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View From The Lighthouse
Blue Bus funding should
be cut...for no
Behrend's Student Activity
Fee committee has a tough call
to make with the proposed
Blue Bus funding. It's a no
win situation for the
committee, which has to weigh
students' needs for the Blue
Bus against the high cost to
provide the service.
Ridership on the Blue Bus
continues to decrease despite
numerous attempts to provide
a route for students that will
cater to their needs. If you
take a serious look at this
problem, and at the proposal
submitted by Student
Activities for a new Blue Bus,
it doesn't add up.
It's not completely fair to
just hold this criteria to the
Blue Bus. There are many
student organizations which
are funded for events which
end up having no turnout. The
difference between that
problem and the Blue Bus, is
that there is no way of telling
which events will get turnout
and which ones won't. We
haven't seen results for these
planned events. We have,
however, seen results for Blue
Bus ridership. And those
results aren't good
The best bet for the
immediate future for the Blue
Bus is to hold off on funding a
new one. The proposal calls
for funding a brand new bus at
around $50,000. That is a
huge chunk of SAF money
And if trends continue, this
$50,900 will only affect about
100 students. That's 100
students on this campus out of
3,800 students.
The Beacon requests a rather
large chunk of change from
SAF as well. Usually, we get
nearly all that we request
because of the importance of
having a quality newspaper at
Behrend. We request money
based on what we put out on a
weekly basis. If we average
18 pages every week, then we
request funding for that. But
then, if we only print a 12-
THE BEHREND BEACON
•
published weekly by the students of Penn State Erie, The Behrend College
Editor-in-Chief
Jason Snyder
Managing Editor
News Editors
Liz Hayes
Erin McCarty (assistant)
Editorial Page Editor
Katie Galley
Features Editors
Karl Benacci
Jermaine Hardy
Arts & Entertainment Editor
Deanna Symoski
Sports Editors
Abby Long
Jeanine Noce (assistant)
Wire Service Editor
Rob Wynne
Photo Editors
Becky Weindotf
Neil Makadia (assistant)
Associate Editors
Christine Kleck
Josh Hilewick
Copy Editor
Paige Miles
Website Editor
Jon McLaughlin
Postal oformation: The Beacon is
published weekly by the students of
Penn State Erie, The Behrend
College; First Floor, The J. Elmer
Reed Union Building, Station Road,
Erie, PA 16563. The Beacon can be
reached by calling (814) 898-6488
or (814) 898-6019 (FAX). ISSN
1071-9288.
page newspaper every week,
we have to expect a cut in
funding in the future.
There should only be
funding for groups that are
going to back-up what they
request. The Blue Bus isn't
carrying its weight right now;
its carrying four students at a
cost of $5O per student on
certain days.
The immediate answer for
the Blue Bus shouldn't be
something that calls for a long
term commitment. Until the
future is certain, Blue Bus
funding should be cut. To
start, the Blue Bus should only
run its routes on Friday and
Saturday, the two days with the
most ridership. This should be
done until the Blue Bus falls
apart (which is expected to
happen very shortly). At that
point, we should reevaluate the
situation and decide whether
or not to make a long-term
commitment.
The rest of the week,
Sunday-Thursday, the Blue
Bus should be used upon
request from student
organizations and faculty who
wish to take their groups or
classes off campus. Costs for
the wages and gas should be
paid for by those
organizations. Funding for
these travel costs should be
something that SAF funds.
For now, use this $50,000 to
bolster the current
organizations. Stronger
student organizations and
events on this campus are
much more valuable than
driving four students to Giant
Eagle.
~/
t
Jiff Miller
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Editorial
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The justice of murder?
In the Eleventh Amendment to the United
States Constitution there is this interesting little
phrase that states no citizen shall receive cruel or
unusual punishment. Now, I realize there are
some obscurities in our Bill of Rights and our
interpretations of those rights. For instance, how
do we define obscenity and when are we
abridging a person's freedom of speech when we
restrict them on the basis of obscenity? There
are loopholes, there are problems, there are
instances of "fuzzy math." But when that
revered document that is the holy of holies to the
United States of America says no cruel or
unusual punishment, how do we interpret that to
mean that it is okay for the U.S. government to
premeditate murder?
Isn't killing someone about as cruel and
unusual as one can get? If not, what is cruel and
unusual? Is it the method of killing that
determines cruelty? Is it cruel to stab someone
to death, but not cruel to shoot that same person
up with a lethal cocktail of chemicals? Is it cruel
to shoot someone to death, but not cruel to have
that same person face down a firing squad of
executioners? Premeditated murder is a crime,
but to punish that crime the government plans
out a person's death isn't that unusual? Did
you know that when the government haigs
someone, it has to take in account the person's
weight so it can be assured his or her (but
probably his) neck will break between certain
vertebrae without severing the head? That
sounds pretty premeditated to me.
