Bar ban not a realistic option
I am writing in response to the article in Tuesday’s paper about the proposal of a bill banning anyone under 21 years of age to enter a bar. Frankly, this is one of the most unrealistic things I have ever heard. Many government officials have tried this before, only to end in utter failure.
The fact that you only have to be 18 years of age to be shipped off and possibly killed for your country, yet some believe people between 18 and 20 years of age should not be allowed to socialize in a bar, is beyond me. If the Louisiana Highway and Safety Commission thinks this attempt will keep people who are under 21 years of age from drinking, then they are sadly mistaken. If underage individuals want to drink, then it is find a way to do so.
In a college town such as this, going to the bars every once in awhile is what the students rely on to feel relaxed and pressure-free for a period of a few hours at night. Punishing everyone for the careless acts of some drunk drivers is not the way to solve this problem. I totally agree with the statement Tiffany Hierath released. She said the answer to this should be to increase the punishment for violators. I never have been a fan of the “innocent suffer for the guilty” method, and I too believe this would be a much better way to go about the situation at hand.
Bridget Conrad
Sophomore — Mass Communication
Keepng kids out of bars is a bad bet
LSU is one of the few college towns with bars open to people under the age of 21. As an 18-year-old, I always thought of this as an added bonus to my college experience; however, with the possibility of laws going into effect that would prevent anyone under 21 from going into a bar, I see this “loophole” has been keeping many students out of trouble.
A law merely would mandate the party to move from the controlled setting of the bar to the uncontrollable setting of house parties. Apartments and fraternity houses would become disasterously wild. Students would create their own bars with no rules. Drunk driving, date rapes and drug usage would increase.
I have talked to friends who go to other colleges with similar laws, and that is the way things are there. The students take more risks because they have to so they can find the party environment. Underage drinking always will occur, but with new laws, it surely will increase. Students just will get more creative, breaking the law in new ways and breaking new laws altogether.
Kim Moreau
Freshman — Mass Communication
Women must take responsibility
As a young woman, I find the threat of rape to be a constant presence lurking in the back of mind. As a human being, I feel brutalization in any form is appalling and inexcusable. That being said, I still have to agree with Adrienne Breaux’s assertion both parties were at fault in the rape case recently brought before the California Supreme Court.
There has to come a point where we as women take responsibility for our own safety. If this were a perfect world, we would be able to walk naked down dark alleys without fear, but we live in the real world, where bad things happen even to the most cautious of women. We all know there are certain things we can do to keep ourselves out of situations similar to that of the young woman mentioned in Tuesday’s article; getting naked with two teenage boys and consenting to have sex with one doesn’t exactly fall into this category of preventative action.
But then there’s the fact that she said “no,” if one considers the statement “I have to go home” to be so forceful and clear-cut as that. As Adrienne pointed out, that statement, without any physical resistance, leaves room for interpretation. Anyone who’s ever been in a relationship knows communication isn’t always strong between men and women. If we can manage to get a message skewed in regular conversation, imagine how easy it is to misinterpret someone’s meaning during sexual intercourse.
Women have the right to dress however provocatively we choose and not suffer unwanted advances or to become physically intimate without having to “go all the way,” but men also have the right to take a woman at her word when she says yes and not be labeled as rapists later on down the line. If people are allowed to rescind consent in the middle of intercourse, what happens when someone decides after the fact maybe they weren’t sure?
Soon, we’ll be signing permission slips just to make sure all parties are willing before, during and after sex.
Christina Mickens
Sophomore — Mass Communication