Monthly Archives: October 2011

Six years ago, Congress tried cracking down on sexual assault in the military after receiving disturbing reports about incidents in military academies and war zones.  As a result, lawmakers rewrote the rules to protect victims and help prosecutors. However, it’s clear that the effort has backfired. The politically attractive but poorly understood legal changes have caused courtroom confusion, judicial frustration and constitutional conflict.  The rewritten sexual assault law reportedly puts judges “in an impossible position, and with military lawyers also finding it confusing, the result has been unwarranted acquittals. The main problem seems to be caused by the current law shifting the burden of proving consent on the defense rather than requiring the prosecution to prove it as it originally was written. To read more, please go to: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/09/21/124823/flawed-new-rape-law-roils-military.html#ixzz1Z3tiqr00

The Play “ReEntry” is the same one that our friend Joe Harrell from the movie Happy New Year has starred in for several years. Joe is the military advisor for and plays a small part in Happy New Year.

A play about the personal struggles experienced by Servicemembers when coming home from war and the challenges their family members face helping their loved ones cope after a deployment  has finished touring at U.S. Army bases in Europe.  The producers goal was to show what returning home is like for military members, and to ask how we, as families, as a culture, as a society, and as a country, can help these Servicemembers.  The live-stage performances were held as part of suicide prevention activities in September at U.S. Army Europe bases, with the intent of getting people to talk about the potential psychological impact of prolonged or repeated deployments and to increase awareness about exisitng resources for those who need help.  To read more about this production and reviewers’ comments, please go to: http://www.americanrecordstheater.org/reentry/