In 2005, 19-year-old Jamie Leigh Jones, an employee of a Halliburton subsidiary called KGB, was brutally gang-raped by seven of her fellow employees in Iraq. Jones suffered vaginal lacerations, a torn pectoral muscle, and ruptured breast implants. She will be disfigured for the rest of her life because of this brutal crime. Because of our laws regarding rape crimes, it’s natural to assume that the men were prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and are in jail today. But this isn’t the case.
Because of the fine print in her contract with the Halliburton subsidiary, Jones was limited to pursuing this crime through arbitration. The Department of Justice (DOJ) has never brought any charges against the men who raped her, and the only option Jones has been left with is a civil suit. Jones says that the men who raped her still work at Halliburton, which has contracts with the US government and receives payment by our tax dollars.
Terri Poore, policy chair of the National Alliance to End Sexual Violence, said of the case, “No survivor of sexual assault should be denied the ability to seek justice.
“Asking a victim to enter into arbitration with someone who raped her or a company that wouldn’t protect her is outrageous and sends a clear message that such violence is simply not taken seriously,” she continued.
The fact that the DOJ has yet to bring charges against the men despite the evidence against them, is definitely an example of the injustice that occurs as a result of inaction by our government, and it should make women all over America and at Cal Poly angry.
In October, Senator Al Franken (D-MN), brought forward an amendment that “would withhold defense contracts from companies like Halliburton if they restrict their employees from taking workplace sexual assault, battery and discrimination cases to court,” according to the Minnesota Post. It passed the Senate 68-30.
What’s interesting is that 30 Republican men voted against the amendment. Why? Well, according to the Minnesota Post article, “Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama… maintained that Franken’s amendment overreached into the private sector and suggested that it violated the due process clause of the U.S. Constitution. Sessions also pointed out that the Department of Defense opposed the amendment.”
Really?
You and the thirty other Republican Senators with you are going to use your vote to proffer your ideology of keeping the government and private sector separate, instead of ensuring that women who are raped while they’re doing a job for a company being paid by the government get a chance to face their accusers in the court of law?
That’s what needs to change in politics. Our Senators are in Washington, D.C. to work on behalf of us–the people. They’re not there to promote and sustain their ideological principles. Al Franken understands this.
And in the end, I don’t think it will be the idiosyncrasies of their Tea Party rallies, or the unethical bias of Fox News, or the propaganda and lies from talking heads Eric Cantor and John Boehner over health care reform that will cripple the Republican Party. It will be their unwavering adherence to an ideology over solid ideas to fix our country’s problems, and this is a prime example for the history books.
Stephanie England is an English senior and Mustang Daily political columnist.
Stephanie, you greatly misconstrue American politics. Instead of preaching from your high tower about how obvious things are in American politics, why don’t you express your view points from a more logical and constitutional platform? If the Senate is not the place for debate over political ideology, should it be the place for debate over ethical ideology? Essentially your argument is based on the ethics of business contracts. This law does affect the way government regulates business contracts, which reflects upon certain precedents and carries great political implications. The Senate is a place where political ideology should take concern and face the most open political debate from our reprentatives. Our Senators are elected to represent the voice of their constituency in the decisions of our federal government. It is essential to take the constitution into consideration when moving legislation through the Senate. The constitutionality and the political and practical implications of every bill should be debated openly in all houses of legislature, on all levels of government. Political ideology is inherent in the decision-making process of our government and is part of every legislative debate.
As I read your post Mike M a picture formed in my mind of a group of boys sitting in a room dressed in powdered wigs and pointy hats and knee-hi britches and puffy sleeved shirts in the smokey back room of a Philidelphia pub discussing the virtues of their ideology patting themselves on the back all the while their mothers and sisters and daughters were being raped. It seems the basic moral ideal of right and wrong has once again eluded the Liebertarian or Republican or whatever it is you boys are calling yourselves these days. Yes Stephanie you’d think all women no matter what political party they adhere to would be outraged calling these women hating white men to account! Thats kind of strong Jason you might say. Well what else could you say about white men of power who let someones daughter or mother or sister be raped and her vicious rapists cheered and sent back into the ranks with other potential women victims? Heros?
Jason, when did this become a race issue? Please, get over yourself.
Did you get told this alot DearAssface, “you have a face only a mother could love.” lol