Sexual assault not only violates the corporal, emotional and psychological integrity of victims, but it spits on the fundamental principles of our free and Republican society.

Let us consider the basic premises – if indeed there are any – that underlie the motives of a sexual assault. The assailant must literally view their potential victim as less than human.

For those of you who read my report yesterday on sexual assault statistics, know that I read through each and every testimony and police report in that sample.

The accounts were nothing less than revolting.

Attackers, each and every one male, manipulated their victims.

Indeed, one instance involved several attackers who regarded their victim as a “baby lamb” and were reported to admit, “We share everything because we are brothers.”

A sexual assailant who says these sorts of things is deeply flawed for not being able to see their fellow human as deserving of respect.

Sexual assailants by definition have to go out of their way to force sexual contact on others, yet the blame is almost always immediately assigned to the victim.

As I write these words, a woman in America is raped every two minutes, according to the Washington Coalition for Sexual Assault Programs.

Think about that, and then meditate on how we as a society are guaranteeing every citizen and resident of this country the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

A sexual assault victim is not having their life respected; they are not allowed liberty of body, mind or spirit; and their pursuit of happiness, from that moment on, is impeded.

In a society that proclaims to espouse the classical liberal doctrines of equal opportunity and equality before the law, we should be ashamed for this atrocity.

Let me say this unequivocally: the mechanics of the patriarchy are alive and well in its most heinous manifestation. Sexual assault, especially because the majority of victims are women, is the United States telling the world that we regard our women as objects for use, not subjects to engage with and certainly not full and equal citizens.

It regards its men who are attacked as jokes or as being less than men.

We at WSU share a special portion of this blame and shame. Our alcohol culture has created an environment here that is fundamentally toxic to our students.

The alcohol and rape culture protects men from liability while intoxicated, yet brands women as at fault for doing the same.

The fact that my report on locations of sexual assault could categorize Greek houses and residence halls as hotbeds of sexual violence is disgusting. Your organizations for this reason alone should be open to reproach.

Read now and well: Greek and Residence Life should better police themselves or be subject to regular and thorough oversight from outside organizations: mend your ways, become more transparent or be dissolved.

Christian social doctrine would purport that society as a whole can share in a sin. Regarding sexual assault, we are particularly sinful. It is a poison that erodes the moral integrity of our university, Pullman, the state of Washington and the United States.

It violates our fundamental social compacts, among them the Constitution. The preamble reads, “We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.”

In this light, sexual assault is unconstitutional: sexual assault is gross injustice; it is violence; it violates any common defense; and it defecates on any claim to encourage general welfare. Even worse, it is a form of implicit slavery where certain people, largely women, service the profane desires of sexual predators. Last I checked, slavery is the antithesis of the blessing of liberty.

More importantly, our current responses are not working. They are not working because the penalties are not severe and swift enough to make potential assailants think twice about attacking someone.

They are not working because The Daily Evergreen weekend crime reports regularly report rapes or sexual assaults.

My challenge to WSU is to quit paying lip service to the issue and do something. This is not an issue that requires mercy or understanding. Sexual assailants should not only be regarded as criminal scum but as traitors to our republic. They fundamentally violate the basic fabric of our political values and should be punished accordingly.

Editor’s note: This article has been revised for clarification.