14 years old: Too young for life in prison?
By Sevil Omer, msnbc.com
Evan Miller and Kuntrell Jackson are lifers,
condemned at 14 to spend their lives in prison
without the possibility of parole for their involvement
in separate murders. Their backers say their sentences
are cruel and unusual, leaving them without the
second chance the young are so often given. They
hope the U.S. Supreme Court agrees.
Next Tuesday, the court will hear arguments in their
cases and its ruling could have far-reaching effects.
More than 2,200 people nationwide have been
sentenced to life imprisonment without parole for
crimes they committed as juveniles -- defined as 17
or younger -- according to the Equal Justice Initiative
in Montgomery, Ala., a civil rights group that
represents Miller and Jackson.
The group hopes the companion cases will be another
victory for juvenile criminals, who have found some
relief before the Supreme Court over the past seven
years. In 2005, the court abolished executions for
juvenile offenders. Then, two years ago, the court
ruled that it is unconstitutional to impose life
sentences on juveniles convicted of crimes that do
not involve homicide.
Lawyers for Miller, now 23, and Jackson, now 26,
contend that juveniles are works in progress and will
argue that forensic evidence shows adolescent brains
are not fully developed. “Condemning an immature,
vulnerable, and not-yet-fully-formed adolescent to
life in prison – no matter the crime – is
constitutionally a disproportionate punishment,” they
say in their petition to the court. The Equal Justice
Initiative declined to discuss the case because of the
pending hearing.
Kim Taylor-Thompson, a professor of clinical law at
the New York University School of Law, has studied
juvenile offenders for nearly a decade and agrees
with the group. "No one is excusing the fact of what
happened," she said. "What we are saying is: Did
these two young men engage in thought processes
that would make us say today they're the type of
individuals who can never be rehabilitated, never
change and be locked up to never see the light of
day?.
“We believe that they deserve a second look.”
Supporters of life without parole for juveniles say
judges should be allowed to give certain criminals,
regardless of their age, harsh sentences when their
crimes are egregious.
Thomas R. McCarthy, who filed a brief with the
Supreme Court on behalf of the National
Organization of Victims of Juvenile Lifers, said
sentences such as those handed to Miller and Jackson
are "relatively rare and imposed only on teenagers
who commit extremely heinous murders."
There have been a dozen friend-of-the-court briefs
filed in support of Miller and Jackson, and as many
filed against them.
Miller was a troubled teen living in a trailer park in
Alabama in 2003 when he and a 16-year-old friend,
Colby Smith, fought with a drunken neighbor and
bludgeoned the 52-year-old man with a baseball
bat. They set his home on fire, leaving the man to die
in the blaze.
Kuntrell Jackson was convicted of taking part in a
murder during the robbery of a video store. Another
youth shot the clerk.
Cannon's daughter, Candy Cheatham, said she is
convinced Miller is still a ruthless killer. She said she
has a seat reserved at Tuesday's hearing.
"My father had nine broken ribs and blunt-force
trauma to his head," Cheatham told msnbc.com. "We
could not have an open casket at his funeral because
of the condition of his body -- it was charred."
"Evan Miller knew what he was doing,” she said. “He
had no remorse and he has no remorse until this day.
There is no indication that I have seen a change in the
man that killed my father. He deserves to be locked
away until his last day."
The Equal Justice Initiative declined to make Miller
and Jackson available for interviews ahead of the
court hearing.
Jackson was walking through a housing project in
Arkansas with two older boys in 1999 when they
started talking about holding up a video store. When
they arrived at the store, the other boys went in, but
Jackson stayed outside by the door, his lawyers said.
One of the older boys fatally shot the clerk before all
three fled. Prosecutors said Jackson knew one of
the other boys had a shotgun, and that Jackson was
1
inside the shop at the time of the shooting, telling the
clerk: "We ain't playin'."
http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/15/106
70418-14-years-old-too-young-for-life-in-prison
Here are the stories of other lifers who believe they
deserve a second chance:
__________________________________________
Activists allege forced abortions, sterilizations in
China - CNN.com
Ashley Hayes , CNN
Quantel Lotts, Missouri
He stabbed his 17-year-old stepbrother in a
scuffle in St. Louis in November 1999.
Lotts, now 26, told The New York Times he
wasn’t reconciled to his life term. “I
understand that I deserve some punishment,”
Lotts told the Times in a 2011 interview.
“But to be put here for the rest of my life
with no chance, I don’t think that’s a fair
sentence.”
Ashley Jones, Alabama
She was 14 when she helped her boyfriend
kill her grandfather and aunt in Birmingham
by stabbing and shooting them and then
setting them ablaze. Jones also tried to kill
her sister, 10, prosecutors said. The Equal
Justice Initiative says the now 22-year-old
has turned her life around and is deserving
of a chance at freedom.
(CNN) -- When Ji Yeqing awakened, she was already
in the recovery room.
Chinese authorities had dragged her out of her home
and down four flights of stairs, she said, restraining
and beating her husband as he tried to come to her
aid.
They whisked her into a clinic, held her down on a
bed and forced her to undergo an abortion.
Her offense? Becoming pregnant with a second child,
in violation of China's one-child policy.
"After the abortion, I felt empty, as if something was
scooped out of me," Ji told a congressional panel in
September. "My husband and I had been so excited
for our new baby. Now suddenly all that hope and joy
and excitement disappeared. ... I was very depressed
and despondent. For a long time, whenever I thought
about my lost child, I would cry."
T.J. Tremble, Michigan
Tremble, then 14, rode his bike to an elderly
couple's home in Au Gres, Mich., in 1997,
shot the two in the head as they slept and
stole their car. In an interview in 2005 with a
reporter for the Bay City (Mich.) Times,
Tremble, now 29, said he deserved
redemption.
"The whole problem is that people don't
think we can change, that we can't be
rehabbed. For lifers, they don't offer us
anything. Absolutely nothing," said
Tremble, an inmate at the Saginaw
Correctional Facility in Freeland, Mich.
Asked whether he deserved a shot at parole,
Tremble said: "I'm not the same person now
that I was when I got to prison. I've matured.
I do feel I could make a difference out there.
The only thing is, I've got to get that
chance."
As she lay unconscious, she said, an IUD to prevent
future pregnancies was inserted.
Where is blind Chinese activist Chen?
The importance of Chen Guangcheng
The issue of forced abortions -- and in some cases,
forced sterilizations -- in China has seized the
spotlight in recent days with news of escaped activist
Chen Guangcheng.
Chen, a blind, self-taught lawyer, rose to fame in the
late 1990s because of his advocacy for what he calls
victims of abusive practices, such as forced abortions,
by Chinese family planning officials. He investigated
forced abortions and sterilizations in eastern China -a practice China denies -- and helped organize a
class-action lawsuit on behalf of victims, for which
he served four years in prison.
A fellow activist, Hu Jia, said Chen has taken refuge
at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing.
2
"Chen may be safe for the moment, but the women
for whom he risked everything are not," said Reggie
Littlejohn, president of Women's Rights Without
Frontiers, a California-based organization that
describes itself as a "broad-based, international
coalition that opposes forced abortion and sexual
slavery in China."
"Forced abortion is not a choice," Littlejohn said. "It
is official government rape."
On a January 2011 visit to the United States, Chinese
President Hu Jintao reportedly denied that China was
forcing women to submit to abortions. Rep. Ileana
Ros-Lehtinen, R-Florida, who gave Hu a list of
human rights concerns, said that Hu insisted a forcedabortion policy did not exist, according to media
reports.
China's population is the largest on earth, with more
than 1.34 billion people. Since its implementation in
1979, the one-child policy has prevented more than
400 million births in China, according to China's
National Population and Family Planning
Commission.
About 13 million abortions are performed nationwide
each year, the commission has said -- about 35,000 a
day. It is unknown how many of those are coerced.
National Working Conference on Women and
Children, "urged banning illegal fetus gender
identification and illegal abortion."
"The social status of the female population indicates
the level of social progress (of a nation), while
children are the future and hope of a nationality and a
nation," Wen said.
Last summer, Xinhua reported that "millions of
Chinese men of marrying age may be living as
frustrated bachelors by 2020" because of the gender
imbalance. In 2010, China's sex ratio at birth was 118
boys for every 100 girls, the news agency said.
China kicked off a national campaign "to
significantly curb non-medical sex determinations
and sex-selective abortions to balance the gender
ratio," Xinhua said. Also during the campaign,
"efforts will be made to raise awareness of gender
equality, to severely punish those involved in cases of
non-medical sex determinations and sex-selective
abortions, and to strengthen monitoring."
Liu Qian, vice minister of the Ministry of Health,
said that doctors violating the ban would be stripped
of their licenses or penalized, and involved medical
institutions would also be punished, according to
Xinhua.
But the one-child policy has been blamed for abuses.
In some cases, advocates say, fetuses identified as
female are aborted, or midwives strangle a female
infant with the umbilical cord during delivery,
identifying the baby as "stillborn," according to All
Girls Allowed, a nonprofit group that aims to end
female "gendercide," educate abandoned girls, rescue
trafficked children and defend women's reproductive
rights.
The one-child policy could contribute to China's high
rate of female suicide, according to All Girls
Allowed.
Other females are abandoned, left to die or raised as
orphans.
In its 2009 Human Rights Report, the State
Department noted that "many observers believed that
violence against women and girls, discrimination in
education and employment, the traditional preference
for male children, birth-limitation policies, and other
societal factors contributed to the high female suicide
rate. Women in rural areas, where the suicide rate for
women was three to four times higher than for men,
were especially vulnerable."
Chinese traditionally prefer boys over girls because
they are seen as better able to provide for the family
and carry on the family bloodline. As a result, the
practice of aborting female fetuses or abandoning
infant girls continues, particularly in rural areas.
China is the only country in the world where the
female suicide rate is higher than that of men -- some
500 women a day, the group said, citing statistics
from the World Health Organization and the U.S.
State Department.
In November, according to state-run news agency
Xinhua, Premier Wen Jiabao, in a speech to the
3
Sometimes the consequences are even more severe.
In October 2011, a woman who was six months
pregnant died during a forced abortion in eastern
China, according to Women's Rights Without
Frontiers.
"Out of plan" children whose parents do not pay fines
may go without household registration, or hukou,
which presents obstacles to social benefits including
subsidized health care and public education, All Girls
Allowed said, citing the commission's 2010 report.
Last month, a woman in the same region was forced
to undergo an abortion while nine months pregnant,
the organization reported. The baby was born alive,
but then was drowned in a bucket, according to the
organization. A photo of the infant's body floating in
the bucket was circulated on Weibo, the Chinese
version of Twitter, sparking widespread outrage.
A woman's family members, including her husband,
parents, in-laws or siblings, may also be targeted for
violations of the policy, according to Women's Rights
Without Borders, which published a 2005 report
compiled from Chen's notes into cases he was
investigating before his arrest. The report alleges
arrest, torture, beatings and fines of family members
for the violations of relatives. It also documents a
case where a woman suffered health problems after
being forced to undergo a tubal ligation despite her
high blood pressure.
Chinese officials are prohibited under law from
"infringing on the rights and interests of citizens
when promoting compliance with population
planning policies," according to the CongressionalExecutive Commission on China, created by
Congress to monitor human rights and the rule of law
in China. However, the commission in its most recent
annual report noted "reports of official campaigns, as
well as numerous individual cases in which officials
used violent methods to coerce citizens to undergo
sterilizations or abortions or pay heavy fines for
having 'out-of-plan' children," meaning a family's
second child.
In one example from October 2010, the commission
said, a woman in southeastern China who was eight
months pregnant with her second child was
kidnapped and detained for 40 hours. She was
forcibly injected with a substance that caused the
fetus to abort. Her husband reportedly was not
permitted to see her during this time, the commission
said.
"Nothing in human history compares to the
magnitude of China's 33-year assault on women and
children," said Rep. Chris Smith, R-New Jersey and
chairman of the commission, during the September
hearing at which Ji Yeqing testified.
"Today in China, rather than being given maternal
care, pregnant women without birth-allowed permits
are hunted down and forcibly aborted. ... For over
three decades, brothers and sisters have been illegal;
a mother has absolutely no right to protect her unborn
baby from state-sponsored violence."
Ji told lawmakers her first forced abortion was in
2003, after officials said she and her husband would
be fined $31,000 for their second child and fired from
their jobs. Her second came in 2006, despite the fact
she and her husband at that time were willing to pay
the fine and lose their jobs.
She continues to suffer consequences from the
abortions. Her husband divorced her, she said,
because she could not give him a son (the couple
already had a daughter). After she remarried and
moved to the United States in 2010, she said, she
visited a clinic to have her IUD removed and undergo
an exam. "The doctor told me that I had cervical
erosion, likely due to the poor medical conditions of
my forced abortions," she said.
Liu Ping told a similar story to Congress last year.
She said after giving birth to her son, she was
required to undergo five abortions between 1983 and
1990. During the last procedure, an IUD was
inserted.
"When I learned of the procedure, I protested that I
had a kidney disease and could not keep the IUD, but
they completely ignored me," she said. "The doctor
just gave the bill to my husband and told him to pay."
Her husband was later arrested, she said, and she was
given a "serious administrative warning" at her job
and fined six months' pay.
4
Liu had to report to the factory clinic each month for
an exam to make sure she had not removed the IUD
on her own or become pregnant again, she said.
In 1997, she missed a monthly pregnancy check
because she was caring for her terminally ill mother,
she testified.
"Agents from the Family Planning Commission
waited at my home to drag me to the exam," she said.
"When they pushed me to the ground, I fell and hurt
my neck vertebrae. My spirit completely collapsed
after this one. I attempted suicide, but was stopped by
my family from jumping."
Liu was able to move to the United States and she
and her husband reconciled after a divorce.
"I feel happiness and joyful," she told lawmakers.
"But I know in my homeland, China, there are
millions of women who are suffering as I did. Each
day thousands of young lives are being destroyed. I
beg everyone to save them."
___________________________________________
April 26, 1999 Memorandum on Profiling
to All Sworn Employees
Proactive traffic enforcement has long been
recognized as an effective method of crime control.
Studies show that when enforcement of traffic laws
goes up, the traffic fatality and injury tolls often go
down. Also, 40% of all drug arrests begin as a traffic
stop. However, recent events have raised questions
about the conduct of some law enforcement officers
in conducting traffic stops. The issue is whether the
vehicle occupant's race, ethnicity, gender, or
economic status was the reason for initiating the
traffic stop and/or subsequent search of the vehicle.
