Page 2/The BattalionAVednesday, March 4,1987
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 Ownbey, 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 repiorting, 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
pieriods.
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Uncommon valor
When New Jersey State Sen. Richard Codey told his colleagues
that he posed as an unemployed restaurant worker and got a job as
an orderly at a state mental hospital, they must have thought he was
crazy.
Codey took the job under an assumed name so he could see for
himself whether a newly adopted state policy to check the back
grounds of all prospective employees of state psychiatric hospitals
was being implemented. It wasn’t.
And, because of his ingenuity, Codey discovered a whole array of
personal-rights violations being committed by hospital employees
against patients.
During his six days as an orderly at Marlboro Psychiatric Hospi
tal, Codey said he witnessed enough sexual and physical abuse of pa
tients “to make ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ look like a picnic.”
State officials responded to Codey’s report by launching an in
vestigation of hiring and conditions at the hospital. Chances are that
Codey’s active interest in the legislation will prompt hospital officials
to resolve their problems quickly.
It’s refreshing to see a state senator so actively concerned with
the effective implementation of legislation. Of course, it would be in
credibly expensive, if not impossible, for senators to personally fol
low up on every piece of legislation, but in this case, New Jersey tax
payers got their money’s worth.
The First Lady teaches Don Regan a soot Thkou-coeight
Opinion
Who cares about AIDS?
I got an anony
mous letter last
week — a friendly
warning.
Fellow Ags,
I write this let
ter to you as a con
cerned friend.
Last week, I dis
covered that a
close heterosexual
friend of mine has
AIDS. Here in
College Station is where my Aggie
friend contracted the disease. Please,
Ags, be forewarned: AIDS is here at
A&M. Please don’t think that because
Mike
Sullivan
be-
you’re heterosexual you are “safe,
cause you’re not. My brother — my
close friend — had to learn this the hard
way. Yes, that close friend is my brother.
Please, Ags, what I say comes from the
heart. BE CAREFUL — it may save you
a lifetime.
The writer obviously is concerned
that not enough Aggies are taking AIDS
seriously.
A week before I got this letter, an
other concerned student called. He told
me The Battalion hasn’t been running
enough about AIDS and that no one at
A&M, or anywhere for that matter,
seems to care enough about the prob
lem.
But many say there’s been too much
said about the disease in the media, The
Battalion included. The Associated
Press has a story about AIDS at least
twice a week, and the three major net
works cover the disease with just as
much frequency. Some say the coverage
is exceedingly redundant. Some say it’s
a good way to sell newspapers — sensa
tionalism.
I don’t agree.
Call me a commie, but the Soviet
Union’s recent decision to set up an
AIDS hotline after only 16 to 20 cases
were reported in that country is admira
ble. But this is not Amerika — we don’t
take pains to head off potential plagues
before they start.
In America — with a “c” — AIDS has
become a serious disease and it merits
intense coverage — daily coverage.
Still, some claim the press is trying to
scare people into buying news when
there really isn’t any news at all. They
say a story a day is unnecessary because
people who are sexually active outside
monogamous relationships know by
now how foolish indiscriminate sex is
and are acting accordingly.
The caller didn’t think so. He said
sexual activities taking place in at least
one campus bathroom led him to be
lieve that people are simply ignorant
about the spread of the disease. If col
lege-educated people can’t grasp the
reality of AIDS, who can?
But the people who don’t want to
hear about AIDS argue the flip side. If
college-educated people still are doing
stupid things despite warnings from the
medical world, they deserve what they
get. It’s their problem.
The caller pointed out that Texas is
ranked fifth in the nation in AIDS inci
dents. Of the approximately 17,000
deaths reported from AIDS in the
United States, more than 1,000 have
been reported in Texas. Again, so what?
Consider the size of the state. The peo
ple who refuse to acknowledge the se
riousness of AIDS aren’t impressed.
The caller said that since 1983, there
have been 13 cases of AIDS reported in
Brazos County and nine deaths re
ported from the disease. He reinformed
me that an A&M student died of AIDS
last spring. I knew that. I wrote the
story. So what does it mean? The stu
dent who died was a homosexual. AIDS
is a primarily homosexual disease in this
country, right? There are fools who
would still agree with that.
But media attention is paying off.
Many sexually active heterosexual stu
dents are concerned about getting
AIDS, and many are doing something
about it.
Since the surgeon general publicly
endorsed the use of condoms as a way to
keep from getting the virus, the man
ager of the College Station Kroger told
me that he’s noticed a “significant” in
crease in the purchase of condoms.
