Elian is finally going home - probably. It's about time. Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, has come to the United States to take the boy back to his Cuban home. The 6-year-old was rescued on an inner tube Thanksgiving Day, but his mother died on the journey from Cuba to the United States. When Elian's Miami relatives claimed custody of the boy, a clear-cut case of returning the boy to his father became an international circus, umm, event. One of the arguments for keeping Elian in the United States reveals American arrogance. Some of Elian's Miami relatives said he would be better off in the United States than in Cuba. They hinted he would have more toys and a better life. Yup, that is what a better life is. More toys. Not your father. Not being able to grow up in your own country. Not growing up with your friends, in your culture. "Of course the little boy would be better off here, this is AMERICA." Is that the same America where little children kill each other with guns? The point is not that Cuba doesn't have problems. It does. But America is not the promised land either. And it is arrogant to think so. If the situation were reversed, and an American mother perished, and her son ended up in Cuba, would we even think about whether the boy should be returned to his American father? No. Americans would be outraged. "How dare those commies keep a young American tot hostage?" Let's not be hypocritical. Elian belongs with his father.
Count not race census-tive A cursory glance at the U.S. Census 2000 gives clear insight into what is important to America and its citizens. Didn't you know? The Trail of Tears. The Civil War. Radical Reconstruction. Japanese internment camps in response to America's paranoia during World War II. The Civil Rights Movement. The impetus behind the rapid construction of suburban areas. The reason American public schools are statistically more segregated today than during the days of Jim Crow. It's race, of course. Almost 20 options to "indicate what this person considers himself/herself to be" are available on this decade's version of the American head count. It's pretty clear cut for most people, including myself. I know what box to check. You can look at my mug shot and figure it out for yourself. But the question remains: Why would I want to identify myself in such a manner? I understand that by filling out the Census, the state receives so many representatives for Congress; the community in which I reside receives government money for schools, employment services, housing assistance, child services and other supposed benefits. But did you know that being black, African American or Negro (the categories offered by the Census) has never been an asset in America? Yes, it's hard to believe, but true. Did you know that when you are black, African American or Negro, armed with only a wallet in New York City, that six policemen can fire 41 bullets at you - 19 of which hit their mark - and not one of the cops can be found guilty? Well, who is guilty then? Did you know that if you are black, African American or Negro and driving in Los Angeles that you must beware of the police at all times, lest you end up like Rodney Glen King, caught forever on the medium of videotape being savagely beaten by four cops, while 23 other officers watch in ... amusement? The beating includes 56 strikes with three-foot aluminum batons, kicks about the head, face and body and electrical shocks from Taser lines. Did you also know that those same cops can be found not guilty by a "jury of their peers," in Simi Valley, the largely, white enclave outside of Los Angeles? Let's assume the officers were not guilty. Perhaps King could have prevented the beating by being less black, African American or Negro. Did you know that if you are black, African American or Negro, and your name is O.J. Simpson, that you can be found not guilty in a criminal trial for the first-degree murders of your ex-wife and a friend on the strength of evidence that Los Angeles police officers planted and tampered with evidence? The verdict is roundly booed and hissed at, mostly by people who aren't black, African American or Negro. Almost five years later, riveting testimony is produced that certain Los Angeles police officers could have tampered with evidence in upwards of 4,000 criminal cases. Forty criminal convictions are overturned. Twenty officers have been relieved of their duties. Nary a peep is heard from the same people who so loudly scoffed at the notion of such a thing happening five years ago. Did you know that if you are black, African American or Negro and a resident in South Carolina, that a flag currently flies over the state capitol that once was the symbol for a country willing to sacrifice hundreds of thousands of men to fight for the enslavement of your ancestors? Did you know that if you are black, African American or Negro, American society prefers that you develop your jump shot or tackling ability, rather than your ability to read or start your own business? Did you know that if you are black, African American or Negro, your parents, grandparents and other relatives can all remember a time when you or your kin could be killed just for looking sideways at someone who wasn't black, African American or Negro? Did you know that if you are black, African American or Negro, you are a little more than 30 years removed from legally segregated schools, shopping centers, even water fountains, and some people claim that discrimination has completely been eliminated from American society and that affirmative action is no longer needed? So I stare at my Census and wonder not which box to check, but why I should check anything. Perhaps I should wait for a Census, or a time in history, when the English language can come up with a system of identifying myself by a color truer to the hue of my skin, or a time in history when being black, African American or Negro is an asset. So I'll keep waiting. I can see clearly what is and isn't important in America.
Opinion Editor Joel Anderson is a senior news-editorial journalism major from Missouri City, Texas. He can be reached at (jdanderson@delta.is.tcu.edu).
