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| Group passes ‘support
troops,’ religion bills |
David Forbes
SGA Beat
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Peter Larkins | The
Appalachian
Off-campus senators Christian
H. Greve and Aaron M. Whitener respond to questions reguarding
the “support our troops” bill Tuesday evening.
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Considering four pieces
of legislation in a single session, the Student Government Association
(SGA) passed bills supporting coalition soldiers and endorsing religious
exemptions for candle use.
Controversy on ‘Support the Troops’
bill
The main controversy at the meeting surrounded
a bill endorsing support for members of American and coalition armed
forces.
Many senators were concerned over grammatical
and structure errors in the bill. In the end, however, the bill
passed 29-2-11. |
SGA’s
Rules Committee, which screens bills for accuracy and structure,
gave the bill an unfavorable recommendation Monday night due to
more than 20 grammatical errors in its original form, according
to the SGA rules report.
The authors and presenters of the bill said the errors had been
corrected and the bill’s subject matter was of immediate importance.
“We’re not here to make a political statement. But there
are students involved in [the Iraq] conflict and we want them to
know we support them, and even though we may not agree with the
policy, we agree with their sacrifice,” off-campus senator
Justin W. Moore said Tuesday.
“This is not a political game. People are hiding behind grammar.
It’s to support the troops. There may be a few errors that
we’ve corrected momentarily. How long do we want to sit on
this? If this body wants to step back and say ‘hey we don’t
want to support you guys’ then say that. Don’t hide behind
grammatical errors,” off-campus senator Aaron Whitener, the
bill’s main author, said Tuesday.
“How can we say we support our troops with this horribly written
piece of legislation, and to say that I or anyone else in this room
doesn’t support the troops, you’re lying to the body and
you’re lying to yourself,” off-campus senator Steven Barker,
one of the few senators to directly vote against the bill, said
Tuesday. “If you want to support our troops, send stuff to
the soldiers. How you can support our troops but not understand
what this conflict is about?”
This is not the first time the issue of the Iraq
conflict has arisen in SGA. A previous bill declared SGA’s
opposition to an attack on Iraq without the backing of the United
Nations.
Religious exemptions for candle burning passed
The end result of lobbying by the Pagan Student Association (PSA),
the Jewish Student Association (Hillel) and the campus chapter of
the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a bill that would allow
religious exemptions for burning candles in residence halls passed
unanimously.
Jewish and pagan students have raised concerns that burning candles
is a vital part of their religious practice and that the current
rule banning all burning or possession of candles violates that
right.
“The purpose of this bill is to make a general statement. I’m
not Jewish or Pagan, but I don’t feel it would be unreasonable
to allow this. In this case freedom takes precedent over the tiny
risk a fire might be set in one of these cases,” off campus
senator Ian A. Mance said Tuesday.
While some senators raised questions about safety issues involved
with allowing students to burn candles, in the end the bill passed
unanimously with no objections and no debate. |
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