About 10 years ago some friends and I were playing a game of who would you invite to dinner. When it came to my turn I said Monica Lewinsky. Of course the guys made crude jokes and the women turned up their noses and asked "why?". I had what I thought was a simple answer "To see if she is OK." By this point everyone in the room asked WHY?!?! I said THIS is why! The simple fact that people who don't know this woman outside of what has been splashed across the internet and headlines have such vile reactions to just the mention of her name.There's a real living breathing human being behind those headlines. They all kind of rolled their eyes.
There I sat with my friends with their crude comments and judgey faces. I finally said "I remember what and who all of you were doing when you were 22 and WHY do I remember? Because I was right there with you. We all did things at 22 that we wouldn't want to be known for at 36." They all just kind of looked at me. No I didn't sit and remind them of their indiscretions but I did ask them to think back. Think back to 22 Think back to the partying and all the things we ALL did. Now would you like to have those things be your legacy? Be what you are known for? Be the only things people know about you? Of course they all said no. They admitted they had never thought of it like that. Never thought of it like that? Were they serious? The media and people in general said the most horrible things about this woman. A woman none of them actually knew. A woman who fell in love with the wrong man. Most women over a certain age can say they've done that. Some, more than once. Heck I've done it. Would I like to be known only for THAT relationship? Heavens no. I'm blessed enough to have mostly wiped it from my memory and not to have to relive it on a daily basis. Ms. Lewinsky isn't that lucky.
I then asked my friends to think about all the conversations we've had over the years about the intimate details of our lives with people we trust and call friends. What if we found out those people were in fact not your friends and were recording our calls to later use against us. Who do you trust at that point?
I remember watching T.V. and literally saying over and over again "she's a person" "she's a human being" "what if she was YOUR daughter?" I actually got thrown out of a government class for speaking up when someone called Miss Lewinsky a "slut". A "slut" for doing what MOST of us have done with our boyfriends? A "slut" for falling in love with a man? I guess I've just never understood that form of thinking.
I have always wanted people to think deeper than just the "acts" talked about in the Starr report. Think about the human beings involved. We all know HE came out of it OK but what about Monica? What about her?
We as a modern society like to chew people up and spit them out with no regard for their feelings or their spirits. YES their spirits....Bullying ( cyber or otherwise ) or just being unkind can damage the human spirit. When does it stop? When do we as human beings stand up and say no more? Oh that's right it's all "ok" until it's you.
THIS FORM OF THINKING NEEDS TO CHANGE!
