What is Rape?

I love John Stewart because he brings to light the ridiculousness of life. Not all are fans because he is super liberal, he blasts the GOP, and he is not a friend of the far right religious faction, but sometimes he just gets it right no matter who you are.

If you have not watched the link above (click on the title "What is Rape?"), take a second and watch. Go ahead, I'll wait. If you have already seen it, keep on reading.

How is it a group in Congress think they can "redefine" rape to leave out a group of people who generally feel no one will believe them anyway. The group that they are trying to "undefine" as rape victims are people with limited mental capacity, people who have been drugged or who have taken drugs (including people who become unconscious), and people who are on a date. I am assuming this last category extends to people who are married, but I am not certain.  

Have we not been espousing "no means no" for years now? How long did we fight to get that as the accepted mantra? Is the act of rape not defined by non-consensual sex? Now, we are going to excuse some forms because there were 191 federally funded abortions last year, costing each tax payer 2/10 of a cent.

In order to save that miniscule amount of money, Congress is willing to take power away from a group of women who have been victimized and are willing to victimize them a second time.

I know married women who have been raped. I know people who have been raped by friends. I know people who have been date raped. I know people who have been attacked and raped. Does this list alone not show the prevalence of this horrible crime? By the way, non of the women that I mentioned ever reported this brutality. Why? Because they were afraid of a second victimization in the courts. They could not bear the thought of a judge not believing them. That's what their husband, boyfriend, date and/or stranger had already told them would happen.

There are petitions floating around the internet, there is one at the bottom of this page. Let congress know that we still believe that "NO MEANS NO." We women want to keep our power and we are willing to fight for it. We had to do it before, we will do it again.

Here is the link to sign the petition being brought to Congress:

http://pol.moveon.org/smithbill/?rc=fb.share.smithbill.1.1