Newspapers / The Guilfordian (Greensboro, N.C.) / Feb. 4, 1994, edition 1 / Page 5
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Jf tbruarp 4,1994 The Voice of Reason S. Scott Spagnola Staff Writer The Left wing has made a star tling discovery: crime is rampant, and criminals may be responsible for their own behavior. It all started a month ago when the soul of lib eralism, Mario Cuomo, made a tough speech on crime. Since then, Bill Clinton and a host of state gov ernors including North Carolina's Jim Hunt, have embraced the "three strikes and you're out" policy for violent offenders. You wouldn't know that there was any change of heart if you read the latest headlines. Connie Chung brought attention to the latest de bate on CBS's "Eye to Eye." The Chung report dealt with something that conservatives have long known: our society is increasingly excusing criminal behavior based on psychological and social rea soning. The timing of this report could not have been more perfect. Two trials recently in the news have put this matter into better fo cus: the Menendez trial and the Bobbit trial. In both cases, crimi nal behavior is being excused. In the Menendez trial, the de fense claims that the two boys murdered their parents because they were physically abused over the years. The defense paints a pic ture of two boys who had no other choice but to plan to kill their par ents. The latest jury could not reach a decision whether the boys were responsible for the crimes based on the defense's claims. This is ludicrous. The "reasonable per son" standard of our law dictates that defensive action can only be taken as far as what is within rea son. In other words, drastic action is only permissible when all other reasonable methods of avoiding conflict are exhausted. Clearly, the )t(Jluilforbtan Editor-in-Chief. JoanMalloch Associate Editor. Karen Rowan Adviser. JeffJeske Writing Editor. Justin Cohen News Editor. Gail Kasun Perspectives Editor. Ashley Clifton Features Editor. Joe Wallace Sports Editor. Kiley Holder Copy Editing. Kinsey Gimbel Layout Caroline A. Wolfe Circulation Robert Withers Subscriptions Reagan Hopkins Advertising. Brian Lane Business Rich Ewell Photography. Rob Davidson, Daphne Lewis I HL V w *S£ m | %ir' Spagnola Menendez brothers could have simply left, contacted an abused child network, or gone to the po lice. This is what a reasonable per son would have done. These boys are either guilty (and after their substantial inheritance) or unrea sonable, and therefore deserve to be sent to the pen or the nuthouse. The trial of Lorena Bobbit is even more intriguing. Here we have a woman who claims that her husband raped her countless times during their marriage. With this in mind, one night she approaches him with a knife under the influ ence of an "uncontrollable im pulse" that she suffers for about five seconds, and soon her husband John is a soprano. She then gets into her car and tosses the severed object of her oppression out the window. There are many problems with the Bobbit case. First, John Bobbit was tried for rape and assault and acquitted. This certainly calls her claims into suspect. This isn't to say that Lorena Bobbit was lying, but does that excuse her actions? According to the facts of the case, her actions did not take place until several hours after the alleged rape occurred. This would eliminate aggravated circumstances as a vi able excuse. Also, she was not in clear and present danger. The al- ser*pectite£ leged rape had already occurred hours earlier. If she was raped, she could have gone to the police, or left and never gone back. The standard is to work through the justice system. It would have been one thing if her actions took place during an alleged rape, but for her to wait several hours and then claim to suffer a fleeting mo ment of insanity is very suspect. Another very important factor to consider is that during John Bobbit's trial, Lorena admitted that the sex that night was consensual. If John Bobbit raped Lorena Bobbit, then he deserves to go jail; however, he did not deserve what happened to him, given the facts in this case. Photo by Mark Lewinter As far as our society is con cerned, a much larger question is at hand. When a kid kills his some one, we blame it on his "broken home," "lack of hope," or we blame the gun that is used. Our society excuses criminal behavior based on sociological reasonings. This is akin to blaming automo biles for drunk drivers. The problem of people not tak ing responsibility for their