The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, April 17, 2002, Image 5
Letters
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4
The best religion is
practiced willingly
In an effort to focus
attention on the
constitutionality of the
Student-Led Messages Act, I
am writing this letter in
response to Lark Patterson’s
letter to the editor in the April
12 issue and in reference to
Martha Wright’s column on
April 8.
Patterson has
misinterpreted society’s
response to matters of religion,
specifically Christianity. We
would be remiss to ignore
Christianity’s historic role in
the development of our society.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice
Antonin Scalia, in his
dissenting opinion in Lee v.
Weisman (1992), observed the
numerous occasions upon
which we, as a nation, have
referenced the Bible: various
presidents reciting prayers at
their respective inaugural
addresses, the Congressional
session opening with the
chaplain’s prayer, and the
crier invoking God at the
opening to all Supreme Court
hearings. He further writes,
“The Declaration of
Independence, the document
marking our birth as a
separate people, ‘appeal[ed] to
the Supreme Judge of the
world for the rectitude of our
intentions...’” Let us not forget
what phrase is imprinted on
our coins.
We, as a society, should be
and are offended by legislation
that encroaches upon our civil
liberties and human rights. In
legislation akin to Rep. George
Campsen’s proposal for
student-led messages, a
deceptively innocuous
Alabama statute instituting a
one-minute period of silence
was quickly followed by two
other statutes. Had the
Supreme Court upheld the
Federal District Court’s ruling
in favor of these statutes,
Alabama would have established
a state religion (Wallace v.
Jaffree, 1985).
The relationship between
church and state is long and
tumultuous. Admittedly, the
principles applied to delimiting
the boundary between the two
are controversial, maybe even
flawed. Nevertheless, it’s our
duty as citizens to be vigilant
and to safeguard what the
Founding Fathers established
long ago — to regard religion and
its free exercise as a
fundamental human right.
We’re fortunate to be able to
adhere to our respective religious
tenets, but we’re further afforded
numerous appropriate venues to
do so willingly. Children are
compelled by law to attend
school. Most of these schools are
operating on reduced budgets and
smaller administrations and
faculties. Some have had to
eliminate entire departments.
Should we, in all good conscience,
give our schools this Pandora’s
Box?
YVETTE BURKE
THIRD-YEAR GEOGRAPHY STUDENT
Editorial gave
wrong information
Monday’s editorial about
binge drinking contains errors
in reasoning.
The editorial board of The
Gamecock Claims that the
study on binge drinking
conducted by the Harvard
School of Public Health
“defined binge drinking as
having more than four drinks
for a woman and more than
five drinks for a man in one
week.” This definition, claims
the editorial board, would call
one drink a day for five days
binge drinking.
The board is right in
questioning such a definition.
However, that’s not the
definition the study used. The
actual definition appears on
Harvard’s Web site as follows:
“We defined binge drinking as
the consumption of at least five
drinks in a row for men or four
drinks in a row for women
during the two weeks before
completion of the
questionnaire.”
This definition, according to
the study’s report, “is a
standard metric in research on
this topic.”
And it’s the kind of drinking
described by this definition
that “is strongly associated
with adverse social
consequences among college
students.” Certainly other
survey methods might be used,
but the author’s attacks on this
particular method are
baseless.
And why bring up an
unrelated issue to'make a bad
point? The editorial,
advocating a focus on
moderation, reads, “It’s
similar to teaching safe sex.
Students who have sex will
continue to do so, so why not
give them condoms?” Forgive
me if I can’t follow this
analogy, but is The Gamecock
suggesting that college
students should be given alcohol
filters for their beer cans? On the
flip side, perhaps The Gamecock
believes that having sex more
thhn five times in one week is
hazardous.
The Gamecock is wrong about
what the Harvard study says,
wrong about the validity of the
method used to say it and wrong
■about how to construct a decent
analogy. Maybe the conclusions
of the editorial had some merit.
Too bad I’ll never be able to take
them seriously.
JEFF MOBLEY
FOURTH-YEAR MATH STUDENT
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