When Moses descended Mount Sinai, he carried with him two plates of stone with 10 items carved into them. They read as the following: Number One: Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Number Two: Thou shalt own guns. For I, the Lord your God, who has brought you up from Israel, decree that thou must own a weapon designed only for killing. Ask a Biblical scholar (we have several on campus), and you will be told the above are not the actual first two of the Ten Commandments. But there are some in America who beg to differ. The Second Amendment to the Constitution reads, "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."* There are those in America who read the Second Amendment and take it as the second COMMANDMENT. They are wrong. They are wrong because that which they believe in is wrong. The Second Amendment has been taken out of context and has been bastardized from the intent of the founding fathers. Do not get me wrong. The Constitution of the United States of America is the basis for the greatest nation in the history of the world. The Bill of Rights guarantees American citizens more freedoms than anyone in the world and have become the basis for nations around the world. Unfortunately, the Bill also guarantees the United States the highest murder rate among the G-7 nations. Look at the wording of the Second Amendment. It was not intended for every Joe Bob to own a gun. "A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free state." A well regulated militia, not a well-armed society packing heat. In 1791, there was no standing army in the United States. Americans won their freedom from England with militiamen. George Washington put down the Whiskey Rebellion with militia troops because he had no army on which to call. The founders had foresight to see this. They did not foresee that guns would be the second-leading cause of death among children in the year 2000. Today, he would need a an army of militia to put down all the violence created with guns. People rant about how guns protect Americans from "Big Brother" dominating their lives. England and France and a host of other industrialized nations have outlawed guns. Not only do they have the near-zero murder rates, but their citizens are free. Their governments do not seem to charge in and deny liberties on weekly basis. People talk about how guns save lives. I do not doubt many a father has saved the lives of his wife and children. But would he have needed to save them were it not for criminals who had guns in the first place? If James Madison could have foreseen what the Second Amendment has wrought and how it has been misinterpreted, he surely would not have allowed it. The Second Amendment was a mistake, written by fallible men. Guns serve no purpose but death and mutilation. Destroy them all.
Assistant Campus Editor Matt Stiver is a junior news-editorial journalism and history major from Fort Worth. He can be reached at (mrstiver@delta.is.tcu.edu).
After talking to a few of my friends about marriage, I've been astonished at the various ideas and, more specifically, ideals that young people have. I suppose first and foremost that people need to be in love. What kind of love, though, is a different issue. There are different kinds of love which surface throughout a marriage. The way people love each other in their first few years should be visibly altered in a good way after 20 years. Love, like many other things, must undergo a lifelong process of change and development. If love remains stagnant, the partners will surely find a quick death or divorce, in this case. It's important that students find love as something to be worked with, something that isn't perfect but has to often be fought for to make work. A second element which kept resurfacing in conversation is honesty. What amazes me is the naive opinion that people's level of honesty changes drastically after a marriage, as if everyone becomes a saint the day they slip on a ring. Honesty is very important, but that sharing in all aspects of a marriage overshadows the general idea of simply being honest. Sharing keeps people interesting and keeps relationships fresh. Introversion with a spouse not only builds pressure between people but can eventually have the effect of a dishonest and boring relationship. If couples aren't always challenging each other, then the motivation to share is lost. There are other aspects of marriage that often go unspoken. Sexual compatibility plays an important role in a successful marriage, but it takes more than sex. Sex includes intimacies which people must share with each other and reinvent over many years. People must be attracted to each other and want to have sex but also want to share intimate experiences and ideas, which can be described as sensual rather than sexual. As a single student, I find there to be mostly two kinds of people out there. There are those who are in relationships or looking to form long-term ones, and there are others who would rather see sexuality, and even sex, as a drug. The problem is, there aren't too many levelheaded people in between. It seems true - especially in the South - that being single is a crime or a blemish of sorts. In order to share intimacies and truths in a marriage, a person must first collect these in knowledge and experience. College is about having these experiences and gaining knowledge in a soulful way. Part of our education should be learning how to relate to people in both intimate and platonic ways where both are meaningful. Not all girls are girlfriend prospects, while others might be. Before people marry, it is essential to learn that having friends of all kinds is important. There is then the question of divorce. What are the grounds for a divorce? Is it falling out of love with that particular person? Is cheating a reason to get a divorce? Many times the solution is simply a matter of teaching yourself how to change the way you love somebody, not leaving them. While our ideas are evolving here, and our sense of self becomes more fully realized, we can prepare to share more openly who we are with other people. If this leads to a marriage, then the couple will find happiness in the fact that life is a process, that love and honesty and intimacy must change with time.
Matthew S. Colglazier is a freshman English and news-editorial journalism major from Fort Worth. He can be reached at (mscolglazier@delta.is.tcu.edu).
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