“So then, you will know them by their fruits,” said Matthew (Matthew 7:20). Two overripe ones who should be plucked from the senatorial tree are Arizona’s John McCain “Sen. No” and Jon Kyl “Sen. Never.”)

They, with 28 other male GOP senators, voted against an amendment to the 2010 Defense Appropriations bill that withholds defense contracts from companies “if they restrict their employees from taking workplace sexual assault, battery and discrimination cases to court.”

This amendment, which passed by a vote of 68-30, was the result of a 2005 gang rape of Jamie Leigh Jones by her co-workers while she was working for Haliburton/KBR in Baghdad.

Instead of being helped, Jones was locked in a shipping container for 24 hours without food, water or a bed and warned that if she sought medical treatment outside of Iraq she’d be fired, and hers was not the only case.

When she managed to get word to her father he contacted a congressman who got her released. She couldn’t bring charges against Haliburton/KBR because of a clause in her contract; sexual assault allegations could only be heard in private arbitration.

Fortunately, there is now a long-overdue law that will help curb such atrocities. But I shall ask Sens. McCain and Kyl for their justification in supporting gang rape.

Nicholas J. Blesser

Tubac