Rape and What it Can Do to Any One of Us

Earlier in the semester, my first semester here at The University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg, a few of my friends and I were in attendance at a production more the male students on campus only called "No More Rape." Though we were not looking forward to going to the event, we knew that it was something that we needed to do, so we figured let's just go and get it over with. Upon conclusion of the production as we were all walking out of Ferguson Theatre, we all looked at one another and could not believe what we had just witnessed. Words to describe the event are very surprising, interesting, and actually kind of scary to think about.

The production was put on by a group of four graduates from universities all over the country. Their sole purpose is to get the message out to people before it is too late. Their message is this: Rape can occur to anybody, whether female or male, and it can happen at any time. Their first mission was to relay the message to the audience which was made up of about thirty to forty males. They were able to do this by showing a film of a rape instance but that was all that they told us before turning it on. By watching the video, I believe that the majority of the audience went into an immediate shock after viewing that the victim of the rape was an older police officer who was just doing his job. The video was as follows: There was a police officer who was out on the streets of the town making his nightly rounds when he saw something peculiar in a dark alley. He saw a garbage can that had been blown or knocked over and it was laying in the middle of the alley, which becomes important when remembering that police cars, fire trucks, and ambulances all use those tiny alleys to be more efficient with time on their way to an emergency. So, the officer, who was actually on his own this time and had no partner because it was so late at night, went back to the alley, got out of his car, and went over to the can to get it out of the way.

While he was bending over, however, he heard a gun being held beside his head as a voice told him, "Don't move cop or I will blow your head off." Not being able to move or get away because he had no back-up, the poor officer went on to be raped and no one was out there that could save him due to the time at night when everybody else in the world is either sleeping or out committing other similar crimes. The tale of the rape story was gruesome to say the least, and it caught the attention of every student in the theatre. It is a common misunderstanding that rape can only happen to females when in reality, like mentioned earlier, it can happen to anybody at any time, even our law enforcement.

After the presentation, the group of graduates talked about the film and answered any of the questions that we may have had for them to answer. Several surprising statistics were thrown out at us of the percentage of rapes at universities around the country over the past years. Something that is mentioned so rarely and thought so little of is actually a very big issue in or society of today and it is tremendously overlooked by those who have not experienced the effects of rape. The presentation only lasted about an hour, but I believe all of the people in attendance were able to gain some vital piece of information for their lives from the event.

When it comes down to it, rape is a very serious issue of our times, and by watching and learning from real life instances, everyone can learn a thing or two about just how serious it can be. It only took my friends and me about an hour to see what can happen in a rape and to see how to avoid being raped. It also allowed us to see what we can do if we knew somebody that had been raped, which is basically just to comfort them because it is a very traumatic experience that they will most likely never be able to get out of their head. If possible, get them professional help with a therapist where they will have someone to get everything off their chest with. For something that seemed not even worth going to, it may have been one of the best-spent hours that I have been a part of in my life thus far.