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Opinion
The Battalion
Page 9 • Friday, February 6, 2004
Can justice be too blind?
High school student guilty of rape played the race
M eet Marcus Dixon. As a 6-tbot-6,
265-pound linebacker for Pepperell
High School, he is an exemplary
example of the slar athlete on the gridiron. As
ayoung black Georgian charged with two sex
crimes by a mostly white jury, he and his case
have been adopted by racial activists who
want to convince Americans that racism in
the Deep South still exists.
Dixon’s attorneys, backed by civil rights’
activists, have filed an appeal to the Georgia
Supreme Court on behalf of the 19-year-old man who was found
guilty last May in Rome, Ga., of statutory rape and child
molestation — a charge that can carry a sentence of 10 years.
The defense, in conjunction with other activists and humani
tarian organizations, claims that the case reeked of faulty prose
cution and infringed upon constitutional rights by administering
unusually cruel punishment.
Everything about the defense’s concocted accusation epito
mizes injustice.
On the eve of the trial, 100 of these protesters gathered out
side the courtroom to hold candlelit vigils, singing “We Shall
Overcome" and listening to a message condemning the trial as
prejudiced against all black men. Southern Christian Leadership
Council founder Dr. Joseph Lowry delivered the message, which
was a racially charged sermon.
“If the young lady was black and Marcus Dixon was white. I
don't think we would be here,” Lowry said.
Lowry makes a good point, albeit unintentionally. Just as
every coin has two sides, the only reason Lowry and the raving
horde were present was that Dixon is black. It really has nothing
todowith innocence or guilt, nothing to do with Dixon’s char
acter-nothing to do with anything except his skin color.
These activists have labored for decades, trying to convince
Americans to doubt the doings of the supposedly colorblind
justice system.
However, they too suffer from bias-induced blindness. If
Dixon, a legal adult, had sex with a minor and pro
duced the bruises the evidence confirms,
state law necessitates a 10-year sen
tence. Dixon admitted to knowing
the girl’s age, and he was
surely aware that such illicit
actions carry repercussions.
This, of course, makes race an
irrelevant point, but activists busy
protecting our country from racism
rarely seem to have time to consider
the facts.
Supporters of this racist conspiracy
somehow seem to think his "B” class
average and football skills should arbi
trate the verdict. They claim that he is
black, smart and athletic; ergo, his sen
tence is not justified. Black, white or
green; athletic or sickly; smart or slow —
none of these qualities have anything to do
with whether a crime was committed.
Morphing issues like this into a social
Mason-Dixon Line for the 21st century has
been no easy undertaking for those who
wish to stretch the truth about the reality of
racism. They have sacrificed their reputation
and their credibility in the eyes of many
Americans. In this pursuit, however, it comes as no
surprise that these groups neglected to focus on the
obvious fact that Dixon did wrong.
This evidence certainly seems more pressing
and serious than unfounded claims of racial di
crimination, but amid a barrage of declara
tions denouncing racial injustice, it is also
evidence that Americans will never read
about. So. this is Lowry’s idea of justice?
He seems to believe that if he can pull the
he should have folded
race card, other aspects of the case — including
the crime itself — will vanish.
In what is arguably the world’s fairest legal
system, this type of activism makes individ
ual crime a racial debate, which can ultimate
ly circumvent the true intent of America’s
legal system.
Even if society deferred to the
ridiculous definitions of “injustice”
that activists promulgate, these civil
hypochondriacs would only broad
en the scope of intolerable
actions. The plain, but unfortu-
[ nate, fact seems to be that they
I do not seek equity and truth,
B though they claim to preach,
f defend and understand it.
Civil rights activism as exud
ed in the Dixon case sermonizes
that victimization is the answer to
the black man’s problems. It
breathes life into racial confrontation
and purports that Southern good-boy
“justice” will not die.
Sorry to disappoint, but black men
convicted of crime are not all victims
of judicial racism. The Mason-Dixon
Line has not been redrawn; activists
just hope Americans will mistakenly
see its image when they look at the exag
gerated Marcus Dixon Lie.
Flores • THE BATTALION
Clint Rainey is a freshman
general studies major.
