1996_09 The Daily Collegian September 1996

              THE DAILY
COLLEGIAN
Monday, September 16,1996
Opinion
Telephone: (209) 278-5732
Weddings are as
important as the
marriage itself
By Ingemar Dahlberg
Special to The Daily Collegian
This weekend I attended my
friend's wedding. I was given the
distinction of being one of his
groomsmen, the first in line after
the best man (his brother). I hadn't
been to a wedding in quite a while,
and I'd forgotten much of what a
wedding actually is, and more im¬
portantly, what it stands for.
A wedding is not two people
coming together to share the rest of
their lives with one another. No —
a wedding is a large number of
people, a great diversity of people,
who come together to celebrate the
unity of the two that are being mar¬
ried.
The wedding ceremony is a for¬
mality. It is a public notification of
sorts. It serves to let everyone know,
in no uncertain terms, just how
deeply these two people feel about
one another. It squashes rumors,
begins new ones, and puts the rest
of the world on notice that there is
another family being added and in¬
tegrated into the superstructure of
our society.
The reception is where the wed¬
ding is truly held. The reception
brings together members and
friends of two different families;
people so wildly divergent that in
any other setting you might expect
any number of conflicts to occur.
But a reception fosters a solidar¬
ity amongst these strangers, it sus¬
pends all other rules and imposes a
number of its own. Rules like, feel¬
ing free to hug the bridesmaid's
grandmother, even if you are a
friend of the once-removed cousin
of the groom, or introduce yourself
to that pretty young girl from an¬
other state that you'll never see
again, and have a drink or two.
Rules that reinforce the notion that
it's all right to meet others, no mat¬
ter how different or distant — in
fact, it is encouraged.
The reception is the celebration
of the announcement made at the
wedding ceremony. It is where all
members concerned come to show
their support for the newly married
couple. It is where mothers, fathers,
grandmothers, grandfathers,
friends, and just about anyone else,
welcome one another into each of
the respective families, and toast the
creation of a new one.
It is also where loss is forced into
submission by revelry, and newness
and change are embraced rather
than feared. It is where two fami¬
lies lose sons and daughters, and
gain new ones (even if they must
be labeled "in-law"). Mothers cry.
fathers cry, fraternity brothers cry
(well, maybe after the bar shuts
down), and emotion seems to carry
the day, night, and early morning.
For me, it involved watching one
of my best friends and his wife for¬
malize the love that's existed be¬
tween them since the day their eyes
met. It meant meeting two large
families, and many new friends. It
meant knowing that although he'll
always be my friend, it'll somehow
be different. Not bad... just differ¬
ent.
I'm 28 years old. You couldn't
tell by my articles, I'm sure, but you
could by the number of friends I
have, both new and old who I have
that have tied thejtnot, broken the
glass, and lit the candle. Twenty-
eight and single, and all the time
wondering at life. The bachelor par¬
ties are few and far between now.
Instead, birth announcements arrive
every" few months. Ydung children
struggle to say "Uncle Ingemar."
I write this article looking out a
window. I wonder whose wedding
I will attend next and when. I won¬
der which families I will meet,
which nationalities will come to¬
gether to celebrate, and to who I
will lose this friend. Perhaps I'm
running out of single friends. Per¬
haps I'm next. Maybe tomorrow I
will meet the woman of my dreams
and we'll run out and get married
to. Then people can come together,
if only for one night, and enjoy one
another's company, perhaps she'd
a tear or two for our loss, and go
Please see WEDDING page 4.
WHAT'S THE
DXFFBRENCa
B£Tv/E&rt/VBlSNDE
WOMAN & QJ-?
-THE BLCWf^
CWN't WV£
AHVHORE.
