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Show Monday, Aug. 3/, 2009 Page 10 Views& Utah State University • Logan, Utah • www.aggietownsquare.c OwrView Did the crime, f paid the time. ichael Vick has served his time. Now, it's time to leave him alone. The electrifying quarterback, who once had the richest contract in the NFL, recently completed his 21-month jail sentence for Jdog fighting charges then signed with the NFC's Phnadephia Eagles. . Let the negative publicity begin. People are ;*already protesting outside Eagles practices and "'holding up signs that say things like "Dog Killer." ; What he did was horrible, but our country is all about second chances and he deserves one. : ; There are professional athletes playing right now ; that have been connected to much worse crimes •than what Vick served his time for. NBA star Kobe Bryant was accused of rape and Baltimore Ravens stud linebacker Ray Lewis once faced murder ^charges. ^Countless athletes have been charged with assault or been questioned in connection with shootings and other criminal activities, yet they still get to suit up for their teams on game day. • Are the values of our society so backwards that abuse of the life and health of a human being garrners less national attention and outrage than that of an animal? . . Take for example of most recent event. f 'Cleveland Browns wide receiver Donte Stallworth was charged with DUI manslaughter after his Bentley struct; and killed Mario Reyes earlier this year. Stallworth eventually pleaded guilty to the charges and was sentenced to a 30-day jail sentence. f^\ repeat, 30 days ... and he only served 24 of them. Vick did commit horrible crimes against animals, but he did not kill a human being and he served 21 months in jail. • Now,. Vick says he knows he did.terrible things and that he wants to be part of the solution to such crimes instead of the problem. Is he just sayMng what the press wants to hear? Maybe. ' Regardless, he deserves a chance to prove him»self. He deserves an opportunity to clean up his imagfe. He served his time and now he deserves a second chance to get his life back together. As a culture that loves its celebrities and puts sports stars up on a pedestal, he deserves at least that much. • •:,.•, After all, everyone makes mistakes. Would you like someone following you around for the rest of your life with a sign reminding you of yours? Milestones and missteps F or once, the extravagant elegies for a departed public figure are appropriate. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, in President Obama's words, was "the greatest United States senator of our time," at least for those who shared his passion for an activist federal government attuned to the needs of the poor and the marginalized. Speculation about whether Kennedy might have pursued his passion for equality from the White House once occupied by his brother is inevitable, as is meditation on the multiple misfortunes of the Kennedy clan. Neither reaction to Kennedy's death should obscure his achievement as a master legislator who combined principle and pragmatism in causes greater than his own political preservation. In saluting Kennedy as "one of the giants of American political life," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., wasn't offering pro forma praise for the dead. He was stating a fact. Kennedy was one of the few senators to leave an imprint exceeding that of most presidents. Whether it was cooperating with Sen. Orrin G. Hatch, R-Utah, on health insurance for children or with George W. Bush on No Child Left Behind, he achieved the sort of bipartisanship often preached in Washington but seldom practiced. And not all of his cooperation with Republicans involved marquee issues. In the late 1980s, the liberal Kennedy and the conservative Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina successfully pressed for legislation to reduce disparities in criminal sentencing, which often resulted in disproportionate punishment for racial minorities. Kennedy was a persuasive refutation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's assertion that there are no second acts in American lives. Compared with his elder office-holding brothers, a pair of hardened political realists, he was a ne'erdo-well when he was elected to the Senate in 1962 to finish out John F. Kennedy's term, and his early performance wasn't auspicious. But, after the assassinations of John and Robert F. Kennedy, his influence grew, and he ascended to the second-ranking position in the Democratic leadership. Kennedy lost that position to Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia in 1971, a year and a half after fleeing the scene of an auto accident that killed Mary Jo Kopechne, who had worked in his brother Robert's 1968 presidential campaign. Forty years later, Kennedy's behavior that night remains shocking in its crassness. He abandoned his submerged car and its occupant, waited several hours to inform the police and asked for fVeek of welcome, week of madness forgiveness in a calculated speech crafted in part by the legendary Kennedy speechwriter Theodore Sorensen. It's inconceivable today that any senator guilty of such recklessness and cowardice would be returned to office by the voters. Thanks to the family mystique in Massachusetts, he was. "Chappaquiddick" was an indelible stain on Kennedy's reputation, and a boon for Republicans when leaders in their party (especially Richard Nixon) were found to have engaged in wrongdoing. "Nobody died at Watergate" wasn't just a bumper sticker; it effectively encapsulated the view that the politician who initially attempted to avoid responsibility for a young woman's death had no business condemning the moral lapses of other individuals or of society. Yet, without ever exorcising the ghost of Chappaquiddick, Kennedy reclaimed much of the moral authority he squandered in that tragedy through the painstaking performance of his duties. Except for the awkward interlude of an ill-considered campaign for the 1980 Democratic presidential nomination, he made the Senate his arena. In time, he adapted his vision of equality and inclusiveness to issues barely broached in the 1960s. He was a leading advocate for