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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 21, 1985)
Page 2/The Battalion/Friday June 21, 1985 OPINION — ■ llllll ill Lack of action, lack of concern Japanese journalists stood by and watched a murder Tues day, but they did nothing to try to stop the killing. About 40 journalists gathered outside the home of businessman Kazuo Nagano in anticipation of an arrest. While they waited, two men smashed in a front window armed with a bayonet and emerged a few minutes later splattered with blood. The journalists got some lovely pictures of the event and a nice interview with the alleged killers. One of the reporters said the two assailants admitted they had come to kill Nagano, but no one thought they were serious until “it was already too late.” It would seem that two men, one armed with a bayonet, who tear off an aluminum grating and smash in a window of a pri vate residence might be up to something more suspicious trie door-to-door solicitation. lan Journalists are not exempt from being responsible citizens fes! merely because of their profession. The actions, or lack of ac tions, on the part of the Japanese journalists reflects a lack of concern for the very people they are supposed to be serving. The reporters were so concerned with their objectivity that they ignored the plight of their fellow man. They are human be ings first and journalists second, not vice versa as their actions would suggest. Informing readers of an arrest of a prominent businessman, or even a murder, is part of the journalists job, but that objectiv ity does not extend to standing by and refusing to prevent a man from being killed. The Battalion Editorial Board Tobacco growers don’t cause cancer “Warning: The Surgeon General Has Determined That Cigarette Smoking Is Dan gerous to Your Health.” The familiar message can be made his own decision each time he placed a cancer stick between his lips. Now that his body is deteriorating be cause of those decisions, he is looking for someone else to assume responsibil ity for his actions, and he’s looking for some money. LOREN STEFFY found in the bot tom corner of ev ery cigarette ad and on every cigarette package. This a subtle way of saying, “Hey, if you want to stick this flaming harbinger of cancer in your mouth, fine. Just so you under stand your lungs will probably rot out because of it.” Unfortunately, life isn’t that simple. There’s no such thing as a free smoke. Now a group of people feel that the tobacco industry should assume the re sponsibility for cancer “victims.” Cancer victims have filed three lawsuits against five tobacco companies, seeking $17 million in damages. They claim the companies are responsible for their smoking-related illness. The Tobacco Products Liability Pro ject, the organization filing the suit, charges that the tobacco industry “mis leads the public by disputing scientific links between cigarette smoking and cancer.” Naturally, cigarette companies aren’t going to say,“Sure, our products lead to numerous physical disorders, but buy it anyway,” they’re going to deny any link between their cigarettes and a disease as widely feared as cancer. But by denying the scientific re search, the tobacco companies aren’t forcing cigarettes into the mouths of smokers. John Bullitt, a Harvard pro fessor, says his lung cancer is a result of a smoking habit he claims was encour aged by ads which made the addiction appear “glamourous and even patriot ic.” If tobacco companies are to be held accountable for every person suffering from lung cancer, then auto makers should be held responsible for all acci dent-related death, even fatalities re lated to drunken drivers or falling asleep at the wheel. After all, they make driving cars, especially American cars, seem “glamorous and even patriotic.” Of course, we couldn’t let the candy companies off the hook — all those cavi ties out there can’t be the fault of people not brushing properly. Smoking tobacco is like drinking na palm — you know it’s not part of a fit ness diet. If cheese is found to contain a strange bacteria which you get sick from eating, you can sue because you didn’t know what you were ingesting. Simi larly, if you purchase cyanide-laced as pirin, you can sue, because the product wasn’t what it appeared to be. But if you smoke a cigarette, you know what your getting, the Surgeon General even leaves you a little note in case you for get. Certainly, without too much effort, we could find someone else to blame for all of our problems and shortcomings. We could live in a blameless Utopia. But sooner or later, we have to accept re sponsibility for our actions. You put the cigarette to your lips, you strike the match, and you watch your body rot away before your eyes. No one tied Mr. Bullitt down and stuffed cigarettes in his mouth. He Loren Steffy is a junior journalism ma jor and the Opinion Page editor for The Battalion. ON ft A Guide to the Gandhis: Non-violent Non-aligned Non commital Mail Call Letters Policy Letters to the Editor should not exceed SOU words in length. The editorial staff reserves the right to edit letters lor style and length but willmit every effort to maintain the author's intent. Each letter must be signed and must include the address and telephone number of the writer. National leadership real threat to secu rity Specialist Fourth Class United States Army EDITOR: Library hours don’t meet student needs Here we are in the midst of a na tional debate on security, spies and more security — and, to pique our professionalism in these areas, the Reagan administration manages to lose track of a plane full of hostages! I wonder, how much easier could our security establishment trace a dozen enemy agents, or a hundred? I say that the danger posed to this nation by the Soviets and their terror ist comrades-in-arms is a weak second to the threat of our own national lead ership. A technological or strategic se cret we can afford to sacrifice now and again — how better to develop new and more effective strategies to re place antiquated methodology — but to impale our national consciousness on the fate of a few hostages to terror ism, that’s tantamount to political blackmail of the entire citizenry of this great nation! I don’t deny the duty of the media to dwell so on our latest hostage crisis, for all Americans are concerned for the fate of those hostages, our fellow citizens. But, to misuse our might, our mandate, in neglecting the safety and whereabouts of those hostages in lieu of the publicity it affords our national leadership — they would have us com pound inquity into shame! Now, instead of a few innocent citi zens falling victim to the international forces that prey on