This practice is commonly referred to as "profiling."
While this practice has never been condoned by the
Patrol, the publicity surrounding it will no doubt cast
a shadow over all police agencies in America.
Therefore, I want to restate in the strongest terms the
Patrol's position on this important issue.
As stated in a recent IACP paper on professional
traffic stops, profiling is illegal, inconsistent with the
principles of American policing, and an indefensible
public protection strategy. Therefore, profiling cannot
be tolerated.
I agree with those statements. Profiling by members
of the Florida Highway Patrol will not be condoned. I
expect that traffic stops made by members of the
Patrol will be based solely on the violation observed.
I also expect that the race, ethnicity, gender, or
economic status of the vehicle occupants will not be
considered in deciding whether to search the vehicle.
Decisions to search a vehicle are to be based on
evidence and the occupant's behavior patterns.
Members found to be conducting profile stops will be
subject to disciplinary action.
All levels of supervision are to take steps to continue
to ensure that members in their command do not
practice profiling. These steps should include clearly
stating to members that profiling will not be
tolerated, review of enforcement reports with a focus
to identify possible profiling patterns, and
encouraging appropriate traffic enforcement tactics.
Supervisors found to have condoned, encouraged, or
ignored patterns of profiling will be subject to
disciplinary actions. This is not a "DON'T ASK,
DON'T TELL" issue. I expect proactive steps be
taken to ensure that members of the Patrol do not
engage in profiling.
The purpose of this memorandum is to ensure that
there is no question in your mind regarding the
Patrol's policy on profiling. Profiling relates to the
use of race, ethnicity, gender or economic status in
deciding whether to initiate a traffic stop and/or
search a vehicle. To avoid misunderstandings, it is
essential that the violator be told the reason for the
stop at the earliest opportunity and those facts that
lead to a decision to search a vehicle be properly
documented. This memorandum should not inhibit
you from continuing to use your skills as a police
officer to detect evidence of criminal activity during
a traffic stop. The contribution that traffic
enforcement can make to the overall public safety
cannot be overstated. Your abilities to uncover
evidence of criminal activity during a traffic stop are
and always have been a valuable skill necessary in
protecting Florida's motorists.
Florida Highway Patrol's
Perspective on Profiling
5
The value and worth of a law enforcement agency is
determined by the people it serves. If the public
perceives that officers are not fair in administering
their duties, they will become suspicious and
distrustful of law enforcement in general. This
feeling will undoubtedly lead to deteriorating
relationships. Therefore, it is necessary that the law
enforcement community work diligently to foster
relationships based on trust with the people it serves.
The Florida Highway Patrol has an active citizen
complaint process that encourages people to notify
supervision of any dissatisfaction.
The Florida Highway Patrol has a well-known
reputation of treating the citizens it serves in a fair
and unbiased manner. We do not condone profiling it discriminates against individuals based on race,
ethnicity, gender, age, or income status.
The Florida Highway Patrol maintains an aggressive
attitude toward members violating rules or policies
especially as it pertains to the treatment of citizens.
Identification of the Problem
The practice of unlawful profiling is based on
stereotypical characteristics of persons or groups that
some officers believe have a propensity to engage in
criminal activity. Profiling has been identified as the
stopping of motorists, the detention of a person,
and/or the searching of a vehicle based solely on the
individual's:
Race
Ethnic origin
Gender
Age
Income status
Prohibition on Profiling
The Florida Highway Patrol does not use or condone
profiling.
In the selection process of the Florida Highway
Patrol, every step of the application process has builtin cues to help detect those individuals with attitudes
and beliefs that would predispose them to act out
tendencies of discrimination. Cognitive skills testing,
psychological screening, polygraph examination, and
a thorough background investigation are included in
the process.
The Florida Highway Patrol affords accessibility by
individuals to the patrol through its web site
(www.flhsmv.gov/fhp). This fosters a mechanism for
positive communication between the patrol and the
public.
Members of the Florida Highway Patrol are
instructed to look beyond the traffic stop for
indicators of criminal activity. Those indicators do
not include the use of profiling.
The policy and practice of the Florida Highway
Patrol is well known to other law enforcement
agencies.
Analysis of the Data
Historically, information on the Uniform Traffic
Citation has been the only reliable demographic data
available related to traffic stops. This limited any
analysis to stops resulting in a citation being issued.
It also is limited by the possibility that multiple
citations may be issued for a single traffic stop. To
address this problem, FHP started to collect data on
every discretionary traffic stop conducted by a
trooper on January 1, 2000. Discretionary stops do
not include stops which result from a call for service,
such as responding to a traffic crash or providing
assistance to a motorist with a disabled vehicle. The
data reported include date and time, county, race,
ethnicity, age, gender, number of passengers, reason
for the stop, enforcement action taken, what type of
search was made (if any), and any contraband found
or property seized for forfeiture. The information is
entered into a computer database maintained at FHP
general headquarters in Tallahassee.
A preliminary analysis, based on the citation data,
was conducted by the Florida Highway Patrol in
1999. That study determined that the demographic
make-up of drivers issued citations closely matched
that of the population of the county in which the
6
stops were made. Data collected since January 1,
2000, indicate that this is true of all stops as well. The
race, ethnicity, and gender of drivers stopped is
basically the same as the general population at both
the state and county level.
7
http://www.flhsmv.gov/fhp/html/census/profile.html
think of children — all the world’s children — as a
group. It is about “the Child,” an abstraction.
___________________________________________
Childism is the hardest form of prejudice to
Childism: The Unacknowledged Prejudice
Against Kids
recognize because children are the one group that,
many of us think without thinking, is naturally
subordinate. Until they reach a stipulated age, they
Racism and sexism are understood as ideological
are the responsibility of their parents or guardians —
prejudices. Why don't we have a similar
those who have custody. But what does custody
understanding of the root of child abuse?
permit? What distinguishes it from ownership? One
By Elisabeth Young-Bruehl | April 26, 2012 |
of the essential ingredients of childism is a claim by
adults to the effect that children are ours to do with
When we read in the newspaper that a child in New
exactly as we see fit, or children exist to serve, honor
Jersey has died from neglect from an untreated
and obey adults. These claims make a subordination
broken leg, or that a child in Florida’s protective
doctrine out of natural dependency, out of the fact
services could just disappear without a trace, or that
that children are born relatively helpless and need to
molestation of children has been covered up in yet
be taken care of until they can take care of
another diocese of the Catholic Church, we do not
say there is prejudice against children at work.
Abuse, neglect, sanctioned pedophilia — we don’t
themselves. It seems normal to insist “honor thy
father and thy mother” without any reciprocal “honor
thy children.”
put these together in our minds with stories about
child abduction and enslavement, child trafficking,
inadequate schooling, malnutrition and junk-foodinduced obesity, cigarette advertising to minors, child
pornography or the rising numbers of child soldiers
worldwide. But we should.
Childism takes many forms. In the half-century-old
field called Child Abuse and Neglect (CAN), four
main types of child maltreatment have been
identified: physical abuse, neglect, sexual abuse and
emotional abuse. But these categories do not reflect
how frequently the four types are combined in a
April is Child Abuse Prevention Month.
given case. Listening to my adult patients in
Unfortunately, the messages about child abuse will
psychoanalysis who were maltreated as children, I
not be grounded in an understanding that it arises out
have heard basically three stories: they were not
of prejudice against children — the way Black
wanted, they were controlled and manipulated or they
History Month in February reminds us of prejudice
were not allowed to be who they felt they were. So I
against people of color. Similarly, sexism is
have come to think in terms of childism that intends
understood as an ideology and a prejudice, and all
1) to eliminate or destroy children, 2) to make them
kinds of discrimination and violence against women
are united in our minds by the concept.
play roles no child should play or 3) to dominate
them totally, narcissistically erasing their
identities. Survivors make it clear that the worst part
Why don’t we have a similar understanding of the
of their experience — the most difficult to heal from,
root of child abuse? In 1989, the United Nations
the least forgivable — was that no one protected
issued a Convention on the Rights of the Child,
them from it. They often make it clear, as well, that
which brings together in one document descriptions
they have internalized the prejudice and direct it
toward themselves.
of many forms of maltreatment but does not make us
8
Childism, sexism and racism share many arguments
A couple in Australia — already parents of three sons
about natural subordination. Similarly, these
—have announced they have aborted twin boys in
prejudices share the ingredient that the targeted group
their quest to replace their baby daughter, who died
is in some way bad or defective. Like women and
soon after birth. Although sex selection via IVF is
people of color, children are said to be born wild,
illegal in Australia, they petitioned a patient review
sexually anarchic, in need of punishment to keep
panel for permission, which was denied. They’ve
them in line (“Spare the rod, spoil the child”). Some
now appealed to the Victorian Civil and
who are prejudiced against children consider them a
Administrative Tribunal, which is slated to hear their
case in March.
burden; they are mouths to feed and too big a drain
on financial or emotional resources. Neglect often
follows from this assumption, and poverty and
In the event that their appeal is unsuccessful, the
neglect are highly correlated. In economically secure
couple has said they intend to travel to the U.S. for
homes, neglect and parental depression are highly
assistance conceiving a daughter. Since 2008,
correlated, as they are in homes where
Victoria’s Assisted Reproductive Treatment Act has
unemployment has suddenly and disorientingly
erased security.
prohibited sex selection except in cases where it
would allow parents to avoid transmitting a genetic
disease. It’s legal — though still controversial in
But unlike most of those who suffer from racism or
many circles — in the U.S., where pre-implantation
sexism, children are not yet political thinkers and
genetic diagnosis (PIGD) is used to separate XX
actors. They depend upon adults for the articulation
from XY chromosomes for reasons of “family
balancing.”
and protection of their rights, and they depend on
adults for survival and loving care. Every adult
citizen is, in this sense, a representative for children.
The Herald Sun said the couple, who has not been
It’s a social and political responsibility for all adults
identified, said opting to terminate their twin
— and it is childist to shirk that responsibility. It is
pregnancy was “a traumatic decision to make but
time for us to stop being blind to the prejudice that
they could not continue to have unlimited numbers of
fuels, justifies or even sanctions child abuse and
neglect. Giving it a name is the first step.
children.” It’s not that the woman doesn’t love her
sons; she does, but she says she is griefstricken over
the loss of her daughter. Conceiving a girl has
__________________________________________
become an obsession “that has become vital to her
psychological health.”
Customized Kids: Parents Abort Twin Boys in
Quest for Daughter
The case is stirring up plenty of discussion Down
Under, where one doctor — described as an IVF
By Bonnie Rochman | @brochman | January 12,
2011 |
“pioneer” — lined up behind the couple to express
his support.
Of course, every parent-in-waiting hopes for a
I can’t see how it could harm anyone,” said Gab
healthy baby, but most — whether they admit it or
not — have a preference for one sex over the other.
Kovacs.
”Who is this going to harm if this couple
have their desire fulfilled?”
But to what extremes would you go to make it
happen?
But a leader of a group that opposes genetic
manipulation presented the opposite viewpoint. If
9
society okays one such case, the floodgates would
swing open. ”I’m sorry they lost their daughter but,
in the interests of society as a whole, they should
Friday, May. 16, 2008
A New Fight to Legalize Euthanasia
By Kathleen Kingsbury
seek some counseling for their grief and look for
another way of getting a daughter into their family,”
said Bob Phelps, executive director of Gene
Ethics.
”They sound like good parents and could
offer a home to a child who needs one.”
Should we be allowed to determine when we die?
Euthanasia may be an issue long debated in the U.S.,
but thus far voters in only one state, Oregon, have
legalized the practice of physician-assisted suicide.
Satirists have weighed in too, in The Australian,
But a popular former governor is determined to make
where Stephen Lunn penned a deadpan Q&A
Washington State the second this November.
between a physician and a hypothetical parent of
three boys seeking assistance with sex selection:
Booth Gardner, who served as Washington's
Parent: My Honda dealer can customise my SUV, I
governor for two terms in the 1980s and '90s, is now
can get my kitchen remodelled to incorporate a
leading a ballot initiative that, if approved, would
cappuccino maker and I want you to make our No 4
to be just right.
allow doctors to prescribe lethal doses of narcotics to
Obstetrician: You do realise thousands of women
terminally ill patients who want to end their own
lives. The campaign is personal for Gardner.
undergo the often painful and emotionally draining
Diagnosed more than a decade ago with Parkinson's
IVF procedure and never manage to conceive. Just to
disease, a debilitating condition, his first reaction was
get a pregnancy is considered a miracle for many
couples.
"how can I take control over this," he says. "Then I
Parent: Blah, blah, emotional blackmail… how early
change that." Gardner has repeatedly said he would
can you test for IQ? Unless she’s smart, I’m not
interested.
end his own life if given the tools to do so legally
realized that there was no way I could. I wanted to
with dignity. "It is my right as a human being to
decide for myself," he adds.
Obstetrician (loudly): Nurse!
Parent: Also, I want my daughter to be pretty, but not
More than 80% of American adults agree with
too pretty. I don’t want her life defined by her looks.
Gardner, a new report shows. Another two-thirds
And I want her to be confident but not boorish,
support laws similar to Oregon's, which give people
bookish but not boring. And musical, let’s not forget
musical.
the "right to die" through physician-assisted suicide,
Obstetrician: You don’t see any merit at all in the
May 15 by ELDR Magazine, a publication aimed at
notion of life being a gift in itself and children being
glorious uncertainties?
senior citizens. More than 80% of respondents also
Me: Well, it’s not really about them, is it? It’s all
about me.
according to the survey of 1,070 Americans released
said that, if terminally ill and in pain, they would
want to be made unconscious even if it hastened
death. "A painful or prolonged death is something
10
everyone worries about," said Dave Bunnell, ELDR's
This year heading up a coalition against the
editor.
