Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 8, 1984)
Opinion Page 2AThe Battalion/Wednesday, February 8, 1984 f*, i': Commercialization endangers Games The rest of the world is upset with the U.S. Olympic Committee’s attitude towards the Olympic Games. American capitalists are selling the sacred Games. They have gone as far as selling sponsorships for the runners who will carry the Olympic flame from Greece to Los Angeles. This is the game plan: American Telephone Sc Telegraph Co. will spon sor the “path of fire.” AT&T will sell shorter stretches to subsponsors for $3,000 a kilometer — not even a good American distance like a mile. The proceeds will be donated to American youth organizations. A member of the International Olympic Committee has urged the committee to revoke its approval of this plan. He has said the plan is gross com mercialization of the torch — one of the few non-commercialized elements of the games. Is it a sin to commercialize the show case for the world’s best athletes? Aren’t athletics just another form of entertainment? In America people will pay to be en tertained. So will people in the rest of the world, whether they admit it or not. They pay either in actual currency or in time that could be spent in more productive ways. It’s fair to say that the commerciali zation of the Olympics is justified to a point — the point where the Games break even. But the moment the games begin to turn a profit - even a profit that may be used to better funds for the American athletes and thus their chances of win ning — it’s time to limit commercializa tion. Hopefully, this will occur before too many more sponsors for the Games are found. An offical Olympic lip balm is bad, an official Olympic convenience store is worse, but an official Olympic douche would be almost unbearable. Almost. Commercialization is a better way to pay for the games than through gov ernment funding which would in crease an already over-loaded budget deficit. Other countries use govern ment funds for Olympic programs. Be glad we’re in America where we can pay for the Olympics by sitting through a few obnoxious commercials. — The Battalion Editorial Board Don't bring the flu to class with you Since the flu bug is still sweeping the campus, The Battalion Editorial Board believes an etiquette lesson is in order. If you’re sick, stay at home. If you’re contagious, stay away from people. If you’re afflicted, don’t put others in the same boat as you. A professor called The Battalion Tuesday, saying several of his students came by his office to tell him in person they were too sick to attend class. He wondered if these students realized they were exposing him to the same ill ness that was supposedly keeping them from class. We doubt it. When it comes to the flu, Aggies seem to struggle on, unaware of the problems their pres ence can cause others. But it works both ways. If professors were more tolerant of those who have to miss their classes because of illness, students could relax and not go through the ordeal of either staggering to class or getting a note from the health center. If you have the flu, please don’t spread it around. Some of us have things to do. The Battalion Editorial Board Creationism still valid I have been amazed at the lack of sci entific evidence in recent letters sup porting either side of the creation/evo lution dipute. Here is some to be considered. The source of a theory is irrelevant. Creationism cannot justifiably be con sidered strictly a “folk explanation” merely because of its Biblical origin. Proof of evolution cannot be drawn from observance of changes by genetic breeding within species. Evolution de pends on transition occurring between species, such as from reptiles to mam mals. Evolution assumes the earth to be at least 4 billion years old, by conservative figures, to allow time for gradual change between organisms. Therefore, a single proof that the earth is far younger than 4 billion years would ef fectively refute the main tenets of evolu tion. A vast range of observable data prove the earth, moon, and sun are too young for evolution to have occurred. The rapid depletion of energy in the earth’s magnetic field is the best evi dence of a young earth. Evaluations have revealed a definate decay rate (at which the magnetic field will vanish about the year 3991). Going back in time to a maximum plausible strength puts the earth’s age at about 20,000 years — not enough time for evolution. In 1979, it was proven that the sun has been shrinking at a rate of 5 feet an hour. This means the sun could be any where from a few thousand to 10 mil lion years old. The scientific evidence has inevitably confirmed my faith in God and has shown me that He is real and has done exactly what the Bible claims He did: create the heavens and all that is in them. David Swanson Chemical Engineering The Battalion USPS 045 360 Member of Texas Press Association Southwest Journalism Conference Editor Rebeca Zimmermann Managing Editor John Wagner City Editor Patrice Koranek Assistant City Editors Kathleen Hart, Stephanie Ross News Editor Tracey Taylor Assistant r^ews Editors Susan Talbot, Brigid Brockman, Kelley Smith Editorial Page Editor Kathy Wiesepape Sports Editor Donn Friedman At Ease Editor Shelley Hoekstra Assistant At Ease Editor Angel Stokes Photo Editor John Makely Staff writers Ed Alanis, Robin Black, Bob Caster, Bonnie Langford, Christine Mallon, Kay Mallet, Sarah Oates, Michelle Powe, Lauri Reese, Dave Scott, Karen Wallace Photographers Michael Davis, Bill Hughes, Katherine Hurt, Eric Lee, Dean Saito Editorial Policy The Battalion is a non-profit, self-supporting newspaper operated as a community service to Texas A&M and Bryan-College Station. Opin ions expressed in The Battalion are those of the Editorial Board or the author, and do not nec essarily represent the opinions of Texas A&M administrators, faculty or the Board of Regents. ~T ' The Battalion also serves as a laboratory news paper for students in reporting, editing and photography classes within the Department of Communications. Letters Policy Letters to the Editor should not exceed 300 words in length. The editorial