The Battalion
OPINION
Tuesday, October 9,1990
High taxes will not
What is one to think about all this talk
about budget deficits? The good news is
that the sorry excuse for a budget plan
did not pass through Congress. This
means that the federal government will
shut down. If we’re lucky, the IRS and
all the regulatory agencies will close for
good.
After this budget plan was
announced, Bush got on the television
and did his little dog-and-pony show on
why we, the American people, should
like this bill. He asked the voters to
contact their representatives and
express their views on the bill. They did
all right, and nobody likes it.
The plan called for higher taxes on
gas, cigarettes and alcohol. The
spending cuts would come from the
military, farm subsidies and Medicare.
The Democrats did not like it because
the taxes imposed are regressive, and
they weren’t able to soak the rich with
higher tax rates. The Republicans, on
the other hand, were opposed to the tax
Battle against
with accurate
Bruce Hudgins’ letter of Sept. 28
certainly stirred up a lot of indignation
on this campus. While I found his views
on homosexuality profoundly
disturbing and personally offensive, I
will not attempt to refute them. He’s
entitled to his opinion.
It was Mr. Hudgins’ misconceptions
about AIDS that really upset me. He
quite liberally used the phrase “statistics
will show” when he obviously had never
seen or studied any. Mr. Hudgins is
misinformed about AIDS and its causes,
but instead of learning about it he has
decided to blame someone else and stay
ignorant. No such luck, Mr. Hudgins.
I’ve decided to educate you and anyone
else who’d like to come along for the
ride.
Statistics,will show that AIDS is not
just a male homosexual disease found
outside the “old conservative South”.
Center for Disease Control (CDC)
statistics on HIV/AIDS show that Texas
is fourth in the nation in the number of
reported AIDS cases. We are behind
New York, California, and New Jersey.
Florida. Another fine, conservative,
southern state ranks fifth. And the
numbers are rising dramatically. In
1989, Texas had 2,418 cases of AIDS.
In August 1990 that number had risen
to 3,168, or about 18 cases per 100,000
people. Twenty nine of these were cases
of pediatric AIDS (defined as children
under 13). So AIDS isn’t an urban
problem, or a gay problem, it’s society’s
problem. That means you and me.
People are dying from this disease
right here in our own backyard. In
Brazos County we have had 34 cases of
AIDS, four of which are pediatric cases,
resulting in 30 deaths.
As far as the contention that AIDS
spread to the heterosexual community
by those nasty drug users prostituting
themselves to dirty homosexuals,
statistics will show that this just isn’t the
whole story, or anywhere close to the
truth. AIDS spread to the heterosexual
community through the use of IV drugs
(24 percent of all AIDS cases),
unprotected sex with an IV drug user
(55 percent of all heterosexual contact
cases), and through persons born in a
“Pattern II” country (18 percent of all
heterosexual contact cases). A Pattern II
country is defined as one in central,
eastern, and southern Africa and some
Caribbean countries. We should note
that these countries are given this
special category because transmission of
the HIV virus through homosexuality
'
Andrew
Matthews
Columnist
'T
increases, and were mad that the White
House dropped its demands for a lower
capital gains tax rate.
This whole budget fiasco provides the
perfect backdrop to the ideological
battle between the big-government and
libertarian forces. The former are lead
by the traditional left-wing Democrats
and moderate Republicans. These
people somehow believe that the
absolute goal of government is to ensure
that it has enough money to pay for all
its ever expanding services.
If government starts spending too
AIDS virus
information
Kate
rp, , Reader’s Opinion
and IV drug use is rare to nonexistant.
Sorry, Mr. Hudgins, but statistics show
contact with bisexual males account for
only 6 percent of heterosexual AIDS
cases.
In the United States, male
homosexual contact accounts for 54
percent of all AIDS cases. While this is
still a slight majority, it should be noted
that it is down from 58 percent just last
year. And remember, in the early 1980s
male homosexuals made up almost 100
percent of all cases. Why are the
numbers falling in this part of the
society yet rising in others?
EDUCATION AND PREVENTION.
These are the keys to stop the spread
of AIDS. 1 decided not to refute Mr.
Hudgins’ views on morality,
homosexuality, or Christianity because I
didn’t want to waste precious space
arguing. Morality, or the lack thereof,
isn’t the issue here. The issue is people.
