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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 2, 1989)
The Battalion OPINION Thursday, March 2, 1989 MARQUES Mail Call ‘Quibbling’ still necessary EDITOR: I am writing in reference to the Feb. 27 editorial concerning Gov. Bill Clements appointing minorities to the boards of regents of Texas A&M and the University of Texas. I disagree with the editorial and propose that Gov. Bill Clements was not in a no-win situation. Two positions were open on the Texas A&M Board of Regents. Of course, one had to be reserved for the proverbial minority so there would be no more protests. Again, an opportunity to improve the equity of the Board of Regents, by appointing two minorities, is gone. I do not believe there were no qualified minorities for appointment to to either of the boards of regents. I find it easier to believe, given today’s subtlety of racism, that Gov. Clements did not even think about appointing any minorities to the boards of regents until protests started. Lastly, if you say race should not matter, then consider the reaction of white people to an all-black membership of the A&M Board of Regents. 1 am positive there are enough qualified blacks in Texas to fill every seat. If this were to happen it would be called reverse discrimination. You say we should stop “quibbling” about race. When a black man or any other minority can walk through this life without race being a factor, when there is equal opportunity for all, then I will never “quibble” about race. Charles Henderson ’90 Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 words in length. The editorial staff reserves the right to editletten for style and length, but will wake eveiy effort to maintain the author's intent. Each letter must be signed and must include the classification, address and telephone number of the writer. Play day was not just a Saturday in the park James Cecil - ifi!# Columnist Picture an assembly of hundreds of college students by a calm, murky lake. Their cars are grouped in clusters scat tered across the lakeside park. Music emanates from different sound systems blaring against each other — part of the spirit of friendly competition that day. But little does this jovial group of col lege youth know that their day of festivi ties and contests will end sooner than they had planned. They will take a de tour at the sign-post up ahead, and find themselves trapped in ... the Ha rassment Zone. This scene ought to be easy to visual ize for the 750 fraternity members at the Alpha Delta Pi sorority’s Playday event held this past Saturday. The Bryan Utilities Lake was once again the place of this annual philan thropic event. And once again the park was covered with people, everyone run ning around and getting their teams or ganized for the somewhat comical relay races that would last most of the af ternoon. Every year the contests have started at 9 a.m. and usually have ended at 6 p.m. with a tug-of-war tournament. This year, the contests started at 9 a.m. with a biathlon race, and ended at 3 with public harassment. Each fraternity had teams with their own members plus a couple of Alpha Delta Pi girls. The relay races were rather silly, but still fun. Everyone was gathered around the contest area cheering, laughing and having a great time. Music was blaring from several spots around the park, and some of the guys were moving from one group of cars to another talking to friends and meeting some of the ADPi’s who were coaches for the teams. Some of the guys had beer w ith them, but no one showed signs of overindul gence. At this event, as with any public affair, the fraternities are expected to follow the carefully outlined rules that were developed to combat the problems associated with drinking alcohol. Coin- cidently, there were no problems whth alcohol at this event. The last of the contests, the tug-of- war tournament, w'as getting underway when a sudden disruption agitated the friendly mood of the participants. I looked around and saw a Bryan po lice car being followed by a cloud of dust, then another cloud on the other side of the park following two police cars. I saw others in the distance on the road leading to the park. The storm- troopers had invaded. Uniformed officers jumped out and 06409802swept through the area, stop ping at each cluster of cars to ask for ev eryone’s identification. A few plain clothes officers from the Texas Alco holic Beverage Gommission moved bris kly through the crowd and arrested two guys participating in Playday. I thought, “O.K., they’ve done their business; they’ve ruffled the crowd. Now they’ll leave and we’ll get on with the match.” Silly me. They didn’t leave, and we didn’t get on with the match. All 750 of us were instructed to leave the park, a public park by the way, and on our w r ay out we were to pay a $2 fee. If w'e did not pay the fee, we would be video taped and taken to court. The fraternity members and the ADPi girls were cooperative, and we did as we were told, mainly because we didn’t know what was going on. Every one packed in their cars and headed out of the park. Imagine every car in the fish lot leav ing at the same time through one exit. Now add the fact that every car will be stopped by a policeman before it can leave. That’s right, it’s an ugly sight. I was lucky. I got in a fraternity brother’s car immediately after the an nouncement and headed for the one road that led to the park exit. I only sat in the car for an hour and a half. Most people were stuck there for over two hours; forced to leave, but sitting in their cars, waiting to pay $2. By the time I reached the exit, word had passed from car to car that the po lice would allow us to pay the fee on Monday without taking us to court. Gee, thanks. Well, we paid the fee and I drove my friend’s car out of the park/penitentiary only to get a speeding ticket a few' miles 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, Gity Editor Scot Walker, Wire Editor Drew Leder, News Editor Doug Walker, Sports Editor Jay Janner, Art Director Mary-Lynne Rice, Entertainment Edi tor Editorial Policy The Battalion is a non-profit, self-supporting newspa per operated as a comm unity service to Texas A&M and Brvan-College Station. Opinions expressed in The Battalion are those of the editorial board or the author, and do not necessarib 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 photographs classes within the Department of Journalism. The Battalion is published Monday through Friday during Texas A&M regular semesters, except for holidav and examination periods. Mail subscriptions are $17.44 per semester, $34.62 per school year and $36.44 per full vear. 