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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 18, 1986)
Page 2/The Battalion/Tuesday, February 18, 1986 Opinion Democratic ideals slaughtered in the name of good taste The classroom and the rock mu sic industry are the latest suspects in a never-ending crime. The charge — corrupting the youth. It is a com plaint that has been levied against everyone from Socrates to Frank Zappa. The scene is familiar: The backbone of the nation is being warped by some seemingly innocent medium which children come into contact with regularly. Unfortunately, what is warped in the long run is the backbone of democracy. Luckily, there’s always someone to save our children from subliminal de struction. The classroom is patrolled by Accuracy in Academia, an outgrowth of Reed Irvine’s Accuracy in Media. The word “accuracy” is, of course, relative. AIA is out to protect students from professors who teach their personal be liefs in the classroom — especially if those beliefs are liberally biased. The rock music business is monitored primarily by the Parent’s Music Re source Center. The PMRC is a group of senators’ wives who listen to heavy metal music and determine if certain songs will cause a kid to nail the babysitter’s forehead to the underside of a mahog any desk. It’s important to realize that these groups aren’t made up of fanatics. They’re merely people who think the moral fiber of this country has been torn to shreds by professors who have the gall not to think like Ronald Reagan, and by musicians who do have the gall to sing about sex, violence, peace, love and other unmentionable subjects. The PMRC has made some important advances. Several record companies have agreed to print song lyrics on the outside of album covers, which means parents can stop listening to senators’ wives and start deciding for themselves what songs are turning their children’s brains to guacamole. The tell-all lyrics will give parents — and children — a better idea of what a song is about. Of course, rock songs still will be open to misinterpretation, out- of-context quotations and general dis section. But even great works such as Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn are picked apart by people who would rather see how many times the word “nigger” appears than pay attention to the book’s anti-racism message. What is disturbing about these groups is not their what’s-right-for-me- is-right-for-everyone attitude, but that they employ this thinking in the name of democracy. Obviously they are doing what they think is best for impressiona ble children. Someone has to keep Satan from invading their brains and turning them into Charles Manson groupies.. But at the same time these groups are protecting our children’s minds, they also are warping them. We are showing them a contradiction in the concept of free speech. It’s fine with AIA if professors lecture on free expression, but if they exercise it, their names are recorded by the ever- vigilant AIA reporters. They’ll be added to the national list of known, card-carry ing liberals operating on America’s col lege campuses. Freedom of speech doesn’t mean just a freedom of the norm, it means a free dom of extremes — some of which are not pleasing. If we are to hear Martin Luther King Jr., we must tolerate the Ku Klux Klan. If we are to read the Bi ble, we must tolerate Penthouse. If we are to listen to John Lennon, we must tolerate Ozzy Osbourne. Groups like the AIA and the PMRC are attempting to control specific “un desirable” situations, but the result is an attack on a basic principle of democracy. Socrates was forced to drink hemlock for his “crimes.” Let’s hope our First Amendment isn’t similarly poisoned. Loren Steffy is a junior journalism ma jor and the Opinion Page editor for The Battalion. <g)l906 HOUSTON H*T United Feature Syndicate Where there is smoke ... I he tobacco companies are fighting back against the steady drumbeat of anti cigarette propa ganda. According to the Wall Street Journal, Philip Morris has launched a vigor ous campaign to prevent discrimi nation against smokers. The tobacco company says anti-smoking zealots are harassing smokers and violating their civil rights. A Philip Morris spokesman also maintains that when it comes to report ing the smoking story, the media are grossly unfair to the tobacco interests and support the “fringe element in the country today bent on modifying Amer icans’ behavior to conform to their own interpretation of Utopia.” I wish the spokesman had said “some of the media” because I believe that any body in this country who wants to smoke should be allowed to do so. I refuse to be lumped with zealots or members of the fringe element. While