“There ought to be a law” is one of my favorite sayings. So I decided to dedicate this last column to some laws that I would impose if I could.
First, I would like to say that I agree with Bill Clinton about something. I agree that all high school and college students should do mandatory community service. (Congratulations to ULV for making this a part of the new curriculum.) It does not have to be a lot of time, but what a difference we could make if all of us able-bodied students would commit to a few hours a month mentoring, tutoring and just helping out those people and communities who cannot help themselves. I would go farther than Clinton by making it mandatory for any person receiving public benefits to do some community service, in addition to their depo-provera shots and drug tests.
There ought to be a law that prisoners serve their complete sentences. A rapist should not get out of jail early because he made a license plate or folded a few towels. Chain-gangs should be implemented for prisoners to clean up the streets that they have helped erode.
As for children, there should be a temporary moratorium on adoptions outside of the U.S. There are 500,000 children in foster care and at least half of those children will never be adopted. There are plenty of children in this country who should be taken care of before we start saving the children in other countries. When the number of foster children in this country is significantly lower, then fine, couples can adopt from anywhere they wish, but in the meantime, let’s protect the children in our backyard first.
Secondly, involving adoptions, single people and gay couples should be allowed to adopt only those children who have been in foster care and not take steps toward artificial impregnation. Every baby deserves the best shot possible, which is in a two-parent family with a mother and a father. But, as stated above, there are plenty of children in foster care and if a gay or single person wants to adopt, great, adopt the children that are unadoptable by some people’s standards if a family is that important.
As for La Verne, every student should be required to do an internship, or two. These provide a wealth of information that one cannot learn in a classroom. I did two wonderful internships, although my department does not require that students do any. I worked in Washington, D.C., on the “Equal Time” show with Mary Matalin and for my congressman, Steve Horn, in Long Beach.
My first night in Washington, David Brinkley told me that college students do not know English and history. So, if I wanted to be a journalist, I needed a specialty. I chose political science. I returned home and started working for Horn and quickly became disillusioned about politics. Which leads to my next law.
Politics, I found to my disgust but not surprise, is only for the elite. The House of Representatives is supposed to be a body that represents the people of one’s community. This is rarely a true depiction. I do not know anyone in my community who can raise $4 million every two years, besides my congressman.
It is ridiculous that it costs millions of dollars to run for Congress. The high cost of running for office makes it impossible for the decent, hard-working patriots who have the ideas and the gumption to change the world to serve their country.
As I continue my journey, I will constantly continue to write my congressman, scream at the television, write letters to that joke of a paper called the Los Angeles Times and keep No. 5 on my phone a speed dial to the Speaker’s office in the Capitol in D.C. Maybe someone will listen.
Lori Cruz, a senior political science major, is editorial director of the Campus Times. She can be reached by e-mail at cruzl@ulvacs.ulaverne.edu.
