There is an interesting case unfolding in my state's capital.

A half a dozen of our State Troopers have been accused of gang raping a woman they met at a local bar two years back.

The men say she asked for it, agreed to it, and never said "no".
The woman says they plied her with drinks...a whole LOT of drinks, and that she was incapable of a no by the time things got critical.

This one pisses me off on a few levels.

First, the NJ State Troopers are tough ombres. They are like the Marine Corps of law enforcement, and if you live in NJ, you are terrified to be pulled by one. I never have been---but I also spent a week with them when I was 17, back when they were looking for female candidates to fill in their ranks. They called it Trooper Youth Week...part boot camp, part testing to determine if you had the aptitude for the job.It was brutal---I lost six pounds, and gained a new respect for the men and women who did the job---but I knew that I didn't have the "right stuff" to be one.

Any sort of cop is subject to a bipolar attitude from the public. We want their protection...but we see anything they do to us personally as "a hassle". I respect people who become police...but I am not ignorant to the  darker side of their service either. I've known decorated officers who were brilliant at work---but drank hard, and lost control in their personal lives. I knew one man who drank himself to death at the age of 50. Another the next town over supplemented his income by selling illegal steroids. And of course, we've all heard of the police chief who wired explosives to his wife's car...hoping to avoid divorce.

Cops are not perfect. Their job is hard, and they are human...BUT...because their work is law enforcement, I hold them to a higher standard of behavior. That means they really should know better than to buy a pretty girl drinks til she is so drunk, she can't speak...a girl they would have given a DWI to if she tried to drive home after two, on the grounds of legal impairment...and then have sex with her because "she didn't say no". We already have issues about what "consent" is. This matter is so confusing to some, that if a person is unconscious, consent is assumed. I think that is bullshit...but its been tried in court, and has worked.

Now imagine this...a man drinks way too much, consents to go to a motel with a woman...then passes out for a while. When he wakes up, he finds himself dressed in a pink tutu, and is watching a streaming video of himself in a variety of emabarssing sexual positions with OTHER men...while the woman laughs her butt off in the corner. He did not consent...but he was impaired. Do you really think any jury will take HER side, because he used "bad judgment", and let himself fall into that situation? Of course not. BUT...when the victim is a woman, her judgment is always called into question.

These aren't a bunch of horny frat boys. These are supposed to be the creme de la creme of our law enforcement. I find it sick making that not even one of them understood that what they were doing was wrong. I am guessing that they will win the case. There will be high fives all around---and they will be bought drinks to celebrate their "victory". But I think it is shameful. I think they disgraced themselves, and their uniforms by acting like the perps they would have collared for the same thing. I cannot help but remember the words of a Trooper named Pagano, who spoke at out "Graduation" after that week I spent in Sea Girt. I had asked during some questions how it was that the men and women could handle the pressures of the job---that seemed thankless at times. During the ceremony, he called my name, and asked me if I finally understood.

I said "Yes, sir". For years after, I used to take people to task when they bitched about the Troopers. I was glad that existed...to keep us safer. But now? I am ashamed that these men didn't understand the responsibility they took on when they put on those uniforms. I will be like everyone else...scared of them, because they wield not only power, but the ability to abuse that power as well. In life, we choose to be a "good guy", or a "bad guy". They were supposed to better than that.

They failed to understand that most people only seem them when they are at their most vulnerable---and the last thing we need to do is be afraid of the ones who are supposed to be upholding the law.

I have been mulling the issue of illiteracy lately---starting last week when I read an article that said that excellent written communication skills are now much sought after in the job market nationally.

My first thought? A whole lot of people are SCREWED.

I remember college---where you were careful not to name a major where you had weaknesses...note, I never studied math? But I came across a few people who took communications...then tried to graduate without taking a single writing course. I know people who were in hiring positions, and encountered Chemistry majors who wanted jobs in the field...but didn't want to do chemistry. I thought that was a bit odd...but lately I am wondering if that has not become a trend in our society.

Once upon a time, you learned to write basic things in school---business letters, notes, all sort of functional skills to help you in life. Kids were required to write thank you notes, so that by the time they become adults, they were not only gracious...but had acquired the skill of communicating. You read things---like books, newspapers, magazines---and increased your verbal skills as you got older. Your vocabulary improved with time.

Today? Not so much. I am wondering out loud how much of the national failure to produce literate young adults is the off shoot of the fact that their parents have BECOME illiterate. They may have only been grudgingly literate in the first place...but think of it this way...to get your driver's permit, you must pass a written test, which gives you a working knowledge of traffic laws and regulations. Once you acquire the license, how many adults continue to drive according to the rules? Based on the number of people I see frozen in traffic when they see a cop or a state trooper, I would say very few.

Bad driving carries a penalty...tickets, points, etc...but bad English? No problem. Historically, the literate could actually make a living with their skill. Scribes were valued in ancient society...back when only the gentry could read or write. The battle cry of the last thirty years has been "too busy". We are all too busy to pay attention to anything---much less our speech or communication. I am watching the current "tea party" patriots with a wry kind of amusement. Most of their hand lettered signs could use a bit of proof reading.

What I am suggesting here is that too many adults lost whatever dismal skills they once had, in terms of communication...then infected their offspring. I guess I am wondering if that was by intention, more than inattention. If mom and dad have no damned idea what a dangling participle is, why would they care if their child doesn't? My daughter can write---but she got very little basic grammar in her school years. I remember diagramming sentences, reciting the rules of grammar---stuff that most people found boring.  But I learned to "drive" my language. I continued to write, long after most people gave up the practice, usually with a sign of relief.

So...have the schools failed us...or did we fail to practice a very basic life skill?
Are we jamming on the brakes in utter confusion? Or simply scared that if we do speak or write, people will notice that we are in fact, illiterate by default?  The children of parents who don't read much rarely acquire the habit. Is it such a stretch to think that we have limited our children, simply by inaction?

Mulling this one...