0 MARCH 1988 News Features U. THE NATIONAL COLLEGE NEWSPAPER 7 MARCH 1988 U News Features U. THE NATIONAL COLLEGE NEWSPAPER 7 THE NATIONAL COLLEGE NEWSPAPER By presenting a wide range of opinions and ideas reprinted from hundreds of campus newspapers, we hope to enhance the quality of campus life as we inform, entertain and engage the national student body. We acknowledge the commitment of student journalists across the nation U supported by their media advisers and journalism professors, to report the activities, issues and concerns of their fellow students. EDITORIAL ADVISORY COUNCIL TOM ROLNICKI, Executive Director, Associated Collegiate Press DR. DAVE KNOTT, Immediate Past President, College Media Advisers, Ball State Daily News, * Ball State U. ERIC JACOBS, Immediate Past President, College Newspaper Business & Advertising Managers, Daily Pennyslanian,U. of Pennsylvania EDMUND SULLIVAN, Director, Columbia Scholastic Press Association, Columbia U. DR. J. DAVID REED, Immediate Past President', Society for College Journalists, Eastern News, Eastern Illinois U. FRED WEDDLE, Immediate Past President, Western Association of University Publications Managers, Oklahoma Daily, U. of Oklahoma MONA CRAVENS, Director Student Publications, Daily Trojan, U. of Southern California DR. FRANK RAGULSKY, Manager Student Media, Daily Barometer, Oregon State U. JAN T. CHILDRESS, Director Student Publications, University Daily, Texas Tech U. W.B. CASEY, Publisher, Daily Iowan, U. of Iowa ED BARBER, General Manager, Independent Florida Alligator, U. of Florida HARRY MONTEVIDEO, General Manager, The Red & BlackU. of Georgia BRUCE D. ITULE, Manager Student Publications, State Press, Arizona State U. 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VVIVIIVILir # tl#X L/ V "il #V1 i I Public prayer outrages senior America's war over gun control By Matthew Barry The Diamondback U. of Maryland, College Park Last semester, I went to the annual Honors Convocation, a ceremony at which students receive certificates for scholastic achievement. The first per- son to step up to the microphone was a minister and her first words were: "We thank you, oh Lord .. ." I immediately looked at the program to see if I was at the right place-the U. of Maryland. There are many students who are re- ligious and who might agree with every- thing the minister said. But there are also many students who are not reli- gious, who do not believe in supernatu- ral beings and who do not pray. State- supported schools should not be endors- ing religion at its ceremonies. I am out- raged that my school, to which I pay tuition and support with my tax dollars, invited me to an important secular func- tion and then exposed me to religious beliefs that I do not share. The inclusion of prayers in an official ceremony of a governmental institution is a clear violation of the separation of church and state. The U. of Maryland is a public uni- versity and has no business advocating a religious belief. It also has no business assuming that everyone who attends these ceremonies believes in a deity and wants to pray. Students should not be excluded from any part of their gradua- tion on account of their beliefs. But these prayers necessarily exclude non- *religious students. I have been looking forward to my graduation for a long time. But I refuse to attend or to participate in an event at which I will be insulted and made to feel like an outsider. I sent a formal complaint to the uni- versity asking that the invocation and I By Michael Franzini & Michael Witbrock The Tartan Carnegie Mellon U., PA In 1983, handguns killed a total of 2 93 people in Japan, Great Britain, Switzerland, Canada, Sweden and Y Australia. They killed 9,014 people in the United States. The other coun- t tries all have strict handgun control laws. The United States is estimated to have 60 million handguns in cir- culation. A new handgun is manufac- tured every 20 seconds. Every 150 seconds, a handgun injures someone.: The National Rifle Association (NRA), one of the largest lobbying forces in the country, spends millions of dollars in advertisements designed to promote weaker handgun laws. ' The NRA advertises its fight as one -, for "constitutional freedom." benediction be removed from future In 1985, an Iowa district court found The NRA shrouds all of its pro-gun commencements. This complaint was graduation prayers to be unconstitu- legislation behind the Second dismissed and the