actions extends beyond crime. It is an in tegral factor in such issues as wel fare, teenage pregnancy, abortion, AIDS, homelessness and unem ployment. The notion of individual responsibility has been revered for time immemorial; it has only been in the last thirty years that America has moved away from this prin ciple. This obsession with hedo nism is no doubt linked with the explosive growth of government, which has sent the message that people can depend on Washington to pick up the pieces when indi viduals try and fail, or in many cases, when people fail to try. Con servatives have long made such correlations. Now maybe we can get some action. Opinions expressed in editorials and letters to the editor do not necessarily reflect the views of the staff and editorial board. The editors reserve the right to edit all submissions for length, style, and taste. The Guilfordian encourages submissions. Typed articles and letters are due by 6:00 PM., Monday. Letters are limited to 250 words or less and must include author's name, phone number and P.O. Box. Write to: Editor P.O. Box 17717 Guilford College, Greensboro, NC, 27410. Creative Resistance Naomi Blass Staff Writer "Faced with the open-ended mystery of freedom, often the mis ery we know is preferable if only for the comfort of its familiarity." -Kay Leigh Hagan, Fugitive Information "Why is she still with him? He treats her like s—t!" -Anonymous Why do some women habitually date individuals who emotionally, physically, sexually and mentally abuse them? Why, we ask? When men are presented as "normative" and women as "deviant," it follows that women will be negative to wards themselves, too. We all en joy that which is familiar, and for women, negativity about our bod ies and interior selves is like an old hat. So hey, why not let others do it to us, too?! What we see in American cul ture are women socialized to hate themselves. Women who are taught to take care of other's needs before their own, whose vocabu lary does not include phrases such as "No," "I need to take care of myself," and "Go away." Self worth is a struggle for women. In our culture, appre ciable worth is placed on beauty and sexuality, instead of upon in tellect and personhood. (Volup tuous, yet anorexic, blankly star ing high fashion models do not help.) Similarly, in real life, where eating, showering, and dressing are often limited to thirty minutes, these so-called standards of beauty are impossible to reach, even when Chris Behm Kim Griffin Katherine Beldner Steven Grimes Naomi Blass Chris Hosford Will Brown Catherine Jemigan Jason Caplain Brooke Plotnik Bob Clegg Christian Scanniello Will Cooper Jon Simon Laura Daum Rachel Salzberg Damian Deßallo S. Scott Spagnola Mignon Ezzell Louisa Spaventa Courtney Frankhouser Sarah Woodard Nat Gray Staff meetings are held weekly in the Passion Pit, second floor, Founders Hall, Monday evenings at 8 o'clock. All are welcome. (guittcrbian disregarding the use of airbrushing and good lighting in photography. Thus from the very point of childhood (when did you get your first Barbie?) women begin to in ternalize false expectations of beauty, body and self. How many of you out there have an internal critic, telling you that you are ugly, fat, stupid, too tall, too whatever? How many of you have an exter nal critic (boyfriend, girlfriend, lover, mother, father, sibling, close friend, whatever) telling you the same derogatory self-concepts? Even though we are bombarded by negative "affirmations," ("we only hurt the ones we love") ABUSE, no matter how subtle, DOES NOT EQUAL LOVE AND HEALTHY ATTENTION!!! Just because you are used to something, does not make it right. If you've only tasted vanilla, that does not mean chocolate doesn't exist! It's time for a change... What to do? Look at your past and present relationships; find that pattern and break it. Ask yourself "Why are you doing this to your self?" Take responsibility. Tell yourself you are worthwhile and deserve good in life. Ask yourself (don't let others tell you) what you want and need. Are you getting it? If not, SPEAK UP! VOICE YOUR OPINION! No one can read your mind. And bump those internal and external critics out, and replace that space with an af firmative voice of compassion. Be good to yourself! Find women images which are positive and to YOUR liking. Most of all, you are special; your experiences are normal. Be picky—you are nei ther a commodity nor a conve nience for anyone, male or female. 5
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