The CSC and AIDS Foundations
across the country are switching their
educational emphasis to young adults
and IV drug users, the people most at
risk today for AIDS. Students here on
this campus, especially the women
between the ages of 20-25, are among
those most at risk. In comparison to the
rest of society, college campuses have
much higher rates of promiscuity and
we just don’t protect ourselves.
I’m willing to bet that almost every
student at Texas A&M could tell me
what the Surgeon General said about
the transmission of the HIV virus.
NEXT TO ABSTINENCE, THE BEST
DEFENSE AGAINST THE HIV
VIRUS IS THE PROPER USE OF A
LATEX CONDOM. But how many of
us practice “safe sex” each and every
time? Or at all? How many of you just
know you’d die of embarrassment
asking your partner to use a condom?
Well, you just might. You can not claim
ignorance anymore. You’re armed with
the facts. Now it’s up to you.
For more information on Hiy/AIDS or
where to be tested, call the AIDS
Helpline at 690-AIDS.
The AIDS Foundation of Brazos
Valley always welcomes new volunteers!
To become involved call us! 690-AIDS.
Kate Taggard is a senior English
major and volunteer with the AIDS
Foundation of Brazos Valley.
The Battalion
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Editor
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Ellen Hobbs, Opinion Page Editor
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News Editors
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Sports Editor
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Lisa Ann Robertson,
Lifestyles Editor
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Opinion Page Editor
Ellen Hobbs
84M *
create more revenue for U.
much then the taxpayers MUST give up
more of their hard-earned money. It
never occurs to these politicians that
most people are just living within their
means. The government must have
more money, to hell with the costs!
The irony of this belief is that in
today’s economy, raising tax rates does
not raise more revenue. Tax writers
erroneously assume the individuals do
not change their behavior when
confronted with higher taxes.
Put a tax on mixed drinks at bars, and
consumers will drink more beer at
home. Put higher taxes on corporations
and they will hire more tax accountants.
Raise property taxes and families move
to the suburbs. A more harmful result is
that onerous taxes on income tend to
discourage individuals from engaging
in income-producing activities.
This results in an inevitable spiral of
taxation and economic decline.
Governments raise tax rates, thus
resulting in lower economic activity and
lower tax revenues. Governments then
find themselves with even less revenue,
so they raise tax rates again, resulting in
even lower tax revenues.
The timing of these proposed tax
increases is horrendous. The economy
seems to be heading for lower growth,
perhaps even a recession. What the
economy needs now are lower capital
gains rates indexed to inflation, a return
of the investment tax credit, and other
pro-growth measures to stimulate the
economy.
Macroeconomists generally agree on
the desirablity of a balanced budget, but
widespread disagreement exists on the
effects of deficits on the economy. Do
they promote growth through more
spending, or do they halt growth
through higher interest rates? Who
knows? We do know that higher taxes
will hurt. Without a doubt a balanced
budget should be a goal a good
app
government, but the healthofthe
economy is more important.
The joke about this budget proApe
that without an overhaul inthesji
the budget will never be balanced
Politicians will always shy awayfro ”
making necessary cuts in spending
need to bring home the pork will:
outweigh the feeling of response
cut the deficit.
What is needed is either a
budget amendment, a line-itemve
the President, or at least allow
mechanism such as Gramm-Rudii; i,j,y
make the automatic spending
These measures would providecu
spending and at the same timealoi
Gongressmen to escape from
accountability for the cuts. Onlyw
these measures and a reaffirmatio
the no-new-taxes pledge by the
president will the federal govern®
solve the budget and economicwoe
Andrew Matthews is a senior
economics major.
cit-<
Mail Call
Public schools not all bad
EDITOR:
I just re-read Andrew Matthew’s diatribe against public
schools, and I have to admit, he does make one thing clear:
there IS someone in Texas as intellectually brilliant as Clay
ton Williams. How can any thinking person come out FOR
public education?! Never mind that all of us happen to be
attending a public school ourselves.
The arguments he used are perfectly elegant. He starts
off by calling our system SOCIALIST. That’ll stir up most
God-fearing Americans, 1 guess! He points out that because
public schools aren’t well integrated, we should send all kids
to private schools and abandon all pretense! It’s too bad that
poorer kids and minorities won’t make it in our rich white
kids’junior country clubs, but I’m sure they will be happier
in the inner city slums. No use in pretending that they will
somehow be INCLUDED in our little experiment.
