Rape Victim Jailed

Sometimes you read news that makes you wonder about the society we live in. It angers you, or disgusts you, or embarrasses you to call yourself part of a certain group of people.

As I was reading CNN I was confronted by an article that made me feel all of these. The headline read, "Rape victim is jailed on old warrant," which of course piqued my interest. As I read it I only got more and more outraged. A college student who was allegedly raped went to police, only to be arrested on an old warrant for not paying restitution for a 2003 arrest.

Ridiculous?

It gets worse…

The girl spent two days in jail, and was denied emergency contraception for two days. In case you don’t know, the effectiveness of emergency birth control decreases significantly each hour that passes. Two days is a long time.

What’s more disturbing is the fact that so many women refuse to report rape because of embarrassment, and the hassle of having to relive the experience while filling out reports and recalling the event to police officers. This event is only going to dissuade more victims from reporting rape.

In 2003 the woman was arrested as a juvenile for grand theft and burglary, and owed $4,585. I’m wondering what the real cost of this arrest will be. If she becomes pregnant because she wasn’t given emergency contraception in time, she’ll either give birth or have to abort the child, a tough decision for anyone in her situation. This all could have been avoided if a little common sense had been implemented.

I understand the importance of upholding the law, and maybe she should have been held in jail. But there’s no legitimate reason, in such dire circumstances, that emergency birth control should have been withheld from this girl.

The next messiah ... a dragon?

Yesterday, a young Komodo dragon became a happy mother of five. The twist? It was a virgin birth.

The birth didn't take place in Bethlehem. It was in England. But scientists are heralding these births as a new hope for endangered species everywhere.

So after this, I guess you have to ask yourself: What Would Komodo Dragons Do?

Pennies may soon be worth more than a cent, if a potential coin shortage comes to fruition.

Federal Reserve economists project a coin shortage which could shoot the worth of a penny up to about 5 cents. Rising prices of metal have caused people to melt and resell coins, causing the coing shortage.

So ask yourself, who would win a fight? Lincoln or Jefferson. Flip a coin, it doesn't matter.

According to CNN.com, a Chinese Communist Party Chief has vowed to "purify" the Internet.

CNN.com reports "he made it clear that the Communist Party was looking to ensure it keeps control of China's Internet users, often more interested in salacious pictures, bloodthirsty games and political scandal than Marxist lessons."

Let's hope they start with MySpace.

Hey, good news! Now you can have all the fun of lighting your friends on fire, without actually lighting them on fire.

The military has developed a new ray gun that creates a sense of being lit on fire in the victim it is aimed at. The military says it may save thousands of lives in Iraq, as it is a non-lethal approach to warfare.

I say who cares about mace and pepper spray with this ray gun available.

So this is the New Year

As the Collegian's former Opinion Page chief, nothing made me happier than getting dozens of letters to the editor. It didn't matter if they were bashing the Collegian, bashing fellow students, or bashing the administration. These letters are the students' voice in our newspaper, and I love it when the students take advantage of this option to let the rest of the university know what they're thinking.

As the Collegian's new Opinion Page editor, I have to say I'm a little disappointed by the lack of letters we've received so far. I know, I know, it's only a few days into the semester, but what used to be a river has dwindled to a trickle (I know, it's an awful analogy, but if you hate it, write in about it!)

Last semester you had a wealth of things to talk about. The infamous Jay Bundy incident started a wildfire of letters and even a simple, innocuous mention in the Arts section about the meaning of the Confederate flag created an outpouring of letters that we weren't expecting.

Sometimes it's amazing to witness what small things spark debate among the students here at Penn State. But that's the beauty of a college, and a college newspaper. So many differing viewpoints within a small rural Pennsylvania town can be broadcast to thousands through the newspaper, and subsequently, through our web site.

Last semester we got letters from Kentucky, Texas, California and even a few from overseas. Over winter break we even received a few letters from Iran. We get letters from prisoners, from working mothers, from concerned students. We get letters from all walks of life, but they all have one thing in common:

Each letter represents the voice, and opinion, of the person who wrote it.

So what do you have to say?