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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 19, 1989)
The Battalion Th OPINION Tuesday, September 19,1989 Mail Call Director uses poor judgment EDITOR: I am responding to IFC Director Charles Goodman's comments in the Tuesday, September 12 issue of The Battalion. I understand that Goodman’s last day with the University was Thursday, September 14. His departure was unrelated to the article or his comments — he had “accepted another position some time ago.” Although Goodman is “no longer with us,” I still feel compelled to express my disgust that a staff member at our University would publicly belittle any program attempting to deal positively with alcohol (even if it was at t.u., which is generally fair game for ridicule). Goodman’s argument that the program is ineffective is appropriate, if justified with proper examples. His references to the program as a “cute and clever public relations campaign” or as a result of “cirrhosis of the liver from all the drinking they did this summer” are not. Selina Gonzalez’s article was fair reporting — Goodman showed poor judgment and unprofessional behavior in his response to t.u.’s dry rush policy. Christine Bernsen Graduate Student Aggies need attitude adjustment EDITOR: Aggies are supposed to be friendly — so, what’s the problem? I’ve noticed a severe attitude change around this “friendly” campus. It’s not friendly anymore! Aren’t you happy to be at this wonderful university? It’s the best place around! You are Aggies not t-sips. Let’s get rid of the “attitude” and bring back that Aggie spirit. I know classes are hard, but that is true for all of us. If you have a problem saying “Howdy” or “Hi,” at least smile. Texas A&M is special, and it is a tradition to be friendly. Allison Currie ’91 Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 words in length. The editorial staff resen'es the right to edit letters for style and length,- hut will make every effort to maintain the author's intent. Each letter must be signed and must include the classification, address and tele flume number of the writer. Give prostitution the green light George Bernard Shaw once said that any vice that cannot be suppressed should be made a virtue. The “vice” considered the world’s oldest profession cannot be suppressed and, most would agree, should not be made a virtue, but it should be made legal. Please do not get the wrong idea, in deed I am not in favor of the legaliza tion of prostitution for any personal reasons. But the fact that prostitution is illegal poses numerous problems. I have attempted to logically deter mine why prostitution is illegal and I simply cannot do it. The “working girls” are still working, and always have been. Prostitution is a profession that has passed the test of time with flying colors and high hem lines. The laws do not work. Unfortunate as it is, earning money is a necessity. Our society dictates that one must have money to not only have lux ury items, but to survive. Jobs seem to be the best way to make money. On the same hand, sex is seen as good by most people. If the proper precau tions are taken by two consenting adults, sex not meant for procreation is recre ation. Why then, is prostitution supposedly an immoral thing when it is simply an extension of free-enterprise, something our country normally values quite highly? I am under the impression that laws prohibiting prostitution stem from a warped Judeo-Ghristian philosophy of sex. Lawmakers seem to have taken the biblical view literally with blinders to all other information. The distressing fact is not that we have let religious views Matt McBurnett —Ij I Columnist dictate our morals, but that they dictate our laws. Illegal prostitution is similar to prohi bition in the 1920’s. Prohibition was an obvious failure because the regulation of society’s morals with laws cannot be done. Prohibition fostered illegal activ ities other than the selling of alcohol (even giving rise to the Kennedeys). Illegal prostitution also provides an inlet for other harmful activities. Drug abuse is among the first of the ills that comes to my mind when I think of prostitutes. If prostitution were just another job, the trade would not be cor rupted by as many factors that provide easy access to drugs, such as street life and pimps. Many current hookers are no more than slaves to pimps or brothel-owners. Prostitutes need these people and insti tutions for protection and to aid in po lice evasion. Also, the present system dictates that the prostitute is an em ployee, losing most of her profit to her employer be it a hotel manager or pimp. Furthermore, the pimp is essentially free to abuse his woman in any way that he wants. Legalization would eliminate the need for pimps. With no laws forcing in carceration of