I had tried to keep my politics and opinions to myself on this blog. I didn’t think y’all came here to hear me rant and rave. But I have been sitting on this post for three years (Kavanaugh hearing) and I am so pissed off that, yesterday, yet one more older white man in a long series of older men felt he could tell me that my opinion isn’t of value, that I just want to say one more thing and then I promise to go back to talks about whales and tomatoes.

I have known, and remain friends with, a lot of women who have had ugly experiences with men.. Every experience, from a thirty five year old teacher seducing a 15 year old girl, my friend and getting her pregnant to a computer company executive who, up until the wedding, seemed like a dream partner, but then locked his bride, my friend, in the bathroom on their wedding night because she had her period. This night began a long marriage of abuse.

None of the men had to face any consequences. The women told a trusted friend or two but never their mothers nor authorities. But I know their names and I know what they did…

So if now, thirty years later, one of those men was about to be appointed to a position as influence and with so much power over women as the US Supreme Court, I would hope I could encourage and support my friend to come forward.

The thing here is, I could fill a book with the shitty things I know about men who in the 70’s and 80’s walked with respect in the offices and boardrooms of Vancouver. It’s not just #metoo. It was abuse of power, rampant everywhere, all the time. It was common knowledge, never a surprise and never talked about.

But I have led a sheltered life since moving to suburbia and raising my kids and haven’t been witness to that kind of behaviour for a long time.

I was at a wedding a few years ago where a fifty-five year old man from the groom’s extended family asked a twenty two year old woman from the bride’s extended family to dance. He didn’t know her. During the dance, he undid the bun of her hair, ran his fingers through her now loose hair and said, “there, that’s better”.

WTAF! She handled it with such grace when what she should have done is knee him in the balls

Last night three Orca visited us at 11pm and our son took this picture 

I wish whales came to see us every day and I wish a lot of men would suppress the need to express their opinions on women’s issues and, while at it, keep their

hands to themselves