Microsoft had no right
to take domain name
M ike Rowe only
wanted to create his
own Web site. But
lispast November, the
Microsoft Corporation sent
an e-mail to the Canadian
iiigli school student and
ordered him to close his site.
MikeRoweSoft.com, which
Ik company considers to
violate Microsoft trademark
rights.loan attempt to convey the company’s
“generosity," Microsoft offered the young man
$10 to sign the domain name over to thenl,
which would be enough to cover the initial
setup fee for the domain name.
Why the company believed it had a right to
lake a young man’s personal Web site with
virtually no compensation is beyond compre
hension and unfair. Just because the name
sounds similar to the name of the corporation
does not give Microsoft
the right to take it without
proper compensation for all
of the work that was put
While Microsoft’s
response may seem a bit
ridiculous, it infuriated
Rowe that a giant corpora
tion would try to take his
personal site and only offer
“The $10 is pretty insult
ing for all the work I’ve put
into my Web site,” Rowe
said, “That’s why I asked
for the $10,000 —
because 1 was mad at the low amount they
Why the company
believed it had a right to
take a young man's
personal Web site with
virtually no compensation is
beyond comprehension
and unfair.
This is just one example of the type of friv
olous law suits that the United States court
systems encounter every day. Companies and
individuals believe they are being attacked by
others, yet they are not.
Rowe had not set out to steal business or
money away from the lucrative corporation.
He had only thought that the name, which
consisted of his personal first and last names,
was interesting and fitting, partly due to the
fact that his site was dedicated to Web devel
oping. Soon after Rowe refused Microsoft’s
$10 offer, he received a 25-page letter from
the corporation explaining how Microsoft’s
customers could get confused between his site
and the company site. That argument leads to
a whole other debate. The name of the Web
site developed by Rowe was similar in sound,
not in spelling, to the corporation’s Web site.
Basically, Microsoft did not give its con-
i credit for knowing the name of the
: they use on a daily basis. It is actual
ly stating that the company considers its con
sumers quite dense, as they may become con
fused as to site is the correct one in helping
them with their software troubles.
“We take our trademark seriously, but in
this case maybe a little too seriously,” said
Microsoft spokesman Jim Desler. “That said,
we appreciate that Mike Rowe is a young
entrepreneur who came up with a creative
domain name.”
Once Microsoft determined that it may have
taken the domain name case one step too far, it
publicly admitted to overreacting. Rather than
taking advantage of an average high school
student. Microsoft discovered that its young
adversary was rather creative and savvy.
With all of the quarreling over this particu
lar domain name, Microsoft may have devel
oped more problems than if they had just left
the whole thing alone.
Microsoft’s legal department may be busier
than it anticipated during
the next few months
because in the past few
weeks, all the top-level
domain extensions for
MikeRoweSoft (.co.uk,
.net, .org and .tv) have
been snapped up, and
MikeRoweSoft.tv has been
put up for sale on eBay.
As an agreement had
been reached between
Rowe and Microsoft last
week, it was by far a win
for the little man over the
bigger corporation. In
exchange for the domain
name, Microsoft will pay for Rowe’s expens
es, the cost of switching over to a new site,
provide training for certification on
Microsoft’s products, a subscription to
Microsoft’s developer program Web site, and
an XBOX video game console with games, as
well as an invitation to bring his parents along
for a visit to Microsoft’s Redmond, Wash.,
headquarters for the company’s annual tech
nology fair.
If there was truly an infringement on a
trademark name, then, action should take place
to rectify the problem. But in this case, there
was no problem to begin with —just one that
was thought up by some big-time corporate
lawyers who made a situation for their compa
ny worse than what it was to start.
Lauren Esposito is a senior
English major.
MAIL CALL
A&M leaders
must oppose fees
In response to Josh
Peschel’s Feb. 5 column:
Personally, I would liked to
have seen even more student
leaders come out in opposi
tion to the unnecessary and
illegitimate fee increase rec
ommendations issued by the
Student Service Fee
Advisory Board instead of
trying to convince their con
stituents why they need even
more of their money.