the power of the United States, the present administra tion would hold the entire nation hos tage — out of spite, no doubt, for trusting our leaders to carry out the duties contingent upon their offices. EDITOR: I have a question: why can we not establish summer hours for the library that are more consistent with student necessities and demands? William H. Clark II Since I have begun attendance at this univeristy, I have had few com plaints, however, I simply cannot un derstand the logic of: •Closing the library at 11 p.m. dur ing the week. •Closing the library at 5 p.m. on Saturdays. •Reopening the library at 1 p.m. on Sundays. As we are all aware, the Board of Regents as well as the vocal Associa tion of Former Students, are ferve- rently committed to establishing A&M as not only the premiere engineering school of the Southwest, but also keep ing the University comparable to such notables as Purdue, MIT, Cal Tech, and numerous European sophisti- .ates. I am an alumnus of a small South Texas college, Pan American Univer sity, whose library hours during my academic career were very simple: the only time they were closed was 12 a.m. to 6 a.m. Monday morning. Why can’t a major university with such commendable goals avail to their student body the essential facilities to accomplish their ends? The vast majority of students are more than proud of what the faculty and alumni association envision for us. We also recognize that tremendous budget cuts have put universities in general in a bind — to point that they not only cannot offer more jobs, but also are forced to cut back on person nel. However, the anomaly that 1 have trouble with is how we can afford a 1.4 million dollar bell tower and cannot afford the additional personnel to simply keep the library open. It is understandable that a proud alumnus would like to see himself me morialized in perpetuity by erecting a monument to himself. In better times, it seems to me that such an extrava gance might be justified. These, how ever, are not easy times. It seems to me that if an alumus wants to open his checkbook, better uses might be made of the funds- the tax break is still the same. Don’t get me wrong, I think the bell tower is beautiful, but I had a physics test Friday and was kicked out of the library at 11p.m. Tuesday, Wednes day and Thursday. Tuesday 1 had a Petroleum Engineering 417 test and was kicked out of the library at 5 p.m. Saturday. My home study facilities are neligi- ble at best and I need the library. Isn’t there some way we can keep the library open a little longer? Tom Collins Clay Self Mike Roark Grove audience’s actions unjustified Let’s go see a movie. How many times have you used that phrase? How many times has someone said that to you? “Let’s go see a movie,” a ph rase that is used everyday, is not an accurate descrip tion of what some one is about to do. hear that story. Wednesday night was one of those times. Karl Pallmeyer Yes, you do see a movie but you also hear a movie. Well, at least sometimes you do. In 1927 Warner Brothers released “The Jazz Singer” with A1 Jolson. “The Jazz Singer” was the first real “talking” picture. Since then movies have come to depend on sound as well as pictures to tell a story. But sometimes you can’t A few of my friends and I went to see “Stripes” which was being shown at The Grove Wednesday night. There were quite a few people there. Maybe there were a few too many. Sitting front row center was a group of students who were obviously interested in having a good time. First of all they had brought a few bottles of rum to help spice up the soft drinks they had bought at the con cession stand. I don’t object to that in particular, I had a bottle there myself. But only six people, my five friends and I, knew about our bottle. We were not throwing bottles around to insure that everyone knew we were “drinking.” When the movie started things really got out of hand. One young man in their crowd had obviously seen the movie before. He felt he had to yell out each line before Bill Murray got the chance to. When there were no good lines to yell out he made various editoral comments about what was happening on the screen. His comments about some of the actresses in the movie showed that he would qualify for the ti tle: “Male Chauvinist Pig of 1985.” He also showed off his his inability to fully comprehend the movie and his limited knowledge of the world. Bill- Murray and Harold Ramis rescued their friends from Czechoslovakians, not those “(va rious expletives deleted) Russians” that he enjoyed screaming about. He proba bly doesn’t understand that there is a difference between the C.S.S.R., the U.S.S.R. and the G.S.S. since he used the last two terms to refer to the first. The audience enjoyed this guy’s re marks so much they often yelled “Shut up you (expletive deleted)!” Since 1 have been at Texas A&M, I have spent more time at the movies than I have in some of my classes. I am well aware of the fact that Aggies make a lot of noise at movies. But Wednesday night was both ridiculous and unneces sary. I have not heard that much ruckus at a movie since I went to see “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” The “au dience partici . . . pation” at “Rocky Horror” can bejustified as an attempt to make a bad movie bearable. The full- scale, inconsiderate, attention getting of certain people at “Stripes” can not be justified at all. Wnen a movie comes to a theater it is a finished project. Writers, directors, ac tors^ cameramen and scores of other artists and technicians have worked hard to tell a story. They don’t need any help from the audience Karl Pallmeyer is a senior journalism major and a columnist for The Battal ion. The Battalion USPS 045 360 Member of Texas Press Association Southwest Journalism Conference The Battalion Editorial Board Kellie Dworaczyk, Editor Kay Mallett, John Hallett, News Editors Loren Steffy, Editorial Page Editor Sarah Oates, City Editor Travis Tingle, Sports Editor The Battalion Staff Assistant City Editor Katherine Hurt Assistant News Editor Cathie Anderson Entertainment Editors Cathy Riely, Walter Smith Staff Writers Karen Bloch, Ed Cassavoy, Jerry Oslin, Brian Pearson Copy Editor Trent Leopold Make-up Editors Ed Cassavoy, Karla Martin Columnists Cheryl Clark, Karl Pallmeyer Photographers Creg Bailey Anthony Casper Editorial Policy The Huuulion is .1 non-profit, sclt-supporlini; neKspapc operated as a community service to Texas A&M ini Iryan-Colletfc Station. Opinions expressed in The Battalion arc those of tht Editorial Board or the author, and do not ncccssarilf rep resent the opinions of Texas A&M administrators, fncvlii or the Board of Regents. 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