Page 2/The Battalion/Tuesday, September 15, 1987
Opinion
AIDS policy condemns Americans
U.S. Surgeon
General Everett
Koop has failed in
his task of
overseeing the
health of our
nation. His effort
to combat AIDS
through education
and the use of
condoms is based
on dangerous
assumptions and
Brian
Frederick
political expediencies. His policy is
fatally flawed and must be changed
before it condemns many more
Americans to death.
We have been told that AIDS is
transmitted primarily through sexual
contact, especially homosexual contact.
Transmission also occurs through
tainted blood transfusions and the
contaminated needles of drug users. We
are told that transmission through
casual contact is virtually impossible and
that with proper precautions, we may
still enjoy “safe sex” without fear.
But an increasing number of AIDS
cases do not fit these categories.
Though not widely publicized, they are
undermining the assertions repeated to
soothe public fears. They show that
AIDS may not be as hard to transmit as
we have been told.
In May the Washington Post reported
that three Atlanta hospital workers who
were splattered with infected blood later
tested positive for AIDS. Officials
believe the three contracted the disease
by way of small cuts.
Although most officials are quick to
deny that mosquitoes and other insects
can transmit AIDS, scientists in Africa
say they have evidence to the contrary.
In February 1985, the British medical
journal Lancet reported that in Africa,
the virus appears to be transmitted
through heterosexual activity and
exposure to blood through insects.
A similar situation was discovered in
Belle Glade, Florida, where a large
proportion of those with AIDS are not
part of any identified risk group.
Researchers found evidence that
mosquitoes were responsible, but an
official who leaked the researchers’
results to the media was fired.
Even Koop’s condoms are of dubious
value. Using them is said to greatly
reduce the risk of getting AIDS. But a
scientific study on the efficacy of
condoms showed that without condoms,
AIDS was transmitted in five of six
cases. When condoms were used, the
virus infected one of six. Sex with
condoms is about as safe as playing
Russian roulette.
And intercourse is not necessarily the
only intimate activity which could
transmit the disease. In January 1985,
the Centers for Disease Control
reported that there is a risk that the
virus could be transmitted through oral
sex or intimate kissing.
The AIDS virus has been found in
the blood, saliva, semen and tears. In
laboratory tests, it has survived outside
of the body at room temperature for up
to 15 days.
While Koop and his subordinates tell
us not to worry, the disease spreads.
Officially, the number of Americans
infected with the virus who have not
developed symptoms remains at 1.5
million, but this number has not been
revised for over a year.
Of these people, 20 percent to 30
percent will develop the disease within
five years and eventually die. Recent
studies suggest that up to 75 percent
may develop it after fifteen years. The
National Academy of Sciences estimates
that 270,000 Americans will have the
disease by 1991 while 179,000 others
will already have died.
Worldwide, the World Health
Organization estimates that at least 100
million people will die before the
disease runs its course. AIDS has the
potential to fundamentally change
Western Civilization, as did the Bubonic
Plague of the fourteenth century.
Lulled by Koop’s assurances,
Americans continue to engage in
potentially fatal activities. Fearing
special interest groups, he and the
bureaucrats have sought to protect their
careers rather than the public welfare.
They will not come out with unpleasant
facts about the disease until
circumstances compel them. At that
point, it will probably be too late.
To have any hope for stopping AIDS,
we must act now. We must legislate
mandatory testing for all citizens and
foreigners and give each a card stating
the results. In addition to testing, we
need stiff legal penalties for those who,
Mail Call
Let Jackie be Jackie
EDITOR:
In response to Betsy Wallace’s letter of Sept. 8,1 ask, “Who do you think you
are?” Who are you to tell Jackie Sherrill what he should do to win a ball
game? With all the knowledge you seem to have about why we lost to LSU, it’s
a wonder you’re not A&M’s head coach!
And what’s this about Sherrill not wanting to win the game? How do you
think he keeps his job, Ms. Wallace, by losing games?
Also, to address your undying support for Stump, I say this: A&M can
either lose with Stump or lose with Pavlas. If we lose with Stump, we gain
nothing. Blit if we lose with Pavlas, he gains valuable experience. It is Pavlas,
not Stump, who will be here for the next four years.
So please, Ms. Wallace, don’t show your ignorance by spouting off about
something you obviously know nothing about! Maybe one of these days when
Podunk Elementary School needs a coach you can apply there, but for now
please stick to being a student and let Sherrill handle the coaching.
Clint Ramsey ’87
Senseless controversy
EDITOR:
The controversy over the Corps using the Confederate battle flag is senseless.
The Confederate flag is part of the history of the South and of the states that
formed the Confederacy. The flag should remind us that a majority of the
population in the South — and therefore the majority of the people who
fought in the war — did not own slaves. The reason that the Southerner
fought was because he loved his country (the Confederate States of America)
and because he loved his individual state. The flag also should remind us that
an estimated 258,000 Southerners made the ultimate sacrifice during the
course of the war, and they should not be forgotten.
Mike Burkett ’88
Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 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 include the classification, address and telephone number of the writer.
The Battalion
(USPS 045 360)
Member of
Texas Press Association
Southwest Journalism Conference
The Battalion Editorial Board
Sondra Pickard, Editor
John Jarvis, Managing Editor
Sue Krenek, Opinion Page Editor
Rodney Rather, City Editor
Robbyn Lister, News Editor
Loyd Brumfield, Sports Editor
Tracy Staton, Photo Editor
having tested positive, engage in
activities that threaten the welfare of
fellow citizens. No one’s right to privacy
or any other right can be construed to
allow him to jeopardize the life of
another.
