Reynolds seeks to train predators

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Credit: Hearst Entertainment & Syndication
Credit: Hearst Entertainment
& Syndication
Punishing all decent people for the sins of predators is injustice for all and an exercise in futility for those who need to be stopped.

To think imposing sensitivity training on grown-ass men will prevent sexual harassment is to pretend we don't see and understand the modus-operandi of sexual predators, whom often openly devise identifiable traps for their prey.

KCCI 8 News' Eric Hanson and Elizabeth Klinge interviewed Acting-Governor Kim Reynolds on its local Sunday show "Close Up." They asked her what she felt her role is with respect to sexual harassment allegations at the statehouse.

On this issue I don't want to just beat up on Reynolds because she's the usual punching bag; her tactics and viewpoint are shared across ideological lines. But does anyone think sexual harassment is something decent men wouldn't understand without the state's highest elected official "setting the tone" and imposing training? That's theater.

I submit to you that we can't train away sexual harassment, that all of us have to expose it and remove the offenders, and grownups need to recognize and eliminate the traps predators devise to lure their victims.

I wouldn't waste one second trying to explain expectations to someone whom otherwise would engage in sexual harassment, or assault, or bullying. Leaders need to remove the veils and create an open and transparent environment that enables and encourages our best selves, individually and as a collective, to be on full display.

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