Sign This Petition — Rep. Smyk Should Apologize

Filed in Delaware by on October 30, 2014

Sexual assault is serious and traumatic for its survivors — and there is no comparison to paying taxes. Insisting on that comparison is certainly callous and certainly stupid. Two things that may, in fact, be habit with Rep. Smyk. He needs to apologize (and stop chasing down people he thinks are responsible for circulating this) and he needs to apologize now. Please sign this petition that calls upon Smyk to apologize for his stupid and offensive use of the word “rape” in trying to defend corporate interests.

Then, make sure you go vote for Marie Mayor, who will certainly respect and represent her constituents better than this.

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"You don't make progress by standing on the sidelines, whimpering and complaining. You make progress by implementing ideas." -Shirley Chisholm

Comments (29)

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  1. Terry says:

    People should quit being so butthurt and pick up a dictionary once in a while.

  2. puck says:

    I think womanhood will survive. Where’s the petition to apologize for his claim that corporate taxes are too high? Rep. Smyk is a niggard.

  3. Dave says:

    The origin of the word is late Middle English which originally denoted violent seizure of property, and later carrying off a woman by force. The current definition is (also) – The wanton destruction or spoiling of a place or area. This was the context in which he used the word.

    If there is a desire to have a word with a single meaning/definition which would communicate the forcing another person to have sexual intercourse with the offender against their will, I would be happy to sign such a petition directed at Oxford, Merriam-Webster, et al.

    Words matter and accepted definitions matter. Smyk used the correct word in the correct manner to convey his thought.

  4. puck says:

    As a longstanding member of P.O.O.P.* I decline to sign the petition.

    *People Offended by Offended People

  5. cassandra m says:

    Smyk used the correct word in the correct manner to convey his thought.

    Uh, no. The revenue sharing *that these casinos agreed to* is in no way a “wanton destruction or spoiling of a place or area”. Words do matter as do accepted definitions and even by your own standards this is a pretty big fail.

    Because for your phony “moderation” to even work here, you have to do these things:

    1. Pretend that Smyk is talking about taxes (he isn’t).
    2. Pretend that these casinos did not readily agree to the revenue sharing they are balking against now.
    3. Pretend that the agreement that the casinos made, plus their own decision to protect their monopoly rather than compete better = the wanton destruction or spoiling of a place or area.

    Just stop now.

  6. cassandra m says:

    For puck here, that would be:

    People Offended by Offended Females = POOF.

    Fixed that for you and you are welcome.

  7. puck says:

    This petition the kind of pearl-clutching that rightly gives political correctness a bad name. Smyk is no linguistic scholar but somehow in his reptilian brain he knew that the word had additional meanings, and he used it correctly.

    Smyk THINKS he is talking about taxes. Calling it revenue-sharing doesn’t change anything. And yes, Smyk is pretending all of those things, which is the real offense.

  8. Jason330 says:

    DE N.O.W says

    “To use the word “rape” outside of the context of sexual assault is callous and insulting to the thousands of Delaware women who have experienced the trauma of being sexually assaulted.” and further…the casual misuse of rape especially people in positions of power, it contributes to the normalization of sexual violence and perpetuates a culture that diminishes the magnitude and trauma of rape. ”

    Puck and other say, “No it doesn’t” based on …? Having been raped?

    A normal human would try to err on the side of not further traumatizing people.

    But Okay – Puck has been raped so I’ll take his first hand experience into account. Even so… there is no comparison between not further enriching a few rich guys and rape.

  9. puck says:

    DE N.O.W says “To use the word “rape” outside of the context of sexual assault is callous and insulting

    DE N.O.W.s beef is with the dictionary.

  10. focaccia says:

    So kind of like when the left compares stuff to Hitler?

  11. puck says:

    Rape on the Jacks Fork River

    – Sierra Club

    go find your own examples; there’s plenty more.

  12. jason330 says:

    You are just like Hitler.

  13. pandora says:

    I hate these willfully ignorant debates. I’m sure those citing the dictionary use “niggardly” on a regular basis, since the dictionary definition of the word gives them cover. Right?

  14. cassandra m says:

    They can’t even use the alternate dictionary definition of “rape” appropriately. Since the Jacks Fork River story really is about the “the wanton destruction or spoiling of a place or area”, while taxes or revenue sharing previously agreed to is not.

    But it is pathetic to try to hide behind an alternate meaning of the word (that doesn’t even apply here) to ONCE MORE try to minimize violence done to people who are not you.

  15. pandora says:

    Our very own #gamergaters. Not kidding, they have a lot in common.

  16. anon says:

    The forum where Smyk made his “rape” remark was at Cape Henlopen High School in Lewes. When he made that statement there was an audible gasp from the crowd. The parents in Steve Smyk’s district are well aware of what “rape” is, Dr. Earl Bradley, the worst pedophile in American history, had his office of horrors in Lewes and he preyed on the local children. This didn’t happen 50 years ago, Bradley was arrested in 2010.

