Page 2/The Battalion/Thursday, September 9, 1988 Opinion Aggieland’s still far away from Wonderlam I never thought it would happen to me. I never thought I’d be one of the victims. This summer I had an experience which has changed my opin ion of “good safety measures” and has decreased my faith in human na ture. Lydia Berzsenyi The summer was an unusual one for me. For the First time in more than three years, I did not work. For the sec ond half of the summer, I was not even in school. So for five glorious weeks, I was a bum. But sooner than desired I had to re turn to responsibility and resume my duties. That’s where the vacation ended and the nightmare began. On a Monday afternoon I arrived back in College Station and took a cab (yes, there are cabs in Bryan-College Station) to the house which I had shared with three girls for the First half of the summer. As my things were still in the house, I Figured I’d just stay there until my new apartment was ready, i.e. gas and elec tricity turned on. After I let myself in and put my bags down, I realized none of my roommates was in town and, not wanting to be an unexpected guest, called each at their parents’ homes to let them know I was staying in the house. Few things had changed since I had been there a month before. I stayed by myself in the house that night. The next day, I put in a twelve-hour day before returning once again to the empty house. This time I had an uneasy feeling about staying in the house alone. Don’t ask me why — it was just a feeling. I stayed up reading that night until almost 3. Finally, I put down my book and went to sleep, but not before turn ing on both inside and outside lights, and checking and rechecking locks on all the doors and windows. As an extra precaution, I left a low light on in my room to ward off “uninvited visitors.” It didn’t help. I awoke two hours later to find a man sitting on the edge of my bed. My First reaction was not panic. It’s not that I’m used to strange men sitting on the side of my bed, but I had just spent Five weeks with my family. My dad, or one of my brothers, often had awakened me in the mornings. And be sides, I’m legally blind without my con tacts, and they weren’t in. So my first thought was that the man was my dad, and I sleepily asked the man, “Dad, what are you doing? What do you want?” My panic button went off when a strange voice answered, “I’m not your dad.” Immediately, I realized where I was and that something was very wrong. I kicked the guy in the stomach and screamed at the top of my lungs. But I soon realized that screaming wouldn’t do me any good. I was the only one in the house. I rechanneled my energy and fought him even harder. It was then I noticed that his hand, which I had grabbed, held a knife. I heard him say, “You’d better stop Fighting. 1 have two knives.” The reality of the danger set in and I decided to be sensible and do exactly what he said. I didn’t know what he was going to do. But I certainly didn’t want him to use that knife. He told me to pull the covers up and to cover my face with a pillow. He said he wouldn’t hurt me. “Give me ten minutes and I’ll be out of here,” he said. I didn’t really believe him, but I did as he said. And then 1 waited, hoping he was gone. He did not touch me. During the struggle, I had tried my best to listen to his voice; to note his physical description. But without those contacts, I wasn’t certain of anything — not even the color of his skin. (He had knocked over the lamp I’d left on, so the room was dark.) I waited what I thought was ten min utes. Then I counted to 300, just to make sure. I didn’t know even then whether he was still in the house or even in my room, so I didn’t want to call the police from the house. I quietly grabbed some clothes, changed, snuck out a bedroom window and ran four blocks to a church, where I called the police. I was lucky. All the man took from my house was some money. I could have come out of the experience much worse. Others in similar instances have been raped, or beaten or even killed. Instead, I simply had a very bad scare. I’m telling this story for a reason. Be fore this experience I was one of those who thought there was no crime in Bryan or College Station. At least none that involved students like myself. 1 mean, we’re all Aggies, right? And ev eryone knows that Aggies don’t lie, cheat or steal. But what I failed to fully realize is that not everyone in Bryan- College Station is an Aggie, and even some Aggies are bad apples. You simply can’t blindly trust human nature, even in Aggieland. Play it safe. Keep your doorsandJ (lows locked, even in the daytime, not assume that being in a larged ment complex or a busy neighbori] with lots of people around willpreJ you f rom becoming a victim. Anyone can walk into an unloj apartment at 5 in the evening as easil they can at 5 in the morning. AndJ when all windows and doors areloj as mine were, some people can gt] quietly enough not to awaken you. Make sure your 1c bolts are a necessity ( ks are good ! C Tains can be ken, as mine w< be picked. other locf suspicious If you see any hanging around, call the police. II some reason you feel unsaf e at nigl cause of people wandering about the police to drive through vour borhood. ■ To cl tape sh< tOxicate ||sed su pis Cor piemen Rain di ■ The County slate gr; tijme pa mera: The for twc ounty fhr in BountN charts phe vided fc And remember Never let so met asking who it is. your mother’sad me in without Please let this story serve as at ing. It was meant to scare you,beat is a very scary subject. You shouldi think, “It could never happen tom It CAN happen to you. Sorority members give their side Anthony Wil son, last week you described to your readers that you were an opinion page editor. You warned your read ers against being offended by any of your opinions and stated y o u and other opin- ions page editors 1. No dedication, basically lazy. 2. No talent whatsoever, beyond put ting ones hair in a perfect bow. Shelly Schluter 3. Lastly, one must lack pride in your self and the organization she represents. Tamara Elcher Guest Columnists were lovers of Texas ^A&M, blah, blah, blah. Yesterday, your opinion was not only offensive but your information was in correct. In