tobe rl,l5j Tuesday, October 1,1991 Opinion The Battalion Page 9 visual ^L days "i 1 y*on. H® 'ard LaQ lo wn to ( dev e]op me: e P s dght rer ‘lliam all® ' ere obvioo: dible scent- centric Pam n g, but wise aim, breakr •y at the rig! t Socieh-" >ved that he l,s trademaj Williams rd. n c 3st is verj ? n better,/ ically revi 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 -in« eat asl ” soon find out toda in g woma- ^ Lydia, oct; e from ” ^ iven bacfei | minant as k^'re in. fantasy exos •y film. It's, pie deal will ‘re is comed; 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= KWi we 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 E2>T0E I T 'CO R STReak. E~C> vxpies /nsioe-odt; LLtl 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 Hove on opinion? Express it! The Battalion is interested in hearing from its readers. All letters to the editor are welcome. Written letters must be signed and include classification, address and daytime phone number 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.