Woman's lies may
hurt many others
A woman who knowingly sent an innocent man to jail for
rape has finally decided to tell the truth after six years, saying
she has found God and now understands the evil of her ways.
In 1977, when she was 16, Cathleen Crowell was afraid she
might be pregnant after having sex with her teenage boyfriend.
So she ripped her clothing and scratched her body, said she had
been raped and made up a description of her “attacker.”
Gary Dotson had the misfortune of matching that decrip-
tion. Crowell picked out his photo from police mug shots and
said he was the rapist. Dotson was sentenced to up to 50 years
for kidnapping and rape.
Crowell, now married with two children, says she wants to
right her wrongdoing “to the extent possible.”
At least Crowell had the courage to finally come forward
and exonerate Dotson. But how can anyone make up for six
years spent unjustly in prison?
And, in the larger picture, how will Crowell’s lies affect the
treatment of future rape victims?
Rape is a horrible, psychologically-damaging crime. Pro
gress has been made in recent years to treat rape victims with
more understanding. Counseling rape victims and having them
examined by police officers of the same sex are steps taken to try
to reduce some of the shame and disgust associated with being
raped.
Progress also has been made, at a painfully slow rate, to dis
pel social stigmas about rape victims — that they are promiscu
ous and asked to be raped, or that they weren’t actually raped
but are just trying to get someone in trouble.
The Battalion Editorial Board is afraid Crowell’s immaturity
and stupidity may have serious, long-lasting, negative effects on
society’s view of rape and its victims.
In the future, conscientious police officers and jurors proba
bly will look harder — as they should — before assuming guilt of
rape suspects. But will they do so at the expense of the victims?
Will they treat rape victims suspiciously, with little or no re
spect?
If so, fewer women will come forward to report rapes. And
the problem only will get worse.
The Battalion Editorial Board
LETTERS:
Support of refuge
act encouraged
EDITOR:
What does it tell us about our coun
try’s policies when one woman’s human
itarian actions are viewed as so threaten
ing that she is faced with five years in
prison, ordered to leave the church-
sponsored shelter where she lives and
works, and forbidden to speak to the
press?
This woman is Stacy Lynn Merkt, a
volunteer in the Sanctuary Movement
that aids refugees fleeing Central Amer
ican violence. She and Jack Elder (Di
rector of Casa Oscar Romero, a Catholic
Church-sponsored shelter in San Be
nito) were convicted last month of con-
spiring to help two Salvadorans enter
the country (The Battalion, 3/27/85,
p.4). 1 hese courageous individuals have
continued to act on their personal reli
gious convictions despite repeated pros
ecution by federal authorities, and I
doubt that they will turn back now.
“Gay rights” are being discussed and
debated whether you approve or not.
What you can do is make your viewpoint
known. That is exactly why GI and PF
set up this debate, with an audience
question and answer period. Our com
mittee members have various view
points — we are not endorsing one side
or the other. However, we have ques
tions that we want answered and we are
optimistic that many people feel this
way. False optimism? I don’t think so.
Intelligent discussion will be heard long
after the ripping of cardboard fades
away.
Glenn S. Murtha
accompanied by 6 signatures
Brazos Beautiful, Inc.
thanks Ags for help
EDITOR:
Their imprisonment should be a sig
nal to the rest of us to speak out in sup
port of their cause, in support of tempo
rary asylum in the U.S. for refuge from
persecution; how Can we turn our backs
on this heritage?
Write to your representatives in Con
gress, urging their support of the Moak-
ley-Diconcini bill, which would grant
“temporary extended voluntary depar
ture status” — that is, temporary asylum
— to political refugees from El Salvador
now in the U.S., thus reaffirming the
U.S. Refugee Act of 1980. And come
talk to us about the Santuary Movement
at Political Awareness Day at the MSC,
Wednesday, April 3, 1985.
Brazos Beautiful, Inc. is very appre
ciative to two air science classes that
chose to do their community service
project with us. David Fribo, Dam
Hampton, Raley Marek and Randy
Smith spent approximately 3 hours at
Williamson Park in Bryan dismantling
obsolete swing sets. Blistered hands and
tired bodies did not dampen their en
thusiasm. THANK YOU..
Justin Powers, John Johnson, and
Scott Norwell used 3‘A hours of their
free time picking up trash off University
Street in College Station. They started
on Tarrow Street and continued up to
29th Street. These Ags picked up 12
bags of litter.