Washington effort is Chris Carlson, a Seattle resident
and public relations executive — and a formidable
The ELDR study, as well as similar findings in
match for Gardner. Carlson also suffers from
previous surveys, would indicate that "death with
Parkinson's. And he was diagnosed with terminal
dignity" laws may be gaining national momentum, at
cancer in 2005. "And I'm still around three years
least among the elderly. Some of that acceptance is
later," Carlson says. "But what if I'd been able to give
due to the fact that Oregon's law seems to work —
up hope, take my own life too early?"
despite critics' concerns that the law would only
encourage abuse, few such instances have been
Carlson says he's living proof that doctors can get
reported since the law was passed in 1994 and
things wrong, and he worries that the "right to die"
implemented in 1997. The state's legislation requires
will translate to premature suicide. One of his biggest
that the patient, who must be at least 18 and an
concerns is that while an MD is supposed to make
Oregon resident, make two requests to die within two
sure the patient is not depressed, the law does not
weeks. Two doctors must also concur that the patient
require people seeking euthanasia to undergo a
has no more than six months to live and that he is not
formal psychiatric evaluation by a mental health
suffering from any mental illness, including
professional — none of the 49 physician-assisted
depression. Since 2002 about 40 Oregonians each
suicide patients in Oregon last year had one,
year have taken advantage of the law. Generally, a
according to the Oregon Department of Health
doctor prescribes a lethal dose of barbiturates, but is
Services. Meanwhile, Carlson notes, an estimated
not legally allowed to administer it. The patient must
90% of suicides in the U.S. are associated with
take the dose himself.
mental illness. "Show me any person diagnosed with
terminal illness that isn't immediately depressed,"
Washington's proposed law would mirror Oregon's
Carlson says.
almost exactly. Proponents will have to collect
225,000 petition signatures by July 3 to get it on the
Opponents also charge that "right to die" laws
ballot, and Gardner is confident they will do so. But
unfairly target women, minorities and the poor. Some
if history is any indication, the initiative has little
critics say that women and minorities are quicker
chance of passing in November. Voters have struck
than others to feel like a financial or emotional
down dozens of similar "right to die" laws since the
burden to their families, and may be more easily
late 1980s, including in Washington State in 1992
persuaded to end their lives. Research from Colorado
when Gardner was governor.
State University shows that of the 75 suicides
Michigan doctor Jack Kevorkian assisted through
In the past, the Catholic Church and other religious
1997, 72% were women, and more than three-
groups have succeeded in rallying enough committed
quarters of those women, while certainly ill and
opponents to come out and vote against the measures.
suffering, were not expected to die within six months.
11
Others worry that the law could coerce people with
Yet it still carries a social stigma that has made it the
disabilities into suicide. "Financial pressures motivate
object of legislative bans and political speeches.
too many important health care decisions," says
Now, amid widespread outcry over the death of
opponent Duane French, a quadriplegic. "Sick and
disabled people will feel pressured to choose assisted
Florida teen Trayvon Martin, the hoodie has become
a symbol of social injustice.
suicide."
Gardner dismisses these worries, noting that none of
In the month since the 17-year-old was shot to death
them have materialized in Oregon in the decade since
by a neighborhood watch patrolman, protesters
its law took effect: men and women, for example,
nationwide have worn hoodies in a nod to the
have used the law in equal numbers. "You can't live
shooter's description of Trayvon Martin. George
in a perfect world," he says. "But why should anyone
Zimmerman told a 911 operator that he saw a
be denied the choice to end their life if they want to?"
"suspicious" person wearing a "dark hoodie"
Gardner, who does not suffer from a terminal disease,
would not be eligible to take his own life under the
moments before he shot the teen in what he said was
self-defense, according to police. Martin's family and
proposed law. That is a fight for another day, he says,
before adding, "If I can do anything to help people
get through their final months, this is worth doing."
supporters said they believe race played a role in the
shooting.
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1807401,
00.html
But those who participated in what have been called
___________________________________________
sought not only justice for Martin or possible prison
Hoodie's evolution from fashion mainstay to
symbol of injustice By Emanuella Grinberg, CNN
time for Zimmerman. They wore the hoodie in
'I march to cure the blindness'
your ground" gun law. They marched in the name of
(CNN) -- Whether you're a high schooler or Ted
anyone who wears hoodies at the risk of being
Kaczynski, a soccer mom or a Rocky Balboa fan,
perceived as "suspicious."
"hoodie marches" across the country this past week
solidarity against racial profiling and Florida's "stand
you've likely embraced the hooded sweatshirt at some
point in life.
The hoodies continue to show up at rallies, on Senate
floors and in churches, and the list of prominent
For all its comfort and simplicity, the hoodie leads a
people joining the movement is growing. Clay Aiken
dual life. Utilitarian and homogenous in form,
wore a hoodie in an interview Monday night on
hooded garments have been wardrobe staples of
"Access Hollywood," and LeBron James tweeted an
monks and hip-hop stars, Silicon Valley
image of Miami Heat players wearing hoodies with
programmers and tycoons alike.
12
the words #WeAreTrayvonMartin, #Hoodies and
criminal activity, said Cynthia Jasper, professor of
#stereotypes.
consumer science at the University of WisconsinMadison.
Former talk-show host Geraldo Rivera triggered a
debate over the role Martin's hoodie might have
Suspects in hooded clothing frequently appear in
played in his death, opining that "his hoodie killed
surveillance camera footage of armed robberies and
Trayvon Martin as surely as George Zimmerman
law enforcement sketches of wanted criminals.
did." Rivera apologized for his comments, calling
Among the most memorable was Kaczynski, the
them "politically incorrect," but stopped short of
"Unabomber" who engaged in a mail bombing
retracting his claim that parents of black and Latino
campaign that spanned nearly 20 years but who first
youngsters in particular should "not let their young
entered the public realm in a forensic sketch of a man
children go out wearing hoodies."
with hoodie and sunglasses.
But, even before that fateful February night, hoodies
Hollywood tends to magnify the stereotype by
were already wrapped up in negative racial
recycling it in scenes depicting violence and crime,
connotations, said Imani Perry of Princeton
furthering ingraining it into the public's collective
University's Center for African American Studies.
conscience, Jasper said. People in turn impose those
associations onto the wearer, regardless of the
"While it is clear that hoodies are a popular form of
person's intention.
attire for Americans of all ethnicities and ages, it is a
style that has become particularly popular for black
"When people interpret your way of dressing, hoodie
and Latino youth," she said.
or whatever, people interpret that as something you
"Because of the pervasive and trenchant racial
control," she said. "You can't control how tall you're
stereotypes associated with black young people,
going to be or your hair and eyes, but you can control
especially males, their styles are often singled out for
what you put on your body, and your clothing is
criticism, as signs of criminality and misdeeds," she
interpreted as representing who you are."
said. "But in truth this is simply another form of
stigmatization against the person underneath the
It's often not a fair association, she said, but it's still
clothing, and only superficially has anything to do
the one most people conjure up within seconds of
with the clothing."
meeting someone as a way of processing and
categorizing the person in front of them.
Even without the racial aspect, hoodies have an
image problem, thanks to their association with
13
"We have to organize our world, and there's so much
trains through the streets of Philadelphia and makes
that comes before us every single day," Jasper said.
his memorable ascent up the stairs of the Philadelphia
"It's a shortcut to help us organize the magnitude of
Museum of Art.
information that comes at us."
As hip-hop culture spread in the 1980s, the hoodie
The history of the hoodie
became part of the look associated with street style.
When hip-hop went mainstream, penetrating homes
Hooded garments weren't always shrouded in
in white middle-class suburbia and beyond, hoodies
nefarious intent, though their function of obscuring
remained a key part of hip-hop's global
the wearer goes back to the Middle Ages, when
commercialized look, with rapper Eminem
monks and scholars wore hoods to shield their faces.
memorializing the hoodie's oversize style in the 2002
Hoods served as protective items for farmworkers
film "8 Mile."
into the 19th century, worn as part of jackets or
overcoats, said Mark-Evan Blackman, assistant
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is another
professor of apparel design at New York's Fashion
famous white man to make the hoodie a mainstay of
Institute of Technology.
his look. When he first entered the public sphere,
Zuckerberg was rarely seen without a hoodie,
The knitted, hooded sweatshirt was popularized in
although he has been transitioning to blazers and
the 1930s by apparel manufacturer Champion for the
sport jackets more recently.
working class and evolved into sportswear for the
mass market over the course of the 20th century.
Nowadays, not a single a suburban high schooler,
soccer mom or Walmart shopper would seem out of
Hoodies as we know them became part of youth
place in a hoodie. Nor would Kanye West, for that
popular culture in the early 1970s in New York when
matter. Hoodies can be found in big-box stores for
graffiti artists wore them to hide their identities as
less than $10 or emblazoned with the high-fashion
they "bombed" buildings and walls, said hip-hop
logos of Hugo Boss, Ralph Lauren or Juicy Couture
scholar Halifu Osumare, director of African-
for north of $100.
American studies at the University of CaliforniaDavis.
The flipside of its generic mainstream appeal lies in
its association with crime and mischief. In the last
The same era marked the hoodie's major film debut.
decade, politicians in the United Kingdom, including
The 1976 release of "Rocky" featured the working-
former Prime Minister Tony Blair, endorsed
class title character in well-worn gray sweats as he
14
campaigns to ban hooded tops and baseball caps in
"I don't think there's anything intrinsically sinister
public places.
about hoodies," he said. "But for certain purposes, for
certain types of people, the hoodie has wide range of
When current Prime Minister David Cameron was
applications."
stumping for his party, he argued for addressing the
underlying causes of what drove people who wore
Indeed, it all boils down to who's wearing it,
hooded garments to break the law. Critics branded it
Osumare said.
Cameron's "hug-a-hoodie" message, but he still won
office.
"It's all part of the demonization of the black male
Even as hip-hop moved away from its urban roots, its
and the creation of this stereotypical image of him
"commodification" in mainstream pop nurtured the
walking down the street in the hoodie," she said. "It
legend of the "gangster bad man," Osumare said.
happens all the time, and this is what's behind the
protests. People don't see it as an isolated incident;
"The hoodie has become one of those cultural
they see it as a historic trend."
markers of the gangster outlaw. It is part of the
___________________________________________
construction that happens within capitalism in terms
of how things are bought and sold in the
Govt. agencies, colleges demand applicants'
marketplace," she said. "So now when people see a
black man with a hoodie in the street, it becomes an
image of a potential thug or gangster. You have these
Facebook passwords
Bob Sullivan
stereotypical images in mind not of what everyone is
actually like but what capitalism has promoted as part
of this style trend."
Meanwhile, the hoodie has been appropriated by
nearly every fashion genre, from skateboarders to
grunge rockers and high-end designers, said
Blackman, the Fashion Institute of Technology
professor.
For some, it's not necessarily a fashion statement but
simply a practical garment to be worn as a layer or an
If you think privacy settings on your Facebook and
Twitter accounts guarantee future employers or
schools can't see your private posts, guess again.
Employers and colleges find the treasure-trove of
personal information hiding behind passwordprotected accounts and privacy walls just too
tempting, and some are demanding full access from
job applicants and student athletes.
In Maryland, job seekers applying to the state's
Department of Corrections have been asked during
interviews to log into their accounts and let an
interviewer watch while the potential employee
clicks through wall posts, friends, photos and
overcoat, he said.
15
anything else that might be found behind the privacy
wall.
Previously, applicants were asked to surrender their
user name and password, but a complaint from the
ACLU stopped that practice last year. While
submitting to a Facebook review is voluntary,
virtually all applicants agree to it out of a desire to
score well in the interview, according Maryland
ACLU legislative director Melissa Coretz Goemann.
Student-athletes in colleges around the country also
are finding out they can no longer maintain privacy in
Facebook communications because schools are
requiring them to "friend" a coach or compliance
officer, giving that person access to their “friendsonly” posts. Schools are also turning to social media
monitoring companies with names like UDilligence
and Varsity Monitor for software packages that
automate the task. The programs offer a "reputation
scoreboard" to coaches and send "threat level"
warnings about individual athletes to compliance
officers.
A recent revision in the handbook at the University of
North Carolina is typical:
"Each team must identify at least one coach or
administrator who is responsible for having access to
and regularly monitoring the content of team
members’ social networking sites and postings,” it
reads. "The athletics department also reserves the
right to have other staff members monitor athletes’
posts."
All this scrutiny is too much for Bradley Shear, a
Washington D.C.-lawyer who says both schools and
employers are violating the First Amendment with
demands for access to otherwise private social media
content.
"I can't believe some people think it's OK to do this,”
he said. “Maybe it's OK if you live in a totalitarian
regime, but we still have a Constitution to protect us.
It's not a far leap from reading people's Facebook
posts to reading their email. ... As a society, where
are we going to draw the line?"
Aside from the free speech concerns, Shear also
thinks colleges take on unnecessary liability when
they aggressively monitor student posts.
"What if the University of Virginia had been
monitoring accounts in the Yeardley Love case and
missed signals that something was going to happen?”
he said, referring to a notorious campus murder.
“What about the liability the school might have?"
Shear has gotten the attention of Maryland state
legislators, who have proposed two separate bills
aimed at banning social media access by schools and
potential employers. The ACLU is aggressively
supporting the bills.
"This is an invasion of privacy. People have so much
personal information on their pages now. A person
can treat it almost like a diary," said Goemann, the
Maryland ACLU legislative director. "And
(interviewers and schools) are also invading other
people's privacy. They get access to that individual’s
posts and all their friends. There is a lot of private
information there."
Maryland's Department of Corrections policy first
came to light last year, when corrections officer
Robert Collins complained to the ACLU that he was
forced to surrender his Facebook user name and
password during an interview. The state agency
suspended the policy for 45 days, and eventually
settled on the “shoulder-surfing” substitute.
"My fellow officers and I should not have to allow
the government to view our personal Facebook
posts and those of our friends just to keep our jobs,"
Collins said to the ACLU at the time.
Agency spokesman Rick Binetti confirmed the new
policy, but wouldn't comment on it or the proposed
law which may ban it.
It's easy to see why an agency that hires prison
guards would want to sneak a peek at potential
employees’ private online lives. Goemann said that
prisons are trying to avoid hiring guards with
potential gang ties -- the agency told the ACLU it had
16
reviewed 2,689 applicants via social media, and
denied employment to seven because of items found
on their pages.
"All seven of these individuals' social media
applications contained pictures of them showing
verified gang signs (signs commonly known to law
enforcement which are utilized by gangs)," the
Department of Corrections told the ACLU in
response to questions it asked about the program. It
stressed the voluntary nature of social media
inspection, noting that five of the 80 employees hired
in the last three hiring cycles didn't provide access.
For student athletes, though, the access isn't
voluntary. No access, no sports.
"They're saying to students if you want to play, you
have to friend a coach. That's very troubling," said
Shear, the D.C. lawyer. "A good analogy for this, in
the offline world, would it be acceptable for schools
to require athletes to bug their off-campus
apartments? Does a school have a right to know who
all your friends are?"
