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Tuesday, August 31,1993
The Battalion
Page 15
The Battalion Editorial Board
CHRIS WHITLEY, editor in chief
|ULI PHILLIPS, managing editor MARK EVANS, city editor
DAVE THOMAS, night news editor ANAS BEN-MUSA, Aggielife editor
BELINDA BLANCARTE, night news editor MICHAEL PLUMER, sports editor
MACK HARRISON, opinion editor WILLIAM HARRISON, sports editor
KYLE BURNETT, photo editor
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EDITORIAL
Take what you read
with a grain of salt
An open mind is always a ben
efit, and in news reporting, the
smart reader realizes that even
facts can be biased in their context
or perspective. Limitations of
print-space and time can force a
writer to use a personal viewpoint
fo decide how facts will be pre
sented in the final copy.
Information that is included or
omitted can greatly change the im
pact of a story on the reader. De
spite the best efforts of edi
torial policies and jour
nalistic ethics, media
cannot always pre
vent a biased view.
For example,
he August issue
of Ebony was de
voted entirely to
the African-
hmerican family,
lie articles report-
’ family success
stories in the black
community.
People who are actually
coping with the problems of
gangs, drugs, poverty and other
threats are addressed through the
reports of . The magazine incorpo
rates statistics with explanations
and possible solutions to the diffi
culties.
The Aug. 30 Newsweek cover
story delves into the plight of the
black family from a different di
rection. The piece focuses on the
Gluttons, dieters or in-between, we're all stuck with the tab
tjJOOl
frightening endangerment of the
black family.
Polls and graphs illustrate the
numbers and statistics of social
crises. Sidebar articles highlight
individual examples of the people
who are a part of these tragic
numbers.
Essentially, the same set of
general facts are presented from
two different perspectives. Ebony
presented its mainly black readers
with a more hopeful pic
ture, while the main
stream audience of
News-week re
ceived a decidedly
bleaker presenta
tion.
The saying,
"You can't be-
£ lieve everything
you read," may
be a cliche, but it is
also sound advice.
Solid, true facts can
easily be used to make a
wide range of implications.
Think about the issues being
discussed and the facts behind
them. The Battalion always strives
for objectivity, but like all publi
cations, human nature will be re
flected in our work.
Regardless of the information
source, readers must make them
selves aware of the perspective tak
en in presenting the information as
much as the information itself.
Small steps toward life's large goals
Little by little, students carve pathway through college
I just spent three
hours trying to find
one single parking
space in one of the
thousands of vast,
sprawling parking lots
which surround this
campus, covering
more acreage than do
most northeastern
states.
College, they say,
provides invaluable
experience and opens
up a world of oppor
tunities. All I want is
the opportunity to
park my car.
When people think of college, they think
of tests and classrooms. They think of all-
ROBERT
VASQUEZ
Columnist
of beer. Lots of beer.
But as students stumble into the race to
wards graduation, they learn that long lines,
registration red tape and PARKING are the
sad reality, and that earning passing grades
is merely a formality.
I vaguely remember my first semester of
college — which was, oh, twenty years ago
— when phone registration was a futuristic
luxury predicted on shows like "Beyond
2000." T stood in some line where thousands
of other students slept, hoping by chance that
it was one of the lines where we belonged.
As the sun set on the campus and the
doors were locked, I finally reached the front
of the line where the nice lady with the scowl
on her face grunted and told me that I was in
the wrong line and should proceed to the
line where I belonged, which ended just out
side of the building which was now locked
but would be opened promptly the following
day.
All this hassle is becoming a pain, I
thought. I'll never make it. And this was just
registration. If and when I finally made it
through all this red tape there were still the
classes to master, the lectures to endure, the
professors to conquer. Why was I doing this
to myself?
I survived. I came. I saw. I kicked —
well, you know what I kicked. I had slain the
mighty dragon and was ready for more.
Now, if I could just pass the classes for which
I was finally registered.
After I finished my first class and set out
on the great hike to my car in Parking Lot Z,
I realized I hadn't understood a word my
Spanish professor said. And he was talking
in English. This college business, I figured,
would be a long, hard climb. Uphill. Back
wards. In the snow.
It really does get frustrating, I know. I sat
through the first week of classes wondering
how I could ever survive the first semester,
let alone the next three (or four, or five)
years.
Spanish particularly posed an insur
mountable threat to my success as a college
student. It seemed self-defeating just walk
ing to class. I could never pass, I thought.
I'd sit through lecture despairing, mourn
ing the fact that as soon as my grades came
out, my parents would realize that my talents
were better spent serving Quarter Pounders
with cheese.
Instead of graduating from college and
commanding a six figure salary, I would be
destined forever to wear polyester uniforms
and ask, "Would you like fries with that?"
It seemed impossible. But 1 did it. This
summer I took my last two semesters of
Spanish — and I even passed them. Yes, my
foreign language requirement is behind me
now.
It may sound like a small accomplish
ment, but it marks the end of a major portion
of my college career. You see, somewhere
between all the Spanish classes I also com
pleted other college hours. And now there
stands eight measly hours of credit between
graduation and me.
I am here to tell you that if I can do it, you
can too. Yes, there are endless hours of
studying to endure and thousands of books
to be checked out — fortunately, Evans Li
brary probably doesn't have half of them.
And yes, there are countless hours of cram
sessions to survive and hundreds of papers
to be typed. It's not easy. Trust me. I'm not
looking forward to it.
But we press on. And gradually we whit
tle away the requirements for graduation.
I'm amazed when I think how once there
were one hundred and twenty hours stand
ing between the unemployment line and me,
and now there are only eight. Even now,
those few hours sometimes seem impossible
to complete.
And there's always the parking, and the
waiting and the red tape .... But it can be
done. Thousands of students have done it
before us. We can do it too.
Robert Vasquez is a senior journalism major
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Editorials appearing in The
Battalion reflect the views of
the editorial board. They do
not necessarily reflect the
opinions of other Battalion
staff members, the Texas
A&M student body, regents,
administration, racufty or
staff.
Columns, guest columns
and letters express the
opinions of the authors.
The Battalion encourages
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allows. Letters must be 300
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Contact the opinion editor
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The Battalion * Mail Call
• m 3 Reed McDodltd : •
stop 1111
VI University
Station, TX 77843
i ;; -
Qasfet
TS
lEGENEAU
ID HAY BE
IT THE ESI
The old saying
"you are what you
eat" was a mistake.
It should have been
"you are the way
you eat."
In the numerous
hours I spent wait
ing tables this sum
mer, I was blessed
with the ample op
portunity to ob
serve America at
dinner. It was not
a pretty sight.
However, I decid
ed to turn this
sweat and grease-
filled menial labor into a productive anal-
0 gy-
Right now, America is sitting down to
a very long and large dinner of gourmet
budget deficit, and there are many beliefs
and opinions abut the best way to con
sume this meal.
I thought it would be amusing to relate
the mass amount of food consumption
that was going on around me to the pub
lic reaction to the gasoline tax as a means
of generating money for the deficit reduc
tion.
After an entire summer of waiting ta
bles, I found that a lot can be determined
by how a person consumes a chicken
fried steak platter. As any good observer
of human nature, I took the opportunity
to distinguish among my customers' eat
ing habits and classify them into three
main groups.
First, there is the "Slop-Hound" group.
This group consists of the people who,
with utter disregard for the separation of
the entree and its complimentary vegeta
bles, are content to mush the entire meal
into a heap of dog food-like mess. "Well,
really it is all going to the same place any
way." A noteworthy feature of the Slop-
Hounds is that for all practical purposes,
silverware is not necessary. Using a bis
cuit for the transportation process is both
convenient and edible
For the sake of my little game, this
group can easily translate into those citi
zens who are not bothered by paying a
few extra cents in gasoline tax. They real
ize that, like a biscuit, it is the easiest way
to soak up some of the money that is des
perately needed to reduce the deficit.