Alex Madonik
Gay rights debate
will not go away
THANK YOU AGGIES FOR HELP
ING TO KEEP BRAZOS BEAUTI
FUL. WE APPRECIATE YOU AND
YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS TO OUR
COMMUNITY.
EDITOR:
On Tuesday, April 2, Houston City
Councilman John Goodner and TCLU
Executive Director Gara LaMarche will
debate the civil rights of homosexuals.
Great Issues and Political Forum are
promoting this program with posters,
but some people are thwarting this ef
fort by tearing the posters down.
Sincerely, Diane Mills
Executive Director
Pretty buildings
aren’t everything
EDITOR:
I’ll assume that it’s not because they
want them for souvenirs — they’re in-
This past weekend I visited A&M for
the first time in approximately one year,
and saw, for the first time, the Albritton
tower.
Where did Bum’s convictions got*
I have a confes
sion to make — I
always harbored a
secret admiration
for Bum Bright.
Although I fre
quently criticized
his actions con
cerning controver
sial issues at Texas
A&M, I could
never deny that
Loren
Steffy
Bright was a man who stuck to his guns.
In short, he had guts.
Tuesday, Bum Bright traded in his
guts for chopped liver. He resigned his
position as chairman of the Texas A&M
System Board of Regents, claiming that
Gov. Mark White controlled the votes of
the board. Bright, who was not re
elected as chairman, also complained
about the election of Joe Reynolds as
vice chairman because Reynolds is not
an old Ag.
“As a consequence of our new officers
of the board, and based upon the gover
nor’s statement to me that he controls
the board, I feel that it is inappropriate
and serves little consequence for me to
continue to serve on the board,” Bright
said. “I just see little purpose in continu
ing to function on the board in a mi
nority role...”
However, Gov. White hit the prover
bial nail on the head when he said, “I
would not have thought his (Bright’s)
loyalty to Texas A&M would have been
limited to serving as chairman of the re
gents board.”
What happened to Bright’s deep-
rooted convictions? Where is his tradi
tional I’m-not-going-to-budge attitude
towards insurmountable odds? This guy
will unyieldingly Fight hopeless battles
to keep women out of our band and ho
mosexuals off our campus, but if he
can’t be the head honcho, he’s going to
pack up his marbles and go home.
Cons
By 1
The Tex;
Bright’s feeling that a “minortyfl
would be inconsequential shows
featist attitude. Anybody whobefe
Aggie idealism as strongly as i
does, should not allow himself to
lenced merely because he finds liiiMi the Asso
in a minority role. l P rs w ‘" ^
By walking out of the regents'
ing, Bright conceded victory tothe
people he said would be “a detrii
to the University. If Bright truly
A&M’s best interest at heart, hem
have stayed on the board and
watchdog to these detrimentals,
ing up. Bright has handed A&Mott
the majority he so adamantly opy
without a fight.
An inconsequential role is better
a non-existent one. Let’s face it, Bi
featuring d
tion-related
The exhi
to 4 p.m. or
.angford A
Jeff Hun
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have an
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man like you is only as inconseqneft 10111 " ,l)
as you allow yourself to be. | (le(1 U) sh(]
Loren Steffy is a sophomore jot,vT lss | : ’ f *'
I ism major and a weekly colummy, 1 !i
The Battalion. Esseme'st,
■ "It’s beei
Business takeovers nasty busines
Bork,” Hui
Be meiubt
in major (
■reparaiior
■roup effoi
By ART BUCHWALD
Columnist for The Los Angeles Times Syndicate
Once upon a time there was a sweet
thing called Red Riding Hood, who
owned Little Red Riding Hood Inc., a
small company that made children’s
dresses. One day she was walking down
Wall Street when she met a great big
wolf (Amalgamated Wolf).
“Where are you going, Red Riding
Hood?” the wolf asked.
“To Grandmother Pizza’s office with
this new issue of stock which I hope will
make her well.”
The wolf thought to himself, “What a
tasty morsel. I could eat Grandmother
Pizza for breakfast and Red Riding
Hood Inc. for lunch.”
The wolf then said, “Where are your
Grandmother’s offices?”
And Red Riding Hood replied, “In
the World Trade Center building.”
