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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 12, 1992)
12,1992 lys •e good on ind a way care to all foal, com- s Depart- nee. te, formed 2ms facing eport dur- ita. It sur- es and the > come up 5t look at Opinion Thursday, November 12,1992 The Battalion Page 11 £»...fc«or w» ■sovr it* ft*. oOft. Retu<.k1 it i found in id. For at 847- DENT 1 nerican in 407 ation call as 8 p.m. in rough igh Nov. students public, the t 862- cker. ting at lealth >13 Reed e sired run ame and t if you is a non-profit issions served e an entry ns, call ■frte 'K.-Fl PKR.TV FUNi7 Editorials Mauro of the same Politician doesn't belong in cabinet In the wake of Bill Clinton's pres- | idential victory, many experts men tion Texas Land Commissioner Gar ry Mauro as a possible appointee to Ms cabinet. Mauro managed Clin ton's unsuccessful Texas campaign. Yet, in light of repeated revelations of unethical behavior, Clinton should maintain the integrity of his administration by passing over the Texas politician. Early last year, a Houston paper uncovered a myriad of questionable business ventures by Mauro under taken after he took office in 1983. Presently, Mauro owes nearly $5 million on his failed investments and seems of the verge of personal bankruptcy. Just months ago, inspection of hone bills for the Texas General d Office revealed that the office phoi Lane der with ve a skin currently complete a 3 week ou would iQ will he apparently made business calls for the Clinton campaign and charged the calls to taxpayers. Mauro and his employees allegedly used state time and money to conduct Clin ton's bid for Texas votes. An unsuccessful businessman and a shady politician, Mauro de fied the sacred trust of the electorate by involving himself in unethical if not illegal conflicts of interest and misuse of position. Many politicians reward their faithful and hard-working support ers with government positions, but federal spoils must not fall to inca pable and unethical politicians. In trying to build a team capable changing America, Bill Clinton should deny Mauro the sinecure of any federal post warranting Mau- ro's abilities. The tourist trap National parks falling to ruin ■p by the Interior Department found serious deficiencies in Park Service efforts to protect our federal lands. The audit cites "serious and irre versible degradation" of natural re sources and points to park service allocation of the majority of funding to visitor services as a major prob lem. In Texas, Padre Island National Seashore made the audit for the juantity of debris washed ashore rom offshore oil rigs and ships dumping refuse into the ocean. Too many people remain un aware of park service deficiencies in otecting national parks. In 1903, eodore Roosevelt wrote, "Surely our people do not understand even yet the rich heritage that is theirs." I It seems a fitting sentiment for our current situation as well. Our park lands are set aside to be reserved in their "original state" or the "benefit of the people." It is valid and necessary for the Park Service to engage in programs for visitor service; however, their primary mission is to preserve park lands. Unless we are content to live in a country of little more than strip malls and parking lots, then we ail must take a more active role in en suring the preservation of "our" na tional park lands. We must make sure our legislators know that we insist that the park service adhere to its mission of preservation before there is nothing left worth preserv ing. Morality suffers in sexual sell-out Restoring the sanctity of sex is reasonable, prudent S ex. You think about it. I think about it. In fact, our entire soci ety seems to rotate around it. Sex sells. Big. Prime time television is success fully pushing its limits further and furtiher. Madonna's "art" book is a major best seller. "Basic Instinct" was an enormous box office hit. Why? Sex. Oh, the joys of modem progress. We've gone too far with this sex thing. We've defiled it. We've made it commonplace. We stood in the temple and sold its sacredness. Look, I'm no hypocrite. I am no model of purity — no judge of morality. In less than two months, I will marry my soul mate, my true love. I know what desire is. I know what pleasure is. Not for a minute do I believe that sex is bad. In fact, I believe that it is one of the greatest gifts that God ever gave to a man and a woman. But, it was meant to be honored. And, yes, I do believe it was meant specifically for husband and wife. It is tragic that we as a society have collectively adopted the attitude that, by a certain age, virginity is a shameful thing. Does it seem at all sad that a man or a woman must explain why he or she is not sexually active? I resent the attitude of so many "experts" who wisely advise parents to just accept that no young person in this day and age could possibly wait until marriage. You should resent it, too. You're rolling your eyes at me now, right? Maybe I am unrealistic or prudish or cold. I'll explain why I feel the way I do. First, let's talk basic biology. Sexual intercourse can lead to pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, AIDS and death. Birth control is not completely effective. I had a friend conceive her child while faithfully taking the pill. A condom does not completely ensure that AIDS will not be transmitted. Scientists have said this over and over. So, no matter what we do to foolproof ourselves against the negatives of sexual activity, we cannot completely suc ceed. Being "responsible" means improving your odds a great deal. That's all. If we kept sex within the sacred bonds of marriage, the AIDS epidemic would be far less of a threat, if it even exist ed at all. Sexually transmitted diseases would have very little transmission. Virtually no pregnancies would be un wanted. But, let's say that a person is always "responsible" and never becomes an unlucky failure rate statistic. He or she has a fling here or there, or even a limited number of mean ingful relationships where sex seems perfectly appropriate. Chances are, that first one, that second one, that whatev er number one will not be THE ONE. So, by the time THE ONE comes along, there has been a history of other ones. Why do we accept this as perfectly normal? Why should we? Believe it or not, sex is not necessary to sustain life. It's necessary to create it, yes, but not to live it. I'm not trying to judge, condemn or hurt anyone. I have been there. I know. My intention is to compel someone else out there to wake up one morning, look at our world and say, "Why?" Why do we assume we just have to have sex? We are more than hormone levels and sexual organs. We are not slaves to lust or temptation. To say we are is quite simply insulting. Sex. It can be a very beautiful thing. It is supposed to be a very