Opinions
Daily Chronicle • www.daily-chronicle.com • Page 11 • Saturday, December 21, 2013
8OUR VIEW: THUMBS UP, THUMBS DOWN
8SKETCH VIEW
More fathers involved in child rearing
Why the spirit of Christmas matters Anyone offended by public displays of Christmas needs to see a psychiatrist. Are we clear on this? You are a loon if the sight of baby Jesus arouses anger or sadness in you. Get help. This brings us to the governor of Rhode Island, Lincoln Chafee. He recently told me on national television that the reason he will not use the word “Christmas” in describing the state Christmas tree is that the word might offend non-Christians. The governor calls the state-purchased symbol a “holiday tree.” My reply to the governor was that by excluding the word “Christmas,” he might be offending the 73 percent of Americans who describe themselves as Christian, not to mention the 2.2 billion Christians worldwide. Chafee chafed when he heard that but had no answer. And then the governor did a very interesting thing: He announced the lighting of the “holiday tree” in Providence a full 30 minutes before the cord was plugged in. Very few Rhode Islanders even knew about the tree lighting because it was done so surreptitiously. Chafee did that because he feared protesters would do what they did last year: sing Christmas carols at the lighting. And we can’t have that, now, can we? Jon Stewart and his merry band of elves
state fans, here’s the deal: Jesus of Nazareth was a man. In fact, he was the most influential person ever born. A third of the world’s population has signed on to the Christian edicts: love God, and love your neighbor as yourself. That sounds like a will tell you that the so-called “War on good thing. Christmas” is a figment of the imagination, So, when President Ulysses S. Grant perhaps a result of indigestion after eating honored Jesus by signing into law the too much holiday pudding. Stewart’s posnational holiday of Christmas in 1870, the ture is similar to what Ebenezer Scrooge nation certified that a positive message of put forth when the Ghost of Christmas generosity and peace was worthy of a day Yet To Come told him he was bound for off. Pretty much everybody was on board. hell. I am channeling Charles Dickens to But not today. In our current state, the see whether the ghost can visit Stewart Thomas More Law Center has to litigate on Christmas Eve. I’ll let you know what against attacks on Christmas every year. happens. Anti-religion zealots put up billboards in There is something to the argument that Times Square denouncing Christmas as there are more important things to worry a “myth.” Rabid secularists bridle at any about than whether people like Christmas. mention of Jesus or his nice mom and dad. But the assaults against the national holiTo them I say: Peace on Earth and day are annoying, unnecessary and often tough. You don’t like the federal holiday? disrespectful. Try to rescind it. Start with our pal Lincoln I mean, here’s how bad it is in this coun- Chafee. See how far you get with that. try: A pastor in Arkansas canceled a play And by the way, Merry Christmas to all. called “Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown” Even you loons. because some nutty atheist objected to pub• Veteran TV news anchor Bill O’Reilly lic school kids seeing it on church grounds. So Charlie, Snoopy and Linus were thrown is host of the Fox News show “The O’Reilly Factor” and author of the book “Pinheads under the bus by a Christian cleric. Good and Patriots: Where You Stand in the Age grief! For all of you separation-of-church-and- of Obama.”
VIEWS Bill O’Reilly
8VIEWS
Fraternities make you dumber, and may kill you, too By JAMES GREIFF Bloomberg News A 19-year-old freshman at Baruch College in New York just wanted to join a fraternity. So, along with a bunch of his future brothers, he headed earlier this month to rural Pennsylvania, where he died of a head injury in a barbaric initiation ritual, which entailed being blind folded and carrying a backpack loaded with sand while being shoved and pummeled in the freezing dark. A few weeks earlier, another 19-year-old pledge at a fraternity known as Gobbler House at Wilmington College in Ohio was subjected to a different, but equally brutal ceremony, which included lashings with knotted towels. He was lucky: He only lost a testicle. By now, the horrors of hazing at fraternities (not to mention sexual assaults) are well known, and offer persuasive reasons for colleges and universities to distance themselves. But research provides another reason: fraternities make students dumb – or at least dumber than their classmates. That isn’t only at odds with the goal of higher education itself, but also a depressing departure from the original purpose of fraternities, which was to make students smarter. Most of the research about fraternities and academic performance comes to the same conclusion: Membership in a fraternity is consistent with lower grades and
diminished intellectual capacity. (Sororities are a different story; researchers haven’t found an equally strong link between membership and grades.) Just why the link exists is the subject of speculation. Here’s a possibility: Maybe it’s because fraternity members drink so much alcohol? One study by the Harvard University School of Public Health found that 86 percent of students who live in fraternity houses were binge drinkers, almost double the rate of other students. Another theory: Time that could be used for studying is spent on fraternity activities, especially during the periods when aspiring members are undergoing humiliation or torture in disgusting or inane initiation rites. Yet another possibility is that fraternity members skip more classes than other students, and lost class time tends to correlate with lower grades. Think excessive drinking plays a role there? And it isn’t just in terms of grades that fraternity members lag behind their peers. Fraternity membership also stunts intellectual development, according to George Kuh, Ernest Pascarella and Henry Wechsler, three professors who have studied the socalled Greeks and their members’ academic performance. The three cite research conducted at 18 four-year colleges showing that “even after controlling for differences in such factors as pre-college cognitive development, academ-
ic motivation, age, and selectivity of the college attended – fraternity men are well behind their non-member counterparts in cognitive development after the first year of college.’’ The ability to think critically was a particularly weak area for frat members. What’s sad is how far the organizations have strayed from their original, noble intentions. The first U.S. fraternity was Phi Beta Kappa, which got smart a long time ago and stopped being a fraternity to become an academic-honors society. Most other fraternities were started as literary and debating clubs, or to promote character and personal development, and evolved into something else. It may not be just academic and intellectual achievement that suffers from fraternity membership. College sports teams are starting to discourage players from joining frats, a wariness that extends to the National Football League: Just three of the 254 players picked in the latest draft belonged to fraternities. Maybe there is a place for fraternities as hothouses for future alcoholics who engage in sometimes violent behavior. Because the ethos so many of them cultivate is at odds with learning and scholarship, though, that place should be far away from a college campus.
