opinions editorial opinion Jekyll-Hyde criminals Dear Diary, The date was a nightmare. Dinner, mov ies . . . he seemed like such a gentleman! Back at my apartment, he started making moves on me. I kept saying no, but he just wouldn't listen. He raped me. I don't know what I did to provoke this; maybe I led him on. I don't know how I'm going to face him tomorrow in class. God, why did I let this happen? Tragically, most date rapes are never reported to the police. Instead, they are kept in the confines of diaries or locked up in the mipds of victims forever. These rapes are perhaps the most fright ening because the rapist is an acquaintance, of the victim such as a friend or boyfriend whom she thought she could probably trust. A recent student survey at the University of Akron, Ohio, showed that 35 percent of the male students responding would rape if they could be certain of not being caught. In addition, 30 percent of the female college seniors surveyed in 1985 had been forced to have unwanted intercourse at some time. Only 40 percent of the women in another survey who were victims of rape or attempted rape ever told anyone. Date rape must not be treated like a skeleton in the closet, and victims must realize there is no reason to protect a rapist. This guy is no friend and shouldn't be treated like one. dn; Collegian Thursday, Oct. 9, 1986 .©1986 Collegian Inc. Anita C. Huslin Editor William G. Landis Jr • Business Manager The Daily Collegian's editorial opin ion Is determined by its Board of Opinion, with the editor holding final responsibility. Opinions ex pressed on the editorial pages are not necessarily those of The Daily Collegian, Collegian Inc. or The Pennsylvania State University. Collegian Inc., publishers of The Daily Collegian and related publica tions, is a separate corporate insti tution from Penn State. Board of Editors Managing Editor Jeanette Krebs Opinion Editor Jill Graham Assistant Opinion Editor Alan J. Craver Editorial Writers Pete Baratta Damon Chappie, Donna Saber News Editors Bob King, Doug Popovich Copy/Wire Editors • Sonya Baum, Rich Douma, Donna Higgins, Sheldon Jones, Terry Mutchier, Megan O'Matz Town Editor Phil Gaiewitz Assistant Town Editor Thompson Holland Campus Editor Celeste McCauley Assistant Campus Editor Nancy Funk . Sports Editor Mark Ashentelter Assistant Sports Editors ' Rob Blertempfel, Matt Herb Magazine Editor Chris Raymond Assistant Magazine Editor Mark Brennan Arts Editor Pat Grandjean Assistant Arts Editor Jill Kosko Science Editor Kathi Dodson Graphics Editor Tony Ciccarelli Photo Editor Cristy Rickard Assistant Photo Editor Dan Oleski Board of Managers Society must be sympathetic to the very real fears of the victims of rape and must • encourage them to reveal the rapist so that justice is carried out. It is very demented logic to think that a victim would actually ash to be raped. Unfortunately, though, victims may ra tionalize that it was their fault or that they invited the crime, especially when the rap ist is an acquaintance. This idea is even more terrifying when one realizes that the justice system upholds and enforces it as a cause of rape. If a woman does get the nerve to report the crime, she is often badgered in court. Too often, rapists are let off with no or little punishment, giving them carte blanche to commit the crime again and again without fear of retribution. A rape victim experiences many emo tions: fear, confusion, paranoia, insecurity. No one wants to feel this way; no one wants to be sexually violated. Something is wrong with a society that discourages rape victims from reporting the crime or doesn't support those who do. Rape by an acquaintance cannot be consid ered "just a little secret between you and me." These Jekyll-Hyde criminals who wander our streets and live the lives of undercover rapists must receive the punishment they ' deserve. But the only way to do this is to break the victims' code of silence. Assistant Business Manager Amy R. Norris Accounting Manager Lori A. Spossey Assistant Accounting Manager K. C. McClure Office Manager Amy E. Constantine Assistant Office Manager Laura Karp Sales Manager David M. Profozich Assistant Sales Manager Glenn B. Rougler National Sales Manager Kathleen J.Heilman Layout Coordinator Nancy George Marketing Coordinator Kristy M. Burgess Complaints: News and editorial com plaints should be presented to the editor. Business and advertising complaints should be presented to the business manager. If a complaint is not satisfacto- rily resolved, grievances may .be filed with the Accuracy and Fair Play Commit tee of Collegian Inc. Information on filing grievances is available from Gerry Lynn Hamilton, executive secretary, Collegian Inc. Letters Policy: The Daily Collegian en courages comments on news coverage, editorial policy and University affairs. Letters must be typewritten, double spaced and no longer than one and one half pages. Forums must also be type written, double-spaced and no longer than three pages. Mail other letters to: The Daily Colle gian; 126 Carnegie Building; University Park, Pa. 16802. About the Collegian: The Daily Collegian and The Weekly Collegian are published by Collegian