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The Battalion Thursday, November 19,1987 College Station, Texas Vol. 87 No. 58 (JSPS 045360 12 Pages i !0 ni ex education, AIDS dominate discussion 'Ikyrt lakei s afic leedtc Conflict over sex education in public schools about contraception accor( | and AIDS dominated a panel dis cussion Wednesday night in the E.L. a || ow Miller Lecture Series program bdui: By Mary-Lynne Rice Staff Writer “AIDS: Why Should I Care?,” spon sored by MSC Political Forum. The lecture, “AIDS and Ethics,” brought together representatives of different ideologies and concerns: discussion moderator Dr. Clarence Alfrey, medical director of the Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center in | Knowledge of AIDS dangers tS may not scare risk-takers 9 ' ■ L ition t henih cially i iroctd ambffl na! :sideni icrs i re By Clark Miller Staff Writer Knowledge of the dangers of AIDS may not be enough to stop people from taking risks that may expose them to the disease, a Uni versity of Houston sociology profes- or told an audience of about 30 people Wednesday. Dr. William Simon made the re marks during the E.L. Miller Lec ture Series program about acquired mmune deficiency syndrome in Rudder Tower. Some people who know the dan gers of AIDS will take an “it can’t happen to me” attitude, Simon told a group of about 30 people. “We all know that smoking ciga rettes is not good for us, but some of us still smoke,” Simon said. Sex is the same way, he said. “The sexual drive is a powerful thing,” Simon said. “Knowing about AIDS may not be enough to stop that drive.” Simon used the teen-age preg nancy rate of the United States as an example. The United States has the highest " U.M me teen " a g e pregnancies of any M( ® industrial nation, Simon said. Even with the major eftort in recent years 5 Lo111 to educate teens to the problems of min ? pregnancies, there is still a problem, iowan| h e added. “People know about the problem, but they don’t change their lifesty les,” he said. However, Simon predicted there will be changes in people’s morals and behavior because of AIDS, but added that the changes could be ei ther negative or positive. There will be an increase of sexual activity among young people, he said, because young people will en gage in more “coupling.” But, he said, the increased sexual activity probably will occur between couples with steady relationships, and there probably will be a decline in promiscuity. Simon also said there may be an increase of people who will abstain from sex until they find the person they think they will spend their lives with. “These people are more likely to be swept off their feet much more easily,” Simon said. Because of this, they run the risk of irrationally selecting a sexual partner, he said. Simon warns that it’s important to understand the dangers of acquired immune defiency syndrome, but people shouldn’t become hysterical in reacting to the disease. He said the disease is a special problem to college-age students be cause it’s spreading at a time when these students are starting their socio-sexual development. Houston; Jeff Levi, executive direc tor of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force; political activist Phyllis Schlafly, and Dr. Earl Shelp, assis tant professor of ethics at the Center for Ethics, Medicine and Public Is sues at the Baylor College of Medi cine. “When you look at the audience that is in the public schools, it’s a very different audience from what we have here tonight,” Schlafly said. “In the public schools in this coun try, we have minor children who are pretty much a captive audience, and it seems that over the last few years, two movements have developed,” she said. “One point of view is that whoever has control over the school establish ment can do whatever he wants to with the captive children who are at the public school,” she said. “There is another point of view, that the child in the public school, being a minor and being a captive audience, does enjoy certain rights in that classroom that can’t be taken away,” she said. Those rights, she said, demand that anything they are taught about acquired immune deficiency syn drome be “true, healthy, legal and constitutional.” “There is a great effort at the pre sent time to come into the public schools and teach what is called ‘safe sex,’ ” she said. “I would contest that the way that is taught today does not meet the four criteria. “In fact, there is only one teaching that meets all those four tasks, and that is the teaching in regard to sex, that we should have and should pro mote sexual abstinence before mar riage.” Schlafly’s remarks met with ap plause, mainly from older members of the audience of more than 250, and hissing from others, mostly stu dents. Levi, however, challenged her as- See Ethics, page 12 R-Ohit a fittiflj ; jse : all as: S Researcher warns A&M audience of potential for spread of disease int ad to lioac- con- 1 nu- lat it ;here ation d the since >yi o not ictive nt of [here ;cked By Cindy Milton Staff Writer An AIDS researcher Wednesday told an A&M audience that 2,500 of the nation’s 45,000 AIDS cases are in Texas — and six of them are at Texas A&M. And he said the number of cases probably will double in the next 14 months. Dr. Peter Mansell, medical direc tor at the Institute for Immunologi cal Disorders and head of AIDS re search at M.D. Anderson Hospital in Houston, discussed the rate at which AIDS is spreading during “AIDS Research,” a lecture sponsored by ■ the