The Battalion
OPINION
Thursday, February 22,1990
Opinion Page Editor
Ellen Hobbs
Mail Call
Proposal doesn’t condone sex
EDITOR:
This letter is written in response to Kevin Davis’ letter of
Feb. 8. The council’s proposal was not intended to condone
or incite sexual activity at this school. Its intention was to ad
dress the problem of AIDS on campus.
Sarcastically Mr. Davis wrote, “foolish me.” Well, foolish
you for thinking that sexual activity does not occur on cam
pus. Foolish you for thinking that you can’t get AIDS. And
foolish you for thinking that your girlfriend won’t become
pregnant. When the hormones kick in, even the wisest of men
can become careless and perform foolish deeds. While in the
throes of lust, someone might not cross the street and go to
the supermarket to buy a box of condoms, but they just might
go to a nearby vending machine.
Surely no one would argue that AIDS is not a serious
problem in any sexually active population. Here on campus,
when you have a large number of healthy young men and
women living in close proximity to each other, it is only natu
ral that some sexual activity is going to occur. It is extremely
naive to think that you can get everyone to practice absti
nence. The council’s proposition is merely a way to prevent
the worst possible outcome to this behavior. While condom
machines on campus will not stop the AIDS problem, it is a
good first step in the right direction.
Paul Herrera ’93
Other schools have traditions
EDITOR:
Cary Moore’s letter about the Corps runs (The Battalion,
Feb. 8) totally disgusted me. I’m sick of Aggies, especially
Corps members, belittling other schools and crooning about
A&M and its traditions in such a condescending manner.
Other schools do have traditions of which they are very
proud. A&M is not the creator of the concept of traditions.
And A&M’s traditions are no more meaningful to Aggies
than are the traditions of other schools to their students and
alumni. Have you ever talked to someone at another school? I
have.
At least the rhetoric about being a “world-class university”
has quieted. Such a goal will he impossible while A&M is in
fected with narrow-minded snobs like Moore.
And if an employer would hire me on the basis of my be
ing an Aggie, I would be suspicious. That kind of discrimina
tion makes me ashamed, not proud, of being an Aggie.
one can see, the library is magnificent enough with its vast ar
ray of periodicals and other resources. Aren’t six stories big
enough for any library? It’s bigger than most high school li
braries, so we should be satisfied.
Some of the resources in our library go unused for days.
The Board of Regents should raise the money needed to
build coliseums by censoring out and selling unused library
resources to other universities. Who knows, maybe these
other universities will find some strange use for the resources.
We should also start building our places of learning more
economically. The Harrington Education Center is the epit
ome of how we should minimize scholastic costs and maxi
mize the construction of coliseums. Falling ceilings in Har
rington will help keep students awake and eliminate those
students stupid enough to sleep in class. What are two or
three students compared to two or three coliseums?
I am incensed by fellow students who bicker about minor
impurities they claim to have spotted in our magnificent li
brary. Some of these impurities, they claim, are the library’s
inability to furnish a large amount of periodicals advertised in
the Readers Guide and other indexes. Another anguishing
impurity is our high-tech Wilson terminal (used to find jour
nals) that lists articles that the library does not possess. Some
body even suggested the silly idea to me that Wilson should be
programmed to specify whether the library has a certain arti
cle or not. Obviously, this process wouldn’t be worth its
weight in gold.
I once unsuccessfully attempted to locate a periodical
published in May of 1989. The librarian told me it was in
“limbo,” or the it was being sent to Washington to be trans
ferred onto microfilm. Sure, I was annoyed at not being able
to find the magazine for “six to eight weeks” at first, but then
I realized the library just doesn’t have enough money to order
two subscriptions of current brand name periodicals. I’m pos
itive that if we all want to get good grades on our technical or
other research papers, Austin or. Houston won’t seem too far
to drive at all! Let’s get these coliseums on the road and forget
about the li’l of library, John Brandley!
was white, she said they would have to find an alternate candi
date. Thev wouldn’t let me attend because of my race.
