(Deep breath)

First I heard the NPR report on a film documenting the mushrooming culture of rape in the Congo a few days ago. The war in eastern Congo has killed 5.4 million people over the last decade. It's also seen a rise in the rape of Congolese women by soldiers--militiamen from Uganda and Burundi, Hutu's escaping justice, the army and police forces there to protect the people and even, possibly UN peacekeepers. Estimates are as high as 40,000 women in the last year or 250,000 in the last decade.

"If she's strong, I'll call some friends to come and help me." No remorse, no fear of reprisals. The women are then disposed of by their rapists...and by their husbands and communities, with these women and their children living like sexual assault refugees. Their children become pickings for the militias.

When asked how they (the rapists) would feel if their mother or sister was being raped, they replied that--as long as it was "in support of the country"--they'd have to support it.

But that's all the way over there in Africa, right?

In a raid of a religious compound (Yearn for Zion) in west Texas (where, I think they must all be batshit crazy) police liberated 401 children after a report by a 16 yera old girl that she'd been beaten, raped and "given" to a 50 year old man to be his "spiritual wife."

"Investigators determined that there is a widespread pattern and practice of the (Yearn for Zion) Ranch in which young, minor female residents are conditioned to expect and accept sexual activity with adult men at the ranch upon being spiritually married to them," stated the affidavit signed by Lynn McFadden, an investigative supervisor with the Department of Family and Protective Services.

The court documents also describe a desperate 16-year-old girl's whispered calls to authorities. Using a borrowed cell phone, she told of being raped by her 50-year-old "spiritual husband," and then beaten until her ribs were broken and she had to be taken to an emergency room. The girl, who is alleged to have given birth to a child at the age of 15, has still not been located by authorities.

Generations of girls were conditioned to become the wifely sexual chattel to the men of the community as soon as they hit puberty. Some, when taken in, were there with their children--children, in the scheme of things, were not much younger than they.

Broadsided, the Texas Child Protective Services, which is called in to investigate when abuse in a household has happened or is eminent, was stunned to find that this "household" didn't include 2 or 3 children but over 400. Merrill Jessup, a presiding elder of the polygamist group, complained about the children's removal saying "There needs to be a public outcry. The hauling off of women and children."

Yeah, Merrill.

Quietly, while we're not really paying attention, women and girls are becoming the new chattle slaves to men with huge...egos, small minds and rotten hearts. Using rape of women and girls--no matter how you try to "pretty it up" with patriotism or religion--is a crime against humanity. As women are the first educators of children, the generational span of these crimes will go on and on and on...

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