I The Behrend Beacon
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the
right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government fOr a redress of grievances. - The First Ammendment to the U.S. Constitution
All sex offenders are not created equal
Two citi/ens of the state of Maine were murdered, on April 17th;
they were sex offenders whose debt to society had been paid. They
were punished again. this time with death. for crimes not yet commit-
ted by a vigilante who tit iliied the sex offender registry to track them
The sex offender iegistry should he abolished. It encourages recidi
vism; it is immoral. and its existence is not justifiable except by politi
cians who encourage ignorance of the reckless application of its
branding pow, er
Recidivism is the likelihood of a criminal to reoffend. This may
appear counterintuitive: however, most articles in my research have
emphasized that ostracizing pedophiles increases their likelihood of
recommitting. On the fringe of society and "showered with scorn"
they will not reintegrate. More pressing, obviously, is that "sex
offender - does not necessarily mean "pedophile, - and in fact means
very much the opposite in many exceptional circumstances. There has
been more than one case of "that person who mooned the teacher" and
"that guy who pissed outside while drunk" ending up on these lists.
These cititens arc highly unlikely to reoffend: in fact, the majority of
actual sexual ol lenders are less likely to reoffend than the majority of
other criminals.
The immorality of the act of revealing such private information
about a citizen who has paid his or her debt lies in the definition of the
debt. It has been established through several very thorough studies of
tens of thousands of actual sex offenders that rates settle around thir-
ty percent immediately alarming, but to this the Department of Justice
has asserted that among real "sex crimes. - and child molestation in
particular, there is a low recidivism rate in compared to other criminal
acts, with the high score granted to thieves recommitting felony larce
Stop punching me,
padiddles aren't funny
By Annie Sevin
editor in chief
f(). 20(1(,
My sister called me last Wednesday
to ask if I had spoken to my mother
that day. When I said that I hadn't.
she told me I had better call her.
Immediately I knew something was
wrong. so I pressed my sister to tell
me. I was expecting to hear bad news
about my father because he's always
in and out of the hospital for heart
problems. However, she told me that
our grandma had found a lump in her
breast.
My grandmother is 83 years old:
she's always been the sane constant in
my life. She and I are very much
alike: we're both scrv stubborn, and
we both has e a natural tendency to
want to teed those who come into our
homes. I love my grandmother very,
very much, and news of the malignan
cy is just too overwhelming to think
However. there is something that I
cannot stop thinking about: an event
that happened just the day after I
heard that my grandma was dying. A
close friend of mine made a mini
website for me (or maybe it was about
me, I'm not really sure: I didn't both
er to ask). This friend knew
that over winter break I had had a
breast reduction (if you want to know
why, read Michelle Vera Suroveic's
article featured on page 8 of last
week's Beacon).
Anyway, some other friends had nick
named me "One Headlight" prior to
the surgery in case the doctor screwed
up. I thought the name was mildly
What do we have to show for it?
By Chris Hvizdak
staff writer
December 9, 2005
Fall 'O5 has come, Fall 'O5 has gone. What does
the Opinion page have to show for itself? We've
approached a lot of diverse topics, from social and
political issues to cheesesteaks and emo. We have
given an awful lot of thumbs up and thumbs down.
Many great and powerful persons have been quoted
in our stylish quote section. I think you'll enjoy the
dichotom of our "Holida I uotes" this week.
By John Bigus
contributing
Aln il 2 1 , 2006
amusing, but my friend with the mini
website thought it was really funny
because "one headlight" was the
theme he fashioned the site after.
He used The Wallflowers song,
"One Headlight," as background
music for a still image of a naked
woman with one breast. At first I was
taken aback by the image. Then I
realized the photo was of an elderly
woman (shown from the waist to the
neck) that appeared to be a victim of
Lancer.
The style of the photo looked like it
had been taken for insurance purpos
es. I had similar photos taken before
and after my surgery; having pictures
of that nature taken is traumatic in and
of itself. Seeing the exploitation of
that cancer patient's photo was so
unbearable I had to leave the room. I
was so upset that I couldn't even think
of what to say or shout at this friend
who was under the impression that he
had made an amusing site for people
to eawk at.
And gawk they did. He didn't show
the site to just me almost everyone
who saw it thought it was just hilari
ous. I didn't tell them abou: my
grandmother; I shouldn't have had to.
Penn State implemented a civility
program last year that was meant to
teach us more about being civilized
people. I can clearly see that time and
money has been wasted on that proj
ect. Some people can be inhumane
monsters and not give a damn about
who they hurt or offend as long as
they get their jollies off in the process.
That is not civility. And civility was
n't what my friend was practicing.
Behrend preaches peace between
P [l\fl 01\f
overbroad and inconsistent definitions. Get rid of the cases where an
eighteen year old sleeps with his or her seventeen year old significant
other. Leave the guy whose one night stand changed her mind in the
morning alone. Remove the laws that prevent "sex offender" parents
from picking up children from daycare because they cannot come
within two thousand feet.
With the act in question, the punishment, especially after jail-time,
is open for consideration. There are other crimes with post incarcera
tion penalties, but these penalties do not encourage vigilantism in the
form of constant humiliation and punishment, identity theft or death.
