Rep. Paul Ryan is angling (see what I did there?) to be Top Hooker. Or something.
Monday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by empathy.
Recommended Reading:
First, a few important things related to the George Zimmerman trial:
The Feminist Wire Editors: Rachel Jeantel Is Not on Trial [Content Note: The post at this link includes discussion of the intersection of racism, colorism, misogyny, classism, and fat hatred.]
The Crunk Feminist Collective: To Rachel Jeantel, With Love [Content Note: The post at this link includes discussion of the intersection of racism, colorism, misogyny, classism, and fat hatred.]
BYP: Offensive Photo of Zimmerman Attorney Goes Viral
Other stuff:
Ryan: Record Heat and Drought Fuel Chaotic Wildfire in Arizona, Killing 19 Firefighters
Elisabeth: American Way of Birth, Costliest in the World
Grace: FYI: "Black" Isn't Synonymous with "African American"
Ed: It's Gotten Very Intense in Egypt
Resistance: They! [Content Note: Racism.]
Dani: The Friend Zone vs. Unrequited Crushes [Content Note: Rape culture.]
Pam writes her farewell post. ♥
And finally: Andy has a neat video of Kelly Clarkson covering Mumford & Sons' "I Will Wait."
Leave your links and recommendations in comments...
Daily Dose of Cute
One of our garden bunnies, part of the warren that lives in our front garden, was out being very cute this morning, munching away on the grass and hopping about happily.
[Video Description: A wee brown bunny sits in the grass, eating grass and weeds adorably. It hops forward, stops and munches. Hops and munches.]
I've put out carrots and spinach, but the bunnies are having none of it. They just want to eat the lawn. Which is fine. We have an unspoken agreement that we will not put down weedkiller, and they will eat the weeds.
"What?"
Film Corner: The Heat
So, I saw The Heat this weekend, because Melissa McCarthy, and I loved (almost all of) it.
Let me first acknowledge, with a nod to How to Be a Fan of Problematic Things, the problematic elements of The Heat. It has a lot of gendered and/or gender essentialist humor, specifically that "balls" are things which convey courage. There is also a scene in which Sandra Bullock's character is asked if she is transgender (though I will note that, despite the fact it's a bullshit "joke" for her femininity to be questioned that way, there's no explicit or implicit criticism of being transgender; the people who ask are just surprised she isn't). There is mockery of a person with albinism. Although the movie does feature major supporting characters of color—notably Demián Bichir and Marlon Wayans, who play Bullock's FBI boss and colleague respectively, and Spoken Reasons, who plays a suspect—there are no major roles for women of color, and Bichir's character gets called "Puss in Boots," because he's got an accent. I'm sure I'm forgetting something(s).
Let me now explain what I loved about it.
The first thing I said to Iain (and my thanks to Iain for accompanying me to the film, even though he is extremely ill with The Plague and even though I am eminently capable of seeing movies on my own) after we left the theater was that the film was extraordinary in the fact that it's totally formulaic. It's just a straight-up buddy-cop film, but with two women. The fact that it's so not divergent from a well-known genre is such a fuck you to every filmmaker who refuses to make movies with women. This is something NPR's Linda Holmes observes wonderfully in her review: "Not only is The Heat very, very funny, but it's made with a delightful combination of self-awareness about the fact that it's a rare buddy-cop movie about women and total commitment to being a buddy-cop movie, not a female-buddy-cop movie."
At the same time, it has really neat moments of exploring what it means to be a woman in law enforcement—the double-standards, the unfair expectations arising therefrom, the isolation, the shit you're forced to take from male colleagues. And it has some really special insights about female friendship, especially built within male institutions.
[Minor spoiler] One of the most poignant moments in the film for me was when Melissa McCarthy's character, who grew up in a family of brothers, tells Sandra Bullock's character that her brothers were her best friends while she was growing up, and it sucks because they all grew up to be terrible people. A buddy-cop movie is the last place you expect to encounter the Terrible Bargain.
