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OPINION
MONDAY. APRIL 18, 2005
PAGE 7A
WWW.KANSAN.COM
BEELER'S PERSPECTIVE
Nate Beeler/THE EXAMINER
FILOSOFO GALLEGO
Moral legal decision undercut integrity of U.S. court system
Over the preceding weeks, there has been much debate regarding the actions, or lack thereof, in the Terry Schiavo case. Many of these debates have been poorly reasoned, failing to tackle the true issue at hand. Law in the United States is not a system of
DEVIN SIKES
dssikes@kansan.com
moral beliefs; rather, it is a legal system that has been established to ensure equal protection for all individuals under the law.
Using morality as a legal guideline would be devastating for the rule of law in the United States.
Ruling in accord with a decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, the judges of the Florida Supreme Court were justified in their decision of the Terry Schiavo case. In Cruzan v. Missouri Department of Health in 1990, the U.S. Supreme Court granted an individual the right to deny life-sustaining treatment.
In his decision, Chief Justice William Rehnquist ruled that each individual has the right to "deny the use of artificial nutrition and hydration."
This decision does not sup-
the fears of the "tyranny of the majority," identified throughout history by Plato, Aristotle and James Madison.
posed of Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus and atheists. To endorse the morality of a majority as a legal guideline would be to deny the idea of equality as granted in the founding doctrines of our country. Elevating the power of the majority would be to play into
Despite its legal validity, many individuals feel that Michael Schiavo's actions were immoral.
Why, then, should we not appeal to these moral grounds that many individuals regard to be important? Because the United States is a conglomerate of a multiplicity of cultures and religions, what morality should we then follow?
The legal system in the United States is by no means a system without imperfection. It is, however,the best system to ensure that citizens are equally protected under the law.
In such a society, citizens would be subject to the moral beliefs of the majority. Justifying one moral system as law over another is thus a very
port, however, the "right to die." In the physician-assisted suicide case of Washington v. Glucksburg in 1997, Rehnquist affirmed that the Cruzan case was not to be understood as a "right to die" case; Rehnquist only reasoned that an individual had the right to deny artificial life-sustaining treatment.
Terri. Schiavo's husband, Michael Schiavo, was acting legitimately as the legal guardian of his wife. Acting under the law, Michael Schiavo's request was legally justified.
The population of the United States is com-
problematic task for our nation
Further, basing decisions solely on morality, the rule of law in the United States would become obsolete.
Decisions based on morality depend upon the totality of the circumstances, or in other words, the elements that constitute any given situation. Under the rule of morality, an individual could be subject to an unfair punishment instantiated by the beliefs of a given moral system.
The rule of law avoids this
Without a rule of law, individuals have no clear guidelines to follow. Therefore, citizens would have no definite knowledge of the rules by which they are legally bound.
by establishing clear guidelines so that every citizen has fair warning of, and understands, the aforementioned rules of the legal system.
The judges of the Florida Supreme Court have prolonged the protection of this equality by denying an appeal made by the parents of Terri. Schiavo, who were no longer the legal guardians of their daughter. Maintaining the separation of morality and law will ensure the proliferation of equality under the law for all citizens of the United States.
The legal system of the United States is by no means a system without imperfection. It is, however, the best system to ensure that citizens are equally protected under the law.
- Sikes is a Wichita senior in philosophy and Spanish.
A PRINCE IN THE PULPIT
Kansas Relays opportunity to witness purest sport
Do you know what the rest of the world calls track and field? Athletics. If you had asked for a ticket to track and field in Athens last summer, they would not have understood you. Webster defines the word athlete as a person who is trained or skilled in sports.
PETE PRINCE
pprince@kansan.com
It is what all other sports boil down to in the end.
Who is the better athlete? Track and field, or athletics, answers who is the best athlete in specific situations; a long run, a short sprint, throwing a 16-pound ball, or jumping for distance.
Olympic champions in athletics have honed their bodies for years to do one specific thing better.
Track and field is simple to define, but incomprehensibly difficult to do.
Each moment of training must be perfect; a single day missed can mean missed opportunities. In basketball we see people who haven't competed in weeks come back and regain their form in a game or two.
Not training or competing for a few weeks in track and
field can mean the loss of an entire season. Even so, the best athletes around the world are doing their best and working their hardest, and in the end, the final straightaway does not have as much to do with your years of training but rather, how much heart and desire you have left in you to win.
