This morning, I read a thought provoking New York Times article about sexual assault against female farm workers.

Coinciding with the Norm McAllister scandal in Franklin County, the message seemed very timely.

Even when undocumented labor is not involved, farm work is dirty, low-wage labor that falls primarily to teenagers and economically unstable adults. Among this population, women exist on the lowest rung of vulnerability.

That suspended senator McAllister still insists he “did nothing wrong” says even more about the culture that allows him this delusion than it does about the man himself.

This is not a far-off issue affecting only immigrant laborers in the American southwest. Even though Mr. McAllister’s story is the most sensational in recent memory, for years I have heard rumors of mistreated wives and other women who live under the masculine thumb of dairy farming.

A senator and a respected pillar in his community, one must assume that Mr. McAllister is representative of the culture from which he has emerged.

He hasn’t even hinted at remorse. The passion he brings to absolute denial that he has done anything wrong suggests that in whatever community he thinks he belongs, the standards of that community are very different from what we would expect them to be.

That means that some frank conversations are long overdue in Franklin County.

This is a wake-up call that health professionals, spiritual advisors, educators and local media would do well to heed.

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The following is Paula Schramm’s firsthand report on the spectacle that took centerstage last week in Burlington:

I read with interest the Messenger editorial, and the articles about last Thursday’s Trumpfest (” Locals take in Trump”, 1/8/16). My first thought beforehand was to ignore it – not add anything to all the hullabaloo.

When something really troubling is being said, ignoring it can be interpreted as agreeing…. so it gets tricky.

I feel what Trump has been saying about banning any and all Muslims from coming into this country has crossed some line, and needs public discussion and attention. The challenge is HOW to talk about it, and from watching the enthusiastic Vermont Trump supporters in the theater, I have a good idea what that dynamic is……no one really cares WHAT he says – it’s that he can stand up to the establishment, Republican or Democrat, and TRUMPET their anger for them, ( because they’ve been feeling so frustrated and powerless to change anything. I can relate ! ) They feel he’s their CHAMPION, and they will rise to his defense, even over stupid things he says.

When it became so obvious that there would BE a great to-do, ( after the Trump Campaign’s announcement that they had sent out 20,000 free tickets to a 1,400 seat venue ! ), I changed my mind and went. To be a witness at least, and see for myself !

So with a few friends, I spent my Thursday colliding with the underlord Trump’s dark world vision, and coming out into the bright Burlington buzz of VT Pub & Brewery’s celebration that was really all about Bernie !

We got down to “Trumpsville” and started doing our time waiting in line to get into the Trump event, and to witness it for ourselves. We arrived at 1:30 pm to be sure to get “first-come, first-served” seats for the 7pm talk. Two of us did visit the Bernie Campaign Office ( 131 Church St., 3rd floor ) while the others held our place in line…and both of us made contributions to Bernie in honor of the occasion ! We picked up free bumper stickers, Bernie signs & buttons, and bought a few lawn signs. The place was buzzing & the MSNBC news team had visited earlier. I think a lot of people took advantage of this opportunity to show their support for Bernie !

When we were back out on Church St. taking our Bernie loot to the car, we met Ben Cohen walking down towards City Park, holding a lighted Bernie sign in his hand. (They are very nice & will sell for $8 online on “Etsy”, as a fund-raiser ). While we were talking with him, a N.Y.Times reporter came up and started interviewing us. We let Ben do the talking, and had a good laugh when it became clear that she had no idea she was talking to a “famous”person, and went running after him when she found out. A very Vermont moment…

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We did make it into the Flynn for Trump’s talk…..we found out at the last minute from a young woman who’d been escorted out , that we had to lie & say we would vote for Trump to be allowed to stay after we gave our tickets in at the door. ( This was all so weird and obnoxious – it didn’t matter after all that we had gotten tickets or had waited in line 4 hours in the cold ! )
And then, since the Trump campaign had released so many more tickets than seats, there were maybe 500 fans left, out of the 2,000 or so of us who had waited in line, who didn’t get in. Meanwhile Trump defended himself in the press about the “loyalty oath” condition by saying how “loyal he is to his supporters”. All those left out in the cold just didn’t get the chance to experience his “loyalty” !