hookers, a pimp would not be needed to remove his girl from jail or pay court fees. Under legalization, state govern ments could license prostitutes. This would serve several purposes. Licensure would remove the prosti tute from the street and have her placed in a regulated brothel, therfore making her’s like any other business. Under this plan, their income could even be taxed, which should pacify a few lawmakers. Another advantage of licensure would be the stemming of sexually transmitted diseases. Lastly, legalization would promote equity. Prostitutes are often incarcer ated for practicing their professions but their clients are rarely even arrested, though under the present system, both the hooker and the “john” are consid ered guilty. The greatest advantage of the legali zation proposal is its solvency. It will work. America’s prostitution zones are normally located in filthy and virtually forbidden zones that are plagued with scum. By contrast, in Amsterdam, where prostitution is legal, “red light” districts are clean, well-lighted and have brothels intermixed with homes, restau rants and even churches. Legalization would offer advantages over the present system that would be more fully realized with the passage of time. These include popular acceptance of the fact that prostitution is inevitable, and a more harmonious relationship be tween prostitutes and society. Let’s give prostitution the green light. Matt McBurnett is a junior electrical engineering major and a columnist for The Battalion. I’d much rather run up bills Did you ever notice how people who exercise always want people who don’t to start doing so? I used to get some exercise when I played tennis, but I don’t play tennis anymore. Lewis Grizzard Columnist The basic point here is that my exer cising days are over, and nobody’s going to change my mind. I play golf now, but you don’t get a lot of exercise playing golf because, if you’re smart, you ride in a golf cart. But back to the original thought here. I was married once to a woman who ran in marathons. nards get joggled so much it is not un common for their stomachs to change places with their livers and for their kid neys to droop. You don’t know discom fort until your kidneys droop. You want to run, run. You want to walk, walk. But leave me out of all of it. There’s enough of me that’s drooping as it is. Copyright 1989, Cowles Syndicate She wasn’t satisfied running by her self. She wanted me to run, too. What former runners are doing now is walking. Some walkers walk slowly, while others walk fast and swing out their arms in the manner of a person in dire need of a rest room. MAftsw-ies “It will be something we could do together,” she would say. These people pay up to $150 for spe cial walking shoes. Drooping brains. Texans choose a new governor At last, a gubernatorial candidate with real promise: Beloveds, I hereby throw the full weight of my support be hind the campaign of Les (“Vote Nope to Dope and Yes to Les”) Chambers, country-western singer from Lancaster and sometime politician. Chambers has run for governor before, in 1982 and 1986. The reason you never got to vote for him is on account of he didn’t have enough money to pay the filing fee, so he never got on the ballot. But fear not, Les’ financing is solid this outing; he says he’s already got the bucks to file and he’ll be in till the finish. Of his fellow Democratic candidates Les said, “I‘m gonna give them a fit.” Chambers is already onto the hot issue of the year like a duck on a June bug: “I hate drugs and dope so much it makes me sick to think about it,” he said. If elected, he’ll turn his governor’s plat form, except he promises to have a lot of fun running for office. “My body’s worn out but my mind’s still sound,” lie claimed during his announcement Thursday. ’Tis a statement I hope will not come back to haunt him. Can’t tell yet whether Chambers will measure up to the high standards set by my all-time favorite gubernatorial can didate, Bobby Locke, in his immortal 1986 campaign, during which he chal lenged Moammar Gadhafi to hand-to- hand combat, a duel to the death, in the Gulf of Sidra on the Line of Death, Locke trained for the bout with Gadhafi in his swimming pool in San Antonio. So far, Chambers is the only guy in the race with Lockean potential. Aside from my man Les (“Les is Mo re”), the current play in the governor’s race is mostly on the Republican side. I have never been able to figure out how Republican politics works, but I can pass along what all the They Sayers are say ing. In the Republican column, we have thus far: former Secretary of State Jack Rains, a Houston businessman who works hard at politics but doesn’t reso nate well — I’m not sure how to explain that, but he’s a little white-shoe; Rail road Commissioner Kent Hance of Lub bock, the only experienced