staff reserves the right to edit letters for style and length but will make every effort to maintain the author’s in tent. Each letter must be signed and must in clude the address and telephone number of the writer. Reader’s Forum columns and guest editorials also are welcome. Address all inquiries to the ed itorial page editor. The Battalion is published Monday through Fri day during Texas A&M regular semesters, ex cept for holiday and examination periods. Mail subscriptions are $16.75 per semester, $33.25 per school year and $35 per full year. Advertis ing rates furnished on request. Our address: The Battalion, 216 Reed Mc Donald Building, Texas A&M University, Col lege Station, TX 77843. United Press International is entitled exclu sively to the use for reproduction of all news dis patches credited to it. Rights of reproduction of all other matter herein reserved. Second class postage paid at College Station, TX 77843. ^ TAP Evaluation of attitudes needed at Texas A&M February is Black History Month, for those of you who didn’t know. If you’re among the majority of Aggies here, you probably don’t feel that black history really concerns you, because you’re white. Although the Supreme Court de clared the doctrine of “separate but equal” unconstitutional in the 1950s, the first black students at Texas A&M were not enrolled until the 1960s. Now Texas A&M has a total of 469 black students, a small percentage of the total enroll ment. attitudes prevalent throughout the South in general? White supremacy and black inferior ity has become part of the culture of the American South. It’s going to take a long time to change the attitudes of the past. And denying them isn’t going to change anything. We need to take time bonnie langford Some people here say we can’t recruit black students because we don’t have many black professors. Others say that we’re going to have to lower the stan dards for our faculty to hire black pro fessors because highly qualified blacks are going into industry. to look at the past mistakes and see how to correct them to ensure future har mony. However,Texas A&M has some of the highest paid faculty members in the state. Surely with all these large salaries, we can afford to outbid industry, espe cially in areas such as education, foreign languages, sociology and psychology. Most college students are too young to remember the separate drinking fountains, or the stores that wouldn’t sell to blacks. white supremacy stuff behind us.! explains why the Ku Klux Klanr in major southern cities every year. But wait, the Klan cries, we'rtj against minorities anymore. Thai| the Klan of the past, were now. That explains why a Klam was sentenced to death this i the murder of a 19-year-old blad The murder was supposed to‘ Klan strength in Alabama.” And it gives the reason why| still stare and whisper whenal son is with a white. Does it also explain why, ini 'Texas A&M was the most pred nantly white school in Texas? A 66 blacks attended school here, these students were athletes. Texas A&M is still predomini white. Is it because, as an officialsai| the 1960s, it’s a school withrurali and urban blacks just don’t fitin? Perhaps some can remember the all black or all-white schools. Surely every one has at least heard about busing and race riots. Could it be that Texas A&M will con tinue to be predominantly white be cause of the attitudes here? Are those Things have changed; everything is OK now, right? We’ve put all of that Maybe we predominantly dents and faculty should take a r or two to stop and think abo tudes toward minorities during: Black History Month. (Bonnie Langford is a seniorjosf I ism major and staff writer for fhtl talion.) Letters: Jackie's team not competitive Editor: Well, Jackie, I finally found out what your idea of a competitive football pro gram is. After watching the two disas ters you’ve put on the field during your tenure here I was wondering what your conception of a competitive team was, but now I know. It means charging a ‘competitive 1 (i.e., high) price for foot ball tickets. Its obvious you’re here at Texas A&M for one reason, to milk our supporters of every dime possible. It’s apparent you’re just trying to raise more money for the athletic department so you can grab a bigger slice for yourself. I think its time to put an end to Sherrill’s em barrassments of Texas A&M both on and off the field. Richard H. Fosberg Class of ’78 Maybe you are unable to justify any thing that makes money. Maybe you re alize that lifting the citizens of the Third World out of the mire of poverty and ig norance is the last thing you want to do. If you did, you would have no one about whom to write inane articles such as the one that was published Friday. Perhaps your awareness of howl ignorant of the situation you your reluctance to accept thecrili you deserve are the reasons you si® a committee’s name to your diatriM then sat back, smug and conteiP and holier-than-thou. Leonard]. Hobkl Slouch by JimEoij I \ /-tin .5V r Nestle boycott Editor: No, I did not help in the boycott of Nestle prducts, nor did I ever feel any moral obligation to do so. Nestle con vinced Third World mothers that bot tled formula was better than mother’s milk? It’s probably true, considering that the water is contaminated and the food is scarce; the mothers must be sick and malnourished themselves. Do you believe that if Nestle had con vinced mothers that Nestle’s distilled water was better than free contaminated water, no one would have objected? Nei ther do I. ‘‘Before I start this lecture for your tape recorders, I want to warn you that I’m gonna be tough if I find out that all of you really don’t have the flu. ” Fina bell tov west er presem this we The mer re Ford I 47-bell what is Old M; mar St three closed which Septen Gen chitect Aubry nal dn of the I cilities tion Di Joe physic be re-i structit placed foot lai Mor rector Univer By I The tainer drinkii the is Mothe hoped port a night, resent; Lewis agreec were r mil tin issues. Den and Smith, Distrit tatives cussec MAD1 Texas Lew tion ci the th ing tin educai lie wil drivin in gett “W< educa they’n we’re said. He while plane “Tf gest t plane and fl \