Closer to Home

In recent episode of the podcast “Elevate Maryland”, co-host Tom Coale suggested that recent national scandals concerning sexual harassment were bound to show up on a more local level. I think he’s right.

That reminded me of his own post on HoCo Rising in 2015:

Get Your (Stuff) Together, Annapolis! 

And, the piece that started it all, by Josh Kurtz of Center Maryland:

Annapolis Mad Men

Despite the avalanche of evidence that sexual harassment and just plain old sexual assault have been poisoning women’s experiences in the workplace, I keep seeing mealy-mouthed excuses that “society’s attitudes about certain kinds of behavior have changed.” I suppose that is meant to say, “It wasn’t wrong when I did it. I’m only catching flack now because the world has changed.”

Um, no. Those behaviors have always been wrong. What has changed is that people are believing the victims. And, in an environment where victims will be listened to and believed, more victims will take the risk to tell their stories. In the past silence was maintained by the fear that the victims themselves would be punished by telling the truth. They would not be believed, their characters would be questioned, their careers would be ruined.

What a radical shift we are witnessing that the actual perpetrators of the crimes are being held responsible. It seems so simple. For some it may seem that we are witnessing a world turned upside down.

In fact, at long last, it has finally been righted.

Now, about those local stories. Mr. Coale seems pretty certain we’ll be hearing them. I wonder if there are some men in Howard County and around the state who are beginning to realize that there will be consequences for their actions.

Being responsible for one’s own actions. What a concept.