I am a born- again ex-cigar smoker, I would never take sides between those courageous people who have given up smoking and the weak, miserable wretches who still are addicted to this filthy habit. The newspaperman’s job is to be fair and impartial on any political issue, whether it is tobacco or Colonel Kha- dafy. So I will first deal with the arguments in favor of smoking. Most people who smoke are walking time bombs waiting to go off, and the cigarette is the only thing to keep them from self-destruct ing. The country does not have enough mental institutions to take care of all the neurotic people who would have to be committed if they weren’t permitted to smoke. Smokers are among our biggest tax payers. Through cigarette taxes they support schools, sewers and the hospi tals they check into when they get sick from smoking. Smoking contributes to the nation’s economy. Cigarette addicts will spend their last dollar for a pack of smokes rather than throw it away on bread or milk. One of the most telling health argu ments in favor of smoking is that more women are doing it now than ever be fore. They wouldn’t if it weren’t safe, because women smokers are not dumb. The more anxious peole are about lighting up, the more they are bullied by nonsmok'ers who will not tolerate smok ers in the same room. These nonsmok ing zealots justify their rudeness by claiming they become dizzy from the fumes. This is a joke. It is a known med ical fact that tobacco smoke cannot do more physical harm to a nonsmoker than a glass of warm water from the East River. The biggest fear of the tobacco com panies is that if the nonsmoker is per mitted to persecute the smoker today, he will persecute diesel trucks tomorrow and Consolidated Edison smokestacks next week. So the pro-smoker is fighting not just for his own rights, but the rights of everything that smokes in America. Now let’s be fair to the other side. The nonsmokers are made up of wimps who sit around all day waiting for a smoker to pull out a cigarette. They are intolerant, selFish people. When asked why they object to someone enjoying a few puffs from a Filter tip, all the non- smoker can come up with is a weak, “I have asthma,” which is no reason at all. Besides the wimps, a large number of nonsmokers are reformed puffers, who gave up the weed and now want every one else to do the same. These people are unbearable because they not only ask smokers to put out their cigarettes but spend a half-hour telling them why they are not good. So there you have it, two opposing sides, each with their own truth: one composed of smoke worshippers, the other always praying for fresh air. We, as Americans, should have toler ance for both — the side that believes in long life, and the side that couldn’t care less. No one has a monopoly on truth. The only thing we can all agree on is the tobacco companies are not in business for our health. Art Buchwald is a columnist for the Los Angeles Times Syndicate. Mail Call :$ GE Letters to the Editor should not exceed 300 words in length. The editorial staff resent!.:—^ ^ right to edit letters for style and length but will make every cttnr t to maintain i/ieamkiH 1 i 'i intent. Each letter must lye signed and must include the address and telephone numbti the writer. Ise tic in f sing no* facin Reagan’s plan doesn’t hold water EDITOR: I am writing in response to President Reagan’s plan to begin se off federal assets to help balance the budget. llings, Ration . Art |he Te ter, s 26,00 ire that | a city creat 1 can not believe that anyone would suggest liquidating assets as at* lution to the deficit problem. It is proposed that such assets as the! ville Power Administration, the Elk Hills Naval Petroleum Reserve; satellites owned by the National Weather Service be sold to privateim est at the earliest possible date and that the funds be* earmarked lor deft] reduction. It seems to me that the idea of selling off capital assetsikl have been accumulated over generations to relieve a deficit broir" about by poor fiscal management is somewhat akin to pawning the fair,. heirlooms to Finance a spending spree. While I can understand why the present administration would bee® cerned by a federal debt that has more than doubled under its steraj ship, I think that liquidating federal possessions to make thedeficitl better on paper offers a short-sighted approach to the problem. Itrt; resents its desire to make the deficit numbers look better without beii willing to make the hard decisions that are demanded. ■We w jplding res," ie kids Texa llielby lions at In the First place gelling these assets would not alleviate the harmtJ economic effects that running a deficit causes. The money that is now It jrs Syn ing taken out