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
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ion Is determined by its Board of
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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
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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-
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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
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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.
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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
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Thursday, October 9th,1986
Friday, October 10th, 1986
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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."
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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.
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