Naturally, The Heat passes the Bechdel Test all over the place. Also: Not just in McCarthy and Bullock talking to one another. Each character independently converses with other women, too. (I can't even believe that's remarkable enough to report in the year of our lord Jesus Jones two thousand and thirteen, but here we are.)
To explain why I most loved The Heat, let me recall something I wrote after watching Paul Blart: Mall Cop, a film that shares in common with The Heat the fact that it stars a fat person:
You know what the most depressing thing about this film was (and there were many)...? It's that Kevin James is a fat guy who can move! He can run and jump and do somersaults, and he was kick. ass. on that Segway—had it doing all kinds of tricks.That is A Thing that happens with comedic movies that star fat people. Even when the fat people themselves write the films. It's just ten thousand fat jokes about how very fat the fat person is, in case you hadn't noticed how fat they are, because being fat is so funny ha ha fat ha ha fatty-fat-fat.
It was so sad that the movie was so rife with fat-hating stereotypes, because Kevin James himself actually defies so many of them!
Worst of all: He co-wrote the film and did that to himself. Sob.
That does not happen in The Heat. THAT DOES NOT HAPPEN IN THE HEAT.
There were so many times when I was cringing, waiting for The Fat Joke to demean Melissa McCarthy, and the joke never came. Even in moments where, in real life, some fat-hating shit would have been flying, the joke never came. (I am blubbing writing these sentences.) The closest thing to a fat joke in The Heat is Melissa McCarthy being told she looks like a grown-up Campbell's Soup Kid, which made me laugh forever, because hi. I am a white lady with a perfectly round face and dimples, AND I LOOK LIKE A GROWN-UP CAMPBELL'S SOUP KID, lol. (Just ask Lance Mannion.)
And here's the thing: There shouldn't be any mean fat jokes in that film, not just because there shouldn't be any mean fat jokes ever, but because Melissa McCarthy is the anti-fat joke. Just like Kevin James is. She is athletic, smart, capable, tough, attractive, ambitious, energetic, proud—all the things that fat people are Not Supposed to Be. And it's fucking horrible for a fat person who is all of those things—onscreen, right in front of your face—to be mocked as if she isn't those things.
The Heat gets it absolutely right: It does not give us an awesome fat character just to apologize for giving us an awesome fat character by treating that character like shit. It gives us an awesome fat character and says LOOK AT THIS AWESOME FAT CHARACTER THE END.
When McCarthy's character is demeaned, she is demeaned in the same way as Bullock's character—by a bunch of d-bag dudes who call them ugly and make fun of them for being "alone" (both romantically and on the job). And the film makes it abundantly clear (particularly in one great scene which I will not spoil) that those dudes are assholes. And that not every woman even wants a romantic relationship, anyway, nor needs one to be complete and fulfilled. And that there is rich irony in men who ostracize female colleagues mocking them for being friendless.
I'm not even sure how to put into words how much it meant to me to see a character who looks like me (HA HA A LOT LIKE ME) onscreen who is not the object of ridicule for being fat. Nor considered so delicate and sensitive that mockery of any sort was off-limits. McCarthy's character was drawn as fully human enough to be teased for the shit that a thin character would be teased about. ("Turning a shirt you've worn for three days inside-out doesn't make it a new shirt.")
And McCarthy herself is just so willing to be fat onscreen. There is a scene in which she sits up after getting down by an explosion, and when she sits up, her shirt is tucked under her boobs. I LOVE THAT SCENE. That is what happens when a body like hers, a body like mine, sits up. Your shirt gets stuck under your boobs! And there it was! Onscreen! A real fat body doing a real fat body thing! And it wasn't remarked upon or focused on for laughs. It was just there.
It was there.
In The News
[Content note: Homophobia, racism, Nazi reference]
Happy Monday!
On Friday the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals lifted its stay on Prop 8, allowing same-sex couples in California to marry. Fuck yes!
On Saturday pathetic bigots filed a petition with the Supreme Court asking the justices to immediately halt the weddings. Desperation sad face.
On Sunday Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy denied the bigots their request. LOLOLOL! Whoops!