the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act signed by President George H.W. Bush, which expanded the notion of civil rights to include "reasonable accommodation" of disabled people. Most recently, Kennedy co-sponsored the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would outlaw employment discrimination against gays and lesbians. (Not all of his accomplishments were domestic. He played an influential and moderating role in the Northern Ireland peace process.) Kennedy made several missteps in his long career. His primary challenge to the centrist President Jimmy Carter probably contributed to Ronald Reagan's landslide general-election victory. His hyperbolic warning that confirming Robert H. Bork for the Supreme Court would usher in the return of segregated lunch counters and back-alley abortions sowed the seeds of today's petty partisanship over judicial selection. Taken all in all, however, Kennedy contributed enormously to the realization of the sort of society he championed, despite -- or perhaps because of -- his failure to win the White House. This column origionally appeared in the Aug. 27 edition of the Los Angeles Times. • the of democracy* W ith the sun reddening my face and Frisbees whizzing by my head, I found myself standing smack in the middle of the unbridled zaniness that is Day on the Quad. Could it be? It was. Right in the middle of the Quad were not one, but two taco stands no more than twenty feet from each other. One from Cafe Sabor, the other by the university. Craig, one of those ultra-hip catering people, made small talk with me as he set up the USU stand. "I look forward to reading your article," he said. "I look forward to eating your tacos," I replied and walked on. Not far off from the taco stands I noticed a tent bearing a large sign, but with no one in sight. The sign read, "Motivation Station." I guess they gave up. As I proceeded • 7 through the festivities in 7 T a Unconventional mi AboutUs Editor in Chief Patrick Oden News Editor Rachel A. Christensen Assistant News Editor Catherine Meidell Features Editor Courtnie Packer Assistant Features Editor Greg Boyles Sports Editor Tim Olsen Assistant Sports Editor Graham Terry Copy Editor Mark Vuong Photo Editors Pete Smithsuth Tyler Larson Web Editor Karlie Brand About letters • Letters should be limited to 400 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. Writers must sign all letters and include a phone number or email address as well as a student identification number (none of which is published). Letters will not be printed without this verification. • Letters representing groups- or more than one individual - must have a singular representative clearly stated, with all necessary identification information. • Writers must wait 21 days before submitting successive letters - no exceptions. • Letters can be hand delivered or mailed to The Statesman in the TSC, Room 105, or can be e-mailed to statesman@aggiemail. usu.edu, or click on www.aggietownsquare.com for more letter guidelines and a box to submit letters. (Link: About Us.) clockwise direction, i witnessed bodies flaili n g in t h e air at m u t i ' p'e locations. Two fraterniRe-Entry Thoughts ties were utilizing trampolines to lure in prospective pledges. Is there some pop-culture significance to trampolines that an old fogy like me is ignorant to? Perhaps the trampolines are an answer to USU being a dry campus. If you can't liquor up teenagers, make them light-headed by bouncing them up and down. Maybe it was the heat, but it seemed to make sense. Moving on, I stopped briefly by the stage where a young man with more ambition than talent was crooning his heart put. Why do they always put the stage near Old Main? There are, like, you know, classes in that building. It is not easy to concentrate on lectures when the music is blaring through the windows. The stage should be on the corner of the Quad where the Ray B. West Building is located. The permeation of music shouldn't deter any English majors from their vigilant quest of bagging a husband. Not far From the stage I stumbled upon the Latter-day Saint Student Association table. It seemed to be a very popular location. This brought a smile to my face. It is of great relief to me that the minuscule Mormon student population of Logan have a club where they can meet and identify with one another. As I finished up my tour along the east side of the Quad, Online poll I saw a sight that made me chuckle with irony. The Compassion for Immigrants table is right next to the College Republicans table. They did not seem outwardly paranoid of eacn other and, as far as I'm aware, no violence was reported. Remember for next year ASUSU, you got off lucky this time but the devil's in the details. Of course, Day on the Quad was only one of many activities that existed for Week of Welcome. The Taggart Student Center was filled all week with sincerely charitable souls giving blood. I must have seen that Give Blood mascot fifty times around campus last week. Is a fuzzy drop of blood really the best mascot to coax people into being pinpricked? I can only imagine how terrifying the bone marrow donation mascot must be. Time warping into the 1980s was very popular this week as well. On movie night, "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" played in the ballroom. Great idea! Introduce freshmen to a film about a kid who cuts school and has a great time doing it. Drop slips should have been available after the show. Once again planning committee, kudos. And the Friday night dance, an '80s party. I went to an '80s party and that was in the '80s. I actually considered attending the dance but all eight zippers ripped violently from my parachute pants as I tried to stretcn them over my ... Some things are best left as pleasant memories. Harry Caines is a senior re-entry student from Philadelphia majoring in interdisciplinary studies. Unconventional Wisdom will appear every Monday. Comments can be sent to chiefsalsa@ yahoo.com Changes have been made in The Hub this year which Dining Services claim will better serve USU students. How happy are you with the changes that have been made? Very happy. • Not happy at all. Didn't notice. Don't care. Visit us on the Web at www.aggietownsquare. com to cast your vote.'% • |