The wolf then said, “Would you like
to have a hot pretzel from the stand
over there?”
“Why not? They are not expecting
me at Grandmother’s board meeting for
a half-hour.”
stead reacting to the topic. To them, I
say, “What an intelligent response!” If
you choose to ignore this and try to keep
it from others, that doesn’t help your
stance one bit.
Whilst Red Riding Hood was eating
her pretzel and drinking her soda the
wolf sped off the the World Trade Cen
ter. He dashed into Grandmother Piz
za’s office and ate poor Grandmother
up.
Then he pulled the curtains and sat
in her leather chair.
Red Riding Hood was ushered in by
the secretary.
“Good morning, Grandmother.”
The wolf did not reply.
“Oh Grandmother, what big ears you
have.”
“The better to hear all the merger ru
mors on the street,” the wolf replied.
“Oh, Grandmother, what big eyes
you have.”
“The better to read everyone’s latest
financial report.”
“What big hands you’ve got.”
“The better to grab all your assets
with, my dear.”
“Grandmother, what big teeth you
have.”
“The better to eat you with!” And
with that the wolf sprang out of his chair
and made a lunge for Red Riding Hood,
who easily sidestepped him and
knocked him to the floor.
“What are you doing?”
Red Riding Hood sat on the wolfs
stomach and said, “I’m taking you
over.”
■ The exhi
“You can’t take me over,” thewience maj
cried. “I’m five times bigger than« “W e ho[
are.
leering stu
■ruction sti
lents from
Ibackgroui
b< interest
though the;
El
“Size means nothing,” Red
Hood said. “T he only thing thato
is how much money I can raise
control.”
“Where could you find enoife 1 action sc
dough to buy a great big wolf?” l SHOp ALL
“I’ll make a leveraged buyout.ml
off your head and sell it to a musel
your coat to a furrier and yourteetki
key chain company. It’s all here ini
prospectus.”
“The SEC will never let youdoitT
“T hey haven’t stopped anyone fl
swallowing anybody else up yet/f
Riding Hood retorted.
“W’ait,” the wolf said. “Why cant®
make this a f riendly takeover? Givec
golden parachute and I’ll never tr
eat you again.”
“Sorry, but it’s too late,” and withn
Red Riding Hood cut open the w
stomach and out popped her gras
mother, who had a grin on her face,
The grandmother said, “It world
knew we could get control oncehej
fat and cocky.”
Red Riding Hood said, “Where
you get that ‘we’ stuff, Grandma!!
spinning you off to Standard Oiloffr
Jersey.”
Will this university ever learn that
brains are more important than bricks?
Richard Braastad, ’83
Teachers should join
the ‘bread line’
EDITOR:
“Professional” is a funny term.
As a doctor, if you lost over 50 per
cent of your clients, your license would
be revoked.
Now that we settled that little misun
derstanding, do you not read The Bat
talion? There was an announcement
congratulating Davis-Gary, among oth
ers, for contributing the second highest
amount of blood of all the large organi
zations at Texas A&M. We were second
behind the Fightin’ Texas Aggie Band.
Was that not a service to the commu
nity?
As a lawyer, if 90 percent of yor cli
ents disliked your service, a bread line
would be the result.
Or as an engineer, if 52 percent of
your clients were not satisfied with your
work, and used phrases like “he’s arro
gant, not at our level, boring, no eye
contact, confusing, and only in for the
money,” you would lose all future con
tracts.
We also constructed picnic tables for
the City of College Station at the new
Southwood Park. That is a service,
wouldn’t you say? Also, Langford, pic
tures are available of the children we
sponsored through the Village of Hope.
Gosh, that might even be considered a
service to the world, huh Gregg?
These are only numbers; teachers
deal with people. As professionals they
must base their practice on sound and
proven educational research and meth
ods. The collecting of homework that is
neither corrected nor returned to the
student, the addition of 20 points to a 20
point quiz to penalize students who do
not follow the teacher's preferred
method, and the threatening and chas
tizing of students who seek tutoring
demonstrates one thing .. . perhaps it is
time for them to join the bread line.
Now you mentioned in your letter
that D.G. was suspected of destroying
the private property of some of the local
fraternities. We believe the key word in
that statement is suspected. By the way,
there was an incident where two frater
nities trashed another fraternity’s
house, while they forcefully held mem
bers of that fraternity against their will
in doing so. Are we being blamed for
that too?
