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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 8, 1988)
Page 2/The Battalion/Friday, April 8, 1988 an Drum roll please “Sometimes the stories and reviews are written on a 3rd grade level. ” “Local cartoons should be drop ped. ” “I wouldn’t pay for the opportu nity to read the Batt because of your bias. ” “To persons vis iting A&M, The Battalion makes Aggies seem like morons who care about noth ing but sports, because it devotes such a large portion of the paper. ” Ouch. When you’re reading the re sults of The Battalion’s survey, April certainly seems the cruellest month. What? You didn’t know The Battal ion was conducting a survey? Don’t feel lonely. Judging from the response — somewhat less than an inundation — the survey didn’t make much of a splash. A very small splash. A teensy-weensy, 39- person splash, to be exact. Apathy, then, appears to be rampant, which should come as no surprise to anyone who pays attention to how few people vote in Student Government elections and the like. But for those of you — all four of you, actually — who asked about the results, here they are (with a roll of drums and flourish of trumpets or some such rot): Most of you (you being the 39 who re sponded) think The Batt has done a pretty fair job, although you see room for improvement. Most of the com plaints, surprisingly enough, dealt with circulation — you couldn’t find a copy of the paper in a convenient place on campus. In rating the overall paper, three rated The Batt poor, 13 rated it “fair” and 17 thought it was “good.” Most of you apparently read the paper for cam pus news and the opinion page, with sports and At Ease drawing a small fol lowing as well. After tallying the results, though, 1 think the most meaningful — not to mention the most amusing — response came in the comments. If you’re trying to find out what people really think, comments such as “At Ease is a waste of paper” are, well, honest. Sue Krenek Mail Call No pain, no gain EDITOR: I am writing about a very disturbing article I read in Saturday’s Bryan- College Station Eagle. The article stated that Aggie offensive lineman Louis Cheek is suing an A&M graduate student for $750,000, claiming she deprived him of future earnings when she rear-ended the truck he was riding in. The police report states no one was injured in the accident, and the truck Cheek was riding in had damage described as “1” on a scale of 0-7, where 0 is no damage. If that’s not enough, Cheek filed the suit in September 1987, almost a year after the accident occurred, AND Cheek went on to play in AIT A&M games, including the Cotton Bowl. The lawsuit alleges that Cheek “sustained injuries to his spine, back, neck and other parts of his body in varying degrees of severity.” Mr. Cheek, I think the part of your body most injured was your brain. What are you trying to pull off here? The blows you receive as an offensive lineman are much more severe than anything you received in that accident. You’re eligible for the NFL draft in April, right? Let me just leave you with a bit of advice: It would be a shame and an outrage for you to sue this girl for $750,000 just so you can ensure your financial stability ($750,000 is pretty stable) in case you don’t make it in the NFL. Accept the fact that your injuries came from playing and not from that accident — don’t blame an innocent person. And if you do make the NFL, I have a bit of advice for all the NFL teams you play against: Take out an insurance policy in case Mr. Cheek feels that one of your defensive guys hit him too hard. Jacque Coleman graduate student What, me care? EDITOR: Apathy (as defined by The American Heritage Dictionary) — lack of emoting of feeling. In other words, who cares? This letter questions why everyone is criticizing the United States for sending troops to Central America. I am tired of everyone saying let’s get out of Central America, we don’t belong there. It’s not our problem, it not our fight, and the list is endless. Well, we do need to be there and we do need to support the contras. The main reason, obviously, is to stop the spread of communism. But, what about the other factors such as political and personal oppression — i.e. volunteering (?) to become a member of the Sandinistan army. The fact that the Sandinistas have held some political prisoners for nine years should cause us to ask ourselves why not, instead of why. People should not be jailed simply because they speak out against their government. There are rights and freedoms man inherently possesses which should be upheld. And it is the natural role of United States, as the largest free nation (as well as the one with the most resources), to protect and support law and order everywhere — especially in our hemisphere! This entire “who cares Nicaragua is not a threat to us” attitude must go. That is not the point. The point is these people need help to become a nation free from these oppressions. The United States can give them the opportunity for freedoms which should not be confined — press, religion, speech. Helping our fellow man attain such a state should be a common goal for all. If we do not take a stand as the superpower which advocates individual rights, then all countries susceptible to an overthrow by communist, or any force supressing these rights, will be successful — but then again WHO CARES. Jeff Boglan ’90 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 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 Jay Janner, Photo Editor Editorial Policy The Battalion is a non-profit, self-supporting newspa per operated as a community service to Texas A&M and Bryan-College Station. Opinions expressed in The Battalion are those of the editorial board or the author, and do not necessarily rep resent the opinions of Texas A&M administrators, fac ulty or the Board of Regents. The Battalion also serves as a laboratory newspaper for students in reporting, editing and photography classes within the Department of Journalism. The Battalion is published Monday through Friday during Texas A&M regular semesters, except for holiday and examination periods. Mail subscriptions are $17.44 per semester, $34.62 per school year and $36.44 per full year. Advertising rates furnished on request. Our address: The Battalion, 230 Reed McDonald, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-1 111. Second class postage paid at College Station, TX 77843. