The Bullsheet

Dear…proche_r, Sarah Bender, MK, and Courtney Baxter,

First off, why are you all attacking me? I am trying to present a solution to the issue. Take all of your anger, passion, and annoyance and attack the rapists. Not me, I aint did shit to you.

Second, since when was it ok to disrespect me? I guess since I responded so “nicely” to Courtney Ego, Sarah Bender took my kindness and ran with it. I have not disrespected you so do not disrespect me.

Third, why are you so angry with me? I did not once say that what I say is law. I just presented my opinion and a possible solution. All you all had to do was simply say that you disagreed and presented an idea you felt was better.

Fourth, do not read my articles and take bits and pieces out of it and frame it into something that you want to attack.

Now with that said….

To proch_r: I am sorry to hear that you were raped and I appreciate your courage to speak up about it. This was also something that I suggested. I asked about 2 articles ago for people to submit stories to my mailbox anonymously or by name if they would like, so that I could create a book of stories, to inspire other women and make our campus aware of the issue. Nothing came of it which is understandable which is why I commend you. I understand that both times alcohol was not involved. My possible solution was in reference to the type of sexual assault that happens most frequently on Denison’s campus, which, according to other women on our campus and Whistler, involves alcohol. Also, I am not saying that you should lock yourself in your room, not have fun, or not dress as you please. You would be able to do these things safely and freely without having to worry about a man sexually assaulting you, even if he wants to, if there are other women in the party who are looking out for you. If they are keeping an eye out they will notice if a guy is being forceful, trying to sneak off with you, etc. I am not saying that the way a woman dresses, drinks, or behaves makes her responsible for her sexual assault. If you would have read my other articles, it’s plainly stated in all caps, just like you did in your article. This is where you are misinterpreting me. I am not saying that because you do these things the man is excused because he was not able to control himself. No. He is definitely at fault. He has no right to do anything to you that you don’t want done. Simple as that. BUT, how are you helping yourself? proch_r, if you say
“We are all responsible and should act as if everyone else around us is responsible (even though this is obviously not true) because if we don’t we are just giving those other people a license to feel as if they are not expected to act with respect towards other people. I will continue to live as if the world is filled with these people no matter how matter how many times it makes me the victim, in hopes that one day, I will no longer have to.”
Those were your exact words, even the words in parenthesis. This makes no sense. All that does is make “those other people” think that there actions are not wrong. That’s like saying that, we should not have any laws because people shouldn’t be breaking them anyway, however, people are breaking the law, but we are going to continue to not have any laws in hopes that people will start to obey them.

Dear Sarah Bender,
Do not curse at me or refer to me as anything besides my name. In response to some things from your article, there is no need for me to make disclaimers in order that I get off of the hook for ridiculous statements, because they were not any ridiculous statements in my article. I started to just skip over you, since you decided to skip over my article and take what you wanted out of it so you could direct some undeserved anger towards me. You say, “If women should look out for each other when it comes to drinking, men should hold each other accountable when it comes to rape.” Sounds like plagiarism to me. Did you take that from my last article? And then you say something that tells me that you did not understand my article at all, whatsoever. You say, “If women were to begin to hold each other accountable for their own incidents of assault…” When did I say that? I said women should be accountable for each other. Meaning that they should look out for each other, take care of each other, and have a concern for each other. Which further means, make sure that your friends get home safely, make sure that if you know that there is something in the drinks at a party, that you tell ALL the women in the party ; not just your friends. That means if you know that someone has had too much to drink, keep a watchful eye on her and do not let some guy take her in the backroom. And who “gave me the authority?” Your silence gave me the authority. If nobody cares enough to speak up about it I will because I care. I did not insinuate that I am the only man that cares about this issue; I said that most men do not care about this issue. And I never said I was “saving” anyone, so I do not know where you got that quote from. You do not know me so do not refer to me as a dick or a sexist. Sounds like you are the sexist for applying those stereotypes to me. If you read my article, you would have been able to see what I was saying, quote properly, and make an appropriate argument. Your article is based on misquotes and misreads. Good job.

Dear MK,
Do not write to me as though I am a child. I know who is capable of being raped and committing rape. Stop stating the obvious. Also, I did not demand their stories; I requested their stories, and when I presented my idea in the forum about sexual assault, the three men and all the women who were there, thought that it was a good idea, which they stated verbally. I did not order anybody to do anything; it was just an idea to create awareness. And if you have been studying the climate of our campus for 3 years why haven’t you figured out how to create awareness about this issue? I did not even know that rape happened so often until recently and I have been here for three years. I know why women do not report rape as well as why they do not want to talk about it. I do not know everything, but I would not dispute an issue or attempt to create a solution for our campus if I did not know what I was talking about. Since I have been writing about this issue, I have researched on the internet, interviewed sorority members, written a research paper on this issue, and interviewed the counselors in Whistler. There is much more to know but I am not ignorant.

Dear Courtney,
I am not thee voice, nor am I attempting to be a voice for all women. I am not a voice to express hurt, pain, guilt, etc. You say that you do not need me to be your voice and I agree. I do not want to be, nor am I attempting to be your voice. I meant that I am attempting to be a voice of awareness, which I do through the bullsheet. Prior to me writing into the bullsheet, this issue was not talked about and I am not saying that to be self-righteous or get credit or whatever. I wanted to voice my concerns and create awareness so I did.

Now, to Courtney and everyone else who believes that the solution to this issue is to stop men from committing rape and sexual assault. YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT! Now, tell me how are you going to do that? How can you stop men who rape women and brag about it to their friends (who obviously are not in objection to his decision, otherwise he would not have told them)? How do you stop men who kick a guy out of their fraternity because he tells on his “brother” for raping a woman but asks the rapist to stay? How do you stop men from raping when most of them do not give a damn? My issue with this solution is that, yes it is the PERFECT solution. The Perfect solution is not to drink less, its not to take care of each other, is not to wear less revealing clothes, not to not go to parties, not for men to be respectable, or for the campus to be aware, etc. The Perfect solution is for men and whoever to stop raping. My question is, How realistic is it to think that all men will stopped raping? And how would you stop them? This is why I propose simple things to do like drink less and take care of each other. That would decrease the amount of rape and sexual assault on Denison’s campus. It is easy to do and it does not require the help or assistance of anyone except you. It is a START.

To all of you,
I appreciate your entries and concern. I am not your enemy, I am just attempting to be an ally and make the campus aware. Attack those who are the rapists; from my understanding, you know who some of them are anyway. I am not challenging you, but maybe you all should get together and come up with a solution. You all seem passionate enough so sit down and come up with something. Good luck.

Everett D.

P.S. DON’T NOT RESPOND TO ME UNLESS YOU READ MY ENTIRE ENTRY. I KNOW ITS LONG BUT IF YOU DON’T CARE ENOUGH TO FINISH IT, THEN IT SHOULD NOT BE WORTHY OF A RESPONSE FROM YOU.