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
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’Uh...Y7ould you mind if I asked what type of bait you’re using' ?...