Why Capitol Pages Fear Retaliation( read it my friends)

[IChing]

I read on this board a lot of crap on this forum about the pages' motives including using the e-mails for blackmail
Don't forget about the Dixie Chicks, Sean Penn, Dan Rather and other's that have been shafted
by this one party power structure, which the article goes into depth with, please read all of the article not just this snip.




Why Capitol Pages Fear Retaliation

By Robert Parry
October 2, 2006
For generations, American parents have sent their high-school-age children to Washington to serve as Capitol Hill pages and to learn about the real world of politics. In the scandal surrounding Rep. Mark Foley's salacious e-mails, it's clear that one lesson the pages learned was to fear Republican retaliation.

It now appears that one of the chief reasons why Foley's e-mails remained secret for so long - and why some former pages still won't speak publicly - is that they recognize that divulging what Foley did to them could kill their hopes for future careers in politics.

This fear of retaliation from today's take-no-prisoners Republican power structure in Washington has been a little-noted subtext to the stories about Foley's sudden resignation on Sept. 29 over his e-mails to pages since 2003.
The congressional pages who received the "creepy" e-mails "didn't do anything beside telling other pages about it," said Matthew Loraditch, 21, who runs the U.S. House Page Alumni Association's Internet message board. Loraditch, a senior at Towson University, explained that three of the former pages have refused to comment, citing fear of long-term damage to their ability to land jobs.

>>>snip



In a very perverse way, the story of the e-mails and the pages does represent one of the fundamental lessons of working in today’s one-party Washington: Whether in politics, intelligence or journalism, avoid doing or saying anything that offends powerful Republicans.

At Consortiumnews.com, we have addressed this politics of fear before, noting many examples of retaliation against reporters, intelligence analysts, political leaders and prominent citizens who have refused to toe the line.
In a one-party political system in which power in concentrated in a few hands, it is not wise to offend the people in charge, even when one of them is writing you sexually offensive e-mails.>>>>>snip



Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s for the Associated Press and Newsweek. His latest book, Secrecy & Privilege: Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq, can be ordered at secrecyandprivilege.com. It's also available at Amazon.com, as is his 1999 book, Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, the Press & 'Project Truth.'

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2006/100206.html

[NVMojo]

1. this speaks volumns about the Repug America ...

[Canuckistanian]

15. Fear is the modus operandi now

Whether it be from "terrorists" or Republican reprisals.

What a sad state for a fearless, once-great country.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

2. Consider the source of some of these posts re: page's motives etc.

All I'm saying, is, look who's posting it, their profile, post history etc. I do.

Sometimes there's even "tag teaming" in such threads!

Oh yes.

[IChing]

5. Exactly, misinformation and distraction by some

and plain ignorance as exhibited by others
following those trains of thought.

[BelgianMadCow]

22. I have a habit of checking those out as well

couple weeks ago several threads got on my nerves. The OP? Profile disabled...

I know there can be good reasons to do that, but I found it pretty significant anyway.

[WCGreen]

3. Great Post.....

[LiberalEsto]

4. There may be other reasons too

The kids might think nobody will believe them.

They might fear that their die-hard Republican parents won't back them up.

They might not know what to do or whom to tell.

They might not want to create a "fuss" that could land them in trouble.

I worked for a child abuse prevention program. And as a young teen, I was a victim of sexual advances from two men who were "family friends." At the time I was horrified and bewildered, but I didn't want to tell my parents for fear of it being made into a huge issue, or of not being believed. I just made sure I was never in the same house where they were, ever again. Years later I told my mom, and sure enough, she didn't believe me.

[malaise]

6. Many are young Republicans

who support and adore Bush.

[LiberalEsto]

9. I know that

and I know that may be a primary reason they didn't come forward.

I'm just saying that, having been a victim, and having worked with abused kids and taught child abuse prevention techniques to children, that other factors like the ones I mentioned may have gone through their heads.

[malaise]

11. Valid points

What a tragedy. Power gone mad.

[SharonAnn]

16. Not my nephew! He was a page this last summer and he's a liberal

Democrat!

