High Crimes and Misdemeanors

I remember thinking it was a bit odd when Billy Bush lost his reputation and career because, as I understood it, he didn't think to shove the words of a powerful and rich buffoon back into his mouth.

Collateral damage. He went quietly after he took that fateful step off the bus and literally got thrown under, while the buffoon got a pretty big promotion and continues to ride roughshod over everybody --  even the ones who have sold whatever souls they may once have had to curry his favor. Or avoid, for as long as possible, his reign of twitter terror.

In whispers, my forward thinking female friends and I share our ambivalence about the new wave of old revelations of sexual harassment. We are torn, as survivors of the pre-millennial workplace, knowing that the culture allowed certain improprieties and that, wittingly or not, some on both ends  of the gender spectrum played what sometimes appeared to be a harmless game. We are torn, as mothers now of grown women, hard working independent people who have been raised, we hope, to be unafraid. To speak truth to power, or at least to swat away a creep.

It is troubling to know just how many predators are out there, the ones who have made a career of abusing physical or financial power or some lethal combination of the two to assault bodies and destroy psyches; it is even more troubling to know just how many silent victims there are out there. It is most troubling, though, how quickly we call for heads to roll, no matter what the offense, no matter how complicit the culture might have been, while our nation's bus continues to be driven into the ground by the most shameless purveyor of high crimes and misdemeanors.

I have no idea where we need to draw lines on ancient offenses, though pedophilia and other "clear" abuses of any kind of power certainly warrant zero tolerance with no statute of limitations. I have no idea what "clear" is, but my bet is it's the kind of stuff that causes gut outrage across the board, regardless of party affiliation. If there is such a thing.

Billy Bush went quietly and has remained remarkably silent for more than a year, until he crafted a poignant op-ed piece yesterday. He was pointed without pointing fingers, and, without suggesting his own personal horror is equal to or greater than or even lesser than the plight so many women have endured in silence, his message was to look forward. He is so right.

Our collective past is filled with mistakes, not the least of which was allowing Trump to become our president. In the workplace, in the Capitol, in universities, and in every day life, we need to return to decency and figure out the rules -- for our sons and our daughters -- and not just make them up as we go along. But first, we need to fire the bus driver, before the damage is irreparable.