Gay video break: The Cookies: "I Want A Boy For My Birthday."
North Carolina will become the first state disqualified from a federal compensation program for the long-term jobless. Long live bootstraps!
Do you look like Hitler? If so, there may be a job for you at the History Channel. Silver linings, and whatnot.
Speaking of TV: It's pretty great that the Afghan War is now just a reality show.
Meanwhile: David Bowie has been offered a role on Hannibal. Cool. I guess?
Anne Rice is defending Paula Deen and her racist remarks. Okay, sure, why not?
Related: Experts estimate Deen has lost as much as $12.5M in earnings in recent weeks as retailers and partners cut her loose.
Don't worry, everyone, there is nothing wrong with the environment! Nothing at all!
Jim Kelly, the martial artist best known for his work in the 1973 Bruce Lee film Enter the Dragon, has died. He was 67.
Meanwhile, in Ohio...
[Content Note: War on agency.]
Pro-choice people across the country (see, for example, TEXAS!) are making it clear that they want access to abortion. And yet, despite this outcry in defense of a legally guaranteed right, the Republican Party marches on, waging a war on agency against people with uteri.
Last night, as part of a budget bill, Republican Ohio John Kasich signed into law three new restrictions on abortion.
The provisions in Ohio will make it more difficult for family planning groups to receive funding for preventive care; require ultrasounds for anyone seeking an abortion; and limit abortion providers' ability to get transfer agreements with public hospitals.Of course he didn't. Because he doesn't even have the decency to be accountable to the people whose rights he just curtailed with a sweep of his pen.
..."Governor John Kasich, surrounded by a smiling group of Republican male legislators, just signed a bill in Ohio that will defund Planned Parenthood and force women seeking abortions to get medically unnecessary ultrasounds," [Elisabeth Smith, spokeswoman for the Democratic Governors Association] wrote in the e-mail. "These positions are controversial, unpopular, and well out of the mainstream in any state, let alone Ohio."
Kasich did not take questions from reporters after signing the budget legislation.
Canada Day Open Thread
[Photo description: Canadian flag fluttering in the breeze in a blue sky. Taken by me at Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS in summer 2010.]
Happy Canada Day, Shakers! Have you been celebrating over the weekend? Have you been/will you be celebrating today? Feel free to use this thread to share your Canada Day fun!
The Latest from Texas
Jessica Luther has the latest information about what's going on in Texas. There is a rally today at noon on the south side of the capitol, and all the information you need is here. Also: Be sure to follow her on Twitter for updates.
UPDATE: Shaker Ailei is also tweeting the goings-on. You can follow her on Twitter here. (I am passing on with her permission.)
The Virtual Pub Is Open
[Explanations: lol your fat. pathetic anger bread. hey your gay.]
TFIF, Shakers!
Belly up to the bar,
and name your poison!
(And don't forget to tip your bartender!)
I've got a doctor's appointment this afternoon, and several of the other moderators are also otherwise busy, so we're going to wrap it up early today. See you Monday!
Daily Dose of Cute
Zelly and her toyfriends.
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
In The News
[Content note: Homophobia, racism]
Friday Friday Friday:
The Family Research Council wants everyone to get on their knees for gay stuff. Or because gay stuff. Something! It's definitely gay:
John Travolta and Robert De Niro are teaming up for first time in new action drama. God help us all. Maybe Al Pacino and Mork from Ork can have cameos!
Indiana Governor Mike Pence doesn't like gays. Quelle surprise!
Tim Huelskamp of Kansas has vowed to introduce a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage across the nation. LOL! Okay, well, good luck with that. I guess it'll get you some attention.
Wanna watch the Taiwanese animation version of Wendy Davis' filibuster? Sure you do!
BART unions officially gave notice that they could shut down the Bay Area's transit system when their contracts expire at 11:59 p.m. Sunday.
This, folks, is the headline of the day: Antifreeze-Addicted Marmot Hitches a Ride to San Francisco. Good luck, marmots everywhere!
Obesity Is a Disease Now, You Know
[Content Note: Fat hatred.]
