Page 26 - Phoenix2000-01

Thursday. Oc!ober 5, 2000 - Page 6 Staff .Suprerne Court to rul,~j(~ng~!fe!/~:~I;i,~\l~e,~ Editors-In-Chief It seems that it will take a Supreme Court Edward K. Schultheis discusses The PGA Tour also argues the law was Laura Beth K~lIey '01 r~lin~ to decide.whethef ~r not Casey Mar- ~his position concerhirt~the case.of never. me.ant'to req~ire pro'fes~j'bnal"spo~s Jenifer D. Sirkis '01 ~;u~~~ be- allowed to use.a cart on the golf pro golfer Ca1~ylMa~tln:,1.. "', ~~~~:~~~~nn:o~~c;:;~.~~:!:U!~:a~~e~~~~~ News Editors Martin has, a disorder of his circulation public places, like golf courses. petitors.·· Claire Adams '02 system that resulted in the malformation of The PGA Tour should declare defeat, call However; I feel -that the use of the cart Staci George '03 his right leg. off its lawyers and give Martin the enthusi- does not c'ompromise the "purity of the Because of this, it causes pain so severe astic welcome that it has denied this golfer, game," and it is covered under the ADA. Assistant News Editor that he cannot walk for an extended period who suffers from a disability that is in no Here's my interpretation of the ADA in this Joan Faulkner '02 of time. way his fault. case: Martin's use of the cart is definitely The case has been ruled on twice in lower In a unanimous ruling, the appeals coun covered by the act's "reasonable accornrno- Features Editor courts, both times in favor of Martin. How- in San Francisco shredded the PGA's argu- dations" section. Martin's cart is a "readily Shauna Dominguez '02 ever, according tothe Sept. 27 edition of The ments that allowing Martin to use a cart accessible tool" that allows him to do his job, Baltimore Sun, a federal appeals court based would give him an unfair advantage over which is to compete as a pro golfer. Assistant Features Editor in Chicago has ruled just the opposite, a case other golfers, and even serve as a disturbing So while it seems that the PGA contends Matt McGowan '04 Martin's use of the cart is definitely covered by the act's "reasonable Commentary Editor Edward Schultheis '03 accommodations" section. Martin's cart is a "readily accessible tool" that allows him to do his job, which is to compete as a pro golfer. Assistant Commentary Editor BJ Shorb '02 involving another pro golfer, Ford Olinger. precedent that could lead, for example, to that his use of the cart undermines the game who is also disabled. disabled golfers suing for the right to playa itself, it is simply a way for Martin to get to Sports Editor The PGA Tour contends that Martin shorter course than other PGA tour competi- Matthew Hurff '03 should not be allowed to use a cart on the tors. work and he is definitely covered under the ADA. tour because it gives him an advantage over The PGA's claims were rightly and Although the case will not be heard until Assistant Sports Editor the other golfers competing because they soundly rejected. In reality, the fact that early in 200 I, the PGA should just drop the Greg Lederer '03 have to walk all of the holes on the course, Martin would be able to use a cart only al- case and stop throwing legal roadblocks in Martin contends that his disability is cov- lows him the ability to play on the same level Photographer ered under the Americans with Disabilities as the other competitors. front of a talented and worthy golfer, and Brad Widner '03 Act and he should be allowed to play with a AsJudge William Canby wrote, "All that give Casey Martin the welcome to the tour that he deserves. cart because it is the only way for him to the cart does is permit Martin access to a type Just a quick little question for you to con- Senior Writer compete with the other golfers. of competition in which he otherwise could sider. Do you think if Tiger Woods had a Kate Esposito '01 In March, Martin won an appeal case not engage because of his disability. That is leg injury and needed to ride a cart during a against the PGA Tour when a court in San precisely the purpose of the ADA." high-interest part of the PGA Tour, pro golf Student Government Reporter Francisco ruled that the Americans with Dis- The PGA maintains that the cart destroys would not accommodate him? r bet they Megan K Martin '01 abilities Act applies to pro sport events at the "purity of the game." would. StalTWriters Amy Bittinger '01 Summer Olympics: Who watched them? Melissa Blackwell '03 Anne Butler '01 What comes around every four years and BJ Shorb surveys various students Did the fact that nothing was live bother Jessica Fisher '04 stays for only 2 weeks? You guessed it! The concerning the television coverage the individuals who were watching? Cara Jacobson '03 Olympics, more specifically the Summer of the Summer Olympics. Junior Chris Tougher said that he fre- Michael Jenkinson '02 Olympics. quently visits ESPN.com and other sports Stacey Myers '02 The.Olympics that have been gripping an year, "Olympics are a place where race, related news websites, so he tried to avoid Cyndi Nicoli '04 enormous amount of the media's eye for the color, and origin are not supposed to matter. those sites during the Olympics. If he found Cathy Pendorf '02 past couple of weeks took place in