The Battalion
OPINION ' 2
Friday, March 2,1990
Opinion Page Editor Ellen Hobbs 845-3314
Belittlers of Corps often lack understanding p
In all my years at A&M, I have seen
many letters written in The Battalion
criticizing the Corps of Cadets. Some of
these letters have been legitimate
complaints that have actually prompted
some minor changes in Corps activities.
Many of these have been aimless
conclusions drawn from a lack of
knowledge about the Corps. However, I
have never seen one as blatantly
ignorant as the one written by Marcus
Johnson in the Feb. 20 edition of The
J. Christopher
Neel
Reader’s Opinion
Battalion.
As a former Cadet of four years, I
feel that there are many things that
need to be told about the Corps that
should be fully understood by everyone
before they fulfill their right to criticize
it. The purpose of the Corps is to help
prepare men and women to be leaders
in the military or the business world.
The Corps is organized on a class system
just as most everything else is here at
A&rM. The functions of the classes are
as follows:
I. Seniors lead the Corps. They
develop the policies that w ill be followed
by the underclassman.
II. J uniors implement the policies
developed by the seniors.
Pageant contestants not like cattle’
I worked at the Houston Livestock
Show and Rodeo this week. Seeing all
those pigs, cow 7 s and sheep being judged
(on muscle tone, suitability for
breeding, etc.) made me start thinking
about the 1990 Miss Texas A&M
pageant.
Now, wait a minute. Calm down. I
didn’t say that I think that beauty
pageants treat women like cattle. But a
group of protestors w 7 ho showed up at
the MissTexas A&M pageant last
Saturday night said that they thought
so.
Melissa Cuthbert, one of the
protestors, is quoted in Monday’s
Battalion as saying that the University,
through the pageant, is promoting the
stereotype that women are useless
unless they are beautiful. Another
protestor said on the Channel 3 News
that the w omen in the pageant were
beingjudged “like cattle.’’ So there I
was, at the Astrodome, watching cattle
beingjudged on whether they will make
a good T-bone, or w hether they could
mate with other cows to make baby cows
that will someday make a good T-bone.
And I wondered, is this what a beauty-
pageant is like?
I came to the conclusion that there is
no similarity, and Cuthbert and her
cohorts are getting uptight about
nothing. The Miss Texas A&M pageant
is not a bad thing; in fact, in many ways
it is a good thing.
A steer does not choose to participate
in a livestock show-. He is just led into
the ring and put on display. He doesn’t
have to sing; he doesn’t have to answer
Scot O.
Walker
Editor
questions. If he has a problem with the
concept or the procedures, fine.
Tomorrow he’s a Big Mac. A woman, on
the other hand, says, “Hey, these people
are of fering money — lots of money —
to someone w ho is pretty and smart and
talented. I’m pretty and smart and
talented. I think I’ll enter.” I see no
problems with that.
Unlike cows, Miss Texas A&M isn’t
selected solely on looks. This year’s
contestants all had above a 3.0 grade
point. They also had talent.
Cuthbert said that A&M
discriminates against women who
cannot compete with society’s standard
of beauty.
This is true, but every scholarship
competition discriminates against
somebody. There are scholarships for
engineering majors, for African-
Americans, for smart people, for people
who score high on the SAT, for citizens
of certain counties — even scholarships
for people who raise certain kinds of
cattle (of the non-human variety, of
course). That’s the nature of
competition: someone has or does
something better than someone else,
and is rewarded for it. The others don’t
have it or do it as well, and they are
discriminated against. In other words,
they lose. So what?
Cuthbert said that the pageant should
be based only on a woman’s academy
achievements. But, even ignoring her
blatant bias against men, she’s still
discriminating. Some people are born
smart and can get through school on
cruise control, making A’s and B’s.
Others aren't so lucky, and have to
really work just get C’s. So is it fair to
give the person with better grades a
scholarship while snubbing the other?
Of course it’s not. But life ain’t fair.
Let’s suppose just for a minute that
beauty was the only prerequisite to be
Miss Texas A&M. There is still nothing
wrong with that. Wejudge entertainers
on how well they sing or dance. We
judge athletes on how well they run or
throw. Wejudge models — and beauty
contestants — on how good looking they
are. Everybody is judged on something.
If you don’t want to be judged on your
looks, don’t enter beauty pageants. If
you don’t want to see other people
judged on their looks, don’t attend
beauty pageants.
All the women in the pageant were
there because they wanted to be there.
They were all smart, talented and
pretty. The winner was intelligent,
gifted and gorgeous. She’s happy she
w r on, the other contestants are happy
they competed, the audience is happy
because they got to see a good show.
