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As I watch the news, I see another man has been fired because of his decision to abuse his position of power. Power is a gift that should be used with respect and discretion. Power is so intoxicating it can lead you astray if you lose your discretion. We are living in an environment of volleying for power which has resulted in years of men not honoring women in the workplace and in our modern lives.
As a man, I feel uncertain shame politically and socially. The challenges we face with the resignation or firing of high profile men like Harvey Weinstein, Charlie Rose, Louis C.K., Kevin Spacey, Terry Richardson, Bill O’Reilly, Roy Price, and now Matt Lauer are challenges that need to be addressed in a quest for a solution.
The list of offenders is growing, the backlash is affecting the safety and sanity of our society. Women’s voices have been quiet for too long and a can of worms has opened up as our society is throwing up the behavior in practice for too many years. It not only affects women, but men as well. The casting couch has many faces.
We have come to a place in our modern society where we cannot just brush this behavior under the rug or we will not be able to walk across a room without stumbling over the elephant in the room. We need to be able to look our daughters and sisters in the eye without guilt or shame.
We need to foster a safe environment for all people within the workplace without fear for one’s sexual safety. This should not be an approved way of life. Too many men in power have taken advantage of people’s need to secure employment and basic benefits needed for a human life or the need to quench their sexual desires by overstepping their power. It is workplace misconduct. No one needs to be demeaned or disrespected in any fleeting moment that was wholly unprofessional and unacceptable in order to be employed at any job. Fear kills hopes and dreams.
My hope is this issue has a chance to be resolved and addressed with respect for all parties involved. All parties involved are victims of our society. The women are locked into a positioning of being victims of a power play by their superiors, while the men are victims of their sense of lack of power. Having a sense of not knowing what the abuse of power does to the victims, how it demeans their self-esteem is an act of a person who feels powerless. They, in turn, become a victim of their own power.
These are uncertain times where accusations and fear are running amok in the news, on television and in the living rooms of America. Usually, where there is smoke there is fire. There must be a fire because men with large paychecks are getting fired.
Corporate America does not like to lose money or would they chop off their own heads and gut their own pocketbooks. It seems we are now hearing the unspoken truth of the boardroom and the workplace with a calling for change of public and personal behavior.
The balance of power in its deficiency is an example of the inequality of shared power existing in our modern world.There needs to be a reassessment of how our joint power would look like. Historically power has somehow been an entity that human beings have a hard time executing.
Power should enhance, not deminous. Power should liberate, not enslave. It is my hope this opportunity for dialogue will be taken advantaged of. There is a visible call for a conversation about change. It is time to change the record and its tune. Power is a gift of service and it must be given with compassion and respect. Power should not be the tool of ego, shego, or hego.
I would hope we can regain the trust of the execution of power and hope we could reframe our thoughts and languaging to create a new contract of being more conscious people. I would also hope we could regain honor as a daily truth in our lives. I would hope we would train our sons and our daughters to be people of justice and the pursuit of happiness would not feel like a distant dream.
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