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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 24, 1989)
The Battalion OPINION Friday, February 24,1989 No-win situation Gov. Bill Clements has been criticized because of his two ap pointments to the A&M Board of Regents. Critics are upset that one of the nominees is not black; Bryan-College Station officials wanted a local person on the Board. The governor seems to be in a no-win situation. His appoint ment of three white men to the University of Texas Board of Regents came under fire for its lack of representation of mi nority group members. The uproar led one nominee to with draw his name, making way for the appointment of Mario Ram irez, a Hispanic. Clements appointed Ross Margraves Jr. of Houston and Raul Fernandez of San Antonio to the A&M Board, but now he is under fire for not appointing a black person. No appointment is going to please everyone. We should stop quibbling about race and look at the new appointments for what they can offer the University. The Battalion Editorial Board Mail Call No condoms on campus EDITOR: The arguments in Becky Weisenfels’ column of Feb. 17 and its headline, “Health center must provide condoms for A&M students,” are without merit. Is the editor’s real concern for students’ health or for students’ sexual convenience? There is a world of difference between the University providing professional medical care, especially to dorm students, and getting into the sexual products business. If any poor young Ags with limited transportation don’t have the strength to walk across University Drive to get a 50-cent condom, it is doubtful they have the energy to have sex. Your column suggests that the University is obligated to provide on campus whatever students need for safe sex. What’s next? Should the Universtiy provide free clean rooms at the MSC so students don’t have to find transportation to an apartment or motel room? How ridiculous. The aggressive A&M program of giving students the information they need to make their own decisions is exactly the proper course for the institution to take. Students must know that the only really effective way to avoid AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases is abstinence from sexual promiscuity — not the use of condoms. By the way, the same fact applies to accidental and inconvenient pregnancies. Abstinence is the only safe, effective way to avoid them. Rodger Lewis ’76 Racism doing well EDITOR: Dean Sueltenfuss needs to wake up and smell the roses. First off, his statement that “racism is close to being eradicated in the United States” is very far from the truth. Indeed the opportunities for minorities have greatly increased, but prejudice still remains ingrained in the hearts of many Americans. All you have to do is bring up, in a class here at A&M, the issue of Hispanics becoming the dominant race in Texas’ near future. Then listen to everyone’s reaction. The reason I am able to attend A&M and devote my time to my studies is largely due to the President’s Achievement Award, a minority scholarship. 1 am a proud second generation Aggie and third generation Texan. Given the opportunity, minorities will make great contributions to America’s future. Irene Santoscoy ’89 Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 words in length. The editorial staff reserves 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. Cuban bass are too expensive Some readers may have seen a recent photo in the newspapers showing a fish erman proudly holding a huge bass. What a bass it was. About 20 pounds, only a couple of pounds short of the world record. But it’s also a no-good, godless com mie bass. Actually, I doubt if the fish knows much about God or communism, but it was caught in a communist lake in communist Cuba. And that means the fisherman, to use the words of our current commander in chief, is in deep doo-doo. The fisherman, a professional guide named Dan Snow, has been indicted for fishing in Cuba. By going there to catch fish, and tak ing avid fisherman with him, he violated the law that forbids all but certain select Americans from visiting Cuba. If convicted, he could be sentenced to 100 years in prison and fined $500,000. (That’s an expensive lunker bass. It comes to five years and $25,000 a pound.) The feds nailed Snow only recently, although he’s been going fishing in Cuba since 1977, when then-President Jimmy Carter eased travel restrictions to that country. Why does Snow fish in Cuba? Be cause it’s a bassin’ man’s paradise. It has more than 800 lakes, teeming with big of hawgs. (This is the way a real bassin’ man talks.) They’re big because bass grow larger in warm climates, where they can feed all year. And they’re plentiful because Cubans are indifferent to bass fishing. Mike Royko Columnist So after Carter eased the old restric tions, almost 1,000 Americans a year started going there to fish. But in 1982, President Ronald Rea gan decided this was unpatriotic. He didn’t want Americans spending money in Cuba on food, lodging, rum drinks and bait, because it would help a god less, commie economy. And he ordered that only govern ment officials, journalists, scholars and Cuban exiles could go to Cuba. No fish erman or anyone else who would put a nickel in Castro’s pocket. However, Snow, a sharp Texan, thought he spotted a loophole in Rea gan’s order. He said he was doing scien tific rsearch by bringing back Cuban bass to be bred with our bass, so our bass might get bigger. This, he said, made him a scholar. But the feds figure he was just telling a fish story. They believe his main rea son for going there was to make a profit by organizing fishing charters. So the government has come down on Snow with both big feet, presumably to make an example of him and let oth ers know that they are watching. Although I don’t condone law-break ing, I find this case confusing. Every year many thousands of Amer icans visit the Soviet Union, some as tourists, some as businessmen. And they spend large sums to eat godless, com munist borsch. Thousands of Americans also vise China, where they spend vastsumso: godless, communist egg rolls. Thousands of others visit Yugoslavia Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Poland ani other commie countries, spendingl)i[ money on godless, communist pieroe and other godless, communist dishes can’t pronounce or spell. So I ask: If Americans are permilttJ to spend money in communist countria to eat godless, commie borsch, egg rol