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Tuesday, October 1,1991
Opinion
The Battalion
Page 9
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ien opport®;
mericans modify
en Commandments
Rationalization of actions becomes commonplace
A
sire.
such as"Ih '. body is using what you de
character th
as often ask
as Lydia al
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in g woma-
^ Lydia, oct;
e from ” ^
iven bacfei |
minant as
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fantasy exos
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pie deal will
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but those a-
will be over
the audiena
mce andcyn^
s them laugl;
‘val escapei
s intelligent human beings,
we realize the importance
of re-evaluating concepts
[which have been around for years.
Consequently, people took a closer
[look at the Ten Commandments and
[modified them to fit the 90s.
To the one that says "no stealing,"
| we wisely added "unless no
Dare leave your wallet or
your backpack at some un
protected area, and you will
ay
[mandment is "finders, keep-
ers."
No murdering," another
tifflcommandment proclaims.
[Even though we have not yet
peached the point of running
around killing everybody in
pur way, the United States
does have the highest homi
cide rate in the developed
[world. There's something to
I be proud of!
Thousands of years ago,
God commanded: 'Tell them Moses!
s com-
Christina
Mai ma rides
Maimaridcs is a
graduate student
in business
administration.
yof
tion
to those of
:e, who is
b Fosse's
uce, a man
i worst en-
o a young
okos about
ig his mar-
arrests for
! take hold
dter being
he took it
regarding
.sual style
.vhite), but
Hoffman's
ole by Va
-T. D.
- Video.
I They are to have no other Gods!"
Sure enough, we had to find
I something new to believe in. After
I all, this is the land where new is wor-
Ishiped.
So we came up with a new God, a
■ God that is much
I closer to us, one that
I gives instant gratifica-
I tion — a good time
■ right here on earth.
I This God is called
I Money, and the Mon-
ley cult is quickly
■ spreading around the
I world.
I The command-
1 meht about not bear-
ling "false witness"
I also has been modi-
I fied. We see nothing
I wrong with lying today.
As a matter of fact, 91 percent of
1 us lie regularly. And the majority of
■ us believe it's OK to lie to protect our
1 own interests.
As for using God's name in vain,
1 this is completely passe'. The expres-
tainly don't love them either.
With 72 percent of us not even
knowing the people next door, how
can we be expected to love them?
"Honor your parents" is a com
mandment we follow at least for the
years our parents provide us with fi
nancial assistance.
Once they are old, howev
er, and they need us the
most, only 54 percent of us
think they are our responsi
bility.
The rest of us think our
parents are the responsibility
of the government, the com
munity or charitable institu
tions.
The "no adultery" com
mandment has also gone out
of fashion.
In today's world, it is OK
to have extra-marital affairs
as long as the spouse doesn't
find out about them.
For the unfortunate inci
dents when the spouse finds
out, we have devised elabo
rate rituals of repentance accentuated
by tearful requests for forgiveness.
Once forgiveness is granted, a
brief period of wooing and cooing fol
lows, while on the side we are look
ing for our new affair partner.
The realization "everybody else
does it too" helps us
accept this behavior.
Therefore 31 per
cent of all married
couples have had an
affair. And of these,
62 percent thinks
there's nothing
wrong with the af
fairs they are having
or have had.
Related to the >
anti-adultery com
mandment is the
one prohibiting go
ing after your neighbor's wife/hus
band.
Sadly for Moses, 15 percent of
adultery committed is \vith a friend of
a spouse.
We figure "friends are for shar
ing."
0:
0^
2,
O al
<:
• 0 f
&
:h study of
complete
) BLOOD
"Surveys show that only 13 percent of us believe
in the original Ten Commandments. The majority
of us are receptive to change. It is no surprise,
therefore, that we took the Ten Commandments,
examined them under the light of the 90s and modified
them accordingly to better suit today’s world."
sion "Oh! My God!" is interwoven in
our speech patterns.
We will swear to God about some
thing while we know we are lying,
and two-thirds of us think there's
nothing wrong with it.