Texting! With Liss and Eastsidekate!
Kate: Apparently, [Westsidebecca] say this in Real Simple, because Real Simple is awful. [sends image]
Liss: Whut. Obesogenic will be the new buzzword now that fat is a disease.
Kate: From the Latin for WHUT. I prefer "obsogenic."
Liss: I prefer CATCHFATS!
Kate: LOL! Real Simple is full of shit, but you knew that because you're obsogenic.
Liss: I wish it were full of DOUGHNUTS. (Full disclosure: I don't care for doughnuts.)
Kate: How about donuts?
Liss: Those are even worse.
Kate: WAIT BUT I THOUGHT YOU WERE FAT HAVE SOME DOUGHNUTS?
Liss: LOL!
Kate: Personally, I like doughnuts, just not all the foo-foo ones. Bacon, home brew, and Froot Loops on a 4 lb bear claw!
Liss: Directions: Eat while wearing a trucker hat. IRONICALLY.
Kate: Just in the handlebar mustache parts of Brooklyn.
Liss: My favorite thing is when thin hipsters blog about how gross fat, poor, Midwestern people are from cafes with free wi-fi while sucking down a $7 soy latte and eating an ironic doughnut. It makes me think, "I should be ashamed of myself."
With Allies Like These...
[Content Note: Hostility to agency.]
Under the insufferably condescending headline "The Real Problem With Rick Perry's Comments About Wendy Davis," liberal concern troll Jonathan Chait explains that the "immediate liberal reaction" to Texas Governor Rick Perry's contemptible speech at the National Right to Life Conference yesterday identified the wrong problem. Perry was not attacking Texas State Senator Wendy Davis, nor dismissing her as a teen mom; he was actually "pointing to her life as a success." Instead, argues Chait, the real problem with Perry's comments are thus:
Now, to be sure, Davis would respond that giving birth was her choice, and ought to remain her choice. I agree. But this merely pushes the debate back to irreconcilable moral premises. The abortion debate, at its root, pits differing ideas on the fundamental question of what is a human life. Perry's side thinks that sperm plus egg equals human life. My side thinks the fertilized egg does not approach human status until much later in the process, which means the mother's prerogative supercedes any rights it has.Wow. Okay.
There's no real resolution to this dispute. Nobody even makes much of an effort to resolve it. Both sides advance arguments that only make sense if you already accept their premise about what a human life is. That's what Perry's doing here. He's saying we should force women to give birth even when they don't want to, because babies born in bad circumstances can be happy anyway. That isn't an acceptable burden to place on women, in my opinion, but it surely is if you think abortion is murder.
Likewise, liberals often call conservatives hypocritical for wanting to shrink government while expanding government's power to ban abortion. Except, if you think abortion is murder, then banning abortion is the sort of thing government ought to be able to do, even if it does very little overall. "Stopping murder" is one function of government that even Grover Norquist would endorse. Anti-abortion conservatives aren't hypocritical, they're (from the pro-choice standpoint) wrong about what a murder is.
I realize a plea for understanding sounds odd coming from me, not being known for gentleness. I suppose I find certain bedrock conservative beliefs, like that the poor are genetically inferior or it's okay for people to be denied access to basic medical care, to be barbaric and often simply premised on obvious mistakes. Having a different idea about when human life begins strikes me as the ultimate example of an issue where reasonable people can disagree.
First, let me address Chait's assertion that Perry did not rhetorically attack Davis. In fact, he did. Even granting the premise that Perry was "pointing to her life as a success," when a man appropriates a woman's lived experiences in order to redefine them and use them in service to his own agenda, no less when that agenda is controlling her body, that is an attack, if the word is to have any meaning at all. Whether Perry presumes to be (backhandedly) complimenting Davis or indicting her is irrelevant: He is claiming ownership of her story, her experience, and deploying it as though it is his right to use. It is not. Chait is an intelligent man; surely he can understand the particularly bitter irony of an anti-choice legislator assuming rhetorical control of a pro-choice woman's personal narrative.
