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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 14, 1988)
Page 2/The Battalion/Wednesday, September 14, 1988 Opinion Anyone up for some ‘Hi, Bob’ with prune juice I am getting so old. I’m already 21, and 56 i s r i g h t arou nd the co r- Becky Weisenfels Guest Columnist I never even re alized that I was hitting my Geritol years until I went to Astroworld during the summer. When I was 18 — still just a puppy in the dog pound of life — I could go to one of these places, stay all day, ride every ride, look in every over-priced gift shop and still have enough energy when I got home to play a quick round of ‘Hi Bob.’ , No more. When I went this last time, I had to take a rest break between every i ide. I wanted to sit in the shade and chug-a- lug Milk of Magnesia with the rest of the dinosaurs. I didn’t even buy a souvenir — rent was coming due, you know. And by 10 p.m. 1 was ready to go. OK, I decided I could hang around around for the fireworks IF I could sit down to watch. But then I got home and went straight to bed. No ‘Hi Bob;' not even a. ‘how va doing.’ I was pooped, worn out, i tired, dragging my heels. Since then 1 have noticed that this was not an isolated event and I am, indeed, getting closer to those senior citizen dis counts. Freshmen are so young. 1 walk into my 8 a.m. class after a f ull eight hours of sleep with my hot water bottle. I sit down and elevate my feet (better for cir culation). Then the freshmen come bouncing in — boing, boing, giggle, giggle. They plop into their seats — plop. And pro- cede to tell each other of their child hood adventures as I check the batteries on my pacemaker. “Yeah, Susie, last night we went out to eat first and then we went dancing for three or four hours.” “Oh, wow, Janie, so did we.” “Then we went to my apartment, drank a few daiquiris and then went swimming until 4 in the morning.” “Oh, wow, Janie, so did we.” “Then we went to eat breakfast and 1 got to bed at 6 a.m.” “Oh. wow, Janie, so did we.” I cannot be hearing this right — 1 check my hearing aide. My idea of a hot evening is wrapping up in my electric blanket while I watch a few hours of TV. A late evening is when I stay up to watch ALL of the 10 o’clock news. How can these children — these tod dling twits — stay up all night long and still be alive for an 8 a.m. class? I lean over to ask Susie and Janie if 1 heard them right, checking to make sure my dentures are secure before I open my mouth to speak. But now they are discussing when they can get together for a game of handball. I drop the subject as 1 reach for mv Ben-Gav (it was a long walk to class).' I have turned into the average Amer ican. 1 prefer to stay home and watch “Golden Girls” instead of going out to parties. 1 won v about rent, income tax returns and whether “Cagney and La- ce\ will be around for another season. Parties are something 1 go to when 1 need to buv more Tuppei ware. 1 never thought in my wildest dreams that 1 would grow old lhis quicklv—1 al- wavs thought I would be 25 or 26 before 1 started noticing the drag that accom panies the golden years. But the vears aren’t even golden — they’re gold- plated. 1 feel gypped. Where did the fun-filled, action- packed years of youth go? Whatever happened to my mentors — F.ric Fs- trada, the Village People and Sean Cas sidy? Any how in the world do you explain the fact that 1 now understand im pat ents’ reasoning? I actuallv am able to r< hold an interesting conversatioi them about something othertf] lews and school. We just sitarou our rocking chairs, sipping on Vj and c hat about the over-65 m plans that Lottie Greene used id tise. Amazing. But the worst thing is that vouH twerps don’t even respect tiieuMj ammore. Not one e has a bo\ fet ed to help me cross thesti'eei.n|| n< i .’ even get one <>1 the little ind^^H e ' ul . pic k up ihe tab on mv taxitothet^Mi'ran home. ; HcVe cl But wait. I am only 21. And I lie cons' hav e a few good \ eat s left untill veldo 11 tie into a life of bunion padsan sa '' C)la\ (I clout intend l<) K mu li; ^ , f ully). But it still hut is when ltd p I am t< m ' i hi I to ch > si nnc tinny kgsaai believe me. Maybe I haven’t hit old Maybe it is just a mid-life crisis. Becky Weisenfels is a senior lism major and managing edi> The Battalion. EF Religious sects abuse children through lack of medical care Normally I don’t have too many gripes with religion, but every once in awhile something comes to my attention that infuriates me about certain sec tors of religion. Two religious communities, both founded in the lat- room of a hospital. They were greeted by a shocked and startled doctor who could not believe that the parents could be so cruel as to deny the dying child any medical care during his sickness. give their children proper medical care in many cases, even if it goes against their religious beliefs. Despite medical treatment, the baby died within a few days, and the parents were ostracized by their congregation for going to a doctor. Critics of the legislation say that it vio lates the First Amendment, which guar antees freedom of religion, but the law would not. Timm Doolen ter half of the nineteenth century, the Jehova’s Witnesses and the Christian Scientists, are