beautiful thing. One religious leader even sug gests that the level of pleasure shared by a husband and wife during their lovemaking is the closest one can ever come to understanding the intensity of God's love for us. Imagine that. I am not asking for perfection anymore than I would want it asked of me. I am asking for you to join me in some moral contemplation. Let's clean out the temple. Garrard is a junior speech communication major ; with MSC fAIJ ■ m 4ji JR tt Cultural sensitivity talk ignores Irish I am an Irish-American writing in re sponse to the unfair conditions that have been facing me and my people in I this country. It nas to do with the injus tice, inequality, and prejudice that I must deal with due to the lack of a mul ticultural society. I believe that I will never be able to achieve success in this country until there has been enough sensitivity shown toward my ethnicity. I also believe that the only way this enlightenment will occur is through ed ucation. It is time that American youth learn about Irish leaders like Mickey [ Rooney, Bono, Lucky Leprechaun ana 1 other Irish greats that have shaped his- I tory. Through this education, I propose that children will not only become cul turally sensitive to my heritage but will learn many important facts and cultur ally relevant information for lifetime purposes(i.e. Irish jigs. Pub trivia, pota to knowledge). I'm sure that many of you probably don't want to hear about my culture, but I've been forced to learn about American culture for 20 years, and what good will that do me? I feel an inherent need to stand up for my roots and the roots of my Gaelic brothers and sisters. Who says the Irish have all the luck? The Irish have been persecuted since the early 19th century. Because of the hardships of my forefa thers, I am not able to make it on my own in today's society. What I and my brothers and sisters need is Pan Irishism to lead the way to promote multicultural education and to unify this country. I just know that if educa tion can teach someone about biology or math or history, then it most certain ly can teach a person how not to be racist, and then I might be able to ac complish something with my life in America. Irish unite! Erin O'Brien Class of '92 Police racism charges unsupported by facts Manuel Arias, in his Nov. 4 letter, al leges that the College Station Police De partment committed a "terrible act of racism" on Oct. 16 by arresting four Hispanic males. It is clear that the alle gation is based on nothing more than conjecture and personal feeling rather than any facts. As a former College Station police officer, I am very familiar with the stan dard operating procedures in cases sim ilar to those described by Arias. I saw many citizens complain, in writing and via phone, that officers either did too muen or too little when they responded to a disturbance. As is the case with Arias, they were infrequently third par ty, non-involved, non-informed per sons. Arias writes that a white male and a Hispanic male were going to fight. Po lice officers arrived before the nsts flew but Arias felt that neither person was questioned "in the proper manner." It does not concern him that he does not know what the questioning re vealed and he does not know what the arrestees were charged with. A few possibilities: public intoxication, threats made in the presence of the offi cers, warrants, the car was stolen, weapons, or the arrestees were contact ed previously by the police and told not to come back. The list is endless and so are the complex situations that officers face every day. In recent times some law enforce ment agencies have come under fire for various actions and policies; some, not all, were apparently racially motivated. Citizens ana police alike want to blame someone for these problems, and guilty parties should be held accountable. For this reason it is important for us to ob tain all of the information related to a situation that stirs our blood before we go off half-cocked and throw around inflammatory, groundless accusations of racism. I also feel that The Battalion, or any news organization, has an obligation to obtain some facts before printing such a divisive charge like Arias' even though it may only be an opinion. ].K. Armstrong College Station Liberal arts often has left-wing agenda Discovering other social groups is not the major problem with the latest multiculturalism controversy. In fact, many students here at A&M are des perate need of exposure to "alternative" perspectives. I nave no problem with the class Bubby Trammel envisions, ex cept I fear it would not be the racial bounding/learning experience we love to watch on television. It would be a politically-biased diatribe against the existing 'power structures" — some thing that many liberal arts students have come to accept as business as usu al at Texas A&M. A recent National Endowment for the Humanities report describes a trend in higher education where free-thinking and diversity are sacrificed at the hands of multiculturalism and the political left. "Telling the Truth: A Report on the State of the Humanities in Higher Edu cation" confirms what I have seen in many of my upper level history and En glish classes. The analysis of "texts" and history is limited almost exclusive ly to discussions of class, race, and gen- aer. More often than not, the professor is so intent on instilling his or her ideol ogy (usually Marxist/feminist) , that an "objective" free exchange of ideas is im possible. In a senior Shakespeare class, more time is spent discussing gender and how Shakespeare (as the white male) should be "de-centered" than is spent discussing the plays themselves. In a grammar course it is now almost absurd to ask, "What is the correct us age of the English language?" There is none, because we don t want to offend "incorrect" usage. And we being the good Ags we are, we sit back and take it all in uncritical ly, without thinking, without question- This is not the purpose of education. This is not the purpose of a class to ex pose us to different perspectives. Or is it? Matthew Franz Class of '92 Editonste appearing in The BattaSon reflect the views of the opinion page staff and ecfltor in chief only. They do not represent, in any way. the opinions of reporters, staff, or editors of other sections of the newspaper. Columns, guest columns, and MaB Call items express the opinions of the authors only. The BattaBon encourages letters to Bw etSior and vw# print as many as space allows in the Mall Call section, letters must be 300 words or less and include author’s name, Social Security number, dess, and phone number We reserve the right to edit letters for length, style, and accuracy. Letters should be addressed to: The Battalion - Mail Ceil 013 Reed McDonald /MaB stop 1111 Texas ASM University Collage Station. TX 77843