In the penultimate installment of my “Oslo Journal” — the second-to-the-last one, too — I mentioned Justine Hardy, who is a British writer, journalist, and “social entrepreneur.” She is also the daughter of Robert Hardy, a well-known actor (Cornelius Fudge, the minister of magic, in the Harry Potter flicks). Justine is an expert on Kashmir, and the founder of a mental-health center there. She told us that the psychological damage in Kashmir is staggering, after decades of violence. The place is “blanket medicated,” she said. People “wander around in a semi-zombie state.”
She also said that, in the world at large, people tell her over and over that “the mental-health question is the unsexiest issue there could possibly be.”
Okay, all of this is prelude to a letter I wanted to share — a bitter-acute letter from a reader, who says,
“The unsexiest cause? I vote for prison rape. Hear about it in Iran, and you might be outraged. Joke about Bernie Madoff getting raped, and you could get a spot on Letterman.”
This is a point, I’m happy to say, that NR has addressed, more than once. It is a point not to drop. The penalty for crime is not supposed to include rape, not in this country.
Source: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/267958/unsexiest-issue-jay-nordlinger
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