Page 2fThe Battalion/Tuesday, February 25,1986
\
Opinion
Help through understanding,
not persecution from fear
Rvan White has
been banned from
school — again,
l iie reason —
fear. White has
AIDS. White, 14,
went to class fri-
dav for the first
titne this school
year. After com
pleting the five- Loren Steffy
hour day. he was ■=
barred from returning by a federal
judge.
AIDS is feared worse than leprosy
and the Black Death combined. People
panic because AIDS is fatal and incur
able. because it’s linked to homosexuals
and bet arise it can be contracted
through blood transfusions, even in the
“safe" surroundings of a hospital.
Patents find it hard to sleep at night
knowing in the morning their children
will take the bus to school and risk being
exposed loan AIDS carrier. Ryan White
isn't the only one who’s persecuted be
cause he’s infected with the virus. Work-
ers who just show symptoms but don’t
have AIDS have been fired and babies
born with AIDS have been abandoned.
Doctors and health institutions, de
spite all their assurances that the virus
can be contracted only through sexual
contact and exposure to infected blood,
can't turn the tide of public opinion.
1 he feelings were no different in
White’s hometown of Kokomo, Ind.
The restraining order against White was
received with applause from parents
who fear for their children’s health.
Forty-three percent of the students at
White’s school were absent on the day of
his return. Several parents announced
they would transfer their children.
Even more disturbing were the dozen
students calling themselves “Students
Against AIDS” who demonstrated out
side the school and the petition that was
signed by 240 students requesting White
be banned from the classroom “until we
can be guaranteed of our safety.”
The petition will be turned over to
parents who also are protesting White’s
return. The parents’ fears have been in
stilled in the minds of the children who
mimic the adults’ actions and are re
warded for it.
The evidence that could put the wor
ried minds to rest is considerable, if only
those minds were open. Last week the
New England Journal of Medicine
printed the results of a study at the
Montefiore Medical Center in the
Bronx. The AIDS victims’ family mem
bers who were studied had a nonsexual
living relationship with patients for at
least two years. Some even shared
drinking glasses, toothbrushes and
combs with the victims. Only one of the
101 people studied showed signs of in
fection — a five-year-old girl believed to
have contracted AIDS before birth.
Dr. Harold Jaffe, chief AIDS epide
miologist at the Centers for Disease
Control in Atlanta, says if the virus is
not transmitted in an intimate family
setting, “it is far less likely to be trans
mitted in schools, offices, restaurants
and churches.”
The attitudes in Kokomo are typical.
Everyone is concerned about the possi
ble threat to themselves or their fami
lies, but no one stops to consider the real
victims. White contracted AIDS
through a coagulant that is used to treat
hemophiliacs. The God-is-punishing-
these-people-for-being-gay-so-they-de-
serve-it argu merit doesn’t apply.
What Ryan White and other victims
need is not scorn, but help. Banning the
teen-ager from school, then allowing
him to re-enter, only to ban him again
accom plish es nothing. Parents who
keep their children home from school to
avoid exposure to AIDS patients are
hurting their youngsters — not protect
ing them.
The virus affects our entire society,
not just one aspect of it. We must come
to terms with AIDS, as we have with
other terrible diseases, if not for the vic
tim’s sake — not even Ryan White’s sake
— then for society’s sake.
Loren Steffy is a junior journalism ma
jor and the Opinion Page editor for
The Battalion.
Swimsuits key to womanhood,
not designed for swimming
As far as I am
concerned, sum-
mer blows in when
the Sports Illus
trated bathing suit
edition hits the
stands. It must be
the same for other
people because
the issue is always
a sellout.
1 was extremely
pleased with this year’s cover, which fea
tures ... Miss Elle MacPherson and as
much of Miss MacPherson as the Sports
Illustrated editors were permitted to
show. She also is wearing a blue bathing
suit.
Mv wife demanded to know why I
had brought the issue home.
“I'm dying to read about bicycle rac
ing in Switzerland.”
“It makes no difference to me if you
want to leer over the bathing suit photo
graphs,’’ she said.