pol in the race but a former Democrat still not trusted in his new party; Clayton Wil liams, the Midland communications magnate who has a lot of natural politi cal smarts but is inexperienced; and some lesser lights, including the egre gious fundamentalist preacher W.W. Otwell and some janitor. So I look at this bunch and figure Hance is their best pick; the man campaigns like Darth Vader, is a favorite son in West Texas and knows what the hell government is. All the They Sayers say I couldn’t be more wrong, which is quite likely; this is not my game. Suddenly all the smart money is on this guy Tom Luce out of Dallas, of whom I have never heard, in a political context. OK, so he’s Ross Perot’s lawyer — what good does that do him, aside from the minor matter of access to me gabucks? Ah, but it turns out he’s the choice of pretty much the entire Dallas Republican establishment. Peter O’Don nell, Ray Hunt, Bill Clements. (I don’t know why Clements is supporting Luce over his own Secretary of State, but that’s what They Say.) If you were to ask me, I’d say that being the candidate of the Dallas establishment would be the kiss of death in a political campaign, but Molly Ivins Syndicated Columnljt Texas Republicans have traditional! had a top-down party, with thedecisiorl made by a bunch of rich guys in ” and I guess that’s still how it workl Maybe. Luce, by all accounts isbothat| and affable. I still think it’s a bad id elect someone without political expenl ence to an important political and I offer Bill Clements as a primeeJ ample of what goes wrong when wed Interestingly enough, Claytie 1 Hams, a successful bidnessman by measure, says he’s studied the politicil process long enough to agree with tln| proposition. Williams may be in danj of making a fatal strategic error in al publican primary, which is telling if truth. The other day he refused toe dorse a constitutional ban on a stateitl come tax on account of it’s lousy idei It’s just stupid to cut off an option\tk| you can’t see what’s coming down! road — Williams suggested the drill plague might get so much worseintlil future that we’d have to consideraniJ come tax to fight it, but he certaini didn’t endorse a state income tax.' of course, made no difference to Hance; in his usual distort-and-smeal campaign mode he promptlyanf nounced that he was shocked and honi| fled to learn that Williams favors as income tax. If I were a Republican, 11 feel insulted that some politicial thought I was stupid enough to that ploy —- but I never have undetl stood Republicans. Street betting is n that a Luce candidacy kills Hance, I cause he finishes seccmd to Luce ini las and second to Williams in Wei Texas. On the Democratic side, Railroaf Commissioner John Sharp observes t Democrats just want this primary tol over so Ann Richards can go backtokj ing funny and we can get throughastj permarket check-out line without ha| ing to shake hands with Jim Mattosf Richards has been warned within inch of her life about being funnyij public —apparently all the geniusesm run campaigns (Shakespeare k| wrong: the first thing we need to i kill all the campaign consultants) hail concluded that a candidate who is I female and funny won’t sell. I want yd to remember that you read this first — they’re wrong. I suspect thecoi sultants are wrong about politics an| humor across the board, buttomyt tain knowledge, they’re wrong aboil politics and humor in two places-I Texas and New York. Nebraska, couldn’t swear to. But Ed Koch ne«| would have won a third term in Ni York if he weren’t funny, and I nevtl saw a Texas pol who was hurt by mor; any level, any place. I know Rd gan Brown made jokes about blacksarf Louis Welch made a joke about but anyone who can’t tell the differendl between humor and bigotry is de:| meat in politics today. .U L I Talk about typical New yoi “We eat together, sleep together, go to your mother’s house for dinner to gether, and then argue about it together when we get home. Isn’t that enough?” was my usual reply. I’ve walked before, and it never made me feel better at all. When I was a child, I walked all over the place. That’s be cause of the sill rule that says you can’t driva an automobile until vou’re 16 or typical New cab driver... this one bad an opinion , about everythin^!... r r A recent study indicated runners’ in- so. f The Battalion (USPS 045 360) McihIkt of Texas Press Assoeiaiion South west 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.itlnlinn is a non-profit. self-supportinK ncuspa- |x'i operated as a (onununiiy service to Texas ASM and hryait-Collcjfe Station. Opinions expressed in The Hntutlion are those of the editorial Ixiard or the author, and do not necessarih rep resent the opinions of Texas A&M administrators, fac ulty or the Hoard of Regents. 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