Beyond Feelings

162 PART THREE A Strategy
within her right to the free exercise of her religion. The court ruled against
her, fined her $454, and ordered her to inform prospective tenants (a) that
she had been in trouble with the state housing commission, (b) that her
claim to the free exercise of religion was rejected by the court, and (c) that
she now accepts the government’s “equal housing opportunity” policy. 2
Was justice done in this case?
b. Most people’s consciousness has been raised about the evil of child abuse,
some people’s to the point of denouncing the practice of spanking children.
But many others believe that spanking is not necessarily abusive
and can be a positive means of developing children’s sense of right and
wrong and guiding them to responsibility and self-discipline. What is
your view on this issue?
c. A group of convicts brought legal action against the prison system, contending
that their religious freedom was violated because they were not
allowed to use an interfaith chapel to worship Satan. 3 Should prison officials
have allowed them to use the chapel?
d. Canadian government officials passed legislation to curtail cigarette company
sponsorship of athletic and cultural events. Banned are logos on
race cars and the displays of company names on signs at events sponsored
by tobacco companies. 4 Should the United States follow Canada’s
example?
e. A Stillwater, Oklahoma, police officer came home to find his daughter
and her boyfriend copulating on the couch. The boy pulled up his pants
and rushed past the officer. As he went by, the officer slapped him in the
face with an open hand. Subsequently, the boy’s mother called city officials
and complained about the “assault.” As a result, the officer was
demoted and given a $700 pay cut. The city council later reversed the
ruling but voted to fine the officer a week’s pay. 5 Do you agree with the
city’s handling of this case?
f. Some educators are urging that colleges become more selective than they
have been in the past few decades. Specifically, these people propose that
remedial courses be eliminated and entrance requirements tightened. This
would mean that students who are deficient in basic skills, earned poor
marks in high school, or did poorly on admissions tests would not be
accepted into college. Do you agree with this view?
g. An outstanding senior English major (with a 3.7 grade point average out
of a possible 4.0) at Princeton University submitted an analysis of a novel
for her Spanish American literature course. Her professor determined
that the paper was plagiarized—that is, that it was copied, virtually word
for word, from a scholarly reference work without proper acknowledgments.
The student subsequently claimed she had committed only a “technical
error.” The case was referred to a faculty-student committee on
discipline, which, after a hearing, recommended withholding the student’s
degree for one year and notifying the law schools to which she
had applied of the details of the decision. Believing the penalty to be too
harsh, the student took the matter to court. 6 Do you believe the committee’s
decision was too harsh?
h. A federal court has ruled that Christmas (like Hanukkah, Easter, and
Passover) may be observed in the public schools as a cultural event but
not as a religious holiday. Educational lawyers interpret that as meaning
that songs like “Silent Night” may be sung in a class learning about