Page 2/The Battalion/Thursday, March 3, 1988
Opinion
Oh, what to do about those nagging hormones
I want out. I
want out of this
school, out of this
town, even out of
this country. I’ve
been trapped by a
meaningless rou
tine of school and
work, school and
work mediocre
weekend, school
and work, school
and work . . .
Divorce rates show that restlessness
and boredom run rampant in mar
riages. And some new research has
found biological contributors to “wan
dering eyes.”
Tracy
Staton
Because the human bond originally
evolved to last only long enough to raise
a child through infancy, marriages are
most likely to unravel after three or four
years, an anthropologist recently found.
bring us spring fever. When the sun
starts to linger above the horizon, testos
terone levels in both men and women
increase. This hormone controls sexual
desire, .so guess what comes next? Ram
pant crushes and spring flings. And you
thought the reason you wanted to go
out into the sunshine was to get a tan.
Wrong. Your hormones took you to the
beach, not your desire for relaxation.
You know what I mean. It happens
all the time. You’re bored. You’re rest
less. You can't concentrate. You feel an
intense need to hop on a plane to Paris
and station yourself at a sidewalk cafe
with a bottle of chablis. Or to sail to a de
sert island and commune with the palm
trees.
Helen E. Fisher of the American Mu
seum of Natural History says this phe
nomenon could explain our nagging
restlessness during long relationships.
And she found that although divorce
rates vary from culture to culture, there
is always a “divorce peak” between the
third and fourth year.
But restlessness goes beyond
relationships. It can invade every aspect
of life. When you least expect it, bore
dom numbs your motivation. Tomor
row’s test becomes insignificant; going
to class seems pointless. And that re
search paper due next week? Write it
the night before— there’s better things
to do now.
i he overwhelming desire for change
hits everyone, often'at the most inconve
nient times. It strikes without warning.
It destroys all good intentions and re
places them with irresponsible flights of
fancy. And it can nullify the best-laid
plans or strain the most stable
relatonships.
Studies of brain chemistry have at
tributed this restlessness to nagging hor
mones. These nasty culprits cause in
tense emotional bonding that lasts for
one to three years. But the brain be
comes numb to this hormonal influence,
and WHAMMO! Restlessness strikes
again.
Hormones also are the villains that
Instead of being responsible and
sticking to the routine you so faithfully
adhered to a month ago, you stare out
the window and daydream. Your capac
ity to concentrate is practically nil. In
the shower, you wash your hair twice be
cause you didn’t remember you sham
pooed it the first time.
So what’s a formerly serious student
to do? Escape to the lake and throw
what’s left of ambition into the water?
Or drown the dregs of motivation in a
pitcher of beer?
I’ve tried both of these — Neither of
them work. My new plan is to escape
College Station for the weekend. But I
don’t think that will be effective either.
What I really need is a vacation in an
other country. I need to be somewhere
— by myself— where no one speaks En
glish. Then maybe I’d appreciate listen
ing to my professors in class. At least I
can understand what they’re saying.
This yen to escape scares me. I grad
uate in May, and I hope to have a full
time job soon afterwards. What will I do
when I have to work EVERY DAY?
When I can’t leave town for the week
end because 1 have a project due on
Monday? Will I get bored with my job
after six months? And if I do, what’s the
alternative?
I’ve read several articles lately that
outline techniques for “job-hopping,”
and I’ve studied these recommenda
tions carefully. It seems that there’s an
epidemic of job boredom. Women have
changed from teachers to advertising
wi
ro'
wt
ug<
executives, from bankers to rug-weav
ers. And the restlessness virus isn’
specific. Thirty-year-olds, forty-year
olds — supposedly mature adults —art
giving up stable employment to follow
whim.
Help! It seems that all of us wi
struck repeatedly by bouts of boredon
Restlessness isn’t cured when we grad
uate, or when we marry, or even wire
we have children. It will always be
ing in the shadows, ready to pounct
There’s no way to prevent it, and now
to stop it once it starts.
