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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 18, 1990)
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Opinion mday, November 18, 1991 The Battalion Page? end junk mail back to Barton Condensed version of column topics '91 I n deference to my many fans who have come up to me on the street, in class, at work or in vari ous "nightspots" about town and given me suggestions for columns, I have compiled this list of some of the more impressive column suggestions. Look for your own! • There needs to be a bet ter method of allocating and distributing financial aid money. Some students wait well into the semester for the financial aid checks to arrive, and it just won't do. Students need their check before the semester actually begins because that's when the biggest financial drain takes place. | If it takes so long to process the applications for financial aid, the deadlines for the appli cations should begin earlier so that the processing can begin earlier. Students won't be bit ing their nails over money, and those processing the applica tions and distributing the checks won't be so harried in their efforts to get the money out. • Don't run at night in camou flage. There are several groups in the Corps who tend to do this, and some individuals. And it's just not a good idea. You see, camouflage, by its very definition, makes one quite difficult to see. And when you're wearing camou flage while running at night, especially if you're running in the street, you are much more likely to be hit by a car than fyou are if you are wearing, say, a white H’-shirt or sweatshirt. Granted, there are always members of these running Corps groups who are wearing white or reflective belts and looking out for the others; but still, there is an occasional -straggler. It's not that big a deal to wear a little white. If it keeps one guy from being run over, it's worth it, don'cha think? • Start pointing the sprinklers at the vegetation, not the sidewalks. If there is not enough money to hire a technician for this task, perhaps there is a horticulture student or two out there who could handle it and would be will ing to do it just because they're good Ags. After all, the "A" in "A&M" does stand for "agriculture." • Too many lights are turned off during Silver Taps. I've mentioned y.this before because I've always thought it was a safety hazard, but the guy who told me to write about it again was mad Hobbs is a senior journaiism major. because he was on the way to the library to study when suddenly all the lights went out around him, and he ran his bike into a lamp post and hurt him self. If you can't see a lamp post right in front of you, how are you going to be able to see somebody creeping up on you? It's a veritable breeding ground for crime. And, like this guy said, we don't want Silver Taps to become a self- perpetuating tradition. • Automobile drivers should be heavily penalized for not recognizing bicycles as vehicles and yielding to them at the appropriate times. We complain a lot about how inconsiderate bikers are; but, when you're behind the wheel of a big 4-door Chevy, it's easy to occasionally forget that bik ers have the same right to the road that you do. As long as we automobile drivers do not consistently treat bicycles as legitimate vehicles, cyclists are going to be more likely to push the rules of the road to their lim its, so that they, too, can use the streets efficiently. So make sure to let bikers have the right of way when it belongs to them, watch them for signals and stops, and when you pass them, pass courteously. • Hey, Joe Barton, quit sending us all that crap in the mail! Though most students on this campus claim to be Republicans, a quick trip to the post office on a day that Congressman Barton has sent out a mailing shows that most folks don't read his pam phlets, they trash them. But, as taxpayers, we pay postage for every one of those damned things h£ sends out —jit's called "franking privileges" — whether we voted for him or not. So, it we don't want to read them, we ought to let him know, for the good of the economy, that we don't want them. I suggest jotting "return to sender" on the pamphlet and dropping it back in the mailbox. Maybe he'll get the idea. • The Miss Texas A&M Scholarship Pageant is a pageant that exploits women by judging them according to their appearance, not just by academic performance, talent and personality. Catch a clue, gang: If it was just about brains, the contestants wouldn't wrap up their butts with duct tape. PC has far-reaching consequences Uninvolved people suffer I am writing this letter in response to the Reagan Clamon’s column entitled "PC changes harm no one" that appeared last Tuesday. In it, Clamon quite thoroughly demonstrated his com plete lack of understanding of the controversy surround ing "political correctness" and the motivation of the College Republicans in trying to bring it to the attention of the student body. But not only did the author miss the boat on political correctness, he then went on to attribute to College Republicans views that we do not sup port, and attacked us for those views that he made up himself. The article first mistakenly characterizes "political correctness" as the process of changing certain names or labels, such as black to African- American or Indian to Native-American, and showing "sensitivity to minorities ... in public policy." It is then concluded that groups like College Republicans are being quite silly in getting worked up over such things, and that the whole PC thing is just an election ploy. “But when a man like Stanford professor Robert Rabin, chairman of the Student Conduct Legislative Council, argues publicly that free speech rights extend only to victimized minori ties, since the white majority does not need such protections, I get a little