■k
Crimes need reclassification
to keep 'Three-Strikes' viable
By Joel Eanes
Special to The Daily Collegian
We've all heard the horror sto¬
ries about the three strikes law for
criminal sentencing. Even since the
legislature enacted it in March,
1994, convicts have been sentenced
to twenty-five years to life, some¬
times for a minor offense. While
these stories ignore the fact that
such people would also have to
have been convicted of at least two
felonies, they still expose a basic
problem in California criminal law:
the flawed classification of offenses
into felonies and misdemeanors.
The three strikes law works as
follows. To state the idea very gen¬
erally, a first strike penalty is pre¬
served from pre-1994 law. The pen¬
alty for a second strike is twice the
penalty for the first. The penalty for
a third strike' is twenty-five years
to life, provided that at least two of
the three strikes are felonies. Each
of those provisions has limited ex¬
ceptions, but this is the general rule.
The root of the controversy is the
possibility that the third strike can
be a misdemeanor, and sometimes
a very minor one.
What are felonies and misde¬
meanors? Generally, a felony is an
offense punishable by a year or
more of imprisonment or probation;
a misdemeanor is an offense pun¬
ishable by less that a year of im¬
prisonment or probation, or onlj\
by a fine or community service.
Any violent crime is by definition
a felony, as are serious but non-vio¬
lent crimes. The rest are misde¬
meanors. V
The problem, as far as three
strikes is concerned, is that
California's list of misdemeanors
includes many offenses that are as
serious as felonies, and also many
' minor offenses that could theoreti¬
cally, but not realistically, result in
prison sentences (this is the state
prison, not the county jail, which is
run under a separate law). A per¬
son who is convicted of such an
offense has no realistic possibility
of prison time, unless that person
has two felony strikes, in which
case a misdemeanor suddenly leads
to a lengthy prison sentence. This
can include people whose felonies
were committed decades ago. In
addition, when the legislature first
laid out the classification of felo¬
nies and misd^racajuus, tjaj&c,
strikesdidn'fexTst;soTRTelas^Tr" '
cation was simply not made with
three strikes considerations in mind
No one looked at how including
minor misdemeanors with serious
ones would affect sentencing or re¬
peat offenders.
California could classify as a
felony any offense that carries a
realistic probability (not a theoreti¬
cal possibility) of state prison time
as a sentence. This would npt in¬
clude county jail sentences or jail¬
ing pending arraignment or trial
(three strikes already allows first
strike sentences of probation). The
new list would include the current
roster of felonies, as well as seri¬
ous misdemeanors. It would not
include in the new felony list mis¬
demeanors that require restitution
but not separation from society -
i.e.. non-paid parking tickets. The
three strikes law could then be
amended to require that all three be
of the reclassified felonies. This is
Please see EANES page 4.
Daily Collegian
 California State University, Fresno —	
Sports Editor
Tom Sepulveda
Web Production
Jason Maggini
Production Manager
Monica Stanford
Editor in Chief
Jevon C. Swanson
Managing Editor
Robert Bilvado
News Editor
Jim Ward
Ad Manager
Paul McCauley
Business Manager
Kari L. Scott
Photo Editor
Paul Martinez
Copy Editor
Elena Langdon
Staff Writers:
Man Kreamer,
Ruthie Longley, Man Hart,
Heather Hartman,
Rosanne Tolosa, Hadi
Yazdanpanah
Sports Writers:
Brooke Holve, Luis Hernandez,
Erik Pfeifle, Casey Angle, Matt
Lievre, Woody Miner, Matt Croce
Circulation:
Elena Langdon
The Daily Collegian is published five
times a week for and by the students of
California State University. Fresno.
Opinions expressed in the Collegian
are not necessarily those of the entire
Daily Collegian staff The editors reserve
the right to edit letters for length and
clarity. To be considered for publication.
letters must be typed and should not
exceed 250 words
News:
Sports:
Advertising:
FAX:
TrVpbooe Directory:
(209)278-5732
(209)278-2486
(209)278-5733
(209)278-5731
(209)278-2679
WWW:
http-7/www.csufresno.edu/Collegian