I hear the argument that the crimes these
criminals have committed are so heinous that the
only fair punishment for them is death. I beg to
differ. I'm not convinced that the death penalty
is punishment enough. A criminal causes huge
suffering and pain on the part of the victims and
their families. And to punish them for their
crimes, do we sentence them to a lifetime of hard
labor? Do we send them to rot in jails for the
rest of their lives? Do we banish them to a
system where they will have the opportunity to
be someone's bitch in prison, where they will
have to be cautious every time they bend over for
the soap? No. We pump 'em up with some
poison or strap them into a chair, kill them in a
Letter policy: The Beacon encourages letters to the editor.
Letters should include the address, phone number, semester
standing and major of the writer. Writers can mail letters to
behrcoll2@aol.com. Letters must be received no later than
5 p.m. Tuesday for inclusion in that week's issue. Letters
should not be more than 500 words.
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process that takes
,d the Cheap considerably less time than
ed Lights the rest of their lives, and then it
is over. How can that begin to
Haves compensate for the crimes they've
committed?
Now, I realize I'm making assumptions
on how I'd feel if someone I knew was
murdered or victimized in a way that could be
punishable by death. But I think I'd get a lot more
peace knowing everyday that I'm out living my
life, that criminal is going through hell on earth in
a prison somewhere. I don't see how it would
even begin to assuage my rage if that criminal was
convicted, killed, and then . . . nothing. That's it.
It's over. My loved one is dead, the criminal is
dead, and there is nothing left to do but move on.
I think I would feel a greater sense of justice
knowing that person was still atoning for his or
her guilt.
Some use the argument that criminals will be
rotting in hell or turned into a dung beetle or
suffering through whatever bad thing a particular
religion holds in store for the evil in society. But
we don't know that. Or, at least, I don't know
that. I'm not a particularly religious person and I
find the theories on what happens to your soul
while the wormies are chewing on your fingertips
to be a pretty shady science. I live for the life I've
got now, and I'd like to see the ills of society dealt
with in a way that assures me they really are being
dealt with. It seems to me that killing a criminal
so that God or whoever can deal with them isn't
really dealing with the problem. Besides, isn't it
said somewhere that God helps those who help
themselves? So let's start helping ourselves by
really punishing criminals, not just burying their
crimes.
Another problem I've got with our system of
capital punishment is the number of flaws in it.
How many documented cases of innocent people
being convicted do we have in this country right
now? I have seen many statistics, but a common
one is that for every seven people we put to death,
the eighth person is innocent. I personally find
that rather troublesome. Sure, if we unjustly
convict someone of a crime not committed and
then send that person to jail for while, pardoning
them later may not seem like enough
compensation to that person. But try pardoning a
dead guy. It doesn't pan out too well.
Another flaw I see is the fact that more and
more children are being tried as adults. This is
probably a whole new issue, but it does relate to
my problem with the death penalty. I'm not sure
it isn't cruel and unusual to punish a child the
same way we punish adults. After growing up in
jail, that child will be a radically different person
from when the crime was committed, but that
person would probably never have the chance at a
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
MEM
....~~%
+~
normal life after being raised in a prison. But if
we send that same child to death? There is then
no chance at rehabilitation.
To me, it is sad enough that these children's
lives are being wasted before they graduate from
high school. Do we need to destroy any chance
of humanity they may have? If we want to fix
the problem of increasing child and adolescent
violence, maybe we should be taking action
against the causes and not the victims of those
causes - because aren't the children committing
these crimes often as much the victims as those
they commit crimes against? We already have
enough kid killers in the country. Do we really
need the government killing them too?
A final flaw in the system that really leads me
to turn against capital punishment is the ethnic
inequalities found in our legal system. Statistics
I've seen have shone that there are almost twice
as many black people on Death Row than there
are white people, even though black people
represent a smaller percentage of the population
than do white people.
Also disturbing is the fact that far more people
are sentenced to death after committing a crime
against a white person than those committing
crimes against black people. I don't know what
exactly that says about our legal system and
society in this new millennium, but if we were to
really listen, I don't think we'd like what we
hear. Plus, those living in poverty who are
convicted of crimes and face the death penalty
can't afford the fancy lawyers to get their
sentence lessened. Therefore, the poor get
murdered by the government while the rich get
paroled. But that isn't cruel or unusual, right?
Looking back over what I've written, I can see
that I have some inconsistencies. I think that the
death penalty is cruel to criminals, but I also
think that it doesn't punish them enough for their
crimes. Maybe that doesn't make sense to some,
but it does to me. Why do we need to kill people
to punish them? The Constitution doesn't say an
eye for an eye. The recent controversy involving
Timothy McVeigh is what got me on this subject
to begin with. Doesn't it bother anyone that
McVeigh wants the death penalty? He refused to
appeal, against his lawyer's wishes. He wants
his murder televised. By killing him we are
giving him what he wants, giving him and his
cause publicity and to a degree probably
justifying some of his points about the problems
with our goverment. I would feel much better
about the situation by making him do some hard
labor in a prison than by playing into his whims.
How is killing him justifying anything? I
guess I just don't see the logic in the way we
handle punishing people. I just hope someone
out there does!
Hayes' column appeared every three weeks
MONDAY, APRIL 23, 2001
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