Inc., an Independent, non profit corporation with a board of direc tors composed of students, faculty and professionals. Students of The Pennsyl vania State University write and edit both papers and solicit advertising material for them. . . The Daily Collegian is published Mon day, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday dur ing the summer, and Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday during the semester. It is distributed on the University Park campus. The Weekly Collegian Is mailed to Commonwealth campus students, parents of students, alumni and other subscribers who want to keep abreast of University news. reader opinion Rightful blame? The editorial in the Oct. 7 edition of The Daily Collegian is very puzzling. How is it that anyone blames the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity for the ac tions of one individual, namely Sta cey Paris'. • When one drinks, whether to excess or not , should it not be assumed that no one is going to force one to drive against one's will? There should be no intrinsic evil in drinking; that's just social/religious dogma without any real basis. The emphasis should be in the curbing of abuse, and in this case, Paris was the abuser. It is still so that TKE did break a law in serving a minor, but as this is an unfounded law, the fraternity was remiss only in that it did not take the law itself to court to have it repealed as should have been done. Peter DiGiovanni sophomore-liberal arts Word choice I am writing this letter to The Daily Collegian in order to get some doubts clarified about common grammatical errors. I hope you will publish this letter. In this letter I wish to point out some common grammatical mistak es which are found in the articles published in the Collegian and also which are often made by the public in the daily life. I read the article "A toxic disaster: Cy bacteria's bright idea" by Nan Crystal Arens in the Collegian. I found that in the article the word "bacteria" is used as a singular noun. To my best knowledge "bacterium" is the correct singular form and bac teria is the plural of the word bacteri um. \l4 Similarly, the word "media" is a plural form but many people use it as a singular noun. (Well, one dictionary in fact supports this usage as "a channel or mode of public commu nication.") When "medium" is the singular form how can media be regarded as a singular noun? • Also the words "minima" and "maxima" are many times referred to as if they are singular forms. Especially when they come in the context of graphs and curves. As everybody knows "minimum" and "maximum" are the singular forms. It is interesting to see how the words get their grammar changed. Probably 30-40 years ago the word "commercial" was regarded as an adjective in the grammar, but todayit is accepted as a noun. The word "sanction" means to grant a permission. So its usage in today's news could be somewhat mis leading. It is more appropriate when it is used on the full phrase "sanctions to stop trade with." All this is based on my (poor) knowledge of high school English. I might be unaware of any modern developments and modifications. If so, may someone take the trouble to throw some more light? Girish Harshe graduate-solid state science Lame attempt In response to your article "USG Plays Minor Politics," printed in the Oct. 2 edition of The Daily Collegian, we, the West Halls Council, would like to contest the accusations against West Halls Senator Patrick Devlin. Devlin is not just part of "some junior bureaucrats . . . playing minor league politics," but rather a respon- I \\ \ , ~,I 4 \iv,, ,i„ \\t W 6i,,, , i, i \ \ Ii - THERE. WAS NO DEAL.. sible senator representing the needs and concerns of the West Halls resi dents that he was elected by. Devlin is one of the most active and service-oriented members of the Un dergraduate Student . Government Senate. . With the overwhelming support of the West Halls Council, Devlin ob jected to a so-called "bipartisan" committee composed of eight Demo crats and three Republicans. Instead, we, along with Devlin, believe that the entire student body would be better represented by a committee equally composed of Dem ocrats and Republicans. Lastly, West Halls Council deplores the attempt to smear the reputation and integrity of Devlin. Moreover, the Collegian has attacked the stu dents of West Halls in a lame attempt to sensationalize the issue at hand. Mary P. Jarvie junior-Spanish/business The real problem This letter is in response to the column advocating gun control. Leg islation on gun control will not deter crimes or shootings as many• gun control enthusiasts will have you be lieve. This correlation between guns and crime is a naive one. It fails to take into account that people are committing these crimes, not guns. The only way to stop hand gun crimes is through swift and se vere punishment of those who commit such crimes, not by ha rassing the law-abiding citizen If such a law were passed, forbid ding the private ownership of hand guns, is it feasible to think that criminals, who have no regard for others rights, property or even for human life, will give up their guns? The Daily