What Really Happened at the Kasich Town Hall

I attended a John Kasich Town Hall in Watertown, NY on April 15^th and heard every word the man said.  After a presentation about his personal background and policies he has seen work successfully during his times in the House of Representatives and as Governor of Ohio, he took questions from the floor.

In response to a young woman’s question regarding sexual harassment and attacks on college campuses, he gave a lengthy answer on policies which should be in place to protect young women and deal with them correctly and compassionately if they do have such an experience.  At no time did he say anything that any reasonable person would construe as blaming the victim.  He mentioned his own daughters going away to college soon and gave the bit of fatherly advice that a young woman should avoid a party where there is a lot of alcohol.

Sooooooooooo……out of ALL the things about this topic and others that he addressed, guess what is being headlined by social media? 

KASICH IN WATERTOWN ADVISES WOMEN TO AVOID PARTIES WHERE THERE IS A LOT OF ALCOHOL

This has caused all manner of nasty comments by people who were NOT there and assume this was a focus of his remarks.  It has been twisted into “he blames the victim.”

This actually does not surprise me at all.  I have been astounded through the years at the way the media influences how the populace thinks.  Many times when I have attended or been an active participant in a meeting later reported on by the media, I have seen this phenomenon.  The reporter will seize on one small element of the meeting which can be blown up into something inflammatory, or he/she will have a preconceived notion of what they want to report on and squeeze the content of the meeting into the desired mold.

To be fair, the local television station did more of a summary and did not mention this issue at all in their initial broadcasted comments.  The madness occurred on social media where news fragments are spread ever so much more quickly.

Of course, Kasich’s advice is actually sound.  When alcohol flows freely, bad things happen. 

No sober man should take advantage of a drunk woman.  But a drunk women is pretty stupid if she expects a drunk man to be more responsible for his actions than she is for hers.

So, it makes my blood boil that the media grabs attention by perversion of truth.

And

It makes my blood boil when women want equality, but implement it with stupidity.