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Battal ion, 216 Reed McDonald, Texas A&M Universitv, Col lege Station TX 77843-4 111. Opinion and the survey says One person was equally brutal about the quality of Warped and Waldo, but we can’t print what he said. The local cartoons, though, did take the worst beating of anyone here at the Battcave: A whopping 24 respondents weren’t in terested in them, with only five express ing interest. Several people asked for more arts and entertainment coverage, and a few mentioned minority issues as an area that needed work. One reader re quested Calvin and Hobbes. The com ments also revealed that readers have a sort of love-hate relationship with sports. Fifteen people said they were in terested in sports coverage; 14 were not interested. Some of those said sports should be drastically reduced or cut al together. So what’s an editor to do? I had in tended to use the surveys as guidelines for change, but how do you reconcile the following comments? “Sports should be more in-depth, es pecially professional sports. Cover other colleges other than A&M and profes sionals.” “I say now is the time to overhaul The Battalion to reflect the rise of A&M as 6UICIK HQTUKEr HOW WttMHElPtfX)?’ an institute of higher learning rather than some outpost with a provincial view of events, that consistently devotes more than a third of its newspaper space to sports. Please get rid of that needless fanatical support for the cover age of sports that does not foster the de velopment of critical thinking. Replace it with more insights into world events, i.e. elucidations of current international events, with accompanying historical de velopment and analysis if necessary. “I hope in the future that when 1 read the Batt I will be proud to find some substance, some manifestation of a world-class education rather than just a multitude of small voices vociferating their desires to beat our rival teams into an abject submission.” Whew. I’d hate to see what would happen if he put down his thesaurus and told us what he really thought. Then there’s the age-old question of bias on the opinion page. (As if opinions could, by their very nature, be un biased.) As long as I’ve been at A&M, the students have accused the Batt of being a commie-pinko-liberal publica tion, and I figured the survey would give people a chance to say it in new and interesting ways. I wasn’t disappoint I “Ilie thing I most object to is the J liberal bent of your editorials, sm cated columnists and cartoons.Injtj to yourself and the Universityand^ profession (journalist) yon shouldfJ yourself to try to be balanced (at4 somewhat) in your approach, unabashed partiality is a disgrace anil poor reflection of all concerned." But at least the criticism comesfi both directions: 1 he “drop BrianF|| eric k” comments were balancet numbers of "not Mark Nair”scrawldl the margins. And Brian’s fans-1 the one who was “pleased the Haiti eludes Brian Frederick as a studenitj umnist to help temper the views of kc| of the editorial staf f” —were no overpowering than Mark’s ever-p groupies. In the end, there was no realcoilJ sus in the admittedly minusculemeJ we received. For every personn wanted to ditch some part of the paw someone else thought it was theJ thing we have. And so it goes. Sue Krenek is a senior journalisms for and editor o/The Battalion. Can’t get rid of those first day jitters Lewis Grizzard I drove into a McDonald’s and pulled up to the machine where you place your drive-through or der. “Welcome to McDonald’s,” the voice inside the machine said. “May I take your order, please?” “Yes,” I said. “I’ll have an iced tea and an order of french fires.” A few minutes passed. Then the voice said, “Welcome to McDonald’s. May I take your order, please?” I repeated my order. “Yes, I’ll have one iced tea and an or der of french fries.” “One cheese and an apple pie,” said the voice. “Please listen to me carefully,” I said. “It is very hot out here with my window rolled down, talking to a machine. I’ll have one iced tea and an order of french fries.” “And what would you like to drink with that?” asked the machine. “Young lady,” I began (the voice seemed to be that of a young f emale ap proximately 16 years of age with zits and a mouthful of gum), “I don’t think you are really trying here. “I realize you probably get orders that are very complicated, requiring you to retain at least three or four facts at once. “But this is not one of those orders. This is a very simple order, one an 1 1- month-old orangutan could handle. “It involves only two items. First, I would like to have an iced tea to drink, second I would like to have an order of french fries to go with it.” “Would you like sweetened or un sweetened tea?” I thought to myself , “God, I have bro ken through?” “Unsweetenend,” I said. “And would you like some french fries to go with that?” the voice asked. What one must do with rage is fight it off and never allow it to reach a point where it boils over, causing one to do something like rip the damned machine off its foundation and render it unrec ognizable with a tire tool from one’s trunk. “Yes,” I said, finally in conlrolot® self again, “I would like some fit® I t ies to go with that.” The voice quoted me a price and® vised me to drive around. So I drove around, ready forai® frontation, only to he greeted b'® pretty, smiling face of a young or 16. She handled me my order and®’ through a quivering voice, Tinsd® took so long understanding you,iti® first day.” The first job I ever had was bajjH groceries. My first day I was taking® dy’s grocery bags to her car afi| dropped the bag that included her t® I just stood there frozen with fear. 1 “It’s your first day, isn’t it?”thf® asked. I nodded yes. “Don’t worry, you’re just nen® and you’ll get over it.” the lady said, “Don’t worry, you’re just net'® and you’ll get over it,” I saidtottif® at McDonald’s. I drove away with my iced 1$® f rench fries, feeling very small. Copyright 1987, Cowles Syndicate OH, BV we BY... PORTNOY KICKZP OFF UlST NIOHT, 50 we HflP HIM FReeze-PRiep flNP P(/T ON THR mNTEL.