I write in response to the Sunday Gleaner article entitled 'One rape every twelve hours'. Scanning the newspaper online as I do every day, that article caught my attention and had me reading it over and over again. It was quite a shock for me to know there is a woman raped every twelve hours! What does that tell us about our society? We are as
barbaric as it is possible for a people to get.
It is very disturbing to know that women are so unsafe within our own little world! It is scary to know that I can be walking down the street and a man who feels that he is rejected by society or who feels that his masculinity is threatened can just come up to me and have me pay
the price for his own feelings and thoughts. That is
preposterous!
Where are we headed if day after day things get worse (from murders to rapes)? How do we expect that tourists will want to continually visit our island? They have access to these stories, and believe me, what we are doing has scared off many prospective visitors, and if we keep it up, I dread to think about what is going to happen to our beautiful island.
Next, these criminals believe that they can hide from the law but let me see them hide from the ever present eyes of the Lord.
Anya Elliott-Rochester, arochester@southingtonschools.org, Connecticut
WORLDWIDE EPIDEMIC
I just read Petrina Francis' article on the issue of rape in Jamaica and found it very disturbing but informative. This epidemic is not just a Jamaican issue, it is worldwide and needs to be addressed at all levels of society and culture. There are rapists in every part of society, from the very elite to the not so elite, from the rich to the poor, the educated, the uneducated, boyfriends, husbands, brothers, nephews, uncles, grandfathers, the list is endless. The unconscionable act of rape is just as pervasive and tragic in the bedrooms of the upscale neighbourhoods as it is in neighbourhoods across the railroad tracks.
Many women behind closed doors endure the same degradation by the men they love, they are treated no more or less by these men they love, than they would be by the unknown assailant lying in wait. A woman's right to say "No" to what or who invades her body is a very important part of her right to exist and her sense of freedom, and when those important fundamentals are threatened or taken away she is left a mere shell of the phenomenal woman she was meant to be.
I remain hopeful, however, that this horrible act of aggression, violence, misguided sense of power, dominance and confusion as to what actions constitute a real man against women will one day be eradicated.
Sonny Harridan, shawharrison@yahoo.comma, Holes, New York,Via Go-Jamaica
SURPRISING VIEW
The crime of rape, no matter how described by psychologists or others, is one of the most horrible and debilitating abuses that can be inflicted on another human being. Beyond a power trip for the criminal perpetrators, it destroys lives and inflicts horrible scars forever on victimised persons. There is a need to immediately create a special court, comparable to the Gun Court, to address these horrendous crimes where resources will be provided for swift investigation, amassing of evidence and rapid prosecution of the perpetrators.
Rape must be treated with identical seriousness as capital murder. Rape must be seen as a capital crime based on the physical, emotional and long-term deleterious effects on the victims and also their families. All convicted rapists should be sentenced to life in prison at perpetually hard labour without any possibility of parole. The certainty of swift justice and such profound sentences will have a chilling effect on potential perpetrators. Another potential sentence would be permanent sterilisation by surgical, not medication castration. The knowledge that such a sentence was an option would have a profoundly chilling effect and deter potential rapists.
I realise that many citizens will scream that such a sentence in a 'civilised' society is inhumane, and my answer is that they should look at the inhumane act that a rape is. So there will be no questions or wondering as to my gender I am a man.
Hopewell, hopewell@att.net, NYC
