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The Battalion
Page 9
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.
Killer ignorance
Lack of sex education risks students' lives
"You'll do it if you love me" — or if
you want to die. The words, carved
into the bedrooms, parking lots and
back seats of time, assume an entirely
different meaning today in a world
faced with the reality of AIDS. Teens
today not only must deal with the
moral dilemma of premarital sex and
the social consequence of unplanned
pregnancy, but also must cope with
the deadly reality of HIV and AIDS —
and apparently, our youth, ever
invincible and eternally young, are
unable to handle the magnitude of the
situation at hand, as the rate of HIV-
infected babies to mothers under the
age 19 increases at a shocking, even
frightening, rate.
Last week the Texas Department of
Health released a report showing a
dramatic increase in the number of
HIV-infected babies born to teenage
mothers. According to Health
Commissioner David Smith, the results
of this report demonstrate that
teenagers are unaware of the real
threat posed to them by HIV and
AIDS. Smith encouraged educators
and administrators to seek new, "non-
traditional" methods of educating
teens about HIV.
As enlightened educators battle
concerned parent groups in school
board meetings across the country,
students lose as their needs for
concrete sex education information are
ignored. They watch as the statistics
concerning teen pregnancy and AIDS
are abandoned.
Rather than sponsor diluted
curricula which tends toward an
abstinence-only sex education course
for students, school districts,
administrators, teachers, parents and
officials in Austin must develop a
realistic, hard-hitting approach to
combating AIDS in our schools by
giving students the cold, essential facts
about birth control and sexually
transmitted diseases, especially AIDS.
No more can the moral delicacy of
sexuality serve as an excuse to shelter
kids from the reality of death. While
many argue that the teaching of birth
control in public schools acts as an
encouragement to promiscuity and
experimentation, the reality of HIV-
infected children born to unwed, teen
age mothers mandates a stronger,
more comprehensive statewide
curriculum of sex education, one
which teachers will be trained to
effectively implement and which will
be taught the same way to every child
in Texas.
When a teen asks his sex education
teacher if "it's OK to use plastic wrap"
as a condom substitute, Texas teens
cannot afford to go without a more
forceful sex education curriculum.
Dues due
Incarcerated criminals must also pay fines
Criminals are getting away without
paying their due. Literally.
Last week it was released that in
Harris County alone more than $14
million in fines were imposed with
some sort of prison sentence last year.
Of that, less than $2 million were paid.
State district judge Ted Poe stated,
"When a fine is assessed, it's a
statement by the court or the jury to
keep the person in jail."
But more is needed than a
"statement."
Criminals are being released onto
our streets at an alarming rate, many
have not even served their full prison
sentence, let alone paid their fine. The
"statement" is not being heard and the
phrase "paying their debt to society"
has been made into a joke.
State district judge Joe Kegans and
others believe it is like trying to "get
blood out of a turnip," meaning that
many convicts just cannot pay the fine
they are given.
But court systems must no longer
allow criminals to walk away without
paying their fines. If a jury hands
down a sentence of 20 years in prison
and a $10,000 fine, then that criminal
must not only serve his or her
sentence, but also pay the fine. If that
means suspending parole and putting
the criminal to work to pay the debt, so
be it. The least they can do is work off
the monetary debt they owe society. If
at the end of their term they have not
paid off the debt, keep them in and
working until they do.
Right now, the system is such that it
really does not care if a fine is paid. It
took one honest felon two days to track
down to whom his fine must be paid.
The judge, the prosecutor, the district
attorney, the state prison system and
the sheriffs department did not know
who would take the man's check.
Who was responsible? The sheriff's
department. And they did not even
know when he asked them.
This case only proves once more the
sorry shape the Texas prison system is
in.
The courts must enforce the
sentences they give.
Criminals who are given a fine with
their prison term must be expected to
pay it.
We must expect them to pay their
full debt to society.
MARCHES
(SW2 TUB P&X0PV
NEWJEP46Y
Men versus women
Gender differences cause lots of problems, thank goodness
O ne of my classes spent all of
last week on the topic of
gender differences. It had to
have been the liveliest group
discussion I have been part of in a
long time. For the most part, we men
and women struggled to understand
one another's behavior. Well... that's
not entirely true.
First, we griped
at one another.
Then, we threw
stereotypes
around. Finally,
we tried a little
bit of
understanding,
and some of us
were successful.
Most weren't.
I see it this
way. There are
some things that
are fundamentally different between
men and women. Maybe the
difference is the result of a cerebral
brain wash occurring between the
two hemispheres of the brain in
males at birth. Or maybe little girls
have a doll gene and little boys have
a truck gene. Call it a phenomena.
Whatever the case, there are just
certain things that men do for reasons
that women are incapable of
appreciating or understanding.
Belching and passing gas for
instance. It just seems that men do a
lot more of both than women.
Perhaps, it is closer to the truth to say
that men are louder and find more
joy in gastrointestinal bodily
functions than most women can
appreciate.
And sports. A man is not a man
unless he knows the entire lineup of
any given football team over the last
three decades along with the entire
existing body of obscure baseball
trivia ranging from the 1919 White
Sox to last night's game. I am truly
amazed by a man's capacity to recall
such copious amounts of data and
learned long, long ago that when a
man in my company starts talking
stats, I either pretend I know exactly
what he's saying or face at least 10
minutes of strained silence. Woe to
any woman who doesn't know that
Nolan Ryan is the all-time strikeout
king of baseball.
But what about women, right?
Admittedly, I just can't help but be
biased. It's difficult for me to relate to
a man's view of a woman. However,
I have noticed that there are a few
very common complaints that men
share.
