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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 18, 1989)
The Battalion OPINION Monday, September 18,1989 Move the hell outta bonfire! It’s time to move bonfire. That statement sends many people’s blood pressure through the roof, as it once did mine. But, after taking a ratio nal look at reasons for, and arguments against modifying this hallowed tradi tion, I have come to believe moving it is the right thing to do. Bonfire, in its present location, is a major disaster waiting to happen. If one of the homes across Jersey were to catch fire, the College Station Fire Depart ment would be seriously hampered in its attempts to fight the fire because of the huge number of people and vehicles in the area. Duncan Field. That's the wav it's always been, and ue shouldn't mess with tradi tion. one of those buses to stop at the bonfire site. I’ve been told, and it might be true, that the probability of one of the homes actually catching fire is relatively slim. It’s also quite likely that any place you choose to put a 55-foot pile of timber covered in jet fuel is going to constitute a fire hazard. If that probability exists at all, every possible means should be taken to minimize it. Our University owns hundreds of acres of undeveloped land across the tracks. Very few homes are in the vicin ity. Why not move bonfire over there? Even if the University decides to de velop the area, there is enough room to safely have both. But how are students supposed to get all the way over there to work on stack? Duncan Field is convenient for every one living on campus. Wait a minute. I’m not talking about moving bonfire to Snook or Dime Box, just across the tracks. Thousand of stu dents have classes across the tracks ev ery day. There are even (GASP!!) park ing lots over there. Interior shuttle buses run back and forth; it is even con ceivable that it could be arranged for It is also worth mentioning that while cut is never near campus, enough peo ple make it out to “B.F.E.” to kill enough trees to build bonfire, year after year. Transportation problems can al ways be overcome. The location of bonfire is obviously of great concern to the leaders and citizens of College Station. At the Board of Re gents recent “open forum,” College Sta tion city councilman Dick Birdwell urged the Regents to move bonfire. He cited the fire hazard and the difficulty of getting emergency vehicles in and around the area, and suggested the site be changed to the Polo Field. I agree with his basic premise, but I don’t think the Polo Field is a viable so lution. The fire hazard simply would be shifted from the homes lining Jersey Street to the businesses near the inter section of Texas Avenue and University Drive. The traffic congestion would probably be just as bad as it is now. The powers-that-be have already agreed that a fire hazard exists, as evi denced by the decision to limit the height of the structure. It is possible that the limit could be removed or raised if bonf ire were held across the tracks. I don’t think tradition is ever a suffi cient basis for making a decision. Tradi tion says that if bonfire falls bef ore mid night, it bodes ill for our chances of beating the University of Texas. Since I’ve been here, the bonfire has never made it anywhere near midnight, yet we haven’t lost in five years. As a letter-writer astutely noted in Friday’s Mail Call, it also used to be tra dition that all Aggies be white, male and in the Corps. And, as recently as last year, it was even tradition for our foot ball team to play UT on Thanksgiving Day. So much for tradition. It might be hard to believe, but not so long ago bonfire was held on the Simp son Drill Field. When the proposal was made to move it, a lot of people got up in arms, saying it was a tradition that shouldn’t be changed. But it was changed, bonfire was moved, and the tradition carries on. If a simple change of location is enough to kill a long standing tradition, then that says some thing about how much esteem that tra dition was held in to begin with. To the best of my knowledge there currently is no attempt under way to move Bonfire ’89. despite persistent ru mors to the contrary. Dr. John Koldus, vice-president for student services and the man in charge as far as bonfire is concerned, told me the topic has not even been discussed by the administra tion this year. It’s past time for discussion. Let’s be responsible citizens and rational think ers and move it across the tracks now. Mail Call Knowledge is like a seed EDITOR: I agree with Wade See that many people attend school “not to learn, not to think critically and not to become educated, but to land a really groovy job.' 1 Fit heard people say that when they get a job they’re going to buy a fancy car andai beautif ul house. Everybody has their own ideals for life. Some people thinkmor- is the basis of life, while others think education is the basis. For the people who say that in the working environment you don’t usewhai you’ve learned in school, well, what you use depends on your field of studyand expertise. Knowledge is like a seed. School is the earth in which the seed is planted.Gn; the appropriate initial conditions (schools, teachers, parents, etc.), the seed will sprout. As time progresses, it will grow into a fine and sturdy tree with many branches and leaves and a strong root. A person who studies and understands is a person who has a desire for knot edge. Michael Tran ’90 Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 words in length. The editorial staff reserves the right to edit lettersja and length, but will make every effort to maintain the author's intent. Each letter must be signed and mustmkl /ossification, address and telephone number of the writer. Why don’t we gel drunk and listen to country music But it's tradition to have bonfire on Scot Walker is a junior journalism major and editor otf The Battalion. According to a wire story I read the other day, a University of Minnesota re searcher has told the American Anthro pological Association that, after a 10- year study, he has deternrined that country music will make you drink fas ter. Funding foreign political candidates is What was your first clue, Dick Tracy? The researcher, James Schaefer, told the anthropologists that he and a group of associates studied a bar in Missoula, Mont., and supported it by investigating 65 similar bars in the Minneapolis area. til closing time nursing a bottle f wa Seven-Up? angerous “No doubt about it,” said Mr. Schaefer, “country