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Page 2/The Battalion/Friday, July 29, 1988 Opinion There’s no room for closed minds here any more jussam I am writing this week in re sponse to com ments made by Joe Hyde that were printed in The Battalion Fri day, July 22 about the presence of homosexuals on the Texas A&M campus. I was hor- rified and dis- bunch of contaminated little fruit flies.” The homosexuals whom I have known in my life have been intelligent and sen sitive people who deserve the respect of others. Barbara Jones gusted by the majority of the comments Hyde made on the topic of homosexuals and their student organization, GSSO — the Gay Student Services Organiza tion. First I would like to establish one fact: I am not a homosexual. I am stating this fact not because I would be embarassed or ashamed to admit it if I were but to point out the fact that there are many heterosexual Aggies that do not share Hyde’s opinion that homosexuals are “a Hyde stated in his guest column that biblical scripture states that homosex uality is an unnatural act. The fact is that there are many things in our society that the Bible would deem “unnatural” that are, in fact, today seen as quite nor mal. Hyde, as do many frightened and naive people, believes that homosexuals are responsible for the AIDS tragedy. Indeed, they are the ones who are suf fering and dying the most from this ter rible disease, but homosexuals can not be blamed for this horrible disease. AIDS did not start here in the United States, but is thought to have originated from an impoverished country in Af rica. Many people think that AIDS is God’s way of punishing homosexuals. I would Jesse’s too big to be mayor A white Chi cago politician re cently mentioned to me that he thought Jesse Jackson, once he returned to earth, would probably run for mayor and be elected. and the present mayor, and the other blacks who now aspire to the top job. Today they talk independent black po litical power, but back then they hustled the Machine vote, grabbed what goodies they could for themselves, and jumped up and saluted the pudgy Irishman. “All he has to say is that he wants it and all the black Mike Royko hacks will step aside for him. Then he’ll get the kind of massive black turnout that Harold Washington had, and a big white liberal vote, and he’ll win easy.” With his brains, drive and ambition, it’s likely that Jackson might have moved up through the ranks of the black wing of the Machine and been poised to take over when the time was right. If he was bold enough to chal lenge Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for leadership when he was only 25, he would have chewed up the black hacks who now run Chicago’s City Hall. I bounced this thought off a couple of Jackson’s black supporters here for the convention and they laughed and shook their heads. But Jesse got a break. He didn’t think so at the time, but Daley did him favor. One of them said, “Maybe he would have taken it years ago, if he could have had it. But now? Forget it. The job’s not big enough for him. It’s beneath him. Jesse’s not local. He’s national, maybe global. No, he’s not going to get bogged down in all that local stuff,, budgets, petty ward rights. A lot of blacks are mayors. It’s not big deal anymore. He wants something that’s a big deal.” Daley read the letter and said, yes, he might be able to arrange something for Jesse in his organization. If Jesse wanted to work a precinct and get out the black votes on Election Day, Daley could find a job for him collecting coins in a toll booth. His sizable young ego bruised. Jack- soil said thanks, but no thanks, and took a different route to political power: The civil rights movement. It’s a little hard to grasp, that being mayor of Chicago could be considered a nickel-dime job, but they’re right. Ten years ago, the prospect of Mayor Jack- son would have had Jesse bouncing off the ceiling. But that was well before Harold Washington demonstrated that a black could be elected. Now Jesse is as big or bigger than Boss Daley ever was. Sure, the whole world was watching Daley in 1968, but that’s only because Daley’s cops were cracking heads. The world was watching Jesse this week, and all he did was talk. And it’s ironic. If it hadn’t been for a crude rejection, many years ago, Jack- son might very well have become Chi cago’s First black mayor. So being mayor of Chicago would be a huge step back for him, a humiliating drop in status. It could be disastrous for his image. When Jackson was a young man, just out of college but with high hopes for himself, he came to Chicago with a letter of praise and introduction from a pow erful white politician in home state of South Carolina. He took the letter to Mayor Richard J. Daley. The idea was that Daley would welcome a bright young man and give him a position worthy of his obvious po tential. As a mayor, he’d have to get down in the bureaucratic muck and try to cope with a shrinking tax base, a chaotic school system, murderous public hous ing, crumbling streets, gun-crazy street gans, and all the other irritants of urban life. You can’t solve these problems by talking at them, no matter how elo quently. If Daley had done that, would Jack- son have become part of the Daley Ma chine? Unthinkable? Not at all. That’s what the late Mayor Washington was, And in Chicago, he’d have an additio nal, embarrassing problem. Wondering who among his followers is stealing what, and who will be caught next. Among black aldermen, the biggest job turnover comes when a federal judge says: “I sentence you to . . .” Copyright 1988, Tribune Media Services, Inc. The Battalion (USPS 045 360) Member of Texas Press Association Southwest Journalism Conference The Battalion Editorial Board Richard Williams, Editor Sue Krenek, Managing Editor Mark Nair, Opinion Page Editor Curtis Culberson, City Editor Becky Weisenfels,. Cindy Milton, News Editors Anthony Wilson, Sports Editor Jay Janner, Art Director 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 University, Col lege Station TX 77843-4 