Everybody else should find a better
cause to justify their silly protests.
Scot Walker is a senior journalism
major.
III. Sophomores teach and discipline
the freshman class.
IV. Freshmen are the Corps. They
are the newest and least experienced of
all the classes and need to be taught how
to become cadets.
The manner that the Corps carries
out its purpose is to teach the freshmen
how- to lead by example. One of the first
things the freshmen are told is that in
order to be a leader, they must first
understand what it means to be led.
Once they have spent a year in this role,
they are given more and more
responsibility until eventually they
themselves become the leaders of the
Corps as seniors.
The freshmen are taught how to
become a model cadets, following the
creed of Lawrence Sullivan Ross —
“Soldier, Statesman, Knightly
Gentleman.” To fit this role, the
freshmen must learn to discipline
themselves. One way for the
upperclassmen to measure the progress
of the freshmen is to see how well they
conform or lit in with the crowd. This is
not done t hrough the changing of their
viewpoints or beliefs, but through
uniform inspections and evaluations of
how well they associate with their
“buddies” or fellow freshmen. The
same thing is done in the U S. Military,
which the Corps is modeled after. Texas
A&M, after all, was once a military
academy. It is true that many of the
people who do enter the (Mi ps do share
many common viewpoints and ideas,
but this is because the) have a common
interest in the military, not because they
were coerced or brainwashed into
believing certain things.
I he privileges given to the
upperclassmen are nothing more thana
way of distinguishing the different class
levels. 1 hey are given evenly to all
cadets of the same class, but yes, those
w ith senioritv do have what many
consider a nicer uniform. The level of
knowledge of the cadets is recognized
through the awarding of rank to the
individual cadets, i hose with "higher
knowledge’’ are more than likely to hold
higher rank.
Many ol the traditions at A&M were
developed while the school was a
militarv academv. Lhese were
developed to promote a sense of unity
to those at A&M. I he motto of the
Corps is “Per Unitatum Vis”—Througl
Unity — Strength. While many of the
at tivities are nothing more than games,
those who plnv and play by all the rules
generallv have more fun and get the
most out of it. I myself have made mans
great friends and have found that lam
capable of as hieving many feats— j
mentally, emotionally and physically,
that 1 don’t believe I would have
experienced had 1 not been in the
Corps.
I do not feel that 1 am narrow
minded. I acc ept that there are those
that would rather join a Greek
organization and there are those who dfj
not want to belong to either
organization. I happen to have 1
expressed myself by joining the Corps,
do not feel that those who are not in tilt
Corps are inferior to me.
Granted the Corps is not perfect.fori
not every cadet can and will liveupto |
the creed “Soldier, Statesman, Knightlrl
Gentleman. It is a demanding and
difficult goal to at hieve — few haveevei
truly filled the role completely, bur Idof
not t are for those who choose tocriticizl
w hat thev know so little about.
A&M is a land of great opportunity. I
It has a reputation of being an excelleni
school. But it also offers many thingsiol
the way of extracurricular activities, ]
many things that are not of fered at
ot her equally exc client or ev en better
schools. However, it is all fornaughtif
all ot these are lost in strife and division!
among the student body.
J. Christopher Neel is a senior
mechanical engineering major.
Students must realize AIDS can threaten their lives
AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency
Syndrome) is a lethal disease and a
consequence of infection by the
immunodefiency virus (HIV). Other
less severe illnesses, grouped under the
term ARC (AIDS-related complex), as
well as asymptomatic infections may also
result from the HIV infection.
The incubation period for AIDS may
range from few months to five years or
more. Currently, there is no vaccine to
protect against HIV infection, and there
is no cure for AIDS.
HIV infection is transmitted through
sexual intercourse, contact with blood,
semen, and body fluids, and prenatally
from an infected mother. HIV
transmission does not take place
through casual contact such as by air,
food, or water routes, contact with
inanimate objects or through mosquitos.
The HIV infection is preventable.
Increasing awareness and providing
education to students at all levels and
backgrounds are the primary forms of
prevention against AIDS.
According to Dr. Richard Keeling,
director of student health at the
University of Virginia and chairman of
the Task Force on AIDS of the
American College Health Association,
the prevalence of HIV infection on
college campuses is relatively small: 0.2
percent. Yet, in a campus of the size of
Texas A&M, it means that we can
expect to have 80 students infected with
HIV.
