June 20, 2016

My Shrimpy died today. June 19 (posting in GD because this is my usual forum.)

My baby girl, my little 5 pound Pom. So much more than a dog. So full of love, which she loved to share.

The story, on FB

💔Saddest news, everyone. My baby, Shrimpy, died today.

It was in the best possible circumstances, it's all very mystical...surrounded by friends who love us both, at the Buddhist meeting at my house this morning.

The meeting had just ended at about 11:15am, we chanted nam myoho rengé kyo three times to close--and suddenly she jumped off the back of the couch and landed at my feet.

My dear friend George drove us to the emergency hospital, I was doing CPR the whole way....but it was instant. She didn't suffer at all.
I'm in shock...my dear friend Luther came to the hospital and was the support I needed.

Mama loves you forever, baby 😪.
Be reborn quickly and come back to me. 👼

I'm at Luther's place where I'm with friends. Ittybitty is with me of course.

I'm not articulate when it comes to emotional stuff..... and it's still too surreal. She's my heart....what can I say?

11:00pm
Just woke up after crashing out of shock and exhaustion---am going to be chanting Nam Myoho Rengé Kyo for a while.

June 9, 2016

Brock Turner is everywhere--what it's like living in Rape Culture

http://www.rawstory.com/2016/06/brock-turner-is-everywhere-heres-what-its-like-to-live-inside-nightmare-of-rape-culture/

Brock Turner was accused of dragging an unconscious woman behind a dumpster and having sex with her without her consent. He also inserted foreign objects into her vagina. How is it politically correct to see this as rape? And how is Brock Turner the victim in all of this?

It turns out, he’s one of many rapists who get treated as the victims. Many, many men have been “victimized” by being accused of rape after they raped women. Luckily, for many of them–especially those who are college students, or who may be white, or a famous athlete, or rich–law enforcement and the judicial system has many ways that these “victims” can get out of jail free. The system has been set up so that rape, despite the numbers, despite the horror and fear and pain that it causes, is still the crime where the victim of rape can expect to have to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that she did not want to be violated.

The fact that the Stanford rapist’s father doesn’t think his son’s life should be ruined for “20 minutes of action,” and that Judge Persky ruled that more than six months in a county jail would have a “severe impact” on the rapist, Brock, has sparked internet rage. But how many are aware that in cases such as this, being wary of the impact of the sentence upon the rapist drives many judges to rule in similar ways?

Jon Krakauer wrote Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town as an investigation of what happened in Missoula, Montana between 2010 and 2012. Missoula, a college town, had recorded 80 alleged rapes in three years, including nine separate sexual assaults of University of Montana students (with multiple assailants–some of the cases were gang rapes) in a 16-month period. None of the campus assaults were prosecuted in criminal courts. But, as Krakauer notes in his introduction, “…the number of sexual assaults in Missoula might sound alarming, but if the FBI figures are accurate, it’s actually commonplace. Rape, it turns out, occurs with appalling frequency throughout the United States.”