Page 2fYhe Battalion/Tuesday, June 23, 1987
Opinion
Bernhard Goetz and the irrational aggression E>
There is a utility to
stereotyping. The
American ethic,
not to mention the
law, insists that we
all be judged as
individuals, but
the city dweller
knows better.
Having been
asked for $5 by
four black youths,
seeing them as
Consider further: Although Goetz
could not have known it at the time, all
four of the youths who approached him
for money had criminal records. At the
moment, two are in jail and one is in a
drug-rehabilitation center. The fourth
youth, Darrell Cabey, lives at home,
paralyzed from the waist down by the
bullet Goetz fired into him.
Richard
Cohen
shod for crime in high-top sneakers,
Bernhard Goetz saw the stereotype and
assumed he was about to be robbed.
Many New Yorkers have applauded his
rationality.
Consider: Who commits an
inordinate amount of crime? A small
percentage of young black males.
Nationally, white males between the
ages of 18 and 29 commit 21 percent of
all robberies and muggings. Black males
of the same age group commit exactly
the same percentage of those crimes,
but blacks comprise only 12 percent of
the population.
And one further thing: The request
for money is a preface to robbery. It is
really a demand, a strange street ritual
in which everyone understands that
there is no question mark a the end of
the sentence. This is the code of New
York, if not other places, and everyone
in Goetz’s subway car knew it.
But in Goetz’s case, rational
deductions were made by an irrational
man. In the first place, he was illegally
carrying a gun. Second, he machoed his
way into the midst of the four youths
while others in the subway car wisely
kept their distance. His behavior was the
urban equivalent of “smile when you say
that stranger” — the prologue to so
Mail Call
Commie bashing?
EDITOR:
Once again, your liberal rag has shown its true colors, in Friday’s article by David
Spence on Guatamala. Why are you constantly printing the “full” picture? All you
are really doing is suggesting that the CIA can’t handle things on its own, or that
our country’s interests should not come before anyone else’s. But all of us True
Americans and True Ags know what a wonderful job the CIA and the military are
doing, and that is why so many of us join them every year despite your “evidence.”
And only a Commie or a traitor would dare to imply that our country shold come
second to any other. If we have to wipe out uncooperative governments, well that’s
just what they deserve for getting in out way. Besides, we are really doing them a
favor by sparing them from a Commie takeover. Everyone knows they are much
better off with one of our dictators than with the Communists. In fact, those
students in South Korea should clam up too. I don’t see any of them moving north.
So quit trying to confuse the problem, and let’s just worry about stopping the
Commies.
Joseph Kachmar
An evening on the rocks
EDITOR:
Last Friday, I went to a local club to have a few drinks with my friends. It cwas a
great evening until it was time to leave and I discovered my purse had been stolen.
It was a silver purse and it contained a lot of things I would really like to get back
and many things that would only be useful to me. If you were the person who took
my purse or if you have any knowledge of its whereabouts, please contact me at
693-1435 or send an anonymous note to tell me where I might pick it up. Think
about how you would feel if this happened to you. Be a good Ag. Return my purse.
Susan Richardson ’87
Homosexuality is not a disease
EDITOR:
I’m writing in response to the letter by Kathy Nicholson in which she stated “Being
a psychology major, Rex should know homosexuality is a sexually abnormal
behavior.” In making this statement, Ms. Nicholson committed a major faux pas.
She should have consulted the DSM-III, the “Bible” of all mental health
professionals, before blatantly displaying her ignorance as she did. Homosexuality
has been accepted as a normal human condition, just like heteorsexuality.
Psychologists don’t try to teach homosexuals how to become “straight.” They try to
teach them to come to terms with their homosexuality and to accept themselves as
they are.
I commend Doug Driskell for a sensitive and informative report. If only more
students at A&M could be as informed and sensitive.
Mary Teel ’90
Thanks for the memories
EDITOR
Thank you very much for providing coverage of a design and construction project
performed as a community service in your April 24 edition. We sincerely
appreciate the recognition afforded the Student Chapter Association General
Contractors, inasmuch the student members worked diligently and professionally
in bringing the project to reality.
Construction science students prepared the detailed construction schedule,
final cost estimates, and planning and implementation documentation, and
subsequently commenced work on the project. Also worthy of note is the fact that a
number of design students participated in construction of the project.
Thank you again for informing your readers of this project which integrated
the efforts of many students and faculty, and professional disciplines, and
numerous members of the local community.
Robert Segner Jr.
Associate Professor
Letters to the editor should not exceed300 words in length. The editorial staff reserves the right to edit letters for style
and length, but will make every effort to maintain the author’s intent. Each letter must be signed and must inchule the
classification, address and telephone number of the writer.
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Robert W. Rizzo, Photo Editor
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many fights in so many movie Westerns:
almost a challenge in itself.
