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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 28, 1984)
Page 2/The Battalion/Friday, September 28, 1984 Opinion He's out YOU CAM HEAK HIS HEAVY V’KEATHlMO ! YOU CAH S£TE~ H/S E>TF£LY Eye$ GLJKJT'/MC / YOU ^utV A<~> he Keys his CHAiAJSAV// you make it~ to h~he tso^m &ut~. . ~r~0 GE~r~ !NSIUET t you AlE~EZ y TO KEMEMEEK... </ [( Vhc 5T'JV\VE‘5Y ^TU\K1C-, EuE ever. LA TlMfir^ CHAIKJ<GAW AIAZZACZE NAT. L ArtfSpofiJ Saving a life with a signature The check was written. My name ad dress, phone num ber, driver’s license number and ID number were in place. The eternal wait was on. Cashing checks at the Memo rial Student Center definitely does not rank high on my list ROSS of stimulating things to do. I was looking at the people in line and the people walking by, trying to break the monotony. Turning my check, ID card, and license over and over in my hand, I grew steadily more impatient. I began the ritual of double checking my check, balancing my checkbook, looking at how my bad ID picture, and thinking about how my my driver’s license pic ture doesn’t really look like me. Then I noticed the writing on the back of my license. For some reason, as I shuffled forward in line, closer to get ting my money, 1 read it all. “Restriction and endorsement code. A. With corrective lenses DONORS CERTIFICATION...." The words in capital letters jumped off the little plastic card and hit me in the face. They made me think, and as I thought, I felt irresponsible. I had recently read two articles in two different newspapers about organ do nations and thought “what a good idea — I should do that.” But unfortunately that was all I did. I never dug in my purse and pulled out my license to sign the donor line even though I was fully aware that I could. Thousands of people are saved through organ transplants, and almost everyone has the capability to save, if only they would sign their licenses and discuss it with their parents or next of kin. Even if you sign the donor line, per mission has to be given to the doctors by your next of kin to donate any organs. How many people out there are like me — aware of what they can do, but don’t do anything because we forget, or file the information to the back of our minds? Recently a friend of mine died, and I learned that he saved someone else’s life by donating his kidneys. What a won derful part of yourself to leave behind. Knowing my friend did that made his life seem all that much more valuable, and it made his death less painful. For some reason, he doesn’t seem so far away anymore, even though I don’t know the person who received his kid neys. It’s not often that we can give so much of ourselves. Chances are that I’ll never be in a sit uation that I can donate my kidneys, cornea, or heart to someone who needs them — but I’ll never know. Most donors are victims of car acci dents. They didn’t plan to be in those accidents, but for some reason they planned to leave enough of themselves behind to prolong life for someone else. Next time I go home, I know I’ll have something more interesting to say to my parents than how my grades are ... Stephanie Ross is the editor of The Battalion. Stephanie LETTERS: Bikes cause havoc for campus motorists EDITOR: I have a complaint about the problem of bicyclists at Texas A&M. The thing about bicyclists that bothers me the most is they have no consideration for the people who drive cars on campus. The bicyclists run in front of cars and expect the car to stop. Bicyclists also tend to ignore stop signs. This makes the driver in the car wait at the intersec tion even longer. I was wondering if they had special roads and trails for bicycles on the A&M campus. If they don’t have them they should make some because having to drive on campus is tough enough but trying to avoid hitting someone who runs out in front of you on a bicycle is even tougher. Jerry Mergele College Station Ags should take note of World Hunger EDITOR: I would like to let the Aggies know the current situation on World Hunger. As you read this and every minute, 24 people die due to hunger, 18 of them children. That’s 35,000 a day. There are solutions that exist. Hun ger has ended in 75 countries (41 since 1960). You might ask yourself, what can I do? Experts agree that hunger can be ended by the end of the century. The key missing ingredient is the worldwide commitment to get the job done. That commitment begins with you! You have “the Power” to make the end of hunger and starvation an “idea whose time has come.” Christopher Debrecht member of The Hunger Project Regents have no control over question of moving tracks EDITOR: I would like to comment on your edi torial of Sept. 26, 1984 concerning the railroad tracks which pass the campus. In the article, you say that the Board of Regents needs