E.L. Miller Lecture Series. Mansell said the way people look : at the virus is different depending on where they live. “AIDS means different things to j different people,” he said. “There have been about six people at the ! University known to have been in- : fected by the, virus. Clearly that’s a different situation to persons that live in Houston — only 90 miles Dr. Peter Mansell south of here — where there are about 2,500 cases of AIDS.” He said it’s important that people know that everyone is at risk of get ting AIDS. “It’s not a gay disease,” he said. “It potentially applies to everybody.” He said although the first case of the virus in the United States was in 1981, there is evidence of AIDS cases as early as 1959. At the presentation, Mansell told about 50 people about the mortality rate of individuals infected by the vi rus. He said over 50 percent of AIDS cases have died and added that even though medical treatments are available, they are expensive. Mansell said that although the treatments have potential to prolong the life of the infected person, the mortality rate is inevitably 100 per cent. AIDS is predominantly a disease that kills by infections, Mansell said. When a person has acquired im mune defiency syndrome, the coor dination of the immune system dis appears. “It’s like shooting the conductor in an orchestra,” he said. But he added that several co-fac tors are involved in the progression of the disease. The way AIDS affects a person depends on what health problems the person may have. Mansell said the biggest problem with AIDS is being able to detect and treat it earlier in the course of the disease. Photo by Robert W. Rizzo Phyllis Schlafly, political activist and syndicated newspaper columnist, left; Dr. Earl Shelp, assis tant professor of ethics at the Center for Ethics, Medicine and Public Issues at the Baylor College of Medicine; Jeff Levi, executive director for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, and Dr. Clarence Alfrey, medical director at the Gulf Coast Blood Center, discuss AIDS. discussion at MSC basics of disease ‘AIDS 101’ explains By Jenny Hynes Reporter Students walking through the Me morial Student Center between classes Wednesday may have been startled to hear explicit talk about AIDS. “AIDS 101,” a lecture and dis cussion session dealing with basic facts about contracting AIDS, was sponsored by the Memorial Student Center’s Political Forum Committee. The program was one of a series of talks Wednesday in the symposium titled “AIDS — Why Should I Care?” Judy Weil, senior social worker from the Center for Immunological Disorders in Houston, combined a videotape and question/answer ses sion in explaining basic facts about the disease. “This has been a very difficult topic to educate people about,” Weil said, since many believe they are im mune to AIDS if they are not in cer tain risk groups. People at increased risk of con tracting the disease include homo sexual and bisexual men, intrave nous drug users, those who have received infected blood and blood products and those who have had sex with an infected person. Weil stressed that recent findings about contracting acquired immune deficiency syndrome seem to in crease the numbers of people in danger. “As time has gone on we have be gun to focus more on risky behav- ,iors,” Weil said. He cited promiscu ous sexual behavior and sharing intravenous drug needles as espe cially risky. “If you’re having sex outside of a long-term monogamous relationship, you’re at risk,” she said. The videotape, which was pro duced for adolescents and appeared on television several months ago, fo cused on two basic themes: • AIDS is hard to get. AIDS can not be transmitted through casual contact such as shar ing food, makeup, telephones or toi let seats. • AIDS can be transmitted through vaginal intercourse and anal intercourse. Therefore, con doms should be used, since they pro vide a barrier to the transmission of the disease-causing virus. The video put special emphasis on preventing the spread of AIDS by not sharing intravenous needles and using condoms: “It’s better to feel a little embar rassed than risk getting a disease that could kill you.” Weil distinguished between those whose blood tests positive for HIV — Human Immunodeficiency Vi rus, the virus that causes AIDS — and those who show clinical symp toms of the disease. People who show symptoms can be further divided into those with ARC (AIDS-Related Condition) and those with a more serious case of the disease. Someone with ARC may show signs of the disease, which in clude persistent and chronic fever, diarrhea, unexplained weight loss and fatigue. To be diagnosed as hav ing AIDS itself, however, an individ ual must have acquired a secondary opportunistic infection common to those with the disease. A secondary opportunistic infec tion is one that occurs because AIDS breaks down the immune system and makes a person susceptible to infections he otherwise would not get. Weil said while a test is available to identify those with HIV in their blood, the virus may not be detected by the test until nearly a year after exposure to the disease. Zorn- I said' 1 C0U' 1 iy is ha* | three ; said I jsions | aving ■ed ;weei> re P’ ■yard- mi 11 ' i School aide from Bryan shot twice An instructional aide at Ste phen F. Austin Junior High School in Bryan was shot twice at the school Wednesday afternoon, Sgt. Dale Cuthbertson of the Bryan Police Department said. Jo Ann Washington of Bryan was shot in the elbow and in the hip. She