prayers remain on tional and wrote: "The First Amend- Amendment, stating that it guar- the graduation agenda. ment right of the people to the free exer- antees every citizen the right The university claims that these cise of religion does not give them a to own a gun. However, the prayers signal the solemnity of com- right to have government provide them NRA rarely quotes the entire amend- mencement. Are prayers the only way to public prayer at government functions ment: "A well-regulated Militia, add solemnity? and ceremonies, even if the majority being necessary to the security of a In my opinion, the combination of the would like it." free State, the right of the people to national anthem and other ceremonial Ed Doerr, executive director of Amer- keep and bear Arms, shall not be in- music engenders as much solemnity as icans for Religious Liberty, believes fringed." The gun lobby believes that you'd ever want. that having a chaplain offer a religious the "well-regulated militia" encom- The university claims that the prayer to a secular audience shows an passes all citizens of the country, in prayers are permissible because college extreme insensitivity to the pluralism opposition to the Fifth Amendment, students are not very susceptible to reli- of the student body and faculty. which identifies the purpose of the gious indoctrination. However, a state In addition, the American Civil Liber- "Militia" to be "service in the time of institution cannot endorse religion at ties Union (ACLU), a 250,000-member War or public danger." any time, any place, or in front of any organization championing givil rights The courts agree that the rights of audience. Governmental endorsement and liberties, fully backs my position the Second Amendment should be of religion is unconstitutional. that the prayers are an inappropriate assigned a "collective militia" inter- I support freedom of religion 100 per- endorsement of religion. The ACLU pretation. cent. Students can pray through the en- sent a letter to the chancellor asking The gun lobby's opposition is tire commencement for all I care. But that the prayers be removed. But, once steadily growing. Handgun Control the government is prohibited from con- again, the university refused to give up Inc., a lobbying group with over one ducting religious rituals. its prayers. million members, is responsible for virtually every law against which the NRA is fighting. udent-journalists have no rights Conroml whinigednterstate NRA from overturning the 1968 Gun Amnmnt hs or dcso Control Bill, which banned interstate .' , Amendment? This court decision handgun sales. Currently, Handgun says that high school students are Control is in the midst of a struggle not privileged to constitutional with the NRA to secure passage of the ' guarantees. /atudent journalists examined Brady Bill, which would impose a issues like teen pregnancy and di- waiting period and background vorce-issues deemed "inappropri- check for all handgun sales. ate for teenagers" but in reality hav- Handgun Control has begun to con- ing a documented profound effect on vince the politicians that the govern- them. ment must protect its citizens' consti- .*. This decision marks the most bla- tutional right to life and that laws s. TURNER, CALIFORNIA PeLYTFSHNIC, SANLIS SO~SPOtant ruling against the First Amend- which make it harder to obtain a M.STANG DAILY ment in recent years. It is a crushing deadly weapon will serve this pur- blow with still unknown ramifica- pose. But Handgun Control faces an Moines Independent SchoolDistrict). tions for the college press. And, it uphill battle against the NRA, which Is a school newspaper, produced offers a keen perspective on what we is backed by the firearms industry, for a journalismclass, a public forum may expect from the Rehnquist whose existence is threatened by the and therefore protected by the First Court. legislation. Supreme Court: St By Editorial Staff Daily Nexus U. of California, Santa Barbara On January 13, the U.S. Supreme Court sent a message to all high school students: Shut up! You're too young for your civil rights! In Hazelwood School District vs. Kuhlmeier, the high court ruled that administrators have the right to "ex- ercise editorial control" over student newspaper content. This ruling is a far cry from the liberal Warren Court which, in 1969, ruled that students "do not shed their constitutional rights... at the schoolhouse gates" (Tinker vs. Des