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23, 2001
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THE BATTALION
PETS
ppies, Kittens, Cas
breeds! Occasws
ts & others. Sfatct
Possibly offensive,
roposal to outlaw flag burning infringes
not illegal
on right to free expression
ost Americans pity
the way citizens
are treated in
sale Chocolate i iitries with oppressive
iht. ready7/9.01 ^ jm, . | ) K i- 1 iors limit the
ld ' e "“' e ) in ! s ' w its of their countrymen,
825-8610, i5-r- ®mg endlessly tor ab-
AL ESTATF J,: S political order. While
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Robles
Hme goal of absolute political order that
tators might use, the U.S. House of Repre-
(tatives is attempting to implement a tech-
|ue that limits the political power of U.S.
izens by passing the Flag Protection
lemlment.
OMMATES IBe amendment, which would be the 18th
s needed icndment to the Constitution since the Bill
>use. S250/mo. Rights, is not being pushed by its supporters
at< >1 for political subversion. Instead, they
needed Sbdrni. nAler the flag to he something far above the
_4* Amendment’s guarantee of free speech
o -tins 975" dexpression.
^occd Mr 3 no P ar ^ n & s i& n i s a misde-
■* ' , Pace :anor, but burning a flag is a hate crime, be-
Cai rm burning the flag is an expression of con-
npt for the moral unity of the American
ople,” said Rep. Henry Hyde, R-I1L.
One of the main supporters of the amend-
ent is the Citizens Flag Alliance (CFA).
or Timed 11 years ago to implement the new
9 e nendment, it is comprised of numerous ethic,
vie and veterans associations,
mvibts Q.4 President Daniel S. Wheeler recently
rote on their Website, “We must restore our
aglto its rightful place under the law so that
E;T. ur children and our grandchildren will never
acy e confused about its meaning, its value or the
irice paid to preserve it.”
The CFA fails to realize that by placing a
Ithbol of freedom above the right of expres-
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sion, they are confusing their children and
grandchildren even inbr^h'^ •
One of the main opponents of the Flag Pro
tection Amendment is the American Civil Lib
erties Union (ACLU).-—-—
Gregory T. Nojeim, associate director of
the ACLU’s Washington National Office
said, “It is not the arcane symbol of a dead
and bankrupt nation fdFoiie simple reason:
The Constitution for which it flies demands
that its value rest in the principals of free ex
pression and tolerance for dissent rather than
protection of its graphic design.”
This is die view of many opponents to the
amendment. It is also the reason that for over a
decade, every time it was introduced into the
Senate, the amendment was rejected.
In a recent letter to House Republicans,
Senator Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. wrote, “It
would be unfortunate if we began tampering
with the important and fundamental protec
tion of the First Amendment because of a
handful of malcontents.”
McConnell is right on the money. America
was built on embracing the idea of the mass
es, not limiting the ideas of the few. Colin
Powell, a retired four-star general and secre
tary of state said, “I would not amend that
great shield of democracy to hammer a few
miscreants. The flag will be flying long after
they have slunk away.”
This nation was founded on ideals of liberty,
democracy and culture, not on a flag. Old Glo
ry is a symbol of these. If someone feels that his
or her rights are being infringed on, there is no
excuse for further infringing his or her rights by
censoring his or her freedom of expression.
Re/d Bader is a junior
political science major.
ANGELIQUE FORD/The Battalion
available thruMa-l
Fully fumisWf |
O/mo./o.b.o.
ad. M/F JM2K
se, furniitte»ffiC* ,!
lackyard,
id. House
tral air. 846-3T:
early
everyone
ded to share3cwSB- ^ ill Amei i-
30d valley, woo ^ h as heard the
bmes Chandra
Levy and Gary
8 VICES Condit at least
nsive Driving. i4ftce during the
Ticket dismissa as t; month. It is
M-T(6pm-9prr! I . i i i
ri.&Sat - Fri(6pr4 ea dy everyone because those people
n). Sat(8am-2:3 yho rely solely on “The CBS
Lowest pr^ Evenin g News” would have no idea
r„ Ste.217. 846: If the vanished intern and the sus-
ariy. (CP-0017). Democratic congressman. An-
test; Hope'PrSifror Dan Rather and Executive Pro-
>tation 695-9193, lucer Jim Murphy have decided that
,t, °’ Pt} c news about a 24-year-old woman
who mysteriously vanished while
having an affair with a congressmen
Can 846-0165 is not worth airtime. On the other
Jiand, according to the Media Re-
Kirch Council, CBS “found time for
I Stories on how anthrax is killing deer
I HTexas ... and even 19 seconds to re-
| punt how the guy who threw a dog
Wi B “tto an oncoming car received a
three-year jail sentence.”
■Some people are claiming that
Rather, who has a history of bias to-
N ~ L
TORS
silence on Levy
ward the Democratic Party, is ig
noring the stoiy because of Condit’s
political affiliation. If this is the
case, Dan Rather must be replaced
as the anchor of “The CBS
Evening News.”
