Miami students should stay out of local issues
At this time last year, a local citizen group contacted Miami University's Associated Student Government and attempted to get them announce their support and vote for a large local property tax issue. ASG realized they were about to be "USED" and did not support the idea. The issue was soundly rejected by local voters.
However, this issue for a controversial new school building is on the ballot again next month on election day. If passed, it would put a property tax increase on local citizens for the next 28 years.
I believe that most Miami students will agree that this is an issue for local citizens to decide and will, therefore, refrain from voting "YES" or "NO" on this proposal local bond issue.
John M. TrumpProfessor Emeritus
Students have right to vote on district issue
I am writing in response to the Oct. 10 letter by Shirley Burgher ("Student voters should not vote for Tally issue"). Her letter contains some logical errors. Burgher correctly states that students will likely pay higher rents if a tax increase is approved, yet states that these students should not have a voice in the issue by voting. Isn't that taxation without representation? She further states that students should not vote on an issue that will affect taxpayers in the years to come, since students will probably leave the area within a few years, but who is to say that any voter-student or not-will still be in this district in future years? We cannot restrict voting based upon what we think out future residency will be, since that cannot be ascertained. Lastly, Miami students have the legal right to choose to vote in Oxford if they wish; by suggesting that they should not exercise their voting rights is-in my opinion-unpatriotic.
Lisa LoriganOxford residentLisa_lorigan@hotmail.com
'Take Back the Night' hurt by male involvement
I participated, probably for the last time, in the Women's Take Back the Night (WTBTN) march sponsored by Association for Women Students and the Women's Center. Joanne McQueen (a local Oxford woman) and I organized the first (WTBTN) march in Oxford in October 1978. Therese Edell and Betsy Lippitt (feminist singers/song writers) came and led the march with an original song. Sponsored by the Butler County chapter of the National Organization for Women, about 200 women and men took part in the March. It has occurred every year since and is now organized by students.
In the past few years, the choral response to the reading of sexual assault reports on women is, "For this person and all people, we march tonight." WTBTN has morphed into a gender neutral, politically-correct walk around campus. Sadly, I will no longer participate. I am not walking for all people to take back the night. What, people? Take back the night from whom? This began as one night out of the entire year when women could unite and walk for freedom. They would not be told-if assaulted-they should not have been out at night or be blamed for their assault. Women are not sexually assaulting men. Men own the night and the day and freedom of movement. Women are restricted to their homes, confined after dark, "for their own safety!" The very concept of WTBTN was to raise consciousness about the assaults women experience daily. It was designed to empower women to take back our lives and to actualize our right to freedom of movement for one night.
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Let's review some statistics: one in four college women experience completed or attempted rape during college; every two minutes a woman is sexually assaulted in America; 35 percent of men reported some likelihood of raping a woman if they could be assured of not being caught or punished; the U.S. Department of Justice estimates that 91 percent of victims of rape and sexual assault are female. Nearly 99 percent of the offenders are males.
I am not marching to give the night back to men. I am marching for women to walk freely and safely in their communities. Saying we are taking back the night for "all people" trivializes the assaults on women at the hands of men. The original 1978 chant, "Women Unite, Take Back the Night," sought to effect change and to save women's lives. Men, who care, can be allies to their mothers, sisters, girlfriends, etc., but we do not have to give them the night as well. They already own it.
Perhaps WTBTN has run its course and women need to find new strategies for awareness and change. I look to young women to find new avenues for empowerment and acknowledge their own strengths. I will support them in those efforts but not in "people taking back the night."
Kathy McMahon-Klostermanmcmahok@muohio.edu
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