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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 20, 1987)
Page 2/The Battalion/Friday, February 20, 1987 Opinion The Battalion (USPS 045 360) Member of Texas Press Association Southwest Journalism Conference The Battalion Editorial Board Loren Steffy, Editor Marybeth Rohsner, Managing Editor Mike Sullivan, Opinion Page Editor Jens Koepke, City Editor Jeanne Isenberg, Sue Krenek, News Editors Homer Jacobs, Sports Editor Tom Own bey, Photo Editor Editorial Policy The Battalion is a non-profit, self-supporting newspaper oper ated as a community service to Texas A&M and Bryan-College Sta tion. Opinions expressed in The Battalion are those of the editorial board or the author, and do not necessarily represent 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 photography classes within the Depart ment of Journalism. The Battalion is published Monday through Friday during Texas A&M regular semesters, except for holiday and examination periods. Mail subscriptions are $17.44 per semester, $34.62 per school year and $36.44 per full year. Advertising rates furnished on re quest. Our address: The Battalion, Department of Journalism, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-4111. Second class postage paid at College Station, TX 77843. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to 7'he Battalion, De partment of Journalism, Texas A&M University, College Station TX 77843-4111. Insult to injury Gaylon Fallon, president of the Houston Federation of Teachers, said the Texas Supreme Court’s decision upholding the state compe tency exam for teachers is an insult. Had the court ruled in favor of the Texas State Teacher’s Asso ciation, however, taxpayers would have been equally insulted — the only difference being that they would have paid five million hard- earned tax dollars for the insult. If TSTA had won its way, 2,000 Texas teachers who were fired because they couldn’t pass a simple reading and writing test would have been allowed to return to the classroom. Forcing Texans to knowingly finance the long-term destruction of their school system transcends the definition of “insult.” American Exports MARGULIK HCWUU fPST Cars Steel Wheat VO// %u// %\<// VO// Hostages YWYYY'm'ff Teacher union leaders claim the mandatory testing lowers the profession’s esteem. While testing the basic skills and measuring the academic competency of people who have perhaps the greatest im pact on the developing minds of young people may not contribute to the teaching profession’s esteem, it serves a much greater purpose. It fights the spread of ignorance and promotes competent education — the primary purpose of an educational system. Though the morale of teachers has a deFinite impact on the qual ity and effectiveness of the educational system, the breakdown of that morale is more likely linked to the idiotic proposals to raid the teachers’ retirement fund and cut education in general. It seems the most difficult thing for Texas government to under stand is that improvements always involve tradeoffs. Certain profes sions shouldn’t have to suf fer continually for the good of the major ity — the people who stand to gain the most. If Texas truly wants to improve its educational system, it cannot afford to demand its teachers to submit to a test while at the same time it cuts into their financial security. It would be insulting to insist that Texas can’t test the minds of its educators, but it also is insulting to repeatedly tap the resources of those whose mental welfare benefits us all. Opposing points of view ore threatening at A&M Highway 6 both ways. runs If I hear that one more time I think I’m gonna scream. It seems every argument that appears in Mail Call tells the opposing person why they’re wrong and then ends the letter with a cry to get outta town. It amazes me that there are so many people at this University who believe there is only one way to do things, their way. The worst thing about this attitude is it leaves no There’s no substitute for loving parents They met at a summer resort. He saw her down by the lake and ap- proached, un asked , to make conversation. Soon he took her rowing and, soon after, to a party. By the fall, they were engaged and by the winter mar ried. The precise 1937. Soon, my Richard Cohen They never fought. If they did, I never heard them. They seemed never to dis agree. If my sister or I made a request, my mother would say she had to ask my father and my father would say he had to ask my mother. Soon the decision would come down. It was always unani mous. There was no playing one against the other. There was no prying them apart. They were, they remain, indivisi ble. talk of their parents with contempt, judging them always, finding their faults. With me, it’s the other way around. My parents read my column and I think of each