When it was accepted, Goetz
responded not by simply showing his
gun (the four youths were unarmed),
but by opening fire. He blazed away
and, later, in a taped confession he
repeatedly mentioned that he had once
been a mugging victim. His actions and
his words were of a man who thought he
had finally settled a score.
The dilemma of the Goetz case lies in
the difficulty of distinguishing between
a rational fear based on a stereotype and
the irrational behavior that can result.
Life is too complicated, the city too
menacing, to judge every person as an
individual. A person of whatever race —
black or white — is entitled to
extrapolate on the basis of either
experience or knowledge (crime
statistics) to make certain judgments.
Only a fool would treat Goetz’s four
boisterous black youths apparently
looking for trouble as if they were four
Iowa farm kids out to see the Big City.
Prudent, self-defensive behavior is
not the same as aggressive, retributive
action. What Goetz did was the moral
equivalent of a white mob running
through a black neighborhood, beating
and, maybe, lynching the first person it
encounters because a wholly different
black had injured or killed a white. The
fury of Goetz’s attack was fueled not
only be the demand for money, but by
his previous mugging. Race, but not
necessarily conventional prejudice,
undoubtedly played a role. The fear
here is specific, not general — not an
entire race, but the young, male
members of it who dress and act jin a
certain menacing way.
Ttif
door locks and window bars. The?
not walk their own streets at night,
in some places, during the day,
are tremulous, often victimized!))
young. Cabs will not stop for certaii
people and, for many, dogs are no
longer pets, but weapons of self-
defense.
not:;!
That always-moving, always-thin, line
between rational fear and irrational
action is one of civilization’s essential
threads. Pull it, and society begins to
unravel. The fear of the urban
American is real — as is the threat to
him or, more likely, her. Crime and the
threat of it has atomized our already
weakened communities.
But the law rightly insists thatoif
actions be reasonable. It does not
require you to be unafraid, notto
or sneak out of harm’s way or
suspect the stranger. Butitdoesti|
the worthy standard that you have
right to translate your fear into
aggressive, dangerous actionthatii
of proportion to any threat
. Hew
Bernhard Goetz did that, i
right to suspect those fouryouthsi:
even right to fear them. Butwh
one by one — he shot them, he
committed a crime and so, inao
him, did his jury. It moved theline |
between rational fear and irrationaj
action a little to thejungle.
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Listen, Fawn — and learn
My secretary, the
lovely and
multitalented Ms.
Wanda Fribish,
couldn’t believe it
when she read Fawn
Hall’s testimony
recently before the
Iran-Contra
investigation panel.
Fawn Hall,
secretary to Marine
Colonel Oliver
North, the
Lewis
Grizzard
designated heavy in the affair, tesified she
never questioned what her boss was doing
and that she helped him load evidence
against him into a paper shredder because
she always did what he told her to do.
“The little twerp,” said Miss Fribish.
“You don’t think,” I dared interrupt her,
“a secretary should be loyal to her boss?”
“Back in your cage, four-eyes,” she said to
me. “If I want your opinion I’ll ask for it.”
I suppose Ms. Fribish and I do have a
unique relationship. She is convinced I work
for her.
She comes in around 10, asks for her
messages and then I pour her a cup of
coffee.
After that, she reads over Feminist Soldier
of Fortune, Wrestling World and Cycle
Magazine and then I get my first
assignment, which usually is something like:
“Hold down the fort, horse head, the
manifold is busted on my Harley and I gotta
go get it fixed.”
After the Fawn Hall testimony, 1 was
intrigued to know how Miss Fribish would
have handeled the situation had she been
Ollie North’s secretary.
“First,” she said, “I would have let that
wimp know where he stood with me.”
“Wimp?” I replied. “Col. North is a
Marine.”
“I don’t care if he’s in the Moose Club,”
she went on, “all I would have said is , ‘One
word out of you, jarhead, and I’ll rattle
whaf s left of your brain.’”
“And you wouldn’t have followed his
orders blindly as Fawn did?”
“Who do you think you’re dealing-
here — Tammy Faye Bakker?
“I would have made him empty bis
pockets and his desk drawersandlM
taken all the money he made from the* |
sales to Iran and given it to somebod'
really deserved it.”
“Who’s that?” I asked.
“My sisters in the National0rgan© :
of Militant Feminists, of course.
“Let the Contras take care of theim'
problems. We have a battle towii „
in this country completing ouroverllit
the wobbling dominant male.”
There was talk, of course, of Playto
inviting Fawn Hall to pose nude.Tint'
where she and Miss Fribish at leastbi«
something in common.
Miss Fribish can be seen modeling
latest camouflage outfits in the Move®
issue of Guns and Ammo.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, IhavesoJ*
papers to shred for the boss.
Copyright 1987, Cowles Syndicate
ETOLiraoM ortemsmfmw ( mrmm
ELIZABETH RAY
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MAft&ULIES
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FAWN HAU,
Knows steno
Takes dictation
-Wordprocessor skills te
Shreds 60,000words a mu#"
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