There have been many high-profile embarrassing
moments born of the toxic combination of studentathletes and Twitter. North Carolina defensive
lineman Marvin Austin tweeted about expensive
purchases on his account two years ago, then became
subject of an NCAA investigation about improper
conduct with a player agent. The incident led, in part,
to the school's aforementioned aggressive social
media policy.
So it’s not surprising that many schools want to keep
a careful eye on what students are posting online.
But avoiding an uncomfortable moment is not a good
enough reason to squash free speech, Spear says.
Plenty of settled case law in the U.S. sides with
students' rights to express themselves publicly, he
said, including numerous cases involving student
newspapers. Public displays of protest are also
protected: A landmark 1969 Supreme Court decisions
known as Tinker vs. the Des Moines School District
said school officials couldn't prevent students from
wearing armbands protesting the Vietnam War as
long as they weren't inciting violence.
Colleges have legitimate concerns about the things
students post on social media accounts, but they
should "deal with that issue the way they deal with
everything else. They should educate," Shear said.
"Schools are in the business of educating, not
spying," he added. "We don't hire private
investigators to follow students wherever they go. If
students say stupid things online, they should educate
them ... not engage in prior restraint."
Goemann also noted that the rush to social media
monitoring raises an often overlooked legal concern:
It's against Facebook's Terms of Service.
"You will not share your password ... let anyone else
access your account or do anything else that might
jeopardize the security of your account," the site says
in its policies.
Frederic Wolens, a Facebook spokesman, wouldn't
comment on the Maryland legislative proposals, but
he said many of these school and employer policies
appear to violate the site's terms.
"Under our terms, only the holder of the email
address and password is considered the Facebook
account owner. We also prohibit anyone from
soliciting the login information or accessing an
account belonging to someone else," he said in a
statement to msnbc.com. Wolens said Facebook has
yet to take a position on collegiate social media
monitoring.
Social media monitoring on colleges, while spreading
quickly among athletic departments, seems to be
limited to athletes at the moment. There's nothing
stopping schools from applying the same policies to
other students, however. And Shear says he's heard
from college applicants that interviewers have
requested Facebook or Twitter login information
during in-person screenings.
17
The practice seems less common among employers,
but scattered incidents are gaining attention from
state lawmakers. The blog Tecca.com last year
showed what it said was an image of an application
for a clerical job with a North Carolina police
department that included the following question:
"Do you have any web page accounts such as
Facebook, Myspace, etc.? If so, list your username
and password."
And the state of Illinois has followed Maryland's lead
and is considering similar legislation to ban social
media password demands by employers.
But Shear says a patchwork of state laws isn't good
enough when the stakes are this high.
"We need a federal law dealing with this," he said.
"After 9/11, we have a culture where some people
think it's OK for the government to be this involved
in our lives, that it's OK to turn everything over to the
government. But it's not. We still have privacy rights
in this country, and we still have a Constitution."
http://redtape.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/06/1
0585353-govt-agencies-colleges-demandapplicants-facebook-passwords
_________________________________________
Immigration and Its Side Effects
foreigners, we also import social problems. Even
immigration-rights groups acknowledge a problem
and the urgent need to address it. But you can't fix a
problem until you understand what it is.
Towns that pass measures against illegal immigrants
portray the laws as a way to combat crime. In reality,
the belief that this group is prone to felonious habits
is largely unfounded. Crime rates plummeted in the
1990s even as illegal immigration surged, and
Harvard sociologist Robert Sampson has documented
that "living in a neighborhood of concentrated
immigration is directly associated with lower
violence."
The evidence is surprising but clear: Foreign-born
Hispanics are far less likely to end up in prison than
native-born whites. They also have low divorce rates.
As for learning English, the truth is also more
appealing than the myth. Many of the people who
have immigrated here don't speak the language well,
if at all. But that's a transient phenomenon with a
time-tested treatment: reproduction.
Surveys indicate that the majority of U.S.-born
children of Latino immigrants mainly speak English,
and by the third generation, 96 percent prefer
English. What happened with past immigrant groups
is also happening with this one.
Education is a mixed picture. Some 42 percent of
Hispanics in this country never finished high school.
But many immigrants dropped out before even
coming here, and others do so once they arrive.
Fortunately, their children and grandchildren do far
better, with high school completion rates rising to 89
percent by the third generation.
Nativist claims don't hold up under scrutiny
Steve Chapman | June 14, 2007
The fight over what to do about illegal immigration is
not entirely a matter of people coming to the United
States in violation of the law. It's also about what
they allegedly bring with them: social pathologies.
Many Americans think illegal immigrants are prone
to all sorts of destructive behavior—committing
crime, having children out of wedlock, dropping out
of school and refusing to learn English.
This is not a full and fair portrayal. Still, there is
some truth to the charge that when we import
But some indicators provide ample cause for worry.
Latino men born in this country are seven times more
likely to end up in prison than those who came here
from abroad. Unwed mothers account for nearly half
of all Hispanic births. Raul Gonzalez, legislative
director of the National Council of La Raza, sees the
rise of "negative assimilation"—Latinos adopting the
malignant attributes they see in other ethnic groups,
rather than the productive ones.
If this leads you to think we are creating a permanent
new underclass, though, don't be so sure. High crime
rates were common among previous immigrant
groups when they were still newcomers—particularly
the Irish, Italians and Jews. Yet those groups are now
18
as safe, sane and successful as you can get. It would
be unwise to assume Hispanic immigrants who have
arrived in recent years will automatically repeat the
pattern, but there is no reason to think they are
doomed to dysfunction.
Opponents of immigration see such concerns as
grounds for a vigorous crackdown to keep people
from coming here without permission. But most of
their remedies are irrelevant at best. If we're alarmed
about illegitimacy or crime among the children of
immigrants, we won't cure the maladies by putting a
wall along the Mexican border, fining companies that
hire undocumented workers, or carrying out mass
deportations.
Why not? Because those second- and thirdgeneration Latinos are already legally in this country,
and they have as much right to be here as anyone
else. Banishing them is not an option. So we had
better look for ways to foster behavior that is
healthier for them and the rest of us.
How to do that? Putting illegal immigrants on a path
to legalization can only help: It's hard to tell U.S.born kids to assimilate while you're treating their
parents like outlaws. Allowing parents to work
legally would improve their economic fortunes and
foster participation in the larger society—which
would also be good for their families and
communities. Government policies that reward
responsible conduct and discourage dependence are
good for immigrants and natives alike.
Those were the necessities Maza, 19, took when
immigration agents arrived at 6 a.m. on March 1 to
deport her and her family.
The 2006 South Miami Senior High graduate and her
parents now live in her grandmother's house in Lima,
Peru — more than 2,600 miles from the place she had
called home since she was 2. She's searching for
language classes "because my Spanish is really bad,"
and trying to adjust to life in a land where, she says,
"I feel like an outcast."
Hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants' children
could suffer the same fate, according to the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute. They are the lost
generation of an underground economy: Brought here
illegally by parents, they grew up in American
neighborhoods, attended American schools and made
American friends. As they approach adulthood, most
find that their illegal status is a barrier to jobs and
education, and their lack of documentation puts them
in line for deportation.
Now, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., is pushing a plan that
would give them a way to stay here and become
Americans. The measure is triggering another bitter
If you want Latino immigrants and their children to
embrace mainstream culture rather than anti-social
attitudes, widening the divide between them and the
rest of society is not the answer. Anyone who wants
to promote assimilation has to start with inclusion.
debate over how the nation should deal with its
growing shadow population.
"The letters and e-mails I get from these young
people are just heartbreaking," says Durbin, the No. 2
http://reason.com/archives/2007/06/14/immigrationand-its-side-effec
Democratic leader in the Senate. "They have nowhere
to turn. They are without a country."
___________________________________________
In all but 10 states, students who are not legal
Children caught in the immigration crossfire
By Kathy Kiely, USA TODAY
On the phone, Fiorella Maza comes across as a
typical American teenager. Her English is
unaccented. Her best friend's name is Brittney. Her
three most prized possessions are her wallet, her
cellphone and, of course, her iPod.
residents cannot qualify for in-state college tuition or
student loans. They have no right to work. And
there's the dread of a knock on the door such as the
one that sent Maza's family packing.
It's unclear how many of the 185,431 immigrants
removed from the country last year were children
19
who had grown up here. The Department of
Republican senators such as Arizona's John McCain
Homeland Security does not track such statistics,
and Indiana's Richard Lugar, as well as the nation's
spokeswoman Kelly Nantel says.
largest teachers union.
The Migration Policy Institute, however, estimates
Even so, the act's passage is far from certain. Many
that there are 360,000 high school graduates in the
of the groups that torpedoed the immigration bill by
USA illegally who would be eligible for conditional
arguing it provided amnesty to lawbreakers are
legal status under Durbin's bill for the Development,
targeting the DREAM Act as a backdoor attempt to
Relief and Education for Alien Minors — or the
accomplish the same goal.
DREAM Act, as proponents call it. Another 715,000
younger students could qualify if they graduate high
"It really is an amnesty plan disguised as an
school.
education initiative," says Bob Dane of the
Federation for American Immigration Reform
"They talk like Americans; they think like
(FAIR), a group lobbying to reduce legal and illegal
Americans," says Bishop Thomas Wenski of
immigration.
Orlando, speaking for the U.S. Conference of
Catholic Bishops. "We ought to let them dream like
Dane says the bill will "encourage illegal behavior"
Americans."
and force Americans to compete with illegal residents
for college slots and scholarships.
Durbin's bill would carve an exemption in the
nation's immigration policy for undocumented
The bill's opponents aren't out to punish kids, Dane
immigrants who grew up in the USA.
says: "We're merely not rewarding them for the
illegal actions of their parents."
It would protect students from deportation and
qualify young adults up to age 30 for permanent legal
Such distinctions are lost on many of those caught in
status if they complete high school and at least two
the middle of the debate. "I just want to return home
years of either post-secondary education or two years
where I belong," Maza writes in an e-mail.
of military service.
Families split by deportation
It's one of several pieces of a sweeping proposed
overhaul of the nation's immigration laws that
"I'm living in limbo," says Marie Gonzalez, 21, a
proponents are trying to revive this fall, following the
junior at Westminster College in Missouri.
larger bill's collapse earlier this year.
Gonzalez, a political science major, has lived in
The other measures, which would allow more foreign
Missouri — "Jeff City," she says, using the nickname
workers, have the backing of the agricultural industry
for Jefferson City — since she was 5. She learned in
and technology companies. The DREAM Act's
2002 she wasn't here legally when an anonymous
backers have a different kind of political clout.
tipster reported her father. At the time, he was
working as a courier in the office of then-Missouri
The Catholic bishops are among several religious
Gov. Bob Holden, a Democrat. Gonzalez was a
groups lobbying for the bill. Democratic leaders in
sophomore in high school.
the House and Senate support it. So do senior
20
"I was scared people were going to turn their backs
That move gave the brothers two more years in the
on us," she recalls. "We were the people they talk
USA — a courtesy extended by immigration officials
about on TV."
to allow Congress time to consider the legislation.
Instead, neighbors in Gonzalez's conservative
"It just shows you what a democratic country we
community rallied around her family.
are," says Juan Gomez. "This is the country I've
always considered home."
It wasn't enough to save her parents, who were
deported to Costa Rica in 2005. Then 19, Gonzalez
For the Gomez brothers to be able to stay, however,
had to sell the family home and cars. She hasn't seen
the DREAM Act will have to pass. Diaz-Balart says
her parents since, because a visit would mean not
it's highly unlikely Congress will approve a private
being able to return.
bill for the brothers because there are too many
similar cases.
At Durbin's request, the Department of Homeland
Security twice deferred Gonzalez's deportation.
"We continually run into kids who are in this country
However, she says that DHS officials have warned
because of their parents' choice," he says. Some have
her that if the DREAM Act doesn't pass, she will be
younger siblings who are legal. The Constitution says
deported to Costa Rica in June.
anyone born in the USA is automatically a citizen.
A deportation deadline also looms for Juan Gomez,
Barriers to legislation
18, and brother Alex, 20.
The DREAM Act is one of several pieces of the
Earlier this summer, the two, both students at Miami
failed immigration bill now in play in Congress.
Dade College in Florida, spent a week wearing
orange jumpsuits at the Broward County detention
Other measures that could be part of a year-end
center. Their crime: having arrived here at age 2 and
immigration deal: one to permit more foreign farm
4, respectively, with their parents from Colombia.
workers to live in the USA, and another to grant more
Their parents are to be deported this month.
visas for temporary workers in business ranging from
high technology to restaurants.
In handcuffs on the ride to the detention center, Juan
used his cellphone to send a text message to a friend.
By one measure, the DREAM Act would seem the
The result was the creation of a Facebook group that
least controversial of the three: When the Senate
rallied more than 3,000 supporters to lobby Congress
Judiciary Committee considered it in 2003, the vote
on the boys' behalf.
in favor was 16-3.
Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, a Republican from Florida,
The opposition this year is enough to raise doubts
and Sen. Chris Dodd, a Democratic presidential
about whether it or any piece of the immigration act
candidate from Connecticut, introduced what is
can become law in the current Congress.
known as a "private bill," used to help individuals
with immigration problems.
"I just don't think the political wherewithal is there to
do it," says Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., the party's
national chairman.
21
He supported the immigration overhaul but isn't sure
For now, Tran is permitted to stay — only because
he'll back relief for illegal immigrant children as a
the United States has no repatriation treaty with
separate issue.
Vietnam.
And though Martinez says it hasn't affected his
If the diplomatic situation changes, Tran could be
stance, he says he received "a flood of letters and
deported to the country of her parents' birth, says
phone calls" opposing the DREAM Act when Durbin
Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman
tried to add it to the defense authorization bill last
Nantel.
month.
Tran, who has never been to Vietnam, says that "I
FAIR representatives made 24 appearances on radio
consider myself a Southern Californian." She
talk shows over two weeks in September to oppose
graduated with honors from UCLA in December. Her
the DREAM Act, Dane says.
major: American literature and culture.
NumbersUSA, another group that favors clamping
For Martine Kalaw, a graduate of Syracuse
down on legal and illegal immigration, urged people
University's prestigious Maxwell School public
on its website to call senators thought to be in favor
affairs program, it took eight years and three lawyers
of the bill. Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., threatened a
to overturn a judge's order that would have sent her to
filibuster.
the Congo, a country she left at age 4.
