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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 18, 1989)
The Battalion OPINION Wednesday, October 18,1989 Voters need to know about Woodstock ’89: The Yuppie Generati candidates beforehand On March 13, voters will cast their ballots in primaries for their party’s gubernatorial candidates, the first leg in the race for the Texas governorship. But voters should begin making their deci sions now. All too often voters go to the polls uninformed. They wait until it is too late to learn about the candidates for whom they vote Then they end up making uninformed choices or voting for a can didate only because the name sounds familiar to them. The time to start looking at the candidates is now, while there is time to listen to their opinions, learn about the issues and make informed choices. Editor’s note: Mat! McBurnett is ill this week. This is a reprint of a col umn that originally ran in July 1989. The Battalion Editorial Boarc Mail Call Dining hall dilemmas EDITOR: This is in response to Timm Doolen’s article on Sbisa dining hall on October 12. Mr. Doolen dared to print those unanswerable questions my friends and I have often pondered. My only complaint is that Doolen focused all of his attention upon Sbisa dining hall. I would like to remind him that there is another fairly large dining hall on the south side. Also, I might add that the Commons is not without its own share of problems. Most south-side and Corps residents know that the University just completed improvements on the Commons eating facility. Well, I personally would like to know when those costly improvements are going to be in full working order. The installment of monitors to give readings of the menu for each meal is a good idea, but when are they going to use them? The monitors have not been turned on yet. Another added improvement is the installation of new, triple-decker conveyors to transport the used trays back to the wash room. Again, I ask when are they going to be fully operational? One whole side does not work and only two on the other side are functioning. In closing, I would just like to know one other thing: Where do they breed those hamsters for the cordon bleu? Kathleen “Ki-Ki” Jones ’91 10 dumb ideas EDITOR: Top 10 Dumb Ideas of Texas A&M in recent years: 10. Build a t.u.-type bell tower. 9. Distribute football tickets randomly. 8. Abolish the seniority system for on-campus student parking. 7. Make resident hall students sign a two-semester lease. 6. Turn the Rudder Tower dining facility into a faculty-only club. 5. Reduce health center hours. 4. Reduce the number of shuttle buses servicing outlying parking areas (i.e. Olsen Field.) 3. Close the library on Saturday evenings. 2. Change bus route names to tradition names. 1. Kill some oak trees to expand the MSC. Larry Odom ’88 Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 words in length. The editorial staff reserves the right to edit letters for style and length, but will make every effort to maintain the author’s intent. Each letter must be signed and must include the classification, address and telephone number of the writer. We heard a lot about the Woodstock Music and Arts Estival this past sum mer, because it was the 20th anniver sary of the “weekend of peace and mu sic,” as its promoters called it. Yet even 20 years after the event, many people don’t remember Woodstock as any thing more than the bird in the Pea nuts comic strip. Matt Timm McBurnett Doolen If something like Woodstock hap pened today, would it be anything more than comical? mance by Depeche Mode highli| by a band member playing thes/ sizer with his teeth and then settim on fire and smashing it against stage. ganza would have to go to charity, so it wouldn’t look like they were doing it for the money. Next would come the poser-® portion of the entertainment. Twei years after Ten Years After’s Alvinli dazzled the crowd with what» called “the fastest fingers at W stock,” the gals from Poison, devoid talent, could strum their way i hearts of those spectators who void of musical taste. Of Tt Th Proje oak t As Woodstock was a symbol of the ’60s generation, Woodstock ’89 would be a symbol of our generation. Woodstock, New York, has unpre dictable weather, so it would be held somewhere where the climate is de pendable — like Palm Springs, but we’d still call it “Woodstock.” But in stead of holding it in Palm Springs, it’d be held 45 miles away at a place with a lot of parking — maybe a mall. Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix prob ably wouldn’t show up, but many of the old greats would. The Who, the guys who didn’t die before they got old, could put on a set, but I doubt anybody would be able to hear them, including Townshend. Of course Posin’ (oops, Poisoi couldn’t compare to the bigstarsofti festival, Pistils ’N Flowers and I sey, singing songs that are incomps hensible but obviously sexual. The biggest struggles would be over who gets the movie rights and who would be the biggest sponsor. Coca- Cola vs. Pepsi, IBM vs. AT&T, Miller vs. Coors — who would win? The fans, I’m sure. Trojan would surely be a ma jor backer, supplying condom ma chines for the hundreds of thousands of fans. And the Red Cross would have to be on hand to provide AIDS testing — no more of that “free love” bit. Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young would probably perform, but David Crosby would have to be under the watchful eyes of his parole officer and the people at Nutri-Systems. Jefferson Airplane (or is it Jefferson Starship, or is it just Starship?) might fly in but Grace Slick’s voice would be in absen- There is always a chance music would rear its ugly head all ’89 festivities. Highlights of the would be Eazy E.’s performance If turing an actual drive-by killing Run D.M.C.’s on-the-spot filmingoh Adidas commercial. tia. The Grateful Dead might play, but the audience might be better off dead than listening to Santa Claus (oops, I mean Jerry Garcia) try to play “Uncle John’s Band” at the age of 135. Whereas almost everybody at Woot stock was on drugs, most of thepeops at the ’89 festival would be on diets.li stead of the “freakout tent” for peop on bad acid trips, they’d have the“fc kout tent” for people who had their diets and had eaten real ice cres instead of yogurt. An announce®! over the loudspeakers: “Thebrownti gurt now circulating among us is n specifically too good.” Instead of “three days of peace and music” as the theme, the theme could be “getting a piece of the pie, love of money and video music.” Or they could be honest with the theme and call it “three days of sex, money and self gratification.” Gone would be the Indian gurus of the ’60s. Woodstock ’89 could feature the spiritual leader of contemporary