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Opinion
Thursday, November 5,1992
The Battalion
Page 9
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Editorials
Changes in the Corps
Cadets put questions to rest
The Battalion recently ran a series
of articles about the Corps of Cadets
and the changes that have taken
place within it since last year's
charges of sexual harassment.
In that series, comments from
some female cadets seem to indicate
that they feel as if meaningful
changes have taken place in the
Corps; changes which make them
feel equally at home on the Quad
rangle.
Though there will always be
some who cannot bring themselves
to accept women in the Corps, the
prevailing attitude among cadets
appears to be one of growing accep
tance.
According to interviews, cadets
in leadership positions in particular
are taking an active role in imple
menting new policies to ensure that
the specter of sexual discrimination
does not reappear.
Congratulations are due the
Corps of Cadets for their transfor
mation into an organization in
which both men and women have
the uncontested opportunity to be
come, in the words of The Standard,
a Corps manual, "leaders of charac
ter for the state and nation."
Nobody truly concerned about
the the image and welfare of Texas
A&M University, not to mention its
Corps of Cadets, could help but be
dismayed about the episode of last
year.
One year later, the Corps and the
University are looking much better.
We should be able to put our con
cerns to rest as we have all put this
issue behind us; hopefully, once and
for all.
Fistful of dollars
Congress' payraises look doomed
America has a new Constitutional
amendment and hardly knows it.
On May 8, Michigan became the
38th and deciding state to ratify the
amendment, making Constitutional
history.
Authored by James Madison 202
years ago, the amendment prohibits
Congress from voting to implement
a pay raise before the next election
for House offices. Long dormant,
the amendment sprang to life amid
the current voter outrage over re
cent Congressional scandals.
The first application of the 27th
Amendment is now at hand — 20
incumbent lawmakers, 106 Congres
sional challengers, the American
Legislative Excnange Council, and
other organizations have brought a
suit to block a $4,100 annual raise
for each member of the House and
Senate beginning the first day of
1993.
The law, passed in 1989, gives
members of Congress automatic an
nual raises tied to increases in the
cost of living.
Opponents of the law argue that
Congressional inaction to block the
raise by Dec. 31 without an inter
vening election as required by the
new amendment is a sanction of the
automatic raise.
The current suit ought to prevail
over the automatic pay raises.
James Madison designed the 27th
Amendment to discipline lawmak
ers into facing an election before
dipping into the public coffers. It is
time to ask a modicum of public
control of Congress.
Serbians willing to
negotiate over Bosnia
I agree wholeheartedly with Dr.
Hatchett (Battalion, Oct. 20) that a just
solution for the civil war in the former
Yugoslavia lies in establishment of new
borders based on ethnicity. This has
not been possible because the Bosnians
and Croatians do not want to give up
territory. However, I strongly disagree
with the Battalion headline rticle "U.S.,
U.N. should force Serbs to talks" and
Dr. Hatchett's suggestion that Bosnians
and Croatians should be provided with
more military aid in order to persuade
Serbs to come to the negotiating table.
The latter is not necessary since Serbs
are more than willing to negotiate these
issues, but so far the other two parties
have refused to discuss them.
In Croatia the cease-fire has been in
effect since January. The Yugoslav
army had withdrawn from Croatia, and
local Serbs have surrendered all their
heavy weapons to the U.N. peacekeep
ing troops. Croatian President Tudj-
man had said on several occasions that
he does not plan to renew the one year
mandate of the U.N. forces in Croatia,
and that he will not hesitate to use force
to establish Croatian authority over ter
ritories that are presently under control
of ethnic Serbs. So far there has been
no progress toward reaching a political
settlement. What will happen after the
U.N. troops withdraw from Croatia?
Bosnian Muslim leaders have often
boycotted United Nations sponsored
talks and are refusing to talk directly
with Serbian "murderers and aggres
sors." They have been willing neither
to give any territory to Bosnian Serbs
3nor to discuss the concept of the divi
sion of Bosnia into autonomous ethnic
regions. They are for a unitary state
structure, which would ensure their
domination.
Bosnian Serbs are willing to talk with
anyone, at any time and at any place,
according to General Lewis MacKenzie,
former commander of U.N. forces in
Sarajevo. At the recent Peace Confer
ence on Yugoslavia in London, the
leader of Bosnian Serbs, Mr. Karadzic,
said, "Though Serbs actually legally
own 64 percent of Bosnian land, we are
ready to reduce what we hold to 50 per
cent if it will enable us to draw very
clear and lasting boundaries that de
marcate Moslem, Croatian, and Serb ar
eas."
The just, peaceful, and long-lasting
Turn off the lights *— party's over
Media scrambles for news after end of elections
A s the candidates scrape the
mud from their lapels and
await the dry cleaning bills of
a campaign gone by, a day-after-
Christmas taste pervades our radios,
our newspapers, our color televi
sions. The counted ballots sleep
sweetly in some vacant office, collect
ing dust, clogging landfills, assuming
their rightful places in the statistics of
history. Brooms and shovels push
away the hopeful confetti of a defeat
ed president and the happy placards
of a victorious contender. The
bunting falls away from the ceilings;
the election falls away from memory.
The photographers file their final
prints in their lonely portfolios of election year hoopla —
smiles, sorrows, songs captured on squares of black and
white and rainbow colors. The reporters file their last sto
ries, clip their clips for posterity, turn off their typewriters
and drink a lonely toast to the end.
