Talk about something that really wasn't on my radar: two jocks rape a young girl - convicted, sentenced, end of story did news readers actually have sympathy for the jocks? rude children using 'twitter' to post threats against . . . the victim? Let me check my watch . . . March 27, 2013 . . . is anyone so crude as to hold these young thugs up for sympathy? The only reason I learned about it is Tracy Lords was on a talk show, podcast, I follow. Yes, the former porn start, Tracy Lords, and she reports being raped in Steubenville at the age of 10 . . . and when she told her mother, her mother too had been raped. Is "Steubenville" the new 'Rape Capital USA'? People behaving badly, well that happens all too often enough. Jerry Springer had (has?) a TV show for them. But somehow, . . . I must be living in an engineering bubble as I hate hearing about such nonsense. In the Marine Corps, we had "drown proofing 101" where we learned how not do die right away if we fell overboard. I have long felt that the reason fact-based sex education should start from the first year of public education is to 'rape and incest proof' our kids. Give them the facts and data and assurance that it is OK to tell a responsible adult if someone does something bad . . . and that includes reporting any adult including a David Koresh, a 'Father' anyone, or any other potential pedophile. Bob Wilson
Sadly, we first need to ensure that if they report rape, it gets taken seriously. America has way too much 'boys will be boys' and way too little 'women are actually people' in our culture.
Yes and I don't have any problem with what happened to the Penn State football program. When the group of students 'rioted' in support of Paterno, I thought not only were those particular students despicable but later wondered why Penn State was allowed to play any football outside of their own campus . . . at least until there has been a complete turnover of the student body and athletic program staff. IMHO, the NCAA 'punishment' struck a fair balance for the Penn State "hero worship" that gave a pedophile cover. The NCAA simply made fact what blind, football boosterism had already accomplished. I have a lot of respect for Sara Ganim, the reporter who for the Harrisburg The Patriot-News broke the story to the public. This is what media should do. If she also wrote a story about the aftermath of the Penn State scandal, I doubt it showed any sympathy for venal behavior that was part of the Penn State tragedy. Bob Wilson
We also have many people who see only females as being the possible victims of rape, with a too narrow definition even at that. We even have people in this very forum who still think (as of last week) that some non-consensual sex on non-juvenile males is deserved, or at least acceptable. Prison rape. My state entered the 21st Century with even a chief of an institution for sex offenders not knowing that rape of a male (adult) was a crime. It came to light when a certain offender was about to be released as 'rehabilitated', despite a recent rape accusation from a much younger inmate, an allegation that had not been addressed or seriously investigated. The outcry stopped the release and 'educated' the chief. Even the FBI Uniform Crime Reports index program didn't count rape of males as a crime until a change just last year. We still have a long way to go on this matter.
