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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 27, 1992)
iday, July 27, team rm system jagues. ty for Jason becact ead of him," John® not many people ansion team is aw t he can by throw: advice that hefei ny situation, whe| what is important, d anything back. y. Besides new sm hes, teammates, aa aseball. ices in Oregon tooiii s ago. g at Texas i tow how the coaclie e. aches are going toi ■termined over tim id tense but asfe 1 find out his stal ly winter baseball :he jostling and plai have the ovemdiif t on the major leagt j that makes it ar to play without! not been any irt soon." imate whose nam douston Astros, r John Burke, in the amateur dra irst pick in the drat netary difference senior year, nave many favorat is due to a sore art ou thing the Astros, igh. "He says the out that." he Astros' suppose, d there is only on ion and I think h past aedal myself and realia nd what a waste!! aid. cleaned uphisad istory at Princeto: manner that sup ig else. His recod its and his kindt: at suggest hemigli ris head even ilk ir a pool, riends and his fait' s just an excitabli er has been q as born talking at: since. yper," Diebel sai uring the taper i energy. I have Is the time swimmef they scale dowi daily practice K meet. The lull cai jittery wrecks, a® s a prime exai r he lost in qualify e 1988 Olympic tri working as a Peddie pool, ig and began div un. It's a rush,' engthy preseasd 1 give Richards* rs to show why h corated members hwest Conferend inue to work a® ntage of every op' ichardson said der you have ft The Battalion Opinion F.DTTORTAT, Administration must communicate better The Battalion reported last Thursday how a minor accident became the foundation for rumors of murder and police cover-up at Texas A&M. An intoxicated student cut his hand, leaving blood around various parts of the Blocker Building in early May. Director Bob Wiatt and the University Police quickly solved the mystery, but the rumors continued. While a Battalion reporter tried to sift through all the innuendo and hearsay, each news source — from custodial workers to students to faculty to other employees — either didn't want to talk or insisted their identity be protected. The reason: Fear of repercussions from the A&M administration. Several students were afraid that the University would penalize them for discussing the incident. Even a dean at A&M would not talk about it, although that person did not explain why. None of the sources said they were directly threatened, but most felt insecure to have their name even remotely associated with anything negative toward A&M. While it is hard to blame anyone for not wanting to be included in a potentially negative story, it seems odd that most would rather be quiet than discover or warn others of a possible murder in their own work or study place. What's even more troubling is that many sources insisted on anonymity even after the reporter explained that the murder rumors were unfounded. For almost three months, these rumors lagged on, leaving many faculty and students worried and confused. We are not suggesting that a covert element exists at A&M that secretly attacks dissenters. The very existence of Aggies Against Bonfire, Touchstone and GLSS shows that minority viewpoints and lifestyles can exist at this University. However, a lack of openness seems to permeate this campus. Sure, everyone, from the Board of Regents to faculty members, is talkative during social functions, or when A&M gets a grant. But, there is a significant group on campus that feels uncomfortable going public during more turbulent times. One has to wonder if this is just paranoia, or are these fears at least partly justified? Perhaps the admin istration just needs to dust off communication channels and let students, staff and faculty know what's going on. As an associate professor said, "I just wish they would have done a better job getting the information (about the rumors) passed down to us." Dr. Harvey Tucker, interim director of graduate studies, said students have no reason to fear speaking out. He said everyone has first amendment rights, and no one would be removed from A&M without due process. We believe him, but other people have their doubts. If President Mobley, the Board of Regents and the P.R. folks at University Relations really want to project a sincere "we are family" image to the rest of the world, then they had better start pushing the message harder at home. Some are just not buying it. Second U.S. revolution of ideology means war Anthony C. LoBaido the most arnica- id, and wants m to see Moon nberg has not agent in the ring his clients 1 drop of a hat. •uyout is com- urprised if idihg the Oilers .ing on is in too fragile ipted again, and ich a resolution. : resolution, lal problems i consequences, •out my said shortly be- rinity campus. his stuff was "7 balanced all, brbught all to mind. The years to come seemed waste of breath, A waste of breath the years behind, In balance with this life, this death." — W. B. Yeats. y the year 2056 Anglo-Americans will constitute a minority in the United States. As such, the white male, long blamed and resented for everything from slavery to anti-feminism to the destruction of Indian Culture, will soon face a crossroads of the white man's Armageddon. Theodore Roosevelt once wrote, "Hy phenated Americans will destroy this country." It appears that this prophecy is becoming reality before our very eyes. Realizing that Afro-Americans, An- I glo-Americans, Homosexual-Americans, 1 Jewish-Americans and other Hyphenat- ed-Americans are not a monolithic bloc, this Anglo-American articulates a vision of our collective future. As an Anglo (gag)-American, I under stand the Afro-American desire for politi cal revolution — Capitol Hill is controlled by corrupt white men. Affirmative action, which began as a good idea to correct past injustices, has decayed into reverse discrimination against Anglo-Americans. In many in stances, minority students and workers receive scholarships and promotions without having to achieve the criteria or standards of their white counterparts. (See