pop, Debbie Gibson. Our teenage pun dit could show by example that it is possible to be mega-popular with eighth-grade lyrics. Her right-hand men could be any of the Euro-dance groups such as New Order. On Sunday morning they’d have! have the “breakfast in bed for 400,1 but this time it would be egg fins and diet Coke, special-orderedai helicoptered in from the local aid’s. Everyone would show up early in their BMWs and private planes. None of this free nonsense, the charge would be a $30 minimum to cover expenses (Visa and Mastercard accepted but no American Express). And despite the heavy corporate sponsorship, a per centage of the profits from the extrava- The stage would be easy to set up be cause everything would be computer generated. In fact, most of the show could proceed without the use of a sin gle guitar or drum set. Eventually the music groups w finish and the crowds would want back to their suburbs, but the youtli our generation would have a symbol rally around for 20 years or Well, maybe. mga pact i theS Ru chite< main man oaks Univ “I and c versit orgar R R( By M Of 7? lapt id In: aress Peter Rona to an that i Ro chap said relatii pie, f ence i opted sel sa: repor tronk “It Done ectur The dance/pop “music” segment could conclude with a rousing perfor- Timm Doolen and Matt McBum are junior engineering majors ai columnists for The Battalion. Miami: melting pot of Cuban, Haitian, Jewish culture Must be Florida — pick up the paper and learn that Disney World is offering a special bargain package for Sukkot, the Jewish holy day. Mickey Mouse and the Mosaic tradition in one swell foop — why not? Whole place is like that, bizarre jux tapositions of cultures never before seen in the melting pot, much less to gether. Any old town on the East Coast can have a mixture of, say, Italians and Poles — that’s like throwing in toma toes and onions. But who knows what it does to the flavor when you add Hai tians, Cubans, New York Jews and re tired tire salesmen from Terre Haute to base of rednecks and real estate de velopers. It’s like throwing jicama, curry and dill into the chicken noodle. It may turn out great, but it sure won’t be the same soup. Strange new permutations and com binations appear daily. There was some excitement in the newsroom of the Miami Herald this week when a re porter discovered three Haitian Re publicans, a genus never before seen. The city of Miami is now 59 percent Hispanic, 21 percent black and 19 per cent Anglo. The now-dominant His- panics have created a mutant political culture that resembles nothing else in America. Miami Mayor Xavier Suarez, a Cu- ban-American, is now involved in a classic fight with the mostly-Anglo fire department over implementing an af firmative action plan. He has a strong progressive record in race relations, which are greatly complicated here by inter-minority resentments. tred for Castro — on which they seem to focus much more than they do on their love for Cuba — is just as intense as it was 30 years ago, and it seems to be passing undiminished to at least part of the second generation. So far the Irish hold the world’s record for keeping old grudges going through generations, but Miami’s got some con tenders here. All exile communities have much the same feel — the same paranoia, the endless plotting, schisms between fac tions and schisms within factions and intense patriotic fervor for the lost country. The white Russians in Paris, who finally died off just a few years ago (how one wishes they could have lived to see the Soviet Union now), were a classic example of the genre. The intensity of the exiles’ love for their country and of their hatred for the usurper who has made it impossi ble for them to live there gives them an aura of glamour and romance denied those whose biggest gripe with their government is some pedestrian com plaint like high taxes. The rather eerie thing about Miami’s Cubans is their ha- Some true Cuban-Americans — not Cuban exiles but people who grew up speaking English, eating white bread, getting MBAs and becoming yuppies — spend every weekend in the swamps wearing military uniforms and sloshing around in training for some future in vasion of Cuba. On the other hand, there are also Cuban-Americans begin ning to speak out in favor of dialogue with Castro, and while it still takes great courage to do that in Miami, these folks are in good health as of this writing. To listen to Cuban radio, you’d think Orlando Bosch, the man accused of blowing up the Cuban air liner, was a great hero of the people. But when you ask young Cuban-Amer icans about him, their response is that he’s a frail, old man now and shouldn’t be persecuted on humanitarian grounds. The talk shows here are full of ex cited people demanding to know why the United States went after Noriega, albeit unsuccessfully, when Castro is so much worse and he’s been around so much longer. But 30 years is not, as these things go, a very long time for the passions of a revolution to settle. Although Miami’s Hispanic commu nity is largely Cuban-American, it’s bi zarre politics are periodically re inforced by another wave of anti communists diehards from some other Latin country that has been taken over by left-wingers. Thousands of right- wing Nicaraguans are now here plot ting away merrily. I suspect the reaa these exiles will be harder to intepi into the country than most immigrai is because they come here involunti ily. They are driven here by bad poS cal fortune, they do not come in seat of a better life, as do the Mexica Americans we see coming across ffl Rio Grande, and all other immigra groups before them. Cubans are the majority in Mias and since they were middle class toll gin with, their immigrant experieii here is most unusual. I have no idea how it will turnt just got here myself and feel 1 character in one of Evely Waugh's3 !j ires of journalism, an expert ini hours. But I do know that Americas been successfully absorbing people ! different races, viewpoints, langua? 1 and religions for a long time betff we are united by a common devotiosj the political principles set out in s Constitution. 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 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. The Battalion is published Monday through Friday during Texas A&M regular semesters, except for holiday and examination periods. Mail subscriptions are $17.44 per semester, $34.62 per school year and $36.44 per full year. Advertising rates furnished on request. Our address: The Battalion, 230 Reed McDonald, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-1 111. Second class postage paid at College Station, TX 77843. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Battal ion, 216 Reed McDonald, Texas A&M University, Col- T Med Oir P.M Hot; Wei Custi U: