Warning - Contains the R Word

Yes, this post contains the "R" word - rape - and therefore, if that word so offends that you cannot read about it without becoming viscerally upset, please leave now. Otherwise, read on...

Rape - such an ugly, visceral word and an act of extreme violence. A hot-button topic to be sure. This is an act we most often picture as a very physical, dare I say sexual one in most cases, performed by a man upon a woman or by Man upon Nature. In this context, it is also an act that men perform on other men and yes, women perform on men as well - although the thought of that particular situation is usually met with laughter and/or sheer disbelief. However, this is one, and not the primary, definition of the word.

Rape by definition - according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary - is first a carrying away by force and then second unlawful sexual activity and usually sexual intercourse carried out forcibly or under threat of injury. So, through that lense, the instances I noted above have to do with the second definition of the word.

I would offer that we are also guilty of engaging mightily in the first definition of the word - the carrying away of something by force - in this country. I would offer that our ability for truly civil discourse has been raped by those who play on our emotions and push and/or bully their way through conversations and debates instead of discussing issues with logic and reason and truly listening and understanding the other side of the discourse.

And yes, I have been guilty of this as well. I have a tendency to get wrapped up in the emotion around a specific topic - most recently the comments on rape by the second definition by particular politicians this election season - and have thereby raped conversations on this topic, as well as others.

I would recommend that we all say NO to both definitions of rape, and work to bring humanity back together as one instead of continuing with our fractures and divisions. The conversations engaged in without the use of emotional or verbal rape are likely to be no less painful than the other for a while as they will be a change in how we as a people engage one another, however I offer this is a necessary growing pain we must go through in order to become a better, more united, more caring society.

Namaste.