and western music can be a prescription for trouble among people with little self control.” Country music titles alone snot^-^ have tipped off the researchers an ^ * saved them a lot of time develop!,' their conclusions. Say, here’s a bad idea. The Bush ad ministration wants to give $3 million of our money to help the presidential cam paign of a right-wing candidate in a for eign country. Who the hell ever paid taxes with the understanding that the money would go to some foreign politi cal campaign? Look, I’m not completely naive, I know perfectly well this country funnels money to foreign politicians. We have a long and regrettable history of seizing on some despicable despot and pro claiming him the latest champion of de mocracy, unexcelled since Winston Churchill was in his prime — we did it with Ngo Dinh Diem, Syngman Rhee, Anastasio Somoza, Ferdinand Marcos, Augusto Pinochet and many others. But we have heretofore funneled such ille gal support through illegal means —the CIA usually invents some back-channel conduit so we can all claim to be shocked and horrified when it is eventually re vealed that the CIA, preferably while under the direction of someone safely dead, has once more slipped out of con trol. Great, another one of those intelligent debates where one side says, “If you don’t agree with me, you must be in fa vor of molesting small children.” Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, the con tra candidate in the Nicaraguan elec tions. Chamorro, one of that remarka ble family whose members are on all sides of Nicaraguan politics, is the pub lisher of La Prensa, the opposition newspaper in Nicaragua, which has it self been receiving CIA funds for years now. But now Secretary of State Jim Baker wants to do the deed in front of Cod and everybody, as though it were some thing we had some right to be doing. One hangover from the Reagan era is the National Endowment for Democ racy, which is supposed to run around promoting democracy all over the globe, but is always in danger of being perceived as an insufferable busybody. As long as the endowment limits itself to helping with voter registration drives and poll-watching to make sure elec tions are honest, it can be argued that it has a legitimate role. But now the Bush people want to use it to send money to In the first place, this is a bad idea be cause it is wrong. If you have any doubts about how wrong it is, just use that sim ple old Golden Rule test — how would you feel if you found out the govern ment of Nicaragua was spending mil lions of dollars to influence the Ameri can presidential elections? In the second place, whatever good the National En dowment for Democracy might be able to do will be hopelessly undermined if it becomes as partisan organization, sup porting candidates of a particular ideo logical persuasion, instead of the demo cratic process itself. Seems to me almost any fool should be able to see that. Since I am a known feminist, you may take my views on pornography for granted. OK? Now, let’s discuss the problem. The problem is that among the thousands of grants th National En dowment makes every year, last year two of them went to two arts organiz- tions that did something controversial. One group sponsored a show (just one of many art exhibitions it sponsored during th course of the year) that fea tured some artist’s representation of a crucifix in a glass of urine. Don’t ask me; I don’t get it either. The other arts group did an exhibition of the photos of Robert Mapplethorpe, a brilliant pho tographer, who happened to be gay. So naturally some people claimed the pho tos that were of nekkid men were glori fying homosexuality or some such thing. Big deal. Ironically, some of Map plethorpe’s photos of “nekkid” women, rather than men, are in the current is sue of Esquire— so you can check it out for yourself and see if you think he’s glorifying heterosexuality. Want another flash? Mr. Schaefer said that country lyrics — sad songs about love lost, hard times and drinking — were the main cause of the listeners’ faster consumption of alcohol, and he even specified which country singers are most likely to push a listener into or dering another round. A lab rat could figure out Jerry li irate* Lewis’s “What Made Milwaukee Fam salt t Has Made a Fool Out of Me” is a ing song. pncie ter tv\ All And what about Willie’s “WhiskvR? er,” and “I Cotta Get Drunk, ButlSii ^ He mentioned Hank Williams, Jimmy Rodgers, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Jerry Jeff Walker, Wil lie Nelson and Waylon Jennings. Do Hate It?” And there’s even a count song titled, “I’m Gonna Hire a Wino Decorate Our Home,” and anotl? called “Pop-a-Top Again,” and “Sel f Up Joe and Play ‘Walkin’ the and George Jones’s haunting. Drinkin’ Don’t Kill Me, Her Memo: Will.” It took 10 years to come to those con clusions? Where did this guy hang out before he decided to study country mu sic bars, the Christian Science Reading Room? trapr 315 lan; salini treai the / porte Hi; tastin ith And I almost forgot Merle Haggarc “Think, I’ll Just Sit Here and Drink, I though he doesn’t say “drink.” He sat “drank,” which is how people in JfijL'vJ soula probably pronounce it, too. What did he expect to find while studying patrons of a country music bar in Missoula? That when somebody played Willie Nelson singing “Yester day’s Wine,” they were going to switch to iced tea? Did he expect some cowboy who just rode in on a broken heart and punched up Hank Williams and Hank Jr. doing “I’ve Cot Fears in My Beers for Cryin’ Over You” to sit at the bar un- The problem with too many the research field is they research thin that are too obvious. Tell me somethi: I don’t know — like does listening loud rock music lead to larger pimp! on teenagers’ faces, or why rap mu; doesn’t appeal to white Presbyterians Meanwhile, gimme another beer.S rah, and play anything by GeorgeJone Copyright 1989, Cowles Syndicate On another front (eternal vigilance is the price of liberty), Congress is now wrestling with the Helms amendment to censor the National Endowment for the Arts. Last time I wrote about this, I got a letter from some guy who said, “YOU may be in favor of subsidizing pornog raphy with tax money, but FM not.” The Battalion (USPS 045 360) Member of Texas Press Association Southwest Journalism Conference The Battalion Editorial Board Scot Walker, Editor Wade See, Managing Editor Juliette Rizzo, Opinion Page Editor Fiona Soltes, City Editor Ellen Hobbs, Chuck Squatriglia. 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