Page 2/The Battalion/Tuesday, July 14, 1987
Opinion
Government should not regulate religious
practices
There’s a small,
unassumming
Texas cactus
found only along
the lower Rio
Grande River
that’s caused five
years of
unnecessary legal
turmoil for a
particular church
in Arizona.
Its white
blossom is eventually replaced by a tuft
of white down, resembling a radish in
size and shape, which can be sliced and
dried into a so-called “button.” When
eaten, this button produces what has
been described as “a distinctive
sensation of spiritual exaltation,” and
chewing the plant “allows one to
increase feelings beyond an ordinary
level.”
Needless to say, it’s not your ordinary
cactus. In fact, it’s more often referred
to as a drug, not a plant.
Because of its hallucinogenic
attributes, state and federal laws
prohibit its use with one exception.
Indians belonging to the Native
American Church of North America
have been legally using it during
religious rites since October of 1978.
The Indians’ ancestors celebrated the
plant for its ability to put them in touch
with spirits. Only certified members of
the present-day group, which consists of
36 tribes representing about 250,000
Indians, can purchase the plant legally,
and the government intends to keep it
that way.
Peyote is the plant’s name, and the
Peyote Way Church of God has been
trying to convince the government that
it, too, should be allowed to obtain and
use the plant for religious purposes.
Made up primarily of non-Indians,
Peyote Way members reside in a
Sondra
Pickard
School fees benefit
A&M, not student
Now that the
second summer
session of 1987 is
here, the
appearance of the
dreaded maroon
and white fee slip
has come and
gone.
During four years of attendance at
Texas A&M, I have never questioned
the various fees I pay each semester.
A quick glance at the “amount due”
column and then the painful writing of
a check is usually all I ever did.
But walking from the Pavilion the
other day with a fresh copy of my fee
slip in hand, I looked at the itemization
of my fees.
Item number one was tuition. Mine
came to a whopping $240 for six hours.
This seemed rather high for just a
second summer session, especially since
I am an in-state tuition payer.
This could not be right. I deduced
that this total included the first session’s
tuition fee. Why not just give me the
present total instead of the past added
to the present?
The student service fee was next, and
it was no small number. This fee was
only second to the infamous building
use fee.
No matter how much I pondered the
student service fee, I could not come up
with an explanation for it. I consulted
the Summer Class Schedule booklet.
On page 14, the following
explanation was given: “All students pay
this fee at the rate of $5.20 per semester
credit hour ... It covers medical services
and services provided by the Memorial
Student Center. It entitles the student to
receive The Battalion newspaper,
reduced admission to many MSC
programs and services of the student
legal advisor, student counseling
service, student activities and
intramural- recreational sports.”
Whew! T \j.
O
just $61, but how many services do I
use?
What medical services are provided
by the MSC? I thought the health center
fee took care of medical services.
What other services does the MSC
provide for me? Well, there is the check
cashing service. Am I actually paying a
student to cash my check or am I paying
for money lost on the “good ags” who
write bad checks?
There’s the MSC bowling alley. Am I
paying for bowling alley maintenance? I
don’t bowl. When I do bowl I like to sip
on some alcohol to deaden the pain I get
from rolling all my shots into the gutter.
It does not even serve alcohol.
The MSC also provides a bookstore. I
hope it doesn’t get any of my fee money.
The prices there are already too high.
Now, since I am a journalist, I am
glad that The Battalion gets some of this
money. Yes, it is a small newspaper, but
I think it is safe to say many students use
it — either for informative reasons or
just to line a birdcage.
As for the “reduced admission to
many MSC programs,” I must ask, what
programs?
I called the MSC programs office and
found it is having a summer dinner
theater on July 8, 9 and 10 and on Aug.
5, 6, 7 and 8. The two plays are Wally’s
Cafe and Saving Grace. The ticket
prices are $17 for students and $20 for
non-students. These prices are for the
small plate. So, I am getting a three
dollar discount to this event. Is this
really a discount though?
If I have already paid $61 for this fee,
I am entitled to $61 back in some form.
I am pretty sure I will not have time to
attend this event because I work to pay
these fees. Even if I were to go every
time, I would still save $24 which is not
even close to $61.
It is good we have theater groups
performing at the MSC, but why at
dinner and why must I pay even though
I will not attend? Are these fees a sort of
insurance I pay just in case I need a
cultural fix?
The health center is another
example. Why not charge patients $15
for the first visit and then nothing there
on. At least it will give them a choice.
A choice is what we won’t get this fall.
Every student will be charged a
computer access fee of $3 per semester
hour. This means if you take a history
class you get charged $9. If you take a
physical education class you pay for the
use of a computer. Every hour at the
University will cost an extra $3 dollars.
I think I am getting the big picture. If
the University needs more money, it
ni.ciK.es more tees, a imSe cees are not to
provide benefits to me, but they are just
a device to collect more money for the
operation of the University.
How about a worthwhile fee like a
“bribery fee.” This fee will entitle every
student to get rid of two parking tickets.
All they would have to do is show their
paid fee slip.
But wait a minute. What if a person
never gets a ticket? Then that person
will gripe and another column will be
written and another justification will
have to be made.
Doug Driskell is a senior journalism
major and a guest columnist for The
Battalion.
