Identity Disorder
"Chelsea didn't want to have this be something that overshadowed the case, wanted to wait until the case was done to move on to the next stage of her life."
David Coombs, Bradley Chelsea Manning's defence lawyer
In
this undated file photo provided by the U.S. Army, Pfc. Bradley Manning
poses for a photo wearing a wig and lipstick. Manning plans to live as a
woman named Chelsea and wants to begin hormone therapy as soon as
possible, the soldier said Thursday, a day after he was sentenced to 35
years in prison for sending classified material to WikiLeaks. Photograph by: U.S. Army, File
, AP Photo
Perhaps it is a matter of cunning cupidity aided and abetted by a terminal case of entitled egotism that has motivated the young Bradley Manning to act as he did. A confused young man, accustomed to attention-seeking, finding it conflicting to his needs. As a gay in the American military he would not be very popular.
As a young man in the military entrusted with sensitive data in an employment requiring discretion, skill and patriotism to a degree, whose personal plate was piled so high with angst one wonders at the lack of wisdom of those who assigned him to that particular duty.
The vision of the young man at work on his computer, retrieving secret files, downloading them on a thumb drive to be stored elsewhere than where they belonged, for some future use that would bring huge embarrassment to his country, still confident and self-amused by his situation, is an intriguing one. He was described as wearing ear buds while working, listening to the pop-cult music that appealed to his sensibilities, actually bopping along as he downloaded restricted files.
All to a good cause, though, to make the great American public aware of its military's lack of ethics, morals, world citizenship. Its "blood-lust" disgusted him and he had every intention of revealing it to the public. So they could rise up as one in rage against the machine and demand accountability. So everyone in America could end up proud to be Americans.
That his treachery to his country back-fired on him when he was revealed to have been the source for WikiLeaks' scoops was his misfortune.
Or was it? He's only 25 years of age, after all, and although he was given a 35-year prison sentence, a cordially magnanimous system will give him credit for time already served, and he will likely get time off for 'good behaviour', which in his case is somewhat absurd, but there you have it. Six and a half years, some in the know assess. Why, he'd just be entering his 30th year, or slightly beyond at that rate.
His whole life ahead of him.
As Breanna or Chelsea, whatever the mood takes him. For Chelsea E. Manning, aka Bradley Manning, wishes to be known henceforth, proudly and with huge entitlement, as a woman. The arcane pathology that has afflicted him was presented by his lawyer as his defence of his client's actions. Have some compassion, people. Free Bradley Manning to live out Chelsea E. Manning's life.
For Chelsea would so much appreciate that kind consideration.
"The ultimate goal is to be comfortable in her skin and be the person she never had an opportunity to be", said Chelsea's lawyer in explanation. Evidently because he is assigned to a military prison and not a federal prison, he will not be given hormone treatments as he wished. After all, the military teaches its members various types of skills useful both within the military and outside it. Why not sex re-assignment, sans surgery?
"As I transition into the next phase of my life, I want everyone to know the real me. I am Chelsea Manning. I am a female. Given the way I feel, and have felt since childhood, I want to begin hormone therapy as soon as possible." Utterly precious.
Labels: Communications, Conspiracy Theories, Crisis Politics, Fidelity, Security Defence, United States
Having a Ball of Piety
"You'd think they could at least put their garbage in all the bins. I'm also pretty surprised that people who call themselves Christians would throw away all this food."
Jose da Silva, Rio De Janeiro, Copacabana beach
Well, this was a Papal celebration for Catholic youth, after all. And Mr. da Silva is a crotchety 75-year old who has seen much of life. A retired farm worker, he hasn't the means to live if he 'retires' completely from work. So he supplements his income through performing a huge favour for society and the environment that just incidentally also benefits him financially, although in a meagre fashion. He collects empty cans for recycling.
And he felt fairly disgusted seeing Copacabana's mosaic sidewalks piled with trampled cardboard, plastic bags, empty water bottles, cookie wrappers and other food waste as orange-uniform-clad trash collectors did their best to restore a semblance of tidy order out of the remains of a crowd estimated at three million people assembled to hear Pope Francis speak in person at his final mass in Brazil.
Clearly the youth, whom Pope Francis enjoined to spread their faith
"to the fringes of society, even to those who seem farthest away, most indifferent...The church needs you, your enthusiasm, your creativity and the joy that is so characteristic of you", have not quite subscribed to that old adage that cleanliness is next to Godliness. Slovenliness is far more 'characteristic', obviously, of youth. And joie de vivre becomes them.