Koop was right on one point. The
best preventative for AIDS is fidelity in
marriage and abstinence before
marriage. Though it does not guarantee
that one will not catch AIDS by another
means, it does provide the only ‘safe sex’
left on earth.
It may well be that with the advent of
AIDS we are witnessing the end of the
sexual revolution. We may have come
to deathf”
‘bn
out of our closets on
graves. Only
renewed morality can save us and
to go to our.
>rompt action anda
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^•^New
Heroes of the labor movement
“We were nervous
and we didn’t know
we could do it.
Those machines had
kept going as long as
we could remember.
When we finally
pulled the switch
and there was some
quiet, I finally
?a s
Jerry
Rosiek
Guest Columnist
boycott, Jay had a Coors. What a way to
drink a beer! I admired his beer, and I
admired his information. So I decided
to look into this union stuff.
few of the great figures of the
movement:
Meet Mother
ones
(1830-193' „
e « e
remembered something. . . that I was a
human being, that I could stop those
machines, that I was better than those
machines anytime. ”
— Sit-down striker
Akron, Ohio, 1936
Labor Day came and went again this
year, the same as the past 23 years, with
me not having a clue as to what it was
about. I guess I can be excused for
maybe the first 10 years of ignorance.
By 11, though, I’m sure I knew the
stories behind most other holidays —
George Washington’s Birthday, the
Fourth of July, Thanksgiving,
Halloween, Easter, Christmas. By 111
probably even knew the stories behind
some of the holidays I didn’t celebrate
like Hanukkah and Cinco de Mayo. But
come last week, at age 23, I still didn’t
know why we close our banks and post
offices on Sept. 7.
But this year events conspired to get
me off my arse and check things out. I
read Kurt Vonnegut’s Jailbird this
summer. Good book. Deceptively easy
to read. The main character is a turn-of-
the-century communist radical who
graduated from Harvard and grew up
to be a failure on the Nixon White
House staff. Throughout the book,
Vonnegut expresses his distress at our
generation’s ignorance about labor.
Then a respected professor
mentioned the importance of the labor
movement, and I heard a National
Public Radio program on the history of
Labor Day. But the critical event was a
call from my good friend Jay Simmons.
Jay told me he’d recently had his first
Coors beer in four years. The AFL-CIO
had been boycotting the Adolf Coors
company for its anti-union policies. And
although Jay was not a union member,
he had been honoring the boycott. Last
week, when the AFL-CIO and the Adolf
Coors company worked out their
differences and the union lifted its
Don’t take me wrong — I don’t claim
to be an expert on the American labor
movement. But just a little scratching at
the surface of this subject reveals a lot of
interesting facts and at least one glaring
question. Why wasn’t I taught some of
this earlier? The American labor
movement is the stuff of American
mythology. It has brave heroes,
powerful and greedy opponents,
martyrs, industrious individuals who
start with nothing and make themselves
powerful, and scores of men and
women who devoted their lives to
improving the lives of their
countrymen.
Still, how many stories can you tell
about Eugene V. Debs, Mother Jones,
The Knights of Labor, Samuel
Gompers, Sacco and Vanzetti, Philip
Randolph, etc?
I think we’ve been censoring the
history books in our own public schools,
and I think we are not taught about
labor history because many of the
founders of the labor movement were
socialists or communists. Of course, that
was before communism found a home
in Russia, but for some people
communism is communism. It scared
people then and it scares them now.
The fact is that the labor movement
was democracy’s answer to the problems
that inspired communism. And labor
unrest seems to be part of every young
democracy’s development. South Korea
and the Philippines are recent
examples. So what good is our silence?
I believe that truth and democracy
are always better served by an open
discussion of all the issues than by
ignorance. And I believe that those who
support the violent repression of an
ideology, either by censorship or arms
and either at home or abroad,
dei ionstrate a great lack of faith in
d< nocracy.
• • •
As evidence of my faith in
democracy, let me introduce to you a
Mother Jones was a ft
woman who helped f<
Mine Workers of Am
from one miners’ con
leading protest marcl
exploitation and unei
presence at the head i
gave the campaigns a
might not otherwise h
testimony before a Co
Committee on Labor i
of the century, Mothe;
“I live in the Uni
not know exactly w
wherever there is a
oppression. My ad(
it travels with me. I
a fight against wrong.”
Meet A. Philip Randolph (1889
1979). A. Philip Randolphonce"i
called “the most dangerous Negro
United States” by Woodrow Wib 1
was the organizer of the Brother
Sleeping Car Porters, an all-blach
Randolph and the Brotherhood a'
remembered for being the first®
trade union to take the lead in the
national struggle for civil rightsi g
Philip Randolph once said:
“The essence of trade unionism
social uplift. The labor movemeo 1
traditionally has been thehavei®
dispossessed, the despised, the
neglected, the downtrodden,the
Meet Eugene V. Debs (1855
Eugene V. Debs was the organizer
the American Railroad Union,tht
union to admit members regard^
their skill. Debs ran one of them®
successful independent candidaflf 1
president in American historyasi r
1912 Socialist party candidate.id;
this late celebration of Labor Da'
these thoroughly democratic word
Eugene V. Debs:
“I ntelligent discontent is the
mainspring of civilization. Progr®
born of agitation. It is agitation of
stagnation.”
Jerry Rosiek is a senior physics?
philosophy major and a regular! 1
appearing guest columnist fort
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BLOOM COUNTY
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