111. then like to ask these people, is Herpes God’s way of punishing heterosexuals? Is the drought Cod’s own vengence against corn crops? The fact is that our world is filled with unexplainable trage dies that can in no way be blamed upon those who are affected by it. Hyde said that the CSSO should not be allowed to be recognized as an offi cial student organization and called this a “travesty of justice.” In response I say that Texas A&M is an institution of higher learning that is open to all those who want to futher their educational pursuits. Universities are the last true “melting pots” left on this earth, and are and should remain a place where all people, regardless of race, religion or sexual preference, can come and feel free to express their constitutional right to free expression. I can only remain grateful that I live in a country that pro tects the rights of all its citizens, regard less of how and with whom they desire to share their emotional feelings. The University’s recognition of the CSSO as an official student organization was regarded by Hyde as “a disgrace to Texas A&M.” I feel that the only dis grace was that fact that this group have to fight so hard for this right to begin with. The CSSO had to take their cause to the U.S. District Court before they fi nally received the University’s recogni tion as a legitimate student organiza tion. If a group of Nazis wanted to form a group on campus, I would likewise agree they should be granted the same priviledge, regardless of the fact that I would not agree with their views. Per haps Mr. Hyde would be interested in such a proposal. Sorry, just a little hu mor. The point is that at a university all people, regardless of their beliefs, should be able to congregate and form groups on campus. As far as Hyde’s comment that stu dents who are against the CSSO should boycott paying that part of their tuition that gets funneled to this group, I can say only that this is ridiculous, iw seriously doubt that each student pays a full one cent each to thiscaust 1 am all too aware of A&M’sin lions and the fact that A&M isacorj vative school, but things are chatiE Now don’t get me wrong; Texas,! will never be a Berkeley, nor won want the consensus of the student sway that far to the other extrt Texas A&M needs to keep up will; changing needs and desires of itsi dent body, for without us, therein not be a university. With these chat will hopefully come a more diverse; dent body that will represent a mi! of new ideas and philosophies that help expand the thinking of our. counterparts. 1 hope that Hyde representsthet of close-minded thinking that wills day be a part of Texas A&M’spast Barbara Jones is a senior jouni major and a columnist for The Bit ion. P Me life ti the c clecre In conn probl A&M testes creas VES, DEFINmay JUST ONE A FELtOW MUSTN'T oyERM THESE THINGS-- Mail Call Let’s hear it for Uncle Jenkins EDITOR: nation is now headline news. E n b Coi sep fee: plai om Cot and stat tha vie\ was wh; abu cen Stri I am exa dor can der / the ecu gan nar chii $u s the ami inei of! The federal deficit is looming around a figure so a® I don’t claim to have a PhD in economics. In fact I’m pretty sure I didn’t even enjoy the economics class I took at this university. And so I don’t think I could be recognized as a seasoned economic observer on Capitol Hill. But none-the-less I, like all of those other economic wizards out there, have this overwhelming desire to needlessly alarm the American public. nomical that there are contests to decide a name for it ™ believe that the Senate and House joint “Spending” c mittee decided to call it “godzillion” just the other day. I’m going to ask the question: Is the U.S. economy about to collapse? Well, is it? Many of the economists I spoke of earlier try tons constant buzz words and phrases to impress you. Thougli don’t think they realize how many wind blown hair-df they are causing. I myself have latched on to a fewofthos phrases and can put them together in a text that makes look like I know what I am talking about (though we otherwise). A word of warning, when you carelessly use the words “economy” and “collapse” together in the same conversa tion you must also take the time to listen to some of our older generations talk about how bad things were during the Great Depression. EXAMPLE: My Uncle Jenkins is pretty much all conference at this. If you happen to be with him for a weekend, that little de bate can rage on for days. In face if we could just take the time to coordinate these kind of folk’s into a think tank on the subject, we might be able to create a useful government agency that will never let such a thing happen again. Or we just found a way to spend more federal funds. Actually I just kind of like the idea of getting Uncle Jenkins out of my hair. National leading economic indicators are up or the/ti down. The prime lending rate is moving. The trade defitf is growing or it is shrinking and of course new hires areei ther up or down. Oops, I almost forgot about the“finagl factor” and the “thrombifalator curves.” Back to the subject at hand. There should be good rea son for the reader to be concerned. Government spending is still raging out of control. We import more goods than we export, to the tune of billions of dollars each year. And the fact that we are becoming more and more of a debtor So what do all of these economic terms mean to trends Well, if we took some of the so-called economic expertsis; heart, months or even years ago . . . they would have toll you that by next week at the latest, we are going to haves worldwide economic depression ... or severe thunde: storms, whichever comes first. Randy Lemmon ’85 Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 words in length. The editorials serves the right to edit letters for style and length, but will make every e maintain the author's intent. Each letter must be signed and must include ikii sification, address and telephone number of the writer. BLOOM COUNTY by BerKe Breathe liSI NO PICT!' comic CHmm AREN'T ANAmtcm CORRECT^ V