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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 16, 1989)
Monday, January 16,1989 The Battalion Let’s honor those who fight racism Today the people of our nation officially honor Dr. Martin Lu ther King Jr. Although he died 21 years ago, the impact he made on the world will be with us forever. He was a man of principle who was not afraid to stand up to racial injustices, and because of his efforts the United States has undergone many improvements in racial equal ity. AVe hope the Supreme Court outlaws abortion, So we can once again hear the pitter-patter of little feet... RIGHT kJ TO-LIFE HcvsrcN (ft; But racism still exists. And one doesn’t have to go to South Africa to find it. Groups such as the Ku Klux Klan still thrive in the United States. AUSi enters it; high gea niittees i earlier tl working tative’s e Houst move he appoini Wednes< regular I such ap] I two to th The J lappointc Recently, Joe Kendall, a state district judge, sentenced a man to 10 years in prison for vandalizing a Jewish temple near Dallas and painting swastikas on the walls of the building. By issuing the maxi mum sentence possible, Judge Kendall reaffirmed that people who act on their racist beliefs will not go unpunished. People like Judge Kendall and Dr. King have helped to make our country a better place to live. Today we should honor not only these men, but everyone who has fought, or is fighting, the ugly institution of racism. The Battalion Editorial Board PIT A- PAT A PI T-A PAT A Jackie’s backers were problem It was the final scene. Dec. 12, 1988. As the eyes of Texas focused on John David Crow and R.C. Slocum —the new athletic director and head coach, re spectively, at Texas A&M —one man stood in the background unnoticed. In a dark blue suit and aqua tie, he watched the final chapter of the story that had dominated his life for more than three years finally be inked into the book. Doug Bedell just stood aside and watched. He was just an unknown face in a crowd of lookers-on, watching the chan ging of the guard in the A&M Athletic Department. It was not, after all, the “Doug Bedell Show” at The Press Conference To End All Press Conferences. And he and the other reporters from the Dallas Morn ing News took great pains to keep it that way. The nation’s attention would be fo cused on the real story that day. And it wasn’t about the man who broke the story that culminated in the inaugura tion of a new era in Texas A&M foot ball. It was about John David Crow and R.C. Slocum taking their new places in the A&M athletic hierarchy. No, scratch that. It was about Jackie Sherrill. Just like it had been since 1985. Boosters, alumni, regents, fans and Sherrill himself had been trying to con vince everyone that it was about picky NCAA regulations, the situation at scores of other universities nationwide as well as A&M, persecution by investi gative journalists with a Stephen King movie full of axes to grind, and just about anything else they could think of to get the heat off The Big Man. Hal Hammons Guest Columnist But the story was The Big Man. Him and him alone. And once again, he wasn’t present to explain his actions. Hardly surprising after the month of evasion tactics he had put the world through. You’ve got to give the man points for consistency. Throughout his tenure at the University he has followed the same exact crisis management strategy: If you can’t avoid it, ignore it. If you can’t ignore it, avoid it. If you can’t avoid it or ignore it, whine and pout like crazy about persecution to anyone who will listen. You can’t argue with success. Ronald Reagan should learn to dodge crises so successfully. Perhaps some of you readers con sider yourself members of the Sherrill Fan Club. If so, understand that this is not meant to hurt your feelings, but to provoke you to consider your stance more carefully. In my judgment, if you still consider Jackie Sherrill an Aggie hero a la Sul Ross and Earl Rudder, you are seriously short of integrity and/or intelligence. If integrity is your problem, if you think winning football games and rak ing in big bucks for the athletic program is reason enough to thumb your nose at the rules of the game, I don’t suppose I can do anything about that. When the Dallas Morning News broke the story about Sherrill paying “hush money” to George Smith, Sherrill literally ran and hid. He went so far as to abandon his coaching duties for the weekend, handing the scepter to Slo cum “to minimize distractions.” The next week, before the Texas game, he announced that he would not comment on the allegations until the end of the season. Since football season, deer season and Autumn 1988 are all over, we can only assume Mr. Sherrill operates on some special calendar of his own. When the Alabama game ended, and with it Aggie Football ’88, it became ob