The Battalion
OPINION
2
Wednesday, June 21,1989
Recruiting should bt
open to all groups
The Corps of Cadets is a viable and
vital part of this university and will re
main so.
However, the recruiting practices of
the Corps are, in my view, suspect. I
question not so much their techniques,
but rather when and where the recruit
ing takes place.
On the main day of the new student
conferences this summer, the freshmen
are greeted by a math assessment test,
an honors presentation and finally a
Timm
Doolen
Asilstant Opinion P«fl>EJII
Mail Call
Freedom shouldn’t be condemned
EDITOR:
I imagine that I’ll be seeing lots of Ayatollah letters for
a couple of weeks. I just have a couple of questions to ask
all you people who think that The Battalion shouldn’t have
printed the June 9 advertisement referring to this
offensive individual as “His Holiness,” “the great leader
What would the people who weren’t given their
freedom do? How dare you people become offended at
The Battalion, and more importantly, at the United States
of America for allowing all of us the right to say what we
want to say, and to believe, or not believe, whatever we
want to.
James Bennet Saxon
What would have happened if The Battalion had said,
“No, we won’t print that advertisement. It’s improper. It’s
immoral. It’s indecent. It’s wrong.”
Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 words in length. The editorial staff re
serves 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 clas
sification, address and telephone number of the writer.
A battle of wages, wills
The proposed increase in the minimum
wage is caught up in a battle of wills, a politi
cal fight, an economic dispute and — coming
last in line in typical Washington fashion —
the real needs of those on the lowest rung of
the wage ladder.
President Bush, his veto upheld, has the
best political position and the preferable
minimum wage proposal. When the powers-
that-be get around to a compromise, it
should look a lot like what Bush proposes.
that boosted the hourly wage to the $4.55 in
1991. Bush said that quick a rise would cost
as many as 400,000 jobs and lessen opportu
nity for entry-level jobs. This turned into a
battle of wills, and Congress passed the bill
anyway. Bush, on a trip, didn’t even wait to
get back on the ground — he vetoed the bill
in Air Force One.
but Bush is undoubtedly right that many
thousands would be off the payroll.
The Earned Income Tax Credit proposal
being discussed has merit. It would cut taxes
for low-income households and could pro
duce cash payments. There is a lot of room
for compromise in the various figures.
The president announced early on his in
tention to veto any minimum wage increase
The minimum wage has been a political
dispute for decades. The Democrats are us
ing the bill to forward their claim that Bush
favors the rich. Bush says he is protecting
jobs. Economists differ only on how many
jobs a minimum wage increase will eliminate,
Corps of Cadets presentation. I he new
students are virtually a captive audience
for this presentation. The freshmen are
probably free to go if they choose, but
nobody tells them so and few freshmen
realize they can leave.
Then that evening, before the tradi
tions program in Rudder Auditorium,
many Cadets try recruiting incoming
freshmen to be in the Corps. I have no
problem with the Cadets who are re
cruiting. They feel strongly about their
organization and would like other good
students to join. Also, they’re just doing
what they volunteered to do.
What I find objectionable is that the
Corps gets special privileges to recruit
incoming freshmen that no other A&M
student-based organization receives.
The case can be made that it is vital
for those interested to enter the Corps
before the start of school because of dif
ferent housing and the fact that the new
students in the Corps must attend fresh
men orientation week.
Yet this argument is shaky, because I
find it hard to believe that any signifi
cant number of students coming to
A&M have not heard about the Corps
and already made up their mind as to
whether they intend to join. After all,
when you first hear of A&M, you also
hear of the Corps of Cadets.
Due to the five new residence halls
along with other factors, this is the first
year in many that all the freshmen who
request on-campus housing have had
their requests honored. Many of the stu-
Somewhere in here the needs of the low-
income worker need to be taken into consid
eration. Eliminating400,000 jobs is not the Tents have already signed housing
c - e-i —m agreements to live on campus and thus
they have in effect decided notoi
where they want to live, but than!:
want to be civilians.
I don’t see how the Corps can exft
too many of these incoming students
suddenly change their minds and jo
the Corps. Nonetheless, assuming!
of the freshmen who eventually join
Corps make their decision to join ait
new student conference, that is oi
about 360 students of the projected!!
but over 6,500 students sit throughtl
Corps presentations with little interest
There are two options 1 seeasso:
tions to this conflict. The first is
allow the Corps to have an officii
sanctioned presentation during
freshmen conference. They can
have a table at the MSC and they
add a booth at the resource tables
Rudder Exhibit Hall, which mostoft
new students visit during the coni
ence. This way, the Corps is free to
emit, but not in front of a captiveaut
ence filled primarily with students*
have already made up their mind.
T he other option is for Student
fairs to allow time during the confe
ence for the Corps of Cadets toreca
individually along with other signifc:
student organizations. I’m sure
trafraternity Council, Student Cover
ment, the MSC committees and otk
student-based organizations would 1
to recruit incoming freshmen intotlv
programs, especially if they were giver,
captive audience. But I can’t see givit
any organization a captive audio*
and would rather see a time setasi:
where all the major organizations are
lowed to talk individually with thosest,
dents who are interested in t/iatpait
alar organization.
With either solution, we endup
the result of the Corps of Cadets geffi
adequate representation, but not lit
ing students captive for up to45n
utes when most of them are at
way to help. Bush’s proposal would be of
some benefit while doing the least harm.