An
estimated three million people crowd Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro
Sunday waiting for the arrival of Pope Francis for the final mass of
his visit to Brazil. Throngs spent the night sleeping on the beach. Photograph by: Getty Images
, The Associated Press
They are young, after all, and youth are not particularly driven to tidiness and respect. Their sheer numbers was amazing, crowding themselves within an entire four kilometre crescent of the broad beach. Flag-waving faithful. Some of them seizing the moment by taking an early morning swim in the Atlantic. While others bequeathed Pope Francis with their very best regards, tossing T-shirts, flags and soccer jerseys at him as he drove by in his open-sided car.
For his part, the pontiff was clearly delighted with the lively scene. He did the religio-political thing of kissing babies, graciously accepting gifts, waving to the crowd, partaking of a mate tea handed to him. Perhaps even instinctively holding his breath at the miasmic stench of garbage and human waste in the humid environment which must have helped enormously to give the beach the atmosphere of a squalid refugee camp.
That a good time was had by all -- youth, that is -- was attested to by the young people who spent the night on the beach -- the enjoyment of an all-night slumber party ending the Catholic youth fest -- wrapped in flags and sleeping bags as protection against the night-time frigid air.
"We were dying of cold, but it was worth it. It was a tiring day, but it was a great experience", enthused Lucrecia Grillera, 18, from Argentina, approvingly.
Labels: Celebrity, Charity, Christianity, Communication, Entertainment, Fidelity, Heritage Human Relations
The Irony of Hypocrisy
"Three years ago I was a single workaholic, travelling the globe with an amazing job at the U.S. State Department. I could not have imagined how much my life would change in three short years.
"For years I spent my professional life at the back of the room, far from the stage or the microphone. I kept my personal life private, even as the people I was close to lived in the public eye. But all that changed two years ago and Anthony and I have spent these past few years working through the very private challenges we faced on a very public stage. So when people tell me they're surprised to see me out on the campaign trail, I understand because, trust me, no one is more surprised than I am.
"So why am I doing this? Because Anthony has always been a smart, caring, and dedicated person, and while he's the same public servant who wants what's best for the people he represents, he is now something else -- a better man. New Yorkers will have to decide for themselves whether or not to give him a second chance. I had to make that same decision for myself, for my son, for our family. And I know in my heart that I made the right one."
Huma Abedin, New York City
 |
| Kathy Willens/The Associated Press |
Now what's a smart, beautiful young woman with personal ambition doing standing steadfastly alongside someone like her husband, Anthony Weiner who appears functionally incapable of reining in his adolescent hormones, anxious to share his sexuality with any woman who might conceivably find him as irresistible as he believes himself to be? His wife, Huma, admittedly has a mentor, yet another intelligent woman no longer young, but who also famously chose to stand by her man.
Even when as he so often occasioned to release his imposed inhibitions sufficiently to allow himself to step out of his adult persona to take on that of an arrested juvenile, besotted with his ego and charm so enticing to women prepared to surrender their dignity and their bodies for the brevity of satisfying his appetite. Ms. Abedin has worked for years alongside Hillary Clinton, and was an invaluable assistant to her when she held the post of Secretary of State. She has been around, she knows politics.
And she knows, without a shadow of a doubt that what she wrote for
Harper's Bazaar, repeated above, is pure claptrap, useful propaganda for her husband's mayoral campaign for the New York City campaign. Ruefully, for no woman willingly seeks to forgivingly overlook a husband's infidelities when she knows by experience that they will be repeated, despite interregnums of tearful apology, and repeated yet again.
Anthony Weiner's flaunting of his belief of self as super-stud Carlos Danger, and his mock regret for political advantage in meeting the forgiving acceptance of New York voters is a telling tale of the sordidness of politics in an era of lost expectations of character.
"I love him, I have forgiven him, I believe in him", pledged his wife courageously, willing to soldier on and permit the man who fathered her son to teach him how to be a good boy and then a responsible adult.
She must know, because women in these circumstances do know, that what her errant husband needs is a sound spanking and to be sent up to his bedroom without dinner to think deeply about his lack of remorse and his inability to school himself away from a salacious addiction that enhances his life far more than the willingness to become a dependable and loving companion to a woman who deserves just that, and a child who requires a father he can model himself after.
Labels: Family, Fidelity, Human Relations, Hypocrisy, Sexism, Social Failures, United States