The early symptoms of AIDS are
similar to other illnesses such as
bronchitis or colds, including the
Erika Gonzalez-Lima
Health Columnist
following: unexplained fever, night
sweats or shaking chills last ing several
weeks; unexplained diarrhea lasting
more than three weeks, a persisent dry-
tough, unexplained weight loss of more
than 15 pounds over a short period of
time, persistent and unexplained
swollen glands and hard, painless
bruises in the skin that do not
disappear.
A person can look and feel healthy
and be capable of spreading the virus.
There are tests available to check for
the presence of antibodies in rhe
bloodstream, such as ELISA (enzyme-
linked immunosorbent assay), and the
most precise test, Western Blot.
If the test are positive, this means that
the person has been exposed to and is
infected with the virus. A positive result
does not necessarily mean that the
person has developed or will develop
AIDS. A negative test result means that
the person has probably not developed
antibodies to HIY\ and it may not
accurately reflect whether or not the
person is infected.
College students are at increased risk
infection because of three factors:
1) Feelings of immortality that
provide them false courage and denial
for personal risk.
2) Active sex lives: as shown by the
high incidence of sexually transmitted
diseases and unplanned pregnancies.
According to Dr. Keeling, 83 percent of
college students have had sexual
intercourse before graduation, and 60-
percent did not use a condom. .
3) Drug experimentation: curiosity,
peer pressure, stress, etc. can lead to
drug use. Drugs add risk of HIV
infection in three ways:
a) Intravenous drug use may lead to
sharing needles which transfer
contaminated blood from an infected
person to another.
b) Drugs may also act as “cofactor,”
weakening the body’s immune system.
c) Drugs may also impair student’s,
judgement, decreasing chances for
making “safe sex” decisions.
The last reports from the (’.enters for
Disease Control in Atlanta show that 50
percent of all heterosexual and 30
percent all cases of HIV infection are
drug related.
As a college student, you can choose
not to do certain behaviors that will
endanger your life. The first thing you
need to develop is self-respect. Be
honest w 7 ith yourself and decide what
you want from a relationship.
Abstinence is the only guarantee against
HIV infection but it may not be what
you w’ant. If you decide to have sex,
choose safe sex. Communicate
effectively with your sexual partner and
choose lower-risk sexual activities. Use
latex condoms. When used properly.
Instructions for condom users
For maximum protection, condoms must be used correctly.
• Use a condom every time you have intercourse.
• Always put the condom on the penis before intercourse begins.
• Do not pull the condom tightly against the tip of the penis. Leave a small erupt!
space — about one or two centimeters — at the end of the condom to hold semen. Somti
condoms have a nipple tip that will hold semen. aL
• Unroll the condom all the way to the bottom of the penis.
• If the condom breaks during intercourse, withdraw the penis immediately awl pit
on a new condom.
• Alter ejaculation, withdraw the penis while it is still erect Hold onto the ritnofiht
condom as you withdraw so that the condom does not slip off.
• Use a new condom each time von have intercourse. Throw used condoms away.
• If a lubricant is desired, use water-based lubricants such as water-based jelly. Lubri
cants made w ith petroleum jelly may damage condoms. Do not use saliva because it im
contain a virus.
• Store condoms in a cool, dry place if possible.
• Condoms that are sticky or brittle or otherwise damaged should not he used.
These instructions are reprinted Irdtn Population Reports, \ ol. XIV. 3, luh-Aueu
1980. K J
condoms are 98 percent effective in
preventing sexually transmitted disease,
including AIDS.
The well-know n Planned Parenthood
adage “Hope is Not a Method” applies
to both avoiding AIDS and pregnancy.
Seek a mutually faithful relationship
with one partner, or at least, limit the
number of sexual partners. Don’t use
drugs or share needles, and do not have
intercourse with intrevenous drug users
or with persons with multiple sex
partners. Remember to take
precautions before sharing sexual
intimacy.
Have a question on a health issue? Wriletothi
Health Columnist, Dr. Erika Gonzalez-Lima, Studn
Health ( '.enter, Texas A&M l ’niversity. CollegeSht
I X 77845-1264. Letters will be answeredanuny»
through this column in The Battalion. If an indiviL
reply is expected, please include your name, addrest
telephone number.
Adventures In Cartooning
by Don Atkinson Ji
The Battalion
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The Battalion Editorial Board
Scot Walker, Editor
Monique Threadgill,
Managing Editor
Ellen Hobbs, Opinion Page Editor
Melissa Naumann, City Editor
Cindy McMillian, Lisa Robertson,
' News Editors
Richard Tijerina, Sports Editor
Fredrick D. Joe, Art Director
Mary-Lynne Rice, Lifestyles Editor
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