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
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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.
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