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Tubsday, December 7, aoio | The Red a Black
Carey O’Neil | Managing Editor me@randb.com
Courtney Holbrook | Opinions Editor opinions@randb.com
Sexual assault a
universal horror
When I’m nervous
or uncomfortable,
a strange smile
turns into gulping, inap
propriate laughs. Oh,
what’s that? You’re con
fronting me about lying to
you? Hold on, I have to go
scream-laugh into this pil
low over here.
We all have our defense
mechanisms, our little
quirks that help us survive
difficult situations.
Eventually though, we
must accept and address
our problems directly, if
not for our own health,
then for the health of the
person who is watching us
laugh hysterically into a
pillow.
Now is the time for our
community to collectively
shed its defense mecha
nisms, the harmful ways of
coping with subjects that
make us nervous or
scared.
The conversation sur
rounding sexual assault
and rape in our communi
ty is diseased with
unhealthy reactions.
Discussion is shied away •
from, if not completely
avoided. When a dialogue
does open, questions such
as what a woman wore,
what she drank or what
her personal sexual histo
ry was, always seem to
come up.
However, over half of all
rape victims in the U.S.
knew their attacker,
according to U.S. women’s
studies’ historian Estelle
B. Freedman in “No
Turning Back: the History
of Feminism and the
PUture of Women.” This
helps shed some light on
the invalid assessment
these questions strive to
make.
Still, those topics of
clothing and alcohol usu
ally distract us from the
real problem: every year,
every semester, women are
sexually assaulted and
raped in Athens. The
police filed 44 reports of
rape in Clarke County last
year, according to the
Georgia Bureau of
Investigation’s crime sta
tistics.
So, let’s be clear. When
someone says, “Well, she
was wearing that revealing
outfit,” or “She was being
unsafe, drinking too
much,” or “She’s so pro
miscuous and forward
anyway, so who knows,”
they are implying the sur
vivor of sexual assault
somehow provoked the
attack.
They imply a woman
had control in the situa
tion —a misguided con
clusion, since rape is
about taking control, not
sex, and leaves victims
feeling powerless. They
may never say a woman
deserved it or was asking
soundbite
?I would publicly like to say thanks to whomever
stole my Christmas decorations off my door. Merry
Christmas, you pathetic loser.
„ Note to self: walking towards or attempting to
Y “ice-skate” the area around the fountain on North
Campus while it’s frozen solid is not a good idea.
fTo every hot girl on campus: Will you please stop
staring at your cell phone for a few seconds so I can
talk to you?
Attention to all white victims of reverse racism:
% America will only truly be a post-racial society when
* the question of whether our society is post-racial is
unnecessary.
Who decided it’s a good idea to do construction
* in the Science Library during the week of finals?
@ Stop complaining about being fat when you’re
* eating cereal. It’s cereal. Go eat salad if you’re
upset.
fTo men in short-shorts I don’t want to see
that.
Believe it or not, the Bible says “help thy neigh
bor,” not “people who need welfare are lazy.”
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pH Lisa
IWi Glaser
for it, because that is
politically incorrect. But
we sure know the euphe
misms for that opinion.
Perhaps it’s because we
want to have a reason, an
excuse, for something so
horrifying. If we pretend
victims of sexual assault
somehow precipitated
their attack, then we can
pretend we are invulnera
ble.
“I’ll never act like that
or wear that, so I’ll never
have to deal with this.”
But we are all involved
men and women. By
using victim-blaming rhet
oric, we discourage victims
of sexual assault from
reporting the crime, from
pressing charges and from
seeking help.
In the United States,
less than 10 percent of all
rapes are reported to the
police, according to
Freedman.
We create a culture of
shame that silences
women and allows sexual
assault to continue. We
excuse the actions of rap
ists by turning our atten
tion toward the victim
rather than the perpetra
tor.
Instead, we must think
critically, speak according
ly, act with empathy and
just do better. We must
demand more from our
selves and our friends,
male and female. We must
take ownership of this
frightening campus issue.
Sexual assault is not
just a women’s issue, but
one that threatens basic
human rights. Show your
support on Facebook by
joining the “Victim
Blaming Awareness” group
and attending its kick-off
event, “I’m a playa, but I
don’t play the blame
game,” today in Tate
Plaza.
If you know someone
who has been sexually
assaulted or raped, help
alleviate their fears of
scrutiny.
Encourage them to go
to the police and seek pro
fessional help. If you are a
survivor, there are resourc
es to help you in the com
munity, including The
North Georgia Cottage
and the Sexual Assault
Center of Northeast
Georgia. It’s not your fault.
You have the right to
keep living and endure
no matter what anyone
says.
Lisa Glaser is a
junior from Athens
majoring in
broadcast news
Advtaor EdMoram
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Opinions
fthe continual opposition to repealing
V" . y teir is getting really OLD and
We must arrest Wikileaks’ founder
As a journalist, lam almost
required to believe in the pri
macy of the First
Amendment, that freedom of the
press is a keystone of our democra
cy. So, The New York Times’ con
tinuing coverage of the release of
some 250,000 American diplomatic
messages excites me on a deeply
nerdy level.
The previous documents
released by Wikileaks concerning
the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
chiefly served to confirm beliefs
already widely held by experts.
In much the same way, the latest
documents represent a diplomatic
embarrassment —but little else.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
may have more work this week
than last, but no one is surprised
that U.S. diplomats think the flam
boyant Italian prime minister,
Silvio Berlusconi, likes to party.
Upon receipt of the documents,
the Times carefully reviewed and
considered their affect. After con
sultation with the Defense
Department, the Times redacted
some parts of the documents which
were sensitive to national security.
