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Opinion
The Battalion
Page 9
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The Battalion Editorial Board
DOUGLAS PILS, Editor in Chief
BRIDGET HARROW, Managing Editor
BRIAN BONEY, Opinion Editor
JASON MORRIS, Night News Editor
MORGAN JUDAY, Night News Editor
MACK HARRISON, City Editor
KARL STOLLEIS, Photo Editor
SCOTT WUDEL, Sports Editor
ROB NEWBERRY, Lifestyles Editor
The following opinions are a consensus of The Battalion opinion staff and senior editors.
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Fight back
Women must speak out, prosecute rapists
| During spring, when the number of
rapes tends to increase, this
reprehensible crime is grabbing
attention again. With 15 reported cases
of rape so far this year in Bryan-College
Station surpassing the total of nine for
all of 1991, the problem seems to be
getting worse instead of better.
I The frightening thing is that most
pen just ft sexual assaults and rapes go
mPage?
e season,
expecting itj
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unreported, raising the
pssibility that there has
pen on average of as
many as two or three
tual incidences of these
imes each week.
If word got around
that women were no
longer bearing their pain
"in silence, but were
slepping forward and
and°W .tegjpS ,heir f ^sailams
o runs in til ^ that ra P lsts were no
allgame M lon S er able to laughingly brag to their
A&mhead f rien ds about their latest conquest
said. "We: secure in the knowledge that they
■oblemaftrf wou ld never answer for their actions,
ing outi
thered upoalij
we would see encouraging strides in
the fight to curtail these crimes against
women.
Of course, none of this is yet reality.
Because not all victims are aware of
their blamelessness in these situations
and because others do not feel that they
can stand the idea of dragging their
ordeal into a public arena, some choose
not to report these assaults or to press
charges. Since the rest of
us cannot understand
' the feelings of rape
victims, we must avoid
condemning their
silence as cowardice or
weakness.
However, we must do
what we can to
encourage women to
speak out; to forge a
path for others, showing
them that the court
ordeal can be overcome; to convince
society of the seriousness of this issue;
and ultimately, to put more rapists in
prison where they belong.
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Good example
Prairie View students fight for right to vote
SOI
In a time of low voter turnout
among college students, the actions of
iw- - some Prairie View A&M students offer
iedsndlfph/e ’ good examples of how seriously the
right to vote should be taken.
More than two weeks ago, 14
people, a majority of them Prairie View
A&M students, were indicted on
illegal-voting allegations. Grand jurors
indicted five people on charges of both
illegal voting and
aggravated perjury.
Tne other 14 people
were indicted on the
the charge of illegal
ot of guys in
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students came out
later that week to
picket the Waller
County Courthouse,
where the 15 were
indicted. An
estimated 100
students took turns
during the protest carrying signs,
marching and sitting outside the the
grand jury room.
Questions have been raised about
the validity of these indictments.
Students and the attorney representing
them raise questions about the "good-
id-boy" network in Waller County
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voting.
As a result of the
indictments, other
View
voting
"These students, if they vote, hold
the balance of power in Waller
County," said attorney Gene L.
Locke,who is representing the
students. "The good-old-boy network
of politics in Waller County is
threatened by the young voters of
Prairie View A&M University."
With the previous investigation still
going on, students of Prairie View are
still taking part in their voting rights
and the voting rights of their fellow
students. Just last
Thursday, a crowd
of 200 students
marched six miles
from the Prairie
View campus to
Hempstead to vote
and show support
for the indicted
students.
They carried
signs with
messages saying,
"Waller County
what are you afraid
of?" and waited
patiently outside to
vote.
Such a show of support and belief in
their right to vote is inspiring. Those
participating in the march and court
case understand the importance of
voting, unlike many college-age
students as well as people in general.
Such a display of togetherness and
support for such an important act
makes us wonder if students at Texas
A&M would do as much in support of
a national right.
