NO!

no

nō/

determiner

determiner: no

1. 1.

   not any.

   "there is no excuse"
2. 2.

   used to indicate that something is quite the opposite of what is being specified.

   "it was no easy task persuading her"
3. 3.

   hardly any.

   "you'll be back in no time"
4. 4.

   used in notices or slogans forbidding or rejecting something specified.

   "“No Smoking” signs"

exclamation

exclamation: no

1. 1.

   used to give a negative response.

   "“Is anything wrong?” “No.”"

   absolutely not, most certainly not, of course not, under no circumstances, by no means, not at all, negative, never, not really www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/.../california-yes-me... www.joyfulheartfoundation.org www.safehorizon.org/sexualassault www.cdc.gov ‎

No means no and yes means yes. This has always been the way of these two words in the English language from the beginning and yet one states government had to outline their specifics in mandates earlier this year.

Back in the nineties it was taught in self defense classes that if you were being raped you should yell, FIRE!!  not, RAPE! HELP ME!
 
The first puzzlement is why. Why? Because people do not want to get involved in what might be a lovers quarrel gone wrong or worse get in the middle of a full blown domestic disturbance.

 Almost 690,000 women are raped each year here in the U.S. and about 61% of those happen to women under the age of 18yrs.
Stranger [rape] attacks are the rarest...meaning that almost all rapists are someone the victims knows.
I wonder why rapists rape. Have we all gone completely off the deep end? How is that 1000 attacks per year between 1973 and 2003 has risen to over half a million?
It's not just women. In 2011 statistics indicated that about 90,000 + men were raped in the US each year.

It seems we are missing something in our educating of youth or their unnatural lifestyles perhaps.
Are we putting too much pressure on them? Is it really social media or porn becoming mainstream in primetime? Is it our openness about sexuality? How is it that our nations youth are growing up to be predators? What are we doing wrong?
So many unanswered questions, yet instead of finding the answers we just keep throwing out our opinions and pointing fingers.

As I write I am thinking about what opinions I have and which direction to point my finger. For me  it always comes back to a statement I have made time and again that " We live unnatural lives". We never allow our children to be children. We are constantly shoving them into daily lives that could rival a rock star or infamous CEO. When children grow up in the constant shadow of social media and celebrity priority this places too much pressure on them to fit in, to compete, to be perfect. Video games that exploit and encourage all violent crimes are not helping either. Parents need to stop ignoring their kids, stop living vicariously through them and stop treating them like Barbies you can dress up however your mood suits you.

There are other elements at play here as well. There are liars and manipulators who cry rape when there really is just a trash can fire, they use this heinous crime as a career option, to have their 15 minutes of fame and to extort money from the most wealthy. Again it comes down to where they are learning this behavior.

Let's not forget the people who blame the victims, no wait let's take them out of the equation and toss them into the trash can...the one that really is on fire.

Our professional Athletes are riding the fence on being part of the problem or part of the solution. Here's an idea, why don't they just say 'No' to having sex with every woman with a pulse, then the zillions of impressionable children idolizing you might just say 'Yes' to saying 'No".

The 'Yes means Yes' issue that is being brought to light in California is aimed at Universities and Colleges to start putting an end to campus rape. Sorry California, telling your youth what words are politically correct while they are being attacked is not a solution. It is you covering your asses.

If I hear someone yell fire I'll call 911 and get my extinguisher, but if I ever hear someone yell rape I will fight for their survival as though it were my own life at stake. I will not look the other way, I will not pretend I don't  hear you and I will not wait for police who may or may not get there in time.
 I will fight for you, I will never leave you to fight alone.

We will never put an end to rape until we find out why rapists rape, but until then we can rise up against them and fight for our right to be heard.