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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 9, 1987)
A The Battalion arSFSMS lew Simji h« TW1 Member <if l l*»«w Amim mi ton i Sbetffy, Ldttor awr Edbtor t, OpinK*n Pane Ldttor Ldttor HI i Newt Ldttor* Sport* Editor Photo Editor BAsoiwnst « oiicy Ibe IteattMt a • eetvtMaprr o*wr- “ i wow to lew* A*M w>dlto<H»-< oth-Kr W- Oyt-i.o. e»pr huard nr the m«ti «rieaa»A*M. TheaamamdH I w /hr I * thoer of thr rrprrerM thr < I hr lenehm, h | I ear* AhrM ragater < hMI aahawtpihMHi are St? «4 art irirwri tvt *7 un > hi •td KM 44 per (wM mar AdiertaMig rwe« fnomhrd •« (ho idii ■« /hr am AKM l mvaretti CoMmr I SnrwMl ctMe B.nuigr fMi kmimasiYr Swd M. Uraartmeni at Join whim I run no. tV 77M4V4I ll I C iaig» *11100 I X TXM* to /hr henrMxi i V Sx’rrai* teM* AAM Correron t «hi * Quest for excellence Football fans must know by now that A&M’s prized recruit, Dar ren Lewis, possibly won’t see much turf next season because of a piti fully low Scnoiastic Aptitude Test score. There is hope, however, for the running back from Dallas who scored 470 on the SAT — 230 points shy of the required NCAA score. . Luckily for A&M football fans and Lewis, who reportedly said he will sign a national letter of intent Wednesday to play for Texas A&M, the prized athlete is what the NCAA calls a “partial-qualifier.” That means his SAT score is too low for the NCAA (and A&M) but his 2.0 grade-point ratio is just fine for the NCAA and, apparently, for A&M. Because he met the NCAA’s (and A&M’s) strict academic standards few the SAT and If his score miraculously jumps to 700 on his second attempt - he’s enrolled in an SAT preparation course — Lewis successfully will have met the eligibility requirements for the NCAA and the admis sion requirements for A&M and will qualify for a scholarship to play football. Lewis is one of the nation’s top high school football prospects — he’s extremely tempting for a scnool so thirsty for a numoer one football team. Just now big a temptation Lewis is for the Aggies will be discovered next fall. If, however, Lewis can’t make the grade, he still can study at A&M his freshman year,* but he won’t be eligible to play football until his sophomore year. In the world of higher education, no lack of academic prowess can keep an outstanding athlete on the sidelines for long. ONE DAY AT THE TEXAS COUCT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS f BUT, YOUR. HONOR.! THE CROSS MUN3EK.CA9E IS CWER 20 YEARS OLDf Pmo rr uastmcd comk-tly 70 7H£ KUl£5 OF rrs D*Y! ' / V THE *\AN»S Guu.r ISNT even Be IN Cl QUK TlOM£Df l\l ftEXOSjDS NU. DC5WCD, EVICCHGE IS UmVCSBCS MW/E 0*0 — MOW AXE WE I YOUR TO «W 1ML5 CAS*T \ the terms’ nvwues ^ V*u-U*/E TO SUFFER 'MtoOSM AwKMCR TBAL, AMO tTftf EVEW SEE THE MILLER GO FREE! /**>\ Remember, folks- THESE. TURKEYS YD RUN FOR re*election f c V KAA.- College-educated people for athletes during his high school years, Lewis can retake f i — I - _ - /i | _ . ^ If K i .d p™.w y hr. often dotl / KHOW the facts Paula Vogiln Trust the government? Richard Cohen On April 14, U.S. warplanes bombed Libya, killing 37 persons, among them a 15- month-old girl named Hana, re portedly Moam- m a r Gadhafi’t adopted daughter The attack was in reprisal for the bombing days ear lier of a West German discotheque fre quented by U.S. servicemen. Oise serv iceman was killed Following the disco bombing. Bob Woodward of the Washington Post re ported what the president had alluded to: The United States had intercepted messages from the Libyan Embassy in East Germany telling Libyan authorities that they “will ,be very happy when you see the headlines tommorrow " Case closed. But is R? At the time. President Rea gan seemed to personify the American rage at Gadhafi. The Libyan leader had exulted in the deaths of infiocents in massacres at the Rome and Vienna air ports and had reportedly financed seve ral terrorist operations. The administra tion’s cast seemed convincing, and its reprisal, really an Sct of wsnv seemed above moral when the mad dog of not believe our own govecunaeus. I^ie list of lies — and they art that — is get ting longer and longer, and foremost among mem was the repeated declara tion that the United States would never psy ransom for hostages We did just that — and did it repeatedly. Another lie was that If the United States possessed hard information that other countries were