Opinion
THE BATTALION
7
Friday, March 8, 2002
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EDITORIAL
Safety first for
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I Each year, in the week following spring break, The Battalion’s
news reporters all too often have the unenviable task to cover at
least one story about an A&M student’s death during the vaca-
Bion. Most of these deaths are due to traffic accidents, but a wide
variety of accidents have occurred in previous years, making it
painfully obvious to our community that while spring break can,
■nd should, be a festive occasion, students must protect both
■hemselves and their friends during spring break.
I The Battalion urges ail students, whether they are visiting the
beaches of south Florida or relaxing around the Bryan-College
Station area, to be aware of their safety. Students should take
advantage of the free time spring break offers, but we hope that
all Aggies will take care and return safely to Aggieland.
THE BATTALION
SINCE 1*93
EDITORIAL BOARD
Editor in Chief MARIANO CASTILLO
Managing Editor Brian RUFF Member MELISSA BfdSOLE
Opinion Editor CAYLA Carr Member JONATHAN JONES
Neivs Editor SOMMER BUNGE Member JENNIFER LOZANO
News Editor BRANDIE LlFFICK Member KELLN ZlMMER
I The Battalion encourages letters to the editor. Letters must be 200 words or
less and include the author's name, class and phone number. The opinion editor
reserves the right to edit letters for length, style and accuracy. Letters may be submit
ted in person at 014 Reed McDonald with a valid student ID. Letters also may be
m.nled to: 014 Reed McDonald, MS 1111, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX
77843-111 1. Fax: (979) 845-2647 Email: mailcall@thebatt.com
IN) mm
ken Lay ai the bank
MAIL CALL
Ashes to ashes . ..
Crematoriums need government regulation
is a
riot
for providing this valuable serv
ice. In that sense, he’s a true
AND!BACA
A mericans were shocked to hear
that more than 200 bodies were
found in Nobel, Ga., at the Tri-
State Crematorium hidden in garages, tool
sheds and septic tanks. CNN confirmed
that the operator, Ray Marsh, was arrested
and charged with theft by deception.
Friends and families were devastated by
the realization that they did not receive
their loved one’s ashes. This instance is
clearly a result of the lack of regulations
and laws regulating crematoriums.
The popularity of cremations has grown
considerably over the years. According to
USA Today, the number of cremations per
formed grew from 5,000 to 400,000 in a
decade. Cremations are more affordable
than the average funeral and burial costs,
and provide families a personal way to say
good-bye, whether through spreading the
ashes or burying them in a special place.
The sentimental value of a deceased’s
ashes is immeasurable, however that feel
ing is not the same if someone questions
the contents of their urn.
Crematoriums do not have the right to
offer a service to the public and not follow
through. Instances like this are not limited
to what happened in Georgia. USA Today
reported several cases in which families
received concrete dust and potting soil
instead of their family member’s ashes.
There is an obvious need to regulating
crematoriums. USA Today said only 23
states enforce crematorium licensing. In
states without any type of regulation, any
one can operate a crematorium. States that
have laws do little to enforce them and
offer few consequences to perpetrators, so
crematoriums have no incentive to abide
by the laws. Several states require
Environmental Protection Agency emis
sions regulation, but that is also ineffective
ly regulated. Crematoriums such as Tri-
State, that deal with funeral homes rather
than the public, are under even less regula
tion according to USA Today.
It seems the cremation business would
be a self-regulating industry governed by
the morals of its operators. Ray Marsh
proved America wrong twice by selling
wood chips and potting soil as human
ashes and by disrespectfully leaving bod
ies strewn across his property. The news
would have been easier to accept if Marsh
had cremated or buried the bodies. USA
Today reported that Tri-State charged
$200-$ 1,500 for a cremation that would
have only cost them $25 to complete.
Marsh would not have lost much money if
he had cremated the bodies. His actions
could have been changed by a law regulat
ing crematoriums. Laws need to be created
and enforced to fill the void of immorality
that people believe accompany this type of
job. States simply need to enforce laws to
give people a conscience.
Since the exposure of the Tri-State
Crematorium, states have been working to
impose reform. USA Today said Georgia
proposed a law that would not allow cre
matorium operators to work without a
license or state inspection. Georgia is also
trying to widen the definition of what is
considered mistreating the dead to include
abandoning or throwing away a body
intended for burial or cremation. According
to USA Today, Florida and California are
the only states that require crematorium
RUBEN DELUNA • THE BATTALION
inspections. California also requires crema
torium operators pass training programs.
Other states are looking into tough regula
tions to avoid a Tri-State repeat.
It is disturbing that it took such a horrif
ic event like what happened in Georgia to
make it known that there should be regula
tions in the cremation business. Many fam
ilies must deal with grief from re-opened
wounds they thought had been closed. It is
shocking to imagine that we need laws to
protect those who have died and ensure
they receive an honorable end.
Audi Baca is a senior
journalism major.
provemenM /n response to a March 6 mail
tuneup of call:
' On Thuf p
•onauts p” 1 J Embedded in Jonathan Apgar’s
ignorant fulmination are the very
will det^ reasons that America needs more
galaxies Hp^o pie like Robert Jensen,
xs than ^ Jensen’s analysis offers a strong
all of the f dose of fact to Apgar’s benighted
Tents,"s* daydreaming.