Collegian Thursday, Oct. 9, 1986 I think not The only people affected by such legislation will be the law abiding citizens who use their handguns in a safe and responsible manner. Many gun control advocates fail to mention (or possibly ignore) how many lives are saved (that's right, saved) by a citizen using his gun to protect himself or his loved ones from the violence of a deranged criminal. I would like to see one tell those people that there is no legitimate reason for the private ownership of handguns. The National Rifleman's Associa tion .is also a frequent target of the gun control lobbyist. They would have you believe• that NRA's sole purpose is to promote genocide, but the facts are otherwise. The purpose of the NRA is to edu cate and promote the responsible and safe use of firearms. This is done through publications and seminars conducted at thousands of shooting clubs across the country. The NRA is as concerned as anyone (maybe more so) about the misuse and abuse of handguns. Congress recognized the necessity of allowing the citizens to keep and bear arms, when on May 16, they overwhelmingly passed into law the Firearms Protection Act. This law ensures that citizens would not be subject to senseless laws that have no effect on handgun crime, but only haiass those who are law-abiding. I suggest that gun control enthu siasts turn their efforts to the real problem: criminals illegally using guns. They can do this by lobbying for stiff, mandatory sentences for offend ers. Janet L. Giardina senior-accounting opinions Star wars Tom Kronberger's recent column in the Oct. 1 edition of The Daily Collegian on the importance of the Strategic Defense Inititiative con tained enough fallacies to warrant a response. Kronberger first says, "Keeping in this (small nuclear weapons use), it is a fact that man has never built a weapon he has not used." He later argues that the United States needs to build a deterrent. It follows, then, according to Kron berger's accurate statement, that we shall use Star Wars some day, and once used, we lose its original pur pose (merely as a deterrent). We are therefore doing nothing more than piling weapons upon more weapons. Secondly, and more importantly, Kronberger's column argues that we must have SDI to protect our country against the smaller terrorist factions who develop nuclear capabilities. What do you think? The Daily Collegian welcomes letters from students, faculty, staff and area residents concern• ing issues and topics of interest to the Collegian's readership. With the semester approaching the half-way point, many important issues confront the University. Authors must present letters to the editor (no more than 1 1 / 2 pages, double-spaced) or forums (up to three typed pages, double spaced) to the Collegian in 126 Carnegie Building. Students' letters should include 0 0000000000. (,) o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 • CO 000000000 @, ctINEMETTE • • . , in s • CINEMA 116 Heist. 337.7657 THE BOY WHO COULD FLY pa Nightly: 7:45 & 9:45 Rob Reiners's STAND BY ME R Nightly: 8:00 & 10:00 THE MOVIES 407 E. 04avol 237-0003 PLAYING FOR KEEPS PGO Nightly 8:00 & 10:00 STATE =I=!MEUMI Paul Hogan Is CROCODILE DUNDEE PG.-13 Nightly: 8:00 8. 10:00 Tom Cruise TOP GUN PG Nightly: 8:10 & 10:10 • ROWLAND •. The Bun Is Back. THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE II Nightly: 7:15 & 9:15 All Seats $2.00 • • • r The Daily Collegian arts: the next best thing to being there Star Wars will not be effective against most forms of terrorist at tack, because most terrorist bombs are smuggled in the trunks of cars or in high-speed kamikaze vans. We can easily imagine weapons detonated from small private planes and boats. Star Wars is completely incapable of handling these methods of attack; I doubt that any small terrorist nation would be capable of launching a warhead missile with a system comparable to what the Unit ed States and the Soviet Union now have. Kronberger's argument is quite faulty; perhaps his original premise (SDI) is a faulty base to start from. Perhaps SDl's other premises nu clear war, annihilation of the other countries and the suppression of atti tudes through force are faulty as well. Brian C. Avery graduate-English the semester and major of each writer. Letters from alumni should include the author's major and year of graduation. All writers should provide their address, phone number and social security number for verification of the letter. Letters should be signed by no more than two people. The opinion editors reserves the right to edit letters for length and to reject letters if they are libelous or do not conform to standards of good taste. THE QUALITY GOES IN BEFORE THE NAME GOES ON OFFERS YOU IBM P.C. COMPATIBLE MICRO COMPUTERS AND MUCH, MUCH MORE Adulthood: I guess it was last Wednesday. No, it had to be Thursday because in my last column I outlawed Wednesdays, that I stopped by in the morning to see my friend, Bonehead. Well, Bonehead isn't his real name, but if you knew him you'd never suspect it. He's a first semester freshman in the Division of Undergrad uate Students who wants to major in aerospace engineering with a Russian