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. POS 1 MASTF.R: Send address changes to The Battal ion, 216 Reed McDonald. Texas A&M Universitv, Col lege Station TX 77843-111 1. later. If that wasn’t enough, I got a blis tering sunburn while I was waiting in the car to pay the $2. Later, we found out that we had to pay the fee because of a contractual dis crepancy between the park and ADPi. But w r hy were we all forced to leave the park, still a public park, against our will? Why would they want to herd 750 peo ple through a bottle-neck all at one time? Why wasn’t anything explained to us before we were kicked out? Since this incident, both the Bryan Police Department and the TABC have been vague about their communication with each other that day and their rea sons for raiding Playday in the manner they did. This leads me to believe that they weren’t quite sure what they were doing. Despite the fun and excitement of the contests at Playday, we all left with a sense of resentment that stemmed froei! feeling violated and harassed by thear bin ary use of police authority. James Cecil is a senior economics major and a columnist for The Battaf ion. Khomeini’s actions not much different than those of others So Ayatollah Khomeini has declared that Salman Rushdie must die for his crimes against the religion of Islam and its founder, Mohammed. I have no quarrel with that. The whole ordeal began with Rush die writing a book called “The Satanic Verses.” In it, the author supposedly makes stabs at Islam and its prophet. The Ayatollah, as well as a great num ber of other Muslims, finds this to be an abhorrence. India has banned the book, some Muslims have made bomb threats against anyone taking part in the pro duction and sale of the book, and the Ayatollah has offered a reward for the person w ho kills Rushdie. Protecting Islam seems to be a serious cause these days. The effects of all of this action seem suprising in the democratic West. Bookstores keep the book behind the shelves, if they keep it at all. Because of numerous bomb threats, publishers have moved their top executives to dif ferent building for their personal safety. Protests by Muslims have become more numerous and popular. And Rushdie is fast becoming a wealthy man, even though he may not live long enough to enjoy his wealth. At times, certain situations require dramatic, even violent, measures. To protect what you hold to be truthful and loving, you have to take drastic action. To some followers of Islam, this seems to be such a crisis, and they must do ev erything possible to keep the faith, to hold themselves up in the eyes of the w'orld. History offers many examples of us ing strong measures to combat a per ceived enemy. Galileo Galilei, back in the 17th cen tury, became convinced that the Earth moved around the sun. While this seems to be a given to you and me, back then most of the people believed that the Earth was stationary with the universe revolving around it. This was the view taken by the Catho lic Church. They perceived Galileo to be a threat to the Church, and put him on trial. Galileo had the choice of renounc ing the truth as he knew' it or being exe cuted. As he was a man who valued life, he discredited his findings. And the Puritans of New England had to turn to extreme measures as well to protect what they held close to their hearts. Back in the late 1600’s they found themselves with a bunch of witches. Witches, as was well known, were the angels of Satan and the gate keepers of hell. So the Puritans took it upon them selves to rid the Earth of these mon strosities. To let them live would have been to give Satan free reign in this land of holiness and dim the light emitted by the City on the Hill. The witches were burned. And let’s not forget the thousands of heretics who were disposed of for va rious thoughts and views, including Sa vonarola, a high member of a religious order who was hung in the late 1400s for heresy. Now, to turn from religion, let us look at the United States of America. In Vietnam, shortly after the end o! World War II, Ho Chi Minh asked America for help in begining a nation for the people of Vietnam. We refused, as he was a supposed communist, and he began to fight against the French. When the French had to get out, we stepped in. We were going to show those God- hating commies who was right and which ideology was supreme. We fell threatened. We went in to smite them and make Vietnam a democratic coun try. But w'e failed, not because our hearts weren’t in the right place but be cause the government wouldn’t let us w'in. And now we are ready and willing to send more soldiers to battle for the same cause in Nicaragua. Even today, we are still censoring and banning books. Recently in Shreveport, Louisiana, “Huckleberry Finn” has been banned —just for the use of the word “nigger.” At A&M, students feel the same kind of threat. Someone mentions the neg ative attributes of bonfire, suggesting that it be moved or even eliminated, and a furor is created. Someone states the corps consists of a bunch of empty- headed peons who should be thrown off campus, and people take offense in stantly. Racism is brought into focus and is violently denied. And anyone suggest ing change is branded with a scarlet “A." And a popular slogan aimed at any one w ho is perceived to be a threatening voice is, “Highway 6 runs both ways.” No, there’s nothing wrong with the Ayatollah. He’s just taking action against what he believes might harm Is lam. The only thing wrong with him is that he’s not us. Todd Honeycutt is a sophomore psy chology major and a columnist for The Battalion. BLOOM COUNTY by Berke Breathed TheES s St to BySha REVIEV Mosle man Rv Verses,” Middle i Moslem reached the Tex; Many blasphei prophet Moslem press sir Hisha neering Egypt, < tortion < is presic Associat “The but it is Muslims Anotl Alkindi, Ne col By Alar SENIOR A bill the insU money a ponents The p Rep. Wil to pay U the last p Schoo payment ams at sc “The < bution in in,” a spo keeping \ “The s and not c It was be