l Y 20,1993
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Opinion
luesday, July 20,1993
The Battalion
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The Battalion Editorial Board
Jason Loughman, editor in chief
The Battalion
Mark Evans, managing editor
Stephanie Pattillo, city editor
Dave Thomas, night news editor
Mack Harrison, opinion editor
Kyle Burnett, sports editor
Susan Owen, sports editor
Anas Ben-Musa, Aggielife editor
Billy Moran, photo editor
Editorial
Taking the rap
Don't blame music for criminal acts
In the wake of the sentencing of
ionald Ray Howard to death by
1 injection for the killing of a
fexas Department of Public Safety
tooper, a lawsuit has been filed by
ie officer's widow against the rap
ist and recording label that pro
sed the "gangsta" rap music that
fas said to be an influence on
Howard.
While Linda David-
n, the wife of slain
leer Bill Davidson,
fanted her hus-
und's killer to be
;iven the death
lenalty, she also
igreed with the de
fense attorney's ar
gument that it was
lie hard-core rap
music that influ-
inced Howard to
lull the trigger.
Davidson is now suing Tupac
Imuru Shakur, Time Warner, Inc.
Interscope Records for an un-
letermined amount.
"I feel like these corporations
led to be responsible," she said,
im claiming that the 'gangsta' rap
music was a factor."
Davidson's attorney, Jim Cole,
id the lawsuit would ensure that
music companies do not produce
speech designed to make people
kill people. He also said the mes
sage of the lawsuit would be one of
responsibility.
Howard confessed several times
to shooting Officer Davidson in the
neck with a 9mm handgun during a
routine traffic stop for a missing
headlight.
The responsibility for crimes
such as Howard's lies
with the offender.
„ If Davidson is suc
cessful in her lawsuit,
not only will the First
Amendment rights of
musicians be limited,
but the possibilities
will be endless for
criminals claiming
their behavior was
the result of a song
they heard, a televi
sion show they
watched, a billboard they read or
anything else they have come in
contact with.
The citizens of this nation cannot
allow the justice system to continue
its policy of eluding blame and
shifting responsibility.
The courts need to remember
that it was not an entertainer that
committed the crime, but rather a
criminal who pulled the trigger.
And now on to weightier subjects
There's more to life than singing and weenie dogs
Today we will be discussing Bosnia-Herzegovina is bad. At least the war being
ROBERT
VASQUEZ
Columnist
Today we will be discussing
Bosnia-Herzegovina and Saddam
Hussein. OK, now that I've lost half
of the readers who bothered to pick
up this issue of The Battalion, I will
endeavor to comment authoritatively
on these topics which have been
deemed important, (although I have
no idea how to spell them, let alone
understand their significance).
My columns, it seems, have not
been hard-nosed, goat-getting, or ire-
raising enough to please the great ed-
itors-that-be. While all the other so-
cially-aware and morally-superior
columnists have been writing respon
sibly on such burning issues as rape,
pestilence and road trips, I have dilly-dallied with tamer
topics such as TV addiction and weenie dogs.
I realize that any reader would be hard pressed to de
scribe my topics with such words as "relevant" and "grip
ping." In my defense, however, I have never succumbed to
the intense urge to write on the one topic which took this
campus by storm one quiet fall day nearly two years ago,
when one very crafty columnist exploited a very serious
subject: buttcracks.
And 1 never will. You will never the see the word
"buttcrack" in any of my columns simply for the sake of
sensationalism. As hard as I try to reach every student and
expand my audience to a number larger than, say, two, I
refuse to lower myself to that level where 1 turn to sex
ploitation and pander to the lewd curiosity of the lascivious
masses. Buttcrack.
In the interest of shedding a very dim light on the im
portant topics du jour, I have chosen to address more com
pelling issues, such as those we will discuss today.
Saddam Hussein is a bad man. Though he has been re
sponsible for the deaths of thousands of innocent people
and shows no remorse for his actions, he still lives. Sad
dam Hussein, not Iraq, needs to be bombed. The man is
psycho. The United States does not need to send thousands
of troops to fight a war. All it would take is one or two
well-placed assassins with good intentions and good aim.
Bosnia-Herzegovina is bad. At least the war being
fought there is bad. Many people don't understand what's
going on there because the minute they hear the words
"Bosnia-Herzegovina" they immediately become confused.
The brain shuts down and the eyes cross. At least that's
what happens to me.
But the situation in Bosnia-Herzegovina is more complex
than the spelling and pronunciation of the two words put
together. As far as I can understand, (from snippets of
conversations overheard at parties and on CNN), there are
groups of people there who hate other groups of people.
The reason for this hatred is unclear. Maybe it's politi
cal, maybe it's racial, maybe it's religious. Croatians and
Serbians (who are two of the groups of people involved),
have joined forces, trying to defeat the Muslims (another
group of people) who live in Bosnia (which is a country,
sort of).
The Muslims are a minority group in Bosnia, not unlike
whites in Los Angeles, New York and most major US cities.
The Croatians and the Serbians are fighting to overtake the
land called Bosnia and then kick the Muslims out. The
Croatians and the Serbians don't even like each other.
They simply have a common purpose. That being hatred.
And greed.
The part I don't understand is what the US is doing
there. Word's like "humanitarian" and "civil" and "liber
ties" keep surfacing in conversations describing the mission
of US troops in Croatia.