Not only does the SSFAB
want to give themselves the
power to raise the student
service fee up to 10 percent
per year, their recommenda
tions only cover the expan
sion of programs from groups
seeking funding. Before
approving any increases, the
SSFAB should demand that
the money these groups
already receive is being well
spent. When groups like the
Graduate Student Council,
Student Government
Association, Memorial
Student Center and others
spend thousands of dollars a
year in food and retreats for
their membership, the stu
dent body should not be
asked to foot the bill for even
more waste.
Additionally, the SSFAB’s
final deliberations and votes
regarding their recommenda
tions were held behind closed
doors and the members of the
SSFAB were not appointed in
accordance with state law or
even confirmed by the student
senate. Our student leaders
should not support this seri
ously flawed system that acted
in such an unethical manner.
Mark McCaig
president, SGA Watch
Class of 2005
Women should
stop the excuses
In response to Carrie
Pierce’s Feb. 5 article:
As a woman majoring in
electrical engineering, I am
frequently exasperated by the
complaints of feminists on this
campus. They demand stu
dent organizations for women,
which claim to provide some
intangible benefit that will
somehow compensate for the
“trials" inherent to their gender.
Yet they would be outraged if
someone tried to start a
“Society for Men Engineers.”
I believe that if women want
to achieve more respect in tra
ditionally male fields, they
need to stop emphasizing
their gender, which does not
represent a personal accom
plishment of any kind.
Instead, all individuals should
derive professional pride from
the quality of their work, and
from nothing else.
Furthermore, I would like to
emphasize that I have never
once experienced any kind
injustice because of my gen
der. My professors treat me
no differently than they would
any other student. In fact,
most employers would hire
me before they would hire an
equally qualified male!
So, to those women who
feel repressed on this cam
pus, I challenge you to show
me a tangible example of the
discrimination you claim to
have faced. If you want per
sonal fulfillment and profes
sional success, I would sug
gest that you spend less time
whining about inequality, and
more time working to achieve
your goals.
Cindy McReynolds
Class of 2005
Kerry is a veteran
and a change
In response to a Feb. 5 mail
call:
The fact that Dean Brown
says that “the men and women
of the military will continue to
support President Bush” is a
completely wrong assumption.
There are many in the military
who do support the president,
but there are quite a few oth
ers who realize it is time for a
change in the administration.
American citizens, includ
ing military personnel,
should look to John Kerry, an
actual veteran who served
his country in the Vietnam
War, and not to George W.
Bush, who used his father’s
political influence to join the
Texas National Guard in
order to avoid the draft—and
then did not even serve as
an active member.
While our president
attempts to convince the
Americans that invading Iraq
was a good idea, more than
500 soldiers have come back
in body bags as a result of this
unjustified war. Brown must
realize that those who do not
support the war are still quite
patriotic and do indeed sup
port the troops.
We support the troops in
every effort to bring them
home safely. When November
comes, I hope that Americans
will look at all of the flaws, lies
and misleadings in the Bush
administration and elect
someone new.
David Johnson
Class of 2004
Bush deserves
the military vote
In response to Collins
Ezeanyim's Feb. 4 column:
I see selective journalism is
not just reserved solely for
The New York Times or The
Washington Post. You present
only the facts that support
your already slanted opinion
of the president.
Why not mention the new
federal budget that was
released this week, where
military spending is boosted
by 7 percent? Why not name
the Democratic candidates for
president who oppose the $87
billion needed for the military
complete our work in Iraq?
Are you aware of the 10 per
cent increase in the
Homeland Security budget,
that includes an 11 percent
increase for the FBI to fight
terrorism? It’s clear to me
President Bush is putting his
money where his mouth is
when it comes to helping
those who protect us at home
and abroad.
The military will vote for
President Bush because they
love him. He stands up for
what is right and brings
integrity back to the White
House, in sharp contrast to a
former president who used
the oval office as his personal
brothel. He’s demonstrated
he won’t cut and run like
Clinton did in Somalia either.
And most of all, he has the
fortitude to face terrorism and
understands we must force
radical change in the Middle
East if we are to stop the
onslaught of radical Islam.
Ray Hovorka
Class of 1999
j