The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, September 18, 1989, Image 2

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    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.
News Editors
Tom Kehoe, Sports Editor
Jay Janner, Art Director
Dean Sueltenfuss, Lifestyles Editor
Editorial Policy
The li.nudion is a non-profit. .sclf-sup|x»riing newspa
per operated as a community service to Texas A&M anti
liryan-Colicgc Station.
Opinions expressed in The Hollo lion arc 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 Hoard of Regents.
I'lie Boliolton also serves as a laboratory newspaper
for students in reporting, editing and photography
classes within the Department of Journalism.
The liollotion is published Monday through Friday
tluring Texas AJtM regular semesters, except for holiday
and examination |x-rinds.
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per school year and $36.44 |x.-i lull year. Advertising
rates furnished on request.
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