Thanks for the additional info, Carol.
A few days ago there was a sensationalist column in the Swedish tabloid Expressen, written by a very popular writer of crime fiction,
Liza Marklund . In this column, Marklund painted a horrible picture of what the future United States would be like if McCain/Palin won the upcoming election. One of Marklund's main points was that rapists would be able to roam the country and rape women at their hearts' content, since their victims, the raped women, wouldn't be able to pay for the evidence needed to get the rapists convicted.
Here is Liza Marklund's column, in Swedish of course. The last line of her column reads, 'God help us if McCain wins the election'. The caption under the picture reads, 'In the United States of Sarah Palin women have to arm themselves, because if they get raped they have to pay for parts of the police investigation themselves'.
Marklund's column did not seem serious to me. How can she claim to know what McCain/Palin's policy on rape will be, if they become President and VP? There is no way any of us can
know the future. And I had read nothing that suggested that McCain and Palin were the least bit lenient on rape.
However, now that I have read that article in the New York Times, I understand what sort of info Marklund has come across. Clearly it has to do with Palin's record as mayor of Wasilla, and Wasilla's policy of billing rape victims for rape kits and forensic exams.
I understand very well that Palin was not the
dictator of Wasilla, and that she was not responsible for all the political decisions there. I'm not really interested in trying to sort out exactly what sort of responsibility she had for the treatment of rape victims there.
But something else is important to me. Good judgement is important to me. Which is why I wonder if Palin will go on record saying that if she becomes VP, she will fight for rape victims' right to have a forensic exam free of charge. In my opinion, she should say just that. She may not have been responsible for the rape victim policy in Wasilla, but her own views on rape become suspect because of what things were like in that town. Will Palin have the courage and strength of character to say that although raped women were billed for their rape kits in Wasilla when she was mayor there, she will do her very best to see to it that all American women who need a rape kit and a forensic exam free will get it free of charge, if she becomes VP of the United States?
The alternative for Sarah Palin, as I see it, is to either refuse to talk about rape or Wasilla in the first place, or else to insist that it is a good policy to bill rape victims for the forensic evidence they need. Either alternative, and particularly the last one, will make many women both in the United States and abroad quite horrified. And even if McCain and Palin can win the upcoming election anyway, it is a bad idea to start off a presidency by making people horrified at one's apparent policy on rape. It is not a sign of good judgement.
Ann
