The Battalion
OPINION
Monday, Octobers, 1989
| Mail Call 1
Library comments appreciated
EDITOR:
Regarding the desire expressed by some of the University’s students to have
access to the Sterling C. Evans Library’s resources on Saturday evenings, we are
glad to know the students need the library. We try to be sensitive to students’
needs, and, in fact, the current closing hours were determined following a trial
period of early opening and late closing times done in cooperation with Student
Government about three years ago. It would seem now, however, that needs may
have changed, and it may be time to take a new look at the schedule.
The library hours schedule adopted each year is established in an effort to use
the library funds in a responsible way, so all services that require cash expenditures
are balanced in ways that serve all users as equitably as possible. If limited use is
made of the library during late hours for the first few weeks of classes, the funding
saved may be utilized more responsibly to provide other services which other
students want. It is a matter of trying to make the funds the library has do the best
job possible in all aspects of library service.
Now that the need of some students for the library to be open later on
Saturday earlier in the semester has been brought to the library’s attention,
appi'opriate review of this aspect of the library hours schedule will be undertaken.
And if it is determined that this need is greater than some other needs,
appropriate action will be taken.
We in the Evans Library want to do what we can to make each student’s
experience at Texas A&M University as positive as possible, and we assure the
students of our continuing commitment to this goal.
Evelyn King
Assistant Director for Collection Interpretation
Sterling C. Evans Library
Street’s name change not needed
EDITOR:
The College Station City Council’s work of genious last week is completely
ridiculous. Changing the name of Jersey Street to George Bush Drive will get
A&M the library — hands down.
No, this is no matter of political party. This is a matter of what kind of idiot we
take George Bush to be. If Bush wants to give us his presidential library, let it be
for what A&M stands for — not for “brown-nosing.”
But hey, if we’re going to do it in a grovelling fashion, I have some suggestions.
Why don’t we take down Sully’s statue and put up one of George? Let’s not stop
there—get rid of the 12th Man statue too. The possibilities are endless. I can see it
— “Now forming at the north end of Bush Field, the nationally famous Fightin’
Texas Aggie Band.”
However, these suggestions are probably not needed —seriously, I don’t want
to give anyone any ideas.
Mark Harmon ’91
accompanied by 3 signatures
Traditions and education coexist
EDITOR:
To Mr. Kevin Thomas, guest columnist, I will not tell you, “Highway 6 runs
both ways,” or, “Take your attitude to t.u.,” but I will tell you that you are in error.
There are, of course, many legitimate reasons for attending Texas A&M. The
quality of education and the traditions associated with this school both influenced
me greatly when I chose to be an Aggie.
However, I must protest your personification of Jim Bob. First off, you are
obviously unaware that in order to become and remain a Junior or Senior Red Pot,
the person aspiring to this goal must maintain a 2.25 grade point average. I’m sure
that you’ll agree that this hardly constitutes scholastic probation. Second, I
consider your article an insult to those of us who have been active in traditions such
as Bonfire, Yell Practice, Silver Taps, football and baseball games and Muster, and
have still managed to maintain a decent grade point.
For that matter, I was a Senior Civilian Coordinator for the 1987 Bonfire, and
somehow managed to take time out from, “hitting cockroaches at a full gallop with
tobaccojuice,” to pull a 3.0 which included classes in wood physics, political
science, and an advanced forest ecology course. What! Seems impossible? Well,
surprise, some of us feel that it is important to both be active in traditions and get
an excellent education. I feel that if Mr. Thomas had taken the time to find out
how a majority of students feel instead of expressing his own opinions, he would
have discovered that most students don’t malign those here only for an education.
Rather, we choose to loathe the true two-percenter, the person who chooses not to
be involved in traditions, yet sees fit to degrade those of us who are.
Neal Maranto ’88
Setting the record straight
EDITOR:
As a representative of the Texas Environmental Action Coalition, I would like
to thank both the A&M administration and The Battalion for having the courtesy
to consider our views of the proposed MSG expansion.
However, I also want to correct a few misconceptions about our group.