WHEN IT ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY
HAS TO GET THERE OVERNIGHT :
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Gadhafi crazy ? Like a fox
Libyan leader wants isolation to maintain power, avoid scrutiny
S omething terrible is going to
happen! Libya is isolating itself
from the rest of the world.
Oh horror, utter sadness and
despair . . . what is the world going to
do without Libya? How can we the
world live without that country? It
has contributed so much . . . rich oil
resources . ., ah . ., ahhhh, rich oil
resources, well it
has contributed
something.
Frankly, the,
world will do
fine without
Libya. The
world is not
going to drop
off the face of
the earth
because Libya
will not talk to it
anymore.
Although I
am originally from Libya and the
majority of my family still lives and
suffers in that country, I do not care
what happens to the government,
especially Colonel Muammar Gadhafi.
My only concern is for my family and
their friends.
Libya's decision to isolate itself is
exactly what Gadhafi wants. In the
last two years, Gadhafi has changed
Libya through a series of reforms.
These reforms have been nicknamed
"green perestroika" from Gadhafi's
Green Book.
The book discusses a "state of the
masses" or Jamahiriyah, direct
popular democracy, in which
government is organized by several
congresses. The congresses deliberate
on all matters of local, regional,
national and international interests.
Gadhafi's responsibility is to help
guide Libya to Jamahiriyah by
"revolutionary agitation."
Many Americans are surprised that
a leader such as Gadhafi would
support a democratic system. Well, he
has not supported or done any such
thing in Libya. If he truly believed in
democracy, my family's land.
possessions and money would not
have been stripped from them.
Furthermore, anyone who thinks he
is a crazy lunatic then truly does not
know the abilities of this man.
Gadhafi has not survived for over 20
years in power by being a lunatic. For
instance, in February 1989's World
Press Review Gadhafi said,
"Mohammed, Jesus, and myself were
all great prophets who had come from
the desert and were uneducated."
These are not words from a great
leader nor a crazy lunatic, but a
devious and clever fiend. He says
these things to keep the world on the
edge. Whenever he does something
that the Western world perceives as
politically stupid, we all blame it on
his lunacy. He can be ruthless, cold-
hearted and evil and everyone blames
it on his lunacy. Even I fall into that
pit sometimes, but Gadhafi is quite
aware of what he is doing every single
second.
One of my cousins living in Libya
explained the cleverness of this man.
Gadhafi only holds the title of
"Revolutionary Guide." He has no
formal title or office. Whenever the
country prospers or something good
happens it is because of him or his
Jamahiriyah that it happened; on the
other hand, whenever something goes
wrong, Gadhafi blames the people, for
he is not the one in power, they are
supposedly in power. For this reason,
Gadhafi gets the best of both worlds.
He is not truly responsible for
anything wrong, but anything good is
because of him.
Gadhafi's purpose for his reforms
or "green perestroika" is still not clear,
for it goes against all his principles
and beliefs written by him in his
Green Book.
Yet Gadhafi saw a need to change
his domestic policies in order to keep
his ideology, the Green Book, intact
and to revive the economy, not reform
it.
Gadhafi's change in domestic
policies brought Libya from a state of
near collapse. The new policies have
opened the country to imports from
Tunisia, Turkey and Japan. In
addition, Gadhafi restored private
enterprise and lifted restrictions for
Libyans to travel abroad. These
changes were necessary to revive
Libya's economy, Gadhafi's ideology
has not changed. Gadhafi's main
reason for his new policies are because
he has no economic means of keeping
Jamahiriyah intact due to lower oil
prices and an oil embargo by most
Western countries.
The most obvious proof is the
unending propaganda on television,
radio and billboards. In addition,
Libyans still fear discussing politics in
public or with foreigners. In the past,
when there were objections to
Gadhafi's domestic policies or
ideology, many suffered dearly. For
example in April 1976, three students
were hanged in Benghazi for objecting
to Gadhafi's Jamahiriyah.
