To the Editor:

Crybaby!

Maybe YOU are too young to have experienced a well-deserved whipping, but I’m not. Several swats (10 or so) on the butt does tend to get one’s attention – which is the whole point. One is usually spanked because of repetitious misbehavior. The spanking emphatically states that it is unacceptable behavior.

With that said, I must define a beating. My father was abusive. He

NEVER whipped – he beat. He used several things but I will only mention the relevant one – the stick (wooden rod, if you like). A beating is a conscious or unconscious desire to deliberately injure. And yes, I have scars.

There’s a helluva difference between a whipping and a beating.

Mr. Washington, the 18-year-old who was spanked in the ante-room of the court after being convicted on a drug possession charge, evidently

got some kind of message from the experience since he said ‘I ain’t fooling around with that no more.’ As to what he was referring, you’ll have to ask him.

As for the American who was beaten with a cane in Singapore, what upset ME, at least, was the fact that is was A BEATING. Maybe he got the message, too. At least he knows better than to smuggle drugs in Singapore. (If I recall correctly, Singapore has the death penalty available to deal with drug smugglers.)

I also have to say that he got what he deserved for “messing around in someone else’s back yard.”

As for the implied unconstitutionality of what happened to Mr. Washington, one must remember what the U.S. Constitution is, at LEAST partially, based on: English common law (which allows corporal punishment – and in public, too). One also must remember that Singapore was a British holding, hence the beating rule.

I think they both got off damn light.

S. E. Cooney

Non-Traditional Junior Transfer

Computer Science