I especially admire how Mr. Matthews convincingly ar
gues that making school teachers go free-market will im
prove quality AND lower salaries. Since so few parents these
days have time to keep an eye on their school system or at
tend school board meetings, we ought to find SOME nice,
easy solution.
is you are so angry. What is it you are afraid of? Are
worried that homosexuality is infectious?
You stated that the Bible is “very straightforward"®
cerning the issue. While I am not so foolish as to believer
the Bible contains the absolute answer to all ofounjj
tions, I do suggest you read I Corinthians Chapter 13.
“When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood)
child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man
away childish things. For now we see through a jii
darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part;
shall 1 know even as also I am known. And now
faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of dies
charity.”
Don’t you see Bruce, an issue such as this couldn’tp«
bly be “straightforward”. Homosexuality is far too a
a question to simply declare it unconditionally wrong.ti
would only be childish. We must struggle together
and love to see through this dark glass.
Louise Abigail Reading ’91
Nobody likes homosexuals
liarr
and
Joseph Kachmar
graduate student
Homosexuality isn’t a sickness
EDITOR:
This letter is in response to Mr. Bruce G. Hudgins who
states that “...homosexuality is a sickness that infects the
weak-minded and morally corrupt and therefore they can
not be treated as equals to sound-minded people.”
Oh, poor, poor Mr. Bruce G. Hudgins, how do I even
begin to respond to your naive, “old, conservative, south
ern” remarks? How does one explain to a Nazi that a Jew is a
human who deserves nothing less than basic human rights?
How does one halt a Ku Klux Klan member from torturing
and murdering an innocent black? How does one change a
mind which has been trained to hate?
Dear Mr. Hudgins I write this letter knowing that it is a
rather hopeless effort. I write this letter to you out of re
spect for a young homosexual boy who recently left College
Station and moved to Amarillo, where in a few short weeks
he was murdered for being gay. I write this letter out of re
spect for all of my gay friends who suffer the torment of
prejudice from the simple minded.
Mr. Hudgins, what you and Joe Barton have failed to
understand is that with all of your irrational suspicion and
hatred, you cannot stop homosexuality. There are many
theories about why homosexuality exists. It is almost cer
tainly a response to stress in society and possibly nature’s
way of controlling overpopulation.
You should make no mistake, Mr. Hudgins, homosex
uality exists and will continue to do so simply because it is a
part of nature that is present in some form in all of us. It
amuses me that you think you could possibly ban such a
thing.
I think the reason I found your letter so disturbing was
because of your obvious anger. “If you are homosexual
move to San Francisco or please get back in the closet. Just
LEAVE TEXAS THE HELL ALONE!” Prejudice is a very
dangerous thing. I seriously suggest you consider just why it
EDITOR:
1 am responding to all ol the letters written on Octo
3. You are all sick. Robinson, maybe you should loot
your letter once more.
As to Buschhorn’s letter, our constitution only pro:
for a republican form of government distinguishablefro:
monarchy but not a direct democracy (“State and Locald
ernment”, p.40, sixth ed.). Just open your eyes and you'
see that the past ten years have been very politically®
vative, Democrat or Republican, and the only liberal cl
lengers have lost badly, Dukakis only carrying one stale
example.
True, Hudgins is wrong to say AIDS is a homoses
disease, but if you do your studying you will find a hot®
ual is still the undisputed first link in the chain. Andjot
who cares who spreads the disease the most, that is like sit
ing a fire and blaming the dry grass for killing the anitK'
Robinson, what is all of the psychological “Youanc
crap? Don’t include me or anyone else to your side. You
tempt to seduce us to your argument with fancy wordini
you FAILED. We are a predominantly anti-gay righis
tion; don’t fight it.
And finally back to Buschhorn, why pick on Texas:
whole United States — each individual citizen — isagsc
homosexuals, this has nothing to do with prejudiceofn
religion, or a particular belief. We will all gladly treatl®
sexuals with the same rights as any other mentallyinv
person deserves. Love is a very personal thing, heteros
uals keep it personal and so should you. To quoteaneat
letter, “Stay in the closet.”
Timothy Raines ’92
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Adventures In Cartooning by Don Atkinson
A