INSIGHTS

11
Insights!
Be Heard!
[ ]
FRANCIS SMITH
is a junior
majoring in
Fashion Merchandising
Dear Frankie,

I notice people have different styles and like to either wear
a lot, or dress down depending on whether or not they want to
get noticed. I want to know if the clothes one wears make them
who they are and is there any cultural connection between what
people wear and have on; whether it be make-up or jewelry or
the type of shoes.
Sincerely,
Stylishly Stumped
Dear Stylishly Stumped,
Well, it depends on the person; there are many people
out there who feel the need to step up their style game at
college. There are others who love the way they look and
have a particular style that they just go with every day.
There are also those who do feel a bit insecure about who
they are and what they wear. They find dressing up and
putting on, make-up gives them confidence and power to
continue throughout the week.

Its not necessarily a bad thing to want to wear some-
thing special to give yourself a boost for a day. However,
if this is how you continue to get through your week, and
its used as a crutch to give yourself confidence that you
feel you never have, maybe you should re-evaluate the
situation. Clothes are only as good as the people who wear
them; if you can rock an outfit, then it looks and feels
great, no matter what you wear and what others people
think. Its all about confidence and a sense of security in
yourself to rock clothes that you want to rock, whether its
a particular style or not.
For the cultural aspect behind clothing, it all depends
on who you know and who you talk to. Some people have
tattoos for personal, sentimental, or other reasons. Tat-
toos can easily be considered as a cultural connection be-
tween particular students they share a common ground of
expressing themselves and their artwork through ink. It
all depends on what particular type of style were talking
about, and if there is some cultural connection with the
person wearing it. Its amazing how if you really go deeper
into clothing and styles, theres more than just the simple
idea of this is what I wear and Im done. Whether people
know it or not, style is a part of life and it always will be.
Just how close people want to be with it, is entirely up to
them.
Hope this helps,
Frankie
Ask me anything!
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O
n Sept. 21, the state of Georgia
committed an atrocity against
humanity that should be held
as an example of how flawed and bro-
ken the practice of capital punish-
ment is. The state executed Troy Da-
vis, 42, for the 1980 murder of Mark
MacPhail, an off-duty police officer in
Savannah, Georgia.
At the time of the original trial,
seven witnesses stated they had seen
Davis kill MacPhail in cold blood and
two more witnesses stated they had
heard Davis confess to the shooting.
With this evidence, a jury of Davis
peers convicted him for the murder,
sentencing him to death, despite Da-
vis consistent claims that not only did
he not commit the murders but that he
had no gun.
Sounds like an open and shut case
right? A man committed murder, an-
other man is dead, a widow is left to
grieve, someone should pay and Troy
Davis paid the ultimate price for the
ultimate mistake. However, its not
that simple. It is never that simple
when capital punishment or a persons
life is involved.
Several of those witnesses who said
Davis was at the scene of the crime lat-
er recanted their stories, stating that
Davis may not have been the gunman
or even was at the Burger King parking
lot where the murders were commit-
ted. Others even said another man had
confessed to the murder. In the end,
multiple jurors said they would have
changed their votes and would have
advocated an innocence ruling for Da-
vis. Seven of the nine witnesses whom
the prosecution had based their case
around had disputed their previous
claims. Does this sound like beyond a
reasonable doubt?
Due to these developments, thou-
sands of people came out in support
of Davis and his cause, including Pope
Benedict XVI, a former FBI director
and President Jimmy Carter. Thou-
sands marched around the globe hop-
ing to somehow change the inevitable,
declaring I am Troy Davis. However,
their best efforts were no match for an
unfair inhuman punishment system.
I understand the desire for revenge
and the desire for true justice, but how
can the taking of anothers life, where
the very evidence of their guilt is liter-
ally crumbling with each passing day
make anything truly better? If you
really wished for revenge, would you
want to get revenge on someone you
werent 100 percent sure caused the
hurt?
These passionate feelings in this ar-
ticle arent purely based on personal
beliefs, but a belief in the court system
and the law. Last year the Supreme
Court last year ordered a hearing on
a request by Davis lawyers for a new
trial, the first time they had done so
in over 50 years. The very order of a
hearing shows doubt about the legiti-
macy of the trial that convicted a man
to death and should have been a sign
that maybe a second trial, to just dou-
ble check the previous ruling, should
have occurred. However, at 11:08 p.m.
Troy Davis was put to death.
I hope this case makes us think more
about killing. Killing as a form of gov-
ernment punishment on a citizen and
killing in general. Two men, MacPhail
and Davis, now are dead because of
something that never should have
happened in the first place. MacPhails
life was taken from him cruelly and
unfairly, and now same goes for Troy
Davis.
Email: cmidkiff4@radford.edu
Troy Davis received unfair punishment
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P
eople have read books since they were kids. Your parents
reading to you before bed, proudly reading your rst chapter
book, staying up all night to nish a book you couldnt put
down, putting off reading book for class.
But some books that people love and call classics, are banned
from the eyes of children of all ages. People, mainly parents and reli-
gious groups, challenge books to get them banned from their towns
and cities so their children wont be able to read them in school.
The American Library Association (ALA) has created an annual
event so that people will actually pick up and read a banned book.
Banned Books Week this year started on Sept. 24 and runs until
Oct. 1. The ALA created this event to celebrate peoples freedom to
read and the importance of the First Amendment.
Most books are challenged to be banned for a few main reasons.
According to the ALAs website, some of the reasons are that people
nd the material of the book to be sexually explicit, the material
contained offensive language and that the material was consid-
ered to be unsuited to any age group. A person that wants to
challenge a book has to go through a process of paperwork to get the
book banned. Many librarians, teachers and others ght for books
to not to be banned. They embrace the Banned Books Week each
year and allow banned books to roam freely.
Some books on the banned books list are classics and books
weve grown up with. On the list of banned books is Harry Potter,
To Kill a Mocking Bird, The Jungle, Captain Underpants,
In Cold Blood and many more. Embrace banned books and the
freedom to read.
Email: cearll@radford.edu
Banned Books Week ends this weekend
CHARLES
MIDKIFF
CLASS: Senior
MAJOR: Economics &
Political Science
COURTNEY EARLL
CLASS: Senior
MAJOR: Public Relations
Contact:
Meghan McNeice
mmcneice@radford.edu