I just wonder who's job it is to decide that we belong in
another country, fighting someone else's war. There are
those who say that, in the grand scheme of things, we all
have a responsibility to each other. If our fellow man needs
help, they say, then we must oblige.
I just know that I wouldn't want the responsibility of de
ciding who will fight in someone else's war. I'm not good
at telling people what they should and shouldn't do. Who
am I to say what's right and wrong, simply because I have
an opinion on the topic. Everyone has an opinion. I'd
rather just talk about simple things. Things like singing,
and weenie dogs. But not buttcracks. Never buttcracks.
Vasquez is a se?rior journalism major
ANGEL KAN/Thc Bat talion
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GUEST
COLUMN
MUKUL
GOEL
had never real
ized the extent
.of conser-
Jtism at TAMU
®iposed on Ag-
Jiesby the fogy-
ishA&M officials
a recent inci
dent involving the
;SC Visual Arts
Committee.
wandering
tross the hallway
® front of the
ISC Student Pro-
jiams Office, I
^me across a yet
mknown place called the MSC Visual
vts Gallery.
The walls of the gallery had an unti
ed exhibit of photographs. I was so
luilled by the compassionate and rustic
J Ppeal of the images that I immediately
( ent and congratulated Amy Day, staff
I’isor to the committee. To my dis
may, I was told the exhibition was being
lint down temporarily because there
'are no labels on the photographs,
later it was revealed to me that per-
^ps the underlying reason behind the
Hosing was the nudity depicted in
oirie of the photographs that potential-
: could offend representatives of the
Hssodation of Former Students. It was
dt to be quite risky to have, on cam
pus, an exhibition displaying pictures
of nude people when Aggie Hostelers
were visiting the campus.
The former students did not see the
gallery which is now opened for public
viewing. The matter is already silenced
but I thought it might be worthwhile to
convey this message to my fellow Ag
gies oblivious to the fact that someone
else is trying to control our thinking
process in the university we are so
proud of.
TAMU is a great university and for
mer students are a big contribution to
its greatness. We don't want to offend
them in any manner whatsoever. I
could not help laughing at those indi
viduals that assumed that the former
students would be outraged by the
mere sight of bare breasts or a penis of
pubic hair shown in an innocent paint
ing or photograph in a public art
gallery and thereupon stop giving aid
to the University.
Are Aggies so immature and their
sensibilities so weak that will get shat
tered by the blow of a nude picture in
an art gallery?
Similar cases have occurred in other
universities where exhibitions had to be
removed because the nudity might of
fend the board of directors and the
benefactors of the university, conse
quently the artists immediately with
drew their work. We certainly do not
want our dear Aggieland to be shunned
by the art world and the rest of the cre
ative community. TAMU should not
become a place where artists are afraid
of being humiliated or judged by uni
versity managers and political players.
The Constitution gives protection to
freedom of expression that transcends
personal taste and correspondingly one
had the right to turn a blind eye to any
form of expression one doesn't approve
of. The responsibility of interpreting
any work of art is commonly shared by
the artist and the viewers, not the art
gallery or the University.
Regardless of the artist's intention in
creating a work of art containing nudi
ty, the erotic or sexual content is usual
ly an outcrop of the viewers own feel
ing and cultural or social experience.
In other words "obscenity lies in the
eyes of the beholder."
The depiction of nudity in the work
of art may not always fall in the cate
gories of erotica and pornography.
Artists often use nudity as a form of ex
pression of self which can evoke feel
ings ranging from amusement to dis
gust. Even the most perverse people
cannot get aroused by the photographs
in our exhibit in the MSC. Although
there are no absolute criteria for judg
ing art and its value, anybody can dis
tinguish between Madonna's book
"Sex" and the images created by
Michaelangelo or Picasso. Some people
do not consider photography as a form
of art, but I am rather sure Michaelan
gelo would have loved to shoot photos
if he had a nice Japanese camera.
The school has the right to relocate of
remove any work of art that may be
disruptive to the educational process, in
violation of laws or hazardous to the
health and safety of viewers or partici
pants. The University is a public in
vestment in research and teaching that
should be free from political pressures
or religious fanaticism.
The purpose of education is not a
dictation of codified set of scriptures
from teacher to student but to provide a
laboratory environment where ideas
and issues can be debated in an atmos
phere of academic freedom.
The MSC Visual Arts Committee is a
student committee that aims to make
art a part of education and it should not
be appropriated for political causes.
Like all the other student committees,
its purpose is to enlighten and explore
rather than shock people.
At a juncture of sexual and moral
confusion where the family values are
sandwiched between gay/lesbian rights
and the feminist movement, let the
artist be one who can provide the pub
lic a mirror for self-exploration and ex
amination and let the universities be
free from hypocrisy.
I know that our University with all
its good intentions wants Aggies to be
the best. However, I sincerely wish that
our teachers and advisors would give
up their paternalistic attitude and let us
grow up on our own. This strict quality
control may lead to a line of Aggie-
brand products made in Aggieland
with no individuality or creativity.
Well Ags, we are free to express our
opinions on this topic and visit the
gallery. You are welcome to attend a
reception and discussion in the MSC Vi
sual Art Gallery, Room 289 on July 23 at
8:00 p.m.
Mukul Gael is a civil engineering gradu
ate student and a member of the MSC Visu
al Arts Committee
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