Conversation With Myself

Bat­ting a head con­ti­nually against anything cau­ses the brain to waf­fle back and forth inside the skull. This can cause brui­sing, and repea­ted brui­sing can cause brain damage. I get it. What I’m not clear on is why we are having con­gres­sio­nal hea­rings about the situation.

We strug­gle with making amend­ments to pre­vent rapists from get­ting away with rape, yet we rush to pro­tect those who had a choice.

We have hea­rings about the con­se­quen­ces of grown men making cons­cious deci­sions (no pun inten­ded), to con­cuss them­sel­ves into stu­pi­dity for mone­tary com­pen­sa­tion, yet we have a hard time allo­wing Lavena Johnson’s case in front of even the most insig­ni­fi­cant of committees.

If only we spent a frac­tion of this time asking ques­tions about the murder/cover-ups of women sol­diers like Lavena John­son, and simi­lar inci­den­ces, I’d feel a little bit bet­ter about Congress’s purpose.

A pla­yer ente­ring the NFL is aware that he is going to take a bea­ting, aware he could even end up somewhat more stu­pid on exit than when he arri­ved. I am cer­tain that 19 year old Army Pfc. LaVena John­son did not expec­ted to be lying in a pool of blood, mur­de­red, raped, bur­ned with che­mi­cals, and pro­noun­ced a sui­cide by a gunshot to the head, in a very large cover-up that has yet to be publicly addres­sed.

You’d think we’d be just as inte­res­ted in pro­tec­ting our female sol­diers as we are in pro­tec­ting our foot­ball players.

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17 Comments

  • That’s a very exqui­site com­pa­ri­son con­si­de­ring both involve lots of money, and public inte­rest, but only one of them seems to bother peo­ple enough to think about it.…Football of course.

    You’ll have to pre­tend a sports cas­ter is saying this.…It actually works…

    Sports Announ­cer 1:” JT Todd­man was raped, and gang-banged & nearly left to die in a pool, but like ever­yone, what we’re really wan­ting to know, is will he be ready to block on the front line this season?”

    Sports Announ­cer 2:” I don’t know John, but I guess we’ll see how he reacts when he joins the huddle.“
    Bennet´s last blog ..Sell Some Crazy For The Hazy

  • We have hea­rings about the con­se­quen­ces of grown men making cons­cious deci­sions (no pun inten­ded), to con­cuss them­sel­ves into stu­pi­dity for mone­tary com­pen­sa­tion, yet we have a hard time allo­wing Lavena Johnson’s case in front of even the most insig­ni­fi­cant of committees.

    Two Thumbs Up.

  • While I agree com­ple­tely with what you’ve writ­ten here (and can ima­gine the armed for­ces cove­ring such an act up), the only per­son who is den­ying the offi­cial ver­dict is her father — and he’s not objective.

    I’ve seen this kind of thing hap­pen before — in my own family (my aunt’s boy­friend was killed in a car accident) — where one per­son denies all the evi­dence in front of them and clings to the only expla­na­tion that sees their loved one come out of it in any kind of good light.
    Jonathan´s last blog ..Falling back in love with blog­ging

    • Who else would be den­ying it besi­des her parents? The army cer­tainly would not. I believe her case was sche­du­led to be brought up at a hea­ring a cou­ple of con­gress­men back some time ago at but her case did not show up. She was found with a bro­ken nose, black eye and loose teeth, acid burns on her geni­tals, a trail of blood lea­ding away from her tent and a bullet hole in her head. I have cove­red this for some time here there really doesn’t appear to be any doubt that this girl, who had only been there a cou­ple of months was mur­de­red, the ques­tion is who mur­de­red her, was it army or a con­trac­tor.
      Pat Tillman’s mother ever allu­ded to this case when she testified.

  • I sup­pose this isn’t the best time to men­tion that I blog­ged about foot­ball today, as well.

    Yours, of course, is slightly more cause-driven and not so self-absorbed as mine. Sigh. That’s so us.
    Bone´s last blog ..Don’t be happy, just worry

  • It is beyond ridi­cu­lous to watch Con­gres­sio­nal hea­rings on sports. I saw where an idiot Con­gress­man from Iowa was ques­tio­ning the NFL Com­mis­sio­ner why Rush Lim­baugh can’t own a team. As if Mem­bers of Con­gress have nothing else to do other than worry about Rush Lim­baugh get­ting richer. I per­so­nally believe Con­gress needs to stay out of all that stuff. It’s only a mirage to keep them from doing real work.
    Chris– The Fold´s last blog ..NCAA Pre­sea­son Ran­kings

  • I stop­ped worr­ying about what Con­gress does or does not do with its time awhile ago. But it is kind of sad that foot­ball rates as more impor­tant to the cons­cious­ness of the nation than a mat­ter like Lavena Johnson’s.
    mojo shivers´s last blog ..She Got The Current In Her Hand, Just Shock You Like You Won’t Believe, Sun In The Ama­zon, With The Vol­tage Run­ning Through Her Skin

  • I guess I could say that I think foot­ball the most stu­pid of all sports, and I wouldn’t be lying. In the past decade or a bit more it’s become a sport that women are sup­po­sed to enjoy and men give points to women for loving it. I’ve seen com­ments where each woman tries to outdo the others in her real love for the sport. I’m sure they’re not lying. I just don’t get it

    i unders­tand that peo­ple blog for all dif­fe­rent rea­sons and I cer­tainly wouldn’t hold it against blog­gers who are per­so­nal purists

    But I read you and will always read you because you cha­llenge me to be a bet­ter per­son than I am.

    And thanks for cla­rif­ying the fic­tion v memoir thing :)
    pia´s last blog ..Pulling back­wards

  • I love soc­cer, but wouldn’t expect con­gress to hold hea­ring about the hea­der ball situation.

    The case of Lavena John­son is horri­ble, one of the most horri­fic but there are many more, and if I were a female, unless I was a com­mis­sio­ned offi­cer, I wouldn’t be ser­ving this country.
    john´s last blog ..World Cup is About Peo­ple

    • It’s at a stand still, as are a lot of thoe cases tes­ti­fied on back almost two years ago now. But god lets us worry about a bunch of foot­ball pla­yers sin­ging If I only had a brain.

  • things like this will fore­ver perplex

  • I appre­ciate your blog post. I’m very sad­de­ned at the story of LaVena John­son. It ama­zes me that nobody in Con­gress has taken up her case in a stron­ger way…

    peace, Villa­ger
    Villager´s last blog ..Lakeesha Alert: Mitrice Richard­son is Mis­sing