^ersity astHHjur government capriciously
who led^ violates international law, has
camera. ^ sponsored genocide in East
iy be able' Timor, Israeli-occupied territories
( planets' and Vietnam (Nixon wanted to
ars. nuke Vietnam) among others, and
unerawas leaves 40 million of its own citi-
i that bete zens without medical insurance.
)bject 1 We may not have public execu-
iginal efrtions, but we hold more execu-
1^990 but f tions than all but four countries,
tbsolete" A just military action?
3 gy. Itwaij ] n 1999, U.S. forces deliber-
alfewyettfately bombed a radio station in
Belgrade, Yugoslavia, (claiming
it spread propaganda and was
therefore a military target) that
was adjacent to a children’s the
ater and a few minutes’ walk
from my father’s old high-school.
Among the dead were hair
dressers and cameramen. How
just.
If Apgar thinks otherwise, his
dispute on these issues is with
reality, not Jensen. Jensen’s
poignant and informed analysis
helps Americans decide how to
make their government better;
you cannot improve something
Jorrn without criticizing it first. Jensen
has weathered plenty of
ungrounded accusations like this
Dimitrije Kostic
graduate student
Informational
behavior
reasonable
In response to a March 7
mail call:
I do agree that some people
don’t have social manners, but it
is not fair to be hard on the stu
dents who appear ill-prepared for
informational meetings.
First of all, some students
attend informational meetings
right after lab, work and class,
including physical education
classes. It is not easy for them to
change into something other
than sandals, jeans, T-shirts and
sweatshirts. As an engineering
student, I do not hold a great
deal of value to what is worn to
an informational session. I
believe that your interview is the
important way to impress with
your professionalism.
Secondly, recruiters were once
college students themselves and
know that food, especially free
food, is good. That is why they
provide it. I have no problem
wolfing down three or four pieces
of pizza because I am a starving
animal and most of the time
there is food left over.
Lindsay Clem
Class of 2002
Office of Misinformation
T he Bush administration’s
handling of the war on ter
rorism, while commendable
thus far, narrowly avoided its first
half-witted turn. In an effort to
teach offending foreign nations
some good old-fashioned American
values, the Pentagon spent last month promoting its new Office
of Strategic Influence, a group created with the sole intention of
lying to other countries. The nostril-burning smell of hypocrisy
is once again in the air.
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the new office
would have placed false information with foreign news organiza
tions. In theory, this would throw foolhardy nations off the U.S.
scent, and they would be pawns for Americans to do with as they
please.
These are the kind of stale ideas released for public consump
tion when old men run the country. In the six months since the
terrorist attacks, the best thing the Pentagon can come up with is
an official, coat-and-tie office of lying. This is truly a shame.
There are endless reasons why this is a horrendous idea, and the
Pentagon did the right thing by “closing” the office and continuing
the misinformation campaign covertly. The cat, however, is techni
cally out of the bag. The existence of this office should never have
been disclosed to the media, at home or abroad, because that clear
ly defeats the purpose of placing false information.
Global opinion of America, the very thing Rumsfeld claimed
would benefit the most from the new office, has begun to suffer.
Militant Muslims, who already consider America drunk on its own
corruption and excess, surely regarded this as fuel for the fire.
But the toes of America’s foes were not the only ones getting
stepped on. The brief existence of this office disgusted friendly
and unfriendly nations alike. Rumsfeld and his Pentagon cronies
should have stuck merrily to dropping their propaganda leaflets
over the mountains of Afghanistan.
Believe it or not, Rumsfeld, when America repeatedly starts
deceiving other nations with misinformation, it is only a matter
of time before these nations start dismissing everything America
tells them as a lie. This is the exact opposite of what the United
States should be trying to achieve in its much-ballyhooed war on
terrorism. America has forever asserted its position as the
world’s moral watchdog, and it was dangerously close to devalu
ing this same position.
It already has been established that there is no need for this
office. In all fairness, America has been lying to foreign nations
for years without the aid of any official group, and this is where
Rumsfeld and the Pentagon erred unforgivable.
The simple fact that the Pentagon alerted the news media to its
plans, even though it was only here in the United States, totally
defeated the original intent of the office. With the United States
being the global news leader, this country would be naive to think
other countries had no knowledge of this misinformation cam
paign. Did the Pentagon, supposedly composed of some of the
greatest minds in this country, not think this through?
The last thing America needs is to give its blessing to any
organization founded on deception and misinformation. How long
would it have been before those outward lies turned inward? Face
it: lying begets lying, and deceit begets deceit. Do not be fooled,
the U.S. government is not above lying to its own people if it is
considered to be in the people’s “best interests.”
There are benefits to legitimate tactical deception, but the
Pentagon should have known better than to announce its plans for
rampant lying to the story-starved U.S. media. America has irre
versibly shot itself in the foot. Even at the announcement of the
closing of the office, Rumsfeld was still ensuring supporters that
“We will do those things ... just in different offices.” Sure, go
ahead and reveal our military strategy to them, Rumsfeld.
America supposedly fights terrorism, communism and all the
other social evils of the world to reach some utopian ideal of how
this planet should be. It was foolish for America to announce the
arrival of an office founded on lying and deception, because this
corrupts the entire process. It is good that the Office of Strategic
Influence has been closed, but the country’s best move would
have been never to open it.
George Deutsch is a junior
journalism major.
GEORGE DEUTSCH