“Bad Weather’s Like Rape, You Might as Well Relax and Enjoy it.”
Article by Estate of Denial
For a slide show of the aftermath of Hurricane Wilma Please click on the picture:
Some of the world was recently back in a tither because Clayton Williams, the 1990 Texas Republican gubernatorial candidate who made this stupid attempt at bad humor, was hosting a fundraiser for John McCain. (McCain cancels fundraiser with controversial Texan). Fundraiser was cancelled, McCain campaign says it won’t return $300,000 already raised by Williams and the media is off to the next deal. At Estate of Denial, though, we’re glad this quote came back up because we think it has great context with regard to Involuntary Redistribution of Assets (IRA) cases which of course are cases in which assets of the dead and disabled are looted via probate instruments such as trusts, wills and guardianships.
A more updated version of this quote is simply “Can’t change it? You need to get over it, you need to let it go.” Sensitivities (we say with a smirk) in today’s world make it uncouth to say such a cruel thing to a victim of physical rape, but we hear too often of similar statements made to those involved with IRA cases.
Pardon our cynicism, but it comes naturally when you know people who go on tirades for having a few quarters taken from their desk yet are completely dismissive that others in their lives have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars to financial predators with no legitimate claim to the money being looted. But back to the quote. The violation of a person - with sexual being the most heinous form - is a life altering experience. We would never place sexual assault on equal footing with other types of violations (physical, emotional, financial), but they can all be irreversible experiences with significant and far-reaching consequences.
IRA cases are a financial violation, financial rape if you will, and many people offer no consideration as it’s too easy to take the mentally simplistic position that it’s “just a petty squabble about money.” When hearing of someone getting divorced or having some other negative life experience, “what did they do wrong?” isn’t generally the first question that comes up and doesn’t seem like good form, but we have heard it asked regularly with IRA cases. If asked in a thoughtful context, fair enough. Too often, though, it’s a mechanism attempting the speedy conversion of this topic from meaningful discussion of a substantive issue to gossip fodder. And of course, these are the folks confident that it can’t happen to them! In more ways than one - little do they know.
Education is the key to changing this perception and we have our work cut out. Estate of Denial (www.EstateofDenial.com) works to present news stories that depict IRA actions or have some tie-in. We hope our story analysis and original commentaries provide other thought-provoking content. Readers of this site are asked to forward on to others information they deem pertinent. Exposure of IRA cases, we believe, is an important component in combatting the looting of liberty and/or property of honest, hard-working Americans. This web site is a portion of our efforts and we hope you will join us in trying to stop this evil practice.
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