    Five girls who “appeared to lose consciousness” during sex assaults are shown in video recordings seized from Earl B. Bradley’s home and pediatrics office in Lewes, according to a 471-count indictment handed down Monday by a Sussex County grand jury…

    Told that the indictment said some victims appeared to become unconscious or stop breathing during the attacks, the woman was at first speechless.

    “Oh my God,” she finally said. “He’s just pure evil. No one with a conscience could do this.”

    Now being compared with the worst pedophiles in U.S. history, Bradley was originally charged with raping nine girls in December. Many had been waiting to see how many victims would be found from video recordings seized from Bradley’s home and office in Lewes after prosecutors said there could be as many as 100 victims. Attorney General Beau Biden said more victims are being identified through interviews with parents and children…

    The sex attacks caught on video files seized by investigators in December began in 1998 and continued through Dec. 13 — three days before his arrest, the indictment said. Most occurred over the last three years. All but one was a girl, and court records have said one was as young as 3 months.

    The indictment and other court records accused Bradley, who had offices in Lewes and Milford, of fondling the children and forcing them to engage in oral sex and intercourse, at times with youngsters screaming and trying to escape.

    There are a lot of people in the 20th who know first hand what “rape” really means because their own children, some as young as 3 months old, were savagely raped right in Smyk’s district.

    Now, feel free to continue making this into a joke.

  17. pandora says:

    Not only making it into a joke, but deliberately misinterpreting the true meaning of the word, ’cause, you know… the dictionary.

  18. TheReal'Really?' says:

    Sorry…this whole thing reminded me a great post I read somewhere recently…its worth the read.

    #1: Shittah
    Incorrect usage in conversation:
    “I went to Fenway Pahk yestahday, and had to pay a dollah to use the shittah.”
    “Pissah!”
    Correct usage in conversation:
    “Noah built the Ark of shittah wood.
    What it means:The tree that yielded the shittimwood of the Bible, probably a species of acacia

    #2: Prickmadam
    Incorrect usage in conversation:
    “Here’s my prick, madam.”
    “That’ll be $50.”
    Correct usage in conversation:
    “I just ate a shitload of prickmadam. Sorry about the carpet.”
    “That’ll be $500.”
    What it means:
    Any of several species of stonecrop, used as ingredients of vermifuge medicines.
    (It’s a plant that makes you shit parasitic worms out.)

    #3: Titular
    Incorrect usage in conversation:
    “She has the nicest titular area I’ve seen in a coon’s age.”

    Correct usage in conversation:
    “She’s the titular head of the National Organization of Women.”
    “That would explain the mustache.”
    What it means:
    Having a particular title, rank, or position, but not possessing the power or exercising the functions usually associated with it

    #4: Dickey grind (or, nasty grind)
    Incorrect usage in conversation:
    “Would you like to do the Dickey grind in my titular area?”
    “Here’s my prick, madam.”
    “That’ll be $50.”
    Correct usage in conversation:
    “I saw her doing the Dickey grind at the skate park yesterday.”
    What it means:
    An inline skating trick by which the skater turns 90 degrees clockwise to mount a surface, sliding with the trailing foot backward and the back skate on its outside edge

    #5: Cockchafer
    Incorrect usage in conversation:
    “Never do the Dickey grind in that prickmadam’s titular area. She’s a real cockchafer.”
    “What does she charge for a shittah?”
    “That’ll be $50.”
    Correct usage in conversation:
    “All these trees are infested with cockchafer.”
    “Pissah! What kind of trees are those, anyway?”
    “Shittah!”
    What it means:
    A large European beetle with larvae that destroy trees and other plants. Family Scarabaeidae.

    #6: Horehound
    Incorrect usage in conversation:
    “Bob is such a horehound, he paid $50 to do the Dicky grind on that cockchafer prickmadam’s titular area. Then he did a shittah and gave her a Dirty Sanchez.”
    “That would explain the mustache.”
    Correct usage in conversation:
    “My horehound is infested with cockchafers.”
    “Pissah!”
    What it means:
    A bitter perennial mint with downy leaves and square stems.

    #7: Cooter
    Incorrect usage in conversation:
    “That prickmadam’s titular area is a real cockchafer, but I’d pay $50 to do a Dickey grind in her cooter.”
    “You’re such a horehound.”
    Correct usage in conversation:
    “How do you like my girlfriend’s cooter?” [Pointing to her cooter.]
    “Pissah!”
    What it means:
    A large freshwater turtle native to the eastern United States. Genus Chrysemys.

    #8: Hand organ
    Incorrect usage in conversation:
    “I’m a real horehound, but I don’t have $50 to pay a prickmadam to let me do the Dicky grind in her cooter, so you’ll have to excuse me while I go crank my hand organ.”
    “Better not do it in the shittah. It’s infested with cockchafers.”
    Correct usage in conversation:
    “How do you like my girlfriend’s hand organ?”
    “I prefer her cooter.”
    What it means:
    A mechanical musical instrument with a bellows, played by turning a crank

    #9: Uvula
    Incorrect usage in conversation:
    “Honey, show him your uvula.”
    “Excuse me while I go to the shittah.”
    “When you come back, I’ll show you her cooter.”
    Correct usage in conversation:
    “How do you like my girlfriend’s uvula?
    “I can best express these feelings on my hand organ.”
    What it means:
    A small, fleshy, U-shaped extension of the soft palate that hangs above the tongue at the entrance to the throat.