He not only is besmirching the
reputation the program gained dur
ing the eras of Edward R. Murrow
and Walter Cronkite but is doing a
disservice to the American public. Al
most everyone has a political leaning,
but Rather is obligated to hide his for
30 minutes every night. If he cannot,
he must be removed.
During his daily radio commentary
on Monday, Rather accused members
of the press and conservatives in
Congress of trying to “titillate them
selves, and they hope you, with the
latest rumors and speculation about
what they believe is a ‘sexual scandal.’
Other members of the press are
not buying Rather’s explanation.
Howard Kurtz of The Washingtdii
tt j t • r i
Tost and the writer of the well-reroe
garded “Media Notes” column,
slammed Rather on Don Imus’ radio
show Tuesday morning. >9m
“D.C. cops searching a congf^H^-
man’s apartment, a 24-year-old miss
ing woman, another woman who said
she had an affair with the congress
man and he urged her to cover it up. I
mean, that’s not worth a sentence or
two from Dan Rather’s lips?
It’s a head-in-the-sand approach,”
Kurtz said. When Imus asked Kurtz
what he would ask Rather, he replied
that he “[would ask him] when he
plans to get in touch with the rest of
the world.”
That evening, Rather finally spoke
of Levy, “calling her one of 200,000
missing people” while stressing
“there is no crime here, so far.”
On Friday morning, Rather told
Imus he had been forced to report on
the story: “They didn’t want Imus to
eat me alive ... but I still don’t think
there’s a story drere.”
If Condit had been a Republican,
Rather’s past actions seem to sug
gest that he would have taken a dif
ferent approach to the story. In re
cent months, Rather has referred to
President George Bush’s win in
Florida as “so-called” or “what
Katherine Harris (Florida’s Secre
tary of State) thinks is a victory,” re-
case shows bias
ferred to Senator Bob Toricelli’s (D~
NJ) violation of tax laws and his in
vestigation by a Jimmy Carter ap
pointed district attorney as “a
Republican-motivated attack.”
In 1992, “The CBS Evening
News” ran several lead stories on
Senator Robert Packwood (R-OR)
and the sexual harassment allegations
— later proven to be true — against
him. This, to use Rather’s words, was
“a sexual scandal.”
Rather has also referred to former
President Clinton as “an honest per
son,” something many Clinton sup
porters cannot agree with.
“I think you can be an honest per
son and lie about any number of
things,” this comment, made on Fox
News’ “The O’Reilly Factor,” infuri
ated host Bill O’Reilly to the point
that he cut to a commercial and had
Rather removed from the set.
On the other hand, Rather refused
to allow CBS to run a story about the
rape allegations made by Juanita
Broadderick against Clinton and had
to be forced to report on the Monica
Lewinsky episode, claiming it was a
“so-called scandal.”
Bernard Goldberg, a former CBS
reporter who worked with Rather for
more than two decades, wrote in the
Wall Street Journal that “Dan can’t
help it. He doesn’t know he’s biased.”
Whether Rather knows it, his re
fusal to report on a story which be
comes more newsworthy by the day
is an embarrassment to his profes
sion. CBS, which has reported on the
story for its other news programs,
should force Rather to see the dam
age he is causing to his and their rep
utation. If Rather continues to veto
such stories on partisan grounds, he
should become CBS’ prime candidate
for early retirement.
Everyone in the media has some
bias. Some people hide it better than
others. There are times that Dan
Rather sounds like he is a robot paid
for by the Democratic Party. This is
not good for his network, nor is it
good for the people who rely on CBS
for their news. Perhaps the time has
come for Dan Rather to do his re
porting elsewhere.
Mark Passwaters is a senior
electrical engineering major.
Mail Call
Homosexual marriage is
contrary to religions
In response to Stuart Hudson's
July 7 6 column.
Contrary to Stuart Hutson's claims, mar
riage is a fundamentally religious institu
tion and cannot be stripped of its religious
foundation. The State's recognition of and
respect for marriage is based upon the First
Amendment protections of religion from
State interference.
In other words, the State cannot define
marriag^and it certainly cannot redefine
it. Nor should it want to encourage the ho
mosexual lifestyle, which is an extremely
dangerous one. CDC statistics and crime
reports bear witness to this fact. The risk of
AIDS and other STDs is astronomically
higher, and the sexual deviancy involved
encourages even more deviant activities
such as bestiality and sex crimes against
children.
Any one involved in a homosexual
lifestyle would be well advised to get out
of it, for their own sake. Hutson's compari
son of interracial marriage to homosexuali
ty is ridiculous. From a scriptural stand
point, the arguments against homosexuali
ty are abundantly clear and direct, whereas
interracial issues are not even addressed.
Finally, from a purely logical and scientific
standpoint, "same-sex marriage" is an
oxymoron. It makes no sense whatsoever.
In the name of being "open-minded,"
Hutson believes that the State should vio
late the First Amendment by forcing reli
gions to accept — and even promote — a
lifestyle that, in addition to being inherent
ly dangerous, is as abhorrent to them as
are adultery, incest, and murder.
Jon L. Gardner
Class of'89
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