and pierogi, why can’t an America spend money to catch a godless, comt fish? I don’t visit communist countrin since I feel nervous anywhere you ca be arrested without being able total your lawyer and a bondsman. But if 1 had to make a choice, ll much prefer going to Cuba, withitsfim beaches and bass fishing, than to Mo* cow, which is as cold as Chicago, withoii our fine saloons. And if they are going to go after Mi Snow, they could be less harsh. Actit tury in prison and a $500,000 finei kind of stiff just for doing what thot sands of American businessmen, inclml ing many conservatives, do regularly- trade w ith communists. Why, we don’t even impose that kin of punishment on those who sold weip ons to the crazy ayatollah. The prosecutors should takeanotlt look at Mr. Snow, then throw him bad He’s really not a keeper. Copyright 1989, Tribune Media Services,k We can’t allow terrorism to hold us “Sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never hurt me.” A childhood taunt that doesn’t seem to hold true when those words are writ ten and published. Ask Salman Rush die. Perhaps you’ve heard of him? Rush die, an Indian-born British citizen, wrote “The Satanic Verses,” a fictional tale that may cost him his life. The story opens with two Indian ac tors falling from a plane that was just exploded by terrorists over the English Channel. The actors have an animated discussion on the way dow r n, and they land safely only to have more problems develop. Throughout the book, Rush die talks about his childhood and early adulthood in Britain along with other aspects of his life. He also retells legends 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 Edi tor about the prophet Mohammed, phras ing them as the dreams of men whose sanity is questionable. The book won a literary award, but some Muslims did not take to the book. They considered it blasphemous for its portrayal of Mohammed’s wives as “prostitutes” and its suggestion that Mo hammed, rather than Allah, wrote the Koran. Scattered riots and protests began to surface in places like South Africa and India. The book was banned in coun tries to avoid secular violence. A mass protest was staged in front of the American cultural center in Islama bad, the Pakistan capital. Six people were killed and many more injured. Rushdie apologized for the distress 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 77843-4111. the book caused the Muslims after Ira nian President Ali Khamanei lead him to believe that such an apology could lead to a pardon, but it didn’t. Instead, on Feb. 14 Ayatollah Ruhol- lah Khomeini denied the chance of a re prieve for Rushdie, offering exonera tion to any Muslim who killed the author or anyone else involved in the book’s publication. What a Valentine’s gift. Two Iranian religious leaders even tually put a $5.2 million bounty on Rushdie’s head. Rushdie, under the protection of Scotland Yard’s anti-ter- rorist squad, went into hiding. British airlines began receiving bomb threats. This week, European govern ments recalled their ambassadors and chief diplomats from Iran to protest the call for Rushdie’s death. Now the terrorism and anger is spreading to the United States. Not only is it ridiculous for Khomeini to call for the death of another country’s citizen, but his terrorism is reaching di rectly into our lives, censoring what we read. Sales of “The Satanic Verses” in creased sharply after the riots began. About 100,000 books were printed worldwide with another U.S. printing planned. But distribution is being ham pered by “intellectual terrorism.” Waldenbooks ordered the removal of the book from its shelves after receiving threats, and the next day B. Dalton and Barnes & Noble did the same. Becky Weisenfels Editor “We have never before pulled a book off our shelves,” the chief executive offi cer of B. Dalton, Leonard Riggio, said. “It is regrettable that a foreign govern ment has been able to hold hostage our most sacred First Amendment prin ciple. Nevertheless, the safety of our employees and patrons must take prece dence.” If this type of terrorism works, what is going to happen when a pro-life group decides it doesn’t like a book on abortion and makes a bomb threat? Will the bookstores take that book off the shelves, too? The reactions of the bookstores are opening a whole new field of options for those opposed to some literature. The government ought to take a tougher stand against such ter rorism in the United States. President Bush recently said that bookstores should have “protection of the law if they decide to go ahead and sell a book of this nature.” These stores should not only have protection of the law; they should re ceive encouragement and help if they wish to carry the books. The Battalion (USPS 045 360) hostage I realize that the booksellers havd lot at stake — their stores and patron are being threatened. But 1 alsobefe t hat we as a nation should feel our frtt dom is just as threatened. I am not saying we should all put on lives on the line, but increased seoirii' and a stand for harsh punishmento: these terrorists might help. People are making threats and through those threats, are decidiif what we will and will not be allowed# read. I understand the book isoffensh for many Muslims, but I am offends by the actions of those who wish total the public from reading it. A similar controversy happened W year with the release of a movie tW many considered blasphemous. When “The Last Temptation!^ Christ” hit the theaters last year, 111# Americans were offended. Tilt! showed up to protest the movie, buit> movie did run — only one nationaltl#' ater chain refused to show it. The point is that there is a civil way# handle material that a segment ofi ( population considers offensive —wef low for that in our society. We shop not allow for bomb threats that lead# censorship. If people are offended by “The tanic Verses,” they can choose to pfr test, just as we should be able tochoo# whether we want to read the boot# not. Becky Weisenfels is a seniorjourt lism major and editor of The Battalia The Ball S' R( Cad< By Andre rIporte Twenty across the A&M Cor] 26. “The m cadets in change th< Deputy C have an of all about.” The foe discussion Center let from 10 S' terns. Mos Do< Of 2 wit HOUS' doctor sail imental j: cotic-lacec dren coul abuse is al The e which has versity of in Houstc tals, has Sidney V Washingti Citizen Hi Wolfe combinati colics will experien tempted t hospital. But Dr ton anesl the lollipr tential an The st dure was