Pandora’s Box of Horrors Challenge 2016 – Winners: It’s a Tie!

The Pandora’s Box of Horrors Challenge 2016 was to write a short story of a dystopian future, but with a hopeful ending. All the submissions were great. We had four final draft entries in the last round of the challenge and they were all superb and worth reading.

However, we had to choose. It was tough and in the end, two stories stood out equally. We had TWO winners. We, the editors/judges just had to choose both! 

 “Time and Judith”  

Code Yankee-Sierra 7

Please join our group page on Facebook and be part of the next challenge! Pandora’s Box of Horror’s

WOMEN victim shaming Trump’s accusers?

Explain this, please. Trump proudly proclaims his sexual predation. He proudly proclaims he can do whatever he wants to women just because he’s “a celebrity.” He’s been telling the world for DECADES that he’s a sexual deviant, a predator – every woman’s nightmare! YOU, his supporters, keep claiming you like him because you think he’s more honest, with that oft-repeated refrain, “He tells it like it is.” So… he told you and the world – AGAIN, for DECADES – how it is… how he’s treated and spoken about women. But – when women actually come forward, telling you that, yes, Donald J. Trump did to them EXACTLY what he told the world he did – suddenly he isn’t telling the truth? So… when, precisely, did he LIE? Was it when he said he did those things? Or was it when he said he didn’t do those things? Which LIE is the LIE? How men can defend him isn’t really that shocking. Men have been excusing the Trumps of this world all along. What I cannot fathom is other women defending him.

Victim shaming from a fellow woman is insufferable! Saying these women are lying because they didn’t come forward sooner is not just wrong, it’s despicable. Do you really think that way?

So… tell me then… why was it thirty years later before I talked about being molested on a Trailways bus at thirteen years old? I was supposed to be sitting in the seat behind the driver, as my mother and the Memphis bus depot manager told the driver. I got up to use the bathroom and when I came back, some woman had moved into my seat. When I told the driver, he told me to grow up and just sit somewhere. I sat in the seat that woman had vacated at the back of the bus – the only open seat. I was molested. When I complained to the driver, telling him the man was “talkin’ nasty to me and kept trying to hug me,” the driver snapped, “Sit down and quit making a fuss.” Twenty-hour or so later, I didn’t tell my Gran what happened because I’d come to the belief I’d done something wrong!

Tell me then, why, as a young professional woman, I kept quiet about all those times some deplorable excuse for a man pushed past me so that he had to rub against me, touching my breasts. That kind of thing happened over the course of three decades at work, by various skeezing pricks. And, the one time I spoke up, the man’s defense was that because I’m so generously endowed my breasts were at fault – and the MEN running the review board agreed with his excuse!

Tell me then, why my college friend, who was raped by her athlete boyfriend, didn’t report it until two years later when he finally hurt someone and they reported him from the hospital and almost half-a-dozen other girls on campus came forward with date-rape accusations against him. He was never arrested and was back on the field the next semester. Those girls were all blamed and shamed – one of them tried to kill herself. It didn’t even make the news off campus!

Tell me why women would keep something like that to themselves? Tell me why women would come forward knowing they were going to be shamed and vilified – blamed for their own victimization? Tell me why Trump can repeatedly tell the world how he assaulted women – on video all over YouTube, in magazine and news articles of interviews HE gave, in his OWN books, in audio and video to Howard Stern FOR DECADES, as well as on that damning Billy Bush tape – yet, when women actually tell you that he did what he proclaimed he’d done, YOU don’t believe them?

It’s not just what I’ve endured. The thing is, most of it is what all women endure. Who hasn’t had some man accidentally-on-purpose brush up too intimately against them? Who hasn’t had some guy on a first date take advantage of the good night kiss and decide to put her hand on his already exposed, sweaty member? Who hasn’t had some man at work put his hand in the small of her back, pressing just that little bit too close? Who hasn’t had some man at work or church or the library or where ever always find some excuse to be touching you, making you uncomfortable. Who has felt some man stalking over her shoulder at work making her squirm at the border-line indecency of it? Who hasn’t had some man skeeze up to her at a party or in a club? Who hasn’t had a man take indecent liberties, even in crowds? We’ve all experienced one or more or those things and/or know women who’ve experienced it.

