The Battalion
OPINION
2
Thursday, October 26,1989
Opinion Page Editor Juliette Rizzo 845-33li
Police Beat inform
entertains readers
Wednesday is one of my FAVOR
ITE days. Not just because it is the day
before Thursday, (my last day of class
for the week and the day MY column
runs), but because it is the day that The
Battalion runs its Police Beat column.
And oh how entertaining it is!
MA'RG’W'lfcS
Mail Call
And you know, it really isn’t there
for entertainment. It is actually put
into The Batt to make students aware
crimes that occur at A&M. All Aggies
don’t lie, cheat, steal or tolerate those
who do, right? Wrong. Although we
think Aggieland is some sort of Utopia
that could never, never, ever have any
kind of crime associated with it, crime
surrounds us. And the University Po
lice provides The Battalion with the
“significant activities of the University
Police Department” so that all of us will
be a little more crime conscious.
ing that I had done ANYTHINGj
provoke being hit in the face. I
More on-campus parking, please
EDITOR:
The parking situation for students who live off campus is
becoming increasingly unfair. More and more spaces are
being allocated to staff and students who live on campus. We
who do not live on campus pay fees and should be able to find
a place to park when we arrive on campus. We understand
that on-carnpus students should be able to park near their
residence halls, but by the same token, we are paying to park
on campus and there are not enough spaces for us. We are
not asking for the spaces in front of the dorms, but we should
be able to find a place to park within a reasonable distance
from our classes or a bus stop.
general public does not realize all the follies of oursociety. If
our society is so advanced and fulfilling then why does the
drug (alcohol included) problem exist? Why isdrinking the
norm rather than the exception?
And Public Intoxication is alwaysJ
fun one. Drunk people sure i
things. Police Beat said yesterday!
some drunk idiot tried to direct tn
on East Main Drive during
Yell Practice. I guess he thought t
stop lights weren’t doing a very]
job of it.
Fortunately, most people do not give up that easily (case
in point. Buck Helm’s cling for life after the San Francisco
earthquake). Stories such as this always “stop hearts” since
most people realize no barrier is impervious if one has the
determination and will to survive.
As things stand, many of us are unable to find spaces at
all. For example, half the parking lot of Kleberg is now
designated for staff, as are all the spaces on the street in front
of Kleberg. Most of the time at least half of these spaces are
empty while the side designated for students is always full.
The solution is simple but agonizingly elusive. Countless
past generations knew the answer but somehow it has been
misplaced in our complex, fast-paced society. The answer is
loving, meaningful relationships and family. Family is the
optimum escape. It is the escape God intended. One person
cannot change all the injustices prevalent in our society, but
one person can certainly change the lives of those closest to
him or her (i.e. wife of husband and family members).
But the Police Beat column does
more than just inform. It DEFI
NITELY entertains. I know that many
of you out there would never even pick
up The Batt if it wasn’t for Police Beat.
And I am fairly certain everyone re
members some incident they read in
Police Beat (and it’s probably not an in
cident involving a backpack getting sto
len). I have a few personal favorites...
We have also been told that all the spaces in the existing
parking garage and the new one that is being built will also be
for on-campus students. The combination of these changes
tells us the needs of off campus students are of no concern.
Appropriate action needs to be taken in this matter. We
would appreciate prompt consideration of this matter.
Cindy Bryan
Graduate student
Accompanied by 407 signatures
You (the readers) are at a crossroads. You are obviously at
A&M to obtain your degree and consequentlya “good job.’
However, remember that corporations areentities, not
persons. T hey do not care about people (employees), and
they do not tolerate mistakes.
The “bottom line” is that they care only for the bottom
line. Contrastingly, people care, relationships are elastic. So I
ask you, which is more important, family orcompany X?
Family: main focus in life
EDITOR:
It is rather easy to become “unfocused”and not realize
the important things in life. I know, I’ve been there. The
question of “what is the meaning of life,’’tortured my soul
unrelentlessly for months. I eventually came to the
conclusion that life is completely meaningless without family.
My purpose in writing this letter is to hopefully help Mr.
Mathieu and others to become “focused.”
There always seems to be someone
masturbating somewhere. My favorite
as the guy who masturbated while
driving his car in circles around the Al
britton Bell Tower. How stimulating.
And PLEASE tell me what is so sex
ually arousing about the library? Books
are just not that exciting to me (and I’m
even a journalism major). Then there’s
the guy who crawled around the li
brary on all fours looking up girls
skirts? Luckily, the UPD nabbed him.
And what about those couples we find
between stacks, passionately embraced
in the throws of ecstacy, the exhibi
tionists lurking amongst the romance
novels and those heinous criminals
who assault their female victims by put
ting their arms around them at the ref
erence desk?
• Someone entered the display cast!
in the library and added messageswiitl
ten on condoms to the display.
• A female student reported tnatat
male student had struck her on
buttocks with a ping-pong paddlewhilj
she was in the MSG basement. A i
questioned later by officers saidhehaij
struck the woman with the paddle.
• A Walton Hall resident reported
that he woke up to a strange odort
the morning of April 4*
• A white male with blond hairwaj
seen removing a pig from the
center and putting it into a pickiipl
truck.