Sydney, It's all based on hardwork and ability," she out who won, "there would be no point in Michael Wiles '03 Australia. Since Sydney's time is 15 hours said. watching," he said. ahead of Eastern Standard time, none of the In a similar manner, freshman Sarah Carroll had the same concern. He said Adviser events were broadcast live. Instead, events Campbell said that if she had more time she that it is unfortunate when you go to Terry Dalton were covered during the following day's air would definitely watch the Olympics. "It is NBCOlympics.com just to see the schedule time. _ a lot of fun to root for your team even though and you find a list of all the winners for that With unlimited media in our reach these you don't know the competitors personally", day on the front page. days, you would think that many would tum she added. Some found themselves actually being to Internet and other more immediate sources Watching between one and two hours of told by broadcaste~s to tum down the vol- to keep up with the latest medal winning the_ Olympic coverage each day, freshman The Phoenix is published biweekly. The ume if they had planned on watching the Olympians. Despite this possibility, NBC Mary Dolan thinks that the Olympics are f.Pinions expressed do not necessarily represen coverage later (0 see who won. and its affiliates set aside 440 hours of tele- important because "it gives athletes a chance ~ose of The Phoenix staff, the faculty, or- ~ The broadcasters did what they could vision air time to be devoted solely to the to represent their country and show to the ~,"""",ofWMC. . under the circumstances, said Campbell, but The paper welcomes free-lance submissions Olympics. world their remarkable abilities." it's no fun' when you read the results in the The question is how much' were students n Macintosh disks in most word processor for- Noting that the Olympics are "an inspir- newspaper before you "get to see the actual rws· The editors reserve the right to edit fo watching? Here at WMC, it seems that there ing display of athletes and sportsmanship," events. larity, length, and libel and to publish as space were students watching the Olympics on junior Nicole Novotny wished that the Olym- Finding benefit in the delay was Dolan. ~its. All submissions (excluding self-ad- television as many as seven hours per day pics would have been held during our sum- She said, "you get to see' all the important ~sed diskettes) become the property of The and as little as none at all. mer months, so that school work and activi- stuff and they edit out all the boring stuff." 'hoenix and cannot be returned. In fact, some students even participated -ties would not have kept her from watching Likewise, Novotny said even though it Please include a name and phone numbe in what they call "Non-US Olympics." Ac- more of the events. ruins the element of surprise, she enjoyed or verification. Names will be withheld only by cording to senior Dennis Lucey, each per~ Melissa Donner, a senior, also believes the numerous documentaries on the athletes ~ discretion of !he Editors-in-Chief. son selected a country other than the US and that with more time, she 'could have enjoyed which they were able to fit in this year. "It The Phoenix does not discriminate based on rooted for that team exclusively. He recalls watching the Olympics more. "It's incred- brings them closer to you," she added. ge, race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, having "40 countries represented, from big ible to see what the world's athletes are ca- For some people, like myself, the delay !national origin, condition of handicap, or mari- countries like Australia, Russia, and France, pable of doing," she said. She believes that wasn't a problem. 1 enjoyed watching the ~status to smaller countries like Trinidad and by showing "ordinary people" performing events the next day because that gave NBC Ghana." "extraordinary achievements", the Olympics time to edit. They were able to create pack- Another participant in this "Non-US give young people who desire to compete a Mail to: ages that included stories about the athletes Olympics" was sophomore Sean Carroll. He goal to wotk toward. _ The Phoenix and coverage of the ev.ent itself. said that there were at-least 44 people who WMC, 2 College Hill As you can see, some students are watch- I don't use the internet frequently enough Westminster, MD 21157 participated in the selection process. Carroll ing the Olympics a lot and others aren't to find out the results before watching, and I describes the Olympics as uniting the world (410)751-8600 watching at all. Some don't have time to only turned on the-TV when 1 wanted to "in sport and spirit." FAX (410)857·2729 watch and some are making time to watch watch an event they had scheduled to cover. E-Mail: phof:nix@wmdc.edu Senior Christa Farrar said that she did not them, no matter what. Regardless of whether Overall, the Olympic coverage brought have time to watch any Of. the Olympics. the students are watching, the most popular a mixture of attitudes, as most unusual cir- Despite nor being able to see the events this events seem to be gymnastics and swimming, cumstances do.