Posts Tagged poor policies

Carding not the answer

I was on my way to a friend’s house last Tuesday night when I heard the startling news — NATO is going to start carding youngsters.

NATO? The North Atlantic Treaty Organization needs to card youngsters? It seemed to me that having NATO card underaged kids trying to buy alcohol would be overkill: why do we need to send a bomber to do the job when the guard at Big Red Liquors already cards customers with unerring efficiency?

Besides, why on earth would NATO, an international organization currently concerned with preventing Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic from committing more genocide, be interested in pausing from its efforts to card youngsters?

Naturally, I was intrigued with this breaking news story, so I turned the radio up and listened carefully.

To say the least, I was surprised to learn that there are actually two NATOs in existence. The first is the aforementioned North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The second is the National Association of Theater Owners, an organization of movie theater owners that represents, according to the New York Times, about two-thirds of the movie screens in the U.S.

It turns out that the latter organization is the one that will start carding teenagers, but not for alcohol. Instead, the theater NATO is going to start carding teenagers who try to attend R-rated movies without an adult. The theater NATO agreed to start carding teenagers after a meeting with President Clinton, one which took place in the aftermath of the Colorado school shooting.

Two words immediately sprang into my mind — good grief.

The entertainment industry is not responsible for violence in the schools of America. If this were the case, any place that American culture dominates the entertainment industry, we should find violence in the schools. Yet Europe and Asia remain free from violence in their schools.

We need to blame the people at fault, not the American entertainment industry whose products are distributed around the world without ill effects. Continuing to blame the entertainment industry instead of irresponsible parents, educators and law enforcement officials in Colorado who could miss a pink elephant standing in front of them, is pointless.

I want to know — when will the madness stop?

It’s been clearly demonstrated with the silly drinking age limits that banning products for certain age groups does not work. Because there is a thrill at the prospect of breaking the law for many, the prevalence of fake IDs among those under 21 is widespread and can, in some cases, lead to tragic consequences.

Applying the same treatment to movies will just mean that even younger kids will get fake IDs so that they can go and watch “Instinct” or “The Matrix.” But who really cares?

At least for watching R-rated movies, there are no long-term consequences for teenagers unless you count the possible nightmares they might get from seeing the many dumb and pointless R-rated movies out there.

If this theater NATO really wants to win friends, I think there are a few changes that would make the movie watch experience truly pleasurable.

First, all theaters need to lower their prices at the concession stand. $2.50 for a small bottle of water at Showplace 11 is too much. I won’t even mention the prices of everything else it tries to hawk. I realize that attendees are a “captive” audience, but that shouldn’t mean the theater can rook us on every aspect of the movie experience.

Secondly, ban small children from attending any movies except those rated G. I had the misfortune of sitting near a couple with their young child when I went to see the PG-13 rated movie “Entrapment.”

The child cried.

The child ran around.

The child talked.

“Entrapment” was a good flick. It would have been better without the kid.

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Time to take a stand on nudity

By Adam Lederer
BI Columnist

It’s time to put a stop to all “vacation sneaks.”

The vacation sneak is a tool often used by authorities to pass legislation or change the rules while the affected constituencies are not in town.

In other words, the Laramie City Council could pass the nudity ordinance in late December or early January while students are conveniently out of town on vacation.

This is not the only time the vacation sneak has been used to change the rules around this town; but is the most current possible exercise of this tool.

The last major use of this tool came during the summer when College of Business Dean Forester decided to stop students from cutting through the business parking lot by building a fence.

If he had proposed the fence during the school year, there would have been such an uproar that any physical plant employee approaching the area with a shovel would have been shoved away by a large body of angry students.

Summer has traditionally been the time to put new and improved stupid policies in place.

It’s even happened to faculty members on occasion. They go out of town for the summer to do research and relax, only to return and discover that they too have been victims of the surprise vacation sneak.

However, the winter vacation is not used nearly as often, although it appears to be looming here in Laramie.

When city council sits down at its next meeting on Tuesday, it will decide the date for the public hearing over the nudity ordinance.

If the council picks a date after the first of January, beware, a vacation sneak may be occurring. The council members who vote for that date are only trying to ignore the students.

If it chooses a date before Thanksgiving, the council will be leaving the process open for many who would otherwise be excluded.

Additionally, ASUW needs to get involved in stopping vacation sneaks.

ASUW has not yet said a word about the nudity ordinance. The senate sits around its table on Tuesday nights deciding whether or not the Campus Toe Fungus club should get funding to attend a conference in Hawai’i.

What would be really inspiring is if ASUW got off its rocker and canceled one of its pointless meetings and went down to meet Laramie’s City Council.

In this town, the city council plays a far larger role in affecting the lives of students than ASUW could ever hope to play.

Additionally, ASUW should appoint an effective speaker to represent ASUW members’ opinions at Laramie City Council each meeting, whether school is in session or not. That would be an effective use of some student dollars.

It should be noted, vacation sneaks will always occur, even with the most effective student voices possible.

That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to minimize the effects.

Adam Lederer is a graduate student in political science minoring in environment and natural resources. He earned his bachelor’s from UW in 1996.

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