The Battalion
OPINION
Friday, April 6,1990
Mail Call
Preregistration system needs improvement
EDITOR:
After reading many letters complaining about just every subject I have yet
to read one about the preregistration system. It seems to me one of the main
reasons for a schedule is so a student can get the classes and teachers he wants.
The A&M administration doesn’t put the names of the teachers assigned to
each class. If they haven’t been assigned, then preregistration should be post
poned until they are. Most students know people who have had their classes
previously and can tell them what teachers to take. One more point: Since we
register according to last name, the order of who goes first should be alter
nated every semester. That keeps people like me from having to preregister
last two consecutive semesters.
David Hale ’92
Williams will make Texas stronger, greater
EDITOR:
Certainly Ellen Hobbs must be aware of the vast support for Clayton Wil
liams at this University. So the question arises, was her condemnation of Wil
liams as “just plain stupid” a petty ploy to get opinion articles for her page of
the newspaper or was it a legitimate argument? Whichever it was, I’m sure she
has received many letters in response.
The argument here is not whether Williams made a politically sound deci
sion in telling an offensive joke. I’m sure the most devout Williams supporters
will agree it was a serious blunder. The argument here is whether or not Wil
liams is “just plain stupid.” “The American College Dictionary” defines stupid
as “lacking ordinary activity and keenness of mind; dull.” Williams intelli
gence might be evaluated by scrutinizing his past decisions. One of Williams
first major decisions was to attend A&M. Pretty stupid, huh? Could a man be
considered stupid who started his entrepreneurship with only $2,000, and
eventually built his net worth large enough to be listed in Forbes 500? Wil
liams received the Dean’s Service Award for Teaching Excellence for his six
years of teaching a class on entrepreneurship here at A&M. I would venture
to say a world class university such as ours would not bestow such an honor on
a stupid man.
If Williams successful life doesn’t impress you as the life of a man showing
above average mental activity and keenness, then ask one of the 100,000 Tex
ans that Williams has created a job for; they might be a little more under
standing for a man who made a mistake. But then, those people, along with
over 60 percent of the Republican voters, don’t think a term with Williams
would be “four years of bumbling gubernatorial leadership.” So when you go
to the polls, remember: A vote for Clayton Williams is a vote for a stronger
and greater Texas.
Davin Driskill ’93
Help desk users need to look at other side
EDITOR:
I am writing in response to the letter from Chris Camperson in the Mon
day, March 26 Mail Call. I don’t believe that Camperson realizes the reasons
for what she calls the “attitude problems” of the Remote Computing Center
help desk employees. I know many of the people who work in the various help
desks across campus, and I believe that Camperson is jumping to conclusions
and judging without knowing all of the facts.
First, she mentions that they sit in the comfort of their office, work on
their own projects, and “shoot the bull.” Yes, they do. However, these people
were hired not only to help people with computer problems, but also to up
date existing program manuals and write new programs to make things eas
ier.
Second, she mentions they have to be asked at least three times before
they will come out and look at your program. However, they are told to look
only at printouts of the programs. If they do go look at your program, they
are doing you a favor. But in either case, they are not supposed to help you
write your program, so you should not even bother asking.
Third, the attitude problems that Camperson mentioned are, perhaps,
truly existent. But, when 30 or more people from the same class wait until the
night before the project is due to start a program, (all of which ask the help
desk employees the same questions), I believe you can see who would get the
most frustrated.
Fourth, she also states, “since most of them are engineering majors, they
seem to feel that non-engineering related problems are insignificant and do
not require their help when a problem arises.” I believe that Camperson is try
ing to blame her personal feelings for enginering and science majors on the
RCC help desk employees. Of course, there could be another explanation for
this: Perhaps they really don’t know the answer to your problem. In that case,
you just might have to go ask someone else.
The help desk employees should not be blamed for the things mentioned
here. I am under the impression that the professors and TAs that require the
use of a computer should spend five minutes explaining things to their stu
dents. Camperson and others would not have these problems with the RCC
help desk if they would look at the other side of the situation and try to under
stand the feelings of the students who try to help whenever they can.
Dawn Paul ’91
accompanied by four signatures
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Monique Threadgill,
Managing Editor
Ellen Hobbs, Opinion Page Editor
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News Editors
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Sports Editor
Fredrick D. Joe, Art Director
Mary-Lynne Rice,
Lifestyles Editor
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f The Battalic
Opinion Page Editor Ellen Hobbs
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ByKATHERIN
Of The Battalio
NOTSAFE president leads fight
against safety awareness, laws
1 don’t join many clubs.
