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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 30, 1989)
The Battalion OPINION 2 The Battalion sty Friday, June 30,1989 ... SftTMM ••• SATMM Sorrows. QflT/n/M &j<?/)/cees ... fi/jr^vw uNpeR-Me/i/Z • • • Ws "i^/aj th? BArm8tLf" co^rfsr... BAr/H/jfij- Fuwc&eo ice cze/f/n... 3AT#w-i fVUH INFt/meCe LIF<?'jlZc y /'■ Dolls... batman music */ STURiP ZP/WQjAL CARjctfllSfr AOvur 8/tTtfAA/.. / mt m / Rf/rii AM#] u/csr ms /n/tv /S /) vscr/rt o?> "*at-mR*n a, A coMO/r/<*/ rt//*r occurs tai PeoPcs fKfoseo n> /ill of r//<f fl/eLZcMA/OfsrrtO S0FR/>uND/rL6> rtff /vew "&Ar/nM H /no we. OOA/'T L£T T/-//S HARPCM 71? you/'! 60 Jif? 7^ mwcr P/Mf /PP /jA/O 6er /r o'/se. u<rd ■' ge/nesi&etz, oloA/ei /s * TfizwGL* to Msr<r (oM oTHeo. Mo vies ). -/? MfSSAOe FFoa\ f/f/e pfioDuce/is Of ''S/fr/TJFA/". Uprooting of histori Live Oak trees leave a lot to be desired They’re going to take away our trees. The Texas A&M administration’s plans for an expansion of the Memorial Student Center call for the removal of 26 trees, among them the 165-year-old Rudder Oak. Thirteen of the trees to be removed will be demolished, while the remaining trees will be transplanted to other loca tions on campus. Whether or not the trees survive the moving process is ques tionable. / s s s s e s f f s's e e: s'< 11 , s , f s s rs 11 <**.*■(<■ < c f r< < Gen. Wesley E. Peel, vice chancellor of facilities planning and construction, told reporters that the chances of the trees being saved are “Maybe 50-50, maybe 60-40. I can’t tell you what the odds are.” But why do we need to save the trees, anyway? They’re getting old —theiri cycles might end any day now. Ai good grief, we can’t let a bunch of amimate objects like trees get in the was of progress! #r‘ On the other hand, others say the trees just won’t make it — especially the more mature tr^es like the Rudder Oak. There are many very good reason! not to remove the trees. Let’s ignorei couple of the obvious ones, like it's just another example of man hacking awat at his environment or that the Ruddei Oak is a great tradition at A&M. EPA rules to start tracking waste The upper Atlantic Coast is a long way from the Gulf of Mexico, but Texas and Louisiana beachgoers should take note: Medical waste is beginning to wash ashore for the third year in a row. This summer, however, a new proce dure for tracking those wastes will be in effect. The Environmental Protection Agency is enforcing a two-year program to track and manage the disposal of such waste. siana, will be involved in a program in which the EPA will require doctors, den tists, veterinarians, hospitals, medical laboratories and clinics to keep detailed records that track a waste product from origin to disposal; others involved with handling the product also must sign documents used in the tracking. Seven jurisdictions, including Loui- The new procedure likely won’t make much of a dent in the medical waste problem, according to the EPA, which estimates that only 10 percent of the waste that floated ashore this past sum mer came from sources covered by the new regulations. Much of the rest came from illegal drugs and from outpatients who take drugs at home, says the EPA. To their credit, states covered by the new regulations have chosen to partici pate rather than opt out, which they could have done under an escape clause written into the law. Settling these problems a little at a time is far better that letting them fes ter. Beaumont Enterprise Robert Rucker, a landscape architect and retired A&M professor, said, “Trees of this vintage have just reached their maximum value as environmental statements and cannot be transplanted with any degree of success. Trees more than 10 inches in trunk diameter and planted in the type of soil on the A&M campus cannot be transplanted without killing them.” This campus is beginning to rather ugly. Yep, all those new-fangled tan brick buildings being constructed aren’t as beautiful as we’d all like imagine. What both of these guys seem to be saying is that the chances of these trees living aren’t that great. It’s no surprise that the pictures A&M recruiting brochures, posters and postcards are so often of the Academif Building and the Quad. Nobody want to go out of their way to look at tilt Blocker Building, the parking garage any of the modular residence halls ! ‘progress’ we’ve made has pushed back in the area of aesthetics. Ladies refuse to become sex objects These trees have been around for a long time — longer than any of us have — and there is no reason to destroy part “of the history and beauty of A&M to ex pand the MSC. Some days you open the paper and it’s kind of like finding Castro in the re frigerator smokin’ a cigar. It’s hard to know what to think. That’s the way I felt the other day when I learned the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders were upset with the team’s new owner because they think he’s fixin’ to make ’em into sex ob jects. Says I to myself, “No doo-doo?” (That’s the George Bush influence.) That it had not previously occurred to the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders that they might already be sex objects is one of those revelations that will take a good feminist by surprise. Nevertheless, I feel those of us of the feminist persuasion have an obligation to support the sisters on the cheerleadin’ squad. Heaven for bid that they be required by this barbar ian from Arkansas to wear revealing costumes! They should stick to the Pu ritanical outfits they wear now. How ha teful that the man (we always knew no good would ever come to lettin’ an Ar- kie buy the Cowboys) thinks cheerlead ers whould be required to socialize with football players, an obviously inferior class of persons. I’m a little puzzled as to why it is OK to stand on the sidelines and jiggle and shake in an effort