First, we in TEAC have not yet cast judgment about the administration’s
expansion proposal. We have tried at all times to be open-minded and objective
about this issue. When we learned of the details of the proposed expansion from
Mr. Rucker, our first goal was to get the other side of the story before taking any
action. The Battalion article by Ms. Moody gave the impression that we had
already condemned the administration, which we have tried not to do. In fact, our
main problem with the administration was their unwillingness to provide us any
facts. That situations seems to have changed, and the manager of University
Center, Mr. Steve Hodge, has agreed to discuss things with us. A public meeting
will take place Thursday, October 19th, at 7:00 p.m. in Rudder Theater and we
urge all intersted to attend.
Secondly, TEAC has been labeled a “single-issue” group by some because of
the publicity surrounding this controversy. This is completely wrong. On the
contrary, we are involved in numerous campaigns, including recycling, city
cleanup, wildlife protection, rain forest preservation and more recently, the Texas
Beach Cleanup. In fact, we have only been working on the MSC issue for the past
six weeks.
Elizabeth Edwards
Co-President TEAC
Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 words in length. The editorial staff reserves 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 inchuie the
classification, address and telephone number of the writer.
The Battalion
(USPS 045 360)
Member of
Texas Press Association
Southwest Journalism Conference
The Battalion Editorial Board
Scot O.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 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.
The Battalion also serves as a laboratory newspaper
for students in reporting, editing and photography
classes within the Department of Journalism.
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during Texas A&M regular semesters, except for holiday
and examination periods.
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Opinion Page Editor Juliette Rizzo 845-331!
Today’s problems could bi
solved by better education
The problems facing the United
States seem overwhelming at times —
drugs, crime, teenage pregnancy, the
trade deficit, the homeless, sexually
transmitted diseases, prison overcrowd
ing. The list goes on and on. I believe
that we have the power to take a gigantic
step toward solving all of these prob
lems, and others, by making major im
provements in the quality of our public
education system.
Scot
Walker
Editor
it’s not working and its never g
work. Isn’t it time to start teaching^
control instead? Education is the bi
prevention. v
The big hurdle, as always, is money.
We should take some of the money that
we are throwing at all of these problems
separately and funnel it into the educa
tion system. Results would not be imme
diately apparent, but we would come
out way ahead in the long run.
President Bush has announced that
he is going to commit billions of dollars
to the fight against drugs, with huge
chunks of that money being used to
turn Colombia and other drug-produc
ing countries into a battleground. It
make more sense to use that money to
educate our own people about the dan
gers of drugs, thus reducing the de
mand for them and thereby, according
to the laws of economics, reducing the
supply.
Drugs and the widening gap betwen
the rich and poor also are contributing
to the continuing increase in the level of
crime in the United States. All the
money and new laws and extra police
are doing nothing except turning us
into a police state where we give up our
own rights to try to combat crime. The
prisons are so full that most have a re
volving front door that lets convicts out
as fast as the courts can put them in. If
all of society were better educated — not
just us non-poor non-minority types —
then people would have a way off the
streets, and wouldn’t be stuck in the trap
of being too uneducated to get a decent
job, and too poor to afford a decent ed
ucation. That will be even more impor
tant as we move further into the infor
mation age, when the best jobs will
require strong minds and not strong
backs.
The only way we will ever put a dent
in the number of teenage pregnancies
and sexually transmitted diseases is to
educate our children about them, de
spite the illogical, nonsensical ravings of
many self-righteous conservatives. No
problem has ever been solved by bury
ing our heads in the sand and hoping
that it goes away. And the problem is
not one of morality, either. Society in
our grandparents’ time was a lot more
moral, but young girls still got pregnant
before they were married. The grown
ups just shipped the kid off to an aunt’s
house for nine months or so, nobody
talked about it and we still have the
problem today. For centuries, we have
been trying to stop the problem by
preaching morality. It hasn’t worked,
A lot of “experts” are continn
screaming that the imbalance of trj
between the United States and Japan
threatening our position as leaderof:)
free world. But how can we ever hop:!
compete with the Japanese (or they
ets or the West Germans or anyone^:
if they take the education of their yoii|
more seriously than we take the i
tion of ours? A story on the frontf
of today’s Battalion details somepreo
embarrassing findings about educattl
at the college level. If things arei j
where near that bad, then wearec
rently witnessing the fall of the.
can Empire.
