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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 18, 1988)
Opinion The Battalion Tuesday, October 18,1988 © /9Q© KftRU NOT JFK DAN GlUAYUE’S FAMOUS FLORIDA VACATION Time! Time! Time! See what has become of me It’s here! It’s arrived with overwhelming force and in such unfashionable short order. If Newton and Einstein knew, they would roll over in their graves and re think their physics. The signs of it are everywhere. Just take a walk through campus and observe. Students are walking around in a glazed daze, as if they were stand-ins for the actors in “Night of the Living Dead.” Zombies, whose eyes feel like low-grade sandpaper. Their contacts feel as if they’ve been soaked in acid. No sleep, no fun, no one cares. They’re going somewhere. To a class. To take a test. They have to hurry. Hell is half-over. Suna Purser Columnist they are attacked by dirty clothes wads. They look at the mess and choose the garments that are the least dirty. They put them on. The clock melts. They use the reversal method on underwear and socks and ask themselves, “No one will notice . . . will they?” dents are sick. They have the cruel. They share and share alike by giving it to everyone they come in contact with. They go to the “Quack Shack” and watch the clock melt as they wait to see a doctor. They need drugs so they can make it through until the end . . . if they can stay alive long enough to see the doctor. They haven’t taken showers in what seems like a milennia. When the do, sys tems go into shock. They run around in the shower barely long enough to get wet and call that clean. They have so little time and the clock continues to melt off of their arms and off the walls. The students feel like they’ve been on acid. Life is like an animated Salvadore Dali painting, where clocks melt and bodies contort. They’ve been up all night, for days on end, until the semes ter is just one big day and one big night. Time is of the essence, time is running out, time waits for no man, TIME, TIME, TIME! The minutes and months fuse to gether: the semester is half over. They’ve been up all night — reading pa pers, writing papers, typing papers and grading papers. They’ve been up all night — reading text books, typing re ports, working on projects, studying for exams. They’re running out of time and the clock won’t stop melting. They get to bed late, if they get to bed at all. Then they must get up early, if they ever went to sleep. The clock melts. They have no time to eat balanced meals. For several rea sons: they’ve been so busy with school they forgot to pay the light bill — so, no electricity for the stove. They’ve been so busy with school, they haven’t had time to wash dishes — so, the health depart ment condemns their sink as a commu nity health hazard. They’ve been so busy with school, they haven’t had time to buy paper plates and plastic forks — so, they eat with their fingers like cave men. They’ve been so busy with school, they eat their meals straight out of the can like a cat —Vienna sausages, pork-n- beans, raviolis. The food of champions. The food that makes them have dreams that resemble animated Salvadore Dali paintings. They stand in life-threatening lines to get their mid-terms. After hours of wait ing, they get to the desk: “May I have your i.d.?” They didn’t know they had to have an i.d. to get their mid-terms Suicide. After hours of waiting, they get to the desk: “I’m sorry. The names be ginning with ‘Sm’ are in the next line.’ Murder. They finally get their grades murder the professors and then kill themselves. And the clock is still melt- ing. They continue to stay up all night The pressure is building with unrelent ing force. Study for this test, write that paper, give a report, meet those dead lines. Hell is half over. They inject mas sive quantities-^of coffee. They pop caf feine pills. They gorge on candy until they have sugar-induced nightmares They tear their hair. They tear up their papers, so they can one day tear up life Hell is half over . ues to melt. the clock contin And the late nights and early morn ings are claiming the casualties. The stu- They have no clean clothes to wear. They have no time for laundry. They go to the closet and open it. Immediately Suna Purser is a journalism grad uate, a graduate student in English and columnist for The Battalion. Mail Call rison furlough program works EDITOR: The prison furlough program that George Bush loves to hate is used in J the states in this country for one simple reason — it works! The prison furlough program has been effective in reducing crimerecivin 50 percent. This means that repeat efime is cut in half in states that use the urlough program. What is the purpose in having punishment without reform? Whatjusticeis there in sending an 18-year-old to jail for five to 10 years only to dump him by on the streets with no preparation for dealing with society? Consider that heig grown up in a prison cell isolated from the outside world with only otherconii or role models. Is there any wonder that he should end up in jail again three months later for an even more serious