PMS. "My girlfriend will go from
being perfectly sweet and loving to a
drooling, snarling, noxious thing of
estrogen-induced evil." First of all, if
your girlfriend actually does this, you
need to a) change your cologne or b)
get a new girlfriend.
All this stuff about PMS is for the
most part exaggerated. Sure, we can
get a little moody. I admit it. But it's
rarely that extreme, and Tve
observed that men are as moody as
women. Men just don't have the right
organs for women to blame it on.
"Girls take forever to get ready!"
Yep, you got us there. It often does
take a woman much longer to get
dressed and ready to leave than it
does a man. It's true, and I feel bad. I
try to hurry. I do. But nothing makes
the situation worse than, "Are you
ready yet?"
Come on, guys! Give us a break.
Have you ever really stopped to
compare what you have to do and
what we have to do? Besides donning
three layers of clothing, we usually
have to dry and style our hair along
with applying makeup in just such a
way that we look "natural." Don't
ask. Nobody knows what natural is
anymore. We only know that it takes
a long time.
There is one thing for which I do
feel men take a bad rap. It is unfair to
say, "Men only have sex on their
mind." (They have sex and sports on
their mind. No, just kidding.) It is just
as true a statement as saying,
"Women only have sex on their
mind.
Sexuality is such an individual
thing, that it shouldn't be gender
stereotyped towards men or women.
There are as many women as men
who seem compelled to constantly
dwell on sex. And there are as many
men as women who treat the subject
with a reasonable amount of
diplomacy.
Not all differences are bad, mind
you. It's nice to watch the same men
who would not normally be caught
dead sharing anything more than a
vice-gripped handshake turn into
shouting, jumping, laughing,
hugging fools when their team comes
through at the last minute. I like the
way men can fix anything mechanical
and try to fake it if they don't know
how..I like a man's ability to open the
jelly jar in one effortless twist after
I've been working for two hours to
loosen it.
Our differences really contribute to
a great deal of the attraction between
men and women. We never really
will understand each other, and
thank goodness for that. How boring
it would be if men figured out why
Hallmark commercials are emotional
experiences for women. And what
would be left to ponder should
women comprehend the untold
depths of beauty and mysticism a
man finds beneath the hood of a car?
The best thing to do is to just
accept the fact that men and women
don't see things identically and
appreciate the other's view as much
as humanly possible. If nothing else,
it keeps us all on our toes. As the
French say, "Vive la difference!""
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speech communications major
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Mail Call
Policy on athletes
helps them, A&M
This letter is in response to an article that
appeared in The Battalion on April 14 that I feel
perpetrates a dangerous stereotype and seems to
be biased towards athletes.
It was the article concerning whether athletes
should be exempt from the admissions standards
other students meet. A Rice University official
stated that this practice was a "shameful
travesty." I feel that the real travesty would occur
in discounting these young men and women
sorely in need of an atmosphere conducive to
learning and sorely in need of an experience they
might otherwise not receive. What about non
athletes that do not meet university criteria? Is
that also a shameful travesty or are athletes the
only ones that get admitted in this manner? A&M
has thousands of regular students who don't meet
the initial admission standards, but because they
are given a chance, they are attending and
achieving in this great university. Should athletes,
simply because they are athletes, not be given this
same opportunity? That would be a "shameful
travesty."
The Battalion implied that admission to this
university should be based on SAT scores. To me.
this is akin to implying that if an individual does
poorly on standardized tests, he/she does not
have the capabilities to meet the standards in an
A&M classroom. Time and again, student athletes
have demonstrated the SAT to be an extremely
poor indicator of classroom achievement.
The Battalion also stated that to allow athletes
in under these conditions "cheapens the
educational experience for other students." This
statement was on page 9 and was preceded by
two pages of articles detailing the
accomplishments of A&M's athletic teams. Does it
not seem hypocritical, if the athletes are truly
cheapening the educational experience for other
students, to dedicate two or three pages to Aggie
sports everyday? Should we put athletes by the
wayside merely because they possess special
skills or should we give them a chance to
showcase their talents while also working
towards a degree? The answer is obvious.
Another point I'd like to make is that once
admitted, athletes must maintain the same
standards as non-athletes. They must maintain
the same standards while under the pressure of
parents, coaches, athletic advisors, media, etc.,
while other students do not have to deal with the
majority of these problems. Texas A&M is first
and foremost a tool for education, but does that
entail merely academia or does it include
Midnight Yell, Bonfire, Saturday nights at the
Dixie Chicken, Silver Taps, and the Cotton Bowl?
Fortunately for the student body, we have been
able to attract top-notch athletes who are also
good people, who obviously have had the
capabilities to achieve in the classroom. To cheat
the athletes or the students out of these
experiences would be the most obvious travesty
to me.
The Battalion stated that the average SAT score
for incoming freshmen last year was 1058 while
Aggie athletes only averaged 918. The editors fail
to look at the final outcome. There are numerous
examples of successes they failed to mention. For
example, of the 58 players Villanova basketball
coach Rollie Massimino had play for him, all 58
graduated. While this may not be the rule, it is
certainly not the exception (18 of the 20 players
who played for Coach Barone at Creighton
graduated and the other two are working toward
their degree). I could go on and on with these
examples of success.
In conclusion, I would like to pose one
question to the editors of The Battalion; does it
cheapen the educational experience to give
athletes an opportunity to get a degree and
participate in sports or would it be better to
merely dismiss these athletes and disregard their
opportunity for the experience of a lifetime?
Higher education should be available to these
individuals and I say Give them a chancel!
Brian Beckom
Class of'95
mV
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