Houston Chronicle
have decided, in writing, that they will
be living in civilian residence halls. So
different to the presentation.
fairness to major student orgamaw
the
ODDOFtunities for recruiting $
going to have to be changed.
Pitiful programming plagues our children
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from the vt
comp issue.
What ever happened to “Land of the
Lost?”
The ruthless individuals responsible
for the loss of all the great kids shows
and their subsequent replacement with
today’s pitiful programs should be given
a life sentence of watching continuous
reruns of “Man from Atlantis.”
Now that summer is finally here, I am
free to do something I haven’t done in
years — watch television. I always flip
on the boob-tube at 10 p.m. to keep
abreast of current events via the news.
Hey, it’s easier than reading the newspa
per.
But now I have time to actually relax
and watch the television for entertain
ment. “Star Trek” comes on every week
day. “The Six Million Dollar Man” is
even back. Obviously, times have
changed for television, though. Today,
six million dollars would hardly buy
Steve Austin a pacemaker.
No change in television can compare
with the total downfall of childrens’ pro
gramming. While thumbing through
the TV guide, I saw no “Speed Racer”,
no “Lost in Space” and very few of the
shows that made TV great when I was a
kid.
In the days of my youth, I planned
most of my time around the “neat-o”
cartoons and kids shows that were scat
tered throughout the day. Early morn
ing had “Popeye” and “The Three Stoo
ges” to offer. Today’s kids are treated to
such classics as “Care Bears” and
“Snorks.” At 7:30 a.m., if one is lucky
enough to be within range of indepen-
Matt
McBumett
Columnist
dent Houston stations, he has a choice
of watching “Ghostbusters” on channel
20 or “Real Ghostbusters” on channel
26. Boy, what a dilemma!
Even more important to the average
youth is after-school programming.
Back in elementary school, my buddies
and I would postpone our fierce “kill
the man with the ball” games until after
our favorite shows.
We could not live without our daily
doses of “Gilligan’s Island,” “The Jet-
sons,” “The Flintstones” and, in my very
young days, “Ultraman.” Kids of today
can still catch some of these classics if
they sift through the other garbage that
occupies most of their television time.
I turned on our set recently and was
shocked to discover the total trash to
day’s youth must suffer through. The
first thing I noticed was some cartoon
figures roller-skating around Califor
nia. Naturally, I asked a friend what we
were watching. He replied, “I think it’s
called ‘Hollywood Teenage Mutants
from Hell.’”
show garbage, more specifically, “Be
verly Hills Teens” and the obviously ful
filling “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.”
Monday, I resigned myself to watch
ing an entire episode of this “Beverly
Hills” dribble. I began watching the
show at 3 p.m. and fell asleep five min
utes later. Have no fear, though! It
came on again at 4 p.m. It was the worst.
Moon Unit Zappa herself couldn’t com
pete with the outdated valley lingo used
by the so-called Beverly Hills teens.
After watching this episode, I gave up
on afternoon cartoons and reached for
the handy TV guide once more. I
thought there might be a slight chance
that some Saturday morning cartoons
had remained sacred. But then I saw it
— NBC’s newest jewel: “Gummi Bears.”
At that point, I began asking myself
questions. Do kids watch this trash? Is
there some mysterious link between
breakfast cereals, video games and car
toons? I wondered what happened to
the old iprogramming.
I have traced its disappearance to
three things. The first is the removal of
“Land of the Lost.” It was such a great
show. Don’t we all recall the catchy little
tune “Marshall, Will and Holly on a rou
tine expedition. ...” How about
the pylons — the little buildings which
controlled the weather? At any rate, it
was an entertaining kid show that was
not overly gay.
The second major malady to strike
kid’s television was Scrappy Doo. When
this little chump desecrated Scooby
Doo, he set off the rash of silly and ut
terly stupid cartoons which appear to
day.
The crowning blow was the removal
of School House Rock. ’ I rest assured
that we all remember these catchy little
ABC creations. When asked to recite the
Preamble, I sing it. When asked what
conjunctions are, I can firmly say that
then function is for hookin’ up words
and phrases and clauses.
I hese are two of the most memorable
“School House Rock” tunes. But what
about “Verb,” “Shot Heard Round
World,” “No More Kings” or ‘Wj
tion?” How about any of the ^
cation Rocks?” As we all ren
“Three is a magic number.
School House Rock was the
combination of entertainment
and 1
cation in the history of televi 510 ^
moval further cleared the path
terribly silly and stupid childrens
gramming of today.
There still is hope, though
Bunny” and “Fat Albert and the
Kids” are still on. Someone told 111
■Felix the Cat" *'f
he even saw
day. m
The facts still remain, fhe
today cannot create a kids show ^
worth. Our only hope is the
rection of the old shows. Mother
sity is calling loudly and no ones
be answering. Maybe Under
save the day. # , l cff ,
Matt McBurnett is a junior ,
engineering major and a cold
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The Battalion
(USPS 045 360)
Member of
Texas Press Association
Southwest Journalism Conference
ili
The Battalion Editorial Board
Ellen Hobbs,
Editor
Juliette Rizzo,
Opinion Page Editor
Fiona Soltes,
Citv Editor
Drew Leder, Charles Squatriglia,
News Editors
Steven Merritt,
Sports Editor
Katny Haveman,
Art Director
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