Below is an email I received a little while ago from Larry Lessig of Change Congress. Be warned, it contains potential triggers. (A trigger
is an account of an event that may trigger debilitating involuntary flashbacks in people exposed to traumas related to the event described in the account. For more on triggers, read the entirety of this, though be aware it contains triggers.)
Sam,
You may have heard about Jamie Leigh Jones — an American woman who was gang raped by her co-workers while working for a defense contractor in Iraq.
Her employer (KBR, an affiliate of Halliburton) “lost” the rape kit, locked her in a box for 24 hours, and then prevented her from filing charges in court — by invoking a private-arbitration clause in her contract. KBR picked the arbitrator.
Senator Al Franken (D-MN) proposed a bill last month to allow victims of rape to bring their case to court. Sounds like an easy vote, doesn’t it? Most senators thought so. All female Republican senators thought so.
But Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) voted no to protecting rape victims — after receiving over $700,000 in campaign contributions from the defense industry and Chamber of Commerce, both of which lobbied against Franken’s proposal because arbitration saves them money.
Today, we are asking people across the country to sign an expression of outrage at Burr’s decision to put campaign contributors above rape victims. We’ll keep the media informed about our growing number of signatures, and shame Burr publicly.
Can you help us shame Burr? Click here to sign — and then please pass this email to others.
(At the link, you can see a great video of Jon Stewart calling out Burr and others.)
We are also releasing a poll we commissioned in North Carolina, which shows Burr voted against the overwhelming majority of his own constituents. 73% of North Carolinians disapprove of Burr’s vote against Franken’s proposal. And after hearing that Burr took over $700,000 from the defense industry and Chamber of Commerce, a majority believe Burr’s vote was affected by those interests.
Thus again, the point we have made over and over: Whether or not you believe Burr sold out, his behavior leads most to believe money buys results in Congress — and that taints our democracy. We need to shame these politicians one by one until Congress realizes that it’s time to replace special-interest-funded elections with citizen-funded elections.
Can you help us shame Burr? Click here to sign — and then please pass this email to others.
We will keep you up to date on our progress. Thanks for helping to Change Congress.
– Lawrence LessigP.S. Local and national media have already reported on our poll this morning. Here are some more results:
73% of North Carolina voters disapprove of Burr’s vote against rape victims, only 14% approve.
56% of voters are less likely to vote for Burr in 2010 as a result of his vote, only 11% are more likely.
67% think money buys results in Washington DC, only 14% think it doesn’t.
47% think Burr cast his vote because of the money, only 34% think he thought it was the right thing to do.
52% think Burr’s $700,000 in special-interest contributions “hurt his judgment,” only 34% thought it didn’t.
I’ve signed. While I understand that the question of how to legally prosecute accused rapists in a manner that is fair both to the plaintiff and the defendant remains a matter for disagreement, I’m disgusted anyone with the resources to learn about the issue would vote in favour of allowing corporations to eliminate opportunities for rape trials altogether. Arbitration should, perhaps, be an option, but it should certainly not be the only option: the possibility of pursuing a criminal prosecution against rapists must be allowed to remain open for all citizens. I’m relieved that despite the efforts of Burr and other Republicans (they were all Republicans) who voted against it, Franken’s proposal passed.
In case you want to post it on your own blog or otherwise re-use it, the email above was licensed under CC-BY.