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Page 2/The Battalion/Wednesday, January 4,1989
Opinion
Mail Call
Angry Aggie withdraws support
EDITOR:
Each year, I have given $100 to the University as a gift to support Texas A&M.
This year I refuse to support A&M until the editor of The Battalion has been
taught the finer points of loyalty, dedication and responsible journalism. The
artide condemning Jackie Sherrill and the Aggie football program was a perfect
example of irresponsible journalism. If Jackie is indeed guilty then by all means he
should be fired or he should resign, but only when proven guilty. •—- *
i—
Jackie has resigned. If Jackie is proven innocent of any wrongdoing in this
latest “National Enquirer" episode, I hope he sues the hell out of some of the
irresponsible journalists that printed glories such as the one in The Battalion. If he
is gt/ilty I hope he gets what is due.
If the University supports irresponsible journalism then it could do without my
donation.
John R. Cobarruvias *78
God bless you, Jackie!
EDITOR.
Beat the hell outta Jackie Sherrill! This has surely been the chant of the news
media for the past several weeks. Just as they worked to influence and make our
political decisions in November, the media has now endeavored to replace Texas
A&M’s football coach and athletic director. When the news of the George Smith
calamity broke, the various news media across the country tried and convicted
Jackie Sherrill before the investigation had even commenced. Television, radio,
and newspaper reporters were announcing when he would resign, who his
replacement would be and what penalties would result. We were under the
impression that teh job of a “professional journalist" was to report the news, not
“create” it.
Now Jackie Sherrill has resigned. Something anyone with his class and great
character would do in this predicament. While not above following the rules, the
facts should have been dear before a decision of this magnitude was expected
from Jackie Sherrill. Right or wrong, however, Mr. Sherrill obviously realized the
amount of damage that negative reporting could do to the University. Jackie
Sherrill has always had Texas A&M’s best interest at heart. Over the brief period
he spent with us he gave all Aggies much to be proud of; an outstanding athletic
program, many remarkable football teams, and FIVE straight victories over t.u.
Jackie, Thank you! Good luck! ,
News media, back off! .
/
Huey Grant *87
Taffy Grant
Good Ags are loyal Ags
EDITOR:
I have read with interest the varied opinions expressed in The Battalion
regarding the latest problems of Coach Sherrill. I have tried to remain neutral and
listen to all sides of the discussion. However, the opinion expressed by Dean
Suehenfuss in the Dec. 1 edition has forced me to reply.
What Mr. Sueltenfuss and your editorial staff have failed to recognize is that
most people (myself included) are tired of newspaper people hiding .behind an
argument of “people have a right to know." Sensauqnalism^nd printing only the
facts which support a predisposed opinion just doesn’t work anymore. We are
more educated and are intelligent enough to read through self-serving articles and
sensationalized headlines. Your initial headline of “Ags Deserve Death" (Nov. 18)
is a good example. The article was reasonably well done, but the headline was
presumptuous, biased and not fully supported in the story. I would have hoped
for better from The Battalion. However, I suppose that you've learned your
lessons well and are noWeady to work for the Dallas Morning Sews, Houston
Chronicle, Miami Herald or maybe even the National Enquirer.
Mr. Sueltenfuss’ remarks as to the credibility of the Dallas Morning Sews are
extremely alarming. He obviously doesn’t understand the newspaper market in
Dallas. Mr. Bedell is in his business for notoriety and money. If he prints a story
which is sensational, he helps sell newspapers which also makes his reputation
grow. This allows him to command more money. Who cares if the story is only half
truth or not thoroughly researched. His interests are totally self-serving.
Additionally, Mr. Smith is obviously willing to say anything for money. I believe
this statement is true whether you believe his first or second version of what
happened. These factors are a dangerous combination when one’s reputation is at
stake.
Even more alarming than Mr. Sueltenfuss’ reliance on any media without
understanding all the facts is his definition of “good Ags" and “bad Ags.” If Mr.
Sueltenfuss wants to make a business decision on instinct before the facts are
kno>wn, let him do so. If he chooses to determine someone’s guilt or innocence
before all ascertainable facts are availabe, that’s scary. Also, no one will dispute that
integrity and honesty are an integral part of a “good Ag." However, so are loyalty
and a belief in the American system of justice. Making statements about any Aggie
before all the facts are known is at the heart of my concern. Sensational headlines
and comments about “bad Ags” leatkqne to believe that what Aggies really believe
in doesn’t exist on campus anymore. IrCoach Sherrill is found to be guilty of the
allegations, then all the mentioned sanctions should be invoked. I think most
people do agree with this. However, crucifying him in The Battalion serves no
good purpose. As Aggies, we suffer enough in the outside press and public
through jealously, bad jokes, etc. Internal bickering only brings us down to the
level of the outsiders.
Honesty, integrity, loyalty. We should remember all three. Once this is done,
we can go back to living up to the words in “The Spirit of Aggieland”: “After
they’ve boosted all the rest/Then they will come and join the best . . .
