Heroic women of 9/11 have been all but erased from collective memory

Close your eyes. Today is 9/11. You're fleeing from a building just struck by a hijacked plane. You've fallen and you begin to feel the rubble from the World Trade Center or Pentagon fall on you.

You're scared when someone begins to unearth you from the dust and debris. When you look at your rescuer's face, what do you see?

For many on that September afternoon, the person who came to their aid, firefighters or rescue workers, military personnel, bystanders, or trained first responders, were women.

But our collective memory and social constructs almost inevitably have erased these brave women from the picture. In our imagined world, strong men were the ones who dove in and, in too many cases, died doing so, in order to save people from the devastation of the greatest attack on our soil in the nation’s history.

Read more at The Washington Times Communities Online.

Arguments to dismiss abuse allegation due to less-than-perfect pass leads to slippery slope

Former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn can again take the to the sea, air or roads and travel on his merry way, while the woman who accused him of a sexual attack in a New York City hotel room earlier this year is hunkering down against heavy rebuke.

Image courtesy of
The Independent online.

Nafissatou Diallo alleges that Strauss-Kahn forced her to perform oral sex on him at a hotel in which she was employed as a maid. The Guinea native has come under attack after initially being painted by much of the media as a pious woman. As the flames of the scandal grew, reports in various media outlets suggested Diallo had been previously paid for sex, was affiliated with a pimp and more.
Since this information was reported, even very forward-thinking women I work and socialize with have asserted that if Diallo was paid for sex at any time, even though it was never reported that she solicited or was paid for sex by Strauss-Kahn, her claims should be dismissed.

Read more at The Washington Times Communities Online.