hear you are not my voice! I see you, Hillary Clinton and I stand up to say you deserve our full measure of trust and respect!
It bears repeating what Biden said, “Every woman has the right to her life free of violence. We have to take off the social blinders that make it easy to overlook violence. Get men involved. It’s on us!”
I am standing with Clinton, and I am joining my voice with others. No more of this toxic political rhetoric, Donald Trump, you do not deserve to be my voice! You do not get to politically dress down this woman presidential candidate, not under our U.S. democracy, and call it your remotely presidential “Make it America Great Again” campaign!
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Prosy Abarquez-Delacruz, J.D. writes a weekly column for Asian Journal, called “Rhizomes.” She has been writing for AJ Press for 9 years now. She contributes to Balikbayan Magazine. Her training and experiences are in science, food technology, law and community volunteerism for 4 decades. She holds a B.S. degree from the University of the Philippines, a law degree from Whittier College School of Law in California and a certificate on 21st Century Leadership from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. She has been a participant in NVM Writing Workshops taught by Prof. Peter Bacho for 4 years and Prof. Russell Leong. She has travelled to France, Holland, Belgium, Japan, Mexico and 22 national parks in the US, in pursuit of her love for arts.