    #10: Assagai
    Incorrect usage in conversation:
    “Thata Luigi, he’s a reala assagai.”
    “He shoulda be carefula he doesnta geta shittah on his handa organ.”

    Correct usage in conversation:
    “When I stiffed that prickmadam for $50, she threw an assagai at me.”
    “At least she didn’t infest you with cockchafers.”

    What it means:
    A slender hardwood spear with an iron tip, used especially by the Zulu peoples of southern Africa.

    #11: Niggard

    Incorrect usage in conversation:
    You know what? Let’s just skip this part.

    Correct usage in conversation:
    THERE IS NO CORRECT USAGE. Don’t ever, ever use it, whatever you do. Ever.

    What it means (as if it matters):
    Somebody regarded as stingy or miserly, if you live long enough to explain it.

  19. anon says:

    Why don’t you remind yourself of the pain parents in the 20th District felt a few years ago when they found out their pediatrician RAPED their babies, then sign the petition to remind Representative Smyk.

  20. pandora says:

    Hey, look! We’ve found common ground between some liberal, moderate and conservative men!

  21. anon says:

    Yes, they’re all Todd Aiken.

  22. Dave says:

    “Because for your phony “moderation” to even work here, you have to do these things”

    No, I don’t. All I have to do was state both the obvious and the factual, which I did.

    Smyk equated “revenue sharing” with a “wanton destruction or spoiling of a place or area.” His usage of the word was hyperbolic and as a result was obviously so far off the mark as to make the statement completely inaccurate. Regardless, he used it correctly, even though I think “plunder” would have been a better choice with which to convey his thought.

    That you and others desire to narrowly define the word so as to limit its definition to one thing and one thing only, is perfectly fine by me and if NOW wishes to petition the powers that be who decide what words mean, I will be happy to sign it.

    And by the way who decides what the “the true meaning of the word” is, if not the dictionary? Have you checked the dictionary to see what the origin is? It late Middle English originally denoting violent seizure of property, later carrying off a woman by force. I and others rely upon dictionaries to provided authoritative definitions for words. I will continue to do so. I hope no one is going to be outraged by that.

    Now it may be that Smyk was equating the casino crap to sexual assault, but I’m fairly certain he was not, just as the Sierra Club was not, but go ahead and be outraged. Just remember, when everything is outrageous, nothing becomes outrageous.

  23. puck says:

    Now, feel free to continue making this into a joke.

    The joke is the petition and its defenders. We are just the audience reacting with laughter.

    When I say their beef is with the dictionary, that is really an oversimpification. Dictionaries don’t create language, they describe it as it is. The beef is with languge and history, not a book.

    Granted, it may be that we are reaching an inflection point where you can’t say the word rape anymore regardless of its definition. We reached that point about ten years ago with the word “retarded,” once medically and legally accepted but now you just can’t say it. Language does change over time, and sometimes people’s misconceptions become reality. How many people know that the phrase “hocus-pocus” is an old anti-Catholic slur?

    Republicans have also equated taxation with theft. I have been the victim of various forms of actual theft, but I don’t think their misuse of the word hurts me.

  24. puck says:

    I hate these willfully ignorant debates.

    See. more common ground!

  25. cassandra_m says:

    Do you even read what you write here? Because you are working way too hard here:

    Smyk equated “revenue sharing” with a “wanton destruction or spoiling of a place or area.” His usage of the word was hyperbolic and as a result was obviously so far off the mark as to make the statement completely inaccurate. Regardless, he used it correctly,

    This even strains logic, much less meaning. Equating agreed to revenue sharing to “wanton destruction or spoiling of a place or area” doesn’t even make any sense. Full stop. Sharing revenue *that you already agreed to share* negates — by definition — wantonness, destruction or spoiling. because in this instance, the casinos agreed to this which would — if you follow where you are going — mean that the casinos would have agreed to their own rape. Which is nonsensical. Utterly. See the definition of wanton.

    And you can save your lecture on looking up words. The first thing that is true is that you aren’t in any position to lecture people on meaning when you can twist logic the way you did here AND rely on somehow knowing that Smyk really did mean a relatively obscure meaning of the word when it is pretty clear that Smyk doesn’t have that kind of brainpower. The second thing that is true is that context matters. As anon points out above, the people Smyk represents certainly do know what rape is, having had a horrific epidemic of it in their community. Last — defending the indefensible just lumps you in with this guy. Hope you are delighted with that.

  26. cassandra_m says:

    Oh look, POOF decides to demonstrate his oh-so-progressive cred again.

  27. puck says:

    Correct usage; incorrect politics.