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Show U TA MONDAY, DEC. 6,2004 17 T A T E S M A N Contact: 797-1762 editor@statesman.usu.edu Utah Statesman Winter drivers need to be extra cautious With ice and snow packed on the streets and sidewalks, students should take more caution in their winter driving. As difficult as it is to walk on un-shoveled sidewalks, driving can prove to be just as problematic. Many cars are not equipped with winter essentials, and could put students and their property in danger. Students should allocate more time getting to campus and various places in the valley. Roads, although plowed and salted, can still be dangerous to the best of drivers. Most importantly, drivers need to be considerate to their fellow vehicle users. Speeding when the weather presents hazardous roadways, can cause larger problems than just being late to class. As scary as your professor is when your wet shoes squeak as you sneak into class 15 minutes late because of the previous night's storm, taking time to be safe on the roads is worth the extra scowls and glances from classmates. For many of us, the soon-to-be freedom from campus, class and examinations, proves to be quite the distraction. But staying focused on the road hazards our beloved below-zero temperature creates is a must. The freezing temperatures create problems on the road and in parking lots, causing many vehicles to slide into one and other. While we survive these last couple weeks of school, try to put aside the distractions of getting to class on time, not going to class until January or what it would be like to live in a place where freezing temperatures and frostbite are merely myths, and take the winter hazards into consideration. Court was right to protect free speech A federal appeals court in Philadelphia made the correct call this week when it ruled that colleges have a right to bar military recruiters from their campuses in protest of the military's policy of excluding gays. A law intended to help military recruiting has turned out to be a free-speech disaster, courtesy of an ill-advised piece of congressional handiwork. And to its credit, the federal appeals court, in a 2-1 decision, said free speech trumps a recruiting booth on campus. The crux of the problem is not so much the elite colleges thumbing their noses with contempt at military recruiters, as it is the Solomon amendment, which Congress passed in 1996 to prohibit the federal government from giving money to colleges and universities that oppose military recruiting on campus. The legislation immediately created a problem almost as convoluted as the military's own "don't ask, don't tell" policy, which forced gays in the military to hide their sexual orientation. If universities allowed the military, which bans gays from Dallas Morning News Guest Editorial FRFF SPFFrH See Page 78 Staff Editor in Chief Emilie Holme: News Editor Katie Ash tor Assistant News Editor Brooke Nelsor Features Editor Joel Featherstom Assistant Features Editor Matt Wrigh Sports Editor Aaron FallAssistant Sports Editor Andrea Edmund: World & Nation Editor Lindsay Kite Photo Editor John Zsira) Assistant Photo Editor Ryan Talbo Letters to the Editor Women should be respected Editor, I am concerned that women aren't demanding the respect they deserve. Today, one of my teachers asked the class a financial question and one guy in the back fired out, "Don't tell your wife how much money you have!" When he said this, I was offended, but the reaction around me surprised me: women were actually laugh- Editorial Board ing. They thought he was funny! Encouraged by this, he then adds, "Or at least your first wife," which of course got another set of giggles. I looked around aghast. I was surprised that those women around me thought so little of themselves as to support his immature sense of humor. To me, this guy isn't worth talking to. Sure, some may say that he was just joking, but people give away a lot of their personality when they speak. Women need to demand respect from the men in their lives, and they need to treat themselves with dignity, too. I believe that disrespect in a relationship is a form of abuse. 1 only hope that women realize this when they talk to men who believe it's okay to debase women. We don't have to take that kind of treatment, and men don't either if they are the ones being disrespected. If we want respect we must treat ourselves, and each other, with dignity. Nobody needs to put up with rude remarks spoken by a disrespectful person. Jeri Lynn Fisher Ukraine sees a jump in democracy Whatever happens next, the decision by the Ukrainian Supreme Court Friday to declare last month's presidential election invalid represents a major victory ror the Ukrainian democratic movement. Only hours earlier, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, mocked the idea of rerunning the election, which was marked by widespread and barely concealed fraud, asking whether there would then "have to be a third, a fourth, a 25th round until one of the sides obtains the necessary resu It." The current Ukrainian president, Leonid Kuchma, had also objected to the idea of a re-vote, arguing instead for an entirely new election, with new candidates, to give the pro-Russian lobby time to come up with a better candidate than Viktor Yanukovych, an ex-convict who doesn't speak fluent Ukrainian. Los Aogelcs Times Jiiiest Editorial But the Supreme Court defied both the Russian government, which has made its preferences more than clear in this election, and the current Ukrainian leadership, which also fears that a victory by the opposition candidate, Viktor Yushchenko, might break up the business and political monopolies that control Ukraine. That means that the judges join other groups that 1 JKRAINF See Page 18 Girls' sports: A most uneven playing field When Roderick Jackson joined Ensley High School as the girls basketball coach in 1999, he soon saw that his Yellow Jackets were getting a raw deal. The boys teams at the Birmingham, Ala., school practiced in Ensley's new, regulation-size gym with £ ernes wg* v\SGui$eo fiberglass backboards. The girls teams were stuck in the small, unheated gym with dinged-up floors, bent hoops and a wooden backboard. The boys rode to games in a bus paid for with proceeds from game concession sales. His winning girls, who got little of that money, had to arrange carpools. If a boy twisted his ankle, his coach filled an ice pack at the school's ice machine. But Coach Jackson couldn't get a key to the room containing the machine. At first, Jackson made do, but as his lawyers told the U.S. Supreme Court this week, when school officials eliminated the girls junior varsity team while keeping the Boys squad, he complained. Jackson wrote memos asking that the girls varsity team get practice time in the new gym and more of the concession revenues. He reminded administrators of the 1972 federal civil rights law known as Title IX, requiring equal opportunities for male and female athletes. He asked that the junior varsity team be restored. Los Angeles Times Guest Editorial For his troubles, Jackson, who has taught since 1992, was fired as coach but allowed to stay on as a lowerpaid driver education and gym teacher. He sued the school district, claiming that the disparate treatment accorded his players was illegal discrimination under Title IX and that his firing as coach was unlawful retaliation for speaking out. For 30 years, federal courts ruled that victims of discrimination and their defenders, such as Jackson, could sue. But three years ago, the high court switched course, ruling that because the 1972 law did not explicitly grant victims and others access to courts, such suits were disallowed. That led lower courts to dismiss Jackson's claim. Last week, the absurd logic of the high court's new strict construction ist standard was on full display. The school district's lawyer SPORTS See Page 78 Emilie Holmes Katie Ashton Brooke Nelson John Zsiray Ryan Talbot Joel Featherstone Matt Wright Aaron Falk Andrea Edmunds Lindsay Kite About Letters • Letters should be limited to 350 words. • All letters may be shortened, edited or rejected for reasons of good taste, redundancy or volume of similar letters. • Letters must be topic oriented. They may not be . directed toward individuals. Any letter directed to a specific individual may be edited or not printed. • No anonymous letters will be published. 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