of the capital market to finance the deficit would simpiu borrowed by private interests to finance the purchase of these assets fro; the government. There w r ould be no more money available to financed vestment in capital improvements that would create jobs and econotr. growth. We would have made little headway towards insuring longten: economic growth and some of our national assets would be gonefoiB good. While there are no easy solutions to the deficit problem 1 amquHl confident that the solution lies somewhere in a mix of cutting federj spending and increasing revenues through a tax increase. While ihisir. not be the easiest course to follow', I am convinced that it is the properoxl and the one that reflects true leadership. I hope we will have the national character to resist this attempt aifc-1 litical expediency and make the hard decisions to insure America’s future I William L. Hancock Jr. Illogical rationale EDITOR: I could not help noting your article on Thursday concerning SCONA keynote speaker on the Middle East, William Stewart. The Bit talion reported that Stewart said the “ . . . Israelis insisted that the Pali tinian ref ugees had no right to a national state of their own.” It is impotant to remember that the* area of Palestine, which tod? comprises Jordan, Lebanon and Israel, was divided in the 1940s. The Pi estines were offered a homeland in this area, and they refused it! In addition The Ball reported “Stewart said, in the Middle East,tf rorism is seen not as cruel, but as a useful political device.” How tragic in that there are people who utilize cold-blooded murder as a justificaf- for political acts. Such illogical rationale shows how much Jews and Cte tians alike must live by the ideal expressed in the Ten Commandments “Thou shall not kill.” Barry Laves Not the Christians fault ■ EDITOR: Why does Karl Pallmeyer do this to himself? Is he some sort ofasadi l or something? Does he enjoy making unprovoked attacks on ChristiaJ and Christianity? I’m referring, of course, to his nice little column about Valentint Day. From what Karl says about the “good old days” it seems to mepeopl acted just about as silly and stupid then as they do now (perhaps more it since the men were running around in skirts and the women were well' ing bedsheets). But that was the old tradition, and we all know that in ordertok atruly world-class holiday (is that anything like world-class wrestling?)lit dition must be changed. And so it was. Those tyrannical Christians^ were obviously in control of the government since they had cleverly^ their leader and a bunch of his most influential men killed to rallysif port for their cause) changed the name to Valentine’s Day despiteik cries of the majority of the people to keep the holiday as it was. Oh sure, the masses tried to maintain the old tradition of dancint drinking and degenerating — but severe punishment levied by theGirii tian’s eventually forced both the name and the activities of the degeneran but noble holiday Lupercalia to change. Sure Valentine’s day is silly, stupid and sickening. I feel like barfc every time I read one of those borderline (sometimes not-so horde# obscene or mushy mumbo-jumbo cards. But.does Karl have tog ing Christians for it? Christians didn’t commercialize Valentine's Da 1 though commercialization seems to be Karl’s main objection. It’s almost like he thinks there’s only one kind of religion — lean# call ever reading him attack any others. Perhaps it’s a personal thingdei within Karl’s own soul. I know I always was angered when someone wronged repeatedly granted me forgiveness if I only asked sincerely,i f stead of wronging me in return as I expected. But then, that was the» ; me. I 5 \ Duane Davis The Battalion USPS 045 360 Member of Texas Press Association Southwest Journalism Conference The Battalion Editorial Board Editor Michelle Po ,, Managing Editor Kay Mil?' Opinion Page Editor... LorenStrf’ City Editor .JerryOsH 1 News Editor Cathie Andtn Sports Editor TravisTi# Editorial Policy The Battalion is a non-profit, self-supporting newspaper operated as a community service to Texas AiB College Station. Opinions expressed in The Battalion are those of the Editorial Board or the author and do not necessarily rfprf^ the opinions of Texas A&M administrators, faculty or the Board of Regents. The Battalion also serves as a laboratory newspaper for students in reporting, editing and photogtaphyclasses^ the Department of Communications. The Battalion is published Monday through Friday during Texas A&rM regular semesters, except for holidayir^ amination periods. Mail subscriptions are $16.75 per semester, $33.25 per school year and $35 per full year. 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