engaged in terror ism, they would get a dose of what Libya got. “We have made h plain that if we have the same kind of irrefutable evi dence with regard to other countries, they'll be subject to the same treatment.” the president said on May 7. The infor mation Unking Iran to the kidnappers of American hostages was so irrefutable that we traded arms for their release. When it comes to information — irre futable or otherwise — I have none to contradict what the president said fol lowing the bombing of Libya. But as one who approved of that raid, 1 have the sinking feeling that I was in some sense taken — that the administration arbi trarily substituted Libya for Iran when, fallowing the hijacking of a TWA flight to Beirut, k realised that Tehran and not Tripoli was the real paymaster of Middle East terrorists. Maybe we bombed Libya because k. almost alone among Ujprorist nations, was not hold- Gad rkl reproach Fen quibbled jog American hostages Or maybe Prrsadent calk*! Gadhafi the hafi lost avfaughter because we were at om rhe Middle East ry*< tefspdng to send a message not to him — Imt to the AyatoBajk: In violation of our laws, we might try to assissinatr a taWrMer- 7 Since the «jpru>g. thpugh. mufhJms changed. Libya, no matter what its nns, seems almost inconsequential compared to the real thugs of the Middle Earn. In two separate trials — one in London, the ocher in West Berlin a- Syria was im plicated in two teronsts incidents The first was the attempt to place a bomb on an El A1 <plane heading to Israel by way of London. The second was the bomb ing of thr German-Arab Friendship So ciety in BeHin that injured 14 persons. No mention of Libya was made at either trial W The American * people now know, also, that some of the case against Libya consisted of “disinformation “ leaked by the administration and unwittingly pub lished by the press. We know, too. that k was not Libya that controlled the fate of American hostages in Lebanon, hut Iran. We were also told in a report by the Miami Herald, that U.S. officials held Iran responsible for the of both the Marine barracks UJL Embassy in Beirut In both mo- drncs. the loss of life was horrendous. Cynadsxn is the rust of democracy One of the truly awful implications of the Inm-Contra scandal is that we can- I don't know. I do know that 1 no longer have the confidence in our gov ernment I once had. And I have to tell you that I had to ask Woodward, an ex tremely careful reporter, if his story about the Berlin to Tripoli intercepts was not itself the rotten fruit of a disin formation campaign He did not thank so. He said he had confidence in his sources, hut acknowledged that the Iran disclosures had to raise some doubts. No one has the same confidence in adminis tration statements they once had. Cynicism — not any foreign-policy setback — may well be the worst conse quence of the current scandal. By play ing cute wkh the American people, by saying one thing and doing another and by using “disinformation, the Reagan administration has weakened the fiber of the very democracy it was trying to protect. On April 14, the United States killed a child named Hana Once I thought the bombing that caused her death was justified Now I sure. Are you? am so l^isi weekend I overheard a con versation lw*twrrn four girls in rhe restroom ot a I<k al bar It started out something like this ‘ Reallv. I can t believe v <» u ’ t e going to bat k out on us now We went through all the trouble of getting some for you, and now you’re not even going to do any with us." “What’s the matter? You really don’t want to have any fun, do you?” The con- verstation continued in this manner, three of the girls trying to persuade the fourth to “do some" with them. The fourth obviously did not want to “do any” with them Finally, the fourth got irate, told the others she would find her own way home, and stormed out of the restroom. The remaining three laughed loudly about what a square the fourth was, brushed their hair, applied more lip stick, perfume and blush, and left talk ing about how much fun they were going to have “X-ing." I found k rather hard to believe that the trio of idiots had tried to convince the fourth girl to take a drug that she clearly wanted no part of. 1 thought peer pressure like that hap pened only in teen books and on prime time television I was wrong. The thing that struck me about this whole episode was