Suddenly it seems everybody’s being accused of sexual harassment, tried in the newspapers, and declared guilty, all in the same day. Suddenly every man is Bill Clinton, or worse: you could be Al Franken, with a photo to prove it. Then again, you could be the Duke lacrosse team–innocent in fact, but treated as guilty.
I can relate to this. Here’s how it happened to me.
I’m in third grade. We’ve just been out for recess and have lined up to go back in. I’m standing in line, minding my own business.
Next to me the malicious little trouble-making punk, who shall remain nameless, raises his hand and tells the teacher, “Mrs. Chapman, Lee just called you a big ape.” It was completely untrue. But guess what–I got suspended from school. All it took was a simple accusation, not an iota of evidence required. Even my parents knew it wasn’t true; but the teacher and the principal didn’t care. And that suspension got carved in stone on my school record.
I can imagine how very much more serious it would have been, had the same thing happened to me as an adult in the workplace. Imagine if I were running for the Senate and the nooze media came out with, “This biggit abused his third-grade teacher!”
All right, some of the sexual misconduct allegations are true. And some of them aren’t.
And it’s very important to find out which are which.