Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 11, 1988)
Opinion The Battalion Tuesday, Oct. 11, 1988 Pago 2 Texans’ heads too big for their 10-gallon hats O/i Several years ago, I moved from a small town (Farmington, to be exact) in northwestern New Mexico to the Lone Star State — famous for its cowboys, oil wells and rattlesnakes. Uprooted from family and friends, I literally went through cultural shock when I finally arrived in Texas. “How can that be,” you might won der. “Isn’t Texas known for its good ole’ southern hospitality and laid-back life style? And besides, how different can Texas and New Mexico be? They’re both states of the great Southwest.” Granted a lot of that may be true, but roughly a thousand miles separate Farmington and Houston, and in that long stretch, there is a LOT of room for change in everything from people to landscape. And despite Texas’ home grown hospitality and Lone Star long- necks, I was overwhelmingly unpre pared to face the “good ole’ boy” men tality that grips — like a vice — the souls and minds of the people who call them selves “native Texans.” You see, there is a big difference be tween New Mexicans and Texans, and it is chiefly one of attitude. When I lived in New Mexico, there was a heavy down wind influence from California — the land of cults, groupies and actors- turned-president. In New Mexico, just like in California, everybody, everything and everywhere is cool. Do your own thing and let it all hang out were the laws we lived by. New Mex ico: home of the neutron bomb and the Navajo Indians. Everyone was accepted for who and what they were, period. Ev eryone had a niche and New Mexicans thrived on the heterogeneous nature of their culture: the hippies and their com munes in Taos, the high society art col lectors in Santa Fe, the cloak-and-dag ger G-men who live in the “closed” community of White Sands, the Navajos who still live in hogans and smoke peyote, just outside of Gallup. Compare this attitude to a dyed-in- the-wool Texan who eats, lives, breathes, drinks, sleeps, thinks and talks Texas as if it is the only place to eat, live, breathe, drink, sleep, think and talk in. I’ve heard some hard core Texas zeal ots are so carried away with their state that they literally want to carry it away and secede from the Union, creating their own autonomy. Why, of course! Texas doesn’t need anyone or anything else: it has the cattle industry, the oil- boom-gone-bust industry, the space in dustry, the Clements industry, the agri cultural industry and every other indus try you might care to mention. Suna Purser Columnist “We have it all! Who gives a rip about those 49 other states?” If you think I’m kidding, let me tell you about an article I read a few years ago in a political science class I took at a Houston junior college. Basically, this article said that by the turn of the cen tury, Houston, Dallas, Austin and San Antonio will have grown to such levels that their city limits would virtually overlap. This one “mega city” would be incor porated and would lay the groundwork for a successful secession from the Union: an international banking net work, a governmental seat, port facili ties, hi-tech medical services. In essence, Texas would become a self-contained, self-sufficient entity — with this massive city at its heart — and could, therefore, thumb its nose at the rest of the world. DOUT THEY have AKIYTWfW4 ELSE- t*> DOT Mystery meat lunches cruel, unusual There’s a report out from something called the “Public Voice of Food 8c Health” that says school lunches are too high in fat, sugar and salt. The report specifically criticizes the U.S. Department of Agriculture, for the high fat food it provides the public school lunch program. “We’d like to see more schools serve healthfully modified lunches that are still attractive to school children like spa ghetti with meatballs or baked potatos with chili,” said Eileen Kugher, spokeslady for the P.V.F. Sc H. What I want to know is where was Ei leen Kugler and public voice for what ever it is when I was in school? Every school day for four years, I had to eat lunch in the high school cafeteria. I don’t know about all that high fat and too much salt and sugar business, but I do know somebody was trying to poison me and eventually would’ve had I not graduated. I would have loved spaghetti and meatballs and chili with a baked potato. Perhaps, that was part of the prob lem. If I could have identified what I was being served for lunch, it might Lewis Grizzard Columnist have been easier to get it down. It’s tough to look at a plate of food and know only there’s some brown stuff, green stuff and yellow stuff. The brown could have come from a camel or a goat, the green could have been something molding, and the yel low could have been something im ported as a governmental effort to boost a third-world economy. Occasionally, of course, I would be able to identify something on my plate, but I don’t know whether it’s worse to be eating government-surplus pickled okra and know it, or be eating government- surplus pickled okra and think it might be something that grows only in a cave. As far as today’s school lunches are concerned we must remember the chil dren of today are the leaders of tomor row. Certainly they should not be served food with too much fat or salt or sugar, but they also shouldn’t be forced to go through a daily visit to cafeteria-from- hell like we did. Here is how I would run today’s school lunch program: 1. Each serving should be truthfully identified. Perhaps the boys in shop could make little signs the cooks could stick in the food. 2. Faculty members, as well as lunch room personnel, should be made to eat the same food the students are being served in full view of the students. 