The Rice Thresher, Vol. 89, No. 24, Ed. 1 Friday, March 22, 2002 Page: 3 of 36
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THE RICE THRESHER OPINION FRIDAY, MARCH 22, 2002
Irony is overrated
Sexual assaults too common in our community
On Monday, April 1, there's a
good chance you will see at least one
person at Rice wearing a teal T-shirt
with a number on the front. There
will, in fact, be 67 of these
people, each bearing a
different number. These
men and women will be
serving as stand-ins for
sexual assault survivors.
In 2000, a U.S. Depart-
ment of Justice study
found that 277 rapes per
10,000 female college stu-
dents occur annually. For
a student population com-
parable in size to Rice,
this figure translates to
67 sexual assaults each
year. Does that mean 67 Rice stu-
dents are raped every year? Possi-
bly. It could be two. Or 200. One
thing is certain, though: The num-
ber is larger than zero, and there-
fore too large. If sexual assault oc-
curs at all, at any time, anywhere,
with any frequency, a major prob-
lem exists. And it's everyone's prob-
lem.
We're reluctant to wage
war on rape unless it's
coupled with the war
on drugs.
None of us wants to hear that
someone on this campus was raped.
The very word "rape" seems to carry
a violence all its own as it reaches
our ears. To entertain the possibility
that it applies to our lives, right here,
right now, is to experience a viola-
tion of both our sense of security
and our trust in human goodness.
Still, this is nothing compared
with the violations experienced by
the women and men who have sur-
vived sexual assault. And I do mean
multiple violations; these individu-
als suffer not only the
degradation of rape but
also the loss of friends,
the inability to trust oth-
ers and the still-prevalent
notion that they are
somehow at fault for what
happened to them
because of their clothes
or behavior.
Those who are brave
enough to relate their ex-
periences to others are
frequently not believed
and perhaps even reviled
for "rocking the boat."
It isn't as if we are unaware that
rape is a problem worldwide. In the
last several months, we as a country
have been inundated with detailed
news articles and reports that de-
scribe the plight of women in the
Middle East who are sold as sex
slaves and subsequently disowned
by their families, as though they
were responsible for their own mis-
treatment. The news media and the
American public have, for the most
part, responded with both outrage
at such abuse and sympathy for the
victims, and rightly so.
Yet when sexual assault and
sexual victimization occur on our
own turf, many of us fail to respond
at all, let alone with outrage or sym-
pathy. Why? Because it's closer to
home, that's why. Because we hold
ourselves to be more progressive
and enlightened that the people
"over there." Because if we acknowl-
edged that rape happens here in the
United States, or at Rice, it would
reflect poorly on our community.
Well, let's get it over with: It does
happen here, and it does reflect
poorly on our community. The ques-
tion is whether we're going to do
something about it.
It's true that we've made some
progress in the last few years; we
have, for instance, become accus-
tomed on both a legal and a moral
level to the idea that we should pun-
ish people who use date rape drugs
to commit sexual assault.
It takes courage to
acknowledge that rape
happens, and that it
happens among us.
Unfortunately, in a situation
where these drugs aren't involved,
the rape is seldom even acknowl-
edged as such, and people are quick
to attach blame to the victim rather
than the perpetrator. Talk about an
embarrassing illustration of our
culture's priorities: We're reluctant
to wage war on rape unless it's
coupled with the war on drugs.
It takes courage to acknowledge
that rape happens, and that it hap-
pens among us. It takes even more
courage to listen to the story of a
rape survivor, and to try to offer help
when you know that ultimately there
is only so much you can do — that
there is no way to go back and "un-
rape" that person. But it also takes a
great deal of bravery for survivors to
talk about their experiences, and we
owe it to them to match their brav-
ery with our own. If we help them
speak up, and if we speak up with
them, we may eventually see the
number 67, or two, or 200, go down
to zero.
Raj Wahi (Wiess '99) is a graduate
student in chemistry.
Support the dominant paradigm
Misattribution mangles meanings, misinforms
"Corporations have been en-
throned and an era of corruption in
high places will follow," wrote Presi-
dent Abraham Lincoln mere months
before his assassination.
"The money power of the
country will endeavor to
prolong its reign by work-
ing upon the prejudices of
the people until all wealth
is aggregated in a few
hands and the Republic is
destroyed."
But did he truly say it?
The reality is that this
quote is a complete and
utter fabrication, although
you may have read it be-
fore. The Sierra Club, the Center for
Responsive Politics, the Alliance for
Democracy, Responsible Wealth
and countless other left-wing groups
have utilized it to further their own
ends.
Owen
Courreges
Famous persons are
routinely misquoted,
lies proliferate, and
todays mistake may
become tomorrow's
debacle.
Yet I am confident that none of
the offending organizations truly
realized they were perpetrating a
fraud; they believed the quote was
genuine, as authentic as the
Gettysburg Address.
After all, the erroneous Lincoln
quote has crept into many published
works.
Jack London's 1908 novel The
Iron Heel got the ball rolling. Archer
Shaw's The Lincoln Encyclopedia,
published in 1950, provided an aura
of legitimacy to the faux passage. In
recent years, books such
as Kalle Lasn's Culture
Jam: The Uncooling of
America and David
Korten's When Corpora-
tions Rule the World have
continued the tradition. In
short, there exist ample
sources of documentation
for the quote that have
duped many.
Now, one invariably
wonders: Where did
these words originate?
