What have we come to? Why is it that a girl can’t be trusted to walk alone at night or be in a parking structure by herself anymore? Why should she have to “stick with a group of friends” or make sure to check her car before she gets in? Why should she always carry a whistle and carefully watch her surroundings? Why is the world such a scary place that she has to do all of these things? It’s because we’ve made it that way.

Rape. Such an ugly word. A word that many people like to ignore or push away, believe that it’s not true, that it’s not a reality in our world. But it is. And it’s actually a huge problem nowadays. It’s happening everywhere. In your city, in your neighborhood, even in your own house. But sadly, nothing is being done about it.

We all know the story of a Mr. Brock Turner (and if you don’t, I’ll fill you in). A former Stanford University student and swimmer, who was convicted of raping one of his fellow students last fall. Not only that, but he was also found guilty of multiple sex assault charges. But the point I’m trying to make comes later in the story, because I’m sure you all know that rape cases like this one happen everyday. No, what I’m most furious about is Turner’s punishment. Apparently violating and raping a woman only calls for 6 months jail time. And the kicker is, that because of his “good behavior”, he was actually released three months early. Wait? So he emotionally and possibly physically traumatized a woman for the rest of her life, and gets away with it in return for sitting in jail for three months? Good behavior, my ass. That doesn’t change the fact that he victimized and took advantage of an innocent woman. It is absolutely appalling.

And you’re probably sitting here like blah, blah, blah, this is old news. And yes, it is. I’m not trying to rehash the story of Brock Turner, but I’m using it here to make a point. People (both men and women) feel that it is okay to commit sexual assault and violated another’s body because of the lenience and acceptance that the justice system has shown towards these types of crimes. And I’m also not here to make implications about our court systems. I’m just trying to highlight the seriousness of rape and sexual violence, and more importantly, that people need to understand that there are consequences to these horrific actions.

Just a few weeks ago, at a California State University in San Marcos, a woman was raped in broad daylight, on her very own campus.

The woman (unnamed) had been talking to a man over a social media app, and finally decided to meet up with him. The man picked her up from her school at around 11 am, drove over to a parking lot structure on the very same campus and raped her. Just like that. And no one had a clue. Now, thankfully that story ended with the woman getting away and no further harm was done to her, but as you can see, sexual assault really is everywhere. And more importantly, anyone is at risk for becoming another victim of it.

Rape is happening all around us. That case is one of millions that go on every single year. And it’s not just women that are victims- men are victims, too. Either way, we as a society need to come together to make it stop. We need to stop glorifying that people can just do whatever they want and get away with it. Because people are doing just that.

The world doesn’t have to be such a scary place if we don’t want it to be.

Raise awareness about sexual violence. Fight for what is right. Make America the great nation that it’s supposed to be.