technical translation minor (thus the name). Anyway, I walked into his room and it seemed obvious that he had just slept through his first two classes. "Bonehead," I said, "what are doing in bed still?" Just let me mention at this point that Bonehead is not a pretty sight first thing in the morning. He was looking especially putrid today. "Today," he began with a dramatic drawl, "I am celebrating the day when I finally become a man!" - "I'm very happy for you. I didn't know you had the money for one of those operations." "That's not what I meant." "Oh, is your bar mitzvah tonight or some thing?" "No, smart-ass," he replied. "Today is my 18th birthday. Today is the day that I cast away childhood forever and become a man." He got up out of bed and began dancing around the room like a drunken boxer. Somewhere in the distance blared "Gonna Fly Now." As he stood, arms uplifted, I couldn't help but notice his powder blue boxer shorts with little pink wom bats on them. Real manly "Our little Bonehead . . . a man," I sobbed. "It seems like just yesterday your mother and I were changing your diapers." "I'm serious," he went on. "Finally, I will be WHEN: 10 am - 6 pm Thursday, October 9th,1986 Friday, October 10th, 1986 Emir"l data systems THESE PRICES NOT COMMERCIALLY AVAILABLE Life doesn't automatically change when the 18th birthday arrives OPEN Students, Faculty & Staff 3c=. wiz-co ZF-171-42 • 15 lb. Portable • LCD Backlit Display • 256 K RAM • Expandable to 640 K • Dual 5 1 / 4 " Disk Drives • AC Power Adapter $999 treated as a responsible, independent adult in the eyes of the public and my family." "Independent?" I said as I picked up a half written letter from his desk. "What's Mr. Inde pendence writing to Mommy asking her to send him cookies for?" For the sake of keeping this a family column, I will delete the expletives he then spewed forth at me. "C'mon, Bone, turning 18 is no big deal. So now you can get into porn flicks. Hooray. Like you've never seen one before anyway." "I know, but the point is that now I can if I want to. I've got all sorts of rights now, a lot of opportunities to do things I couldn't before." "Like what, driving after midnight? Yippee!" "Like voting, you crud. I'm finally mature enough in the eyes of the government to help establish the ways in which this nation will be run. I finally have some say, even if it is small, in what's happening all around me." "Sure, that's nice. But you're also finally mature enough in the eyes of the government to be guilty of statutory rape, to be tried for any crime as an adult, and to be legally bound to any contract that you might sign. That's a lot of responsibilty, Mr. Manhood." HOUSE \ ammo AV k • • • 173," • ZF-148-42 • 256 K RAM • Expandable to 640 K • 8 Mhz Clock Switchable • Dual 5'." Drives • ZVM-1220 or ZVM-1230 Monitor • 256 K Memory Upgrade (for a system total of 512 K RAM) $999 Zenith Data Systems offers a family of products that are compatible not only with the industry standard, but within the ZDS family itself From a 15 lb. Portable, to an entry level desktop, to a multiuser AT compatible. Zenith Data Systems offers you PC Compatibility and much more. ,16( WHERE: The Logical Link 300 Pugh Street State College, PA 16801 • Z-158 Series • Desktop PC • 256 K RAM • Expandable to 640 K • 8 Mhz Clock Switchable • Dual 5'4" Drives • OR: 20 MB Winchester from $999 DON'T MISS IT!! For more information please contact The Logical Link (814) 238-3104 (at the above address) or Zenith Data Systems (215) 668-2044 The Daily Collegian Thursday, Oct. 9, 1986-11 "That's a pretty cynical outlook," he said. "I guess it is, but the whole idea is so stupid. I mean it's all so arbitrary. One day you're in the 365th day of being 17 and then bang you're an adult." . _ "Well, it's got to happen sometime." "You're right. But I guarantee that if you went out and ran down Beaver Avenue, nobody's gonna say, 'Look Martha, there goes an adult.' You still look 17 on the outside, Bone. One day hasn't changed anything." He didn't make any reply. He started picking his toes. "You see, Bone, you are an adult; you know that, I know that and I guess everyone must know it because they gave you all these wonderful rights and responsibilities for turning 18. But there's something about all this that bothers me." "And what's that?" he said, inspecting a toe nail. "Well, you're old enough now to vote and participate in this great democracy of ours, that's true; you're old enough now to have all those societal and legal rights and responsibili ties, that's true; but you're also old enough to be rounded up like cattle, have your head shaved, be sent halfway across the world and die a grue some and painful death for our nation's cause, but still aren't old enough to go down to a har and have a beer. That's stupid." Bonehead looked like he just ate a turd "Happy Birthday!" Todd S. Christopher is a sophomore majoring in English and a columnist for the Daily Colle gian. His column appears every other Thursday. • Z-241 Series • AT-Compatible • 80286 Processor • 512 K RAM • 6 Mhz Clock • Single 4 2MB Floppy OR • 20 MB Winchester from $1799
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