This fetid misogyny has always been women’s reality. This should NEVER be our reality.

I just want to make clear to any fellow woman, engaging in victim shaming, that she and we have all had to deal with the Trumps of this world. The truth is not in you if you claim otherwise. You are a direct hindrance to the start down a path to forever ending this OPPRESSION of half the human population!

I would add, also, for those who get their hackles up at terms like “insufferable” or “deplorable,” that the terms are accurate descriptors of attitudes such attitudes. Yes, we should always be more kind whenever possible. But, the kind of bigotry and misogyny currently on display, by other women against our own gender is both insufferable and deplorable. One can only hope such women – and men – will recognize this and not add irredeemable to the descriptors.

It is not efficacious to ignore the truth of such attitudes. The people who’ve been telling us we can’t say those things are the people to whose words and deeds those descriptors fit. Indeed, it may be unkind to call them those things, but it would be a greater unkindness NOT to call out such words and deeds for what they are. Those who are the targets of such vitriol and hatred deserve that we condemn such words and deeds in the harshest of terms.

Women victim shaming MUST NOT EVER BE TOLERATED by the rest of us women! We know that statistically every single one of us will be or is a victim, and knows or will know women who are victims.

Now, we women KNOW that most of the men in this world are DECENT MEN. We know the Trumps are a small minority. We know the Billy Bushes, those wannabe-Trumps, who are titillated by that kind of predatory machismo are also in the minority – though a rather larger minority. We also know that those of our own gender, acting as defenders of the Trumps of this world have internalized the misogyny and sexism of the Trumps and the Billy Bushes.

But, we also know that the DECENT MEN have too often responded by advising us to change ourselves or our activities to avoid the danger of harassment. We’re advised not to walk or run alone on the trail. We’re warned not to walk alone in our own neighborhoods at night. We’re warned not to get in the car with a new guy we’re dating – to meet somewhere public at first, or on a double or group date. We’re advised not to find ourselves alone with a possible predator. We’re advised not to dress or speak or walk or look a certain way so we won’t draw attention to ourselves. Throughout history, we’re the ones who were covered up and enveloped. We’re the ones who were not allowed where the men go. By DECENT MEN to protect us. Why are we marginalized and held accountable for that minority of Trumps and “Bushies” in the world? Why haven’t the DECENT MEN of the world dealt with the victimizers instead of making the victims responsible for avoiding victimization?

And, when we break with any of those advisements that have been drilled into us all our lives, how are we to be expected to NOT blame ourselves? And, being taught all our lives that we must prevent our own victimization, how are to be expected to come forward without trepidation? Why must we bear any guilt?

We KNOW most are DECENT MEN. What we don’t know is why the DECENT MEN haven’t shut down the Trumps and the “Bushies” of this world.

Trump Is A Porn Fiend

That repugnant hot mic audio…


Y’know, there’s something about this whole thing that I’ve been trying to put to words even before those tapes came out. It came to me this morning, 11 October 2016, when my twelve year old son asked who thinks that way. My knee-jerk response was “porn addicts.” 


That’s what those comments on that tape were – they were pornographic sexual predation. His decades of interviews on Howard Stern’s radio show were pornographic. His telling Stern it was okay to call HIS OWN DAUGHTER “a piece of ass” is offering up his own child up to pornography. His telling that apprentice contestant he’d like to see her on her knees is pornographic. His participation in Playboy soft-core porn videos is proof that he revels in the pornographic. His behavior toward a business partner’s girlfriend is something you’ll only see in sexual-harassment sensitivity training videos… or in porn. His courting his second wife (while still married to his first) in CHURCH is a porn fiend’s fantasy of church. His bragging that just because he owned the pageant he got to walk in on the naked contestants is what every porn addict imagines beauty pageants to be. Ivana’s divorce revelations about his behavior toward her is the porn addict acting out his porn fantasies… his partner be damned! The accusations about him raping those CHILDREN enslaved by Epstein… It’s all pornographic; but worse, it’s the most stomach churning, putrid kinds of pornographic… It’s straight up ISIS fantasy pornographic! 