committing crimes against humanity and their children by not of fering them proper medical care. According to the Swans, the congre gation felt that the baby’s death was a re sult of taking him to the hospital, and that the original sickness resulted from Mrs. Swan's removal of a tumor a year earlier. The parents are depriving their chil dren the right to a healthy life. That hu man right is more basic and undeniable than the civil right of freedom of reli gion. In other words, child abuse is child abuse under any name, religious or other wise. Let me preface my argument by say ing that I aril not condemning religion in general, Christianity, or all Jehova’s Witnesses and Christian Scientists, just those who have ideas similar to the fol lowing. Lire problem in both cases is that the people in the hierarchy of the religion threaten the loss of eternal life and ex- communication from the religion as a penalty for disobeying the religion’s edicts. If the legislation passes, I say more power to it. But mandating health care won’t work when parents can conceal their child’s sickness in their own home. And the thought of numbers of posthu mous cases being tried in our courts sends chills up my spine. Most Jehova’s Witnesses will not allow any of their members to receive a blood transfusion, supposedly because of bib lical scripture. Yet the edicts of the Jehova’s Wit nesses and the Christian Scientists are disobeying common sense and the reali ties of biological science. If a Witness receives a transfusion, the member faces the highest punish ment within the religion: being dis- fellowshipped, their term for not being recognized by the religion. If the Jehova’s Witnesses would real ize that blood transfusions are not in- ately evil, and the Christian Scientists would realize that disease is caused by virus, bacteria, and subcellular orga nisms, rather than Satan, then the chil dren of both sects would be better off. That’s exactly what the nation saw last May when CBS aired the movie “Pro mised A Miracle”, which showed how the Parker family allowed their adoles cent, diabetic son die by cutting him off from his insulin. Despite intense pray ing up until the last moment, the box died without his much-needed medi cine. The Blizzard family, devout Jehova’s Witnesses since childhood, had to be forced by a court order to allow their 6- week-old daughter to receive a blood transfusion. Several years later she died; an earlier blood transfusion would have saved her life. You may ask why I mention only the children of these people. Soon after, Mr. and Mrs. Blizzard converted to the Baptist ministry. Well, I feel that an adult can deny himself whatever medical care he needs, but when an innocent child cannot re ceive proper medical assistance because of the parent’s peculiar outlook on life, then the parents have improperly con ceived their duty as a parent. And Mr. and Mrs. Parker were found guilty of the murder of their own son. They were sentenced to five years im prisonment, but were put on probation and served no time in jail. After realiz ing what they had really done, they suf fered greatly. Yet Jehova’s Witnesses look like saints when compared to the Christian Scien tists. The only type of outside medical help allowed by the Christian Scientists is the setting of a broken bone. All other diseases, caused by the devil, of course, can be cured by praying and a strong dose of faith healing. The parents of a child accept the re sponsibility of taking care of every rea sonable need of that child throughout its infancy and youth, yet some parents unreasonably deny this responsibility to themselves. The innocent child has no higher appeal, for if you can’t trust your parents — well, who can you trust? What is the answer? Jehova’s Wit nesses and especially Christian Scientists need to wake up and jump into the twentieth century. Modern medicine is one of the greatest miracles of our age. Don’t consider it Satanic. I’m sure most Jehova’s Witnesses and Christian Scientists are good-hearted people, doing what they were brought up all their life to do. A tragic story concerning Christian Scientists is that of the Swan family and the death of their 15-month-old son. In this state we are lucky, because Texas is one of the few states that does not exempt religions from the letter of the law concerning child abuse. But I direct this only to those who stick blindly to their doctrines: When you or your children fall sick, for the sake of you and your child’s health, please think logically about what you are doing before invoking your religion. The baby had been running in excess of a 100 degree fever for twelve days be fore Rita Swan and her husband rushed the almost-dead child to the emergency And child abuse is the proper name for deprival of proper medical care for children. 1 here has been talk of federal legislation which would force parents to Timm Doolen is a sophomore com puter science major and columnist for The Battalion. Mail Call The ( new initi Stop apologizing for those GOPers EDITOR: -^yironnie hope! ull of niatu United v [ D. J< Igrioilt i agetnen 7 of The Battalion, he made In I imm Doolen’s column in the Sept. /O false assertions which need to be addressed. Most outrageous is T imm’s claim that Mike Dukakis has run a deficititi Massachusetts. 