I haven't contacted him or his father yet to find out how this affects him, but I can imagine that he won't want to make a fuss. He's got a lot of promise and a great future ahead of him. I don't know if he has anything to say or not, but can understand if he wants to "no comment".

[bobbolink]

7. I"m so sorry, LIberalEsto. thank you for understanding these pages!

And thanks for explaining it to us.

I remember the words of Marilyn VanDebur -- "If they won't believe me, what chance to kids have to be believed?"

:cry:

[JohnnyLib2]

8. Many victims of abuse by priests

gave some or all of these reasons for keeping the secret for years. Being afraid/reluctant to tell is a common reaction. This is a well known reaction in child protection and abuse prevention circles.

[LiberalEsto]

13. True

I worked a year for the Metro Center for Assault Prevention (M-CAP) in Maryland. We conducted workshops in public schools to teach children to "keep telling until someone listens to you and believes you" if they are victimized. We also taught them that they have the right to say no, and that their bodies are their own, not for others to touch if that makes them uncomfortable.

CAP is a fantastic national child abuse prevention program that originated in New Jersey. When my daughter was in first grade, NJCAP ran the program in her school and i thought it was wonderful. I don't know if NJ still does this, but at one point CAP's abuse prevention program was required in every public school in the state.

Here's a link to NJCAP -- http://www.eirc.org/content/cap/cap.htm

[IChing]

17. Big news from BBC on Ratz's role on Abusive Priests

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=2283971&mesg_id=2283971

[ProgressiveEconomist]

20. kick

[uppityperson]

18. victim mentality indeed.

I have read elsewhere on DU about ages, when one becomes a man or a woman, emotionally and able to deal with what it all entails. I have known some pages and NONE of them fits in the category of being able to deal with being a fully functioning adult. All the 3 I know were bright, eager to learn about politics and excited to be working with powerful people. None were powerful themselves and I can easily understand why any of these 3 would not want to press any charges if they had been involved. Embarassment, feeling the "deserved it", fear, all of these are issues.

[ProgressiveEconomist]

19. Thanks for sharing this. See also another personal witness to abuse at

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=2287078&mesg_id=2287316

[AngryOldDem]

21. The same paradigm drives this, as it does any other sex scandal...

...involving kids, or anyone else in a subordinate position in any relationship: Power. Abuse of it.

How can ANYONE in his or her right mind think a teenager will stand up to a Member of Congress? Or a teacher? Or a priest? Or any supposed "icon" of society?

[spindrifter]

10. The pages' concern is legitimate, especially

since they are young and got their jobs pretty much for the purpose of resume-building. This is why it is so egregious to have people in positions of power taking advantage of subordinates. Sadly, we had a situation like this in my work place. Someone in a position of power recruited kids to a program and tried to take advantage of them. It went on for years until one finally had the courage to speak out. The administrators knew for years and tried to signal kids they were pretty sure had been victimized, but it took a long time to get one to say anything specific. Shameful.

[treestar]

12. If that were absolutely true, why do people even WANT jobs in such

a place? You report evil acts against you and don't get a job in return? That means evil has won out entirely and there is no justice.

We need to teach younger people it is never right to victimize someone else, not that if they try to do something about it, they will lose opportunity. And then abuse others in their turn when they are on top, because that's just the way it is and has always been.

[IChing]

14. I had friends growing up that were pages a long time ago

They get to see the inner workings of congress.
Most of the time the life of a page is delivering messages standing around or doing small chores for Congress.
They get to see the likes of Boxer, Fiengold, Kennedy and others as a senate page.

But this is not what the article's point was is it?

[treestar]

24. I imagine most pages have a good experience, but the point

seems to have been that if you have a bad one, you actually should not say anything, because they have the power to get your career off track. Which is the wrong thing to teach, even those who were lucky enough that their congressperson did not abuse their position, they would only have been "lucky" and that congressperson just used their power to the good. But the power was still unquestionable.

[blogslut]

23. kicked

and recommended