That persuaded Durbin and Senate Majority Leader
Kalaw, 26, is an orphan. Her stepfather died when
Harry Reid, D-Nev., to drop their effort temporarily.
she was 12. Three years later, she lost her mother.
They say they'll try again to pass the DREAM Act
before Thanksgiving.
That misfortune may have been her salvation, Kalaw
says.
Responds Dane: "We intend to keep the heat up."
Unlike students who fear putting their parents at risk
Without the DREAM Act, Tam Tran, 24, is a person
for deportation, she was able to take her case to the
without a country.
public. She first spoke out at an immigration rally
where she shared a stage with McCain, and later
The daughter of Vietnamese boat people, Tran was
testified before Congress.
born in Germany, where her parents ended up after
the German Navy plucked them out of the sea. The
"I was scared because I thought there would be a
family moved to the USA when Tran was 6.
backlash," Kalaw says, who adds that she was treated
for clinical depression during her ordeal. "I was
When her parents lost their political asylum case,
extremely ashamed of my situation. Deportation
immigration authorities tried to deport the family to
proceedings are the most terrifying, belittling
Germany, Tran says. However, the Germans refused
process."
to take them.
On July 4, Kalaw says, her legal odyssey ended.
22
The Board of Immigration Appeals overturned her
deportation order and awarded her permanent legal
resident status, which will enable her to apply for
The study is the first to pull together field research by
social scientists nationwide to track the effects of a
citizenship in five years.
family’s illegal immigration status on children from
"Now that everything is secure, I'm looking to
develop my career," she says.
birth until they graduate from college and start to
navigate the job market. It covers immigrants from a
"The sky's the limit."
variety of origins, including Latinos and Asians.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-10-07Dream_N.htm
About 5.5 million children in this country have at
___________________________________________
least one parent who is an illegal immigrant,
September 20, 2011
according to an estimate by the Pew Hispanic Center.
Risks Seen for Children of Illegal Immigrants
Among them, about one million children were
By JULIA PRESTON
brought here illegally by their parents, while about
Children whose parents are illegal immigrants or who
4.5 million are United States citizens because they
lack legal status themselves face “uniformly
were born here.
negative” effects on their social development from
In all, about 9.5 million people live in “mixed status”
early childhood until they become adults, according
families that include American citizen children and
to a study by four researchers published Wednesday
unauthorized immigrants, Jeffrey S. Passel, senior
in the Harvard Educational Review.
demographer at the Pew center, said on Tuesday.
The study concluded that more than five million
“Unauthorized status casts a big shadow that really
children in the United States are “at risk of lower
extends to citizen as well as undocumented children,”
educational performance, economic stagnation,
Marcelo Suárez-Orozco, a professor of education at
blocked mobility and ambiguous belonging” because
New York University who is an author of the study,
they are growing up in immigrant families affected
said on Tuesday. “It affects their cognitive
by illegal status.
development, engagement in school and their ability
to be emerging citizens.”
23
The Harvard study reports that “fear and vigilance”
As teenagers, children without legal status face a hard
guide the home lives of young children whose
awakening when they apply for jobs, driver’s licenses
parents are illegal immigrants, making the parents
or financial aid for college and discover they are not
significantly less likely to engage with teachers or be
legally qualified for any of them. Their paths diverge
active in schools.
from siblings who are American citizens by
birthright.
Parents’ fears of deportation led to lower levels of
enrollment of their American children in public
“In late adolescence, they start to realize their legal
programs for which the children were legally eligible,
limitations, and their worlds turn completely upside
including child care subsidies, public preschool and
down,” said Roberto G. Gonzales, a sociologist at the
food stamps, the study found.
University of Chicago whose research on college-age
illegal immigrants is cited in the Harvard study.
The other authors were Carola Suárez-Orozco and
Robert T. Teranishi of New York University and
Academic achievement does little to lift the prospects
Hirokazu Yoshikawa of the Harvard Graduate School
of illegal immigrants who have grown up here. Out
of Education.
of 150 immigrants Professor Gonzales studied in
depth, 31 had completed college or advanced
Many illegal immigrant parents work long hours in
degrees, but none were in a career that matched their
low-wage jobs, sometimes more than one job. New
educational training. Many were working low-wage
research on very young children cited in the Harvard
jobs like their parents.
study showed that the undocumented parents’
difficult work conditions “contribute substantially to
The Harvard study found that many illegal immigrant
the lower cognitive skills of children in their
youths, facing the “reduced promise of mobility,” had
families.” This was true even though the children
dropped out of school and begun the search for work
were more likely to be in two-parent families than
they could do without legal papers, “forced deeper
American children as a whole.
and deeper into an underground work force.”
24
The researchers said that a generation of young
provisions of the state’s far-reaching immigration
illegal immigrants raised in this country was moving
enforcement law.
toward “perpetual outsider-hood.”
The judge, Sharon Lovelace Blackburn, upheld the
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/21/us/illegalimmigrant-parents-pass-a-burden-studysays.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print
parts of the law allowing state and local police to ask
for immigration papers during routine traffic stops,
___________________________________________
rendering most contracts with illegal immigrants
October 3, 2011
After Ruling, Hispanics Flee an Alabama Town
unenforceable and requiring schools to ascertain the
immigration status of children at registration time.
By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON
When Judge Blackburn was finished, Alabama was
ALBERTVILLE, Ala. — The vanishing began
left with what the governor called “the strongest
Wednesday night, the most frightened families
immigration law in this country.” It went into effect
packing up their cars as soon as they heard the news.
immediately, though her ruling is being appealed by
They left behind mobile homes, sold fully furnished
the Justice Department and a coalition of civil rights
for a thousand dollars or even less. Or they just
groups.
closed up and, in a gesture of optimism, left the keys
In the days since, school superintendents have
with a neighbor. Dogs were fed one last time; if no
reassured parents — one even did so on television in
home could be found, they were simply unleashed.
Spanish — that nothing had changed for children
Two, 5, 10 years of living here, and then gone in a
who were already enrolled. Wary police departments
matter of days, to Tennessee, Illinois, Oregon,
around the state said they were, for now, awaiting
Florida, Arkansas, Mexico — who knows?
instructions on how to carry out the law.
Anywhere but Alabama.
For many immigrants, however, waiting seemed just
The exodus of Hispanic immigrants began just hours
too dangerous. By Monday afternoon, 123 students
after a federal judge in Birmingham upheld most
had withdrawn from the schools in this small town in
the northern hills, leaving behind teary and confused
25
classmates. Scores more were absent. Statewide,
What the new immigration law means on a large
1,988 Hispanic students were absent on Friday, about
scale will become clearest in a place like Albertville,
5 percent of the entire Hispanic population of the
whether it will deliver jobs to citizens and protect
school system.
taxpayers as promised or whether it will spell
economic disaster as opponents fear.
John Weathers, an Albertville businessman who rents
and has sold houses to many Hispanic residents, said
Critics of the law, particularly farmers, contractors
his occupancy had suddenly dropped by a quarter and
and home builders, say the measure has already been
might drop further, depending on what happens in the
devastating, leaving rotting crops in fields and critical
next week. Two people who had paid off their
shortages of labor. They say that even fully
mortgages called him asking if they could sell back
documented Hispanic workers are leaving, an
their homes, Mr. Weathers said.
assessment that seems to be borne out in interviews
here. The legal status of family members is often
Grocery stores and restaurants were noticeably less
mixed — children are often American-born citizens
busy, which in some cases may be just as well,
— but the decision whether to stay rests on the
because some employees stopped showing up. In
weakest link.
certain neighborhoods the streets are uncommonly
quiet, like the aftermath of some sort of rapture.
Backers of the law acknowledge that it might be
disruptive in the short term, but say it will prove
Drawn by work in the numerous poultry processing
effective over time.
plants, Hispanic immigrants have been coming to
Albertville for years, long enough ago that some of
“It’s going to take some time for the local labor pool
the older ones gained amnesty under the immigration
to develop again,” said State Senator Arthur Orr,
law of 1986. But the influx picked up over the last
Republican of Decatur, “but outside labor shouldn’t
decade, and the signs on Main Street are now mostly
come in and just beat them every time on cost and put
bilingual, when they include English at all.
them out of business.”
26
Mr. Orr said there were already signs that the law
Not far from the plant, in the Hispanic
was working, pointing out that the work-release
neighborhoods, it is hard to differentiate the silence
center in Decatur, about 50 miles to the northwest,
of the workday, the silence of abandonment or the
was not so long ago unable to find jobs for inmates
silence of paralyzing fear.
with poultry processors or home manufacturers.
Many Hispanics have chosen to stay for now, saying,
Since the law was enacted in June, he said, the center
with little apparent conviction, that the law will
has been placing more and more inmates in these
surely be blocked by the president, the judge, “the
jobs, now more than 150 a day.
government.” Until then, they are not leaving their
On Monday morning, one of the poultry processing
homes unless absolutely necessary. They send others
plants in Albertville had a job fair, attracting an
to buy their groceries and tell their children to quit
enormous crowd, a mix of Hispanic, black and white
the soccer team and to come home right after school.
job-seekers, lining up outside the plant and down the
Rumors of raids and roadblocks are rampant, and
street.
though the new law has nothing to say about such
things, distrust is primed by anecdotes, like one told
“This needed to be done years ago,” Shannon
by a local Hispanic pastor who said he was pulled
Lolling, 36, who has been unemployed for over a
over outside Birmingham on Wednesday, within
year, said of the law.
hours of the ruling. His friend who was driving —
Mr. Lolling’s problem seemed to be with the system
and who is in the United States illegally — is now in
that had brought the illegal-immigrant workers here,
jail on an unrelated misdemeanor charge, the pastor
not with the workers themselves.
said, adding that while he was let go, a policeman
told him he was no longer welcome in Alabama.
“That’s why our jobs went south to Mexico,” he said.
“They pay them less wages and pocket the money,
“I am afraid to drive to church.,” a 54-year-old
keep us from having jobs.”
poultry plant worker named Candelaria said, adding,
“The lady that gives me a ride to work said she is
leaving. She said she felt like a prisoner.”
27
entranced. Here was someone who could tell me first
All summer long, Allen Stoner, a lawyer in Decatur,
has been helping his Hispanic clients fill out forms
hand how the racist mind worked. Social scientists
have done studies on Klansmen and Neo-Nazis but
those sorts of people are outliers, socially and
appointing friends or family members as guardians of
their children, who are in many cases American-born
citizens. This way, the children would not be
mentally, while this woman was the sort of person
you might encounter on a normal day. She seemed
indicative of the sort of racist mind we’d be mostly
likely to meet. She seemed normal. So I decided to
talk to her and find out how her mind worked.
transferred to social services if the parents were
arrested and deported.
Studies show most people have some sort of
prejudice or bias. “Decades of cognitive bias research
demonstrates that both unconscious and conscious
Much of this was done by the time the judge’s ruling
came down, though last week Mr. Stoner’s clients
began to contact him immediately to ask what they
biases lead to discriminatory actions even when an
individual does not want to discriminate,” writes
Michelle Alexander in her book The New Jim Crow.
“The fact that you may honestly believe that you are
not biased against African Americans, and that you
should be doing. Monday was quiet.
may have black friends and relatives, does not mean
that you are free from unconscious bias. Implicit bias
“We had a lot of phone calls Thursday and Friday,”
tests may still show that you hold negative attitudes
Mr. Stoner said, “but it has plummeted.”
believe you do and do not want to.” Part of the
and stereotypes about blacks even though you do not
problem is the monsoon of negative messages about
He did not know for sure, but he figured his clients
blacks coming at Americans which makes being nonracist almost like mentally swimming upstream.
were gone.
Still, most people today are ashamed to be racist and
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/04/us/after-rulinghispanics-flee-an-alabamatown.html?pagewanted=print
know to do their best to never reveal it. So after this
___________________________________________
and that she could feel comfortable to speak freely.
She did.
woman at the event told me she was racist, I said,
“Really?!” in a way that indicated I wasn’t offended
Inside the Racist Mind
“I just have these thoughts,” she said, almost
The fact that you may honestly believe you are not
whispering into my ear. I felt like she was confessing
biased does not free you from unconscious racism
as if I were her priest. “My mind just goes places. I
By Touré | @Toure | April 19, 2012 |
After a recent event where I spoke about racial
identity, a white woman sidled up to me, leaned in
close so no one near us could hear, and said, “I’m
can’t control it. I know it’s wrong but I can’t help
myself. I say, Don’t think like that! But it’s what
people told me when I was younger.” Then she
leaned back and someone else said hello and our
moment of penance concluded.
racist.” Many people would be repelled. I was
28
I wanted to hear more but I had heard enough to
hypocrisy and contradictions. There have long been
understand. She had mental habits based on ideas
extraordinary blacks who succeeded far more than
implanted long ago that had taken root in her
the vast majority and were accepted as special. The
subconscious. She’s got various stereotypes and
racist mind need not hate every black person it
biases firmly lodged in her long-term memory where
encounters, and indeed not hating all may serve as a
she stores things like how to ride a bike. That’s why
valuable safety valve, releasing pressure and proving
the thoughts feel like they come at her automatically
to the mind itself that it is not racist. Few people want
to think of themselves as bad or evil.
and beyond her control—“My mind just goes
places.” At this point, unlearning those perceptions
would be as hard as unlearning bike-riding—if there
George Zimmerman provides a fascinating case study
were near-constant media messages and social
because his moment of evincing bias is caught on
reinforcements about how to ride a bike. And yet
tape. He said, “This guy looks like he is up to no
society has also taught her that she should be
good — he is on drugs or something,” showing us he
ashamed to judge people in this way. It’s sad that she
saw a Rorschach of a tall black boy walking in the
knows she should not think racist thoughts but cannot
distance and assumed he was a criminal and a drug
stop herself because the lessons were learned and
reinforced so well.
user and to be feared. None of these things were
true—in fact, the National Household Survey on
Drug Abuse has repeatedly found that blacks use
Racism is a mental tumor. It’s an acceptance of
illegal drugs at about the same rates as other
stereotypes, of otherness, of fear, of racial
races. Zimmerman is also said to have mentored two
hierarchies. It requires embracing the concept of
black children in his neighborhood. Does that prove
constants about certain racial groups even though
he’s not a racist? No. Humans are filled with
there are no biological certainties about the races.
contradictions, so Zimmerman could have gotten to
Scientifically, there is only the human race. Race as
know those neighborhood boys and embraced their
we know it is a social construct and, in the sweep of
humanity but not extend the expectation of humanity
human history, a relatively recent concept invented in
to someone he didn’t know.When Zimmerman went
America to justify having both “liberty for all” and
to mentor those children he was one subself, and
slavery. Racism has long had sub-ideas protecting it
when he spotted Trayvon a different subself kicked
like bodyguards—the idea that blacks were lesser
in, powered by a constellation of thoughts that
aligned black men with criminality.
human beings with inferior brain power and morality
and criminal proclivities aided in the perpetuation of
slavery, Jim Crow and the current wave of
Zimmerman was taught by society that young black
criminalization in which young black men are
men are on drugs and criminals and that fallacy sits
considered synonymous with criminals—some have
captured this via the term “criminalblackman.”
in his subconscious alongside how to ride a bike. If
he didn’t live in a world where people are constantly
acting on that fallacy then he wouldn’t have that in
Some people suggest that the multiracial embrace of
his subconscious. Racism is not inherent like the
Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Michael Jordan, Will
ability to learn how to read. It’s learned. And we are
teaching it well.
