Nothing of consequence will come of the Ray Rice/Roger Goodell/NFL debacle. That’s a terrible thing for me to say. But, it is what it is.
The train is so off the tracks and the past proves it.
How many years has it been since the U.S. of A. as a whole first became “outraged” by violence against women? Does anyone even remember? I don’t (there are visions of bell bottoms, wide lapels, Afros, and Soul Train dancing in my head, though…). But, what I do know is that it’s been long enough for there to have been some movement forward from this problem, even a little.
A few years ago, I was at a small housewarming. There were about 15 of us, female relatives and a few friends. I remember turning away from the buffet table with a bite to eat on a party plate and a beverage in my hand, and as I looked around the room, something occurred to me. The great fun we’d been having drained away for a moment as I realized that all of us there but two had been assaulted and/or raped during the course of our lives, by men we either knew or were related to.
I was in a room full of walking casualties, and no one would have known it to look at us.
Pretty sick.
Violence against women is only the tip of it. Statistics on violence against children, men, and even pets is ghastly. I worked with a woman once who battered her husband regularly with objects from around their house. He would verbally abuse her in response, and the vicious circle would continue. I don’t know that it ever stopped.
The fury presently directed at Rice and the NFL will die down, Rice will find himself accepted on to another team, and all will be forgotten in time, because that’s what the human race does best— put away the things that make us uncomfortable or that will monetarily ($$) mess with our lifestyles. Without a real change in the scary way men and women think, and not just “outrage” during the times that it’s popular, this train we’re riding doesn’t have a chance in hell of ever staying on the tracks. JMHO
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” — George Santayana
“I’ve got news for Mr. Santayana: we’re doomed to repeat the past no matter what. That’s what it is to be alive.” ― Kurt Vonnegut
Manuscript. Head. Drawer. 