to whip up enthusiasm for football players, but not OK to pal around with them; never theless, it’s clearly a freedom of choice issue — no woman should be required as a condition of employment to socialize with anyone. I consider the reasoning behind the cheerleaders’ unwillingness to perform at social functions at which liquor is served to be so obvious as to require no explanation whatsoever. They say they want to retain their clean-cut image. I had not previously been aware that they had a clean-cut image, but that’s only because I had not studied the matter deeply enough. Now being set straight upon this question, I cry shame upon Mr. Jerry Jones, who feebly insists that his intentions have been misunderstood by “the girls,” who he says are “the pick of the litter.” Mr. Jones, shut up. I trust this analysis of these vexing public policy questions has been of some assistance to the readership and that my own newspaper will now remove the af fair from the front page. The Supremes, in another 5-4 spe cial, now say the state of Texas cannot kill John Paul Penry unless and until the jury, finding him guilty of murder, is also informed of the fact that he is men tally retarded. But, say the Supremes, should a jury so informed then choose to off Penry despite the fact that he’s not bright enough to function in society, they may do so. Penry is not profoundly retarded, he can walk and talk; never theless, his personal history is so ghastly (he was horribly beaten and abused by his own mother) that you cannot hear about it in detail without gagging. This is one of those cases that defies the simplistic, judgmental vengeance- seekers. Penry not only commited a bru tal murder, his victim happened to be a lovely young woman, newly married, from a family well-known in her East Texas town, with all the bright promise of her youth and beauty and kindness destroyed without reason by this sub normal victim of a hideous upbringing. Who is to blame? Penry’s mother is dead and was clearly insane herself. I can find no one, unless it is the social workers who failed to remove Penry from his mother’s care, and while that was clearly a failure of responsibility, the death penalty is not yet attached to it. Is Penry now such a monster that the state should murder him? To do so is to hold John Paul Penry responsible for his acts. But he does not have the mind of an adult and could not conceivably be regarded as sane even if he were not re tarded. The Supreme Court of the United States could not bring itself to conclude that society has no right to murder the retarded. Under their ruling, someone with an IQ of 40 can be held account able for his or her actions, even though a 3-year-old four times that bright would not be. It was a gutless decison. And it means another East Texas jury will presumably be called upon to re-try Penry and to sentence him, this time with all the facts about his background, and to make a final decision in a case the Supreme Court didn’t have the collec tive courage to decide. The administration has a good point. The student body and faculty have out grown the available space on campus. To solve this problem, extra meeting and office space needs to be developed. But, it is not necessary to kill the green ery around the MSC to do it. Supporters of the MSC expansion plans say we don’t need to worry al) what the loss of thg,trees will do to general appearance of the MSC, ^ cause new trees will beplanted. Unfortu nately, it will take 50-60 years for thf new trees to mature. We will have uated by then, our children will graduated by then . . . h’ s g° be a long time before the new treesco® pare to the ones already there The planned expansion calls for an addition of 58,790 square feet to the northeastern part of the MSC. The plans also call for the construction of two, two-story buildings by the parking garage that would house offices, meet ing rooms, classrooms, the athletic de partment and the placement center. Gen. Peel told The Battalion people protesting the tree rem didn’t care about A&M or its student! He’s wrong. Protesters aren’t just testing the potential deaths of tre* They’re protesting the potential of the beauty of our campus. An additional floor added to each of these buildings could tack on around 57,000 square feet of meeting and office space to be used by the ever-growing student body. Aggies have always gone out oftW way to protect the grass outside MSC. Now it’s time for us to pro trees. atecttl' Ellen Hobbs is a junior join ro0 major and editor of The Battalion The Battalion (USPS 045 360) Member of Texas Press Association Southwest Journalism Conference The Battalion Editorial Board Ellen Hobbs, Editor Juliette Rizzo, Opinion Page Editor Fiona Soltes, City Editor Drew Leder, Chuck Squatriglia, News Editors Steven Merritt, Sports Editor Katny Haveman, Art Director Hal Hammons, Makeup 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. Friday, June B-C By Richard Tijeri STAFF WRITER “Batman” com pi run at a local theal sale of Batman-r< been going on muc Bryan-College Stat The movie ope plex Odeon Post O day. The manager, veal his name, wo on how local ticket Nationally, “Bat Michael Keaton as Nicholson as the J( box-office record taking in $42.7 Brothers Inc. stud day. That broke tin day record set by sequel, “Ghostbust nered weekend s; lion. But along with movie, “Batman” a a huge merchan Warner Bros, has firms to sell e shirts and tooth! “Batman” insignia mobiles. Bryan-College dealing in Bat-p; seen a dramatic rn Chief By Holly Beesc STAFF WRITER As the sky lion in celebr Day, people : dangers of ft regarding tht The use a works is outl Station, as in cause of the 1 they cause. More thai lated injuries year. The n doubled sina College 5 Harry Davis 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. 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