to act on a Project 2000 proposal to move these tracks. This sounds fine and dandy except for one small problem. The University does not own the tracks or the property on which they rest. This propety is co owned by the Missouri Pacific and Southern Pacific Railroads. If anything is to be done about this problem, these companies need to be sparked into action, not the regents. As far as moving the tracks are con cerned, lets not get on the Regents’ case about an issue they cannot do anything about. They have more important things to concern themselves with. Like an almost finished Bell Tower. Steven R. Hart Class of ’86 EDITOR’S NOTE: The Board of Re gents have already discussed plans to pay the Railroad Companies to move the tracks. The major obstacle appears to be money. Crossing needs markings not closing EDITOR: Being residents of an apartment com plex adjacent to Luther Street, we often use the intersection of Luther Street and Wellborn. It is a far more conve nient route to gain access to south Col lege Station than the round-about way of traveling a half-mile down the road to the busy Jersey Street-Wellborn inter section, only to double back and pass Luther again. With the addition of new housing complexes, it was obvious traffic would increase at this more convenient inter section. Closing this intersection is not the an swer, as this would only create more congestion atJersey-Wellborn. The addition of safety equipment, re moval of sight obstructions, and even repaving of the road would make this crossing no more dangerous than any other, while providing motorists with safe and easy access. The population should not be incon venienced when the city could alleviate the problem in a satisfactory manner. Mike Varner, Class of ’88 John McLaughlin,Class of ’88 Shelter thanks Saddle and Sirlion EDITOR: We at Sheltering Arms Children’s Shelter want to express our apprecia tion to Saddle & Sirloin Club for choos ing the Shelter for abused and aban doned children as recipient of proceeds earned at their recent horse show. The donated funds will enable us to more adequately provide for the more than 100 children who need shelter care each year. It is especially heartwarming when Texas A&M students reach out in car ing concern to help others in our com munity needing hope and help. Their effort has a far-reaching effect toward making ourcommunity a better place to live! Peggy Shafer Administrator,Sheltering Arms JR Caught between p morality and smilh Have you ever no ticed how so many of the world’s problems are caused by lines? Like little chip- shouldered boys the world round, ideolo gues and fanatics are forever drawing lines in the dirt, daring the other little boys to cross over. Wars have been fought and countless people have died for the lines separat ing Christianity, Islam and Judaism. The lines dividing liberals and socialists, conservatives and fascists, libertarians and anarchists, have precipitated many a heated dispute. We recently hit one of those mys terious lines, and will probably hit the same one again this December when more pictures of Vanessa Williams, the former and much ballyhooed Miss America, again grace the newsstands in the “January” issue of Penthouse mag azine. This particular line is extremely fascinating: the difference between sexy and smutty. There is no doubt Miss America is supposed to be sexy. Otherwise, why pa rade them around in bathing suits? And there is also no doubt the pictures in Penthouse are supposed to be sexy. Otherwise, how would Bob Guccione make money? The problem lies not in being too sexy, but in crossing the arbitrary line between sex appeal and smut appeal, a line that shifts willy-nilly with time. As little as two generations ago, women were expected to be covered from head to toe. To be caught without a hat was embarrassing. To flash a little ankle was scandalous. If morality is in deed transcendent, as the moral fascists of today so vehemently declare, you’d think it would be just slightly more per manent. One of the more strident articles about the Vanessa Williams incident ap peared last week in National Review, a fortnightly magazine edited by William F. Buckley Jr. In that article, which was Robert McGlohon Aggie Band still gives goose-bumps EDITOR: “Ladies and gentleman - now form ing at the north end of Kyle Field, the nationally famous Fightin’ Texas Aggie Band!” Its been years since I was down there on that field, but I still get goose-bumps all over every time I hear that introduc tion over the public address system. Nothing compares to the feeling of having 75,000 people yelling and ap plauding as the band steps off on “Hul- labloo.” Each year the band seems to get bet ter. The formations and drills get more difficult, and the members seem to exe cute them with more precision each week. Saturday’s