I am trying with great difficulty to refrain from engaging in the Herbster/Slama/Ricketts conflict, but I am failing. Please forgive me. The Hens will go to one corner and the Roosters go to the other corner and accuse each other of being wrong. However, both Herbster and Slama can be absolutely right in their viewpoints of each other.
I believe Herbster manhandled Slama but because she did not object or counter him when she had many opportunities to do so, his memory either forgot or minimalized what took place. Both people were in vulnerable situations as Herbster was single because of his wife’s death and Slama was also a young, attractive single woman. Was Herbster being a dirty old man or was Slama being a gold digger? I think such characterization of either is wrong. However, they misread each other at the very least.
Females come with a default biological mechanism to care for others before themselves. This is why they are willing to suffer the violence of childbirth, to enjoy raising a child. Airlines have safety procedures to address this. They tell mothers, if the cabin loses air pressure and masks deploy, to first put the mask on themselves and only afterwards, place a mask on the child. If this is not done, both the child and mother can die. Putting your life and freedom first is a benefit to others. As for males, sorry, but the closest thing males will get to childbirth is passing a kidney stone, and the stone does not need diapers changed, laundry cleaned or funds for college, let alone an oxygen mask.
I have counseled young women on how to handle men and it is rather sad. First, lots of males get accused by vengeful females and are fired from jobs over false accusations. This is also true of Protection Orders as well. Sadly, it is done with great ease. However, what also distresses me is the number of females who simply cannot or will not assert their own desires and will: therefore become victims to male assault when they could have cut the relationship off. Humans rely a lot on nonverbal communication, particularly males, and can easily misread each other if they do not assert themselves. Yet there is very little education on this matter.
A young college woman, a co-worker, sought my advice because I had shown assertiveness for resolutions at work. She was being pestered by a guy (not at work) whom she had no interest in. She would not push him off because she did not want to hurt his feelings. I had to explain to her, in great detail, she needed to make her desires and wishes clear to him and assert them. People cannot rise up to your expectations if you do not assert them. Otherwise, she would be leading him to think he had a chance of “scoring” with her. Weeks later she was very grateful for my advice and she became friends with the guy. Clear communication matters.
So I revisited this Slama quote printed in the World Herald: “Early on, when I got into politics at age 22 in Nebraska, I was groped at a political event by someone who is not a member of this body and not a current or former office-holder,” Slama said in her floor speech. “I buried it, because I had gone through a worse trauma in college and tried to minimize it, just as I try to minimize it when I’ve been touched inappropriately on this floor and in committee by members of this body.” https://omaha.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/report-on-herbster-groping-allegations-sparks-firestorm-of-bipartisan-condemnation/article_3e79466e-bc1b-11ec-adcb-0b964c02129f.html
Just who in the Unicameral building sexually harassed Senator Slama? Why does the media have no interest in bringing such names forward? Perhaps politics is involved? Obviously the Unicameral is not a safe workplace for Slama but no one seems to care! Sounds a bit two-faced and duplicitous to me for people to care about sexual harassment in one situation but not the other. And as for the Republican State Senators coming to Slama’s defense over Herbster, they all conveniently have endorsed Jim Pillen for Governor, not Theresa Thibediou or any other candidates. Slama has also endorsed Pillen. Something is wrong here.
Furthermore, I can understand to a point why victims did not come forward sooner, but not the witnesses. The witnesses of such bad behavior had an obligation to inform organizers of what was taking place, including Theresa Thibodeau who was DCRP chair in 2019. They could have done so with minimal risk. Yet, Thibodeau talks about her own sexual molestation on radio, and is upset with the "shaming of victims" when she is the victim of people who did not report bad behavior to her in an organization event which she chaired.
There is an abundance of pathetic people lacking in moral assertiveness to say the least. We see it in the media, but law enforcement is completely absent. What is going on?