For all these sins, God ordered a
day of prayer and meditation, the
Sabbatn. But even though 90 percent
of us believe God exists, still 50 per
cent of us have not been to a religious
service in 3 months, 33 percent of us
have not been to a religious service in
a year, and a strong 77 percent of us
see no point in observing Sabbath.
We either use it to work or to
have fun using our new Money god.
Who needs prayer and meditation!
In the United States of the 90s, we
don't hate our neighbors, but we cer-
Surveys show that today only 13
percent of us believe in the original
Ten Commandments.
The majority of us are receptive to
change.
It is no surprise, therefore, that we
took the Ten Commandments, exam
ined them under the light of the 90s
and modified them accordingly to
better suit today's world.
If we manage to retailor them,
maybe they cannot be used to mea
sure our moral decline.
But as long as they loom around
in their original form, statistics like
those mentioned above are poignant
indicators that in today's world we
are substituting our morality and our
soul with short-term, self-serving ra
tionalizations and gratifications.
ites. II s
tice and
on for
Jiu
.Mil I" 1 ' ;
64-830=
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NEW OBP^eV
“ I am not a crook! ”
Davis-Garv. The Qlde Years by Bingo Barnes
WHERE AiABN WgSRE Av\EM, WO^AH/M WERE A^RAtpyo R-pH E<SAT6Sot= CbuR
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TAekJ_TE 07=
COURSE:
TRAILY TAUNTING And of course
or- th^eRats
ON CAAVPO'S,
THF UN-RUNS
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BECAUSE:
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Hunting serves ecological function
Humans retain instincts
R ecently, I have been amused about some letters
regarding the shoo ting of pigeons and hunting
in general. Like all columnists, I fear that there
has been a misunderstanding and I am come to set ev
eryone straight on this and related issues.
A few years back, I was managing an historical
restoration project in El Paso. It was a large beautiful
building downtown, it was horribly neglected
and plagued with pigeons. Pigeons are the sec
ond nastiest creatures (next to humans) that I
am aware of.
They tell me buzzards and vultures vomit for
a living but I've never seen it nor have they ever
done it on my car or my house or my shoulder
or my construction project.
They're gross. So I called the local humane
society to find out how to get them off of my
building. They informed me they knew of nothing but
some mild deterrents and they recommended a birdseed
cocktail laced with arsenic. It was gross too, although
only for a month or so until every pigeon in El Paso and
Juarez that was born or raised in my block was extermi
nated.
Juarez and El Paso are home to skidillions of pigeons.
The local authorities are aware of it and authorized me
to take whatever measures I thought most appropriate.
I suppose I could have killed millions by seeding the
lazas and parks (it would have been gory indeed) but
ecause they're territorial, I was satisfied with just clean
ing up that one block.
I see no problem whatsoever in using captured pi
geons for target practice. It's considerably more humane
than arsenic. Plucking the heads from the undead is
also normal and humane. While I am one of those who
prefers to eat what I kill, I must confess in this same
breath that I rarely eat snakes — mice and bugs never.
Shooting trap and skeet and other targets is fun. Live
animals are even more challenging and fun. There are
very sound, well thought out, ecological reasons for
hunting seasons and bag limits and such. Dove are
among the toughest to shoot (pigeons are a lot like dove)
and if you're lucky and a good shot, you get home with
groceries from the outing.
Darwin would really be proud of pigeons. I don't
know where the little devils used to live before we in
vented towns, but they have since learned to thrive on
the garbage that humans generate in such abundance.
ThaGs why they aren't generally eaten.
I almost never see them out in the wild and I spend
lots of time out there. There's no place I'd
rather be ... but they don't offer degrees out
there unfortunately. Many more generations
have made their living by their hunting than by
studying literature or economics, it is the nature
of our species. Just look at our teeth.Only a
fool disavows the past.
It's a mistake to assume we (as a species)
have outgrown our instincts and our neritage.
Concepts like society and civilization and re
finement are anthropologically recent and a thin
veneer over our true animal nature.
Take a look at Saddam Hussein, Hitler, Stalin and
other well-publicized mass murderers. Surely morals
and ethics and standards are something we need to
work on, but not because they are natural. It is because
they are foreign to our animaJ natures. Many among us
have had the misfortune of visiting their raging primi
tive sides and while I sincerely hope never to dwell
there again, it is nevertheless completely real.
