Like so many people, I watch the Herman Cain campaign for the White House unraveling as sexual harassment claims upon sexual harassment claims has surface. I have no idea if he did it or not. If he did it, the victims should have never settled back in the 1990s, they should have pursued it and make him a registered sexual offender. That would have seem the prudent thing to do. Why stir up old ghost twenty years later (if at all these ghosts exists)?
I especially have a problem is now known accuser Sharon Bialek. It isn’t that I have anything against Miss Bialek, but that press conference rather than making me sympathize with her as a potential victim, has made her seem repulsive. There are a few things about her that I don’t get:
1. As a victim of a sexual assault, you do not need to read a written text of the “assault”. Back in college we had a co-ed shindig and some boys got rowdy. None of the victims read a script at the complaint or subsequent hearing. They were there, they experience the shame, humiliation and hopelessness. They expressed this clearly in their demeanor and attitude, even when words failed. There was no doubt that there was sexually inappropriate conduct. Reading a typed script with zero emotions seemed so removed from that type of incident and not typical.
2. If I was sexually assaulted, I don’t need a high powered lawyer by my side to deliver the news. I can stand alone because my argument, my experience on it’s own would have merit. And of course my first question was, if she’s broke, who’s paying for the lawyer.
3. If I had a teenage kid, and I could avoid making a public spectacle of myself in this kind of forum, I would. I would approach the appropriate people in secret and make my case. I would do everything in my power to shield my child for the inevitable nasty comments that would come from those who do not believe me and I think I had a hidden agenda. No, a prime time news conference would not be the place to tackle Herman Cain, especially during a presidential run when everything is under a microscope.
4. Sharon Bialek said she did this to “help Mr. Cain”. This is the MOST ridiculous statement I have ever heard from a victim. Help him, REALLY? If you wanted to help Herman Cain you either come to his defense or keep your mouth shut. No, Miss Bialek claim of help seem as trite and insincere as her claim of sexual harassment.
I was held up at gunpoint in 1999, to hear me tell the story, is to see me live it and to live it with me. It is not an experience I need to read from scripted text. I do not need to be politically or grammatically correct to describe my fear, the horror and the utter sense of loss. I do not need a powerful attorney at my side. I have details and proof.
So I am not jumping Miss Bialek’s way, NOT any time soon.