is in stable condition at St. Josephs Hospital, hospital of ficials said. Cuthbertson said a warrant for attempted murder is out for the victim’s estranged husband, Henry Howard Washington, also of Bryan, in connection with the shooting. Jerry Ellis, principle of the school, said the incident hap pened in the snack bar area of the school cafeteria. Cuthbertson said the assailant came on school property and tried to force Washington to leave with him. After breaking free from her assailant, Cuthbertson said the assailant fired at Wash ington, hitting her twice. The as sailant then fled the scene. No students were present or were in danger during the inci dent, he said. Israeli suggests solutions to world problem Consul discusses causes of terrorism By Lee Schexnaider Staff Writer The Middle East is an area that has seen conflict from the dawn of civilization. Israel has a continuing role in the process of war and peace in the region. Shmuel Ben-Shmupl stepped into this vola tile field when he was promoted from vice consul to consul of the Israeli Consulate in Houston in November. The 36-year-old dip lomat visited the Texas A&M campus Thurs day to meet with several groups and dicuss in ternational terrorism and how it relates to U.S. interests. Q: Has there been an increase in terrorism in the Middle East or has it just leveled out? Are you still having major problems in Israel with terrorism? A: Terrorism, historically, was a major problem in the Middle East. It’s part of the political system in the Arab society and Arab societies in the Middle East. So people who live in the Middle East are used to terrorist methods for hundreds of years. It is not a new phenomenon. But what’s new about this phenomenon (is that) starting in the the late ’60s it was spread all over the world, especially the Western world. That made the issue so important and so well known in the Western world. So ba sically its not a new phenomenon, but it’s a new phenomenon in the Western world. Photo courtesy of the Israeli Consulate Consul Shmuel Ben-Shmuel Also, the Western world was exposed in the past to all kinds of terrorist activity, so there is much change in recent years. In the Middle East concerning terrorist activities, most of the acts in the Arab world are due to the con flict between Arabs and themselves . . . But I would say the reason for the decrease in terrorist activities nationwide, though not a major decrease, is due to more firm and tough measures that the Western world and especially the United States has taken recently against terrorist activities. The raid of Libya, of course, is a good ex ample. After the raid on Libya, for example, Moammar Gadhafi became very cautious in his involvement in international terrorism. So he’ll still continue to support terrorist groups but much more cautiously, especially in re gards to the U.S. interests. So they became cautious when they found out the price is too high. Q: Has it seemed like the Western demo cracies have finally gotten to the point at which they are tired of terrorism? A: What happend is in Western Europe there was one country that always took tough measures against terrorism — that was Israel. Israel found out that the proper response to terrorism is to use tough measures against it. It put a lot of pressure on the terrorist organi zations themselves and the countries that sponsor terrorists. The new phenomenon is, of course, the change of the attitude in the Western world and especially the change in the U.S. position toward terrorism in recent years — the willingness to retaliate militarily, the economic sanctions against Syria that were approved by some Western European states. Britain’s broken relations with Syria also damaged Syria in the world . . . Some of the states that sponsor terrorism like Libya, Syria, and in a way, Fran and Iraq, will be much more cautious in their involvement in terrorism. But the major problem when it comes to the Western world, the whole issue of inter national terrorism, is not so much with the terrorist organization, it’s with these countries that support terrorism. Without the support of countries such as Syria, Libya, Iran and Iraq, terrorism will probably revert to its local manifestation from the 1960s, and will hardly have an effect in the Western world. It (terrorism) was spread due to the sup port of such things as terrorist organizations. All those states, for example, gave terrorists money, training and support them with intel ligence. They use their own embassies, espe- • dally in Western Europe, as bases for terror ism, which makes it much easier for terrorist groups from the Middle East and from Eu rope to be active in this area. So by putting pressure on those countries by the Western world, I would say this is the best way to re duce the amount of terrorist activity in the world today. That will be the effective way to deal with terrorism. Q: Why do these countries decide to take the route of terrorism to achieve their poli cies? A: In those societies terrorism is part of the political process. That is only way to get into power in Middle Eastern countries, such as Libya, Syria or Iran. The way to remain in power in those states is through using force against the opposition. That is also the only way for the opposition to get rid of the rulers in those societies. What we see in those socie ties is not only political conflicts but military conflicts in the country itself between the op position using terroristic activities and the re- See Terrorism, page 12