I am clearly an animal. I eat like one, breathe like
one, fart like one, copulate like one, sleep like one ...
Should my children be threatened, I assure you I can at
tack like one. A varmint among my babies will be tried
and convicted (instinctively), sentenced (as quickly as
possibly, by me, their only relevant peer) and deterred
from their unacceptable ways for ever and ever (amen).
It's a funny state of affairs we have created. We've
destroyed most of the predators because losing livestock
(and the occasional small child) is so offensive to us. At
the same time, various narrow-minded groups want
want to interfere with any additional hunting. My ad
vice to those who are offended is don't hunt, or fish or
buy bug bombs.
Still the nastiest creatures thrive. Weird,
Readers
Opinion
Joe Huddleston
is a senior
economics
major.
Mail Call
Protect victim
from publicity
❖ As a close personal friend of
someone who knows "too much" of
the cavalrj 7 incident and its effects, I
am at the same time close enough
to the situation to respond publicly
without directly appearing to repre
sent anyone or any organization in
volved in the horrible incident.
It is very frustrating for us all to
hear about something as unaccept
able as a young lady attacked by
young men.
We are left with feelings of
anger, disbelief and insecurity. X is
very natural to look for an "aggres
sor" (in general, since we cannot
know the specific individuals them
selves) at whom or which to direct
our feelings.
But now is not the time for fin
ger-pointing or blame toward peo
ple or organizations which are try
ing very hard to figure out exactly
what happened and what must be
changed in order to make sure this
never happens again, all the while
protecting a very frightened young
lady, the victim herself.
Now is the time for us all to try
to put away our baseball
bats of our natural self-de
fensive "let's go beat some
heads" instinct and instead
concentrate on supporting
as much as possible the vic
tim and the organizations
(A&M University, Universi
ty police and the Comman
dant's Office) which are try
ing to figure out what is the
best course of action.
Instead of being suspi
cious of their silence toward the
press and general public, we should
support their quiet thoroughness
since it will take time before they
have enough information to make
intelligent, informed decisions.
Last, but perhaps most impor
tant, we must remember that none
of us knows how the victim feels.
We can only support those we
are able to and pray to our God for
His intercession and guidance for
all those involved.
Rachael A. Colvin '90
Hunting similar
to shopping
❖ I am writing in response to
Eddy Wylie's letter on hunting in
the Sept. 23 issue of The Battalion.
Hunting is indeed a time-honored
tradition.
Mankind has hunted to sustain
himself since the beginning of time,
although these days you no longer
have to pick up your spear to get a
Big Mac.
Assuming Wylie is not a vege
tarian, where does his meat come
from?
He walks in the store, picks out
some steaks, pays his money and
presto! Dinner is served. Hunting
is no different. Just because you
don't have to watch the cow die
doesn't make it more "moral" than
shooting a deer for venison stew.
Man's true instincts? How did
primitive man eat then? Was Nean
derthal man a vegetarian?
As opposed to his point, hunting
(if done ethically and properly) can
be very aesthetic and enjoyable.
And if Wylie has really been hunt
ing, he should know that.
Of course, just as obsession and
lust is love gone bad, hunting can
be twisted into "killing."
Certainly there are no aesthetics
involved in walking into the woods
with a shotgun and shooting every
thing you see just to kill it. This, I
believe, is terrible and wasteful.
Unfortunately, this is also what
so many young hunters are inclined
to do. And you are right Wylie, this
is immature and ugly.
But to enjoy nature at its finest,
to watch the sunrise from a frosty
duck blind, to reflect upon the finer
things in life while waiting for your
shot, to test your skills against the
wild, surely this is not wrong.
Perhaps it seems shoot
ing an animal dead is a ter
rible sin, but it is no more
evil than killing a chicken
or a fish, if you intend to
eat it. If you hunt in good
company, if you kill what
you shoot, and if you eat
what you kill, then hunt
ing is not wrong.
Dave Thomas '93
accompanied by
four signatures
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