halftime show during the Iowa State game was one of the band’s best performances that I can remember seeing. They have never lost a halftime, and they never will. There is little won der why the Texas Aggie Band is known a the “Pulse of Aggieland.” Scott Simpson Former B.Q. Class of’78 Clarification In The Battalion’s Wednesday Ed itorial, a report was quoted as say ing the University should work to wards moving the railroad tracks and the major highway from the middle of campus. The highway referred to was Farm Road 2154 —Wellborn Road. The Target 2000 project report is available at the Sterling C. Evans Library. written by a Washington D.C. freela writer, the reader gets the imprei the ex-Miss should be put in stoc stoned and branded an adulteress. This is never said outright, mindv#. but the author uses language such as. nice girl,” “virginity,” “a little tripto{ woodshed,” “sinful,” “vile, vicious[ nography,” and “arguably immoral' well, you get the idea. As I was reading this diatribe,laslij myself “What possible good wouldii to condemn this poor girl?” Myque was answered. Writes the author: “But, it mar ii asked, what possible good would ii condemn this poor girl? The answer that a condign fear of public si serves important social functions,ai we ought to think twice beforeabandti ing it in the name of progressivisnu enlightenment, or whatever.” Later in the article, the authorp; claims, “When one realm of ethics morality is abandoned — particularii an area like sexuality, which can sod base human dignity — all of theotte are likely to follow.” Imagine that: Sexuality debases!; man dignity. What’s interesting about this article not the content — self-righteouspnni are boring — but the magazine inwl the article appeared. WilliamF.Budi fj Jr. has had full editorial controlof)| tional Review since the mid-1950s addition to editing National Review! | writes books, a syndicated columns freelance articles. years, would lognitic Pres Prc « Peop [for no Here’s the interesting part: one! ficurre Buckley’s latest articles (whichdisenss why Jesse Jackson should neverbePrc ( idem of the United States) appeared; |djl n p 0 the July issue of ... you guessed it,PeJ j Goo< house magazine. iagricul I A&M. This brings us to one of those“mori questions social conservatives arc' ! fond of asking, namely: “Which sin is most vile? Prostitutioi Or profiting from prostitution?” Bob McGlohon is a weekly Battaliont umnist. His column appears on Frifa The Battalion USPS 045 360 Member of Texas Press Association Southwest Journalism Conference In memoriam Bill Robinson, 1962-1984, Editor ! tural a Brigha I The farm si 8 pero The Battalion Editorial Board Stephanie Ross, Acting Editor Patrice Koranek, Managing Editor Shelley Hoekstra, City Editor Brigid brockman, News Editor Donn Friedman, Editorial Page Editor Bonnie Langford, News Editor Ed Cassavoy, Sports Editor The Battalion Staff Assistant City Editors | Melissa Adair, MichellePo« Assistant News F.ditors - Rhonda Snider, Kellie Dworaczyk, bun Reest Assistant Sports Editor Travis Tingle Entertainment Editor Bill Hughes Assistant Entertainment Editor Angel Stokes Senior Reporter Robin Black Staff Writers...Tammy Bell, Shawn Behlen, Cami Brown, Dena Brown, Dainah Bui Leigh-Ellen Clark, Tony Cornell, Suzy Fisk, Patricia Him Kari Eluegel, Kathy Wiesepape, Bob McGlohon, Karla Martin Sarah Oates Jan Perry, Lynn Rae Povec, James R Walker Editorial Cartoonist ...Mikebne Make-up Editor .John Halleil Copy Writer Karen Bloch, Copy Editors Kathy Breard, Kaye Pahmeier Cyndy Davis, Patricia Him Photographers Frank Irwin, David Leyendecker, Peter Rocha, MikeSanctiei , DeanSai® Editorial Policy The Battalion is a non-profit, self-supporting newspift operated as a community service to Texas A&M ad Bryan-College Station. Opinions expressed in The Battalion are those of tl* Editorial Board or the author, and do not necessarily HP’ 1 resent the opinions oi Texas A&M administrators, tacuP R or the Board of Regents. 'The Battalion also serves as a lalxiratory newspaper fa students in reporting, editing and photography cla& within the Department of Communications. Letters Policy Letters to the Editor should not exceed 300 words ^ length. The editorial staff reserves the right to edit le0 for style and length but will make everv effort tomainttf the author’s intent. Each letter must oe signed and mu* include the address and telephone number of the writer The Battalion is published Monday through Frith' during Texas A&M regular semesters, except forholidij and examination periods. Mail subscriptions are fltifi per semester, $.33.25 per school year and $1 year. Advertising rates furnished on request. Our address: The Battalion, 216 Reed McDonrf Building, Texas A&M University, College Station, ft | 77843. 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