one as a report card I have brought home. What will they think? I still look to them for approval. I look to them for instruction too. They seem to know something most of us no longer do. They know how to go the dis tance. date was Feb. 20, parents will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. She was so lovely. There are snapshots of her taken around the time she married. She is wearing a dark coat, and around the coat is draped some sort of fur, probably fox. There were maybe a dozen of these pictures, each captur ing a different expression — coy, friendly, coquettish, sexy. As a boy, ig norant of Freud and therefore uninhi bited, I would sit on the floor, take out the photo album and swoon over my mother. I was five or six and deeply in love. Make of it what you will, I still am. What is their secret? I don’t know. Maybe it is that they started with so little. Maybe because they were both born in poverty, my father in a New York tenement, my mother above a store in Poland. Maybe because they had to work hard for everything they got and because there is no happiness that is not earned. Maybe because they valued the fundamentals — family, loy alty, love, health — and they protected these things fiercly. He was handsome. In the same photo album, there were pictures of him. I can recall one still — my father in his riding outfit. He is so strong, so big, so dashing — a character out of Fitzgerald but really out of an orphanage, a succession of foster parents, a mother dead in a tenement and a wayward father with bad hearing who never heard the truck that killed him. In the pictures, my fa ther holds the reins of a horse. When I was young, I thought my par ents knew everything. When I got older, I thought they knew nothing. Now I know better. Their very life is instruc tion. Always, they conducted themselves with honor, with integrity. They made mistakes, had their failures, committed the usual unforgivable sins of parent ing, but never once did they do the wrong thing in a moral sense. Their simple stroll through life has been a les son and an example. Last November, my parents came to Washington for Thanksgiving. My fa ther is 78 now; my mother nearly 75. We had a very serious talk about sick ness and death, about lives that are drawing to a close. Children played par ents and parents played children and then, later, I dropped them off at their hotel and stayed in the car while they walked into the lobby. Soon, they will be married 50 years. That night they were holding hands. Copyright 1986, Washington Post Writers Group room for individuals who have differ ent viewpoints. In response to Mike Sullivan’s col umn recommending elimination of the Corps, one student wrote, “The only thing I have left to say to Sullivan is, Highway 6 runs both ways.” So what? That’s not much of a concluding statement to convince Sullivan to recon sider his opinion. Apparently, more stu dents need to take a logics course so they can develop an argument instead of recommending banishment of their opponents. Another student suggested Sullivan take “his great journalistic abilities” to the University of California, Berkeley, because they have an outstanding liberal arts program. Good idea. God forbid anyone who didn’t vote for Reagan or accept this University un conditionally should attend here. Unfortunately, people like Sullivan and Karl Pallmeyer who take on contro versial opinions aren’t the only ones asked to leave A&M. Tolerance at this University must be at an all-time low be cause even the guy who wrote in that he liked ketchup on his steak was told, “that may be true at t.u., but not here. And before you try to pass out condi ment advice again, remember, Highway 6 runs both ways.” I must admit, the first time I read this I laughed because the guy who wrote it couldn’t be serious. Unfortunately, his response epitomizes how people at this University react to different opinions. If the guy was serious, I feel sorry for him because with this kind of attitude he couldn’t possibly have a friend in the world. He must eat alone. Naturally, Mail Call isn’t just an arena for telling people to leave town. It seems more and more letters are written to complain about everything and any thing. Too bad the topics that are dis cussed have little merit. For example, the letter complaining about the air traffic during Silver Taps suggested we talk to someone at Eas- terwood Airport about redirected or de laying planes during this solemn ce^ mony. When I read this, 1 honesii could not believe there was someone;: this University who had nothing bent: to do. Let’s be realistic. It’s hardly insen* for the airport to conduct business usual while Aggies honor their the air traffic is that offensive, tliff maybe we should hold the ceremoi* indoors. But asking the rest of the woti to accommodate the needs of A&M going overboard. 