This letter is in response to Adam Mathieu’s column
‘Values Should be Reconsidered.”
Christopher B. Green ’92
I share Mathieu’s view that those who commit suicide are
not “stupid.” However, I think “weak realists” is a better label
for these people. It is frightening that a large part of the
Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 words in length. The editorial staff reserves
the right to edit letters for style and length, out 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.
Tolerance key to co-existence
I lost count of how many times the
University of Missippi band played
“Dixie” while the Rebels were upsetting
Georgia, 17-13.
Lewis
Grizzard
There were 31,000 at the game. Ev
erybody who wasn’t from Georgia had
a Confederate flag.
Syndicated
Columnist
Before the game began, there had
been a prayer. And two guys sitting in
front of me each brought in a bottle of
Jim Beam.
least had good football teams to help
the self-image. Those were the days of
national championships and major
bowl games.
pie get away with playing ‘Dixie,’ wav
ing your flags, praying before the
game and bringing booze in?”
“We’re not supposed to,” he replied.
“But we do it anyway.”
But wait, there’s more! The “misde
meanor theft” section of Police Beat al
ways seems to be the longest. There are
about 3 million backpacks, 2 million bi-
cyles, 400,000 wallets, 256,343 purses,
1,293 rings, 234 textbooks, 3 hubcap-
.etc. stolen WEEKLY. And you
would think that after reading about all
of these thefts, people would quit leav
ing all of their stuff everywhere. It is
like leaving the keys in your unlocked
car and putting a sign that says “steal
me” on the back of it. And besides, if
we would quit being so careless about
our belongings, start locking our doors
and chaining our bicycles, it would get
rid of a lot of the extraneous informa
tion in the Police Beat column, and we
could get straight to the juicy stuff.
• A police officer and a Davis-Gan|
resident entered a third floor roomi
search of stolen highway signs,
they entered, they found a naked marl
lying on the bed. As the officer ap
pyoached the man, he laughed andfs
posed himself by raising a magazine 1
was using to cover his genitals.
• A student was caught pressing hit
body against several women onani
tracampus shuttle-bus during an ur l
dercover investigation conducted M
of ficers in response to a students com |
plaint.
And where do black people fit into
all of this?
But that all went away, too. Ole Miss
football has been in a mostly tattered
state the last 15 years.
All this prompted my friend Bugar
Seely, a veteran Georgia fan, to say,
“They still wave the flag, still sing
‘Dixie,’ they can still pray and they can
still bring liquor into the game. No
wonder they beat us.”
I guess that’s why they celebrated as
they did here the Saturday when
Georgia had fallen.
An Ole Miss football game in Ox
ford is a trip in a time machine. A trip
backward.
The football team was filled with
blacks, two members of the miniband
were black and there was a black family
standing outside their van, eating
chicken and taking an active part in the
post-game celegration.
Maybe Mississippians, both black
and white, have figured it out. The key
to any sort of co-existence is tolerance,
even of symbols that once stood for
hate.
And what always amazes me is what
people actually report. In yesterday’s
Police Beat, “a student reported that a
man touched her leg with an umbrella
during a class in the Academic Build
ing, and she found this contact offensi
ve.” Does this girl have the “STOP
TOUCHING ME” disease that we all
had when we were kids? Or how about
“a student was assaulted by an un
known person who struck him in the
face. There was no known provocation
for the attack.” Do you really think the
perpetrator of this crime actually
thought, “I think I will bash this guy’s
face in...BOOSH!”
• University Police received a rc
port that someone tried to steal a|
brown Jersey calf from a pen just east
of the A&M Cattle Center.
• University Police received a re
port that someone covered holes one I
three, four, five, six and eight of tk
A&M golf course.
• A woman reported seeinga
wooden stick with a mirror attached I
come through the wall from thedirec
tion of the men’s restroom while in the
third floor ladies’ restroom of the Eng |
neering Building.
I can hardly wait until next Wednes
day.
It hasn’t been easy being Mississippi,
I was thinking. You read those surveys
and Mississippi always seems to come
up a loser in such things as education
and poverty levels.
The Georgia band doesn’t play “Dix
ie” anymore. And fear of an American
Civil Liberties Union suit has stopped
public prayer before Georgia home
games.
Good luck, Rebels, for the rest of the
season.
T his reminds me of being a kid on
the playground and completely deny-
t|
Damon Arhos
lism major and a
Battalion.
is a senior journa l
columnist for The
And then there was the movie, “Mis
sissippi Burning,” which portrayed the
entire state as a roost for drawling, ig
norant racists.
After the game the Ole Miss people
were still waving those flags and the
little band was still playing “Dixie.” It
was 1958.
'(E?I383 fWT
ORPHANAGE
The University of Mississippi once at So I asked a guy, “How can you peo-
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Dean Sueltenfuss, Lifestyles Editor
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UNPHANAtt
And for the last two weeks, Pol«|
Beat lias said that “a student in
Hall reported receiving annoyinl
phone calls every two minutes.” Ever
two minutes for two w'eeks —howini|
tating.
(
For a grand finale, I thought]
would give you the best of the
Here are a few of the Police Beat J
portings from the past that I think®
serve some additional attention:
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