They are widely credited to a letter
written Nov. 21, 1864, to one Colo-
nel William F. Elkins, yet no such
document exists. Neither can an-
other popular citation, that of a dis-
patch to W.R. Ellis of Chicago, be
located among Lincoln's papers.
Paul F. Boiler, author of
Quotemanship: The Use and Abuse of
Quotations for Polemical and Other
Purposes, has shed light on this mys-
tery. According to Boiler, the quote
was fabricated by the early Popu-
lists during Reconstruction. It de-
buted during the Panic of 1873 as
agricultural prices began to collapse,
and was later brought forth during
the presidential election of 1888 to
illustrate Populist ideals.
By 1896 the quotation had be-
come something of an irritant for
the Lincoln faithful, especially for
John C. Nicolay, Lincoln's personal
secretary during the time the corre-
spondence was allegedly crafted. In-
deed, on Oct. 3, 1896, in the New
York Tribune, Nicolay affirmed that
the excerpt was "a bald, unblushing
forgery. The great president never
said it or wrote it, and never said or
wrote anything that by the utmost
license could be distorted to re-
semble it."
Yet the persistent little piece of
disinformation endured, coaxing its
way into modern political debates.
Alas, its saga is hardly unique —
another rogue Lincoln reference has
infected the minds of many a stal-
wart conservative, including that of
the Great Communicator, former
President Ronald Reagan.
"You cannot help the weak by
weakening the strong," Reagan pro-
claimed at the 1992 Republican Na-
tional Convention in Houston, quot-
See REAGAN, Page 4
Very well then, I contradict myself
Obscenity not an essential
ingredient of successful cheers
A historical reminder: One
year ago, the campus was up in
arms about the elimination of
some college cheers. A letter
signed by 160 students
said certain cheers were
offensive and misogy-
nistic.
The letter made it to
the university's legal
counsel, who deter-
mined that certain
cheers simply could not
continue to be used and
could not be taught at
university-sanctioned
events.
A lot of the frustra-
tion with the cheers last year was
due to the feeling of the student
body that we had been shafted
yet again by the administration.
With the KTRU shutdown, un-
wanted serveries, the crackdown
on Beer-Bike parade rules, the
Hanszen masters' house fiasco
and endless construction, the stu-
dent body had a lot to be angry
and cynical about. It seemed that
the cheers were just the next in
the line of strong-arm actions by
an administration with little re-
gard for the quality of student life.
At the time, the admin-
istration's involvement in the elimi-
nation of sexually harassing cheers
colored many opinions on the is-
sue. However, looking back, if
there had been no mandate from
above, it might have been a much
more appealing proposition.
Why didn't we, as students,
move to get rid of offensive cheers
earlier? I do not mean "we the stu-
dents who are offended," but rather
"we the entire student body."
The fact that a substantial por-
tion of the Rice population was
offended by certain cheers mat-
ters more than the question of
whether cheers are inherently of-
fensive. We should want to elimi-
nate the offensive cheers in order
to better include certain segments
of our college populations.
Ostensibly, cheers are fun and
help bond people to their college's
other members. But if a cheer is
seen as offensive by some mem-
bers, it can work in just the oppo-
site way. If we refuse to acknowl-
edge the fact that some people
are isolated by the cheers, it's
possible that the real reason we
want such cheers isn't for the good
of the college, but rather because
we like to yell expletives at the top
of our lungs.
Ben
Home
From the start of Orientation senior.
Week, those freshmen who are
offended by cheers have been
repeatedly marginalized by the col-
lege system. Uncomfortable with
cheers, they automati-
cally feel outcast, and
are probably less likely
to participate in college
activities.
Colleges are small,
so the loss of even a
single student can have
a significant negative
impact on the potential
of a college. Including
all people is important
not only for the sake of
the people themselves,
but also for the overall health of
the college. An inclusive college
is a strong college.
I am the foremost proponent
of cheers themselves. During O-
Week and Beer-Bike, having sev-
eral hundred people joining you
in a chant is a powerful, unifying
experience. I honestly think
cheers legitimately contribute to
the quality of life at Rice. When
students feel accepted, they are
happier, but it's important that all
students feel accepted, not just
those who are quick to swallow
college traditions.
The cheers that work most
toward college unity are those
that build up the cheering col-
lege. "Jones wins again!" is a lot
more effective than the combat-
ive "Baker women look like men."
Is adding a "sucks" to the end of
"Teeeeeeam Wiiiiiiess" really an
effective counter-cheer? In a word,
no. The unity is the strength.
Counter-cheers aren't necessar-
ily bad, but my point is that focus-
ing on one's own college pride is
strategically better.
It may be a strange hypoth-
esis, but it's possible Wiess' rabid
college spirit is due partly, or even
primarily, to a simple, unifying
cheer that doesn't isolate any of
its members and ignores the other
colleges entirely. Cheers that can-
not possibly alienate anyone build
stronger college unity.
Maybe it's legally possible to
argue that cheers are covered by
freedom of speech. Maybe not.
But in any case we shouldn't want
to scream cheers that offend the
people we're trying to unite. There
are plenty of other obnoxious
things to scream that are inoffen-
sive and unifying.
Ben Home is a Wiess College
the Rice Thresher
Leslie Liu, Robert Reichle
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Liu, Leslie & Reichle, Robert. The Rice Thresher, Vol. 89, No. 24, Ed. 1 Friday, March 22, 2002, newspaper, March 22, 2002; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth443138/m1/3/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.