Michael Goad
D.G. responds to
fraternity challenge
EDITOR:
Dear Gregg Langford,
In response to your letter in the
March 26 Batt, we’ll start off by saying
that D.G. is not a frat. Never claimed to
be, never will. We do not have rush par
ties, membership dues, or those cute
little pledge pins. Webster defines a fra
ternity as “a student society, designated
by letters of the Greek alphabet.” The
letters D and G are not Greek. They
stand for Major Clarence R. Cavis and
Lieutentant Arthur E. Gary, the first
two Aggies to sacrifice their lives in
WWII. Their initials are proper and
should always be capitalized.
As for your sign, it said nothing about
the Bryan Boys Club. It said — Vote for
Paddy Murphy, Student Body President
— and had your organization’s Greek
initials on it. This in no way advertises a
fund-raising event for charity, but in
stead, shows a total lack of regard for
University policy concerning non-recog-
nized organizations and election cam
paign regulations. Simply put, it was a
sure fire way to provoke a confrontation
between Greeks and Northgate resi
dents. We hope the sign didn’t affect the
election process. We would hate to think
that best person for the job didn’t win
because of your illegal and improper
sign.
As for us, we are proud of our “Red
Ass” reputation and what we stand for,
and we will continue to stand, as all Ags
should, till the very end.
That’s our reply and we accept your
apology,
The D.G. Association
Randal Reiley
The Battalion
USPS 045 360
Member of
Texas Press Association
Southwest journalism Conference
The Battalion Editorial Board
Brigid Brockman, Editor
Shelley Hoekstra, Managing Editor
Ed Cassavoy, City Editor
Kellie Dworaczyk, News Editor
Michelle Powe, Editorial Page Editor
Travis Tingle, Sports Editor
The Battalion Staff
Assistant City Editors
Kari Fluegel, Rhonda Snidff
Assistant News Editors
Cami Brown, John Hallett, KayMalleii
Assistant Sports E.ditor
Charean Williams
Entertainment Editors
Shawn Behlen, Leigh-EllenClarl
Staff Wri ters Rebecca Adair,
Cathie Anderson, MarcyBasik
Tamara Bell, Brandon Berry
Jeff Brady, Dainah Bullard
Ann Cervenka, Michael Crawford
Mary Cox, Kirsten Diet!,
Cindy Gay, Pete Herndon,
Trent Leopold, Sarah Oates,
Jerry Oslin, June Pang,
Tricia Parker, Cathy Rid),
Marybeth Rohsner, WalterSmill
Copy Editors .Jan Perry, Kelley Smitli
Make-up Editors Karen Blodi,
Karla Martin
Columnists Ed Cassavoy, Kevin Inda,
Loren Stefff
Editorial Cartoonist Mike Lane
Sports Cartoonist ....DaleSmitli
Copy Writer Cathy Benneii
Photo Editor Katherine Hurl
Photographers Anthony Casper,
Wayne Grabein, Bill Hughes, Frank Irwin,
John Makely, Peter Rocha, DeanSaito
Editorial Policy
The Battalion is a iton-proBt, sell-supporting hcivj/miw
operated as a community service to Texas A&M aid
Bryan-College Station.
Opinions expressed in The Battalion are those of tilt
Editorial Board or the author, and do not necessarily rtp
resent the opinions of Texas /Ui-M administrators, facml
or the Board oTRegents.
The Battalion also serves as a laboratory newspaperfot
students in reporting, editing and photograph) classe
within the Department oT Communications.
Letters Policy
Letters to the Editor should not exceed 300 mrds in
length. The editorial staff reserves the right to alii lento
Tor style and length but will make every elTon to mamtaii
the author's intent. Each letter must be signed and iiws
include the address and telephone number of the writer
The Battalion is published Monday through Iridu
during 'Texas A&M regular semesters, except forholidn
and examination periods. Mail subscriptions are fld.Ji
per semester, $33.25 per school year and $35 per fill
year. Advertising rates furnished on request.
Our address: The Battalion, 21C> Need McDomld
Building, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX
77843. Editorial stall phone number: (409) 845-2630. Ad
vertising: (409) 845-2611.
Second class postage paid at College Station, TX 77SI).
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ion, Texas A&M University, College Station, Tesai
77843
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