1 his is complete!) untrue. As governor of Massachusetts,Di has submitted eight budget proposals and all have been accepted and balait I he score is: Mike Dukakis — eight balanced budgets, Reagan-Bush- T'imm also misrepresents the Dan Qua vie controversy. 1 he issue was not ■ whet her or not joining the National Guard was an honorable way young rot — could serve their country. Fhe issue* was the fact that Quayle used his wealthv family’s influenceti into t he home-based ( utard while thousands of less-privileged young mem being sent to fight and die* in Vietnam. All the while, Quayle and his multi millionaire publishing family implored the need to light communism—a> someone else was doing the fighting. Furthermore, Timm’s assertion that, by picking J. Danfot th Quavle.Bi cast of I his image as a wimp is nothing more than laughable, xc ishful thinLii What is most objectionable about the column is that it masquerades as j impartial account of the presidential race. What purports to be an “oppon; assess both Bush’s and Dukakis’ campaigns." turns into a barrage of Repui propoganda. In the spirit of fairness, I believe that all future Timm Doolen columns presidential race should contain the following tagline: 1 imm Doolen is a sophomore computer science major, columnist fori Battalion, and apologist for George Bush, Dan Qua vie and the Republican Mark Artlip '91 a pini on the ( Mid west It w Tuesd; tion fo Be A wpuld M 1 le\ wh waiclin makn ■ ^ 1 hr that th in the sent tc stltdv. I 1 hr Ode to Jackie EDITOR: Jackie Sherrill is a coach that we all know, I low much I like him. I’ll try to show. I le’s just so honest, gosh what a guy, I love the* way his nose twitches when he’s telling a lie. "Mv assistants were lying? Gee, I never knew.” Yeah, and the grass isn’t green and sky isn’t blue. An Aggie doesn’t cheat, lie, or steal, Except for the coach, who’s playing “Let’s Make a Deal”. “Come on big boy, why not play here, “I’ll give you a car and ten thousand a year. “I’ll buy you new clothes and give you a loan, “And how ’bout a new cellular phone? “We’ll win a conference title and go to a Bowl, “And together in fame and glory we ll roll.” I used to think Rice was a Iqser’cause they seldom win a gam< But at least they can walk onto the field without shame. I'll end this poem since I'm running out of wit. Do us all a favor, Sherrill, and go back to Pitt! J. Thomas Dirges ’89 New dorm policy won’t work EDITOR: I would like to address the new policy of locking the outside doors o! die residence halls and escorting the opposite sex after 7 p.m. 1 understand that one student was raped and two others were assaulted* the summer. 1 also understand that the University wants to stop theft inourli But seriously, if someone really wants to steal something, or for thatmatiti just wants to wander aimlessly around the halls for a while; does the Universii' actuallv believe locking the doors is going to solve the problem? Another large complaint I’ve heard is leaving the lights on 24 hours. Kcepij the lights on isn't going to keep someone from setting a trash can on fire. Thirdly, why must we escort a member of t he opposite sex in and outolit dot in. each and every time she simply wishes to visit ? Why not lock the wonifi halls, and lease t he men's open? I applaud R11A for pushing for extended visitation hours. But lockingdod hardlv seems like a way to promote visitation. Matt Flanagan ’90 I.t’Uns to the editm should not exceed 3(10 zeoids in length. I he editorial staff reserves tin right to edit ktlft' and length, lint ir/ll make ex’ery effort to maintain the author's intent. Each letter must he signed and miis/i rlassi/ieation. address and telefilmne.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 A Jensen, Denise Thompson, News Editors Hal Hammons, Sports Editor Jay Janner, Art Director Leslie Guy, Entertainment Editor Editorial Policy l ire linltnlion is a non-profit, self-supporting newspa per operated as a comnnmin service to Texas ATM and lire an-C Allege Station. Opinions expressed in the linlinlion are those of the editorial hoard or the author, and do not neccssarih rep resent the opinions of I'exas ATM administrators, fac ulty or the Board of Regents. /'/)<• lirat.dion also servers as a laboratory newspaper for students in reporting, editing and photographv c lasses w ithin the Department of Journalism. t he Bnttnlion is published Monday through Friday during Texas ATM regular semesters, except lor holidav and examination periods. Mail subscriptions are S17.14 per semester. S34.62 per school vear and Sift).-f t per full vear. Advertising t ales lurnished on ret|uc’.st. Out address: The B.illnliun. 2:’>0 Reed McDonald. Texas ATM L niversitv. College Station. T.\ 77ST5-1111. Second (lass postage paid at College Station. IX 77HTT I’OS I MASTI-.R: Send address c hange's to the Hntinl- inn. 216 Reed McDonald. Texas ATM l nivcrsilv. Col lege Station TX 778TC f 1 1 1. BLOOM COUNTY YT5, BILL JOINT? WB CflNA- PIBN NATIONAL M00SC M0UN71BS IN 1969... ABB YOU51/66TST1NG THAT This WA5 A HYPOCRITICAL ACT FOR A HAWKISH KIOHT-WINOBR ? WHY, THTRB WART MOOS A ANAMIAS ALL ARSON?- NAY! MOOSA.. COMM!A MOOSA... IT WAS. OH, Y00KNOW... k