The INROADS program provides minorities with sum
mer jobs paying up to $5,()()() per summer. 1 had better
grades and higher SA L scores than many of the people who
received these jobs. I am also a National Merit Scholar. 1
worked at McDonald’s last summer though, because 1 am
white and therefore ineligible for most good summer jobs.
I, like Henry West, am a resident of Lechner Hall. I have
more scholarships than most people, and 1 consider myself
lucky. No one is crying about minorities who earn what they
have through hard labor. The “Great Body” of Henry Westis
up in arms over being excluded from fair competition with
minorities through the disci iminatory policies of affirmative
action and quotas.'
Douglas Burke ’93
Supreme being a ‘preposterous lie’
Michael Stembridge ’93
Minority quotas stop competition
Carol Wiggins Malone ’90
Forget about li’l ol’ library
EDITOR:
What is all this complaining about A&M’s appropriation
of funds to building a new coliseum over improving “educa
tional resources?” We should support the building of not one,
but three new coliseums. We should he resourceful Aggies
and back expansion and construction of our University over
trying to fix minute flaws in its information systems. As any
EDITOR:
Henry Earl West obviously has earned his scholarships.
He is a recipient of the most prestigious scholarships given by
the University, as evidenced by his residency in Lechner Hall.
These scholarships are given to outstanding students without
regards to race or sex. This isn’t the way it usually happens,
however.
As a white student at a nearly all-black school, I was ex
posed to a continual stream of reverse discrimination, espe
cially when applying for scholarships. In my junior year, ev
eryone was given a list of 30 scholarships for engineering
majors to apply for. White females were.eligible to compete
for three of them, white males could compete for one.
I applied to attend a health career symposium for blacks,
just for fun. I was notified that my application was superb,
and that I had been chosen to attend. All the arrangements
had been made. When I told the woman on the phone that I
EDITOR:
In response to Ronda Shepperd’s column concerning the
good and/or evil interactions of the inhabitants of this planet,
and whether these interactions bear any relevancetotheques-
tion of the existence of a supreme being, I feel that I mustsay,
in rather understated terms, that I am both incredulous and
irritated.
I will proudly claim my atheism and disbelief in iheten-
ents of any religion as being ol any signifigance in my life. 1
will also proudly claim my participation in numerous charita
ble activities, such as delivering meals to shut-ins, taking
handicapped adults bowling and raising hundreds of dollars
in pledges for fun-t un benefits. Furthermore, l truly enjot
romantic interludes, I love my parents dearly and 1 have nu
merous friends.
And so, Ronda, according to your quaint approach, I pur
port that I have disproved your hypothesis and in tact pro
vided undeniable evidence that the existence of a supreme
being is a preposterous lie!
Or maybe, just maybe, human beings can function be
yond the narrow minded realm of subservience and extreme
unction to a god. I believe that Jesus Christ was one of the
greatest orators and intellectuals to ever stride upon this
earth (and I would be an idiot to state otherwise). But that is
all I believe about him. My question to Ronda and others:
Have you ever considered why his beliefs were noble and vir
tuous and have survived and not just that you should obey?
1 he answer is altruism, a novel wav ol thought fur mod
ern man. Surprisingly, you need only your mind and your
conscience, but best of all, von get to think for yourself!
bntat
bi R<
James Porter Hammit II ’90
Have an opinion ? Express it!
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11II.
Apartheid’s end may not mean justice in S. Africa
My vote for the most profound
statement to come out of rock n’ roll is
Pete Townsend’s “Meet the new boss.
Same as the old boss.” Perhaps'when
Pete wrote the lyric he was thinking
about South Africa.
For some unfathonable reason, the
anti-apartheid crusaders of the world
seem to think that black rulers will
automatically insure justice for the
blacks in South Africa. The assumption
is that a black leader, due to their love of
their own race, will always do what is
hest for their follow blacks. This is a
strange assumption given the history of
hlack nationalistic rule in Africa.
Since 1957, there haye been over 150
black African heads of state. Of these,
only six were elected through a
democratic process. The other 140-odd
rulers achieved their positions through
assasinations or military coups.
