There’s a serious disconnect between people’s actions and what they say in public. How can anyone take their words seriously when the actions don’t reflect the spoken cause? You can’t end the stigma about mental illness if you’re not willing to turn words into action, not just pass the buck onto someone else’s shoulders.
One of the truest measurements of a great society doesn’t come from how well we revere the strongest of us, but how well the strong protect those who can’t protect themselves. Every failure to do so only serves to diminish the luster of the great society. I’m not writing this with expectations of a response, or even with much hope that anyone will care. I’m only writing this so that if the worst befalls my family, I can die knowing that someone was made aware that such a failure occurred.
There’s a light that shines at some point in most people’s lives that lets them know, this is who I’m meant to be and this is what I’m meant to do. That light never shines for anyone who began being abused as a child; whether in their own home or outside of it. When it’s in the home, the outside world becomes the place of protection. When it comes from outside, hiding in the one place where the abused person feels safe – home – it would seem that the abused one might find the succor they need. A life filled with one side being too affected by the past to be an effective teacher, and the other side being pessimistic and cynical, does not breed strength into the one who sees abuse more than love from outside the home. The abused one only feels pain. No hope. No trust. No faith. Stress and anxiety live in this condition and rules every decision made.
Agony is the truth of my life, not an embellishment. Most lives in my soul but the acid in my spine, from even the simplest of chores, is as fresh salt on open wounds and feels like my spine is splitting in twain. The emotional damage I’ve suffered since I was nine has remained an open wound through all measures that have been tried to close it. Anxiety around others stays firm. Trust in others remains weak. Stress of any sort is like a vice squeezing every nerve.
My existence is pain all day, every day,
And hope is a bastion far from the hand.
I’m aware of every cruelty, intended or not,
Offered on the altar of my shattered mind.
By D.A. Smith
After reading stories concerning the nature of what women are forced to put up with to find success, one must question the area of success men and women both struggle to balance. This one area is the basic question of control. We see money, cars, expensive vacations and the knowledge you’re free to spend your money and never risk falling into the red as being the markers for success.
For many though, it’s a desire for power; the understanding of those under you must do as you say. This poses a problem when the one in control has problems limiting that control to work related issues and not discipline other employees for failing to maintain proper workplace protocol.
This issue creates problems in many areas of social discourse but never so much as when dealing with basic natural desires between men and women. For centuries men developed the need to be in control, the dominate. It still gets taught to young males in the simple education of watching the older generations. Even men who don’t think they commit acts of gender discrimination get caught by it on occasion.
Women aren’t bothered by a man showing his attraction. It only becomes a problem when a women says; “No more. Please respect my ability to control my life.” This flies in the face of everything many men are taught from an early age. It is unfortunate we need laws to protect women from the perspective of one who knows this, as women are more beautiful when free to be comfortable in their environment.
In the recent stories you see this frequently. Women having to take their issues to court because those that should protect them in the workplace fail to do so. Those higher up the chain want to say, “Just deal with it.” They find their egos being tormented when the women answer, “No!”
When you read about women having their bodies touched without invitation by a man or another woman then have their complaints ignored, a hostile workplace has been planted. When the managers decide the problem is her, not the man or woman with wandering hands, the hostile workplace can be laid at the manager’s feet. The same holds true for the man who gets touched without invitation.
The issue runs up against the idea, where does the control stop at work? Most recognize that control stops at work and doesn’t allow it to creep into the personal. For some though, they get comfortable with control and take it hard when another person says, “There is a limit.”
Each person with a writer’s heart need to stand up and say, “Let the women work and your business will be better for it.”
If I started a poll about whether managers who make sure women can simply, concentrate on their jobs versus, managers who harrass or allow harrassment in the workplace show better productivity, I’m betting on a landslide in favor of letting women simply, do their jobs.
This is from the opinion of one who says, “Let the personal be personal and professional be professional.”
D.A. Smith Author Page 