Smith and others portends the end of racism. But this,
as the writer Arundati Roy says, is like the President
pardoning one turkey before Thanksgiving and then
eating another—and America eats thousands. The
human mind is complex enough to integrate
29
New Study Suggests Watching Reality TV Like
‘Jersey Shore’ Might Make You Dumber
Newly published research suggests watching
something dumb might make you dumber. The study,
which was published in the recent online edition of
Media Psychology by Markus Appel of Johannes
Kepler University of Linz, Linz, Austria, examined
the concept of media priming among a sample of 81
participants.
According to the article’s journal abstract, “Media
priming refers to the residual, often unintended
consequences of media use on subsequent
perceptions, judgments, and behavior. Previous
research showed that the media can prime behavior
that is in line with the primed traits or concepts
(assimilation). However, assimilation is expected to
be less likely and priming may even yield reverse
effects (contrast) when recipients have a dissimilarity
testing mindset.” Simply put, media priming is the
idea that the things we watch or listen to or read
influence our emotions and our behavior, perhaps
more than we realize.
The study involved having the subjects read a story
about a soccer hooligan. As expected, participants
who read the story without a special processing
instruction performed worse in a knowledge test than
a control group who read an unrelated text.
Participants with a reading goal instruction to find
dissimilarities between the self and the main
protagonist performed better than participants who
read the story without this instruction. The effects of
reported self-activation and story length were further
considered.
The story describes a day in the life of a man named
Meier: He wakes up, reads (and misunderstands) the
message in an inspiration-of-the-day calendar, meets
his friends in a bar and gets very drunk. Meier then
goes to a soccer game, gets into a fight and comes
home to crash; he sleeps through the next day.
(Substitute the soccer game for a nightclub, and you
have something very similar to the televised daily
shenanigans of Snooki or The Situation.)
The findings indicate that “participants who read a
narrative about a stupidly acting soccer hooligan
performed worse in the knowledge test than
participants who read a narrative about a character
with no reference to his intellectual abilities.”
http://rollingout.com/culture/new-study-suggestswatching-reality-tv-like-jersey-shore-might-makeyou-dumber/'
What Is the Effect of Reality Shows on
Teenagers? By Leah Shiota, eHow Contributor
Since its rising popularity, reality television has
changed the way entertainment is viewed in the
United States. Modern teenagers who have been
exposed to this genre for many years are often
influenced to express themselves in various ways.
History
Reality TV became popular after 2000 with hit shows
such as MTV's "The Real World."
Reality television consists of unscripted situations
offering a closer glimpse at the life of ordinary
people. Many of these shows are geared toward teens
because they typically watch more television than the
average adult and therefore can be more susceptible
to its various influences.
Benefits
Webcams give many teens the ability to create their
own reality shows.
Reality television can give insight to teens about
many types of people in a way that a standard
fictional narrative would not. Additionally, the
exposure of the format can influence teens to
experiment with the genre on their own by tracking
their lives through media such as a web series or
video log (vlog). This can often serve as a healthy
creative outlet that promotes useful technological
skills.
Risks
Many reality shows have graphic content not suitable
for children.
Some argue that reality television has promoted a
societal desire to be voyeuristic and devalue privacy.
Many parents of teens also have expressed concerns
that due to its nature, some reality shows can promote
30
behavior in teens that is considered trashy, rude and
sexually promiscuous.
Role of Technology
Everyone now has a shot at their 15 minutes of fame.
With the help of popular websites such as YouTube,
ordinary teens are now able to upload videos similar
to the those of the reality show format and build a
large audience base. Modern teenagers are aware of
this and are constantly attempting to become the new
viral-video sensation.
Warning
There have been many reported crimes against those
who have their own web series or vlogs. It is
important to monitor a teenager's Internet activity to
make sure that private information or content is not
easily obtainable.
___________________________________________
The Positive & Negative Effects of Reality TV
By Laura Wood, eHow Contributor
Reality TV: the new TV trend
Reality TV has taken over TV screens since the turn
of the 21st century, and no one can deny its
popularity with different demographics. Whether it's
teens enjoying the record-breaking "Jersey Shore," or
families gathering round to watch mid-week
'"American Idol," it's impossible to turn off from.
However, there has been debate on its effects on its
audience and whether it's doing more harm than
good.
Negative Effects: Deceptive Reality
Reality TV is defined by MSN Encarta as "television
programs that present real people in live, though
often deliberately manufactured, situations and
monitor their emotions and behavior." Therefore,
reality TV in its essence isn't "reality," and to portray
it as that is deceptive to its audience, especially
youngsters, toward whom much of the genre is
targeted.
Negative Effects: Antifamily Values
MTV is a reality TV creator and ambassador, and its
key demographic audience is preteens to early 20s.
Since 1992 it has aired "The Real World," which
consists season after season of a group of 20somethings thrown together to create partying and
fighting, passing it off as normal behavior. Many
critics have claimed this type of programming
promotes "meanness, casual sex, alcohol abuse, and
bad language," directly opposing common American
family traditions and values.
Negative Effect: The Fame Game
The genre has also created a slew of reality stars, but
it seems that many are celebrities with no apparent
talent. "Keeping up with the Kardashians" has made
famous a whole family who appear to be famous
without reason except that they have a reality show.
For those who don't take it seriously, it can provide
entertainment for 30 minutes or so. But if taken as
"reality," it then has a danger of harming its audience
with unrealistic expectations.
Positive Effect: Success
Although the critics of reality TV are highly
outspoken, there is also the counterargument of the
benefits of the genre on its participants and audience.
For the people who volunteer themselves for the likes
of "American Idol" and "America's Next Top
Model," winning the show is potentially a lifechanging experience and a springboard to a career in
the entertainment industry. The reward is there for
the taking, but it's often not just the winners who can
make a name for themselves. Tocarra Jones, a
participant on season 3 of "America's Next Top
Model," may not have won the show, but she is still a
working plus-size model today signed to the largest
modeling agency in the world.
Positive Effect: Inspirational
Even those reality shows that aren't competitions can
still make a name for the stars. Lauren Conrad started
her career on MTV's "Laguna Beach: The Real OC,"
and with subsequent exposure on "The Hills" has
become a best-selling author, spokesperson and
fashion designer--not bad for a normal California
girl. Watching these successes has also inspired a
generation of youngsters to aspire to make something
of themselves. They want to better their lives and
find inspiration from the success stories after the
cameras have stopped rolling.
Positive Effect: New Satire
James Poniewozick makes the valid argument that
the reality TV genre has made the TV schedules more
exciting and given audiences some much needed
satire. Producers who create the shows admit they
don't take it too seriously.
31
http://www.ehow.com/print/list_7160667_positivenegative-effects-reality-tv.html
take the case to a jury, in front of which she will face
_____________________________________________
self-defense.
News Guide: Key quotes, questions in Trayvon
a high legal burden to prove that the killing wasn't in
KEY QUOTES:
case
By The Associated Press April 12, 2012
--Trayvon's father, Tracy Martin, of Zimmerman:
"The question I would really like to ask him is, if he
Neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman
could look into Trayvon's eyes and see how innocent
has been arrested and is charged with second-degree
he was, would he have then pulled the trigger? Or
murder for the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon
would he have just let him go on home?"
Martin on Feb. 26.
--Zimmerman's new lawyer, Mark O'Mara: "He is
Special prosecutor Angela Corey announced the
troubled by everything that has happened. I cannot
charge at a news conference Wednesday, seven
imagine living in George Zimmerman's shoes for the
weeks after the killing.
past number of weeks. Because he has been at the
focus of a lot of anger, and maybe confusion and
Trayvon Martin's parents, civil rights leaders and
maybe some hatred and that has to be difficult. ... I'm
other people have portrayed the case as racially
expecting a lot of work and hopefully justice in the
charged, saying the 28-year-old Zimmerman would
end."
have been arrested immediately had he been black
and the victim white. Martin was black.
--O'Mara on Zimmerman: "I'm not concerned about
his mental well-being."
Some explanations, key quotes, and questions and
answers in the case:
--Special prosecutor Angela Corey: "We do not
prosecute by public pressure or by petition."
CHARGES EXPLAINED:
--Stacy Davis, who is black, reacting to Zimmerman's
Second-degree murder means a killing that was not
arrest: "It's not a black or white thing for me. It's a
premeditated but resulted instead from an
right or wrong thing. He needed to be arrested. I'm
"imminently dangerous act" that showed a
happy because maybe that boy (Martin) can get some
"depraved" lack of regard for human life.
rest."
THE PROSECUTOR'S CHALLENGE:
--George Zimmerman to a 911 dispatcher the night of
the shooting: "This guy looks like he is up to no good
Under Florida's "stand your ground" law, which gives
-- he is on drugs or something."
people wide latitude to use deadly force rather than
retreat during a fight, Corey must first prove to a
--President Barack Obama, earlier in the case: "If I
judge that Zimmerman wasn't defending himself
had a son, he'd look like Trayvon."
when he killed Trayvon Martin. Only then can she
32
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS:
announced Tuesday that they were dropping the case.
They said they couldn't keep representing
Q: WHY DID IT TAKE SO LONG FOR
Zimmerman because he had stopped communicating
ZIMMERMAN TO BE ARRESTED?
with them.
A: Special prosecutor Angela Corey says that
Q: HOW WILL ZIMMERMAN PLEAD?
probable cause had to be determined before
authorities could arrest Zimmerman. She said there
A: Not guilty, O'Mara says.
was only a slight delay when she took it over from
the previous prosecutor, who recused himself from
Q: WHAT HAPPENED?
the case.
A: Martin, 17, was shot and killed by a single
Zimmerman told police he acted in self-defense after
gunshot wound to the chest Feb. 26 during a
Martin pursued and attacked him. Florida is among
confrontation with Zimmerman, a 28-year-old
21 states with the "stand your ground" law, which
neighborhood watch volunteer in a gated community
allows police on the scene to decide whether they
of townhomes in Sanford, Fla., about 20 miles
believe the self-defense claim.
northeast of Orlando.
In many cases, the officers make an arrest and leave
Zimmerman was driving through the neighborhood
it to the courts to work out whether the deadly force
when he spotted Martin, who was unarmed and
is justified. In this case, however, police have said
walking to the home of his father's fiancee. She lived
they are confident they did the right thing by not
in the same gated community as Zimmerman.
charging Zimmerman.
Martin was returning from a trip to the convenience
Q: ON WHAT EVIDENCE IS THE
store with an iced tea and a bag of Skittles. It was
PROSECUTOR BASING THE CHARGE OF
raining, and Martin was walking with the hood of his
SECOND-DEGREE MURDER?
sweatshirt pulled over his head. He talked to his
girlfriend on a cellphone moments before the
A: Corey did not disclose how she arrived at the
shooting, according to Martin's family's attorney.
charge, saying that was information to be revealed in
court.
Q: WHAT IS GEORGE ZIMMERMAN'S SIDE
OF THE STORY?
Q: WHAT'S NEXT?
A: On his website, therealgeorgezimmerman.com,
A: Zimmerman will appear in court within 24 hours,
Zimmerman has described the shooting as "a life
Corey said.
altering event" but he says he can't go into details
about what happened.
Q: DOES ZIMMERMAN HAVE LEGAL
COUNSEL?
"As a result of the incident and subsequent media
coverage, I have been forced to leave my home, my
A: Yes, Mark O'Mara of Orlando, who became
school, my employer, my family and ultimately, my
Zimmerman's new attorney after his former lawyers
entire life," he said on the site.
33
Zimmerman told police he spotted Martin as he was
"She says: `Run.' He says, `I'm not going to run, I'm
driving through his neighborhood and called 911 to
just going to walk fast,'" Crump said, quoting the girl.
report a suspicious person.
The girl later heard Martin say, "Why are you
He said the teen had his hand in his waistband and
following me?" Another man asked, "What are you
was walking around looking at homes.
doing around here?" Crump said.
There had been several break-ins in the community in
After Martin encountered Zimmerman, the girl thinks
the past year, including one in which burglars took a
she heard a scuffle "because his voice changes like
TV and laptops.
something interrupted his speech," Crump said. The
phone call ended before the girl heard any gunshots.
A dispatcher told Zimmerman he didn't need to
follow Martin after Zimmerman got out of his truck
Martin's parents said their son made the pleas for help
and started pursuing the teen.
that witnesses heard.
Zimmerman told police he lost sight of the teenager
Q: WHAT IS GEORGE ZIMMERMAN'S
and was walking back to his vehicle when he was
RACIAL AND ETHNIC BACKGROUND?
attacked. He and Martin fought, according to
witnesses. Zimmerman said Martin punched him in
A: Zimmerman's father is white, and his mother is
the nose and slammed his head against the ground.
Hispanic of Peruvian descent.
At some point, Zimmerman pulled a gun and shot
Q: WHERE IS GEORGE ZIMMERMAN?
Martin.
A: Zimmerman is in jail in Sanford.
Police said Zimmerman was bleeding from his nose
and the back of his head. He told police he had yelled
© Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights
out for help before he shot Martin.
reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Q: WHAT IS THE MARTIN FAMILY'S SIDE
___________________________________________
OF THE STORY?
A: Much of Martin's side of the story comes from a
Paris gives all highschool girls free, taxpayerfunded ‘contraception passes’
cellphone conversation he had with his girlfriend
by Jeanne Smits, Paris correspondent
moments before the shooting. She was interviewed
by the family's attorney, Benjamin Crump, and he
March 23, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Starting April
released much of what she said to the news media.
