1996_04 The Daily Collegian April 1996

              THE DAILY
~ COLLEGIAN
Id       Tuesday, April 9,1996
Opinion
Opinion Editor: Matthew Hart
Telephone^ (209) -278-5732
Law breakers should not
profit from their criminality
By Bridget Johnson
Columnist
I have seen quite a few
shocking, amazing things in my
short lifetime.
I have seen our country elect a
man with the integrity of Bill
Clinton to actually serve as our
President.
I have seen O.J. Simpson get
away with murder.
I have seen Los Angeles
residents tear up and bum their own
neighborhoods after the Rodney
King verdict.
But never, never did I think I'd
see the day that an illegal
immigrant, sneaking across our
border and breaking our laws,
would be able to sue one of our
counties for ten million dollars.
Plee-eeze!
I'm sure by now most of you are
familiar with Leticia Gonzales-
Gonzales, California's most famous
illegal alien. Here's a quick recap
of how she gained her notoriety.
On Tuesday, April 2« a pickup
truck jam packed with an assumed
21 suspected illegals evaded a
Border Patrol checkpoint.
Riverside County Sheriff's
deputies and the Highway Patrol
gave chase for 80 miles at speeds
of up to90mph.
In the course of the chase, the
pickup tried to ram two civilian
vehicles, threw beer cans at the
patrol cars, and even chucked
pieces of the camper shell at the law
enforcement officials.
Once the pickup finally pulled
over, the illegals scattered over the
guard rail and into the brush below.
Officers Kurt Franklin and Tracy
Watson of the Riverside County
Sheriff's Department restrained the
last two people that jumped from
the cab of the truck.
A news helicopter filming the
chase photographed the deputies
utilizing their batons to detain the
suspects.
Immediately, outcries over the
15 second beating pervaded our
airways, giving more attention to
the illegals' side of the story than
the deputies'.
Did the deputies use necessary
force? There may have been
threatening words or gestures
directed at the deputies that would
not have been captured by an
airborne camera.
Seeing the duration and intensity
of the chase, it was obvious that the
illegals did not intend to be taken
easily.
Leticia Gonzales-Gonzales
claimed multiple injuries, whereas
the hospital (according to The
Fresno Bee) reported that she was
treated for "a bruise and an
underlying disease thought to be
cancer." If one watches the video,
one can see Gonzales-Gonzales
receiving two or three baton blows
to the left side of her upper back
before she was handcuffed.
She did not receive facial blows,
though her lawyer contests facjal
Please see LAW, page 4.
Some movies do more than just show gore
By Andrea Meyer
Columnist
Juicy stories belong in the
movies. Without these, Hollywood
stars would be payed no more than
professors or pipe cleaners, in a
factory. Murder, mayhem, and
sleaze must stay. Usually movies
deliver this entertainment through
the lowest acceptable common
denominator.
We have action movies with no
dialogue worth committing to
memory, dark romances with more
sex than story, and comedies
reducing the general public to
spasms of laughter over cheap
slapstick and pointless vulgarity.
Dr. Edward EmanuEl of Drama
62 will vociferously communicate
that grime on the face of humanity
is what sells. Looking at the
' majority of films in video stores
today, one must agree with this
opinion.
, Most movies revel in the rough,
the dirty, the disagreeable. They are
revealed through mediocrity. But
there are exceptions. These are the
classics.
"Sense and Sensibility" weaves
thoughts and feelings through
dialogue. No coarse word is
present. Emma Thompson's
adaptation of Jane Austen's novel
is incredibly popular without a
smear of sleaze or crudity in the
•^delicate work. If art is a reflection
of life, it must only be of a slant of
life. This slant is what makes art.
Sense and Sensibility portrays
sweetness of expression, delicacy of
deportment. Herein lies the slant.
Here is the art. This view is classic.
Everyone to sweetness can relate.
Therefore, delicacy is occasionally
as agreeable to the masses as glut
and gore.
People in general seem in want
of a safeguarded variety. Movies
are -.afe because a person does not
work to understand them. Films are
not real life with its persistent
questions and elusive answers.
We, the populace, can watch
representations of ourselves be
degraded. We laugh or cheer
inwardly because it is happening to
someone else, not us. We can watch
our fineness appear in startling
detail, and warm to this generousv
portrayal of mankind, because it
shows that there is hope for beauty
and unselfish satisfaction in life.
"Field of Dreams" emoted the
elusive hope realized. When
appearing in movie theaters a few
years ago, common people were
given the chance of fulfilling
happiness. We are, most of us, of
the common grain so this hits us in
a familiar spot.
"Silence of the Lambs" lifted the
general public by illuminating the
power of fear. It frightened us out
of our wits. "I'm having an old
friend over for dinner" left me bone
marrow cold. Funny that
perversion of humanity uplifts, but
"'tis true, 'tis pity and pity 'tis 'tis
true." Such abberations bring us
closer to the truths we cling to so
steadfastly. Eating people is wrong.
Hannibal Lector convinces
everyone even more steadfastly of
this truth, because he is brilliant.
His brilliance in contrast with the
girl's determination, in contrast
with Buffalo Bill's madness forms
the spine for an undeniable classic.
"Much Ado About Nothing"
brings us closer to our playful sides.
It lets us vicariously love with true
affection and very little glum
heaviness. "The majesty and
grandeur of the English tongue" is
apparent and pirouetting from
character to character, and scene to
scerte.
"Silence of the Lambs" and
"Much Ado About Nothing" have
violence, the grotesque, and sleaze
between them. But is this why we
like them? I think not. Rather,
falling back on Shakespeare, "I
could be bound in a nutshell and
account myself a king of infinite
space," it all depends on
interpretation. We all appreciate
excellence. The subject matter is
of secondary importance most
times. I could say the basest thing
in the world to anyone, ridiculing
the person to the deepest depth, yet
if I did so with intelligence and
understanding, piecing together my
words as diamonds on a golden
thread, no unjust offense could be
taken.
Hitler spoke atrocities, but when
the people heard him, his words
were hope, healing, and enthralling
power. His method of address was
infallible. And people listened.
"Braveheart" awes and inspires
with deep and high emotion the
viewer. The ideals fought for and
lived in that story are truly "the stuff
that dreams are made of." It is a
glimpse of the highest in life,
unsullied with lesser visions. The
sole deterrent to the general public
of this towering masterpiece was
that it was a story of heros and
knaves. There were no common
people. There was no flaw of
reasoning in the directing, story,
Please see MOVIE, page 8.
Daily CoIlegian
California State University, Fresno ■
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