The top of the GOP – whose platform decries pornography – is himself a degraded and degrading, sexually predatory porn fiend! A sexually predatory porn fiend who is doing his damnedest to take the entire GOP down in flames with him.


That is what the GOP embraced. That is what Paul Ryan knew – or should have known – Trump to be. That is what Paul Ryan has defended and still endorses. Saying “I’m just gonna ignore that oozing wound and pretend it’s not there” only gives the wound time to kill. That is what proves that party and political agenda mean more to Paul Ryan than conscience, morality, ethics, or even his Faith.



It is disheartening – nay, it is DEPLORABLE – that the fundamentalist evangelical ChristianISH right willfully CHOSE a man who is the embodiment of everything we have always been taught is immoral, ungodly, and downright EVIL! It is iniquitous and obscene that anyone would support Trump. When you stand before God, on that final Day of Judgement, how will you “Christians” look God Himself in the eye and proudly say you WILLFULLY STILL CHOSE Trump, a man convicted from his own mouth as a sexually predatory PORN FIEND?



It is absolutely horrifying that their party, the GOP, is the majority party in control of our government!

Trump’s fetid misogyny isn’t new.

The evidence is everywhere… in print… in video… in audio. More and more and more of Trump’s vile and fetid misogyny and sexism. Trump is a predator – the kind of predator to which you fear the women you love will be subjected. It’s not new and barely shocking anymore. I wish Trump and the pornographic nature of his attitude was a singular example of the worst in men that women face. Disturbingly, that’s not the case… Trump is only the most public example of a poison in our society women have always faced, that decent men – and we women know that’s most men – do not and/or will not see. You choose NOT to see our reality – this should never be our reality.

There’s an undercurrent of humiliation that the Trumps and the Billy Bushes of this world have made a numbing constant in the lives of girls and women. It’s part of an everyday, everywhere message that we don’t matter enough to be respected as a person. The personhood women is subsumed by the personhood of men… we are women before we are human.

I make a plea on behalf of women and girls everywhere: As long as other men continue to tolerate that kind of speech and attitude, even in the locker room, the misogyny and sexism and chauvinism and gender discrimination and sexual harassment and rape culture will continue to plague the lives of every woman you know. Please – EVERY decent man – stand loudly and always against the rampant misogyny and mistreatment of women that the 2016 GOP candidate represents. Be the voice and leader of decent men standing as one against the Trumps of this world. You’ve condemned his latest revelation of vile and repugnant sexism and predation. Please make it your personal crusade to end this assault on women and girls everywhere from men like this. It may only be a few men who think this way, but they are everywhere as we women try to navigate our lives. IT IS OPPRESSION – it makes us feel marginalized. 

It makes us afraid to go alone to public spaces like clubs or restaurants or the gym or even to walk alone in our own neighborhoods at night. It hurts us when the men who should defend us just say we shouldn’t have been in the public spaces where we are harassed and abused. It breaks us to be held accountable by the men who should defend us for the abuse by the Trumps of this world.

If you love a woman… if you know a woman, get out front and lead all decent men to stop the Trumps of this world, to educate the next generations of boys who will be the men in the lives of your daughters. Be the leader of change!

As a woman who has faced the groping Trump describes from early adolescence onward, too many times to count…

As a woman who has faced gender and sexual harassment in public leisure spaces…

As the friend of women I’ve known (most of them) who also had to and still have to face gender and sexual harassment in public leisure spaces…

As a woman who has faced gender and sexual harassment in the workplace…

As the friend of women I’ve known (again – MOST of them) who also had to and still have to face gender and sexual harassment in the workplace…

As a woman who has more than once been personally inundated by such vile speech…

As a friend who has heard and hears other women subjected to such vile speech…

As a woman who is a surviver of an incestuous pedophile…

As a woman who has more than once dealt with attempted acquaintance rape and dealt with acquaintance rape…

As a sister of a sibling who was a victim of acquaintance rape…

As the friend of a woman who was the victim of incestuous rape…

As a woman who, as an adolescent, lived through violent, attempted gang rape IN MIDDLE SCHOOL…

