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Show The Daily Utah Chronicle - Page Thursday, December Eight 6, 1990 Editorial Service activities show real spirit of Christmas Christmas season meaningful is often personal care items (soap, toothbrushes, etc.) to overlooked by the younger generation in be dispensed to AIDS victims. Details about these and other service activities, America. The true greatness of Christmas is found in the acts of service that people perform and how you can be a part of them, can be relief. Next quarter's courses are still in the for each other at this time of year. Mistletoe and obtained by calling the Bennion Center at With the end of the quarter almost here many students are looking forward to the break from classes. Being done with finals always brings about a welcome sense of three-and-a-half-we- ek 581-481- 1. distant future, and the stress that they will bring music are nice, but helping out those in need is If you have a group of people that want to will be dealt with in its own due time. what truly puts the spirit in Christmas. The Christmas season is always especially nice There are many service opportunities around work together to help out this year, consider for college students. Being freed from classes is this season. The following is a partial listing of being a part of the Salt Lake Tribune's activities being sponsored in part an added bonus on top of all the warm activities service-relate- d program. Volunteers are needed to help that will inevitably abound during this festive by the Lowell Bennion Community Service provide children with Christmas presents who otherwise would not receive them. For more time of year. Much of the extra time that Center: students find themselves with during the Feeding the homeless at the St. Vincent de information call There are many opportunities out there for holidays will be spent with families and close Paul center. friends. The traditional outings to see the Accompanying the elderly to a Christmas students to become involved in service. The Chronicle encourages all those associated with Christmas lights, the trimming of the tree, the Symphony. at the Several the other activities activities going on mistletoe, and many music, Odyssey the U. to get involved and help make this will make this season much like those in years House involving work with teenagers, including season enjoyable for those in need. And to make ski trips and other events. it really special, try to keep the service going on past. The Utah AIDS foundation is in need of into the new year. However, the thing that really makes the Sub-for-San- ta 237-283- 0. State rape laws need to protect spouses Society views rape vile and cruel J. as a behavior. Rape is classified as a serious criminal act and we life jurisdictions, sentences and even capital punishment are traditionally imposed for sex crimes. Despite our firm beliefs that a person's body should not be invaded through "nonconsentual sex, brutal or not, several states, including Utah, condone spousal rape. Although Utah's rape law is generally intended to prevent sexual crimes, it expressly promotes and encourages spousal rape, or more plainly, it gives spouses who rape, a modern day droit de seigneur (lord's right a peculiar medieval practice when masters enjoyed a right to have sex with the brides of their servants before It's not too late to reduce oil consumption Editor: I have a question, a question that is directed to the entire American public, but particularly to those screaming "No blood for oil!" What are you doing to curtail oil consumption? Most people could answer with one simple word: nothing. With the principle of "leadership by example" thrown out the window, who could expect more. I cite the most blatant example: Nevada's Senator Richard Bryan, who writes a bill which would require auto makers to produce more fuel efficient cars, yet still What are U. drives the classic American gas hog. What have I done about the problem? I'm one of the few out there freezing my butt off because my motorcycle goes almost three times as far as my car on a gallon of gas. Sure, there is a financial factor involved in my decision, but the possibility of saving a life or 400,000 is a little added bonus. I believe and hope that oil is not the primary reason for our involvement in the Gulf. I don't believe that simply cutting back on a little time. If the American public can make a novel sacrifice stateside, maybe our troops won't have to make the ultimate sacrifice on foreign sand. If we can demonstrate our ability to survive with less oil, the economic sanctions may be given a little more time to work. So, to those of you who fear it is too late, I have but one thing to say: It is never to late to save a life! Find a way to reduce your share of oil consumption now! oil consumption will solve the Troy problem, but it may buy our troops Junior V. Wright