I’m the father to two young girls and I’m angry.
I’m angry because a young woman was raped on an American college campus.
I’m angry because the criminal rapist used the legal system to blame her, the victim.
I’m angry because the criminal aggressor’s father defended his son for “20 minutes of action.” (How long does it take to murder an unconscious woman with a loaded pistol?)
I’m angry because alcohol use or being drunk was used as a scapegoat. (Should we praise all the boys that don’t rape the girls around them each time they get drunk?)
I’m angry because the judge was entirely too lenient in the rapist’s sentencing. (The judge bent over backwards to accommodate the criminal. We still debate if money, status, and race affect the outcome of the legal system. What if the boy was African American? What if the girl was black? Are we allowed to ask those questions?)
I’m angry because the rapist is an entitled criminal who has an entitled jerk as a father. (Alcohol only enhances the true self. Most drunks don’t rape. Jerks do. Entitled jerks do. Do older fathers still teach younger daughters that no means yes? Or worse silence is consent?)
I’m angry because all the attention has been shifted from the victim to the criminal. (Meanwhile there is a girl drugged, dragged, beaten and still bleeding. She will likely bleed for the rest of her life. He broke her. The father broke her more. The legal system shattered her.)
I’m angry because we Americans paid more attention to a gorilla that was shot in Cincinnati Zoo than this all too common criminal act on our campuses. (The purpose of the comparison is not to diminish the life of the gorilla, but to bring attention to what is on a nation's conscience. Campus rape should be far more important and relevant. Have we become desensitized to real evil? In a world of reality T.V. if there is no video do we lose interest?)
I’m angry because the victim is now part of another statistics. (Federal data published in Washington Post revealed that in 2014 there were far too many cases of rape in our schools: Brown 43, U-Conn. 43, Dartmouth College 42, Wesleyan University 37, University of Virginia 35, Harvard 33, University of North Carolina at Charlotte 32, Rutgers-New Brunswick 32, University of Vermont 27, and Stanford 26.)
I am angry because by reading the reactions to this raped woman, I realize our society remains fragmented by sexism (men fair better than women), racism (Whites fair better than most), and class (the wealthy can still beat the legal system).
I am angry because through the inadequate sentence given, we who are the teachers of the next generation made rape not a big deal and printed it in the history books of Stanford University.
"That could have been my daughter!" That's what all of us should be thinking.
And what if President Obama came on national T.V. and said it?