As the sister of another sibling who was a victim of violent rape…

As the friend of a woman who was stalked, raped, and nearly killed…

As the mother of a young son whom I know has already heard this kind of puerile and VILE speech from some of his peers…

I wonder how many men have listened to such reprobate and repugnant humiliation of women from their peers? I wonder how many men have watched porn and admired characters who, like Trump, revel unchecked in such narcissistic self-entitlement?  I wonder how many men perhaps saw that character’s sense of entitlement as a kind of power they wish they held? I wonder how many men, now so appalled by Trump’s degenerate speech towards women, laughed and tittered over it just as Billy Bush did when they heard one of their own peers talk that way in the locker room?  

I wonder if the men, now so appalled by Trump’s contemptible denigration of women will finally understand that every single woman you know has been and will be subjected to that kind of misogyny throughout our lives. No… it’s not everyday. No… it’s not ALL – nor even MOST men… Yes… it’s only a few men – BUT THOSE MEN ARE EVERYWHERE as we women try to navigate our daily lives.

Once again, Trump didn’t originate the poison – he only displayed the putrid rot that everyone was ignoring. He’s not the only man who thinks and behaves this way. Billy Bush isn’t the only man to empower such disgusting misogyny with his skeeze reveling. This is… and has been… and continues to be the reality of women’s lives.

Your mothers… your sisters… your wives… your daughters… We live every day of our lives with the knowledge that our bodies – our personhoods – are not safe. This kind of predator has been and continues to be our reality – dismissed… demeaned… ignored by the men who love us, befriend us… by the men who should be on the forefront in holding the Trumps of this world accountable. Every time you DON’T speak out… every time you DON’T intervene, you enable the sexual predator.

YOU personally know women who have been subjected to the Trumps of this world. If you do nothing, you put your own hand with his grabbing at us, groping us. PROCURER!

If you, the decent men in this world, do not hear us now and stop Trump and all men like him then how can we trust any of you?

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

To you defenders of Trump…

To you dismissing those tapes as “locker room talk…”

SHUT UP! Just slither back under the rock you oozed out from under and SHUT UP! Women have had to face the Trumps of this world all our lives! ON OUR OWN because of people like YOU! YOU and every enabler are more guilty than the Trumps of the discrimination, harassment, abuse, assault, victimization, marginalization – OPPRESSION – that is the reality of women’s lives! YOU make women’s oppression our reality because YOU DO NOT STOP the Trumps of this world! There is no defense! There is no joke! That you think there is any humor or that it is in any way appropriate to dismiss the kind of sexual predation Trump has ALWAYS – YES ALWAYS – lived out, screams FREAKING volumes ABOUT YOU!

JUST SHUT UP YOU MORALLY BANKRUPT ENABLER!

Prayer for leaders and @HillaryClinton

From FB “Methodists For Hillary

This prayer was crafted from Hillary Clinton’s own words when she was asked for whom and what she prays.

Merciful God of grace and solace, 
source of all hope and wisdom,
we humbly come to You in prayer
for our nation, our people, and our leaders.
We ask Your guidance and patience
as we seek to serve Your lambs 
and in everything to honor Your will.

We pray for those whose names You know,
for people experiencing difficult times,
illness, divorce, death, disappointment,
all of the tough life experiences confronting us.
We pray for the Your will to be known…
that we can, to the best of our ability,
try to follow it and fulfill it, in Your name.
We pray for people in authority.
Help us to consider what they go through,
even when we disagree with them.
Help us find some common ground,
some common understanding
that can make us more empathetic.
We know we won't always succeed,
but let us never fail to try.

Hold Hillary’s heart always
in prayer throughout the day,
because she needs Your strength
and she needs Your support.
Thank you for giving her ears to listen
and a heart and mind to serve
the needs of the people, Your lambs,
to be a leader guided by Your will
in our country and the world.
Protect Hillary from danger
both physical and existential
Help her keep Your will in humility
and empower her to serve Your will
in gratitude and perseverance
All the days of her life.

In Christ’s name, Amen.

