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October 27, 2009

THE PEOPLE SPEAK: Oklahoma senators let women down with vote

There was a recent vote in the U.S. Senate that caught my attention, and I cannot let it go by without comment.

Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., brought an amendment to the Defense Appropriation bill that would withhold defense contracts from companies “if they restrict their employees from taking workplace sexual assault and discrimination cases to court.” This stems from an incident in which a 19-year-old woman working for KBR, a subsidy of Halliburton at the time, was drugged and gang raped by fellow KBR employees while working in Baghdad.

She was detained in a shipping container to prevent her from reporting the incident. After convincing a guard to let her use his cellphone, she made contact with her father, who contacted their congressman, Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas.

Poe set in motion a rescue, and agents from the U.S. embassy in Baghdad released her from the container. And Army doctor’s examination confirmed the assault, but after handing the rape kit over to KBR security, it disappeared. Upon returning to the states, she learned she could not charge the rapist due to the fine print in her KBR contract that stipulated sexual assault would only be heard in private arbitration.

It would seem this vote would be a slam dunk, surely unanimous. And it did pass, but 30 no votes were cast, all by males, all Republican, including Sens. Tom Coburn and Jim Inhofe from our great state of Oklahoma. I hope I am not the only one who is outraged by our representatives voting for the interests of big corporations over the constitutional rights of a U.S. citizen to have their day in court.

Once again, the part of Christian morals have shown what hypocrites they are. I have written to Coburn and Inhofe and promised to tell everyone I know of this vote.

Please remember this show of character when they come up for re-election.

Kim Clagg

Muskogee

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