worried.” My, how insightful... NOT. In actuality, "political correctness" has little if any thing to do with anything referred to in Clamon's article about PC. Instead, PC refers to the efforts of left-wing ideologies to silence conservative dissent on a wide range of issues, and more importantly, the wholesale politicalization of large parts of the curriculum at many U.S. universities. Some examples should serve to illustrate my point. At schools like Vassar, Brown, Berkeley, and Dartmouth, university administrators have tried to cen sor or suppress student journalists with surprising fre quency. At University of California at Los Angeles, there was comic strip in the student paper about a rooster who was enrolled at the school. The strip eventually ran afoul of the campus sensitivi ty police when, one day, the rooster was asked how he got into the school, he replied "affirmative action." After much uproar, the student editor who allowed the cartoon to run was suspended. When the editor of the paper at UC Northridge heard about this, he decried the suspension as a violation of free speech and ran the cartoon in his own paper in protest. He, of course, met with the same fate and also was sus pended. At root, however, these conflicts are ideological, not racial. Just ask Les Grant, a politically conservative, black student at Dartmouth. After he refused to support divestment of college funds from South Africa at a Dartmouth sensitivity pro gram, he was hung in effigy in the main administration building for his insensitivity to minority concerns. Tell him that PC doesn't harm anyone. Stephan Beck is a senior electrical engineering major. At Dartmouth, the administration seems to have made a second vocation out of harassing the conservative Dartmouth Review. Telephone operators for the college denied any knowledge of the paper's existence when people tried to contact the Review. Once, when the widow of a wealthy alumnus sent a check for $10,000 to the paper, the College inter cepted it and refused to release the money until the furious donor threatened to cut the college out of her will. Additionally, alumni who con tributed to the paper were pressured to drop their support by the school. (The antics of the faculty and administrators at Dartmouth could fill a book, and they do. (See The Hollow Men by Charles Sykes.) A freshman, Catholic student at Georgetown University was punished for refusing to attend a mandatory AIDS awareness presentation (where the par ticipants could enjoy enlightening films and condom demonstrations with cucumbers and other fruit) because it was inconsistent with his religious beliefs. He was given a three-hour work sanction tor his failure to attend. As a final example we can look to one of the most respected universities in the country. At Yale, a student had a sexual harassment complaint filed against him by a woman from the Gay-Straight Lesbian Coalition for posting the announcement of a debate on the resolution "Resolved: CIA Discrimination against Homosexuals is Justified." The administration sided with the woman and told him to remove the poster. Then, when another student protested the university's stance as a "ludicrous violation" of free speech by posting the ad himself, the harassment charges were transferred to him, and he was denied the right to participate in grad uation ceremonies for posting the notice of a debate. Administrators warned him that he might not even receive his degree if he didn't apologize. That is what is at the heart of the PC controversy, not whether we say man-hole or person-hole or black or African-American or any other such silliness that was presented in Clamon’s column. The university is supposed to be a place where spirit ed debate on any topic can occur in an environment of academic freedom. But on some campuses, the inability of those currently in power to defend their policies in an environment of open debate, and their arrogance in silencing principled opposition, have resulted in an atmosphere where the benefits of rational discourse are jettisoned for what is politically expedient, where students are taught what to think, rather than how to think, and where academic standards are compromised or deserted completely in pursuit of the egalitarian goal of the week. Inflated rhetoric? Perhaps. But when a man like Stanford professor Robert Rabin, chairman of the Student Conduct Legislative Council, argues publicly that free speech rights extend only to victimized minorities, since the white majority does not need such protections, I get a little worried. There are a host of other aspects to this problem that can't be reasonably discussed in such a short article. But maybe now a few more people understand what the PC controversy is really about and others will stop making light of an issue that is affecting students everywhere and seriously damaging the integrity and reputation of higher education all across the country. Mail Call lakes il 1-7-2 k making appear- ie Semi- reason \vl 'Vim jn bowl theCof- Israelis should not give land to Arabs ❖ From reading the newspaper or listening to the news, one might get the impression that peace in the Middle East is somehow dependent on concessions that Israel might make to the Arabs in Madrid. This is a very naive and totally erroneous assumption. Israel is only 43 years old. The Middle East has been a volatile and dangerous part of the world for centuries. Israel had nothing to do with the war between Iran and Iraq or Iraq's invasion of Kuwait or Syria's involvement in Lebanon or any of the other countless aggres sions between Arab and Arab. Nor is the issue the plight of the poor, home less Palestinians as the Arabs are now claiming. Not only are there 21 Arab nations, not one of whom will grant citizenship to their Palestinian brethren, but 80 percent of Palestine is already in Arab hands. What was