25th, every girl enrolled in a high school or
She has not been identified.
apprenticeship school in Paris and its region will be
issued with a “contraception pass,” including four
In the interview, she said Trayvon Martin told her
vouchers for a medical appointment, a blood sample,
that he was being followed.
and three to six months’ worth of region-funded
hormonal contraceptives.
34
The “Ile-de-France” regional council voted in favor
While minors have the right to have personal and
of the measure – and budget – by a large majority in
confidential medical appointments, the system allows
June last year. The measure has one clear objective:
parents to check when a consultation has taken place
to ensure underage girls have access to free and
and whether medication has been prescribed to their
anonymous contraceptive advice and prescription at
children. Proponents of free and anonymous
school without parental knowledge or consent.
contraception say girls fear that their family doctor
The plan is now well underway and is targeting girls
will tell their parents if they ask for the pill.
aged about 14 to 18. Boys of the same age will be
Segolène Royal’s original idea has now been taken
receiving similar material including “sexual health”
up in the Paris region, which will be pioneering the
advice and condoms.
initiative. Politically, consensus has been obtained at
Some 150,000 youngsters should be getting the
“pass” this school year, at a potential cost of 59 to
204 euros ($85 to $290 U.S.) per person, paid for by
the taxpayer.
The idea of giving girls under 18 direct access to the
pill and other hormonal devices originally emerged in
the Poitou-Charentes region. The president of the
region, Ségolène Royal, former presidential candidate
the regional council, where leftist, green and center
parties voted for the measure, while the presidential
party, UMP, abstained from voting.
Meanwhile, official directives from the Health and
Sports Ministry to regional health authorities in
December, also insist on the necessity of ensuring
underage girls have easy, free and anonymous access
to contraceptives.
in 2007, decided in 2009 to issue similar vouchers to
Adolescent abortions are on the rise in France, and
high school students because many girls in rural areas
now represent about 5% of total abortions.
had no easy access to family planning centers.
Contraception and sexual education are being
At the time the French ministry of education was
opposed to the move and local education authorities
presented as the only possible way to bring the
statistics down.
also refused to cooperate. They argued that family
At the same time, however, France already holds
planning centers should alone be responsible for
what is practically considered as a world record for
issuing minors with contraceptives, thus forcing
“contraceptive coverage” of fertile women – over
Royal to revise her plan.
95% of fertile women who are sexually active are
She then decided the regional council would provide
doctors with “contraceptive checks” for young girls,
but few girls seem to have taken advantage of the
system.
now using some form of contraception. While that
percentage has been going up, the number of
abortions is not going down: 77% of abortions are
performed on women who were using some form of
contraception when they conceived.
Ségolène Royal was also responsible for
implementing the distribution of the morning-after
pill by all high school nurses in 2003.
In the French social security system, children and
Copyright © 2010 LifeSiteNews.com, Inc. All rights
reserved.
young people are insured under their parent’s names.
35
September 22, 2011
Single-Sex Education Is Assailed in Report
By TAMAR LEWIN
Single-sex education is ineffective, misguided and
may actually increase gender stereotyping, a paper to
College in California. She is an expert witness in
litigation in which the American Civil Liberties
Union is challenging single-sex classes — which
have been suspended — at a school in Vermilion
Parish, La.
be published Friday asserts.
Arguing that no scientific evidence supports the idea
The report, “The Pseudoscience of Single Sex
Schooling,” to be published in Science magazine by
eight social scientists who are founders of the
nonprofit American Council for CoEducational
Schooling, is likely to ignite a new round of debate
and legal wrangling about the effects of single-sex
education.
It asserts that “sex-segregated education is deeply
misguided and often justified by weak, cherry-picked
or misconstrued scientific claims rather than by valid
scientific evidence.”
But the strongest argument against single-sex
education, the article said, is that it reduces boys’ and
girls’ opportunities to work together, and reinforces
sex stereotypes. “Boys who spend more time with
other boys become increasingly aggressive,” the
article said. “Similarly, girls who spend more time
with other girls become more sex-typed.”
that single-sex schooling results in better academic
outcomes, the article calls on the Education
Department to rescind its 2006 regulations
weakening the Title IX prohibition against sex
discrimination in education. Under those rules,
single-sex classes may be permitted as long as they
are voluntary, students have a substantially equal
coeducational option and the school reasonably
believes separation will produce better academic
outcomes.
Russlynn H. Ali, the assistant secretary for civil
rights at the Education Department, said it was
reviewing the research. “There are case studies that
have been done that show some benefit of single-sex,
but like lots of other educational research, it’s
mixed,” she said. “When you’re talking about
separating students, treating them differently, you
want to do it in a way that’s constitutional, and you
want to make sure that there is adequate justification.
The authors are psychologists and neuroscientists
We certainly want to safeguard against stereotyping.”
from several universities who have researched and
written on sex differences and sex roles. The Science
article is not based on new research, but rather is a
review of existing research and writing.
The article comes at a time when single-sex
education is on the rise. There were only two singlesex public schools in the mid-1990s; today, there are
more than 500 public schools in 40 states that offer
The lead author, Diane F. Halpern, is a past president
some single-sex academic classes or, more rarely, are
of the American Psychological Association who
entirely single sex.
holds a chair in psychology at Claremont McKenna
36
Many of them began separating the sexes because of
The authors of the article, though, say that because
a belief that boys and girls should be taught
there is no good scientific research backing such a
differently that grew out of popular books, speeches
choice, the government cannot lawfully offer single-
and workshops by Michael Gurian, Leonard Sax and
sex education in public schools.
others.
The article cites a review commissioned by the
Dr. Sax, executive director of the National
Education Department, comparing single-sex and
Association of Single Sex Public Education, was
coed outcomes, concluding that, “as in previous
singled out for criticism in the Science article, for his
reviews,” the results are equivocal.
teachings that boys respond better to energetic,
confrontational classrooms while girls need a gentler
touch.
The article also said that research in other countries,
and data from the Program for International Student
Assessment, also found little overall difference
“A loud, cold classroom where you toss balls around,
between single-sex and coed academic outcomes.
like Dr. Sax thinks boys should have, might be great
for some boys, and for some girls, but for some boys,
it would be living hell,” Dr. Halpern said in an
interview. She said that while girls are better readers
and get better grades, and boys are more likely to
have reading disabilities, that does not mean that
educators should use the group average to design
While some studies have found better outcomes from
single-sex schools, the article said, the purported
advantages disappear when outcomes are corrected
for pre-existing differences. For example, Chicago’s
Urban Prep Charter Academy for Young Men, a
school whose high college admissions rates were
different classrooms. “It’s simply not true that boys
praised this year by Secretary of Education Arne
and girls learn differently,” she said. “Advocates for
Duncan, was subsequently criticized by the scholar
single-sex education don’t like the parallel with racial
Diane Ravitch as having test results that were
segregation, but the parallels are there. We used to
believe that the races learned differently, too.”
Dr. Sax criticized the article on many counts, and
said it did not fairly reflect his current views. He
vehemently rejected the comparison to racial
actually lower than average on basic skills.
“This is very much a live issue, and I think it’s
snowballing,” said Galen Sherwin, a staff lawyer for
the Women’s Rights Project of the A.C.L.U., who is
handling the Louisiana case. “I see news stories every
segregation, and the use of the term “sex
single week about new proposals, usually based on
segregation.” Legally, race is a suspect category,
the idea that boys and girls learn differently. Often
while sex is not.
it’s people who have attended training programs by
Sax or Gurian, saying these programs will cater to
“We are not asserting that every child should be in a
boys’ and girls’ specific learning styles.”
single-sex classroom, we are simply saying that there
should be a choice,” Dr. Sax said in an interview.
37
Much of the impetus for single-sex public schooling
flawed so that they can fit in with their peers, experts
say.
came from popular books like Mary Pipher’s
“Reviving Ophelia” and, especially, a 1992 report by
the American Association of University Women,
“How Schools Shortchange Girls.” But by 1998,
when the association issued another report, saying
that single-sex schooling was not the solution to
problems of gender equity, the pendulum had swung,
with boys’ difficulties in school receiving more
attention, in part because of books like Dr. Sax’s
“Why Gender Matters” and Mr. Gurian’s “The
Wonder of Boys.”
________________________________________
Teens Choose Plastic Surgery to Boost SelfEsteem
By VICTORIA THOMPSON
Nov. 24, 2010
Most teens love the mirror, spending hours in front of
it experimenting with hairstyles, makeup and fashion.
But thousands of them are so deeply dissatisfied by
what they see each year that they try to permanently
change the image reflected in the glass; through
plastic surgery.
"I have really low self-esteem," Caitlin Clemons, 18,
said in the days before her breast augmentation
surgery.
Watching her mother and sister gain confidence after
undergoing their own breast enlargements convinced
the Galveston, Texas, woman that the surgery could
do the same for her.
"Once I saw how happy she was, I knew I could be
that happy," Clemons said of her sister. "I'll have
confidence. It definitely made me want the surgery
more. Once my mother got hers and I saw it can be
done, it really clicked in my mind that I can do this."
Nearly 210,000 cosmetic plastic surgery procedures
were performed on people age 13 to 19 in 2009,
according to the American Society of Plastic
Surgeons. While adults tend to have plastic surgery to
stand out from the crowd, teens tend to have surgery
to change the parts of their body they believe are
Clemons is no exception. "I have always been the
friend with small breasts, unlike everyone else," she
said.
"I was tired of being teased about it. I've always
judged myself. I've always looked at my friends, my
sister and just kind of picked at myself, picked at my
body and pulled out every imperfection that I could
find."
The most popular procedure among teens is a nose
job, also known as rhinoplasty. Nearly 35,000 U.S.
teenagers had their noses surgically reshaped last
year, according to the American Society of Plastic
Surgeons.
Teens sometimes emboldened by the results of one
plastic surgery opt for another procedure on a
different body part. Tracey Karp is one of them.
Happy with the results of her breast enlargement at
age 17, she returned to her plastic surgeon two years
later for a nose job.
"He did a breast augmentation on me two years ago,"
said Karp, who also lives in the Houston area. "And
that went super well, so he made me feel very
comfortable."
Teens' Favorites: Nose Jobs, Breast Enlargements
Karp was scheduled for surgery for a deviated
septum when she asked her parents for permission to
add rhinoplasty to the procedure. Knowing her
yearning for the procedure, they agreed, in part to
ensure that she was in the hands of a qualified
surgeon.
"The fact that she was going to be shortly coming of
age, where she could go out and do it behind our
backs, we didn't want that to happen," her father, Jeff
Karp, said.
Looks are a top concern for his daughter, who works
out frequently at her gym. She calls herself
"definitely obsessive" about her physical image.
"I put pressure on myself to look a certain way for
sure, as, I would assume, most girls do at my age,"
Karp said. "I can always find things to change. I'm
like, ugh, I'm only 19 and I have wrinkles."
Another favorite procedure among teen girls is breast
augmentation, despite the Food and Drug
38
Administration's having approved implants only for
people 18 and older, although doctors are free to use
their discretion for girls.
About 8,000 girls age 13 to 19 had their breasts
enlarged last year, according to the American Society
of Plastic Surgeons. And 2,953 of them were age 18
and younger.
"I was barely a double A cup. I just really didn't feel
feminine at all," said Karp, who was 17 when she and
her older sister both had their breasts enlarged.
Their mother, Caroline Karp, said the physical
change has sparked an emotional transformation. "It
has definitely changed their self-esteem," she said.
St. Paul admonishes us: “Do you not know that your
body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which
you have from God?” (1 Cor 6:19). Being a temple of
the Holy Spirit, we owe our body due care and
protection and decorum. In some cultures, a special
bodily mark or design – on the forehead, for example
– signifies a certain attainment or marital status, or
whatever, and is socially acceptable. Ethiopian
Christians, to name one group, wear tattoo crosses on
their foreheads. In Samoa, it was once a widespread
custom to tattoo the eldest son or daughter of the
local ruling family. In Western societies, earrings and
makeup are acceptable as a part of feminine fashions
and public presentability. But certain types of body
piercing and decorations in our society are extreme
and unjustified, and some of them are motivated by
anti-Christian sentiments.
"They feel much better about themselves."
Clemons was looking forward to a similar
metamorphosis as she was wheeled into surgery,
having instructed her doctor to make her breasts big
enough to fill a voluptuous C-cup size bra. That
morning, she faced the mirror and said her final
goodbyes to her old image.
"I was like, 'Goodbye, old body,'" she said.
After the surgery, she said she was in pain but was
certain she'd be happy in the end.
"It feels like somebody's been throwing bricks at my
breasts," Clemons said. "The pain won't last forever.
So I do think it will be worth it."
http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/teen-plasticsurgery/story?id=12163764
__________________________________________
The Morality of Tattoos and Body Piercing
by Father Peter Joseph – Summer 2002
Many upright people are repelled by modern fads and
fashions, such as tattooing, multiple earrings and
other body piercing, but feel unequipped to give a
clear judgment on the morality of such practices, or
to rebut the charge that they are elevating their
personal preferences into a moral code. In this article,
I will set out some criteria that are relevant to making
a moral judgment on these things.
In the Old Testament, the Chosen People were
specifically commanded: “You shall not make any
cuttings in your flesh…or tattoo any marks upon you:
I am the Lord” (Leviticus 19:28). Inspired by God,
It would be impossible to give black-and-white
judgments on all bodily decorations. But we can
point to a few negative aspects that should be of
concern to a Christian. Unless otherwise stated, this
article will refer to Western societies only. I will treat
the more serious concerns first and then the less
serious.
1. Diabolical images. Tattoos of demons are quite
common, yet no Christian should ever sport an image
of a devil or a Satanic symbol.
2. Exultation in the ugly. This is a mark of the
Satanic, which hates the beauty of God’s creation and
tries to destroy it and to ruin others’ appreciation of
it. More than just being ugly, some body piercing is
the expression of delight in being ugly.
We recognize bad taste in tattoos, rings and studs, by
looking at their nature, size, extent and place on the
body. Ironically, even florid and colorful tattoos fade
over time and end up looking dark and dreary. When
one considers how, in concentration camps, prisoners
were treated like animals and branded on their arm
with a number, it is amazing to think that people
today adopt similar markings as if they were
fashionable or smart. This is truly the sign of a return
to barbarity, the behavior of people who do not have
any sense of the dignity of the human person.
