Controversy! No matter which way we turn, something new is thrown at us, and we move on without processing and solving yesterday’s news.

The Epstein Files. Having a few days of downtime with the sniffles I had time to process why I am so angry at those I know who don’t think it’s a big deal, don’t want to face it, or totally don’t believe anyone can do what is being described to another human being.

I am angry because of feelings I’ve pushed aside for much of my life. Things that happened early in my working life. No, I wasn’t raped or abused, but… I was sexually harassed, and at that time we didn’t have a name for it. Boys will be boys, or men will be men. We knew which salesman not to get into a room with at one workplace. We knew who was going to be touchy-feely. We might offer a rebuke, but it made no difference. If we had reported it, we would have been laughed at. Plus everyone knew, and the owner was just as guilty as some of his male employees, so it wasn’t addressed.

In the early days, sexual harassment didn’t just happen at the one workplace; there were others. We women kept quiet, it was discussed only between ourselves. The harassment wasn’t just bosses and co-workers; it was customers too. It wasn’t an everyday occurrence, yet it happened frequently. Today the talk is about setting up your boundaries, but in a man’s world, as it was back then, the only boundaries that were followed were to not get caught with a male colleague who we knew was sketchy.

Fast forward many years to when I was a computer technician. I had a great boss, no improprieties there with him. In all the years I worked on computers, I only found two computers with pornography on them. But I did nothing because privacy was key and I didn’t want to lose my job. Plus, back in those days, again, nothing would have been done had we reported it to the police. One offender was a man who didn’t surprise me. He exuded the personality when he walked in the door, not in his treatment of me, but in his stories that seemed at the time to be conspiracy theories. The other surprised me as he was a respected member of the community. They are both now dead, and it would serve no purpose to out them, and perhaps that’s why I didn’t, because of their families. Yet, had this happened today, I would report it. We had a duty to our customers regarding privacy. But…in the process of removing viruses, I might have removed some files. Viruses are amazing at wiping out files. However, I will always regret in my heart when I think back that I dismissed this as normal boys will be boys. That makes me part of the problem, which may be why it is still happening today, we all did that in those days.

When younger women in this decade complained about sexual harassment, at first my reaction was, deal with it, we did. I was wrong to believe that. A mindset such as that got us to the mess we are in today. I can’t believe Congress, and certain followers of political parties are sweeping widespread abuse under the rug or not addressing it, and putting perpetrators in jail. We haven’t progressed. It appears we have regressed.

I wonder where we would be if all of us in the early years had been adamant about changing the way the world addressed sexual harassment of not only women, but men too. Would it have changed the world if we had stood up? Or would we still be here fifty years later fighting a system that protects those who abuse women, children, and even young boys? We still do not believe the victims. Because of it, victims remain silent out of fear of retribution. The world is in the midst of a sex ring scandal, and yet, people don’t believe it or they want to ignore it, because they can’t handle the gory details. I think the victims would have liked to miss out on those details of what was done with them too.

All the victims of the sex trafficking rings were once tiny babies in a womb. The same people that want abortion banned because it is murder, are supporting this administration because of their stance on abortion, nothing else seems to matter. Those babies grow up to be kids, women, men and don’t they deserve protection too? Trafficking victim may also be murdered. Protect that baby in the womb from the mother, but their life doesn’t matter if you don’t agree, or like who they become, or if the color of their skin is different, and they are abused or discriminated against?

Do we turn off the news so we can ignore and not hear what is happening so it doesn’t make it our problem. Do you not listen to the victims because it is too gruesome and you think it can’t possibly be happening?

The House of Representatives recently voted down a bill that would release information on sexual misconduct and harassment against members of Congress. This was not just voted down by Republicans but Democrats too. Again, are the people making the rules keeping it silent because they themselves have something to hide, not only our leader? How can we be okay with that?

In Tennessee, there was a bill in the legislature to bring the death penalty to a woman who has an abortion. Isn’t that murder too if you put them to death? They murder a baby in the womb, so you kill them? Thankfully, the bill failed. It was defeated in a subcommittee on March 10, 2026. Tell me the difference of defining murder. Does it make a difference who is deciding who should live? It’s seems to be accepted when the government does it, such as the murder of a leader of another country, or school kids with different color skin in another country.

When are we going to say enough? When are we going to put an end to the boys will be boys? When are we going to accept this is happening and believe the victims? When are we going to stop our children from being kidnapped, or sold into the sex trafficking business by powerful individuals? The word has to be ENOUGH. ENOUGH, to the double standard for those women and people of different nationality and gender. I fear the Epstein Files are just going to go down in history as a blip on the radar, because we will move on to the next headline in the news that requires our attention.

The average Joe gets sentenced to prison for lesser sex crimes than what is happening in the Epstein Files, and they should, but so should the powerful who created a worldwide ring that preys on children, women, and even boys. What makes the rich and powerful exempt from their actions, except perhaps fear, or they have something we want in their votes in Congress. ENOUGH. They are being protected by their peers, and by those that still refuse to believe the information revealed could be perpetrated by people who they have revered as leaders. I am confused about the reasoning, but I am not confused by the excuses, leaving these people go free. And if they do, it is on all of us who excuse their behavior and have excused sexual harassment behavior over the years.

We have to decide. We have to decide what we define as murder. A baby that has not been born? A leader, who we know is a danger to society that we don’t like, so we take him out? A woman that has an abortion but is sentenced to death? A citizen who stands up for the rights of others who gets murdered in the street by a sanctioned government security source? What is the difference? One is right, and the other is wrong? Killing an unborn baby is wrong, but murdering someone who admittedly is a horrible person, and we don’t like and agree with is right? Especially if there is no imminent threat to our lives.

Our men and women in uniform don’t have a choice on the battlefield. They have to protect themselves and those around them. They don’t have a choice when they are sent into a war. It is an act that lives with them forever. They do it for their country. They risk their lives by order of the government of the United States to keep us all free. Don’t we owe it to all of them to come home to a country where citizens have equal rights no matter their skin color, or gender? Don’t we owe it to them to provide mental health services and healthcare? Don’t we owe it to them to protect women and children from sexual predators or abuse, no matter the status of those predators in society? The choice is yours. Will we forget about the Epstein Files so that we will be here again, and again, and again? We can protect unborn babies and protect those children and teenagers, and adults. It doesn’t have to be one or the other. This isn’t political, it is moral. It isn’t a Democrat or Republican issue. It is an American issue. It is a moral issue. Until we can agree on that and say ENOUGH, and look at it fairly and rationally, nothing will be solved. We should have done it a long time ago and we are all complicit in the fact we didn’t