Currently, of the 41 black African
nations, only two allow their citizens to
elect their leaders. The other 39 are
either military dictatorships or ‘peoples
democracies’ with only one candidate on
the ballot.
How have blacks fared under black
rule? It is a somewhat blemished record.
From 1974 to 1978, the Ethiopian-
Marxist regime murdered 30,000
people. In 1972, the Burandi
government, led by the Tutsi tribe,
massacred over 200,000 members of the
Andrew
Matthews
Columnist
rival Hut us tribe. This slaughter was
repeated in August of 1988, when
another 20,000 were wiped out. In
Uganda, 300,000 citizens were
terminated under the combined rule of
Idi Amin and Milton Obote.
Aside from actual murder, the black
people of Africa have been relegated to
lives of hopeless poverty, if not outright
starvation. Many of the black leaders
upon achieving power imposed an array
of socialist policies on their citizens.
They nationalized major industries,
collectivized farmers and basically
destroyed all forms of civil liberties.
Zambia, Ethopia, Chad, Tanzia,
Zambia, Mozambique ... the list of
socialist black governments continues
on.
Would the African National Congress
(ANC) lead South Africans down the
same road of misery? Most definitely.
For years, the South African
Communist Party has been the ANC’s
biggest ally. Evidence of this could be
seen in the curious absence of any
mention of the fall of the Eastern
European governments in the official
anti-apartheid weekly, The New Nation.
In addition, they have been engaged in
terrorism against other blacks in the
townships. Not exactly the characteristic
most desired in statesmen.
The biggest question in South Africa
today is whether Mandela still believes
in the socialist message of the ANC, as
laid out in the Freedom Charter. The
ANC’s official policy is to nationalize the
mines, banks and monopoliy industries.
As of last week, Mandela stated he still
adheres to the policies of the ANC. Not
good news. There is also the possibility
that the other ANC? leaders will not let
Mandela hold the reins of the party. In
the world of power politics, an ousting
of Mandela should not come as a
surprise.
The dismantling of apartheid can
only be realized in a society based on
free markets and limited government.
T he existence of apartheid is a
testament to the injustices which
government can inflict when it has no
limitations.
Apartheid originated in the 1920’s
with a series of seemingly non-racial
legislation. During this time period,
many white unions realized that the
great influx of low-skilled, low-wage
black workers were endangering their
job security. As a result, minimum wage
laws which, though seemingly race-
neutral, effectively priced blacks out of
the job market.
Practically all of the injustices which
have been inflicted on the blacks have
been at the hands of regulatory *
government intervention in the
marketplace. For this reason, the
economic status of the blacks can only
be raised if the post-apartheid order is
founded on free-markets, limited
government and minority rights.
Before universal suffrage is allowed,
a new constitution must be written.
Much like the Constitution of the
United States, it would have to insure
the rights of all ethnic races. An
independent judiciary would have to be
established to ensure that all laws be
racially unbiased. This constitution
would set strict limits on the use of
government power, and would insure
basic fundamental rights such as private
property, freedom of contract, voting
rights and a vast array of human rights.
This is the vision of President de
Klerk and his reform minded National
Party. Unfortunefly, Mandelastai
solidly behind his call for “one-ptrsonI
one-vote ’ with majority rule.
Eventually, majority voting must be
instated, but without a strong
constitution it will lead to horrific
consequences.
Fortunately, the ANC is not the obI
politic al black group in South Africa
Main moderate black leaders realize
that a peac ef ul co-existence with the
whites can be achieved without
resoi ting to terrorism, One suchleade
is Zulu Chief M.(». BulhcTezi. Foryean
he has been engaged in constructive
talks with white reformers, and has
urged that economic sanctions irnposd
on South Africa be lifted. He must ah
be inc hided in the- political negotiate
A solution to aparthied will soonbf
consummated. It will require the impit
of all the factions of South Africa. Bm
the- necessary safeguardsagainst
govei mnental power are not
established, a new wave of oppresskui
and poverty will he imposed on the
South Af rican people — black and
white.
Andrew Matthews is a junior
economies major.
Adventures In Cartooning
Don Atkinson Ji
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Mary-Lynne Rice. Lifestyles Editor
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