Let’s stop the bickering. Give the situation time and let the chips fall where they
may. I can live with the truth. I have trouble with sensational, misleading headlines
and opinionated people who whish to hang someone before a trial. Ourhistory is
filled with stories of people pre-determining someone’s guilt. The outccane usually
isn't something to be proud of. If someone doubts this, let them visit Salem,
Massachusetts sometime.
Michael L. McDonald ‘73
LfUen to the editor should not ext red 300 words in length. The editorial staff resemes the right to edit letters for style
and length, but will make every effort to maintain the author's intent Each letter must be signed and must include the
classification, address and telephone number of the writer.
The Battalion
(USPS 045 560)
Member of
Texas Press Association
Southwest Journalism Conference
The Battalion Editorial Board
Becky Weisenfels, Editor
Leslie Guy, Managing Editor
Dean Sueltenfuss, Opinion Page Editor
Anthony Wilson, City Eonor
Scot Walker. Wire Editor
Drew Leder, News Editor
Doug Walker, Sporu Editor
Jay Janner, Art Director
Mary-Lynne Rice,
Entertainment Editor
Editorial Policy
The Bmiubon is a non-profit, self-supporting newspa
per operated as a communitv service to Texas AJcM and
Bryan-College Station.
Opinions expressed in The haiiabon are those of the
editorial board or the author, and do not necessarily rep
resent the opinions of Texas AirM administrators, fac
ulty or the Board of Regenu.
The Battalion also serves as a laboratory newspaper
for students in reporting, editing and photographs
classes within the Department of Journalism
The Battalion is published Monday through Friday
during Texas AJcM regular semesters, except for hobdas
and exaimnatioa 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 sddrsss: The Baaabon. 230 Reed McDonald.
Texas AJcM University. College Station. TX 77843-1111.
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77843 '
POSTMASTER Send address changes to The Banal
ion, 216 Reed McDonald, Texas AJcM University. Col
lege Staton TX 77843-4 111
Santa Cruz is awfully nice
Christmas vacation is something to
look forward to, right? BUZZZZ!
Wrong. Maybe for most of you lucky
people who get to stay in Texas it is, but
for me, it’s hell. Pure hell.
I’ve lived here for the last 16 years,
but my parents moved away last year.
No more weekend visits. No more
home-cooked meals. And worst of all,
no more free laundry. That was a bite.
So of all the places in the continental
United States for them to move, where
do they go? The one place in this coun
try that requires a passport —California.
The land of fruits, fruit flies and
earthquakes. Oh boy.
And they didn’t even pick a good part
of the state to live in. They could have
moved to Los Angeles or even San Fran
cisco, tout that just wouldn’t be good
enough. They moved to the middle of
the state — where the kids are mutants
and the parents are hippies. *
I confess. My parents live in Santa
Cruz.
Now maybe I haven’t seen a rep
resentative sample because I’ve only
spent a total of a month and a half
there, but the place is just flat-out weird.
I’ll never make fun of another environ
mental design major again as long as 1
live. Just keep the hippies away from
me.
See, most people don’t understand
when I describe the place. If you’ve seen
the movie “The Lost Boys," then you
know what the Boaidwalk looks like. My
brother works in an arcade there. Talk
about ambition.
They don’t drive cars in the Cruz; ev
erybody has a skateboard and they just
roll through the streets. Except it’s ille
gal to ride the skateboards in certain
places, so the police ticket you for it.
You think it’s embarrassing getting
Who says
This summer I worked with a guy —
let s call him, uh, Eugene. Eugene was
about 33 years old and seemed to be just
an average person. But underneath this
otherwise normal appearance, Eugene
had a terrible, haunting secret.
Actually, I’m not sure if there’s any
way to say what 1 have to say without of
fending some of our more sensitive
readers, but here goes. The plain truth
of the matter is that Eugene, wel^he
• shot his television. Twice.
It’s hard enough to accept the fact
that some people watch only five hours
of television programming per day. But
% when a person actually shoots a TV —
well, that’s just downright un-American.
Let’s analyze Eugene’s case together,
shall we, and see if we can determine
where this otherwise productive, re
sponsible adult turned onto the path of
raving lunpey. We’ll start by taking a
look at Eugene’s childhood.
There’s no question in my mind that
he had a deprived youth. Eugene’s par
ents, no doubt, spent much time with
him doing such things as participating
in community activities, reading books,
or (brace yourself) having family dis
cussions. It is obvious that in this type of
environment a youngster could easily be
deprived of childhood’s important tele
vision-viewing opportunities — oppor
tunities that are the bedrock upon
which all tof life’s experiences rest.
There is another possibility which I
hesitate to mention, but in view of the
extraordinary circumstances of this case
I feel that 1 must. Again, I warn our
pulled over on a bicyde? Just try taking
a citation for standing on a board with
wheels. Our police here do a much bet
ter job, because I hardly ever see any
body on a skateboard around here.