Prayer for Our Leaders and Hillary and for Us All

Heavenly Father, God of grace and mercy,

By the great gift of Salvation and His resurrection 

You offer the gifts of eternal hope and peace
Through Your only begotten son, Christ Jesus.
Baptized by water, we are born anew… 

Born into Your heavenly kingdom.

Filled with the Holy Spirit, we are never alone.

In the Spirit, together we strive to do Your will.

Hold us, our nation, and Hillary in Your hands.

Make us the body and voice of Your will.

Together in the Spirit, we open our hearts.

We lay bear our souls before You, Father.

As one in the Spirit, we open our minds.

Together we are Christ’s hands in this world.

United in the Spirit, our doors are open.

In Your will we work together for peace.

As one voice we desire your will be done.

Together in the Holy Spirit and in unity

We know Your strength makes us 

Stronger together for a more just world.

Help us, Lord, to feed the hungry.

Teach us, Father, to care for the sick.

Guide us, God, to shelter the homeless.

Use us, El-Shaddai, to love everyone.

Humble us, Adoni, to find Your wisdom.

Grant us, Yaweh, solace in our tribulation.

Make us, Elohim, obedient in service.

Lead us, Sar Shalom, to be peacemakers.

King of Kings, grant wisdom to our leaders

With sacrificial hearts of service and compassion.

We ask for open eyes for our leaders 

to see all humankind as Your sheep.

We pray for leaders with open hearts

to understand the cares of Your lambs. 

We plead that our leaders have open minds

of love and compassion for all Your sheep.

We thank you for Hillary Clinton, and pray

You will protect and perfect her in Your will.

In Christ’s name, with Faith all believing and

in humble gratitude, we pray. Amen.

“Faith-Centered Leadership” 

Hillary Is Reviled For Bill’s Infidelities But Trump Gets A Pass

This is an actual quote by a Trump supporter about why she will not support Hillary Clinton: “She was already there. I don't respect her. I don't vote for a president just because she is a women. Her husband is a rapist and womanizer. I don’t want him back in the White House.” I won’t be so cruel as to justifiably identify the WOMAN who made this mind-boggling justification for supporting that reprobate orange demagogue, Trump.

Okay, I just cannot wrap my brain around that reasoning. My response to her and to every person who hates and denigrates Hillary for being cheated on, but gives Trump a complete pass is as follows: 

You don’t want Hillary because Bill cheated and she had the unmitigated gaul to stick to her Faith-centered commitment to her marriage. But you do want a man facing multiple charges of child-rape of sex-slaves from the very same accusers who helped put the billionaire pedophile, Epstein behind bars? You want a man whose raging misogyny is everywhere documented with audio and video from his on disgusting orange face? You want a man who’s been incest-fantasizing about his daughters for decades, even when they were babies? You want a man who is a self-confessed serial cheater, even bragging: “You know, it really doesn’t matter what (the media) write as long as you've got a young and beautiful piece of ass?” You want a man whose on first wife accused him of rape because he made her feel violated? You want a man who publicly calls women dogs, pigs, fat, ugly, and worse? You want a man who skeezes around beauty pageants, then demeans the winner so vilely? You want a man who actually said to one of the women apprentice contestants “Must be a pretty picture, you dropping to your knees?” You want a man who cheated on his first wife with a woman he courted in church?”

Please… OH MY GOODNESS! PLEASE explain to me why Hillary is reviled for Bill’s infidelities but that putrid orange reprobate gets a pass?

A Prayer for Our Nation and Hillary

There’s a palpable fear in our nation… a genuine disquiet weighting our hearts and minds, bearing down upon us, crushing our sense of peace. We hear loud voices proclaiming such hatred and bigotry and racism in the name of our Faith, in direct contradiction to our Savior’s own commandment.