• James Greiff is a Bloomberg View editorial board member. Follow him on Twitter @JamesGreiff.
Letters to the Editor Karen Pletsch – General Manager
Eric Olson – Editor
kpletsch@shawmedia.com
eolson@shawmedia.com
Dana Herra – MidWeek Editor dherra@shawmedia.com
Inger Koch – Features Editor ikoch@shawmedia.com
Jillian Duchnowski – News Editor jduchnowski@shawmedia.com
We welcome original letters on public issues. Letters must include the author’s full name, address and day and evening phone numbers. We limit letters to 400 words. We accept one letter per person every 15 days. All letters are subject to editing for length and clarity. E-mail: news@daily-chronicle.com. Mail: Daily Chronicle, Letters to the Editor, 1586 Barber Greene Road, DeKalb, IL 60115. Fax: 815-758-5059.
Thumbs up: To involved dads. A recent government survey found that the stereotype of the distant dad who doesn’t know what’s going on in his kids’ lives is pretty much a big myth. American dads are more involved in their children’s lives and daily activities than ever before, with the majority of those surveyed reporting they regularly play with, talk to, read to and eat with their kids, as well as taking care of practical matters like bathing, dressing, and helping with homework. It may take a little longer to shake those stereotypes, but the outcome of such involvement can only be good for kids and families. Thumbs up: To Malta Elementary School third-graders, who made Christmas ornaments for the DeKalb County Veterans Assistance Commission office tree. The project is a creative way to encourage younger students to think about the sacrifices veterans made, and prompted Marines whose child was involved to visit the class. Organizers hope to make it an annual project. Thumbs down: To compromised credit card information. Minneapolis-based Target Corp. informed the public Thursday that as many as 40 million credit card accounts might have been compromise in a recent data breach. Anyone who swiped a card at a Target store from Nov. 27 to Dec. 15 could have been affected, company officials said. This is the second time this year a national chain with a local store has fallen victim to this kind of hacking, and it certainly shakes consumers’ faith as well as jeopardizes their security. Know what never gets hacked into? Cash. Thumbs down: With Christmas but days away, the cultural flap is over Santa Claus’ racial background, after Fox News personality Megyn Kelly stated on her show that “Santa just is white.” That just isn’t true. Santa Claus is for everyone who believes in him, and he is known to children around the world and around these racially and ethnically diverse United States in many different ways, and in many different costumes, as well. There was a time not long ago when the American President was always a white man, too. As we’ve seen, that’s not the way it is any more – nor is it the way it has to be. Thumbs up: To the many volunteers who helped The Salvation Army wrap and distribute gifts for local needy families on Tuesday and Wednesday. More than 2,500 children registered to receive donations this year. Salvation Army Capt. Michael Cho said they had enough toys to distribute because the community is so generous. Each child will receive two toys and a clothing item, stuffed animals and a game for each family. Volunteer Phyllis Roush, who has helped for the past four years, said, “It’s all about the joy of helping people.” Indeed it is.
8 ANOTHER VIEW
Budget deal a step forward Rather than holding out and refusing any compromise, Congress appears on the verge of approving a spending plan that can be measured in years and not months The House last week passed a bipartisan spending plan authored by U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Janesville, and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. The Senate voted 67-33 to advance the deal past the filibuster threshold. It appears to have more than enough votes for approval. President Barack Obama has said he will sign the deal. Judging by the reactions from Washington, the agreement was neither embraced nor rejected. Instead, lawmakers accepted for what it is – a small step that lends some certainty to the funding of government operations. Nobody likes the whole thing, but it’s better than nothing. Much better than nothing. What it does, first of all, is set a spending plan through October 2015 – almost two years from now. That’s no small feat given that the federal government has been operating on continuing resolution after continuing resolution for years. That’s no way to conduct business. Budget deals that expire after several months hurt government agencies because there’s no certainty. It’s difficult to implement and run some programs not knowing if funds will be available in several months when the short-term budget deal ends. Second, it represents compromise, something that has been in short supply in this Congress. Reaching bipartisan agreement on a bill that neither side fully embraces has been unheard of. Also, it shows the lawmakers’ distaste for a government shutdown may match their constituents’. The details of the budget offer a mixed bag for both sides of the aisle. It would ease some of the across-theboard cuts because of sequestration, it calls for some fee increases, but it would not extend federal unemployment benefits, which would affect 24,000 Wisconsinites who would be cut off from long-term jobless benefits Dec. 28. It would increase the deficit slightly over the next two years before cutting it by $23 billion over 10 years. There is probably just as much to like in the bill as there is not to like in the budget, but the agreement marks a step forward, after years of moving backward. We’ll take that tiny bit of progress and hope to build on that. Green Bay (Wis.) Press-Gazette
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. – U.S. Bill of Rights, First Amendment