Time to Reflect

We interrupt this writer's block with a special bulletin.  Politico reports that a 41 year old woman in Maine alleges that Graham Platner, recent winner of the Maine Democratic Primary for Senate, sexually assaulted her in 2021. (For some context since his wife has become a figure in some of this, Platner and his wife-- not the woman named in the article-- married in 2023).  Platner has admitted to PTSD from combat experienced in four stints as a Marine serving in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan -- wars he describes now as unjust-- and his candidacy has been beset by controversy and surfacings from one corner or another of troubling details of his past from online intemperance to troubling markings on his person in the form of what we have all-- Platner as well if he is to be believed-- just learned is a tattoo of a skull and crossbones of Nazi origin, and most recently in a problematic piece of journalism in the New York Times alleging "unsettling" (if underwhelmingly presented in the story) behavior with women strategically timed just before the primary.  In response to the relentless onslaught of exposure of what to this point could be described as at worst the past very human mistakes of a man in active and by all appearances successful recovery from darkness and trauma,  Maine voters responded with a doubling down of their support of the genuinely populist Platner who garnered 72% of the Maine primary vote in an unusually heavy turnout in early June.  And yet, sources familiar with both Platner and with the woman named in the Politico article at the time of the alleged incident describe these latest allegations as "credible".   For his part Platner, who denies the allegations, is as of this writing, taking time off to reflect on his campaign.

Regular Unspeakable (as heck) readers may be aware that owing to his outstandingly uncompromising platform, I have been an outspoken supporter of Platner beginning in response to the first allegations in October of last year.  (Disclosure: I am a former Mainer who is ineligible to vote in Maine). I also commented on the New York Times article in the wake of Platner's victory.  I feel it is important in light of "credible" allegations of sexual assault that I comment again.  It would be easy to say "I'm done" with Platner.   Those with an audience larger than mine appear to have now found their out.  I on the other hand would like to imagine a different response so come along if you dare.

I must first state that if the allegations are true, I condemn the act.  Sexual assault is in a category of its own as a violation of another person.  A line has been crossed when an act has a victim.  If true, this is a hugely disappointing and disillusioning turn.  It feels like a betrayal.  He said there would be nothing else to surface.  Was he lying?*  It is also a particularly egregious injustice. As such, I must reiterate my position on injustice.  As one who has studied and thought about the topic a great deal  in recent years, and has had an awakening on it, I reaffirm that I do not consider responses to injustice that do not restore justice to be justice.  What I would like to see is not retribution and punishment as self-justifying reflexes to wrongs, but rather true undoing of the imbalance introduced by the violation of a person by another.  Not an eye for an eye, but healing of the wound  to include some mending to be provided by or taken from the offender; and redemption appropriately sought by the transgressor and to whatever extent possible willingly granted by the transgressed.  All of this a private restitution mediated as necessary by a third party or parties.  And then movement on with the lives of all concerned with only the diminishment that entropy could not restore to the situation due to what remains in the memory of the act.  We have few precedents for it, but it is what I have come to always seek.  To my way of thinking, until we live in a society in which restorative justice is possible, we are neglecting the important society rebuilding work of getting there.

The point I want to make from the above is not that I choose to imagine justice restored as I describe in this particular alleged incident.  That would be a fairy tale of wishful thinking.  Rather, I  would like to stress that I feel such a violation in a more perfect world to be a private matter of the woman and her family and circle of support, her going public with it notwithstanding.  As for Platner, I would like to think that if this is true he would have already taken steps or made plans to selflessly and privately make amends for his act.  And if he is innocent, and can be in contact with her, his seeking a rapprochement or coming to an agreement with her would be a lovely thing. My only wish would be for restorative justice to be made good on in a way that would undo the harm that this betrayal (if true) will have done to Maine voters and others who have placed hope in and support behind Platner's campaign.  But it would be foolish to expect it.

Until we know the outcome, I do grieve for the people of Maine, and for the piece of the National consciousness that had awakened in hope from the real substance for working people that Platner's campaign platform had aroused.  The sad truth about politics is that too much of it is a spectator sport.  The online leftists who were eager to be done with Platner in October (and who surely are enjoying a good if premature last laugh at this turn of events) inspired me to support Platner openly for the first time because while content to destroy a worker's campaign willy nilly they were not efficacious enough to provide a better alternative.  Their smug inaction is partly responsible for the disaster that will transpire should Platner not find the wherewithal or redemption to continue.  That disaster is the void left in opposition to Susan Collins (and the end of a rare and beautiful dream of a vastly superior alternative for the working Mainer and an example for the country) leading inevitably to her re-election at the worst moment in history for it. 

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* In my estimation, it is much too soon to rule out further shenanigans from a political establishment that does not want the change that Platner and other insurgent Democrats represent.