Also, I think there’s a hippie magnet
in the downtown area. The city has a
huge homeless population, something
no self-respecting Texan would allow to
happen. Anyway, this magnet pulls all
Steve
Masters
Senior Staff Writer
the hippies and druggies from the 60s
right to Pacific Garden Mall, an outdoor
mall littered with a bunch of no-ac
count, homeless, long-haired hippie-
freaks who refuse to go anywhere else.
Authorities in the town have recently
passed an ordinance forbidding these
dangerous persons from sleeping in
cars. Not other people’s cars — their
own.
The police are always trying to run
them off and keep them from pestering
visitors at the mall. But the cops don’t
do quite as good a job as ours do here in
Texas, because there they keep coming
back. It’s good to see our tax dollars do
go to some worthwhile causes.
After the no-sleeping-in-cars law was
passed, those troublemakers tried to get
up a protest, and they had a petition to
sign. But somebody told me it was for
membership in the Communist party,
and I wouldn’t have anything to do with
it after that. If I can keep my mind shut
to that Communist stuff, you better be
lieve I will.
Even their colleges are messed up out
there. They make you pick your major
television
more sensitive readers that due to the
nature of the following statement they
may want to skip to the next paragraph.
Simply stated, the second possibility is
this: Eugene’s parents might not have
even OWNED a television set.
Unlikely? Of course it is.Frightening?
You bet. But in a society as mixed up as
ours almost anything is possible, r
And what, you may ask, is the end re
sult of such a shattered childhood? Who
bears the burden when a kid, such as
Eugene, deprived of that life-enriching
sustinence we call television, goes bad?
The answer is that we all must bear that
burden. Yes, when irresponsible par
ents carelessly rear their children, it is
society that must pay the price.
Oh. you think that Eugene may have
had a valid reason for shooting his tele
vision? Perhaps he knows something
that the rest of us don’t? Perhaps he’s
not completely crazy after all?
Well, I thought of those things. 1 even
asked Eugene some of those questions.
“Why, Eugene?” I asked. “Why’d you
do it? Why’d you shoot your TV set?”
As I asked him those questions, I
your freshman year and go up on a
mountain to your respective college and
you stay there with the same people for
four years. I don’t kno^ how anybody
ever gets anvtjung done, it’s so lone
some and quiet up there.
They have no football team at all, and
their mascot is (I'm serious as sin.on
this) the Banana Slug. It’s a real thing,
about an inch long and stinks like you
wouldn’t believe. The students just
laugh at their teams, and don’t ever
cheer except as a joke. Talk about a lack
of school pride.
I think the thing I hate worst is the
weather. You don’t have but two nice
days before it gets all foggy. The water
stays below 60 degrees all year round,
and if you want to even think about get
ting out on a surf board you have to pay
$20 a week just f oi ^w et suit.
The other thing You’ve got to look
out for is that Alfr? thing. Last time I
was there I heard a rumor that • the
whole thing got started after the hippies
started staying in the mall. That’sfan-
other reason why I don’t go near them.
I probably could have learned about a
lot more reasons to stay away from that
horrible place, like all the hills you have
to climb just to gel home (our driveway
is Jl right turn on a 45-degree incline).
You can lay a neat skid mark right in the
driveway and not go anywhere. m
Somebody told me they take drugs
out there too, and listen to heavy metal
music like Poison and Bon Jovi, but 1
didn’t stick around long enough to find
out, because I was longing to get back to
> a good state like Texas.,
. Boy, it’s a good thing 1 didn't stay the
other 13 days.
Steve Masters is a senior journalism
major, senior staff writer and guest col
umnist for The Battalion.
is stupid?
hoped that he’d somehow give me an in-
Lrlligent, rational answer — an answit
that would show me that he wasn’t in
sane after all, that he did know some
thing about TV that no one else knew.
“Well,” he said, “I’ll tell you. I shot my
TV because 1 finally came to the realiza
tion that it was starting to control my
life. I would go home after work and
just automatically turn on the oldtube,
even when there were no good pro
grams on. At night, instead of going out
with my friends, 1 would just sit there
watching that damn box. Television had
literally started rotting my brain.”
It was at that moment, after hearing
him speak those final, demented words,
that I realized Eugene was completely,
irreversibly irfsane.
And yes. it’s too late to do anything
for poor Eugene now. However, we can
help all of those children who, still in the
midst of their formative years, are cur
rently not viewing enough television.
What we must do is start a grass-roots
campaign to inform parents, clergy, and
educators about the evils of television
deprivation. It will be an uphill battle,
one which will not be easily won. But
with God’s will and a little bit of luck we
can win the war and help television re
tain its Vole as the principal instigator of
creative thought in this country.
Thai’s it for today. If you’ll excuse
me, I have to go watch The Wheel of
Fortune. —
Dean Sueltenfuss is a junior journa
lism major and opinion page editor for
The Battalion.