That’s fine, just don’t advertise them,
right?
The caller also sent me a brochure
about AIDS. It said that the Center for
Disease Control in Atlanta estimates
that 1 million to 1.5 million U.S. citizens
now carry the AIDS virus — about
90,000 Texans — and that 30 percent of
those people will develop AIDS within
four years — or about 300,000 to
450,000 cases nationwide by 1991.
Texas Health Commissioner Robert
Bernstein estimates that by 1996, there
will be more than 60,000 cases in Texas
alone.
But surely some sort of cure will crop
up before AIDS reaches epidemic pro
portions.
Whatever happened to the “i
ding” herpes plague? They invt
Herpaway — seems like that cured
A chart in the brochure providt
the Texas Department of Healtk
made it clear that if current case/fe
ratios continue, more than onehi
all people with AIDS will diewithit
years of being diagnosed.
But the omnipotent aren’t iraprt
by “if s.”
IF AIDS continues to spread,ai)
the sun doesn’t rise tomorrow,
be dark times ahead for mankind
easy for them to ignore an
statement.
With all due respect to thecallei
above letter-writer, and her bra
most people are simply bored wit
the warnings about AIDS.
The odds against a male heterose
living in Texas getting AIDS area
nomical. What’s to worry? The pt
who don’t want to hear about ithai:
many good reasons to let the othei
worry — if he cares to.
I wonder if the letter-writer’s bra
was bored with all the media atiei
before he was diagnosed.
Mike Sulli van is a senior jounni
major and the Opinion Page edit
The Battalion.
Mail Cal
Unfair cartoon
EDITOR:
In response to Karl Spence's
Feb. 26 cartoon:
When the colonialists withdre
from Muslim lands, they did not
leave all the wealth and resources
in the hands of the indigenous
people — they installed faithful
peoples in government positions
and institutions (but not before
portraying them as liberators and
heroes in the eyes of the people).
These lackeys would continue
to serve the imperialists’interesis
and keep Islam in check.
Wl
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■ VllIII“i^ WW ■ I IlSr 5
Can freshmen be taught to think, or is Bill a little misguided?
Freshmen are —
a lost cause on R. L.GG
Friday a f- Suilivan
tei noons. Sure, Guest Columnist
they’ll come to
class, and they’ll sit in their little
chair-desks and try to look interested
so as not to insult the professor, but
don’t believe for one minute they
really give a flying flip about anything
that’s going on in the front of the
room. They’re not zombies, mind you,
vegging out in the upper reaches.
From the glazed look in their eyes,
you’d be entirely justified in posting a
“zoned-out” sign on the mental real es
tate of any one of mamma and daddy’s
precious baby leaders-of-tomorrow on
a Friday afternoon. Justified, but all
too hasty.
After all, they did come to class.
That’s a massive effort, when the sun is
out and the pool’s open and you’re a
19-year-old and your face just cleared
up. Forget about competing — it can’t
be done.
It takes a real Anthony Eden of an
instructor to convince himself that
these kids even remotely care about
what he has to say when he’s the only
thing that stands between them and
the weekend.
Nonetheless, that’s what I have to do
every Friday. They keep calling me a
prof, and I keep telling them I’m a tea
ching assistant, a guy with a BA in En
glish let loose in the classroom all by
himself — a graduate student with a
job. A year ago, I was sitting in the
same chair-desks as my freshmen, try
ing to pay attention on a Friday af
ternoon and having pretty much the
same lack of success. Now I have to pay
attention and I can’t even skip on Fri
days. You think they’d show me some
compassion. At least they show up —
most of the time.
The average salary of a university
faculty member in the state of Texas
was $33,117 last year. I’ve never con
sidered myself average, and my pay-
check bears this out. However, it’s a job
and I do get paid for it (technically —
they call it a stipend), so I figure Bill
Clements is entitled to the best I have
to offer. I work for Clements, you see.
I saw this photograph of him on the
front page of a newspaper, and it
stuck. That is my boss, I thought. He
kind of reminds me of this other boss I
had when I worked in an auto paint-
and-body shop back in high school. We
had these red shop rags, and the body
men would throw them everywhere
and I had to pick them up and put
them in a laundry bag. My boss, the
other one, not Clements, would point
at any rag I missed and say, “Pick that
up, boy! That’s two cents lyin’ thar!”
As I walk into the classroom every Fri
day, I imagine Clements’ face scowling
at me, mouth half-open saying some
thing like “Pick it up, boy! Them’s
young impressionable minds lyin’
thar!”
