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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 6, 1985)
Page 2/The Battalion/Tuesday August 6, 1985 iiiiitii ill Ignorance of AIDS AIDS isn’t just for gays. Heterosexuals, including women and children, are contracting the virus by non-homosexual means. Ryan White, 13, is a hemophiliac who got the acquired immune deficiency syndrome virus from a blood transfusion. White is being prohibited from attending school in the fall because Western School Corp. officials say they don’t want to deal with the state health guidelines for infectious diseases. It’s understandable that many people are terrified of AIDS, a virus which is associated with homosexual activity and which has no known cure. But we cannot allow our fears to punish in nocent victims of the disease. The Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta says there is no evidence AIDS can be transmitted among school children or by casual contact with infected people. The school officials are letting their fears influence their ac tions. They are denying White an education because of their lack of understanding in this unfortunate situation. White con tracted AIDS by accident during a transfusion to fight his hemo philia. He does not deserve to be persecuted. The actions of a paranoid few shouldn’t dictate the actions of others. If officials were more informed about the disease, they might react differently. Instead, out of ignorance, they will deny a child an educa tion. The Battalion Editorial Board BC#W A&M and AUSTI Sportsmei ened Mon Environm for not et dards in T Mail Call Teen-agers need education, not condemnation of sex 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 intent. Each letter must be signed and must include the address and telephone number of the writer. If science, religion could get along EDITOR: I’m not sure that I completely fol lowed Mark Lupo and Gary Barbee’s analysis of Genesis in Wednesday’s Batt. case of the origin of man, since sci ence and religion, the proponents of the opposing ideas, are arch-rivals. Religion has a long history of su- pressing scientific “heresy,” while sci ence has a long history of despising religious “mumbo-jumbo.” Television net works have an in teresting view of morals. Dr. Ruth Westheimer talk ing about “Good Sex” is all right. Cathy Rigby tell ing us that this marvelous new thin pad is as ab sorbent as those Loren Steffy However, I do agree with their main point: that modern science and the Bible are not irreconcilable. But if each would accept that the other has an entirely valid point of view, and if the two would work to gether, a much better understanding of existence would result. clumsy old thick ones is OK. Plugging Massengil’s wonderful pat ented applicator is just fine. Problems with pre-menstrual sy- drome? Take one of these. From reading I have done in the past year, I feel that neither evolution nor creation fully explains the origin of man. What usually happens when one idea (a thesis) and an opposing idea (an antithesis) conflict is that a com promising idea (synthesis) is pro posed, which more fully explains the situation. Also, although we cannot answer God’s challenge to Job concerning creation (Job 38:4); we can answer it with respect to the sea (:16), the size of the earth (:18), the polar ice caps (:22), irrigation (:25), electricity (:36), and several other aspects. ral Hemorrhoids? Try this. Diarrhea? Pepto-Bismol. Irregularity? Metamucil, it’s all natu- However, this process (Hegelian dialectic) has not taken place in the Perhaps one day we will know the details of what happened in the be ginning. Jeff Christenson College Station During an average evening of tele vision watching, the viewer is bom barded by advertisements for just about every kind of personal hygiene item. Only one product — contraceptives — is exempt. Dr. Ruth can get away with pushing condoms, but she can’t sneak the word “contraceptives” in or she’s suddenly dealing with “controversial subject matter”. The American College of Obstetri cians and Gynecologists has developed a public service announcement which tries to reach America’s sexually active, yet sexually ignorant audience. The col lege says it hopes the spot will reduce the 3.3 million annual unintended preg nancies in the United States and cut down on the 1.5 million yearly abor tions. The only problem is two of the three major television networks have refused to run the ad because it contains the word (gasp!) contraceptives. NBC is re viewing the ad and has yet to give a defi nite answer. The advertisement gives a toll-free number which young people can call to find out about sexual responsibility and contraception. A spokesman for CBS said, “We do not run public service announcements of a controversial nature. This is one of them.” /CBS may find the topic of contracep tives controversial, but then so is 3.3 mil lion unintended pregnancies. With all the ruckus in the streets these days it seems 1.5 million abortions is controver sial, too. The networks can only hide behind two-faced morality for so long. It’s time for America to stop saying, “Teen-agers shouldn’t be having sex before they’re married, so we shouldn’t need to edu- million dl cate them about contraceptives.” viously, young people are having marital sex, or at least 3.3 them are. It’s time to put aside what shouldk for what is. At a rate of 3.3 millionpreij nancies per year, what should be I»1 comes irrelevant. Something has done. America can’t stop it’s youth free having sex, but it can stop con them into acting irresponsibly. Thediii message of “you shouldn’t do that" ant then the after-the-fact statement of “)« should have taken precautions” contributes the problem of sexual i ranee. If we’re ever going to decrease ikj unintentional pregnancy rate and abortion rate, we must educate, not cot demn, the young people in thiscountn The AGOG ad offers a helping handtf those teen-agers bound to become an other statistic. It’s time for the major television net works to come down off their high horses and help to curb this “con troversial” problem. The problemof3! million unintentional preganancies won’t go away, no matter how hard tele vision networks try to ignore it “Unless