In an age where screens have widened the distance between what is real and entertainment, it is important to remember that real violence is nothing to laugh at and that real people are being affected by it.
You'd like to know if you were living next door to a registered sex offender, wouldn't you?We know we would.A recent update to the Lee County Sheriff Office's Web site enhances residents' awareness of sex offenders in the area.The site allows users to conduct a search for registered sex offenders living in their neighborhood, as well as the option of subscribing for e-mails alerts about sex offenders who plan to locate to the area.While our editorial board acknowledged both sides of the issue, we believe this to be an invaluable tool for residents of Lee County.Some may argue the features of the site are too intrusive, as they provides users with the names and addresses of registered sex offenders in the county, but this is information we think any family would want at its disposal.Imagine you're starting a family and have found the perfect home in the perfect neighborhood to begin raising your children.For their well-being, you would want to know if you were planning to become the neighbor of a person who had previously committed some form of sexual abuse.Even if this information wouldn't keep a family from moving into a certain home or a certain neighborhood, we still see merit in the site providing this information.Simply knowing where these people reside we feel is something any caring parent should be concerned about, and if the site increases a family's awareness of the neighborhood and tightens the parents' concern for where their children go, it's a good thing.We don't believe offenders found on the site should be so blatantly singled out to the point it's the equivalent of a Wild West "Wanted" sign or being shunned in the stocks in the town square, but we do applaud the awareness and heightened safety the Web site provides to families of Lee County.That said, for our editorial board's contrasting view, read below.
While we acknowledge the utility of a Web site that allows users to locate nearby sex offenders in their county, we question if this added public scrutiny is fair to those one-time offenders.The same is true for having to re-register as a sex offender after moving.By no means do we view sexual offenses as insignificant crimes -- quite the opposite, actually.However, the lifelong stigma of being labeled a sex offender is too severe if we're not 100 percent sure that person is worthy of carrying that label with them for the rest of their life.We discussed scenarios where an over-18 partner is convicted of sexual abuse after having sex with their boyfriend or girlfriend who is not of age.There could have been consent at the time, but if that person comes back with charges of rape, there's no way to disprove such accusations, and just like that, someone is forever labeled a sex offender.Is this fair?We believe that, rather than having set guidelines that apply to each situation, a case-by-case method of determining whether sexual abuse actually occurred would be more just than the current method.Obviously this process would be more time consuming and more costly. But again, when someone is dealing with the everlasting dishonor of being known as a sex offender, the "Ah, but we're going to have to do more work!" excuse loses the minute amount of worth it had in the first place.Maybe a change should be implemented that would eliminate the tainted status after so many years of a clean record.While there should be no leniency for repeat offenders, we think it's unfair to require the constant registration for a one-time sex offender after they have already served their time. One-time convicts of other crimes aren't forced to publicly introduce themselves as a criminal after serving their time. They're certainly not listed with name and address on the sheriff's Web site, either.Again, with revision to the system, lifting of the label could be something that is dependent on the severity of the crime, as well.Why is it that only sex offenders are persistently highlighted for their crimes?We don't believe in revision of the system simply for justice, but for safety as well.If the reason for providing citizens with the names and locations of local sex offenders is to heighten their awareness and to protect them, then why not alert them about the proximity of previous convicts of other crimes?
Lately, we've noticed many news channels and publications being saturated with focus on stories that are being milked for numbers.We understand around-the-clock news channels sometimes need to fill time gaps, and we also understand publications must fill space on a page, but there's a difference in smoothing over blank spaces and coloring outside the lines to the point that worthwhile stories suffer.But who really cares about the story itself suffering from a lack of air time or page space?It's the viewers and readers who are affected.
For all the students who have reluctantly walked away from that nervous exchange of selling a football ticket to a stranger, wondering if the next Bursar Bill will be flooded with random charges, or if they'll even see that student ID again, worry no more!Beginning with the 2009 season, student football tickets will no longer live inside your student ID, but will be stored in your Auburn Ignited card, and we're pretty thrilled with this decision.Last fall's staff even wrote an editorial expressing its hope that football tickets would be transferred over to something different than our Tiger cards.We believe it's a change that will make the inter-student ticket market a much more convenient business.It's always a pain when you try to utilize one of many on-campus services that require the presentation of your student ID, only to realize you never got yours back from the person you sold it to for the weekend.With football tickets being on Ignited cards, this is no longer a problem, and losing your Ignited card is certainly less severe than losing your student ID.The fear of having someone drain the funds, whatever the amount, on your student ID over the weekend is also alleviated.The only potential problem we can see with the change is even more-prolonged waits at the stadium gates since Ignited cards are typically scanned with handheld devices, rather than students swiping the card themselves.Granted, this would only take a couple seconds longer per student, but that delay multiplied thousands and thousands of times could add up quickly; however, this is surely something that has been acknowledged and will be addressed before the first game.And don't fret if you're not a member of Auburn Ignited.