John 13:34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” 


I OFFER THIS PRAYER FOR US ALL:
Gracious God of hope and love, we humbly pray
Your mercy upon our world, now and for all time. 
We honor You and pray Your will be done and Your peace that passes understanding come upon us. 
We come to You in humblest gratitude for all the blessings you have heaped upon America. 
We thank You for giving our hearts and our minds recognition of the truth. 
We honor You for the mission for which You call leaders to serve in the world. 
And, we thank You for Obama and Hillary who have heeded Your call to service. 
Father in Heaven, we ask Your healing grace upon the hearts of all humankind. 
We plead for Your intercession in the hearts and minds of all Your creation. 
In this time, there is fear in our hearts, Lord, for the future of our nation and the hope of our children. Fear and worry bear us down and lay weighted upon our hearts and our minds. 
We hear hatred shouted so loud from the hearts of those claiming Your name, Father. 
It tears at our hearts, and it disquiets our minds, and it wars against our peace in You. 
We feel the world becoming dark and frightening, overwhelmed by hatred and violence. 
We see that hatred manifested not only against each other, but manifested directly against Hillary Clinton. 
We know she is not perfect, Lord. 
Neither are we. But we hear Your commands from her lips,Your commands, through your only Son, to treat each other with kindness and love. 
All Mighty Father, we raise her up to be perfected to fulfill Your mission for this nation. 
We plead on her behalf, please surround her with Your hedge of protection, Omnipotent Lord. 
Holy Lord, we seek Your solace and the Holy Spirit’s guidance to turn our words to Your purpose.

May the meditations of our hearts
be acceptable in Thy sight,
Oh Lord, our strength and our redeemer.

~In Jesus’ Holy name

We pray all believing,

Amen

Prayer of Protection for Hillary Clinton

There’s a sickness growing in the heart of America against this woman of Faith. It’s grown so desperate that a large minority have embraced a man who is the antipathy of our American ideal and is the embodiment of everything our Faith tells us is immoral or wicked… everything we have always believed to be downright evil. It has become a different religion in America today that has nothing to do with Christian Faith. It is a religion predicated on lies, on bearing false witness. This is the cult religion of “Hating Hillary.” Its practice is masturbatory vigilanteism, sometimes manifested in the galling and terrifying chants of “Lock her up!” And in calls for “Second Amendment Solutions,” and in calls for armed rebellion when she is elected.

“FALSE WITNESS” is more than just being the source or fabricator of a lie or propaganda. It is also retelling that lie as truth. That is “propaganda,” which is just a political term for “GOSSIP.” If you do not have quantifiable proof of what you repeat, then you are “being a malicious witness” – and a gossip. Gossiping is bearing “FALSE WITNESS.”

Exodus 23:1 NIV
[Laws of Justice and Mercy] "Do not spread false reports. Do not help a wicked man by being a malicious witness.

Proverbs 6:19 NIV
A false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers.

Proverbs 21:28 NIV
A false witness will perish, and whoever listens to him will be destroyed forever.

A PRAYER OF PROTECTION FOR HILLARY CLINTON: 

Heavenly Father, merciful Lord, God of all…
We pray in all things Your glory may be magnified.
Father, You see how many hate Hillary Clinton so unreasoningly.
You have heard the false witness they bear against her daily, Lord.
You have heard, with us, both veiled and direct threats against Hillary’s life and mission.
We thank you, Lord, for giving us eyes to see and hear the truth
We thank you, Lord, for giving her the heart to keep working for Your purpose.
We come humbly in prayer and supplication, to you our God of grace and solace.
Please surround her with a hedge of Your omnipotent power and protection.
Preserve her goodness and make clear Hillary’s path to serve Your purpose in this world.
And, we ask, our Father in Heaven, that You help us let go of anger and fear,
Help us let go of resentment and pray for the healing of the hearts and minds
For all those who are as adversarial against supporters of Hillary, as they are her.
We lift them up to Your perfect love and healing grace, Lord.
Preserve this nation and heal the sickness of hate gnawing at its heart.
May Your Will perfect the heart of this nation and restore the strength of our unity.

~Amen

Romans 15:1-7

Scripture

Romans 15:1-7

1 We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. 2 Each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. 3 For even Christ did not please himself but, as it is written: "The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me." 4 For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. 5 May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, 6 so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 7 Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.

“Hands and hearts and minds and voices committed to working for tolerance, peace, and social justice everywhere, always.” ~MomzillaNC