Hard to Believe

(From March 2018)

            There are a lot of things in the news these days that are hard to believe.  It doesn’t help that some of the articles really aren’t true, it’s been shown.

            I misunderstood a headline that seemed hard to believe.  It said something like: “Weinstein Being Investigated for 2014 Rapes.”  For a moment, I thought the headline was referring to the quantity of rapes for which he has been accused, not the year in which they were alleged to have been committed.

            That confusion, on my part, spoke volumes to me about the sexual assault fervor that has hit Hollywood, Washington, D.C., and other places.  In context of the accusations that have been leveled, it wouldn’t be impossible for Harvey Weinstein to have committed that many assaults.  My math says that over five years 2,014 assaults would have taken place at a rate of a little more than one per day.  Over 25 years it would have happened less than seven times per month.

            As a star-maker in Hollywood and New York City, the 2014 number, horrible though it may be, would not be hard to believe.  In an industry where knowing the right people makes all the difference, he had no problem getting access to young women.

            But, isn’t 2,014 too hard to believe?

            Charlie Sheen claims to have had sex with 5,000 women – either willingly or for hire.  Wilt Chamberlain, the basketball icon, claimed 20,000 women. 

Fidel Castro was said by an aide to have bedded 35,000 women over 50 years.  As a dictator, it’s very possible most of those women hadn’t given themselves freely, given the alternative for saying no.

            Men are known to exaggerate such things, but even cutting the numbers in half, they would be hard to believe. 

And, it’s also possible that some of the female accusers of Weinstein and others have not been totally truthful, but there certainly seems to be plenty of evidence to suggest most are telling what really happened. 

Rape and lesser levels of assault are horrible and can ruin people’s lives.  It is very sad that things have gone on for so many years without the perpetrators facing the consequences for their actions. 

As with all such things, some innocent people will probably be caught up in it too, and that’s also a shame. 

The best we can hope is that our children and grand-children will be less likely to confront such a situation over their lives if justice is done now.  It’s hard to believe that all assault can be eliminated, but we can try.