vious that wasn’t the season in question. He still refused to comment or to say when he would. In the meantime, the News identified Joe Avezzano and George Pugh as the assistant coaches implicated in the NCAA findings report. Sherrill still was refusing to identify them or punish them, calling the situation a straight case of “the word of the NCAA against the word of my coaches.” As if the NCAA punished a member institution for ac tions that “quite possibly” might have been taken. And then, out of the blue, Sherrill an nounced his resignation. By proxy, of course. And the end of the investigation was now the time he had said “from the beginning” would be when he would tell his side of the argument. It’s curious that even now a man defended by hun dreds of ardent admirers was even at that point avoiding any opportunity to defend himself. The Texas press corps does not hate Jackie Sherrill. The Texas press corps does not hate Texas A&M. The Texas press corps is not looking for any scrap Mail Call Let’s boycott A&M EDITOR: Racism is one of many problems that people of the ’80s generation believe to be solved. They contend that in the ancient era of the 1960s civil rights activists pulled the plug on years of inequality. Yet, recent events prove that racism is still abundant in America. The Howai Beach incident and the Tawana Brawley case serve as examples. One way to combat rising racist sentiment is to think about racism and thelo: bloody path America has traveled to reach the state which exists today. An opportunity is offered in Martin Luther King day. However, Texas A&M has made celebration difficult by ignoring the holiday and insisting classes be held. In protest, I urge you to boycott class and all University facilities. Don’t buy books or food from the University. Stand up against racism, celebrate a great man’s life and battle for the freedom of all people. Derek Kalahar ’91 Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 words in length. The editorial staff reserves the right to edit lettersfm and length, but will make every effort to maintain the author's intent. Each letter must be signed and mustw. the classification, address and telephone number of the writer. Some panics h rhetoric business tablishm But tl they still Raza U n Jose / party s the Univ in Decei of his ti bar exan Two t ers, Ang de la IsL with tin multiliiij and its a All th society t< of edua that the as its pla But i Texas R still spea "We’r he said, serve lal develop* Gutie City, th South T alyst in ness-rais helped < of sensationalism connecting a South west Conference school with NCAA rules violations. In short, the Texas press corps is not to blame for the rash of infractions le vied against SWC schools this decade any more than the national media was to blame for Watergate or the Iran-Contra scandal. The fault lies squarely at the feet of people like Sherrill, his kind and their supporters. People who think their par ticular school is above the rules, for whatever reason. People who think of winning football games as the ultimate goal, for which all rules and ethics must and will be sacrificed. If you are one of those people, I blame you for the mess A&M football is in just as much as I blame the foni athletic director and head coach, created the monster that was thejacl Sherrill administration as much Jackie Sherrill did. j You’re supposed to be in college learn. Well, learn from this. Let’s elevi morals and ethics instead of gridin demigods. Let’s set integrity as ourg instead of the Cotton Bowl. And maybe, just maybe, we wo have to go through this mess again. Hal Hammons is an assistant nt editor forThe Battalion. Want to blast The Batt? Then do it with a lettei As we begin a new semester, I am re minded of the immortal words of a wise, old friend of mine. Well, he wasn’t really that wise, in fact he was a little slow, but he was old — well, middle- aged at least. Aw, shoot. Let’s just start this thing over. As we begin a new semester, I am re minded of the immortal words of a young, idiot friend of mine. “Dean,” he told me, “burned meat- loaf tastes better if you put a lot of ket chup on it. It also helps if you scrape the black stuff off.” It’s been years since my friend gave me those words of advice, but I’ve never forgotten them. I’m not sure why, but I never have. Actually, I’m not even sure what that advice means. It’s bound to have some deep, philosophical connotations, though. And if anybody knows what they are, I’d appreciate a letter or phone call. I could go on and on with interesting little bits of trivia such as this, but as my philosophical, idiot friend would say, “Shut up.” So I’ll get right to the point. At some time during this semester, you are probably going to disagree with something you read in The Battalion. Instead of just sitting there and getting mad about it, or running around yelling obscenities, maybe you should take some action. Write a letter to the editor. It’s painless. It’s easy. It’s — OK. I can tell what you’re thinking. You’re thinking, “Yeah, sure. I take the time to write a letter to the editor, and when it gets to The Battalion it just ends up in the trash. Right?” Wrong. Although we can’t run every letter that we receive, we will do our best to print as many as we can. I mean that. The Battalion (USPS 045 360) 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 Editor Scot Walker, Wire Editor Drew Leder, News Editor Doug Walker, Sports Editor Jay Janner, Art Director Mary-Lynne Rice, 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 77843. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Battal ion, 216 Reed McDonald, Texas A&M University, Col lege Station TX 77843-4 111. And you can help yourself out by fol lowing the directions contained in our letters policy. Basically, your letter should be readable and it should con tain your name, classification, and tele phone number. You also need to sign it. We won’t print it until we have all of this information. Letters should be dropped off at The Battalion in Room 216 of the Reed McDonald Building. That’s not too difficult, is it? As my young, philosophical, idiot friend would say, “Duhhh, nope.” And if writing a letter is too imper sonal for you, or if you just want to talk with someone at The Battalion, stop by or give us a call. Ask to speak with me or any one of our other editors. We want your opinions and criticisms, but we’ll never get them if you don’t take the first step. If you have an opinion to express, but you believe that a 300-word letter won’t do it justice, then you might want to consider writing a guest column. Unsoli cited guest columns might be printed, but it would generally be a good idea to contact The Battalion first by phone or in person and tell us what you would like to write about. Then we can decide whether we would be interested in using it or not. If we are interested in using it, we can give you a few guidelines for writing the column that will make it eas ier for you to write and easier for us to edit. You don’t necessarily have to be re sponding to something you’ve read in The Battalion when you write a letter to the editor. If there’s something occur ring at Texas A&M (or anywhere else) that you think merits attention, then please write a letter about it. And re member, you’re not just writing to The Battalion, but to the students, profes sors and administrators of A&M. Suddenly, I am reminded of an amusing anecdote which has some bear ing on the message I am trying to con vey. It concerns a guy named Bubba O’Keefe. Bubba graduated from high school a few years ago and, not really being the college type, went to work as a prison guard in Kumquat, Idaho. His first few weeks went fairly well. He let the prison ers out of their cells when they were supposed to be let out, and he locked them back up when they were supposed to be locked up. Except for the depres sing prison environment, Bubba actu ally liked the job. But then, during Bubba’s third week on the job, tradgedy struck. Bubba accidentally unlocked the cell door of one James “Mad Dog” Koslowski, a convicted mass murderer serving a life sentence with no chance of parole. Mad Dog, who weighs over 500 pounds, quickly escaped from his cell and proceeded to knock Bubba sense less. Bubba spent weeks in a hospital re covering from severe head wounds. Af ter he was released from the hospital, Bubba returned to the prison. He had only been back at the pm for a fe v days when tradgedy strul again. Same cell, same Mad Dog, same ml take. Bubba was promptly fired, died only months later in a dilapidate! rat-infested shack. You might have already guessed I moral of this little digression. T he moil is: Don’t name your kid “Bubba” acl for God’s sake don’t let him be a prist; guard. I believe I mentioned something ei Her about this story having some rell vance to writing letters to the editor, about to explain that, so please paycloj attention. Uhhhhh, give me a minute. OK. I’ve got it. Unfortunately, however, I’m out i room, so I won’t be able to tell you wi J the story about Bubba has to do will writing letters to the editor. Rest as | sured, though, that you would hai been most amazed and delighted hadl gotten the opportunity to share thatiit formation with you. Well, maybe I do have time. Yousef Bubba never wrote a letter to the editof of a newspaper — not even once. Do you want to be a Bubba? Do yo| want to get your skull crushed by a con! victed mass murderer named Mad Dog Do you want to die in a dilapidated, rat! infested shack? ■ No? Then sometime this semester, beforW it’s too late, you’d better write a letter if I the editor. Dean Sueltenfuss is a junior jouni lism major and opinion page editor /o The Battalion. fF tL