sociology doing to save the environment? Editor: It is obvious from Paul Amann's letter ("Car exhaust, horse excretion are analogous," Nov. 26) that he will be specializing in civil practice law. His letter attempted to stir up emotion while distorting the facts. He also exemplifies the Reagan approach: study the problem to death, but don't ever do anything. Let unbridled big business do the rest. Mr. Amann, please tell us when will we eliminate carbon monoxide, as you suggest is the only solution to the air pollution problem? I hope we don't have to wait for cold fusion energy. You make noises like you are concerned about air pollution, but seriously, what are you personally willing to do to help solve the problem besides driving to the local "Park & Choke"? You say you are not willing to ride your bike 13 miles in the snow. Would you ride 13 miles in the sun? Would you ride five miles? How about two miles or even half a mile? Are you willing to move closer to campus or to a bus route which will take you straight there? Would you petition the U. to build more on campus housing rather than more parking? Would you talk with city planners encouraging them to work with developers to build student housing? You talk about granolas, but what have you done to encourage alternatives? Have you purchased a new 50 MPG car or invested in near-camp- anti-progre- us ss the wonderful wind or solar technology which is being developed? Tell us, what are you doing to solve the problem besides knocking people like Scott Williams who are trying to do their part? Mark Venable Postdoctoral fellow the grooms.) To illustrate the serious need to amend the rape law, let us read the Utah rape statute: Rape occurs when a person has intercourse with another person, not their spouse, without the victim's consent. The anachronistic features of the statute are mi De Montreux severely penalize sex offenders. In some Letters Bel-A- They militate strongly towards inciting spousal rapes. Although our supposedly neoteric legislature gave the statute a vote of confidence recently, its provisions better fit the heretical standards and accepted animalism of Chronicle Editorial Columnist constitutes a valid marriage. Last month, Utah witnessed the inequity of the rape laws when Ms. Debra Locke was abducted and repeatedly raped by her maybe-sti- ll husband. Ironically, Ms. Locke had just been granted a divorce. However, the judge had not yet signed the formal documents. This technicality translates into immunity from rape prosecution for the husband. Prosecutors will respect the culprit's droit de seigneur, his legislatively-condone- d spousal right to rape his wife. This immorality must be removed from the codes. Maybe the legislature has in mind the laudable goal of protecting spouses from harsh accusations made by disgruntled spouses. Whatever the legislative intent, the statutory language of the rape law transmogrifies contemporary moral, social or ethical mores into overtly criminal behaviors. Rewording the statute would call for the difficult process of from providing protection bitter potentially spouses filing prolific charges of rape because of marital difficulties. Indeed, a plaintiffs burden of proof would Medieval Europe. Translated, the statute permits a husband or a wife to rape his or her spouse without the deterrent of be heavy. But, in situations similar to the legal punishment. Hence, the interpretation of the statute as a modern day droit de seigneur. Analogically, the reference to the Medieval practice may be an battery and nonconsentual sexual exaggeration. However, the statute's express encouragement to spousal rapists is unforgivable and so, countless spouses, wives mostly, continue to be subjected to the excessive sexual fixation and unnatural sexual demands of the household boss. That is blunt rape! As the law is written, so long that any vestige of a legal marriage exists, sexually-abuse- d spouses are without legal redress. Their exploitation is legally condoned, because consent is inferred through marriage. Also, this analysis is even applicable to common-lamarriages. This is so because for several legal purposes or living together, "shacking-upw ", Locke's affair, guilt is easy to assess; abduction, kidnapping, intercourse are unequivocally present. Sadly enough, these elements are irrelevant in construing spousal rape in Utah today. Just produce a valid marriage certificate and you are off the hook! The virus of rape is acceptedly incurable. If legal means retard its cancerous spreading, then offering spouses wno rape a statutory escape from their unacceptable crimes is irresponsible. The law yearns to be But, Johnny, until the legislature acts morally: Go ahead, rape your spouse. She can only retaliate by not making breakfast. de Montreux, a student at the University of Utah College of law, is an editorial columnist for the Daily Utah . Bel-A- Chronicle. |