soon to co major w Texans " water ma action an nant by o ter,” Ke spokesma “We’re fish kills,’ director work witl finally ju to do son Allen larticula of ai sewage it Austin EPA was notice M being pn Lower EPA app Standarc comply v Act. He s has ever assure tl ants in 1 ply with part kill Loren Steffy is a junior journalism jor and the Opinion Page Editor hi The Battalion. Att Living in the shadow of a mushroom cloud Today is Au gust 6, 1985. On this day I want to ask you a question. How are we going to live with the bomb? On August 6, 1 945, a B- 2 9 bomber called “E- n o 1 a Gay” dropped “Little died later due to radiation sickness. Three days later, another bomber, “Bock’s Car,” dropped “Fat Man” on Nagasaki. About 74,000 people died be cause of that atomic bomb. Karl Pallmeyer Boy” on Hiroshima, Japan. “Little Boy” was the first atomic bomb. Some 70,000 people died in the blast, many others In the history of our planet only two atomic bombs have been used in war. It was 40 years ago today when the first Atomic bomb was used in war. Friday will the 40th aniversary of the day the last atomic bomb was used in war. Dur ing those 40 years the bomb has hung over us like the sword of Damocles, threatening to fall and annihilate the world. United Feature Syndicate MAR6UUES Grtes hgvstcn f®sr ■Black Cauldron The American scientists completed their bomb in 1945. Two years later the Soviets exploded their bomb. Before long several other countries also devel oped the bomb. Through the United States, all NATO countries have a nu clear ally on their side. Through the So viet Union, all Warsaw Pact nations have a nuclear ally on their side. Almost ev ery country, excluding some Third World countries, either have the bomb or are allied with some country that does. Over the past 40 years, tons of trea ties have been signed to limit the threat of nuclear war. These treaties have been ineffective and now the world’s nuclear arsenal has grown to the point where there are enough bombs to kill every man, woman and child at least 70 times. Whenever one side proposes a treaty to stop production or limit the number of nuclear weapons, the other side re fuses to sign saying the treaty is nothing but an attempt to gain an nuclear ad vantage. Most recently the Soviets said they would stop underground testing of nuclear weapons beginning today. The Soviets asked the United States to do the same as sign the two countries could work together to solve the nuclear prob lem. We refused saying the Soviets would take advantage of the situation. In the past the Soviets have refused to sign the treaties we have proposed saying that we would take advantage of the situa tion. At this moment, Soviet missiles with nuclear warheads are aimed and ready to be launched at Washington D.C., New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Hous ton and every other major city in the United States. On the other hand, U.S. missiles with nuclear warheads are aimed and ready to be launched at Mos cow, Leningrad, Kiev, Odessa, Novosi birsk and every other major city in the Soviet Union. These missiles can de stroy these and every other city in the world. The fallout from this destruction will be enough to kill just about every body who wasn’t killed in the blasts. The entire world could look like Hiroshima and Nagasaki did 40 years ago. It’s now 40 years later. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were destroyed and noth ing can bring them back. “Little Boy” and “Fat IVfan” cannot be put back in the bombers. “Enola Gay” and “Bock’s Car” cannot be recalled. J. Robert Oppen- heimer and the other scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project can not un-invent the bomb. Albert Einstein cannot un-think the theories that led to bomb. Mankind cannot un-learn the principles of atomic physics that made the bomb possible. We can’t argue about what happened before because we can’t change the past. We have to find an an swer for the present. Star Wars is not the answer. Even if it worked it would soon become useless. The Soviets would develop an anti-Star Wars device. The United States would develop an anti-anti-Star Wars device. The Soviets would developed an anti- anti-anti-Star Wars device. And so on, and so forth, and so on and so forth. Star Wars is not the answer, it only com plicates the question. The question still stands. How are we going to live with the bomb? 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 TYLI ing seve dents at day th potentu tory. Albet from tf j Defense r asked 1 ;; Wayne The Battalion Editorial Board Kellie Dworaczyk, Editor Kay Mallett, John Hallett, News Editors Loren Steffy, Opinion Page Editor Sarah Oates, City Editor Travis Tingle, Sports Editor The Battalion Staff Assistant City Editor Katherine Hurt Assistant News Editors Cathie Anderson, Trent Leopold Entertainment Editors Cathy Riely, Walter Smith Staff Writers Karen Bloch, Ed Cassavoy, Jerry Oslin, Brian Pearson Copy Editor Trent Leopold Make-up Editor Ed Cassavoy, Columnists Cheryl ClarK, Karl Pallmeyer Photographers Greg Bailey, Anthony Casper Editorial Policy The Baitalion is a non-profit, self-supporting netti- paper operated as a community service to Teal A&M and Biyan-Collcge Station. Opinions 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 ad ministrators. faculty or the Board of Regents. The Battalion also serves as a laboratory newspa per for students in reporting, editing and photogra phy classes within the Department of Communica tions. The Battalion is published Tuesday through Frida) during Texas A&M regular semesters, except lot holiday and examination periods. Mail subscription! are $16.75 per semester, $33.25 per school year and $35 per full year. Advertising rates furnished on re quest. Our address: The Battalion, 216 Reed McDonald Building, Texas A&M University, College Station. TX 77843. Editorial staff phone number: (409) 845- 3316. Advertising: (409) 845-2611. playei & wet 846-6 / A Second class postage paid at College Station, TX 77843. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Battalion, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843 We're come t dation All sac i Heavy (Liletinr 5pc.d i 3pc.c« All woe 4 draw Man si Sola a. Also b . fames. 3 pc. te