fact, there is not one word of proven truth in the entire column. The lack of truth is due to your ignorance of your topic. You do not understand Greek Rush. Rush is a time when the sororities try to recruit members like any other organi zation recruits. We believe your analogy was football recruitment. T he sororities are in fear of not reaching their goal of recruiting fifty new members. They therefore, rush every rushee “hard.” You used the term “rush hard” in your column Monday but you have little or no knowledge of its meaning. Rush hard is a sorority’s attempt to get to know a girl, on a personal level, to fur ther inform her of the purpose, ex pense, benefits and time commitment involved in the organization. You stated in your column “They don’t know how to get involved in extra curricular activities on a large state uni versity.” If these girls don’t know how to get involved how did they know how to get in involved in rush. Certainly, Soror ity Rush 101 is not listed in the fall cata logue. Many of these girls were presi dent of their student bodies in high school, members of National Honor So ciety, participants in sports and a wide variety of clubs. When they enter a so rority their participation does not end or is it limited. Many sorority girls (if you do a little research you will discover) are involved in Freshman Leadership Dynamics, MSC Hospitality, OPAS, are their class representative, writers for The Battalion, participants in intramu rals, members of Thirty Love and the Diamond Darlings. They are far from being uninvolved on campus. Your column states qualifications needed to be accepted into a sorority. To disprove your point, organiza tions such as the sororities at Texas A&M have evolved over a course of 100 years. Such organizations could not have been possible wit bout dedication, talent, pride and determination to build a strong bond cheated to serve the com munity, the^scTu ul and each other. We acknowledge, we are social sorori ties. However, what better way to pre pare oneself for the “real life” of work and community involvement, which we as college students all anxiously antic ipate than by coming in contact with over 150 people a week. Each sorority at A&M offers its members the opportu nity get to know many individuals all with unique and distinct personalities of not only one chapter members but also those members of other greek affilia tion. What club on this campus prohibits social activity. tion is examined by an alumni in the ru- shees hometown who is familiar with the individual’s background. The soul pur pose of rush is to Find a group in which you feel comfortable and be yourself. We, as sorority members would never do anything to hurt the self-esteem and integrity of a rushee or make her feel she is any less of a person because she is a rushee and not a member, which you accused us of doing. What would be the purpose of doing this? We want new members to our organization. If we were to humiliate and criticize rushees publicly, our sorority would not be invit ing or attractive to its members. Mail Call c< Rush can be harsh, valuable lesson it A&M raised immunity. Bui i intei Hrslii]). s: is ’ I Sludt MToi um ^■eul wii ■the H Paul J. Underbank Graduate student Black Greeks are different erning sot in his artic >i ity rush. Fin e. Maybe the EDITOR: 1 resent the article you wrote in The Battalion cone of all, not all sororities are as Anthony Wilson describe white ones are, hut black sororities are different. When a young black woman chooses to be part of a sororitv she decideswhil one of four she wants to he a part of. After the young lady has chosen one,shea “on line” (the pledge period) for about four to six weeks. During this time,she I engages in activities that will help her learn more about the sorority in detail. I Also in your article, you mention that (w)iite) sororities are just social, buthj black sororities it’s more service than social. Yes, black Creeks have “mixers” but the money raised (or canned goods donated) are given to charity organizations. Joy L. Marshall Yes, Greeks do deserve each other EDITOR: Anthony Wilson’s narrow-minded, tunnel-visioned defaming of sororityr in his column is much more discriminating than the rush process itself. Althoi his opinion was well-written, it cannot be deemed responsible journalism toil trate sororities as unfair social clubs. Deriving from Mr. Wilson’s inexact statistics (there’s some responsibilin ■ least 70 percent of the girls involved in rush were extended bids to join sororili&B Does the Battalion editorial staff allow 71 percent or more of the students*! want to write columns or articles do so? His comparison of sororities to clubs such as the Water Ski Club is incorredii cause the latter are strictly local interest clubs while the former is a nationally^ ognized organization with designated criterion concerning eligibility and pa™ pation. It sounds as if Mr. Wilson has jumped on the anti-Creek bandwagon™ many have here at the home of the Fightin’ Texas Army. Most of the sororityf that I know aren’t the social-crazed, identity-seeking chest heaters that Mr. 1 alludes to them as, but they are intelligent, good-looking, and have wonderfulf sonalities. I do agree with one point Mr. Wilson made. Members of sororil should stick together because they do deserve each other. Gary Price ’90 Editor’s note: The figures quoted in the article were obtained from Panhelki which did not have the exact numbers available. And The Battalion does encO age anyone to submit guest columns. / Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 words in length. The editorial staff reserves the right to edit letters and length, but will make every effort to maintain the author's intent. Each letter must be signed and must inclm 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 Lydia Berzsenyi, Editor Becky Weisenfels, Managing Editor Anthony Wilson, Opinion Page Editor Richard Williams, City Editor D AJensen, Denise Thompson, News Editors Hal Hammons, Sports Editor Jay Janner, Art Director Leslie Guy, Entertainment 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 regtdar semesters, except for holiday and examination periods. 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