the Georgetown University Law School snafu.) Not only is it legal to dis criminate against whites — it is illegal not to discriminate. A perverse and re verse form of apartheid. More alarming is the notion that I cannot walk the big-city streets without fear for my life, and if I use a gun to pro tect myself I will most probably wind up in prison — instead of the criminal who attacks me. What is the white man's alternative? I cannot join forces with the Klu Klux Klan or the Neo Nazi's as these groups run have historically run on hate and there fore are not Christian. Besides, there are so many wonderful people of color in this country. There are blacks whom I would trust with my life and my wife, and whites I wouldn't trust With either. Dead end. Continuing on, this futurist vision sees America's current inner-city civil war spreading from sea to shining sea — South Africa visits America! White males must now contemplate whether to flee for Australia or Scandinavia, or stay and %ht for our freedom and civil rights — a n Anglo-American revolt against the v ery same Frankenstein it has created. This revolt will not be racial or sex ist! White men could live under Margaret Thatcher, not Gov. Ann Richards. Gener al Colin Powell could lead Anglo-Ameri- ca, while the election of Jesse Jackson would be seen as an act of war. You see, it's not race or gender that matters most — it's ideology. Let the American Melting Pot commit intellectual suicide by blaming the 1992 white man for slavery and the destruction of Native American culture. Let homosex ual men stick their penises in other men's anuses — AIDS will take care of them. Let the feminists abort 1.5 million children in the next calendar year — the entire popu lation of Wyoming and Idaho combined. Let inner city Afro-Americans kill and rape and commit genocide against their own people with crack. Let the lost Afro- american souls like New York Mayor David Dinkins tell the animals on the city streets that their behavior is condoned under Karl Marx's ideology that "Man is an economically determined animal who is a product of his environment." These are the people who will lead America through the 21st Century?!? The only way to turn America around is to throw away the hyphens and start thinking of ourselves as humans first — Anglos, Afros, et. al. second. If this change does not occur, then the only op tion of the American white male will be to seize the revolutionary spirit of our Founding Fathers — leaving an America that is a smoldering, burning pyre as an inheritance to our unworthy successors. Listen up. Melting Pot. It wouldn't be hard. America's rivers are more polluted than its citizens. Tons of nuclear waste sit idly on railroad cars in many states. AIDS and the depletion of- the ozone layer threatens us all. With women out of the home, the home has fallen apart. Only three out of 10 Afro-American children have a father. The American recession is only steps away from a global depression. No matter who wins the November presi dential election, things will continue to grow worse. The- revolution will have a gestation period of 50 years, right on course for 2056. First will come the intellectuals, who will point out the flaws in the cur rent societal institutions and draw blue prints for a new society. The second stage will see "politicals" who will keep events in constant turmoil. In the final stages of the revolution, bureaucrats will replace the politicals to restore tranquility and to institutionalize the radical new ideas into a normal way of life. What this all means for now is aca demic, for life will go on as normal in the Melting Pot. Inevitably, what it means is that it would be better to die with honor than to live in shame. The Reagan Revolu tion isn't over. It's just intermission. LoBaido is a doctoral student in educa tional technology and a columnist for The Battalion. Monday, July 27, 1992 Page 5 Still so much that we don't know ■ I Mack Harrison n the last days of the 20th Century, humanity has made great strides in science and technolo gy. We have gained insights into the be ginning of the uni verse and the primal forces of the cosmos. But no matter how much we learn, there is so much more we still don't know .... Take a walk on the weird side. For instance, spontaneous human combustion. Charles Fort, an archivist of strange and unexplainable phenomena, found documentation of many cases of people, mostly older women, bursting into flames and burning with an intense heat that left only ashes and a charred limb or two. Even the bones were turned into cinder, but nearby furniture was not even scorched. However, the temperature necessary to ignite a hu man skeleton is so great that mortuaries must manually pulverize a corpse's bones after cremation. What force could consume a person so completely, yet not set fire to the rest of the surroundings? An unknown exothermic biological reaction? Posses sion by demons? Impossible. It's no more likely than fish falling from the sky. But the "Hand book of Unusual Natural Phenomena," by William R. Corliss, lists several cases where hundreds of fish descended from the heavens, including an instance in Marksville, La. in 1947. An observer col lected several specimens of falling fish, including a large-mouth black bass over nine inches long. The weather was calm but foggy, and there was no severe weather in the area at that time. Was the responsible party a water spout or tornado, or was it some other, unknown natural phenomenon? And what makes the sun go dim? The same book states that New Eng land's famous Dark Day took place May 19, 1780. Starting about 10:30 that morn ing, observers noticed a darkness de scending over the area. By about!2:30 people could not read large type out side, and the Connecticut House of Rep resentatives adjourned. Was the darkness cause by haze from a forest fire or volcano, or possibly by interplanetary debris entering the Earth's atmosphere? The U.S. space program has elimi nated many mysteries of the solar sys tem, such as the composition of Saturn's rings and what the surface of Venus looks like. It has also eliminated the