Always Anna

Two weekends ago, I was out to dinner with some friends when we started talking about the upcoming presidential election.  When asked who I planned on voting for in the primaries, I was embarassed when I had to reply, “I don’t know yet… I haven’t really paid much attention.”

After the 2004 election, I just couldn’t deal with continuing to focus on politics.  I was drained, depressed, and angry about the path that our country chose to go down.  Knowing the risks, knowing the stakes, people across the country made it very clear that choosing a leader for the country was a popularity contest.  Do you know how many people said things to me like, “Well, I don’t know if I approve of Bush, but… well… I just don’t really like Kerry.”  Excuse me? 

I’m still fired up about it, actually.  It’s just been easier for me to let it lie dormant, because I can’t spend every day crying for the future of my country.

What brings this up today?  Well, I actually started out the morning crying, when I read Clink’s post about Jamie Leigh Jones.  A female employee of KBR, a former subsidiary of Halliburton, was brutally gang-raped by coworkers while working overseas in Iraq.  She did all the right things, reporting the attack and getting medically examined, only to be locked in a freaking metal box and guarded.  KBR “lost” the evidence that the medical team collected and has been trying to cover the whole thing up. 

I really can’t say it any better than Clink, who said:

Boys will be boys, eh? Isn’t that the mentality?

And boys will certainly be boys when they know they can get away with anything – gang rape, killing innocent civilians – all without repercussions.

Excuse me while I go rock back and forth in a corner.

I’m angry.  Angry and horrified and sad and depressed.  How can things like this happen? 

Politicians, get ready for a boatload of emails from me.  I’m officially politically active again. 

For more information on Jamie’s story, read the ABC News article here.  And visit her foundation website, which aims to “provide help and relief for individuals male or female who have suffered injury or harassment in the corporate or small business world in the United States and Abroad.”

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 12th, 2007 at 10:15 am and is filed under Rants. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.