Secondly, of course there is a real resolution to the "dispute" about when life begins, and if Chait actually images "nobody" has made "much of an effort to resolve it," perhaps he should make an effort to familiarize himself with the legions of feminist writers who have spilled endless amounts of ink (digital or otherwise) on this very subject. I am eminently willing to concede that people can have a good faith disagreement about when human life begins, but that has absolutely no bearing on whether the "dispute" about abortion cannot be resolved.
Granting the premise that a fetus has the equivalent value of the born uterus-having person carrying it, I will observe (once again) that my life, right now, is not so precious that any other human being could be compelled to use their body to support mine for the next nine months (at least). No other human being is obliged to give up an organ for me, even if it would save my life. Nor bone marrow, nor blood, nor skin. People who are forced to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term are being asked to do something no other people are asked to do for another person, which exposes the truth of the anti-choice position: Fetuses are valued more highly than the people who carry them.
Here, then, is how we resolve this disagreement: By not making an exception for the sustenance of fetal life that we make for no other life.
It isn't as though there isn't precedent in our existing law and culture. We institutionally value lives differently, some more than others, all the time. We value lives of US citizens more than the lives of non-USians. We value the lives of inmates less than the lives of the free population (among whom are many highly-rewarded perpetrators of white-collar crimes). We value the lives of the wealthy more than the poor. We value the lives of people we allow to live without healthcare access less than the lives of those who by fate or fortune have health insurance. And these are only the valuations that can and do routinely mean a visible difference between life and death.
Which is to say nothing of all the kyriarchal valuations of lives that have repercussions small and large and sometimes deadly, too.
(We also wisely value some lives over others for complex reasons, like the life of the highly-protected US President over the life of an average citizen.)
But the people who are in the seats of power that legislatively prioritize US, supposedly law-abiding, wealthy, healthcare-having lives over others are largely very privileged men. And we are expected to understand that their agreement to globally prioritize their own lives over everyone else's is Moral Values, and an individual woman's choice to value her life over a fetus is murder.
The "when does life begin" debate is nothing but smoke and mirrors to obfuscate the reality that we routinely make valuations about different lives, some rightly and some wrongly. It is an attempt to pretend that abortion is an entirely unique scenario, and thus cannot be easily resolved. And no one knows this better than the architects of the anti-choice movement, who qualify fetal life as "innocent life," as opposed to the soiled lives of, say, the people whose lives were cut short because we lacked the political will to fund effective levees or repair a crumbling bridge.
It is the worst kind of intellectual dishonesty to indulge this garbage argument about irreconcilable disagreement over when life begins. It doesn't matter even if life does begin at conception. The calculus thus becomes which life matters more, which is an assessment we are willing to make in dozens of other situations across our political and cultural landscape.
Concede their point. Then make the argument that we must actually value the actual lives of actual people who have actually been born over fetuses.
The question is not really when life begins. The question is whether we recognize women and other people with uteri as humans whose lives have intrinsic value and the rights of agency, bodily autonomy, and consent. It is only because such a vast swath of our population cannot or will not answer a resounding and unqualified "yes" to that question that there is even space for a reprehensible debate about when life begins.
The "real problem" with Perry's comments about Davis are not that they expose some tedious, specious, allegedly unresolvable debate about when life begins—an argument which is resolved by centering the humanity, agency, bodily autonomy, and consent of women. The "real problem" with Perry's comments is that they make evident that the anti-choice movement is an extension of the rape culture, which seeks to strip women of precisely those things.
Jonathan Chait, stop indulging this misogynist frame. It does not warrant serious engagement. It empowers the anti-choice position—and so, by the way, does putting forth arguments that disappear the work of pro-choice advocates.
Nobody even makes much of an effort to resolve it. Nobody? Welp. That's part of the problem, right there.
Rep. Tammy Duckworth: BOOM.
