Miss USA and Self Defense

It’s come to my attention that there has been quite a negative response to Miss USA.  Apparently, suggesting that women learn “self-defense” as a way to protect against rape is a bad thing.  This is a common problem with our society today.  Instead of taking someone’s words at face value, people like to imply words and meanings that just aren't there.  Let’s look at some examples.

Pretend a Republican says: “Welfare programs need to be scaled back in this country.  Too many people are fully dependent on the system, and aren't motivated to find a job.”  That does not imply that the Republican thinks all poor people are lazy.  That does not imply that the Republican thinks that poor people don’t need help getting off their feet.  But those are always the conclusions that Democrats jump to when this very common argument is made. 

Now pretend a Democrat says: “We need to scale back government spending on national defense.”  This does not imply that Democrats are weak leaders.  This does not imply that Democrats don’t support our troops.   But again, this is the immediate response we've heard countless times from Republicans against this point.

So back to our “self-defense” comment by Miss USA – she is not saying that it’s okay that rapists rape.  She’s not saying that the problem is that women are weak.  She is simply giving one option that can help stop rape from occurring.  Other options could be to have more police patrols at night, add better street lights down dark alleyways, and increase punishments for convicted rapists.  Why would we not utilize as many strategies as possible to prevent such a horrible act?  The outrage over her comments is completely illogical – and it doesn't surprise me at all.