We’ve got to learn to live with it. Ea
joy it, even. Dissatisfaction with a du!
routine can lead us to explore arei
we’ve previously disregarded. Ortodir
cover new things about ouroldjobsor C01
old relationships.
So I’m going to medicate my restle
sness with a dose of visiting old friendi
and opening myself to new possibilitier
A weekend journey to a new plat
wouldn’t hurt, either. I plan to worl
and go to school sometime. I promise.
de
Tracy Staton is a senior journalism m
jor, a staff writer and a columnist k
The Battalion.
(501
The Gibbering Gipper
is babbling once more
Did you catch
the Gipper’s act
the other night?
No? Too bad, the
Great Commu
nicator was in top
form. Mr. Reagan
looked hale and
vigorous and com
pletely in com-
mand at his press
conference
Wednesday. He
did talk gibberish and nonsense, of
course, but you can’t have everything.
Oh, you don’t believe he talked
gibberish? Listen to him as he took one
more shot at explaining why the arms-
for-hostage swap with Iran wasn’t an
arms-for-hostage swap:
“. . . I think it’s time for me to point
out what the opposition was based on of
anyone who did oppose. Particularly, it’s
been revealed that Secretary (Caspar)
Weinberger and George Shultz both ob
jected. They did not object the idea of,
that we were trading arms for hostages.
Their objection, they knew what we
were trying to do . . . Their objection
was, what we had done, we’d gotten this
request and, in dealing with it, in this
conversation with these private individ
uals, we pointed out our feelings about
terrorism and so forth. They agreed
with us, and the thing was that they, the
Hezbollah as we know, is philosophically
attuned to Iran. The idea was that they
could perhaps influence the Hezbollah
to give up some of our hostages and, in
deed, as the talks went on, they did . . .
We weren’t dealing with the kidnappers
at all, and this was what the whole situa
tion was. But it turned out that George
and Cap and those who had doubts
were right in that, when it did become
known by way of a henchman of the
ayatollah, then everyone just automat
ically said that, and to this day are say
ing, it was arms for hostages.”
Thank you Mr. President. That cer
tainly clears up any doubts I might have
had about the matter.
More relevant than the gibberish,
however (for who among us had not
spoken gibberish), was the nonsense.
Asked about Israel’s use of force to sup
press the riots in occupied Gaza and the
West Bank, Mr. Reagan said:
“Well, we have had, it’s a little diffi
cult for me because there are some
things that I shouldn’t be saying, but we
have had intimations that there have
been certain people suspected of being
terrorists, outsiders coming in, not only
with weapons but stirring up and en
couraging the trouble in those areas.
Now that isn’t something you can go out
and say we absolutely know, but cer
tainly the violence is both ways.”
Does the sound familiar? Isn’t that
what George Wallace and his ilk said
back in the ’60s when the blacks of the
south began to fight for their constitu
tional rights? It was the work of “outside
agitators,” always. That’s what the Sovi
ets are saying about Afghanistan. It’s al
ways the work of outside agitators.
It’s not. As a matter of fact, the day
following the press conference the pres
ident’s men said as much, trying to
cover up for the old man. There may be
outside agitators in the Middle East, as
there were in the American south, but
the real reason for the turmoil is inside
agitation. The Palestinians feel they are
an oppressed people denied their rights
and their human dignity by an occupy
ing force. They riot out of a sense of
desperation, because they have so little
left to lose, not because someone has
given them a pamphlet.
To anyone who cares for the future
of Israel, it is a tragic situation. Shoot
ings, beatings, kangaroo trials, the bury
ing alive of human beings; Israel’s
honor is being spared nothing. That a
nation born of such suffering should
now become the creature of its night
mares is beyond irony.
Israeli hard-liners argue that no such
thing is happening, of course. The Is
raeli Army sent its chief psychologist to
find out what the suppression of the ri
ots has done to its troops. Not much,
according to the psychologist, Col. Sh-
lomo Dover.
