This past Monday on the Fourth of July, citizens all around the nation displayed their versions of patriotism by shoving their faces with hot dogs, setting off explosions that sent pets flying under beds to hide, and donning their beer-soaked bodies with red, white, and blue attire.
Ahhhhh, America.
The land of the free and the home of the brave, brought to you by soldiers who risk their lives and are raped by the thousands and then left out to dry.
Unlike the swarm of celebrants who took part in the July 4th festivities last weekend, I refused, and I will continue to refuse, to honor the founding of this great nation until the Senate votes on and passes the Military Justice Improvement Act (MJIA).
Proposed by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) three years in a row, the act is “designed to reverse the systemic fear that survivors of military sexual assault describe in deciding whether to report the crimes committed against them.” This reform would accomplish this by “moving the decision whether to prosecute serious crimes to independent, trained, professional military prosecutors while leaving military crimes to the chain of command.”
Seems like common sense, right?
Well, common sense unfortunately is not a virtue many Congress members possess.
Just a few weeks ago, the Senate refused to even hold a debate on the MJIA, and last year, the measure failed 50-49, far short of the ¾ majority that is necessary. Out of the 49 nays, 39 of them were Republicans.
Big shocker.
After fuming for several weeks over this disgusting demonstration of incompetence at completely ignoring this reform, I finally have taken it upon myself to draft the letter below and snail mail it to every single shameful senator who chose to vote down this dire measure last year and who failed to bring it to a vote a few weeks ago. In it, I urge them to bring the measure back to a vote. An election year is not an excuse to sit in silence.
Please take the time to read the letter, and if you wish, copy and paste it into a document and send one from yourself to any of these legislators, even if it’s through e-mail.
You may ask, “Why should I care?”
I will let the letter speak for itself.
Values: a person's principles or standards of behavior; one's judgment of what is important in life
Dear Sen. ________,
I am writing you as a politically active and engaged voter, as a human being concerned for my fellow citizens, and as an American who respects and honors those who risk their lives to protect mine.
I am writing you to ask you to picture your wife or daughter or niece or sister calling you from her military base to tell you, through endless tears, that she was raped by a fellow officer.
She had been sleeping in her room when the man entered uninvited, held a gun to her head, and raped her until she bled.
The next day, she went to her commander and informed him of what happened. He then reluctantly told her he would open a case to investigate the “allegation.” The only witnesses were the rapist and his victim. And the rapist isn’t talking. Three days after that case was opened, it was closed for “lack of evidence.”
In 2012 alone, there were 26,000 instances of unwanted sexual contact in the military. And no, it wasn’t just women who were victims. At least 13,900 men had been raped or sexually assaulted that year. And that doesn’t include the countless more who chose not to report their cases.
Out of those 26,000 incidents, only 302 service members faced punishment or dismissal for their crimes—less than 2.5 percent of the total suspected number of acts of sexual assaults and rape. This is the result of a broken system.
Flash forward to June of this year when Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand proposed, for the third year in a row, the Military Justice Improvement Act (MJIA). The measure would shift sexual-assault prosecutions from the chain of command to military lawyers, in part to remove victims’ fears of retaliation for reporting attacks and to establish a fair and impartial judicial system.
Instead of this measure passing unanimously, as it should, the Senate did not even put it up for debate. The proposal is a bipartisan one—this isn’t even a democrat or liberal issue—and has been widely supported by Veterans Service Organizations, retired military members, sexual violence NGOs, military law experts and, most importantly, military sexual assault survivors.
The idea that military commanders are the ones put in charge of rape cases is baffling. They do not have the training or the education to act as judges, to determine what’s appropriate in a serious criminal investigation. They are also not able to make an objective decision when the rapists are their drinking buddies.
These commanders repeatedly sweep cases under the rug because they feel that the announcement of a rape in their unit would reflect badly upon them and reveal an inability to direct. However, I would argue the opposite. It is an absolute display of incompetence when a commander tolerates rape under their command and refuses to deliver justice to their soldiers.
And worse, what is a soldier to do when the person they are told to report their assault or rape to is the perpetrator? (And yes, that happens. At least 25 percent of the time, servicemen and women don’t report their rape because their commander was the one who raped them.)
Rape in the military would significantly decrease or completely disappear if we had an actual system of accountability, one similar to that of the civilian system that prosecutes and imprisons the perpetrators. Instead, the military creates useless programs that involve putting up posters around bases and calling that “prevention.”
Fake and ineffective pieces of PR are not enough.
The frat culture of the military is also something that needs serious overhaul. Female soldiers are told that if they don’t participate in drinking events, they will be punished. Then once they drink, they are often drugged or followed home and attacked by fellow officers. When they file charges, they are ignored and dropped, and often flipped around onto the victim.
They are the ones who are punished, they are the ones charged with adultery, they are the ones kicked out of the military to which they dedicated their lives.
Military spokesmen time and time again come to the podium during press events following a rape case and insist there is a zero tolerance policy for this type of illegal behavior. And yet the rhetoric does not turn over to reality. There is no change. There is no action. There is no justice.
Shameful isn’t nearly strong enough of a word to describe the way our military behaves and the way our government turns a blind eye. I want to be able to say I am proud to be an American and am proud of our armed forces. But how can you expect me to do that?
When I am at a sporting event or an awards ceremony and our national anthem plays, I cannot stand there respectfully knowing our soldiers are treated so inhumanely. I cannot put my right hand on my heart in dedication to a military that ruins the lives of those who keep it strong.
I also cannot sit silently by while my tax dollars are spent on a defense budget that funds rape. I cannot listen to the military ask civilians to join the armed forces yet also have them accept that if they get into one of these horrific situations, they will be left to fend for themselves and suffer alone.
The nearly 23 percent of women and men who are raped in the military are scarred forever. Their lives and careers are destroyed. Their bodies and rights are violated in the worst way, all the while serving the country to protect us. Their inability to trust is stripped away.
They also often suffer permanent injuries from their assaults, and since many are also discharged with no benefits (unlike their rapists), they are unable to get the medications and surgeries they need as a result. And when they are lucky enough to keep their benefits, the VA often denies them their necessary treatments.
Many of these women and men see suicide as their only option to end the physical, mental, and emotional pain. And some of them, like LaVena Johnson, Tina Priest, and Hannah Gunterman, are even murdered by their fellow soldiers after being raped. Their deaths, however, are ruled suicides or accidents without any further investigation.
And if they are lucky enough to survive, pull through, and put on a brave face in order to fight back, they are often rejected. In 2011, a judge dismissed a case brought on by a group of 28 military rape survivors saying that “rape is an occupational hazard of military service.”
This should make you, and anyone with a heart, cringe with disgust and shame.
These men and women enter the military with optimism, with pride, with a desire to give back and serve. Then they are attacked and thrown away like garbage by the organization they vowed to die for.
It is our national duty to protect our soldiers from the time they enlist to the time they leave this earth and to make sure they can serve safely and with dignity.
I write you this plea not in hatred, not as a liberal, not as a woman, but as an American raised in a household full of love and who was taught to live by the Golden Rule. If you share these same characteristics, you will listen to your heart and do the right thing by seeing these victims as people, not as invisible statistics.
Please, reach out to your fellow Congress members, both Republican and Democrat, and bring the Military Justice Improvement Act back to a vote.
This is not an issue of women’s rights. This is not an issue of the feminist agenda. This is an issue of values.
Now is your time to show the world what your values are.