The Bad and Good Boys of Summer

POWERFUL MEN - STOP IT!

While I knew that bad boy movie producer Harvey Weinstein had an awful temper and pushed hard to win movie awards, I was not aware of the apparent open secret that he was an alleged sexual predator. While I sometimes seem to be the last to know a lot of things, this news, obviously, was a surprise, not a shock, after all the sexual harassment charges leveled at powerful men in business, government and entertainment over the years. What a shame that so many women apparently had to endure his power over them.

Yet, what mystifies me is after all these years and years of many sexual predators being exposed that so few victims come forward to expose the open secrets about Weinstein, or if they did, why law enforcement and prosecutors were not more diligent in pursuing cases. As I understand, eight women took money to keep silent about Weinstein. If just one of them had pursued a sexual harassment case legally and openly, many other women may have been forewarned and avoided what others had experienced. Another brave woman who wore a wire for the police deserves praise. But not having experienced such harassment, I certainly can't make any judgment as to how an individual has to cope with such degrading and embarrassing actions and guard a psyche and career at the same time. I will continue to monitor developments and hope that these revelations will finally change the attitudes and behavior of powerful men who seek power through sexual predation.

Since the 1990s when I worked for the state of Illinois and the non-profit Center for Inquiry, we employees had to take periodic classes in the laws protecting sexual harassment accusers of retaliation by bosses. The information helped change attitudes and behavior when employees learned how physical behaviors and verbal exchanges, such as telling unwanted dirty jokes constantly, constituted sexual harassment. Sounds like the entertainment industry, among others, needs that training.

GO CUBS!

On a lighter note, I've been a Die-Hard Cubs Fan all my life and, obviously, relished its first World Series Championship in my lifetime last year. Having experienced my first baseball playoff game in my life last year in Dodger Stadium when the Cubs trounced the Dodgers 10-2 in the 4th game of the National League Championship, I went back to this year's playoff game at Dodger Stadium last night, witnessing a loss but, nevertheless, seeing a thrilling storybook ending by Justin Turner with his two-out-in-the-bottom-of-the-9th walk-off homer. Surrounded by Dodgers fans in this photo in the left field Pavilion (L.A. euphemism for "bleachers"), I had a good time teasing them, and vice versa, while they and fellow fans yelled incessantly "Let's Go, Dodgers!", booed one kid with a San Francisco Giants jersey, and failed to ignite "The Wave" for the ballpark. Then the homer and a deafening roar, the loudest I ever experienced at a game. Come on Cubs, let's get three in Chicago!