Sexual Harassment Needs Perspective

We are in a news cycle devoted to stories on sexual harassment. There is a broad spectrum of bad behavior ranging from forceful kisses to rape. A lot can be said and is said on this issue but even more is left unsaid. Behavior between men and women is complicated, and new rules will not be determined overnight or even over the next few years. While it is a good thing to weigh in on this crucial topic, it is also a good idea to keep it in perspective. 

Would you be more likely to put someone in jail that grabbed a contemporaries ass or that raped an eight-year-old child? This is an important distinction because there are millions of young children that are raped, and that is lost in all the rhetoric happening now. We cannot lose perspective on the wide range of behavior that exists in the world.

We do not ever want to condone unwanted sexual advances or unwelcome physical contact of any kind. We want to keep that decision firm and we should never waiver on the reason for its importance. We want to develop our morality and social consciousness more and more toward a live and let live attitude.

The American people look up to our top political leaders and require their leadership now more than ever, but we are not getting it. Millions of children, ages 1 and up, are illegally sold for sex, organs, and reasons too horrible to write down. It demeans these children that our most prominent political leaders choose to use their spotlight to weigh in on foul adult behavior rather than to remind each of us how important it is to protect even more significant human rights.

Many of the people involved in sexual harassment in the news have done bad things, and our culture is in the process of choosing how we want to deal with this type of behavior. That will take a generation or two to work itself out and will eventually involve all men and women. While there will be opinions, even by prominent political leaders, it is critical that our leaders remind all of us to keep a proper perspective. We need constant reminding of the more significant issues we do not want to think about, and that require resources only the United States and countries like ours can provide.

There is a way for our leaders to make it clear that sexual harassment is not acceptable in the workforce, or anywhere else for that matter while putting it into a framework or perspective that does not allow individual citizens to lose perspective. There are life-threatening issues that we need our leaders to devote resources toward and that are more important to highlight in the spotlight that leaders have the privilege of standing in. We want to use a spotlight for highlighting the most critical matters in human rights and not merely to be part of the story of the day.