To glance over, and see the person next to you straining to beat you and to rise up and stride ahead with sheer willpower at the end. That is the moment that track athletes live for. They live to finish the race and know that they won simply because they were better. There are no lucky bounces or blown calls — Texas 27, Kansas 23 — in track. if you win, you're better.
Come to the Kansas Relays on Saturday to watch Charlie Gruber a Jayhawk who should be as famous as Aaron Miles, Keith Langford or Wayne Simien.
Not a single person on our campus has the faintest idea what it's like to be an Olympic champion, or even an Olympic medalist. On Saturday April 23rd, that will change. Olympic champions Marion Jones, Maurice Green, Stacy Dragila and Allen Johnson will be running and jumping in Memorial Stadium.
The Kansas Relays are showing signs of returning to their glory days when they were one of the most major competitions on U.S. soil each year. Come to the Relays on Saturday to watch the best athletes in the world compete.
Besides the Olympic champions, also headlining the Relais is Charlie Gruber, our local U.S.
track.
Olympian who competed in Athens last summer. Gruber, a Jayhawk track alum, still lives and trains in Lawrence and he is returning to the Relays this year. Two years ago, Gruber took down the golden boy of U.S. middle-distance running, Alan Webb, on the Memorial Stadium
Webb will not be in attendance this year, but now others will come to challenge Gruber on his home turf. A former U.S. champion from Stanford, K-State's middle distance star and the three best current Jayhawks will toe the line with Gruber. The competition is stiff and it will be a close race, but Gruber will be there to try to push back all challengers.
season form
Come to the Relays on Saturday to watch Gruber, a Jayhawk who should be as famous as Aaron Miles, Keith Langford or Wayne Simien.
For many of the professional athletes, including Gruber, the Relays will be the starting point, the platform to build off of for the rest of their season, which stretches into August. But, the collegians should be getting into mid-
The Olympic champion Dragila will have to tangle with our own Amy Linnen, who recently won the NCAA championship in the women's pole vault.
U. S. Olympian Derrick Peterson, from the University of Missouri, will again have the unenviable task of dealing with All-American Jeremy Mims, a senior at KU. Last weekend, Mims beat the best runner in Missouri history. Come to the Relays on Saturday to watch our Jayhawks beat the best.
Maurice Green can run football's 40 in 3.8, almost a half second faster than the quickest NFL players. Former Jayhawk Scott Russell could throw a spear from the steps of Fraser Hall and hit the library.
Charlie Gruber can run a full mile at a speed faster than most of you can reach in an all-out sprint. Track and field — athletics — is a showcase of the human body in a form that is as close to perfection as mankind has achieved thus far.
Come to the Relays on Saturday, sit in the sunshine and warm weather, to watch the human body and spirit in top form.
$ \textcircled{P} $ Prince is a Lake Elmo, Minn., graduate student in secondary education.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Students,'Kansan'miss on basketball ceremony
Where were the students Thursday night?
As one of the fewer than 300 fans who showed up to honor our four seniors and the rest of the Big 12 championship team, I was appalled at the lack of support from the students.
Where were those hardy souls who can camp out for days before a game but can't come out on a beautiful spring night to honor their favorite team?
a group of seniors that has represented the University of Kansas so gloriously for the past four years.
Surely, a season ending loss can't be the reason to abandon
Some of the few students who were there said there was no notice of the ceremony in The University Daily Kansan, and if that's true, why not?
If that's the case then, this newspaper should shoulder some of the blame.
Our seniors deserved better. Let this kind of thing never happen again.
DeAnna Hensley Class of 1960 Overland Park
- Smoking ban proponents. The ban stayed in effect, surviving its first major legal challenge last week. No one says smokers don't have a right to smoke, just not where the rest of us breathe.
Fail:
REPORT CARD
Pass:
- Smoking ban opponents. Are we forgetting something here? Sure,we'd like your businesses to do well but why should it come at the expense of our health?
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♦
Liberals lose again. Ha ha ha! How long are we going to complain about this for?
Am I the only one who caught that the Jayplay called
It's Brothers a "higher-club club"?
Hey sorority girls, you know it's time to put away those Crocs when I see a 70-year-old woman wearing them at Checkers.
John Elwey is no better than Elvis Grbac. Oh yes, I said it.
I don't understand why girls buy pants that are so tight that their guts hang out. If they found pants that weren't so tight, maybe they
wouldn't have love handles.
It's really sad that I can sneak weed through KCI Airport, but I can't take a lighter through.
Congratulations, Lewis 5, you just paid a couple of strip pers to tease you. Well I just had sex in my room in Naismith for free.
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