Briefs

SPARE THE ROD

The Isle of Man, a British crown possession in the Irish Sea, differs from the mother country in several respects. Taxes are lower, cats have no tails, and youths judged guilty of violent crimes are occasionally whipped with a birch rod.

For that, Great Britain last week found itself haled before the European Court of Human Rights, voluntarily joined by Britain in 1950. Her Majesty's government was accused of tolerating "degrading punishment." Although birching was finally banned in Britain in 1968, Man's 1,000-year-old parliament, the Tynwald, has long been allowed to make its own internal laws. But after he was birched three strokes in 1972 for beating up a school prefect who had snitched on him, a 15-year-old Manx boy named Anthony Tyrer made an international case of it.

Island Attorney General Jack Corrin has promised that future birchings would be laid on "over ordinary cloth trousers" rather than traditional bare buttocks. The whipping has always been limited to twelve strokes on male youths aged 14 to 20. And, claimed Corrin, it has noticeably helped in keeping the crime rate low.

The European Court is expected to condemn the practice this spring, forcing Britain to outlaw birching on the isle. The Manx are not likely to submit meekly. A petition backing birching was signed by 31,000 of Man's 45,000 voters. Facing self-government claims from all sides, the British would do well to keep in mind that many islanders are descended from fiercely independent Viking marauders. Nearly 200 years ago, a Manx descendant named Fletcher Christian aboard the H.M.S. Bounty led the most famous of all mutinies.

DOGGED DEFENSE

Who would deny a blind person with a Seeing-Eye dog equal access to public facilities? A whole slew of restaurants, that's who, even though every state has modified health regulations to guarantee admittance for canine guides. After suffering through exclusion incidents, thousands of blind people now carry a summary of state laws to convince hostile restaurant and club owners of their rights.

One such carrier is J. Ventura Garcia, 43, of Las Cruces, N. Mex., an assistant professor of speech at New Mexico State University. During a five-month period in 1975 he and his German shepherd, Harmony, were denied admission to three restaurants in the Southwest. Blind friends had mentioned similar incidents, Garcia says, "but in most cases, they simply accepted the embarrassment." After one particularly galling experience at Luby's cafeteria in El Paso, however, Garcia filed suit charging humiliation and denial of civil liberties.

In defense, Luby's called the matter "a misunderstanding" on the part of an assistant manager who had merely thought Harmony should wait in the car because Garcia's wife was along to assist him. Retorted Garcia: "That dog is my eyes. You wouldn't ask me to leave an artificial leg in the car. Why my eyes?"

Last week in Texas the eyes had it. An El Paso jury sided with Garcia, awarding him $5,000 in damages. Elated, Garcia promised to donate a portion of his award to Seeing Eye, a New Jersey guide-dog training organization. -

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