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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 4, 1986)
c/es The Battalion Mbit- Thursday, September 4, 1986 n, Dr. R4 Citv \.v„ 4 tour N’ewVf us of prj|v signifKa:] aesareandt ie atiended on hosp] Family television turned off to protest Minister questions media content <n a prop, icians’ coiki bilitvifthen tan TUPELO, Miss. (AP) — Rev. Donald Wiid- |non dicked off the family television a decade go as a personal protest against what he saw s unbridled sex and violence invading his lississippi home. The next week, the Methodist minister Asked his congregation to do the same. I “I was angry because tfrese things were in- Iruding in my private world," says Wildmon, Ivho heads national organizations that daily lhallenge televison networks and magazine gi- Inis in a search-and-destroy crusade aimed at Ivhat he calls “the moral cancer that is invad- Jngour land.” ei The approach is simple — identify pro grams, movies and magazines that promote ;ex, profanits and violence, then go for the x'onomk throal of those linaiu mg them. His National Federation for Decency, based A in this quiet little city in the heart of the Bible Belt, has waged successful economit cam paigns in recent years that have led to several major convenience and drugstore chains —in- "hiding 7-Eleven, Stop-n-Go, Rev-Co and uudtngs jis Eckera — pulling Playboy, Penthouse and rther adult magazines from their shelves. Wildmon also heads the 16,000-member uniagdi iquake an: m week, e Christian Leaders for Responsible T elevision /^-■coalition which, fie says, has forced big-time - advertisers to re-examine the programming they sponsor. The impact on content was limited. Wildmon concedes, adding, “To this point Clear-T V has not flexed its muscles. We are made up of a diverse group of leaders and they are trying ev ery avenue to appeal to the good conscience of the networks and advertis ers. "However, we are equally determined, if all else fails, to go the other route — we will begin boycotting.” Wildmon’s efforts have received a predic tably mixed reaction, praised by those who share his views on the dangers of pornogra phy and deplored by those who consider his crusade an attack on the right office speech. Barry Lynn, legislative counsel for the American Civ il Liberties Union, says, "1 have never called him a censor but 1 have said that his organization is engaged in an unwise tac tic, which has as the ultimate ef fect, if success ful, of narrowing the availability of material about sex in a f ree society.” Lynn said that while Wildmon’s use of boy cotts and other economic tactics appear to be constitutionally permissible, they are unwise. Wildmon says he can’t understand how the ACLU can defend the rights of some groups to speak out while criticizing his organization For doing the same thing. The 48-year-old minister says the recent re jection by Maine voters of a measure to outlaw pornography was an example of only one side of the issue being presented to the public. “I believe that if the voters in Maine were exposed to some hard-core pornography they would understand what we are attempting to do,” he says. Wildmon applauds the controversial report of the National Commission on Pornography, which, among other things, linked pornogra phy to sex crimes, a conclusion that some ex perts dispute. “Most of the national secular media are rip ping the report apart, which we expected,” he says. “But 1 think grass-roots people will really benefit from and support this.” Wildmon’s TV-watchers keep charts on programs, rating them on the amount of pro fanity, sexual content, violence, and anti- Christian stereotyping. But, Wildmon says, the ratings take into account cases where such a negative factor is essential in a program that’s generally positive. Wildmon himself rarely watches TV, he says. While there are some programs he en joys, he says that most of the time he finds TV morally of fensive and mentally insulting. Ittsburgh priest devoted to labor movement Idavi orth of Diiildii CASTLE SHANNON, Pa. (AP) — B 50 years as a champion of or- Bed labor, civil rights, the Irish epu ilican Army and other causes, f-yt ir-old Monsignor Charles O. Stdi" still spoiling for a fight. Be, at home on the pulpit or the Bt line, is known as “Pittsburgh's aboi Priest” for his support of the bci movement and devotion to the lue- ollar workers of his parishes in llsirial western Pennsylvania. “I had the feeling that the labor lOffinent was more than just that,” ica says, “that it had a reform el- mein to it, that trade unionism Bl lead to a reform of society and general justice, and that it would tiny freedom to the working class.” 