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
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