pos- sibili’y of any life existing on Mars. Or has it? The two Viking probes touched down on the planers surface in July of 1976, and automatic experiments the landers carried out showed no evidence of microbes in the Martian soil. The orbiters, however, took pictures of what appear to be artificial structures on the planet's surface, including a group of pyramidal structures and, enigmatically, what looks like a giant human face carved atop a nearby mesa. Dr. Randolfo Rafael Pozos wrote a book on the inquiry into the structures' origins. In "The Face on Mars," Pozos offers expert witnesses, digital imaging and multiple photos as evidence that the face is not a natural feature or a flaw in the photograph. More recently, another book backs up this evidence with the latest in fractal simulation and computer imaging. Skeptics laugh and say the face is just an illusion, a natural formation that with a combination of lighting and sig nal distortion appears to be a human image in the NASA photographs. Or could it have been built by a long-dead race of Martians? We won't know until we get there. Have the Martians (or other aliens) actually visited this planet? Doubtful. But there have been thousands of UFO sightings, many by reliable witnesses such as pilots or military personnel. Hundreds of people who claim to have been kidnapped by extraterrestrials tell remarkably similar stories while under hypnosis. Is it just mass hysteria tapping into the collective unconsciousness, or is the government involved in a UFO coverup? Either way, it's interesting. A philosopher once said, "The uni verse is not only weirder than we sup pose, it's weirder than we can suppose." Although the breadth of human knowledge doubles every generation/ we will never know everything. Deep down in our subconscious lives a cave man who shudders and draws closer to the fire whenever he hears something strange go bump in the night. Harrison is a senior journalism major and opinion editor for The Battalion. Call* PTTS needs help with decisions I wonder what it feels like to work for PTTS. I wonder what it would feel like to be despised by 50,000 people on a daily basis. I would- think PTTS would make improvements in order to clean up their degenerate image, but that is wishful thinking on my part. I would like to thank PTTS for placing blockades that made access to "BQ Lot" (between the South Side Parking Garage and the Quad) and "Butt Lot" (between George Bush Drive and the South Side Parking Garage) impossible. Also, thank you for not putting up signs explaining the reason, this was done. A little warn ing would also have been appreciated, so arrangements for a 50-mile hike from Fish Lot could have been made. • In addition to PTTS, I would like to extend my gratitude to the asinine de partment that decided to repave the aforementioned parking lots (yes, we fi nally found out the reason for the block ades) while school was in session. First we had to deal with conference visitors taking our spaces instead of hav ing them use the new Visitor Parking Garage, which was built with the rev enues form those blue-clad, ticket punch ing rent-a-cops. Now, we have no spaces at all because the South Side lots are closed for repaving. Couldn't you have waited for that two-week break in August after the second summer session? Hell, this decision was about as bril liant as the one some other department made to tear up Simpson Drill Field a few weeks before Final Review. Or maybe both decisions came from the same place. For future benefit, I highly recom mend that the decision-makers in the above departments enroll in an adminis trative dtcision-making workshop. Per haps there is a glimmer of hope and a minute chance that the minimal number of brain cells they possess might some how reproduce. Helene Davidson '93 Wise up: AIDS can hit anyone In Michael Snyder's poorly argued let ter of July 23, he asks, "When are people going to wise up and take responsibility" for their actions? I ask, when are pious, self-righteous people like yourself going to get off your pulpit and actually go out and get involved with helping solve the problem (through education) instead of whining about government money spent on this epidemic? You don't have to remind people-liv ing with AIDS (not dying of AIDS) that they have it, they are all too aware of the fact. Does it serve any purpose at all to rub their faces in the fact that they sinned and that now they are suffering the conse quences of their actions? I think not! What they did in the past is done and cannot be taken back. We can only look at the present and to the future to help those infected and prevent others from joining this afflicted multitude. As for your tactless and unproductive statement about Congress saving "Magic and most faggots," you left several other groups off your list: mothers, grand mothers, fathers, grandfathers, children, doctors, lawyers, teachers, nurses, teenagers, babies, etc. ALL of the afore mentioned groups have people with AIDS and I'm sure there are several oth ers I've forgotten. Were you trying to say everyone but sports stars and 'most gays' should receive government assistance? I agree that people should know the possible outcome of their sexual encoun ters could very well be HIV, but if some one is infected, we should empathize and support them to the best of our abilities. To make them outcasts would just reflect our own inner fears of people who are different. Everyone should remember that AIDS has no preference as to age, gender, sexual orientation or ethnic background — NO ONE is safe from AIDS. Cory Logan '93 Have an opinion? Express it! The Battalion is interested in hearing from its readers. All letters are welcome. Letters must be signed and must include classification, address and daytime phone number for verification purposes. They should be 250 words or less. Anonymous letters will not be published. The Battalion reserves the right to edit all letters for length, style and accuracy. There is no guarantee a letter will appear. Letters may be brought to The Battalion at 013 Reed McDonald, sent to Campus Mail Stop 1111 or faxed to 845-2647.