I’m not a “joiner,” one of those people
who joins every club and organization
that sounds halfway interesting.
Actually, people like joiners (and
“padders,” people who join thingsjust
to pad their resume) get on my nerves.
But I found a club I want to join. The
National Organization Taunting Safety
and Awareness Everywhere.
NOTSAFE.
I read about NOTSAFE in the Oct.<5,
1989 edition of the Washington Times.
The stated aim of the group is to fight
against society’s preoccupation with
safety.
Yes, you read that right. To fight
against society’s preoccupation with
safety.
You see, we constantly are being
bombarded with laws that are supposed
to protect us from something, but w hat
they actually do is take away little bits of
our personal freedoms. Dale
Lowdermilk, the founder and president
of NOTSAFE, is the leader of the war
against these unnecessary laws, and his
weapons are sarcasm and satire.
One of Lowdermilk’s common tactics
is to take someone’s idea and expand on
it logically to reveal its own uselessness.
Consider the laws that require drivers
to wear seatbelts and motorcyclists to
wear helmets. A convincing argument
in favor of those laws is that taxpayers
often end up footing the bill when
someone has an accident and lands in
the hospital.
Lowdermilk reasons that the same
logic could be applied to fat people.
After all, studies show that fat people
consistently have more health problems
than the rest of the population. So, the
logic is that fat should be illegal.
“We should have a special license for
anyone who works in a supermarket, so
they could screen fat people as they
walk by,” Lowdermilk is quoted as
saying in the Times. “An overweight
person that goes into a supermarket and
buys five banana cream pies deserves to
be apprehended. If we’re gonna keep
the heart attack victims off the tax rolls,
we need to start at the grocery store and
Scot O.
Walker
Editor
make sure they are not allowed to buy
food that makes them fat.”
Lowdermilk also attacks the use of
statistics to justify laws. After all, he says,
one-half of all fatalities that occur to
children under the age of 3 are from
strangulation; one-half of those are
from hot dogs; a third of the remainder
are from peanut butter. So, “logically,”
we should ban hot dogs and peanut
butter, he says. Or we could require
square hot dogs, or better yet,
predigested hot dogs.
For our own safety, of course.
Lowdermilk hates warning labels,
too, because the rationale for the ones
we have could be extended to require
them on everything.
l ake aspirin, for example. Or
actually, don’t take it. After all, aspirin
alone kills about 900 people a year,
although there is no warning label on it,
and you can buy it over the counter.
There is more to NOTSAFE than just
fighting safety. How about fairness? On
animal rights, for example: “Animals
have rights. And I think insects are
animals. They’re livingcreatures of God,
and therefore insects have rights also.
What I suggest is that we reduce the
speed limit to 15 mph to prevent the
slaughter of insects on our highways.
“(And) you can’t tell me when you
drop a lobster in boiling water that it
doesn’t hurt. Give me a break. Just
because they’re ugly — Now, maybe
that’s the factor. If it’s cute, it gets
rights; if it’s ugly, it doesn’t. And then
we can apply the same logic to people.”
Lowdermilk goes on in the Times
article: “I get carried away on that
animal rights thing. If we spent half the
amount of money that we spend on dog
food to feed people around the world,
there would be no hunger. Thereare
40,000 people a day that starve todeai
I’ve suggested that we send the animals
that are in our shelters to foreign
countries to be eaten by the people that
are starving. Animal rights activists
jumped all over me, saying that is
inhumane. What is inhumane about
saving a human being?”
Back on the saf ety issue, Lovvderni
delights in a new scientific discovery,tl
“risk compensation f actor,” which say
that when a person puts on a seatbelt
because he has to, he takes greater risi
resulting in more crashes and more
pedestrian fatalities.
Lowdermilk relates this to pedestrian
fatalities at crosswalks.
“There are more injuries and
accidents at intersections that are
marked (with crosswalks) than at
unmarked intersections,” he says.“Th'
lady crossing the street, inside the whit
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I he rationale for the warning
labels we have could be extended!
to require them on everything.
Take aspirin, for example. Or
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aspirin alone kills about 900
people a year, although there is
no warning label on it, and you
can buy it over the counter.
lines, thinks she is protected by a dome
or something, and the car plows right
over her.”
Lowdermilk’s point is that everything
has its downside.
“Let us screw up a little bit,” he says in |
the Times article. “We’re a freecountrj j
Remember that this is the land of the
free and the home of the brave. You’ve |
got to be brave to be free. That’s the
bottom line.”
Amen. How do I join?
Scot Walker is a senior journalism
major.
Adventures In Cartooning by Don Atkinson Jr.
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