‘Leering is too strong a word. It is es
sential we both get a preview' of what to
expect this summer on the sands of
Mat tha’s Vineyard.”
Mv wife said, “Just when I think
you’ve grown up, I discover you still
have only one thing on your mind.”
“Why won’t you admit most of the
women’s swimsuits are not designed for
swimming?”
“What are they designed for?”
“Flagrant flaunting. Are you aware
that although the swimsuit market is
worth billions of dollars, only 5 percent
of the suits ever get wet?”
“You seem to know a lot about the
business.”
“The bathing suit is a marvel of
American engineering. The less fabric
they use the more they can charge for it.
“All they have to do is sew two thin
strips of nylon and a shoelace together
and they can charge $100. Women don’t
want a suit to protect themselves, but to
provoke men who come to the beach to
play with their pails.”
“We have a constitutional right to
wear anything that feels good at the sea
shore. This does not mean we are stalk
ing males.”
“Then why do you always get a ped
icure before going to the beach?”
“You’re shouting.”
“Look at these pictures. The lady on
the cover can hardly keep the suit on.
Don’t tell me she’s dressed that way to
swim the English Channel.”
“Maybe she hopes to get a good sun
tan.”
“Wrong again. It’s because she can
arouse some poor helpless jerk on the
beach into having lascivious thoughts
about her while he’s trying to read Lee
lacocca’s book.”
My wife scanned the cover. “There is
nothing provocative in that bathing
suit,” she said.
“Not in the bathing suit — outside it.
Everything provocative is bulging out.
What is a man on the beach to do when
she walks by — other than pound the
sands with his fists?”
There was steam coming out of my
wife’s ears. “Just because a woman likes
to wear something comfortable does not
mean she is trying to seduce a man.
“Okay, let’s say the bathing suit is
worn not to tease a man, but just to get a
good suntan.”
“To attract the opposite sex!”
“Bah humbug and oink, oink, oink.”
“Here is a replica of the suit Bo Derek
wore in ‘10.’ It’s a see-through T-shirt.
They designed it with one thing in mind
— to make strong men cry.”
“That’s your opinion.”
“I know titillation when I see it.
Sports Illustrated proves that for all the
strides she has made toward liberation,
every female must buy one decent bath
ing suit to fulfill herself as a woman.”
Art Buchwald is a columnist for the
Los Angeles Times Syndicate.
Mail Call
By S(
Letters to the Editor should not exceed 300 words in length. The editorial stafftmti
right to edit letters for style and length but will make every effort to maintainihntit
intent. Each letter must he signed and must include the address and telephonemev®’|
the writer. ^Blomina
ipsiuons
"‘K i
Questions for know-it-alls
open and
sen; \
m-te, am
Apnl 1.
■The m
EDITOR:
laces <>|>t !
Two strangers just knoc ked on my door. 1 hey wanted to bow
my relationship with God. I let them in, listened to what they hadtes L s Adm
and after they left I wished 1 could of asked them back. H — tv
For tin isc two strangers, and to the pu.uhei outside the Acact:. ip 111 u '
Building, and the others who have all the questions of the world amir e ° M u ! u
. , f 1 mi. plus
1 have some questions or my OH 11 rn
Wh\ do v< . liiiis peoph ai e all alik< B\ saving the onl\ wa\ t jur. plu-
relationship with (*od is tlwough ( h t ist is .thsm d 1 )o \ on think M ■ wm; Vet
Jews and Hindus have no foundaton lot their beliefs? lustbecaus IndiheSt
are different from Christians doesn’t mean God ignores them. MaybeC| n ^
works in different ways through different people. Who gives you thera
as human beings to proclaim that God should be for everyone?Ki
Christians are happy with themselves and God,
believe, and they feel His presence in them, wh<
well world, to say that is wrong?
Aren’t we all children of God?
and they pray, and 1 :
are you in yourjeml
Jill E. Webb
It was wonderful, Karl
lat
EDITOR:
Many thanks to Karl Pallmeyer for his Feb. 20 column titled
Wonderful?”— it certainly was!