that three college women could be so excited about Ecstacy, a drug whose long- and short term effects still are vague at best. Ecstacy, or S,4-methylenedioxyme thamphetamine as k is known in the lab, isn't really a new drug. It was synthe sized and patented in 1914 as an appe tite suppressant. MDMA was never mar keted as such, and was virtually forgotten until about 10 years ago, when k made ks way into the offices of some therapists From there, MDMA traveled to the homes of young profes sionals and college campuses, where k I assumed its more common name of Ecstacy, or X. About four years ago, k took the nightclub scene by storm. At clubs all over the country, Ecstacy could be pur chased at the bar and i American Express This practice ended in the summer of I 1985, however, when the Drug Enforce ment Agency slapped an emergency ban on Ecstacy after research associated the drug with possible brain damage. Ecstacy is now considered a Schedule I controlled^substance Its only legal use is m approved experimental settings. DeukteTlie ban and the drug’s con- trolled substance classification (a ranks right up there with heroin, LSD. and marijuana). Ecstacy’s use as a recre ational drug has not decreased. If any thing, ks use has increased — especially at cckieges. Yes, even at Texas A&M. Students gladly pay anywhere from $8 to $25 for one hit—a 1OO-milligram capsule of the sythetic white powder For their money, they get approxi mately four hours of contentment, self- acceptance, insight and loosened inhibi tions But with the purchase they also receive initial side effects of sweating, increased blood pressure and heart paid for with rates, and after-effects — 24 hours of exhaustion and appetite loss. Is k worth the price? Animal studies performed at the Uni versity of Chicago by Lewis Seiden and Charles Schuster, two psychopharmaco logists, indicate that Ecstacy causes long term and perhaps irreversible effects on the brain. Serotonin, a neurotransmitter involved in the regulation of sex, sleep, aggression and mood, reached a dan gerously low level in the animals in jected regularly with the drug. Seiden and Schuster concluded that doses harmful to the brain are only about two to three times larger than the average street dose. It was this conclu sion that led the DEA to place the emer gency ban on Ecstacy. Why, then, is this drug so popular? First and foremost, k’s immediate ef fects are pleasurable Only 15 minutes after taking the drug, the user feels happy and uninhibited without feeling out of control. And the immediate side effects are not severe enough to merit much concern. Unlike alcohol and mari juana, Ecstacy is not a depressant, so the user’s thoughts and reactions awe not slowed Cost also plays a large role in the pop ularity of Ecstacy. The cost of ooe hit is equivalent to tne cost of an average night on the town for most people. It’s not as expensive as cocaine but provides essentially the same effects. Third is the image of the drug. Ecstacy is a designer drug, a name that sounds young, new, exciting and defi nitely not lower class. Ecstacy can be as sociated with young business people and college students — people who are suc cessful and people who plan to be suc cessful. It doesn't carry the stigma of heroin — the junkie’s drug — or crack — the street drug. Whatever the reason for the popular ity of Ecstacy, k isn't a good one. The drug was dangerous enough to merit an emergency ban from the DEA a year and a half ago. That action ihttild be enough of a warning for anyone to steer clear of Ecstacy, especially anyone intel ligent enough to attend an instkution of higher learning. for O BEAUTIFUL for smenus] I ADMISSION $1 AMBER WAVES OF GRAIM ADMISSION « PURPLE IflOUHTAHK’ lAAJESTY ADMISSION $f «C3 FRUITED PLA1H ADMISSION $1 Mail Call Stop and think EDITOR. , 5 In response to the Feb. 5 letter of Mark Heath and Don Hermon: I think Silver Taps is the most solemn and worthwhile tradition at A&M. But it is absolutely ridiculous to have Easterwood Airport stop flight traffic during this tame. In fact, as a friend pointed out to me, the disturbances symbolise that life goes on! Silver Taps is a beautiful ceremony, but people die all the time — and trains still rod, and planes still fly! Richard Fox Lrtui s to < /to mnd length. Smt w*U mm*t nmr to i mtul imctmJe tkt dm nfuaWm, mddmt mmd Wiefkmnr Hmmtrr j Or wru,. Gmth Irthrr mmtf hr i