Thursday, December 7, 2017

Power and Accountability

As the sex abuse scandal continues to unfold across American society, we are again forced to acknowledge the uneven enforcement of laws in this country.  While hundreds (if not thousands) of middle and lower income perpetrators languish in jails and prisons for similar offenses, men in positions of power often escape accountability, at least until the statute of limitations has passed.

Even among the elite, punishment has been uneven.  Though a number of politicians, executives and media celebrities have lost their jobs (and their careers), a Senate candidate from Alabama, accused of similar (if not worse) behavior, is favored to win his contest.  Then we have President Trump, the target of sexual harassment charges from twenty women, who went on to win election (but not the popular vote) and now feels free to disrupt our country's International, immigration and environmental policies with a series of executive orders.

America, the land of the free, has long possessed a legal system tainted by discrimination and subject to the effects of political and financial power.  Until every citizen is equally accountable for their actions, we are no more free than the dictatorships that we despise.