The majority of Libyans realize that
these changes can be only temporary
and with any excuse Gadhafi would
revert back to a pseudo-democratic
position.
Some might ask why does he want
to isolate himself from the rest of the
world.
It gives him the best opportunity to
install his form of government
without outside interference or close
scrutiny. There would be no influence
of Western ideology or culture to
prevent the instillation of Jamahiriyah.
He is that clever and that evil.
I know because my grandmother
told me a few years ago that she had
saved money for retirement and to
buy gifts for her grandchildren, but
because of Gadhafi's policies she had
nothing to live on or to give. That is all
she wanted to do. My grandmother
only wanted to spoil her
grandchildren. To me, money is not
important, yet at that moment I felt
Gadhafi stole something far worse
from my grandmother .. . her dignity.
Ben-Musa is a sophomore
history and journalism major
Women must fight
sexual jokes
society to do the same.
April Cummins
Class of '95
-
I fully agree with Toni Garrard's article about
ocietal attitudes towards women. But I would
ike to add a few thoughts.
Men aren't the only ones who keep this
attitude alive. When men tell sexist jokes in the
resence of women, if those women don't voice
heir disapproval of this casual form of sexism,
hen the women themselves become perpetrators
of the attitudes against our sex's intelligence and
ntegrity. By passively accepting the joke, we all
jecome guilty. I realize it's difficult; even around
my close male friends, I feel that it's too hard to
speak up against a simple joke aimed at a blonde,
J sorority member or any other female stereotype.
So I swallow my pride and try to laugh
Convincingly, even though I find the joke
degrading. After all it's only "in fun" and who
Wants to create an uncomfortable moment about a
oke?
Until women can confidently set the example
for society as a whole by voicing our disapproval
and disappointment in the sexism displayed in
joke, commercials or T-shirts, how can we expect
Change rapists,
not the rest of us
Thinking men and women who value your
autonomy, unite! For there are, in fact, two
enemies lurking among us and neither one is any
behavioral threat.
The first of our enemies is not the rapist but
rather the mentality that seems to justify rape.
There is no way of identifying this enemy in
advance. This mentality cannot be attributed to
every y-chromosome, every rabid right-winger
who thinks women shouldn't be sexy or
independent, or every rabid left-winger who
thinks women shouldn't be much different from
men. But the victim is all of us: all women afraid
to walk alone at night, all men afraid to kiss or
even flirt with women too much for fear of a
misunderstanding.
I am tired of hearing the endless justifications.
She was dressed provocatively. She should not
have gone to his room. She should have fought
harder, screamed louder, made her objections
more plain. Most of all. I'm tired of hearing that it
couldn't have been rape because she already had
a sexual history. If I invite people into my home
and give them expensive gifts, it's a far cry from
someone breaking into my home and stealing my
stereo.
We shouldn't have to make concession to end
this problem, but apparently we do. The solution
is not marches, or awareness, or re-education. The
problem is too extensive for those measu'res to
work. While I respect and applaud NOW's
motives for holding the Take Back the Night
program. I'm enough of a realist to recognize that
the only way to take back the night is by force.
Rapists need to learn a fundamental law of
physics: for every action, there is an opposite and
equal reaction.
So women, here's our solution: dress just as
provocatively as you like. Wear miniskirts with
thong bikinis, if that suits you. Walk alone at 3 in
the morning, go back to men's apartments, and
have whatever sexual history you're comfortable
with. But always wear clothes that allow you a
full range of movement. Take self-defense classes,
lift weights, carry tear gas or a stun gun. Be
prepared for a fight, and recognize the fact that
you can't count on being safe anywhere —your
apartment, the library, the MSC, even your
church. If we have to make concessions to prevent
rapes, let it be on our terms and not theirs. We
shouldn't be the ones hiding to avoid this
situation; the rapists should. We should give them
ample reasons to avoid it. f
Jane K. Linnstaedter
Class of'91
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