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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 7, 1989)
The isatiaiioii OPINION Tuesday, November 7,1989 Opinion Page Editor Juliette Rizzo 845-13 Medicine Tribe member chains self to wrong tree!!! “Red Pots” vow to continue construction anyway!!! DV** Have a grijje or a cause? Join Aggies Against Everything “I will now call to order the meeting of Aggies Against Everything,” said the president of the group as he banged his gavel. The crowd got quiet as Annie, a friend of mine, and I took a seat in the back of the room. It was my first time, and I knew little about the group’s background. The president said, “For those of you who are here for your first time, here’s a little background on our group. After the proliferation of groups whose names were ‘students against this’ and ‘Aggies against that,’ the need arose to consolidate the ef forts of all the protest organizations on campus into one cohesive unit, thus creating ‘Aggies Against Everything.’ The governing body is represented by the president of each of the sub-com mittees, and we hold these bi-weekly meetings to hear reports and pass any related legislation. “First, we’ll hear the minutes from last meeting,” the president said. The secretary said, “Reports were given from most of the sub-committees and five pieces of business were brought to a vote, but all were voted down unanimously.” The secretary, having finished reading the obviously abbreviated minutes, looked back at the president. “First let’s hear from our sub-com mittee of Aggies Against Killing Trees, who are currently working against the expansion of the MSC, bonfire and other projects,” the president said. The AAKT chairman stood from her chair and said, “As you all know, three or four of the trees around the MSC are going to die a few years early because of the construction during the University Center expansion. We've al ready named one of the oaks the ‘Rud der’ oak, and we’re trying to find names for the other trees, but no one on our committee seems to know which other famous Aggies are dead. If any body knows of some old Ags who are definitely dead, please tell us. “We did some research to see if any thing similar to this ‘University Center holocaust’ has happened in the past at A&M,” she said. “We found that for over 90 percent of the buildings erected, at least one tree had to be killed; at least one bush or shrubbery had to be killed for over 95 percent of the buildings on campus; and for over 99 percent of the buildings on campus, a blade of grass had to perish.” Tears began to well in her eyes. The president asked, “Were there any protests when the other trees came down?” The AAKT chairman replied, “No, because most of the buildings were | WR, f' \ \ Timm Doolen Asst. Opinion Page Editor built a long time ago, before they let people like us in, and most of the rest of the buildings were built for the use of the administration and faculty. But this expansion is going to benefit stu dents, and we don’t want the public to think that students were the cause of some trees dying. It would also make our group look really bad, considering our name and all. “We are going to try to show the ad ministration and students, despite what they think, the reality that these trees are living human beings and should not be killed for the benfit of a few measly hundred thousand students over the coming years,” she said as she practically began to cry. I whispered to Annie, “I wonder if she can see the trees for the forest. She’s got a screw loose if she really thinks trees are human beings?” She continued, “We plan to make a strong protest of the removal of the trees when the time comes to bulldoze them. We’re willing to sacrifice our lives to save the trees. We are having a slight problem figuring out how we’re going to protest.” “Why’s that?” asked one of the peo ple in the audience. “Well, we don’t know how to chain ourselves to the trees without walking on the grass to get to them,” the AAKT chairman said. “Turning to the bonfire front, we scored a major victory. One of our AAKT members found out where the cut sight is and he went and torched most of the trees before they could cut them down.” Brief applause broke out from the group. “We realize that it was kind of hypo critical of us, so we blamed it on some body else. We also held a funeral for the trees, but weren’t able to bury any of the trees because nobody wanted to dig up any of the grass. She went on to say, “Those bonfire people need to realize we must pre serve our forests or we’ll all be in trou ble. “Forests don’t grow on trees!” she said. Some people snickered. “As far as other projects are con cerned, we have been cooperating with Aggies Against The Battalion in a pro test against the newspaper. The people in charge at The Battalion have re fused to cooperate with us in our re quests for them to stop killing trees. On numerous occasions we have asked The Battalion to quit printing its news on paper, which would save thousands of trees weekly. They have consistently refused to quit printing on paper, cit ing something about cost and ‘tradi tion,’ — as if they knew something about tradition. “So we’ve implemented a boycott against the newspaper and refuse to read any Battalions. We’ve received a lot of support from other students, mainly because our committee mem bers stand by the Battalion newsstands with signs that read ‘Don’t do it — you’re going to get ink all over your hands!”’ “Have Battalion sales dropped off because of your protest?” asked the president. “Well, it’s hard to tell. We’ve run into kind of a problem considering the Batt is free. But we’re doing our best to fight them. We’re also picketing out side the Battalion office at the Reed McDonald building.” “How is that working?” asked an au dience member. “Well, a lot more people know where the Batt is because of our protest, and they’re writing in tons of letters against us.” “We were going to protest by build ing a shanty, similar to Aggies Against Problems in Other Countries, but no body had the heart to build it out of wood,” she said. “Thank you for your report” the president said. “OK, we will now have the report from Aggies Against Life.” “They won’t be having a report, and the sub-committee disbanded,” some body from the audience said. “Why’s that?” asked the president. “They all committed suicide,” he said. “Oh, OK,” the president said. “In light of that, we’ll take a five-minute break and then continue with the re ports.” Tune in tomorrow for the conclu sion of “Aggies Against Everything” — same Batt-time, same Batt-channel. Timm Doolen is a junior computer science major and assistant opinion page editor for The Battalion. Mail Call Formal apology needed EDITOR: Last weekend at the Rice football game I found myself wishing 1 had broiifij sweatshirt, but I wasn’t cold. 1 was just totally ashamed to be wearing myAggiej Mo shirt and wished I could cover it up.I went to 1 louston to see my grandparent' t he oj who were having their 50th Rice reunion, my parents who were celebraiing.tkyate i 25th Rice reunion, and my brother, who was celebrating his senior Homeconitendocl at Rice. The night before the game, 1 attended a reunion party with my parent^ 11 ” in where 1 told all of my parents’old friends 1 loved A&M and was proud to beanllff^ 1 ‘ A gg ie -. | IMm 1 This was not how I felt by the end of the game’s halftime the next day.hatH n ^ extremely shocked and angered by the rudeness and disrespect my fellowAggiHent were displaying toward the Rice Band and tans. Don't forget, this was Rites ; “Sh< Homecoming halftime, an event that occurs only once a year. People fromNcJ York, Chicago, Calif ornia and many other places had come to 1 louston especial for the Homecoming game. When I came to A&M this year I was under the impression Aggies were f riendly and courteous ] people. If we are < mly ih ?se thins s to each ot her, them-J are not friendly and cou rteous it all. I bel ieve in the spin t of Aggiek md and be| _ true to each other, but I also thi nk Aggies need t o r ealize A&M is jus tone | university. There are m; my oth< er univers ities in thi s stale :. They all i onsistof ■ people. To get by in this world ) ou needt o be ah le i o get along well with andjjjK* — the respect of all differe nt kinds of peoph You can not g ain respect if you donill give it. It is embarrassin: renoug h when 01 ic or tv vo i ndivi duals f rom an insiituiJS . do something to give it a had na me, but w ben its lea dens ire involvet 1 it is more sjD 1H than embarrassing, it is lisgract iders, p dul. That is why it w t-wrenchin e for met ! look over and see yell lec eople who are su pp< er used i o represent our school 1 finest qualities, showing such di srespect t< > anoth schoo 1. The only honorable Rice University. If our y way to i ell lead* edeem on ts were tl rselves ic “gen w< tie mid l nen” >e a formal true Aggie apologyJL!; 1 saresupixlabou to be, they would do so. Many o you are } >robab y t linkii ig I should have nevf[|(j) a | H come to A&M. If I had witnessed this Missy Davis ’92 last year, 1 wouldn’t have. Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 u>< and length, but will make even effort to man classification, address and telephone number >rds in ten Th, ■(lit lettn tain the it. E Abernathy did the write thing I was surprised that some people were surprised, even outraged, about the Rev. Ralph David Abernathy’s mentioning that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave in to sexual temptations. The Rev. Abernathy, a former aide to Dr. King during the civil rights movement, has written an autobiogra phy titled, “And the Walls Came fum bling Down.” In it, he reveals Dr. King even had separate encounters with two women and an argument with another the night before he was murdered in Memphis. There were even plenty of rumors around, even before Dr. King was killed, that he was somewhat of a ladies’ man, but I don’t understand what all the fuss is about. Another Atlanta minister has asked his congregation to do “the right thing” and boycott the Rev. Abernathy’s book. There are several reasons that’s a dingbat of an idea. First, when one looks back through the history of our country, many of our finest leaders were, well, bad to fool around with women. We all know about George Washing ton, the John Tower of the 18th cen tury. And what about Thomas Jef ferson? All the slave girls talked about him. Ever notice that smug look on Thomas Jefferson’s face in history books? You can look at a man like that and tell he’s been up to something. And speaking of Tower again, that’s exactly what cost him a spot in the Bush Cabinet. A friend of mine put it this way, “He just looks guilty.” President Grover Cleveland suppos edly fathered an illegitimate child. FDR had a mistress. So did Eisen- Lewis Grizzard Syndicated Columnist hower. And John Kennedy? When the man have time to be president? I le probably could have taughtGi Hart, not to mention Rob Lowe thing or two. Jimmy Carterev thought about it. And we know about certain men the cloth, too. Jimmy Swaggart liki watch prostitutes do unmentior things, and if we new what all Jim ker actually did, we probably woi believe it I’m not going to try any OralR erts lines here, but where did a I name like that actually come from? Two: Just because Martin Lm King Jr. might have had a healthy^ ual appetite it certainly shouldn’t| minish anything he accomplished. The man changed the wor Changed it forever. And did hefol any of these women to have sex" him? Apparently not. They offered. accepted. That sort of thing hash going on for a long time and likel' won’t stop any time soon and let most fervently hope not. Third, I think it took some guts the part of Ralph David Abernath) include Dr. Martin Luther King’s^ ual escapades in his book. What’s left to do now is deft Ralph David Abernathy and his it; to put what he pleased in his autoh raphy, to understand the favor he 1 done all of us who want the insidesK 1 on people and events that affectt j lives profoundly, and to ignore dingbat who chirps about a boycott Do the right thing, indeed. MAftSW-IES HCVSIEN POST 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. 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- lege Station TX 77843-4 111. ’Uh...Y7ould you mind if I asked what type of bait you’re using' ?...