6 other fronts. Rice has led sit- opposition to U.S. involvement in Central America. He decried the bombing of Libya and voiced sup port for the Irish Republican Army. “The IRA has not indulged in the indiscriminate killing of civilians,” he says. “They are in a frightfully unjust situation.” Although he retired June 15 as pastor of St. Anne’s Roman Catholic Church in this Pittsburgh suburb, Rice says he’s only giving up the ad ministrative tasks of running the 7,000-member parish. He still re mains active in plenty of causes. “Franklin D. Roosevelt led a revo lution for compassion,” he says. "Now it’s gone the other way, led by President Reagan and his advisers. He’s undoing the New Deal.” Rice doesn’t confine himself to picket-line preaching. He hosted a local radio show for 40 years and still writes a column for a weekly Roman Catholic newspaper in the Pitts burgh area. He took on the powerful, even in the church. When Cardinal Francis Spellman ordered seminarians to cross a Teamsters picket line during a New York grave-diggers strike in 1948, Rice wrote: “A scab is a scab, whether in denim blue or cardinal red.” In the Steelworkers’ 1965 presi dential election, Rice supported dis sident Edward Sadlowski, a Chicago district director, who was defeated by I.W. Abel, a well-known Steel workers union pioneer. Abel remembers Rice well. “He wanted to congratulate me after the election in the dining room of the Pittsburgh Hilton,” Abel re calls. “What I said wasn’t printable. “When I think of him, I’m re minded of the man who said, T ad mire your courage, but I question like hell your judgement.’ ” The labor movement was not Rice’s only passion. In 1937, he opened the St. Joseph House of Hospitality in Pittsburgh’s Hill District neighborhood, which provided food and shelter for home less men. It still operates today. When civil rights and the Vietnam War became issues in the 1960s and 1970s, Rice planned protests and marched in Washington, D.C., and New York City alongside the likes of Martin Luther King Jr., Norman Mailer and Dr. Benjamin Spock. Section B Eating disorders aren’t confined to Anglo women ALBUQUERQUE (AP) — One- third of patients being treated at a New Mexico hospital for eating dis orders are Hispanic, contradicting the belief that anorexia nervosa and bulimia are limited to young, Anglo women. “This stereotyping should be put aside,” said Dr. Vincent Tuason, di rector of behavioral medicine at Ka- seman Presbyterian Hospital. Anorectics can lose a quarter or more of their body weight by self starvation and relentless exercise, while bulimics follow eating binges with severe dieting, self-induced vomiting and purging with laxatives. “It’s a problem that I feel is get ting more and more widespread,” said Norma Jean Wilkes of the New Mexico Center for the Treatment of Eating Disorders. She said people usually try to con ceal the eating disorders and many professionals might not notice the subtle symptoms in minority patients as often as they do in Anglo patients. Tuason said that since Kaseman began its anorexia-bulimia treat ment program, a third of its 63 pa tients to date have been Hispanic. “We were surprised,” Tuason said. He said advisers from other eat ing disorder programs and the bulk of scientific literature have sug gested that Hispanics rarely have the disorders. Tuason said the Hispanic patients treated at Kasemen tend to have had the disorder longer than Anglos be fore seeking help. He said that unlike their Anglo counterparts, Hispanic patients usually are seeking treatment for the first time. He said two-thirds of the Hispan ics treated at Kasemen are members of the upper-middle class, much like the anorexia-bulimia stereotype. Wilkes said eating disorders are more prevalent among the affluent, but that the incidence among lower economic groups might be underes timated because those victims often cannot afford expensive treatment. A survey a year ago by the Univer sity of New Mexico School of Medi cine supported the view that eating disorders span all social, cultural and economic groups. Dr. Jill Miller, a clinical faculty member at UNM and medical direc tor for the New Mexico Center for Treatment of Eating Disorders, said 406 high school students were ques tioned on a variety of subjects, in cluding weight control. The group was about equally’ divided among boys and girls. Sixty-three percent were Hispanic, 20 percent were An glo, 7 percent were black and the rest were from other minority groups. A third of the students, and three times as many girls as boys, said they considered themselves overweight. About 14 percent of the freshman girls said they dieted. This percent age jumped to 24 percent for sopho more and junior girls and to 36 per cent for senior girls. Two percent of the students ad mitted to purging, but 31 percent said they binged and 26 percent said they felt bad after eating too much. Dr. Miller said minority status ap peared to have no effect on the an swers. “We deduced it is not a cultural phenomenon,” she said. “It affects all young women.” E! 0T0WN J0EL H ibidoe If you're considering retirement. Consider Walden. (Come home to Aggieland. fOur stereotypes of senior adults (and retire ment housing) are fading. Thank goodness. ^Seniors are retired from routine, sure. But they ; are still busy, active and alive. 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