Joanna Coughran ’87
Eye opening
iUSTI
luall m
ledayd A
licing st
Bgislatui
list mori
Wavne
mplovee
■ for tl
rate pr
EDITOR:
I would like to address the issue of racism in America. I attended?
Charles King’s seminar Tuesday night, and he forced iny eves andt:
open to the ugliest problem 1 have ever seen: whites’ treatment ofblatli
am not speaking of bigotry or the KKK. No, I’m talking aboutour-f«
too, am white and guilty — whole attitude toward black peoplejDtAt
pointed out that there are exceptions to everthing; 1 would reiterate:
now).
White people in government, on sc hool boards, in all poshkmsoi
thority decide where blacks will live, where they will go to school,n
they can (or can’t) get jobs; and then when a black man is forced- lat "ill c
forced — to a criminal life, we kick him for it. We insult him for what
did to him!
1 was in the minority last night. Dr. King insulted me. made me
and made me feel guilty, ashamed, stupid and very small. Then he told
that that’s what black people experience every day. He called iti
sion. If you weren’t there, let me assure you, oppression stinks. Ifsapt
lem thaPcan’t be ignored. Only white people can change the situation,
cause we (as a society) created it and by our silence, support ittodav.
Dr. King told the white people in the audience that the way we:
the problem is to understand it and to make other people understand
This includes (perhaps I should say, necessitates) correcting whites*
talk or act in an oppressive way. He gave us hope. I hope it works.
Sheryl Perkins ’87
lESQ
avc alw;
Ifesqu
o|et Hi
otis a syi
“A pin
nd a ra|
ucker,
Ruckei
when
d ’
»r_
Job cost more than it’s worth
EDITOR:
Just a word to the uniformed student worker or potential stud
worker, especially if they work at other part-time jobs. Your healthis'
vital and an injury on the job as a student worker could be disasiw-
physically and financially.
I was a student at Texas A&M and threw an early morningpf
route to pay the bills to put myself through school. The latter job pro'i
75 percent of my income. After injuring my lef t knee asastudentw 1
and unable to perform either job, I had arthoscopic kuee surgervpf* 1
five months in physical therapy, four months on crutches of w
months I was in a knee immobilizer and was rendered a 30 percentptf 3
nent-partialdisability to my left knee. In the mean time, 1 a
through a loan consolidation as well as borrowed money from t
the school, friends and relatives just to pay bills. How was I compensaif ;
I received 66.66 percent of my weekly wages as a student work 1
made minimum wage) and received a mere $2,300 for my SOperceotf
manent-partial disability ■ I wasn’t compensated for my other job, f 1
though, after attempting to return to my paper route, I was physical
able to continue it. I was told I was not eligible to receive compensatiot
that job because it was not similar to my job as a student worker.
I asked does it not matter that I received 75 percent of my
from the paper route. They said no! I asked the insurance depar®:
A&M if that seemed fair. 1'hey said it did not rriatter if it was fair,that'
the law required of them. So student workers beware that the j
cost you more than it is worth.
Barry Watson
Ex-student worker
The Battalion
USPS 045 360
Member of
Texas Press Association
Southwest Journalism Conference
The Battalion Editorial Board
Editor
Managing Editor
Opinion Page Editor
City Editor
News Editor
Sports Editor
Michel'
Ka'
Loren
.Jen*
..Cathie Af*'
Travit
Editorial Policy
t he Battalion is a non-profit, self-supponinK newspaper operated as a community service to Texas Mil f
College Station.
Opinions expressed in The Battalion are those of the Editorial Board or the author and do not necessarih Kr
opinions of'Texas AScM administrators, faculty or the Board of Regents.
The Battalion also serves as a laboratory newspaper for students in reporting, editing and photographyc'
the Department of Communications.
The Battalion is published Monday through Friday during Texas A&M regular semesters, except forholidi' 1 ''.,
ination periods. Mail subscriptions are $16.75 per semester, $33.25 per school year and $35 per full year. Adrtfi'
furnished on request.
Our address: The Battalion, 216 Reed McDonald Building, Texas A&M University. College Station, 1X7/M-
Second class postage paid at College Station, TX 77843.