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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
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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
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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
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