And he’s right, even if it is Friday af
ternoon. In an article appearing in the
Houston Post on Mar. 1, 1987, Clem
ents was quoted as saying, “We need to
get back in that classroom and back
into teaching our state and getting a
higher-quality end product.” Clements
is alarmed about professors who come
to our state when “all they want to talk
about is research. ... I want these
high-powered professors coming into
Texas for endowed positions to do
some teaching. I want them back in the
classroom where there is a cross-fertili
zation of ideas.” Clements wants pro
duction, and it’s up to me to produce.
My best guess is that Clements wants
me to produce knowledge. If every
thing goes as planned, my 48 fresh
men will become “a higher-quality end
product” by the end of this semester.
They’d probably be thrilled to know
this, but I think I’ll concentrate on im
proving their writing; well. I’ll have
them concentrate on improving their
own writing. You see, I really can’t
make these kids learn anything any
more than I can make them pay atten
tion on a Friday afternoon. Clements
has been reading too many teaching-
award recommendations, where some
student writes in praise of a popular
teacher, “She really taught me how to
think” or some other such nonsense. If
a kid can’t think when he gets here, he
won’t be around long enough to get to
know any of his instructors. We don’t
teach students — they learn. Dr. Ed
Crawford informed me and about 300
other freshmen of this back when I
took Chemistry 101. “You’re going to
teach yourself,” he told us, and he was
right.
Still, some people seem to be willing
to tell Clements what he wants to hear.
The English departments of most uni
versities are divided right up the mid
dle between those who want to teach
writing and those who want to study
literature, a fact not generally known
outside the discipline. The writing tea
chers call their field “Rhetoric and
Composition,” and if you want to see
for yourself, come on up to the second
floor of the Blocker Building and look
at the sign on the door of the English
Department. It’s right there, listed un
derneath “American Literature,”
“English Literature,” “Folklore” and
“Linguistics.” This is what Clements
appears to want, academia-producing
useful work. No frivolous research
here, no sir, just down-to-earth real-
world common-sense professionals
dedicated to a higher-quality end
product.
Clements would be surprised at how
much research is done by the more
practical arm of the English Depart
ment. In the library, deep in the stacks,
there are a staggering number of jour
nals devoted exclusively to the study of
rhetoric and composition. These jour
nals publish research done by English
professionals all over the country, even
the world. Some of these articles were
written by professors right here at
Texas A&M. That’s what goes on at a
university — research generates
knowledge, and that knowledge is
passed on in the classroom. When
Clements shuts down research, it’s like
shutting down an oil well. Nothing
more is produced, and in the case of
Texas education, it’s like shutting
down a stripper well. When you close a
stripper it’s an indication of a severely
troubled industry, because you can
never open it again. If funding for re
search leaves the campus in Texas,
many of your best professors will
leave, never to return. That’s shutting
down the knowledge factory.
But since he’s the governor and he’s
the boss, I’ve got to do my best to wake
these kids up. I’m duty-bound, you
might say. So I walk into class on Fri
day afternoon, drop my backpack on
the desk, look every one of them in the
eye and say:
“It’s Friday. You know what that
means.”
They nod. They grin. They can’t be
lieve what’s coming next.
“Okay. Maximum volume. One,
two, three ...”
And they yell, every last one of
them, as loud as they can:
“YABBA DABBA DOO!!!”
R. Lee Sullivan is a graduate student
in the Department of English. He is
not related to the Opinion Page edi
tor.
Columns submitted for Farmers Write should be be
tween 700 and 850 words. The editorial staff reserves
the right to edit for grammar, style and length, but will
make every effort to maintain the author’s intent. Each
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writer. Only the author’s name, major and classifica
tion will be printed.
Britain and France were once:
die forefront in ensuring the
West’s continued exploitation of
the wealth of Muslims, but now
the ringleaders are the United
States and Soviet Union.
When the Muslim masses turn
back to Islam, this will most
certainly stop. If, in the meantime
Spence wants to see the
exploitation continue in a health'
manner — say a prayer for the
imposed governments, who wort
so hard to keep Muslims away
from Islam.
Say a prayer for Mubarak,
Egypt and the Saudi clan, King ;i
Hussein (Jordan), Hassan
(Morocco), Majibullah
(Afghanistan) and Asad (Syria)-'|
and while you are at it, throwini
few lines for Arafort and Gadhai
Certainly, Islam is a threat to
the United States’ interests, but
not in the way you portrayed it.
Very simply, Islam does not
permit the slaying of innocent ;
civilians (terrorism).
David McClung
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