Duke Devils Rile Readers
The Devils At Duke
ATG readers' reaction to the my column about the Duke University lacrosse team ranged from "boys will be boys" to resignation that society has gone to hell in a hand basket to outrage over the racial implications of the case.
I feel that if it is shown that there was no rape, the presumed "victim" be sued for defamation, and that she be forced to pay the cost of this investigation.
DS elobserver
Rush Limbaugh, should be in jail for his comments, apologized my foot — he means every word. We all know if this was a black football team, and the women was white the player would be already be in jail. The news would be done convicted them as well. We know what happen to Kobe Bryant don't we, they did it, so let's more to the next stage.
Thanks for writing about it.
Curtis Hollingsworth
Help me understand. A couple of strippers (a euphemism for hookers) show up at a campus house full of horny alcohol lubricated college kids. Do you really think they expected to play canasta?
Chuck Gibson
When I was a freshman at Stanford in 1964-65 one of the fraternities was disciplined because some of their members had bitten girls' nipples at a party. Both victims and perpetrators were white, so that was just misogyny.
Bad-boy behavior isn't new, it's just getting worse.
Victoria Brago
Wake up America!! Our society has become one big "candy store" of available sex, fueling raging hormones, destroying families and marriages, through accessibility from cable networks to the internet.
We can hire in-home live performances of sexual activity, we have access for this via dialing a yellow page phone number. Our media has become blatant with cleavage and skin flashing everywhere from magazine covers, national sex scandal magazines, to all types of commercial advertising. It's in our faces everywhere we turn in the public and every time we switch a TV channel.
Has the world changed? No just the number of people in it and the exposure that the media presents. Sex is used to sell everything in America.
We need decency laws revised from an earlier era in our country. It should be considered criminal to sell one's body for any purpose, dancing, posing for porn, or entering a private arena for this purpose. The fashion industry needs an overhaul starting with the influence of Hollywood. It's hard to buy clothing that doesn't have plunging necklines and waist lines. Why do we all follow like blind sheep to slaughter? Look around!! Decency and innocence is lost in America and we need to reclaim it, now for the safety and future of our women and children and the generations we must raise in a world of moral contradiction.
Eileen Barber
What would happen if the accused were black?
You know without a doubt. They would have been arrested and the highest possible bail would have been set. There is no doubt this would be the out come. It is unfortunate that race plays such a large part in this society. It has not changed nor do I think it ever will. Rush Limbaugh should be banned for radio. Those kinds of statements are not helpful
Brian K. Williams
As a mother of three white women, I find this story very sad. I am saddened because as a country, community, family and mother we are failing when it comes to guiding our youth to a moral, trusting, compassionate people. We are allowing the youth to grow without a soul or conscience. In order for our lives to be richer, happier and successful monetarily and emotionally, we need to show our youth that all people are worth something, that all life is worth everything. We need to take care of each other and look out for each other.
I, for one, will continue to try and show the young people that I meet, that it is up to you to be a good person, and it is up to you, to turn this trend of violence towards each other and of not caring about anything or anyone but yourself around. It will not happen in my generation, but it can happen in our youths. We need to care and love and protect, we need to make sure that as a people we will have a future.
Kathy Poznanovich
The mainstream media becomes more disgusting and outrageous with every passing day. I am not a Duke alumnus, none of the lacrosse team is related to me in any way and I could care less about Duke. In this particular case, you have a bunch of young men, some of whom are at risk for going to prison for a long time, and you use the tactic the pejorative headline 'Devils at Duke' while at the same time mentioning deep into the article — "Oh, by the way, there is, at this point , nothing but allegations" and I might point out, allegations by a woman with a criminal background who tried to kill an officer of the law a few years back and that is a fact. The media and the DA have poisoned the well and fanned racial and class enmities to the point that the lives of these students are either ruined or seriously impaired for the rest of their lives based on the word of a felon. Congratulations — you must be very proud of yourselves.
Elwin E. Fraley, M.D.
Thank you, Mr. Meyer for the voice of reason in the midst of this feeding frenzy. As a Duke grad and longtime supporter of the University, I have been appalled by the rush to judgment (Bonfire of the Vanities??) of the national and local media. This potentially explosive situation has been fueled by the irresponsible speculation and premature conviction of the teammates. Numerous articles referring to "the woman who was raped" or "the three lacrosse players who raped the woman" have been published. The word alleged has been left out far too many times.
If guilty, the criminals should be punished harshly. Let the facts be established as they should before reaching conclusions in the news coverage. I hope that your article is widely read and absorbed by those who have overreached to this point.
Charlie Daul
I read the commentary by Dick Meyer about the incident at Duke. He said that he did not know what would have happened if the young lady had been white and the players black or had attended Oklahoma. Come on, you know and every black man in America knows that if the role was reversed the guys would already be in jail and public opinion would have already found them guilty.
W. K. Singleton