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It was brutally terrifying to read about a Cornell University student who says she was drugged and gang-raped by seven Cornell men. Qasim Rashid’s post “Women Are Not Safe Around Men” gets to the ugly, point of unaccountable male domination, where women are brutally raped and/or beaten by men who will not assume responsibility for their destructive actions.
The seven men who allegedly drugged and raped this woman, received little accountability for their destructive behavior. Soft consequences were rendered: two expelled, others had to write essays, none had to face criminal charges. Alleged gang rape! By men! Who were not arrested! Not tried for rape! No accountability!
Adding to the utter, brutal pain foisted on the woman, Cornell law enforcement and university leadership seem to have walked off the job by not holding the accused rapists accountable. If seven men in our hometown gang-raped a woman, would they not be arrested, tried and imprisoned if found guilty. Why are these Cornell males exempt?
It seems to me that legal and university leadership worked at minimizing the public effects of the alleged rape, easing up on the validity of the crime their privileged students engaged with in their drive to dominate and control.
I hope colleges and universities in Maine step up to the protection plate for women and issue public statements about their policies and plans for protecting women from this kind of utter, destructive brutality, illegally foisted on women by dominating men.
Roger Merchant
Glenburn