Offenders must inform their neighborhood of their status, and this
invites unwarranted and misinformed retribution in most circum-
stances. Even the idea of a "murderer list" does not spark as much
emotion, because of a common understanding of how muddy the
moral waters are
list's use is no justification for these blatantly un-American actions: in
America, we do not punish pre-crime. Even ignoring inherent rights,
the case is made by positive rights. Our court system is founded on the
idea that we are all free citizens and as such we should not be subject
to such ridicule, torture and death. I do not have a problem with pri
vate citizens exercising their rights to free speech. I have a problem
with government sponsorship thereof. Harassment is still a crime
Murder is a crime
Besides these incursions, pure retribution is intolerable because the
case for pedophilia and other sexual deviancy being "incurable" does
not exist. Provided treatment is effective at getting these people to
redirect their urges to something more appropriate. This is common
among anti-social disorders: it is not good practice to try and wipe all
traces of anger from someone with a rage problem (this has been
found to be counter-productive and impossible). Instead, we find
What haven't we done? We haven't received a
great deal of feedback. Less than half a dozen letters
and submissions have made it to the Opinion page
from persons outside the Beacon. This from a col
lege community of 3,700 people, according to
Behrend's website. I've harped on this before, to lit
tle avail, and the lack of response doesn't bother
The lack of response to my frequent solicitations
for participation from the Behrend community
does; however, affairm many observations I can
ri lilt make about Behrend America id the S of
There are many cases that are not uniformly adjudicated because of
A lack of public understanding of the frivolity of the "sex offender'
different cultures and understanding
or tolerating those who are different
from you. It's hard to stomach the
notion that disgusting acts like the
one my friend committed are going
unnoticed as acts of incivility. What
he did wasn't peaceful. It wasn't a
tool of understanding or tolerance. It
was meant to be a "friendly" joke. It
was meant to get a few laughs.
It turned out to be an abhorrent dis
figurement of our friendship. This so
called funny gag was nothing if not
cruel and unwarranted. Yes, this was
an isolated incident, and it involved
very few people, but things of this
nature happen all the time - every
where. The most unpleasant thing
about that incident was that it hap
pened between friends, not enemies.
How are we, as young Americans,
supposed to learn how to fix the prob
lems in this world if we can't even
learn to be civil and respectful to our
friends?
I'm not one to tell people to tiptoe
around others because they might get
upset I'm a journalist, it's my job to
push buttons and make people
uncomfortable. However, there are
some situations that should be han
dled with a little more couth and class
than was presented last Thursday. In
short, all of us need to grow up, get
cultured, be civilized and learn sensi
tivity!
When I was a senior in high school,
my mother's best friend told me,
"Sometimes in life, my dear, you
must learn to suffer fools." There are
enough fools and suffering in mine
and my grandmother's world don't
make us suffer you, my friend.
A in general. People don't care. That's a fact. Most
people are simply absorbed in their day to day life
and only get involved in something beyond them
selves if it will yield a direct benefit to them, be it
monetary, pyschological, material, etc.
If you think otherwise, you're likely to be disap
pointed. Oh, of course some people legitimately
care. But they're by far in the minority. If you're
lucky, you'll be fortunate enough to enouncter
enough people who care to be capable of setting and
accomplishing goals that require more than the ded
ication of one - rson. In m life I have been this
ways for people to deal with problems that are essentially beyond
their control. There are obviously cases necessitating life sentences
serial rapists and psychotics but these are in the minuscule minority
I propose a system where one offense is punished normally, but a
second offense might place one on the registry, if it must be kept.
Another possibility is a system where offenders have the ability to
make reparations to be removed from the list. Alternately, instead of
a registry with names in it, use a system that says "there are this many
sex offenders within this many miles," and include the crimes they
committed. This way, people can take precautions without allowing
vigilantes to hunt. The possibilities are infinitely negotiable and easi
ly improve on current law.
Do we need it because of a lack of personal responsibility---do we
need it as a reminder to not let children go to stranger's houses unsu-
pervised? Is it that it is the right of the citizens to be warned if their
neighbors are convicted sex-offenders? Why do they not have a right
to know if their neighbor is an arsonist or car thief or murderer? They
have a house and a car and a life
Clearly, retribution is ineffective without rehabilitation; however,
rehabilitation is insufficient without retribution. If we don't look to
retribution at all, then nothing stops the government from forcibly
treating or incarcerating citizens. There is a balance in law and in jus
tice, which ought to be maintained by reasonable individuals aware of
the consequences of current law and modern science.
A registry is only useful if what is on it is very narrowly defined so
that it only includes definitely dangerous offenders. In that case it
would have people worth watching out for. But honestly, this issue is
so easily spun that nothing could happen anytime soon. They'd say
"that man supports sex criminals, how could you vote for him? Think
of the children!" Even in the face of exonerated, tortured free men
The only response is, "I support the rights of every citizen of the
United States of America."
PRI
Friday, April 28, 2006
fortunate. I'd say this gives me the creedence to
evaluate situations that lack people who care.
So what of the Beacon Opinion page and
America? They both lack legitimate participation.
Fortunately for you, it matters little whether the
Beacon Opinion page is participated in. America is
a different story. Unless people who legitimately
care about engendering a tolerant nation that looks
out for the best interest of all its citizens, we'll be
perpetually worse off than we are now.
ATRINA
ZACK M ENT