3. Self-mutilation and self-disfigurement. This is a
sin against the body and against the Fifth
Commandment. Some body piercing verges on selfmutilation. At best, multiple body piercing is selfinflicted abuse. A form of self-hatred or self-rejection
motivates some to pierce themselves or decorate
themselves in a hideous and harmful fashion. The
39
human body was not made by God to be a pin
cushion or a mural.
4. Harm to health. Doctors have spoken publicly on
this health issue. In 2001, researchers at both the
University of Texas and the Australian National
University reported on harm to health caused by
tattoos and body piercing. Some earrings (on the
navel, tongue or upper ear) are unhealthy and cause
infections or lasting harm such as deformities of the
skin. They can also poison the blood for some time
(septicaemia). Certain piercings (e.g., on the nose,
eyebrows, lip, tongue) do not close over even when
the object is removed. Such body piercing, therefore,
is immoral, since we should not endanger health
without a reasonable motive. When done
unhygienically, tattoos and piercing cause infection.
A used instrument, if not properly sterilized, can
transmit hepatitis or HIV.
Some have hoped to avoid health dangers by getting
“henna” tattoos, which are painted on rather than
done with needles. Henna staining is an ancient
Hindu wedding custom of painting floral designs on
the feet and hands. A German Medical Association
report this year found that tourists returning home
with hennas done in Bali and Bangkok, among other
places, were going to the doctor because of severe
skin infections and sometimes lifelong allergies. In
some cases also, the coloring agent used meant that
the tattoo faded away, but after several weeks of skin
irritation, the design reappeared in the form of a
reddish tattoo, often very painful for the patient.
Allergies developed from 12 hours to a week after the
application of the henna, causing intense itching,
redness, blistering and scaling.
5. A desire to shock and repel. It can be appropriate
to shock people, as for example, when one recounts
the plight of poor and hungry people, or protests
against crimes or terrible exploitation. This can be a
healthy thing, when done properly and with due care,
to arouse people out of complacency, so that they
realize something must be done. But to shock people
for the thrill of shocking people, with no intention to
promote truth and goodness, is not a virtue, but a sign
of a perverted sense of values.
In evaluating tattoos under this heading of
repulsiveness, we look at the nature of the images,
the size and number of the tattoos, and their place on
the body. In evaluating piercings, we consider
similarly their extent and location on the body.
6. Indecency and irreverence. It is always immoral to
get or exhibit tattoos of indecent images or phrases,
or derisive figures of Our Lord or His Mother or holy
things.
7. Signs of a sexual disorientation. Pirates used to be
the only males who wore earrings (for whatever
reason!) while sailors and side-show freaks were just
about the only people with tattoos. What was once so
restricted has now spread to wider sections of the
community. In the 1970s, an earring worn by a man
in the left ear, or the right, or both, was a code-sign of
his personal orientation and thus a form of picking up
partners. As such, it was blatantly immoral, and
generally an advertisement of one’s immorality.
Earrings in boys and men are so common now that
they have lost that significance, but they are never
positively demanded by social requirements, as a suit
and tie are socially required on certain formal
occasions. Even admitting the lack of clear
symbolism now, I would expect any seminary to tell
any inquirer that he would have to remove any
earring or stud before entering, and question him as
to when he started wearing it and why. A seminarian
or priest sporting an earring is not socially acceptable
in the Catholic Church. A good number of
parishioners would wonder about the deeper reasons
or motivation. No one in such a public position starts
to wear an earring without making a deliberate
decision. As a wise old Jesuit priest said to me once,
“No one changes externals without having changed
internals.” It is regarded as what people call “making
a statement.” The same code of expected conduct
applies to men in other professions, such as
policemen or teachers.
Employers and principals should make rules
outlawing any such jewelry for male staff and
students. Especially for the young, such rules protect
them both from themselves and from peer pressure.
The fact is that, still today, earrings are prevalent
among females, and in minority use among males.
8. Unsuitability. Sometimes people tattoo themselves
with a big image of a crucifix or other holy pictures.
The human body is a most unsuitable place for such
an image, even if it be a beautiful one. Whenever
these people go swimming, for example, they are
exhibiting this image in an inappropriate fashion. No
priest would ever go down to a shopping center in
Mass vestments, not because there is something
wrong with vestments, but because there is a time
and a place for donning special religious symbols.
40
9. Vanity. Some men in particular tattoo their upper
and lower arms in order to be ostentatious and
impressive. It is a means of drawing attention to
themselves. No one who meets them can fail to
notice the tattoos – to the point at which it is in fact a
constant distraction. It detracts from the person, and
focuses attention too much on the body’s external
appearance. The same can be said for a stud on the
tongue, a ring in the nose, or earrings all over one’s
ears and eyebrows. These are not part of our culture;
at most, they are part of a certain subculture, a
minority affectation, devoid of religious or positive
social significance. No one is saying it is wrong to
dress up, but here it is a question of moderation and
discretion. Sacred Scripture implicitly recognizes that
it is good for a bride to be adorned for her husband
when the heavenly Jerusalem is compared to such a
woman (Apoc. 21:2). It is good for a lady to be well
dressed and to use makeup when the occasion calls
for it, but everyone recognizes when the
embellishment has gone over the top and makes her
look seductive or cheap.
10. Immaturity and imprudence. An action acceptable
or indifferent in itself can become wrong if the
intention or motive is wrong. Some young people
adopt outrageous fashions out of an immature desire
to rebel against society or against their parents. Such
disobedience against parents is sinful. Some do it out
of an immature desire to conform to their friends, and
others out of an equally immature desire to stick out
from everyone around them. Some do it out of
boredom, because it is something different, because it
gives them a thrill, because it is something for their
friends to admire and comment on. Mindless
following of fads is always the mark of immaturity.
For young people who live at home under their
parents’ authority, it is enough if their parents express
their disapproval of such fashions to know that they
should not go ahead. Some young people go to
further extremes and vie with each other as to who
can pierce whatever part of the body the most.
Parents must forbid such behavior absolutely.
Young people can hardly justify the big expenditure
(not to mention the pain) involved in getting a tattoo.
It is also unjustified and just plain silly to mark your
body for life with images of no great worth or with
the name of one’s current lover. A recent example I
heard of gives an idea of the time and expense: a
young girl had one arm tattooed up and down. It
required two four-hour sessions and cost $1,000
(American).
Tattoos are more serious than other adornments since
they are more or less permanent marks on the body.
Many a man or woman have been tattooed gladly in
youth, but regretted it not so many years later when
they came to regard it as an embarrassing
disfigurement. Once they mature, they pay dearly for
the luxury of getting rid of it. The removal of tattoos
is expensive and difficult – and can leave scars. The
removal of big tattoos requires surgery under a
general anaesthetic, with all the potential risks, plus
the significant medical and hospital costs. The
removal of large tattoos can leave big segments of the
skin permanently disfigured or blotched, like skin
that has been burnt. Many adults find themselves
ineligible for some jobs, because businesses will not
employ them with their hands covered in tattoos,
impossible to conceal years after their youthful folly.
Universal Criteria
In any culture, things can arise, become acceptable,
and become part of the culture – but this does not
necessarily make them right. Here are some examples
from foreign cultures that I regard as equally wrong.
In one tribe of Africa, women wear gigantic and
heavy earrings that change the shape of the earlobes.
In another place, women put coils around their necks
and elongate them unnaturally, or put plates in their
mouths to make the lips protrude some inches. In
China, there was once the practice of binding girls’
feet tightly to stop them from growing, because
small, dainty feet were admired. These and other
drastic alterations to the natural growth of the human
body must be judged immoral, as forms of abuse
springing from vanity.
It is not always possible to draw an exact line and say
where the bounds of moderation have been exceeded.
But this does not mean that there is no line. No one
can define at what exact temperature a day passes
from being cool to cold, but everyone knows that
when the temperature is near zero, it is cold beyond
dispute. Let us never fall for the ploy that tries to
argue from borderline or difficult cases that there are
no guidelines or principles, and that there is no such
thing as a just mean or moderation, just because they
are hard to define.
The human body is meant to be treated with care, not
maltreated or disfigured. Its dignity and beauty must
be kept and cultivated, in order that it be an
expression of the deeper beauty of the soul.
Father Peter Joseph is vice-rector and lecturer in
dogma at Vianney College, the diocesan seminary of
Wagga Wagga, Australia.
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© 1999 – 2007 Keep the Faith, Inc. All Rights
reserved
http://www.latinmassmagazine.com/articles/articles_
2002_SU_Joseph.html
__________________________________________
The public school uniform debate has been an issue
for educators, parents, and students for years. This
article has information on the pros and cons of public
school uniform from educators', parents', and
students' views.
While school uniforms are typically found in private
schools, it may have only been in 1987 that the first
public school "Cherry Hill Elementary in Baltimore,
MD" instituted a school uniform policy. Then, in
1994, the Long Beach Unified School District in
California adopted a mandatory uniform policy in
some of its schools, making it the first urban district
to do so. Though public school uniform use is not
widespread, it is growing. The question of what
students should wear to school rouses strong feelings
on both sides. Here are some arguments for and
against the use of school uniforms.
Reasons For and Against School Uniforms
Educators, parents, and students site many reasons in
favor of school uniforms:
 School administrators face a complicated
task setting a dress code: with inappropriate
coverage (for example, strapless, halter,
and midriff tops and too-short skirts and
shorts) and inappropriate insignia (for
example, slogans for alcohol and cigarettes
and clothing with vulgar language or
representing otherwise objectionable
connections, such as gang membership), it
may be easier to have a uniform than to
detail and enforce independently chosen
clothing.
 Dress code aside, the interest in fashion and
fad combined with peer pressure can lead
to pressure to spend money that some
families can ill afford: school uniforms
refocus this issue.
 Wearing of school uniforms prevents the
formation of dress-identified cliques
 The wearing of school uniforms emphasizes
membership and group identity, fostering a
community spirit.
 Crimes involving stealing items of apparel
are unlikely to be perpetrated if everyone’s
apparel is identical.
 Because students can be easily identified,
intruders in the school setting can be more
readily identified and students on field trips
are more easily accounted for.
 The wearing of school uniforms helps
students to realize that a person’s unique
gifts and personality traits go deeper than
their apparel and aren’t diminished by
uniform dress.
Other educators, parents, and students are opposed to
school uniforms and give reasons like the following:
 Uniforms interfere with students’ rights for
self-expression.
 Uniforms are an unnecessary expense and
can create an economic hardship
themselves.
 Uniforms are an unnecessary exertion of
power by administrators who don’t know
how to exercise responsible authority.
 The wearing of uniforms does not prevent
the formation of cliques or gangs.
 The wearing of uniforms does not prevent
students from expressing unpopular or
inappropriate views in other ways.
 School uniforms can be ugly and/or
unflattering, and having to wear something
unattractive or unflattering is not good for
students’ self-image.
 The wearing of uniforms my delay or
prevent students from having to learn how
to get alongside of people whose personal
taste differs markedly from their own and
which they may find unappealing.
 The wearing of school uniforms may give
students the impression that conformity is
the way to prevent conflict, and this is not
an appropriate message for schools to send.
The National Association of Elementary School
Principals (NAESP), which includes middle level
principals, has not taken an official stand on school
uniforms, leaving it to be decided school-by-school.
___________________________________________
Private schools often require students to wear school
uniforms. Some public schools are now adopting
42
uniform policies. Keep reading for information on
public school uniform statistics and the ongoing
school uniform debate.
While school uniforms are typically found in private
schools, it may have only been in 1987 that the first
public school--Cherry Hill Elementary in Baltimore,
MD--instituted a school uniform policy. Then, in
1994, the Long Beach Unified School District in
California adopted a mandatory uniform policy in
some of its schools, making it the first urban district
to do so. The adoption of school uniforms for all
200,000 students by the Philadelphia Board of
Education in May, 2000 was another landmark.
Though public school uniform use is not widespread,
it is growing.
 Although the states with the most students
who wear school uniforms are the five big
population states: California, Florida,
Illinois, New York, and Texas, the ten
cities with the most students in uniform are
actually in eight different states and the
District of Columbia:
o Los Angeles/Long Beach, CA
o New York City, NY
o Houston, TX
o Philadelphia, PA
o Dallas/Fort Worth, TX
o Washington, DC
o New Orleans, LA
o Detroit, MI
o Jacksonville, FL
o Atlanta, GA
 Schools in 21 states and the District of
Columbia have some sort of uniform
requirements.
 Some cities have widespread uniform use in
their public schools:
o 95% of New Orleans’ public
schools require uniforms
o 85% of Cleveland’s public schools
require uniforms
o 80% of Chicago’s public schools
require uniforms
o 65% of Boston’s public schools
require uniforms
o 60% of Miami’s public schools
require uniforms
o 50% of Cincinnati’s public schools
require uniforms
 After the first public school began using
uniforms, there was a considerable increase
in the use of uniforms, partly fueled by
President Bill Clinton mentioning the
benefits of school uniforms in his inaugural
address in 1996, as indicated in a report
from the National Center for Education
Statistics (NCES):
o Prior to the 1994-1995 school year
only about three-quarters of one
percent of students in the US were
required to wear uniforms.
o By the 1996-1997 school year, that
number had increased about fourfold to 3 percent. • A marketing
research group, NDP Group, Inc.,
reported that school-uniform sales
were valued at $900 million in
1999 and rose 22% to $1.1 billion
in 2000.
 The National Association of Elementary
School Principals (NAESP) conducted a
phone survey of 755 principals in 2000,
which revealed that:
o 21% of all public schools had a
uniform policy
o 23% of all public, private, and
sectarian schools either had a
uniform policy, were in the
process of creating one, or had
firm plans in place to create one.
o 71% of the 755 schools represented
did not require uniforms and were
not considering requiring them.
 A case study of the effects of adopting
school uniforms in Long Beach, CA which
appeared in Psychology Today in
September, 1999, reported the following
effects from the switch to uniforms in
1995:
o Overall, the crime rate dropped by
91%
o School suspensions dropped by
90%
o Sex offenses were reduced by 96%
o Incidents of vandalism went down
69%
 Also reporting on the Long Beach Unified
School District, an Education Week article
in 1998 reported that since 1994, assaults in
grades Kindergarten through 8 had
decreased by 85%.
Public School Uniform Statistics Sources:
 findarticles.com
 nces.ed.gov
 ecs.org
43
 naesp.org
http://www.educationbug.org/a/public-schooluniform-statistics.html
http://www.educationbug.org/a/public-schooluniform-debate.html
44