once Palestine was divided by the British into what is now called Israel (20 percent) and Jordan (80 percent). No Arab nation has ever suggested the creation of a Palestinian state in the Arab-held portion of Palestine, or even giving the Palestinians some sort of rights in Jordan where they are a clear majority. The real issue is that the only thing the Arabs hate more than each other is Israel. It is the only thing upon which the Arab nations can agree. They have had an economic boycott against Israel for years. Not only do they not trade with Israel, but they will not do business with any company that trades with or buys from Israel. Since neither this or the numerous wars against Israel have destroyed the tiny country, the Arabs have somehow convinced the world that cutting Israel into pieces will appease them and bring peace to the region. I have trouble believing this. First, because any agreement made with an Arab leader could be invalidated tomorrow when that leader is overthrown (remember our friend the Shah of Iran), and sec ond, because as the negotiation draws closer, more terrorist attacks against Israelis are occur ring daily and Moslem Arab religious leaders are crying out ever more strongly that the only solu tion is the total destruction of Israel. This tells me that even if some agreement to stop trying to destroy Israel is reached with an Arab leader, the attacks will continue. I think the talks are a great idea. Israel deserves an end to the state of war which the Arabs maintain against them. And yes, the Palestinians deserve some sort of homeland, although I think it should be in the larger part of Palestine where they already are a majority, in Jordan. Let's pray that some lasting good will come of this conference. Sharon Ivker veterinary student Ask about side effects of medicine ❖ Have you ever had one of those weeks, Ags? Or maybe it was two weeks when it seemed as though fate was against you. Well, here are a few thoughts to share with all you Aggies who are tired of getting the shaft. Now I won't waste time talking about how the Mitsubishi dealership changed my oil improper ly. And I won't harp on how the customer ser vice at Texas Aggie Credit Union has vanished. I won't even complain about the angering exper iment I had the misfortune to do for the speech communications department. However, when it comes to my health, I draw the line. I the midst of a terrible viral infection, I made the mistake of visiting the A.P. Beutel Health Center for some relief. I got relief in the form of three prescriptions that seemed perfectly fine. Unfortunately, two days later I found my tongue swelling and my jaws locking up on me. A trip to the emergency room taught me something that the quack shack should have: One of the drugs I was taking had these peculiar side-effects. Consequently, I not only had to suf fer the pain in my mouth, I also had to suffer the pain of a shot in the derriere! Why can't our own health facility warn us about things like that? Advice to all Ags: Ask about the medication you're given; you certainly won't be told anything otherwise! S. Elizabeth Craft '91 Student enjoys column on crack ❖ Stacy Feducia's column on butt cracks was hilarious! I appreciate The Battalion giving us her funny and open-minded ideas. We need a break from those other columnists who want to hammer us again and again with race, sex, reli gion, feminism and environmental barrages! I agree with Feducia: "Air out those butt cracks." John Guice '92 Study quietly when in library ❖ I am writing this letter not because I have loads of free time on my hands, not to practice my writing skills, and not because frats and sororities turn me off. Rather, I am writing because I am fed up with the attitudes of some frat and sororities members, who call themselves Aggies, yet don't live up to the name when it comes to respecting the rights of others. I am talking about those people who congre gate in thel "quiet section" of the fourth floor of the Evansbibrary and proceed to discuss the merits and demerits of wearing bright and metallic-colored eye shadow, the bad-ass 10-keg- ger of last weekend and whether Sheila was con scious of Bill being in her pants. These serious, private discussions are none of my business, you say? Exactly! So why should I listen to such B.S. when I am supposed to be studying for an exam? I'll tell you why: because there are incon siderate, self-centered, air-headed, loud mouthed phonies in this school who can't keep their mouths shut and respect the rights of those who are using the library for what it is there for. I remember a time not too long ago when the quiet section of the fourth floor of Evans was a place of serenity and peacefulness. But in the last two months, I have witnessed an influx of frat and sorority members, and, as a result, the quietness I so enjoyed went out the window.I am not out to put a bad name on these organiza tions, and, certainly, not all the organizations or all its members are to blame for pissing me off. But those who are doing so, consider yourself addressed. I would like to conclude by offering two sug gestions to these loud-mouths which would make me, and others who feel as I, very happy. One, if you must talk loudly, go across the hall to the group study area, and two, grow up! Miguel Martinez '93 Hava an opinion? Express iti The Battalion is interested in hearing from its readers. All letters to the editor are welcome. Written letter must be no longer than 200 words. Letters must be signed and include classification, address and daytime phone num ber for verification purposes. Anonymous letters will not be published. The Battalion reserves the right to edit all letters for length, style and accuracy. There is no guarantee letters will appear. Letters may be brought to 013 Reed McDonald, sent to Campus Mail Stop 1111 or can be faxed to 845-5408.