onday, July 16, 2001
o PINION
Page 5
THE BATTALION
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Proposed amendment banning same sex marriage is closeminded, unlawful
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sad i ng to further blur the al-
ready-fuzzy division by pro
moting an amendment to the
■S. Constitution stating that
Image only can be between
a man and a woman.
■Spurned by Vermont’s year-
old civil union law — granting
marriage-like rights to same-sex
couples — the Alliance for Mar
riage is attempting to ensure
that any partnership outside of
its dogmatic concept of mar
riage is to be deemed illegal,
The members of this organ
ization have evidently failed to
realize that the division be
tween church and state exists
because, while religious-based
organizations are assured the
right to discriminate how they
wish, this country’s govern
ment is based on the commit
ment to uphold the freedom of
its citizens, unless that freedom
poses an inherent danger to the
common good.
The freedom of two mem
bers of the same sex to join in
legal matrimony may pose a
danger to certain group’s
sense of right and wrong —
and churches may most defi
nitely interpret it as a danger
to people’s souls..
However, until God per
sonally steps up to the podium
of the U.S. Senate and states
that he will strike down the
nation with fire and brimstone
unless it outlaws this type of
union, it poses no threat to the
common good.
Members of this coalition
state the amendment is validat
ed because recent polls have
indicated that the U.S. popu
lace does not support gay or
lesbian marriage on a ratio of
as much as two-to-one.
No rational person would
deny that a majority of Ameri
cans do not believe that gay or
lesbian marriage is religiously
validated. After all, America is
mostly Protestant with
Catholicism coming in a strong
second. The majority of bodi
these churches do not condone
unions of same-sex couples.
However, there was a time
when many — maybe even
most — Americans did not be
lieve diat interracial marriage
should be allowed.
Many read aloud dogmati
cally interpreted passages from
their Bibles, Korans and
Torahs in strict opposition to
what they considered a travesty
against humanity.
T hey assured lawmakers
that allowing the interracial
unions would cause strife in
America’s cultural systems and
would lead down the slippery
slope to legalized bestiality
and incest.
Anyone publicly displaying
these opinions today would be
promptly labeled as an igno
rant bigot and laughed at, yet
these are the same arguments
against gay marriages used by
the Alliance for Marriage.
In 20 years, they will be
laughed at as well.
Until then, America’s gov
ernment and citizens should
resist any addition to
state or federal law
mandating the legally
irrational discrimina
tion against law-abiding
citizens.
Stuart Hutson is a
senior journalism major.
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.S. should follow
he majority
of Ameri
cans, and
college students in
particular, appear
to be uninterested
in the complex af
fairs that take place
Beyond their
Ipceans. The im
pressive resurgence of Ireland is one
story that many have missed. Opinions
of Ireland are likely frozen in time
since 1846, when a potato famine dev
astated the Emerald Isle, and the
Katholic, desperately poor Irish, faced
a seemingly impossible assimilation
into American culture. Since then,
much has changed in both countries.
And now, little, old Ireland has up-
aged Europe, pointing the way for
an economic renaissance.
I The small island is in the middle of
ajboom, and the United States and
Europe would do well to take notice.
The Irish have discovered what the
United States needs to rediscover, and
Europe should learn — lower tax rates
are very good for the economy. Ire
land has been an aggressive tax cutter,
a fact diat upsets the statist European
Union. Voters there recently dealt a
blow to the Brussels-based EU, reject
ing the Treaty of Nice, which is neces
sary for member countries to ratify for
continued expansion.
This has been a long time coming.
The European Union had voted to
formally condemn Ireland’s fiscal
policies on the odd premise that tax
cuts overheat the economy and, lead
to inflation. Nothing of the sort has
happened. The Washington Tithes re
ports that just 15 years ago, unem
ployment topped 15 percent, and
“government spending consumed
more than one-half of economic out
put, confiscatory tax rates stifled
growth and budget deficits skyrock
eted to 15 percent of the gross do-
Ireland's
mestic product.”
Long in contention for die title of
the world’s poorest developed coun
try, more than 200,000 Irish people
immigrated to seek new opportunities
The Irish have
discovered what the
United States needs to
rediscover, and Europe
should learn — lower
tax rates are very good
for the economy.
in the booming U.S. economy of the
1980s. Ireland now has to import
many of its workers, most coming to
compete in what is fast becoming the
high-tech center of Europe. Finance
Minister Charlie McCreevy, part of
10 supply-side economists, who in
1986 offered opinions aimed at solv
lead with tax cuts
ing a very bad economic situation, has
stated that the EU condemnation was
an act of “envy.” Panic might be the
better word.
In the mid-1980s, the tax relief
started in earnest. The top personal
income tax was reduced from 65 per
cent to 42 percent beginning this year.
Also, corporate income tax rates have
been greatly reduced, alio wing, for a
boom in foreign investment. The Irish
now enjoy one of lowest corporate tax
rates in the world, and that will be
slashed to 12.5 percent in 2003.