Hands have been shaken and promises made like so
many bridegrooms on breathless wedding nights, and all
that remains are the questions unanswered. What will
President Clinton be like? What will Hilary do with the
china pattern? How will Millie fare outside the White
House lawn? Will Dana Garvey's contract be renewed on
"Saturday Night Live"?
But the most important question looms large above the
others, a monolithic terror, worse yet than the Communist
menace! What will the media whine about now that the
election is over?!?
The mood over here at the Batt cave is one of dismay
and confusion — and I am certain that it is being re-enacted
in newsrooms across this great nation. What the hell are
we going to write about? We have nothing to do. For the
past nine months we have been pregnant with this mon
strous campaign. And Tuesday night, the water broke. We
grabbed the tongs and and the catcher's mitt and popped
that puppy out right into the laps of America. What the
hell are we supposed to do now?
Never fear, that's why I'm here with my handy dandy
list of potential story ideas that the reading and viewing
public would probably like to see:
(1) Does it trouble anyone that both our president-elect
and our lame-duck president are both joggers?
(2) Doesn't the term "lame duck" carry unpleasant con
notations which may perhaps offend our feathered friends?
Shouldn't we find a more sensitive term to apply to the de
feated president rather than lame duck? How about elec-
torally impaired? Or incumbently challenged?
(3) Shouldn't we investigate why some people insist on
boarding a crowded elevator on the first floor and then rid
ing only to the second floor with no apparent reason for do
ing so aside from basic laziness? Why not take the stairs?
(4) Will the Fightin' Texas Aggies ever advance beyond
number five in the football polls?
(5) Should people be brutally bludgeoned for crinkly-
crinkling their candy wrappers in classrooms during tests
— or heaven forbid, during cultural events like the bozos
who sat behind me at the ballet last month?
(6) Is cheerleading as an intellectual discipline worth
risking conviction for attempted homicide? Why not just
be on the dance line? Why not encourage your child to
pursue more life-enriching pursuits, like tanning?
(7) Is Beverly Hills 8675309 real? How about Smellrose
Place? Why do so many people insist on speaking to the
characters during these television shows like the characters
are real people? "Brenda, how could you dump him?" Is
this phenomenon related to Dan Quayle's insistence on
picking a fight with fictional character Murphy Brown?
(8) What will happen to all the Dan Quayle jokes?
(9) Does Chelsea Clinton watch Beverly Thrills
9021666?
(10) Why are the Christmas commercials airing already
when the Halloween jack-o-lantems are just now beginning
to rot?
Just some things to contemplate now that the election
madness has left us high and dry; as buttons and bumper
stickers of red, white and blue patriotism go the way of
Christmas wrapping paper, cardboard boxes and candy
canes, as we hang up our electoral intrigues and turn back
to our Monday Night Football.
You heard it here first.
Feducia is a senior English and history major
STACY
FEDUCIA
Assistant editor
solution for this tragic civil war could
be achieved if the United States and EC
governments were willing to pressure
Croatia and Bosnian Moslems to nego
tiate new borders. All that is needed is
fair international arbitration with equal
treatment for all sides.
Dragomir B. Bukur
Dept, of Chemical Engineering
Bad government: we
reap what we sow
Jason Loughman's recent opinion in
The Battalion raises what must be an
obvious question to many: namely,
why is it that in an election year in
which there is widespread disgust with
both major parties there is not more in
terest in the Libertarian Party? He
places blame mostly with the Lioertari-
ans, when actually it should be with the
electorate itself.
Jason points out that a statement par
ty members are asked to sign is a major
impediment for many people who do
not want to be "half-Libertarian," yet
he later admits to being “part Repbuli-
can and part Democrat.^ This indicates
to me that he himself regards the Liber
tarian Party too idealistically, rather
than the otner way around as he sug
gests.
An observer once pointed out that a
people evetually ends up with the gov
ernment that it deserves. I do not be
lieve that the United States is an excep
tion to this observation. Given a clear
choice of standing on one's own feet,
and making decisions for oneself, or
having govemement make all the deci
sions, 90 percent of Americans will
choose to nave government make the
decisions. This is not the sort of envi
ronment in which the strict constitu
tionalist point of view can take root.
I'm afraid that we already have the
kind of government and political par
ties that we as a people deserve.
Welcome to the real world.
Ron Theriault
Computer Science Department
Show your Aggie
friendliness at game
Right now I'm in the home of the
Fightm' Texas Aggies' next hapless vic-
tim,Louisville, Ky. Louisville has come
close to beating some real good teams
this year, and a lot of people around
here are starting to say that A&M is
ready for its first loss. Well Ags, I think
the Twelfth Man will have something
to say about that.
Ever since I arrived in the Bluegrass
State, I keep hearing about all this Car
dinal spirit. People have stickers on
their cars, a lot of people say they root
for the Cardinals, and they like to dress
in red sweaters for game dav. But
they've never been to Kyle Field, Ag
gies. And after Saturday, I don't think
they'll want to come back.
Heck, if we don't win I'm in big
trouble. I've been saying all year that U
of L is going to get pasted at Kyle Field.
Everybody's coming over to my place
on Saturday, and if we lose I'll never
hear the end of it.
But almost as much as I want to see
us win, I would like for Kentuckians
that venture south to Aggieland to
come back talking about two things:
the pride and spirit of our fans, and the
warmth and hospitality of our campus.
A&M is a speciaL place whether we're
10-0 or 0-10, and it's the character of the
student body that makes it so.
They may root for the Cardinals, but
we are the Aggies. Beat the Hell outta
Louisville!
Stephen Beck
Class of '91
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