“This activity is not affecting the mo
rale of the units in general,” he said. “I
think we must be concerned about it.
But to this point, I do not see any bruta
lization of soldiers I see exceptions, but
it is not the norm.” He added that the
solderes feel they’re being “fair” to the
Palestinians.
Right. And we won the war in Viet
nam.
When Israeli Defense Minister Yitz
hak Rabin visited the troops in the occu
pied zones recently, he was told by a sol
dier, in a jocular way, “We use the clubs
so much that they are breaking.” Rabin
laughed and replied, “You should use
more solid ones.”
The occupation is not only brutaliz
ing Israel’s soldiers, it’s brutalizing its
politicians.
The last thing Israel needs now is to
have its self-delusions reinforced by the
President of the United States. The next
time they ask Mr. Reagan about the is
sue, he should lapse into gibberish. He
does less harm that way.
Copyright 1987, Tribune Media Services, Inc.
Donald
Kaul
Mail Call
The S.A.P.S. speak out
EDITOR:
Miss Couvillon:
I would like to congratulate you on your article “It is
not easy to escape the Aggie Song From Hell,” that ap
peared in the Feb. 25 issue of The Battalion.
I also find the song “Texas Aggie Girls” to be repulsive
and in bad taste. In fact, I believe that any song that may
be considered offensive or prejudicial toward ANY group
of people is morally objectionable. That is why I am proud
to be the founder and president of Students Against Preju
dicial Songs (S.A.P.S.).
My fellow S.A.P.S. and I feel that the time has come to
put an end to the injustices suffered by the many groups of
people who are the subjects of insulting and degrading ly
rics. You will be happy to know that we added “Texas Ag
gie Girls” to our list of over 1 1,000 songs that we feel
should be banned from radio broadcasting.
The list, which grows constantly, is sent to hundreds of
radio stations across the nation with the suggestion that
these songs should not be played. Those radio stations that
refuse our request are placed on a list of organizations en
gaged in what we feel are “anti-American” activities. These
lists are then mailed to all of the businesses currently ad
vertising through these radio stations. The results are quite
impressive.
However, our organization still has a long way to go be
fore final victory can be achieved. But with people like you
on our side, there is no way that we can possibly fail.
We only hope that you will continue to write more arti
cles on this much overlooked problem in our society.
Thank you very much.
Patrick Allen Quevedo Green ’88
Rape is a reality at A&M
EDITOR:
At our dorm floor meeting, the RA stressed the use of
the Guard Room and Aston Hall escort services. She j
pointed out that although students tend to think A&Misa J
safe campus, the reality is that A&M is ranked number one
among Texas universities for its crime rate. A girl was just j
recently raped outside her dorm, the RA said.
I have no doubt that rapes occur on campus. But why
do we never hear about them? We only occasionally hear
of one happening on campus. In the three years I’ve been
at A&M, I’ve only heard infrequent rumors of rapeshav
ing occurred — never facts.
If students knew for certain that rapes do occur on
campus and saw the facts on when and where the assaults
happened, then of course they’d be more cautious.When
confronted with the actual facts and statistics, students
could no longer claim that A&M is such a safe campus.
It would seem that in being protected from these ugly
crimes, we are encouraging more of the same crimes. Who
is really being protected — the student or the potential
rapist?
Karen A. Owens ’89
Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 words in length. The editorial staff re
serves 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 das-
sification, address and telephone number of the writer.
The Battalion
(USPS 045 360)
Member of
Texas Press Association
Southwest Journalism Conference
The Battalion Editorial Board
Sue Krenek, Editor
Daniel A. LaBry, Managing Editor
Mark Nair, Opinion Page Editor
Amy Couvillon, City Editor
Robbyn L, Lister and
Becky Weisenfels,
News Editors
Loyd Brumfield, Sports Editor
Sam B. Myers, Photo Editor
Editorial Policy
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Opinions expressed in The Battalion are those of the
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resent the opinions of Texas A&M administrators, fac
ulty or the Board of Regents.
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