paulhunterjones

New Mexico: Revisiting the Land of Enchantment.

It’s been a very long day. As the day dragged on my desk become covered with more work than I could handle in two days. I am glad that today is fast coming to an end. I have to do a million things before Thanksgiving Day arrives. No need to ask me; I am not looking forward to visiting with relatives with whom I never enjoyed a good relationship with.

In order not to arrive home without “an attitude” I decided to take a few minutes to search the internet for something interesting and enjoyable to read. A good article, I thought, would get me in a New York frame of mind. Your post was exactly what any decent therapist would have recommend as a mood up lifter.

I have travelled through New Mexico on a few occasions. The raw beauty of the land had always impressed me. The few people that I did interact with were friendly and open to conversation. From the roadway I could see for miles in any direction. I often imaged what wonders laid beyond my visual range. The tourist brochures and pamphlets that I picked up and read piqued my desire to really explore the state. Unfortunately I have not been years.

This post is not only well written in the literary sense, it is a beautifully told story of a respect for a land and its people. After reading the first paragraph of this post, I turned off all electrical devices, told the staff that they could leave (with pay) and dimmed the office lights. I did not want to be disturbed while I continued to read. The post allowed me to see the state as you did; perhaps, as I might never have been able to. The post’s pictures are beautiful and complement perfectly the story line.

I am so grateful that you choose to share your experience of New Mexico with me. To be perfectly honest this post has given me one of my best Thanksgiving getaways without having to spend a dime. Your post allowed travel back in time and join you as your co-pilot while you lived, worked and travelled about the state. I visualized myself standing with the sounds, sights and smells of New Mexico pressing against my every sense.

Great post!

Happy Thanksgiving and keep on writing.

Worlds of Rape, Words of Rape.

Dr. Block’s post is insightful in its treatment of the problems that women (men) encounter when claiming they have been raped. In this piece she seems to concentrate her intellectual discussion to the realm of higher education.

In my opinion most of the hurdles that these student victims face are related to questions of fairness and proof. Apparently Dr. Block believes that where a rape is alleged to have occurred there should be a bias towards accepting the victim’s account of what happened. The post suggests that “big time” universities with their male fraternity houses frown on women student’s claims of being raped while on campus. I think she means to say that there is a cultural of indifference to these claims or women victims.

As of yet there is no universally accepted legal standard or strategy that can govern a university’s response to a student’s claim of having been sexually attacked. In my opinion this is good; there should not be any standard response. Each claim of rape or sexual abuse must be investigated on its own without any deference being given to the alleged victim. According to the Rolling Stone (The Rolling Stone?) the U of Virginia’s Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house represents one visceral part of the a much larger problem.” If you take alcohol out of the equation rape and sexual abuse would dramatically decline on American campuses. The intellectual and factual battles over “informed consent” would melt away. Don’t we use alcohol to lower our inhibitions when contemplating sex with someone? Both men and women of all ages use alcohol in this fashion.

Professor Block’s academic credentials are beyond reproach. Her intellectual contribution to this critically important public topic should not be underestimated. Yet, I believe that Dr. Block glosses over the impact that booze has in all of these recent high profile claims of rape and sexual abuse that are marching across today’s news.