On Wednesday, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Committee held a hearing following "a months-long House probe into whether [government contractor Braulio Castillo]'s company won IRS contracts thanks, in part, to help from a top contracting official and friend inside the IRS named Greg Roseman, who pleaded the Fifth Amendment when called to testify. While much of the hearing delved into questions about Roseman and Castillo's friendship, lawmakers from both parties wondered aloud how" an injury resulting from a broken foot Castillo sustained at the US Military Preparatory School nearly three decades ago, which he attended for nine months before playing football in college "could result in Castillo's company getting special set-aside contract status from the government," based on his technology business having been certified as a service-disabled, veteran-owned company, "at a time when so many injured veterans are looking for work. But among hours of testimony, [questioning by Democratic Representative from Illinois, Tammy Duckworth, who lost her legs and the use of her right arm as a helicopter pilot in Iraq in 2004] stood out."
[Transcript below care of Shaker DesertRose.]
REP. TAMMY DUCKWORTH: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. You know, this hearing is very troubling to me because this case really shows how things can go wrong. I want to support our small business owners as much as possible, I want these set–asides to be successful, but I am absolutely appalled by the advantages that have been taken of this system.Why is Darrell Issa calling Tammy Duckworth "the young lady"? Shut up, Darrell Issa. She is a congresswoman. And you are a jerk.
Mr. Flohr, I know you cannot discuss Mr. Castillo's case, because you would need his permission to discuss his particular case; that's why you could not answer the question earlier. My understanding also is that the VA, VBA specifically, is bound by legislation that says a certain condition has a certain disability rating. For example, a below-knee amputation is 40%, it just is, correct?
MR. FLOHR: That is correct, ma'am.
REP. DUCKWORTH: So it seems like there is an opportunity here for some legislative fixes to this system. Mr. Chodos, is it true that any rating, even if it is just 5%, would qualify someone for a service-connected disability owned business?
MR. CHODOS: So long as they qualify under the VA's rules for service-connected disability, that is adequate for the self-certification.
REP. DUCKWORTH: Thank you. Mr. Castillo, how are you? Thank you—thank you for being here today.
MR. CASTILLO: I am not well, but you're welcome.
REP. DUCKWORTH: All right, so, your foot hurt, your left foot?
MR. CASTILLO: Yes, ma'am.
REP. DUCKWORTH: It hurts. Yeah, my feet hurt too. In fact, the balls of my feet burn continuously, and I feel like there is a nail being hammered into my right heel right now, so I can understand pain and suffering and how service connection can actually cause long-term, unremitting, unyielding, unstoppable pain. So I'm sorry that twisting your ankle in high school has now come back to hurt you in such a painful way, if also opportune for you to gain this status for your business as you were trying to compete for contracts. I also understand why, you know, something can take years to manifest themselves [sic] from when you hurt them. In fact, I have a dear, dear friend who sprayed Agent Orange out of his Huey in Vietnam, who, it took forty years, forty years, for the leukemia to actually manifest itself, and he died six months later, so I can see how military service, while at the time you seem very healthy, could forty years later result in devastating injury. Can you tell me if you hurt your left foot again during your football career, subsequently to twisting it in high school?
MR. CASTILLO: Ma'am, I don't understand the high school comment.
REP. DARRELL ISSA: The young lady—prep school—post high school.
MR. CASTILLO: I apologize—I'm not—
REP. DUCKWORTH: Post high school, okay post high school, prep school, before college, prep school. Did you injure your left foot again after prep school?
MR. CASTILLO: Um, I'm not sure I understand the question, ma'am.
REP. DUCKWORTH: You played football in college, correct?
MR. CASTILLO: Yes, ma'am.
REP. DUCKWORTH: As a quarterback?
MR. CASTILLO: Yes, ma'am. I did.
REP. DUCKWORTH: Did you hurt, did you injure that same foot again subsequently in the years since you twisted it in prep school?
MR. CASTILLO: Not to my recollection, ma'am.
REP. DUCKWORTH: Not to your recollection, okay. Why didn't you, Mr. Castillo, tell the VA that your doctor's note to them was inaccurate when you knew that it was?
MR. CASTILLO: I don't feel that it's inaccurate, ma'am.