It was both instructive & disturbing to be there & see Trump in action for ourselves, & to see how people reacted to him. He spent most of his time talking about how wonderful he was, and getting the crowd to wave their signs & chant “Trump” and point to any protesters who spoke up…..until security was able to get them out. These brave, ( I thought, anyway ) people kept popping up every ten minutes or so ( about 9 times in all, and about 2 dozen people over all ) and Trump got increasingly irritated as they just kept on doing it. The crowd got increasingly worked up too. We were sitting quietly in the back row, and finally exited behind a group of protesters when we couldn’t take any more of the “blood-lust atmosphere”. As each group of protesters came out of the theater, they were greeted with cheers from the hundreds of people assembled across the street from the Flynn. That definitely made us all feel heartened….and we went over to the Vermont Pub & Brewery where Chris Hayes & MSNBC was set up to cover the day. We took in the very upbeat crowd and interesting, lively discussion among the commenters, including Howard Dean.
You may be able to watch it, if you want, on this link ( the Jan.7, 8pm show ) http://www.msnbc.com/all#

Just a few more thoughts : I wondered how the people featured in the Messenger front page story had fared with the Trump oath process. Did the daughter who was a Trump fan get in, but her mother who said she was undecided get escorted out ?

We met people who had said they were curious, or were there to hear what Trump had to say before deciding, who were heartlessly sent out. We also learned that the Trump signs that were used to such effect had been passed out just minutes after someone had reassured the Flynn owner that yes, of course, they would honor the contract agreement to have no signs of any sort.

Another lie from the Campaign that somehow fit their pattern of thumbing their nose at the city of Burlington, the police, and the tax-payers by refusing to co-ordinate or help with the security efforts needed from their sending out 20,000 tickets for such a small venue.
Trump’s love of the lie was on full view too – it was “ten below zero outside” ( so” take his coat “- he ordered the police to do to a protester). “There were 20,000 people here to see me !” ( There were about 2,000 of us in the line stretching down St.Paul St. ) ” The people here in Vermont are so great, they love me !”
It was clear to us that Trump wants people to love him as much as he loves himself. What wasn’t so clear was , will HE still love us tomorrow ?

The Vermont Senate underwent a test of character this week. Most of that body proved equal to the task.

It’s not a perfect resolution as far as this Franklin County constituent is concerned, since it leaves us with only half of our allotted representation while taxpayers remain on the hook for Norm McAllister’s salary; but given the deficiency of guiding precedent, this was the best outcome that one could expect.

Even now, if McAllister is as concerned about his county’s representation as he claims to be, he could simply resign, allowing another Franklin County resident to fill the vacancy.

True to his selfish pattern, he refuses to do so, BECAUSE, he insists, he has done nothing wrong.

As Mr. McAllister draws down his salary and awaits his day in court, two glaring deficits present themselves.

First is the complete absence of legislative guidelines for dealing with an ethical crisis such as that which McAllister’s legal situation thrust upon his constituency.

I hope we can trust that this experience has convinced even the most reluctant senators that there is a real need to develop an ethics policy with specific guidelines, swift remedies and meaningful consequences to deal with those who grossly compromise the public trust.

It must be made very clear that legislative ethics are a matter quite apart from the course of criminal law; and that behaviors that may not rise to the level of criminal liability may still be determined to be in violation of the legislators’ oath of office, and therefore automatically disqualifying.

The second deficit is in public awareness that there may be a rural culture of sexual abuse out there in little old Vermont that isn’t paid nearly enough attention.

We’ve heard a lot about “rape culture” on college campuses and football teams, but the fact that Mr. McAllister regards himself as a social conservative but doesn’t even seem to understand that forced sex is assault, says a lot about the culture that enabled him, then elevated him to high office.

As I have said over and over again, a man doesn’t just wake up one day, at the age of sixty, and begin a life of sexual assault.

I’ve heard the whispers about one farming patriarch or another whose attitudes toward women are eye-raising, or even hair-raising.

This is the first time, in my memory at least, that the consequences have made headline news. One can only hope that the McAllister story will prompt Vermont journalists to investigate what shaped his attitudes toward women and sexual relations, and how widespread those attitudes may be.