1 suppose there someone out there who believes a si blackout during Silver Taps is appropc ate. Granted, the ceremony is and meaningful, but probably Aggies and the families of the decease; In case some of you have been mis the sun does not rise and set on A&M campus. As long as I’m focusing on meritle; complaints, let’s not forget all the oik about the outdoor sculpture exhibit! |j cadet wrote in stating the exhibit «tl art, that it was embarrassing to theUn versity and even mentioned his fear« what visitors might think about it. fc listically, I think visitors would real that A&M is not the cultural des® many people believe it to be and thatilt letter is more of an embarrassmenttlu I the art work. I’ll bet this cadet di' even go to the more “traditional” artw lection of Italian paintings in Rudils Exhibit Hall. i \ vol ing me mu sue liar the tot; eig 29, thi: thr spi ba Of course, I’m not suggesting complaints are worthless, but more people at this University focus their energies on substantialissi like the cuts in student aid by the f ernment, Gov. Clements’ plansfr* higher education and world issuess* as hunger, nuclear war and AIDS. I also think people here need to W tolerance. The only hope we have prevent a nuclear war is the abilii) deal with all types of people, culm and dissenting opinions. Learning deal with another person’s right to( agree won’t hurt you, but help you.Tl* best way to learn this is to open ] mind and shut your mouth. Jo Streit is a senior journalism mafl and a columnist For The Battalion. I My mother says it was love at first sight. We were driving up to New En gland some years back and passed near the resort where my parents met. “Tell me the story,” I said. She did. She re counted the lake, his invitation to go rowing. “What were your first words?” I asked my father. He smiled mischie vously. “You row,” he said, and my mother laughed. We drove another mile or so. “From that day on, I never saw another man,” she said. Years ago, my parents retired and moved to Florida. They took up golf, and my mother tried to learn to swim. Of course, they work. They don’t know how not to. My father has gone door to door as a pollster. He has taken inven tory. For a time he was a doorman and, more recently, he was hired to be a Santa Claus at a shopping mall. During a heat wave, they ran an air hose up his back and under his costume to cool him. Kids sat on his lap as the air swished un der his jacket. He smiled for the camera. He made the kids smile. That is his tal ent. He could always make a kid smile. Their relationship is a mystery to me. I read of people who reject their par ents. I cannot imagine it. I hear people Mail Call Like, whafs your major? EDITOR: Do business majors know how to walk and talk at the same time? If they do, I’ve never seen it. Every time I try to get to my class in Blocker Building I have to weave my way through halls choked with people standing and talking. They don’t think to use the benches kindly provided by the University. They continue mindlessly chatting away, oblivious to the chaos they’re creating. On the other hand, I can see what contributes to their indifference. They’ve got the most difficult curriculum on campus, so I’ll allow them a little disorientation every once in a while. I would like to make a comment regarding two ads printed in The Battalion by the Rox-z, one last week and one this week. Both ads stated, “Thursday Ladies Night, Ladies No Cover,” but the ads don’t mean what they say On Thursdays, the Rox-z only lets in free those females over 21 years of age. After the first misleading ad, the manager insisted it was a misprint by The Battalion stafi However, no correction was made in the next issue (like I he Battalion usually does for misprints) and the second ad was printed identically to the first. After reading the second misleading ad, I spoke with the manager again and was informed that the Rox-z “considers those over 21 ladies, the others just girls.” Robert Dowdy ’87 I am woman, hear me roar EDITOR: Attention females 18-20: When you enter a dress shop, do you head for the ladies’ department or wander around the little girls’ section? Would it interest you to know that the Rox-z still considers us “girls?” I think many 18-20-year-old females on this campus would agree with me that it is an insult to be labeled “girh I thought I outgrew being a “girl” when I graduated from high school and moved away from home. Perhaps we “girls” should find somewhere else to go where we can be accepted as ladies. Karen Kosub ’90 Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 words in length. The editorial stajj n serves the right to edit letters for style and length, but will make every effort to 0 1 ' tain the author’s intent. Each letter must be signed and must include the classift 1 tion, address and telephone number of the writer.