REP. DUCKWORTH: Okay.
MR. CASTILLO: Would you like me to address that?
REP. DUCKWORTH: Yep, go ahead.
MR. CASTILLO: Yes, ma'am, so, one of my doctors that submitted letters so, as part of the injury you have to establish that it's chronic and reoccurring [sic], so when I returned home to San Diego, my doctor from San Diego had also returned—had said that he had treated me for the foot injury that I suffered on active duty. When I moved to Las Vegas, a couple years later, that doctor submitted that he continued to treat me for a left broken foot injury. Finally, when I moved to Virginia, I went to a doctor and that it continued to hurt, and he established that—so Dr. Sam Wilson, who ironically was also stationed at Monmouth—
REP. DUCKWORTH: I have to cut you off, because I'm running out of time. I'm sorry.
MR. CASTILLO: So, I just want to—just, so, let me finish—so, in talking to Dr. Wilson who himself is a disabled veteran, and very familiar with Fort Monmouth in that his son had went there as well and played football, he actually was the one that talked to me about, "Hey this may be something that is connected." And I believe I told him that I was first—[crosstalk]
REP. DUCKWORTH: So let me—let me, I have to cut you off. I have to cut you off. Now, this is not an argument, I'm talking, I'm up here. Let me ask you this. Do you feel the 30% rating that you have for the scars and the pain in your foot is accurate to the sacrifices that you've made for this nation? That the VA decision is accurate in your case?
MR. CASTILLO: Yes ma'am, I do.
REP. DUCKWORTH: You know, my right arm was essentially blown off and reattached. I spent a year in limb salvage with over a dozen surgeries over that time period, and in fact, we thought we would lose my arm, and I'm still in danger of possibly losing my arm. I can't feel it; I can't feel my three fingers. My disability rating for that arm is 20%.
In your letter to a government official, I think it's the SVA, attention Gina Mu (ph), you said, "My family and I have made considerable sacrifices for our country. My service-connected disability status should serve as a testimony to that end. I can't play with my kids because I can't walk without pain. I take twice daily pain medication so I can work a normal day's worth. These are crosses—these are crosses—that I bear due to my service to our great country, and I would do it again to protect this great country."
I'm so glad that you would be willing to play football in prep school again to protect this great country. Shame on you, Mr. Castillo. Shame on you. You may not have broken any laws. We're not sure yet; you did misrepresent to the SBA, but you certainly broke the trust of this great nation. You broke the trust of veterans. Iraq and Afghanistan veterans right now are waiting an average of 237 days for an initial disability rating, and it is because people like you who are gaming the system are adding to that backlog so that young men and women who are suffering from post-traumatic stress, who are missing limbs, cannot get the compensation and the help that they need. And I'm sure that you played through the pain of that foot all through college.
Well, let me tell you something. I recovered with a young man, a Navy corpsman, who, while he was running into a [sic] ambush where his Marines were hurt, had his leg knocked off with an RPG. He put a tourniquet on himself and crawled forward. He is who played through the pain, Mr. Castillo. You did not. You took advantage of the system. You described these statuses, just today, that other companies were using these special statuses as competitive weapons against you.
You, who never picked up a weapon in defense of this great nation, very cynically took advantage of the system. You broke the faith with this nation. You broke the faith with the men and women who lie in hospitals right now at Walter Reed, in Bethesda, at Brooke Army Medical Center in (?), you broke the faith with them. And if this nation stops funding veterans' health care and stops, and calls into question why veterans deserve their benefits, it is because cases like you have poisoned the public's opinion on these programs.
I hope that you think twice about the example that you are setting for your children. I hope that you think twice about what you are doing to the nation, to this nation's veterans, who are willing to die to protect this nation. Twisting your ankle in prep school is not defending or serving this nation, Mr. Castillo.
Mr. Chairman, I'm sorry, you've been very indulgent. I yield back.
REP. ISSA: I thank the young lady, and the time was well spent.
[H/T to Shaker zmayhem. My profound gratitude to Shaker DesertRose for providing the transcript.]