3. Any student requesting seconds should be sent away for psychiatric re view. I recall the immortal words of my boyhood friend Weyman C. Wanna- maker, Jr. He forked the mystery meat on his plate one day at lunch, held it aloft to study it and then said, “You’d have to be crazy to eat something as ugly as this.” Cop yright 1988, Cowles Syndicate The Battalion (USPS 045 360) Member of Texas Press Association Southwest Journalism Conf erence 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 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 POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Battal ion, 216 Reed McDonald, Texas A&M University, Col lege Station TX 77843-4 111. BLOOM COUNTY “A little far-fetched!” you say. I also thought the same thing. I mean that sounds like something out of a Kurt Vonnegut novel. But another case in point will put the issue in much better perspective. I’m a traveller by nature and love to gallivant the globe when time and money permit. After all, there’s more than one way to skin a cat and I’ve al ways been interested in seeing how the “other half’ does it. tality when it comes to having pride in the state. And I, myself, likeTexas»el enough, or I wouldn’t still be here.Icei. tainly think there are lots of interestit; things to do and see in Texas, states and countries have neat too. What really irritates me is all on good ole’ cowguys and cowgalswholii ^ght or choose not to recognize that. j01 tot B It may he Texas Some years ago, I worked for a good ole’ boy who was highly critical of my wander lust. I’ll admit it: I’ll forgo a $600 pair of cowboy boots (by the way, what DO they make those things out of?) for a plane ticket to wherever $600 will take me any day. It just so happens this good ole’boy had never been on a plane and had never been out of the state of Texas! Not even once! “Texas has it all and to thei with the rest of y’all!” Furthermore, I really wish thesenJ lives wouldn’t look askance at theresi.l us who like to travel, like we weresos| sort of anti-American subversive. :tS. Tom W Tic an mstructi ijects v Look at it this way: Texas is just cm I state of the other 49 that comprisey country called the United States. At lSpence lid. It wi ng of tt ns in frc gilding, ns in f Iberei the United States isjust onecountr)i::| “Ain’t never lost nuthin’ in no foreign kuntree so why would Ah wanna go there? And besides Texas has got ever- thun’ Ah need, rot here!” He just couldn’t understand anyone who might want to leave this great state —even for a couple of weeks. makes up something called the rest;l the world, which includes appros.[ mately 120 other countries. Constn |brary a age is ished ii ager c Chapm Hall, nt pr Now don’t get me wrong. I don’t say all Texans have the “good ole boy” men- Isn’t it fortunate for Texas thatil rest of the nation and the world am saying, “Ain’t never lost nuthin' Texas, so why would I wanna go there ; is going genovatioi Suna Purser is a journalism pit|989, he s uate, a graduate student in English.:! “Basia columnist for The Battalion. ^ “It will bi Mail Call Quayle, JFK ‘light years apart’ EDITOR: Lloyd Bentsen delivered the knockout blow in the vice presidential debate when he said that Dan Quayle is no Jack Kennedy. When it comes to leadership and intelligence, Quayle and Kennedy are light years apart. A study of Quayle’s voting record in the Senate demonstrates that he haste opposed to everything that John F. Kennedy stood for. Kennedy was a brightm intellectual congressman who had w f on the respect of his peers before hebecaiK president. Quayle had to get into law school by using an affirmative action program that was intended to help financially disadvantaged minorities. Then when he was in the Senate, he voted against similar affirmative action programs for other students. iding n liiconditi finis! ic pn i vers it; llion. !athen ;ineer i >hways id const iuld be 1‘We’vt road itinuoi “It ing bei ic fin ise of i I’t lay iter.” Kennedy was a war hero in World War 11. Quayle spenUthe Vietnam War playing golf at the Huntington, Ind. country club. Then in the Senate, he voted against benefits for war veterans who had been injured in combat. There is no legitimate comparison between John Kennedy and Dan Quayle but there are lots of sharp contrasts. Mike Thomas ’87 Doolen not quite right EDITOR: There was a lot of humanity, a lot of caring for the welfare of children beW Timm Doolen’s article, “Religious sects abuse children through a lack of medical care,” but this kind of caring has to be combined with scrupulous concern for fats And the actual facts about how Christian Scientists care for their children areso dif ferent from what is portrayed in the article that 1 thought readers would welcome having the record set straight. Actually, if the picture of Christian Science were anything like whatwasdra*: in the article neither I, nor anyone I know would practice it. But the realityisfar dif f erent from the picture of people on a lunatic fringe who believe that diseases caused by the devil, who reject medicine because it is “satanic” — and are ostracized by the church if they use it! I was raised in a Christian Science home and can speak from experience. There was never any neglect of problems about my health-care. My parentsjik other Christian Science parents, loved me, felt responsibility for my welfareand took an active, not a blind, role in seeing to it that I was well-cared for. True, they met them in a different way than the medical treatment. Butthe point is that they met them responsibly and effectively. Why have Christian Science families gone on relying on spiritual means for healing over four, five and sometimes six generations? Because on thewholeiit done what all parents want to see done with their children. It has keptthemhapf and well. Yes, there are failures, but these are few and far between, and they’re more than of f set by the continuing record of good care for children and responsible concern for community welfare. Christian Scientists have in facta good record for reporting communicable diseases and complying with reqnesisd health authorities. One thing more. Christian Scientists don’t regard medical care as satanic.Or the contrary, they’re grateful for the efforts of physicians to help those who waul their help. And if Christian Scientists do decide to use medical care, theyarenol ostracized or cast out by the church. That expression of the full-power of Christianity’s power to save and redeem is what Christianity is all about. Again, Christian Scientists join with those who care about the health andwtl being of children. This is very close to their hearts. Honest differences as to the best means for doing this may remain. But let’s represent one another’s views fairly. John Martin Hueffner Christian Science Committee on Publication for Texas Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 words in length. The editorial staff reserves the right to edit letlmf and length, hut will make every effort to maintain the author's intent. Each letter must be signed and mtmli' classification, address and telephone number of the writer. by Berke Breathe* ffiTEKP/CTM A0£ucy