Scot Walker is a junior journak
major and editor of The Battalion.
MA&HtlES
©’1^? HCU9JCH PC*!"
64
There domes a time when we must take the bull by the tail
and fade the situation.” -YT. C. Fields
Somebody call 1-900-HELP!
nape
Me
President Bush insisted during i
campaign that he wanted tobeknmd
“T he Education President.” Unfortl
nately, that takes a lot more thanjtj
calling an “education summifa
spouting off a lot of meaninglessril
toric.
:o
Education is as close as we willed
come to any sort of universal cure-;
what ails us. What we need nowarepJ
ents who get involved in their kids’ej
cation, instead of just accusing
of failing at their job; teachers whow
to do more than just collect a paycha
and politicians who approach theeducj
tion issue with half the intensity andlti
vor with which they spout sanctinj
nious psuedo-patriotic flag-burninglf
Cor
letwo
locuse
aid th
|he ex
ficultu
luch 1
“Th
md lai
Len
aats t
seven
laid, t
tional
[hat th
feet th
aid.
fi
It can’t be too far in the future — a 1-
900 telephone number with silence on
the other end for people who like to talk
to themselves.
In case no one has noticed, telecom
munications companies are making it
very easy for people to run to their
phones and run up sizable bills without
even realizing it. A few pennies here
and there can turn into big bucks by the
end of the month.
Ken
Brodnax
The Odessa American
This 900 nonsense is really quite
sneaky. With each passing day, subver
sives are out there thinking up new and
innovative ways to get those phone re
ceivers up to ears and fingers to dialing
or punching buttons.
It started out in a small way. The tele
vision industry did its part by creating
situations that would have viewers on
their phones. These audience-partici
pation situations include opinion polls
(Should members of Congress get a
raise or be boiled in oil?) that let the
people have a say —and pay for their
right to what otherwise would be free
speech. If a caller feels politicians de
serve the extra bucks, they can call one
number. If they want to flush afore
mentioned lawmakers down a toilet,
they just call another number. Either
way, the phone company and its con
spirators in a particular scheme are
reaping the benefits.
gold mines from a phone-in standpoint.
If a fan, or bettor, wants to hear the lat
est results, he or she simply can dial a
number and get the poop.
Now some networks are letting view
ers pick the most valuable players while
watching an event. It’s diabolical, espe
cially when the list of players for, say a
college football bowl game, is long and
varied enough to attract callers from a
wide geographic range.
Now the so-called tabloid news shows
have gotten into the act. Just bring up a
controversial issue, invite a couple of
guests with differing viewpoints and
then let all the couch potatoes get their
daily finger exercises while they’re “de
ciding” the issue.
As the practice has evolved, television
advertising has become an important
tool.
those services that offers a voice onj
other end of the line whispering noij
sweet nothings —and maybe a few*
gestive suggestions — for the price?
call. The ideal employee for such a
ice would talk real steamy and reaH]
so as to keep the caller on the meter|
the maximum amount of time.
Even worse, kids are being dra(i|
into the bad habits of their elders.,
pick up the phone, call a 900 nu®
and receive a message from a fav
rock star. But be sure to ask the pa®
first. Right.
The latest scam is a recorded I
scope. All those Virgos and Libras 1
there have their own 900 nuflj
which they can call daily to findoud
to proceed with the remainder oft
hours.
Naturally, religion has become a *
to expand the phone flock. Just a*1
the Jim Bakker scandal broke, the
Club had a number with a daily mes^
for those who still believed.
Televised sports events have become
For example: Lonely people have be
come prime prey. Just call a 900 num
ber and get the golden opportunity to
converse with others who suffer from
the same affliction. What’s left unsaid
but understood is that one phone call
could result in a great romance.
But if it’s not traditional romance a
person is seeking, there’s always one of
Now, they say, there’s a 900 nu®
offering a daily inspirational mej
from none other than the pope. Ami
a caller’s choice of languages, to boc-1
So it shouldn’t be too long untils
body forms a self-help group for j
phone junkies. Call 1-900-GET-Hf
Just 95 cents for the first minuteani j
Ken Brodnax is a writer for
Odessa American