Doug
Driskell
Guest Columnist
The Battalion
(USPS 045 360)
Member of
Texas Press Association
Southwest Journalism Conference
The Battalion Editorial Board
Sondra Pickard, Editor
Jerry Oslin, Opinion Page Editor
Rodney Rather, City Editor
John Jarvis, Robbyn L. Lister, News Editors
Homer Jacobs, Sports Editor
Robert W. Rizzo, Photo Editor
Editorial Policy
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College Station.
Opinions expressed in The Battalion are those of the edito
rial board or the author, and do not necessarily represent the
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of Regents.
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dents in reporting, editing and photography classes within the
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commune in Arizona. In 1982, three of
its members were arrested in
Richardson for possession of peyote,
after which the church’s founder filed
suit, questioning the constitutionality of
the law.
Intending to prove the new church is
a sham, federal attorneys are on a quest
to deny it access to the plant.
The sham, however, is not the
church.
Who’s to judge whether a particular
religion, be it old or new, is legitimate?
Certainly not the government, which, if
memory serves correct, should separate
itself from such minglings. The courts
will determine the church’s legitimacy,
and will then decide what it can and
cannot do during religious services —
that’s the sham.
The existing law was passed as a joint
resolution of Congress, marking a
major turning point in government
attitudes toward Indian religion. In the
past, most attitudes were marked by
interference in native religions.
Interference is the key word. Just as it
once interefered with the NAC’s use of
peyote, the law is now interfering with
another group’s religious practices.
The government certainly should not
deprive the Indians of a practice so
deeply engrained in their culture, but at
the same time, allowing it to be
borrowed by another can do nothing to
harm it.
According to an Austin attorney
representing the state, what’s most at
stake is the limited supply of the Texas
cactus, which could possibly be
threatened if demand for it increased.
But a threatened peyote supply is not a
sound reason to limit its use to only one
interested party.
If Texas becomes peyote-depleted,
either the rituals will have to stop or the
churches will have to find a new supply
— Mexico, perhaps, where the peyote
plant is abundant.
Throughout Western history, vari
groups have discovered the mind-
altering properties of drugs and have
then incorporated them into their
religious practices. Since 1960, theusj
of drugs for religious purposes hast)
one argument in the battle to makeld
the use of “psychedelic” druggroup/s
But despite legal pressures and #' ou * <
unanimous court decisions against | unc ^
psychedelic use, drug-oriented ^Vroi
churches remain and probably willfcl jh
some time. To exclude the NACfipitHhat
drug laws while including all othersiijo [he
meddling in something, namely
religion, that should beyond our
government’s reach.
Sondra Pickard is a senior journalist
major and editor of The Battalion,
It’s all a matter of taste
One of the
hardest things about
traveling in a
foreign country,
besides not being
able to understand
the graffiti on the
restroom walls, is
learning to eat
certain native foods.
I was offered
“head of young cow”
in France once.
I declined, stating
Lewis
Grizzard
an aversion to eating anything with its ears
and nose still in place.
In the Soviet Union, I was served
something that was blue. I never did find out
what it was, but I have a rule not to eat
anything that is blue.
I was aboard the French sailing yacht, Le
Flute Enchante, recently, and we had
anchored in a small Aegean cove for
swimming and skiing.
I watched a man swim out of the water on
the nea’ ’^v shore with a rather frightened-
looking ci eature he had just rendered
lifeless with a spear gun.
“What’s that?” I asked our skipper, lean
Pierre.
“Octopus,” he said.
I had seen pictures of octopus (since I
have no earthly idea how to spell the plural
of octopus, and don’t feel like trying to Find
out, we’ll just stick to octopus to mean one or
several).
But here I was only a few feet from one. It
was pink. I looked like a bowl ofjello
somebody had taken one of those garden
weasels to.
The man who speared the octopus then
proceeded to bang his catch over the rocks.
“Why is he doing that?” I asked Jean
Pierre. “It looks pretty much already dead to
and the Americans who were traveling
together decided to take the French ere*
to dinner.
“He’s tenderizing the meat for cooking,”
the skipper answered. “They’ve been doing
it here that way for many many years.”
I added octopus to my list of things never
to eat. It did not look that appetizing, and I
don’t want to eat anything you’ve got to bang
over the rocks for an hour or so to get the
toughness out.
Besides, you remember all those movies
they made out of Jules Verne’s boo' "
octopus and Other sea monsters ate entire
ships? I can’t see how anything that would
attack a ship could be very good to eat.
1 hat evening, we pulled into a tiny port
Jean Pierre did the ordering. 1 had no
idea what he said to the waiter, but he
brought out enough food to keep a small
army marching for several days.
I picked out the fish, the salad, thecli
and the bread. There was also a fried
substance with an outstanding crust and
delicious white meat inside. Shrimp,!
figured. After we had finished eating and
the wine bottles were mostly empty,Jean
Pierre asked me, “So, how did youliketk
octopus?”
That’s what the fried stuff was, octopus
and I had eaten it. I congratulatedmyself|
learning to enjoy a new delicacy and fanoi
myself as quite a man of the world whenii
came to food.
“This is definitely haute cuisine," said
another American at the table.
Wanting to show my newly discovered
ability to be at home at any table in the
’’ T -'nlied ' v that Aauteif)*
blow on it a lit _ -ciore you put it in yow
mouth.”
Copyright 1987, Cowles Syndicate
4
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