crime? Hie furlough program helps t<> assimilate these people bac k into society lej lab they are released. Of course, the progi am is not 100 pn i cm sua cssf'uland i'" 1 George Bush is quick to point out examples where it has failed. Butthefact ^ emains that a 50 percent reduction in repeat crimes is much better than theta percent reduction vou have without this program. L ct The furlough program isoneot the most of f <■( t i\c tools we haveeverhadrj breaking the repetitive cycle of crime and George Bush is opposed toil,Perb that is why most every major law enforcement organization in thecountnis IP endorsing Michael Dukakis for president. Michelle Touchet ’89 Democrats’ strategy screwy jin Thu EDITOR: In regard to Mike Thomas’ letter “Quayle.JFK, light years apart,”oneal once again see the backward strategy of the Democrats. Why are you wasting® comparing Quayle and Kennedy, Mike? Anyone who saw the debates could# that Dan Quayle wasn’t tying to do this, he only wanted to show thathehasas much political experience as Kennedy did. Quit evoking the strategy of trying to get Mike Dukakis in the White Ha talking about how great Lloyd Bentsen is. If you want tocompareand contrast political experience there isnowayti compare George Bush and Mike Dukakis. If you want a real brain leaserMik why don’t you contrast and compare the vastly different issue positions of Dtiii and Bentsen on abortion, medicare, defense and environmental concerns?!! Democrats win, win >’s w »>rd counts more? Dukakis or Bentsen? Let’s just bojiti doesn’t come to that. Jeff Putnam ’89 Washington not the ACLU type EDITOR: In her letter on Oct. 10, Melanie Shouse voiced her support of the Amt: J ( i \ il Liberties Union .m< I -d w own u <■ n i s ( . f ar as to sa v that ()ui tnumlingnHsa would undoubtedly have been card-carrying members of the ACLU...." The ACLU, in the name of “constitutional rights,” supports the legalize homosexual marriages, the adoption of children by homosexuals, andassettl child pornography is a form of free expression. I he ACLU opposes the deal penaltv and long-term sentences for convic ts of any kind h favors,howeverl decriminalization of drug consumption. The list goes on. Is this the America our founding fathers envisioned? Let’s see: Mr. and Mr. Washington wake up in the morning,smokeajoicBb send their adopted son to the studio to be raped on camera. Oh, whatac No, Melanie, our founding fathei s would definitely not have supported ie n ^ ACLU, and neither should any Ann i k .m Ei-puMic .m <>i Democrat. ibi In America, you can belong to any organization you (hoose. MichaelDuli 8 a chooses to belong to the ACLU. He may not agree with all of its policies,but,« of a feather do flock together. Would a Dukakis president') see ACLU appointed as federal judges or into other high offices? Is that what the Aim; | people want? The answer (and I hope the right one) will come on November! ush icon Re Andy Keetch ’91 Listeners, revolt! EDITOR: 1 am writing in response to Timm Doolen’s article on the “demise”ofr roll. 1 totally agree with him that most of what we hear on Top 40 stations tot k-- complete junk. Ir Before I came here, I was directly involved in the music business at thelulf 0111 fastest growing music centers—Nashville, Los Angeles, and New York. Infu would venture to say there is more good music now than there ever was 1950s, ’60s and 70s. It’s just that most of it never emerges beyond studio teal The problem is with the non-discriminating consumer. The reason we It listen to unimaginative artists and their worthless remakes is because that'sv. sells. In the past, the artists determined the music they woidd write and the consumer accepted it because he didn’t know any better. Now, we have move the “market age” of music where the consumer is king. We have a barrageof pseudo-musicians seeking instant fame and fortune by giving the consumen he wants, a catchy melody line with a few simple lyrics, and the real musician^ to put their good music on the shelf and conform or face starvation. How can we solve the problem? Discriminating consumers must make themselves be heard! As we have seen with bad music, the power of the coffi® I can be tremendous. Here are a couple of suggestions that could makeadttl Don’t buy a worthless album by a worthless artist just because it has onegotxk on it. Or call your radio station when that song you can’t stand is first release! tell them you don’t ever want to hear it again. If those of us who appreciate good music will band together and takeasi^ we can make a difference and usher in a new era of quality rock-and-roll. Doug Pryor ’88 Fork Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 words in length. The editorial staff reserves the nghllotitlld' and length, hut will make every effort to maintain the author’s intent. Each letter must be 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 A Jensen, Denise Thompson, News Editors Hal Hammons, Sports Editor Jay Janner, Art Director Leslie Guy, Entertainment Editor Editorial Policy 7'Vje 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. 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