At The Red & Black, we face a
similar challenge on a daily basis,
though on a much smaller scale. In
crime reporting, we follow the lead
of most other news organizations
by publishing the names of those
who allegedly perpetrate crimes. In
many cases, we do not publish the
names of the victims, even though
those names are matter of public
record.
Wikileaks’ founder Julian
Assange served as the middleman
in the affair, allegedly receiving the
documents from an Army private,
Bradley Manning, and passing
them along to the Times and sever
al European papers. But he didn’t
leave the decision to publish up to
those organizations. He published
the documents without redactions
on his website.
By doing so, Assange caused
severe harm to national interests.
More importantly, he may have
threatened the lives of previously
secret American sympathizers in
places such as Iraq and
Afghanistan.
Christianity discussion
creates political divide
Like Devon Young (“Don’t per
vert the lessons of Christ,” Dec. 6),
I too have met a variety of
Christians, from the charitable to
the misanthropic. But to call one
“true” and the other “false” is more
difficult to do than Young believes.
To label the homophobic, war
loving Christians she describes as
“ignorant, arrogant, misinformed,
intolerant and simple-minded” is
quite fair.
But we cannot forget that
prophets in the Bible repeatedly
commit atrocities and that gays are
explicitly condemned in both
Testaments.
Yes, much of the Biblical geno
cide occurs in the Old Testament,
Our Staff
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Adam Wynn
t Robbie
Ottley
Here’s where I disagree most
starkly with Assange’s methods.
Freedom of information is excep
tionally important to a healthy
democratic society. I’m proud that
even though the U.S. government
makes mistakes, we continue to be
among the world’s leaders in press
freedoms.
But with the development of the
Internet has come the idea that all
information should be free
regardless of legal, political or
moral reasoning to the contrary.
Not only does this belief fly in the
face of hundreds of years of prece
dent, but in its purest form would
harm modem society.
A front-page profile of Assange
in the Times told how many of
Wikileaks’ former volunteers split
with him over the issue of full dis
closure. And while there’s plenty of
room for disparaging Assange’s
character and motivations, I’ll
leave that to the observations of
the Times reporters. I’m more
interested in the fact that Assange
broke the law.
The golden precedent for all
press censorship cases in the U.S. is
the 1971 Supreme Court decision
New York Times Cos. v. United
States. The Court overturned an
injunction which had briefly
stopped the publication of the
Vietnam-era secret Pentagon
Papers in the Times. They ruled
the publication of those documents
did not represent a “grave and
irreparable danger.”
Therefore, the Times, the other
papers and probably the organiza
tion Wikileaks cannot be prevented
from publishing the documents,
particularly after the redaction of
sensitive passages.
Assange’s is a different case, and
prosecuting him could have dan
gerous free speech implications.
But unlike whistleblowers such as
Manning and the Times, whose
intent is to educate the public,
Mailbox
E-mail and letters from our readers
but it’s just as divine (and thus
canonic) as the New Testament.
Young’s “false” Christians may not
support many of Jesus’ ideas (wel
fare, etc.), but they are just as
devout as the Christians of JubUee.
What we should be pondering is
how a supposedly God-inspired
holy text could be so contradictory
not only to our modern-day morali
ty, but also within itself.
ALAN REESE
Senior, Savannah
Music performance and
Music theory
Devon Young is right to criticize
those who use the Christian pulpit
to preach a message of intolerance
and self-promotion (“Don’t pervert
the lessons of Christ,” Dec. 6)
the Gospel Is, and always will be,
about love and sacrifice. Some of
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Assange’s actions show him to be
clearly anti-American. This affects
how his case should be considered.
The leak in the Pentagon Papers
case, Daniel Ellsberg, did face
charges, though they were thrown
out when a judge ruled the evi
dence against him had been
obtained through improper means.
In a similar way, could Assange face
charges?
“Absolutely, and I think they’re
trying to,” said Kent Middleton,
head of Grady’s Department of
Journalism and a professor special
izing in media law. “The case could
be made that he violated our 1917
Espionage Act, and specifically he
would appear to have willfully dis
seminated confidential and secret
information, wrongfully acquired."
No, the cables’ revelation that
American diplomats believe China
thinks it can control the Web isn’t
the same as painting anew target
for terrorists.
But the cables remain secret for
a reason: to allow Americans to
advance our nation’s foreign policy
interests as best as possible.
President Wilson may have called
for “open covenants, openly arrived
at,” but the principles of politics
mean that full transparency can
never be attained.
Any government that tries to
abide by the principle of absolute
transparency will be unable to
accomplish anything.
The Times should be applauded
for continuing a proud tradition of
truth, especially since such trans
parency plays a major role in keep
ing the U.S. government from plot
ting secret Third World coups.
But Assange knowingly violated
the law of the United States. We
don’t have to treat the two-bit
muckraker like he’s Osama bin
Laden, and we don’t have to send
the Army after him.
Nevertheless, the United States
should issue a warrant for Julian
Assange’s arrest.
- Robbie Ottley is a sophomore
from Marietta majoring in history
and political science and is a
sports uniter and page designer
for The Red & Black
the conclusions she draws concern
me, however.
To claim that “war supporters”
and “most fiscal conservatives” are
not real Christians, she indicts as
heretics millions of Americans who
believe, for example, that warfight
ing can be just when used to
depose the wicked and free their
subjects; that social welfare can be
better administered by localities
(the church, certainly!) and is not
the proper role of the state; that
capitalism is good, having brought
material security to countless mil
lions.
In making these assumptions,
she confuses her own statist politi
cal preferences for obligatory
Christian practice.
MATTHEW BLAKE SEITZ
Freshman, Coppell, Texas
Political science
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