Growth has averaged 10 percent for
the last six years and has consistently
been triple the EU average. The
French, German and Italian leaders of
a more centralized Europe favor the
harmonization of tax rates — upward.
But Ireland’s low-tax, business-friendly
climate and flexible markets have
again demonstrated the magic of low
er tax rates.
Critics of supply-side economics
claim that reductions cause budget
deficits, when in fact they help to bal
ance budgets. Ireland is currently en
joying its first surplus in 50 years, per
haps the most impressive result of the
rate reductions.
More money in the hands of people
with strong incentives to work and
create can do wonders. The talents of
entrepreneurs and resources will con
tinue to flee from the stifling policies
of high-tax nations toward the pros
perity of the low-tax ones. For 15
years, Ireland has bravely stood up
against mounting pressure from unac
countable Belgian bureaucrats advo
cating the statist status quo. In the
process, McCreevy and his country
men have unleashed the “Celtic
Tiger.” As Ireland continues to boom,
maybe others across the globe will
start to take action.
Jonathan Jones is a junior
political science major.
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Clarification
I In Jason Bennyhoff's June 21 column 'Tire
Power/' purchasers of the AR-50 and the EMD
Windrunner, both .50 caliber sniper rifles, are
subject to all federal requirements including a
background check. The analogy to buying pellet
guns was an exaggeration.
es.
wmsst
r
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"Light trucks?" Hardly.
Bill forcing SUVs to become more fuel efficient should be passed
(U-WIRE) — We see the
lifestyle on the commercials:
Tearing it up down a muddy
road, plowing through the
snow, driving up to the top of
die mountains. Ah, the free
dom to roam the outdoors you
get*in a sports utility vehicle!
Of course, only about 13
percent of SUVs ever leave the
road, so mostly they’re used for
tearing it up down suburban
streets, blocking the vision of
the people behind them and
sucking down that gasoline.
Of those three things, con
suming fuel like a fish con
sumes water seems to be what
SUVs are best at. The massive
Ford Excursion gets 10 miles
to the gallon. During a time of
high gas prices, it would seem
there wouldn’t be a demand for
such things.
However, “light trucks,”
which include SUVs, pick-ups
and minivans comprised nearly
half of automotive sales in
America last year.
While pick-ups are extreme
ly popular, it’s SUVs that are
the hot new trend.
The Corporate Average
Fuel Economy, or the CAFE
standard, which mandates that
automotive companies keep an
average fuel efficiency for all
the cars they make, was created
in 1975, when light trucks were
less than 20 percent of auto
motive sales.
Since back then they were
used mainly by farmers and
ranchers for transporting car-
So with SUVs,
automotive compa
nies have gotten
away with making
a big, popular car
without the hassle
of actually making
it fuel efficient.
go, the fuel efficiency average
for light trucks was set at 20.7
miles per gallon. The standard
set for passenger cars was 27.5
mpg.
However, the SUV isn’t re
ally a truck, because it can’t re -
ally be used to haul farm eqmp-
ment like a pick-up can. Many
SUVs don’t have any more pas
senger seats than a family
sedan. And despite the ads,
they’re rarely used for heading
out in the wilderness with Bob
Seger’s “Like a Rock” playing
in the background.
So with SUVs, automotive
companies have gotten away
with making a big, popular car
without the hassle of actually
making it fuel, efficient. But
members of the U.S. Congress
are at work trying to plug this
gaping loophole.
A bill introduced by Sen.
Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.,
would make automotive com
panies bring the average fuel
efficiency up to 27.5 mpg for
both passenger cars and light
trucks. Rep. Joe Barton, R-
Texas, chair of the House En
ergy and Air Quality subcom
mittee, has suggested he will
introduce similar legislation.
Legislation like Schumer’s is
necessary not only for the pro
tection of the environment,
since cars that use more gas
make more pollution, but also
to do something about Ameri
ca’s energy crisis.
With more cars on the road
that aren’t required to meet
high fuel efficiency standards,
we have more demand for oil.
As Harper’s Magazine pointed
out, if we started drilling in
Alaska’s Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge, we would be
42,000,000 gallons of oil richer
a day. If the average fuel effi
ciency of SUVs in America in
creased 3 mpg, we would have
49,000,000 gallons.
Of course, no amount of
changes to the fuel efficiency
standard will make SUVs safer.
They’re still be twice as likely
to roll over than normal vehi
cles because of their high cen
ter of gravity. Firestone has ar
gued that the deaths attributed
to their faulty tires may well be
because of Ford’s badly engi
neered Explorer.
And then there’s Daimler-
Chrysler’s Jeep Grand Chero
kee, which the National High
way Traffic Safety
Administration has begun in
vestigating due to reports that
it goes into reverse with no
reason as it’s being driven
down the road. That could re
ally mess up your transmission
— not to mention your skull if
you’re in front of an 18-wheel
er hurling down 1-35.
But at least the legislation
wil\ cut down on the amount of
pollution being spewed out by
all the SUVs rolling down the
road.
Whether they’re rolling on
their wheels or on their sides is
another issue.
Kris Banks
Daily Texan
University of Austin