Next, there is the "On-The-Side"
group. For the members of this group,
the main.concern is control. They have a
strong need to possess the ability to con-
trol the amount of gravy they put on their
Right now, America is sit
ting down to a very long
and large dinner of
gourmet budget deficit,
and there are many beliefs
and opinions abut the best
way to consume this meal.
mashed potatoes or the amount of ranch
dressing that goes on their salad.
This sort of philosophy best fits the
person who opposes an increased tax on
gas. Primarily, because needing gas for
your car in America is pretty much like
needing blood for your body — it is not
exactly a gray area. The On-The-Siders
would prefer that the money they con
tribute to the purpose of deficit reduction
come from other sources, such as a sin
tax. If the money was extracted from the
sale of cigarettes and alcohol, these peo
ple would have the power to control their
taxability.
Finally, there is the "Accessorizer"
group. These people are the reason the
condiment industry is what it is today. I
witnessed a man dose his chicken fried
steak with ketchup. Tabasco sauce, and
honey mustard dressing before happily
devouring it.
The Accessorizers represent the people
who are out of touch with reality. TTiey
may have ordered deficit reduction but it
is not what they really want. And they
sure do not want something as blatant
and obvious as a gasoline tax to solve it.
No matter what the plan of attack may
be, it is important to remember that we
are all sitting at the same table with the
same dinner on our plates. Everybody
gobbled up the buffet during the '80s, and
now everyone is squabbling over who's
going to pay the tab in the '90s. But Amer
ica's debt is everybody's problem.
We are all citizens of this country,
and with citizenship comes responsibility
— regardless of economic prosperity or
debt. It is sort of like marriage — for bet
ter or for worse.
We have wasted time trying desper
ately to ignore the fact that this debt exists
or by trying to place the responsibility on
only a portion of the population. Both
methods have proven to be absolutely lu
dicrous. The debt is here to stay. And ob
viously, the tab is too monstrous to be
payed for by qnly a few pocketbooks.
It is time to face up to the fact that any
American who tries to pass off the deficit
as someone else's responsibility is just
trying to hide the green beans in the left
over mashed potatoes on his plate. If
everyone would just grab a biscuit and
pass the basket around, we could all do
our share and get on to dessert.
Jenny Magee is a sophomore English and
journalism major
jENNY
MAGEE
Columnist
Radio station playlist
needs improvement
Austin and Dallas native students
who are accustomed to a consistent alter
native rock station are out of luck in the
B-CS area. KKYS (104.7), in particular,
has a serious programming mess (for
lack of a better word), their so-called
"Mix" is just that, a mix of every type of
music. It should be renamed as the
"Switch" because students are frequent
ly switching the channel when they hear
a song they don't like; or switching to
CD or cassette.
Recently, KKYS played this sequence
of songs: The Red Hot Chili Peppers,
Kenny G, Sisters With Voices, Dada, fol
lowed by Restless Heart ... whew, makes
you feel like a roller coaster ride. I don't
know a soul who wouldn't have
changed the channel, or put in a CD or
cassette.
It's a simple music choice (program
ming) problem: people who prefer alter
native rock change the channel when
Kenny G, Sisters With Voices, and Rest
less Heart come on and vice versa. This
clash of different types of music happen
over and over everyday at KKYS.
I have yet to hear from any student
who thinks highly of the stations here.
Even the local cable company is monop
olizing on the fact of poor local program
ming with their own DMX system.
KKYS needs to take a stand and choose a
type of programming — it's easy, just go
down to a local music store — they\ye
done it for you : Alternative, Rock, Jazz,
Soul, R&B, Easy Listening, Country.
Quit trying to please everybody - be
cause you are pleasing no one! Mean
while, fellow Aggies, keep buying CDs
and cassettes, because there's no KNAC
or KDGE here!
Edward Ham
Class of'94
Aggie spirit shines
through once again
I want to thank the individual who re
turned some lost money to me last week.
On Saturday, August 21st, I withdrew
some money from an ATM machine at
the First American Bank on University
Drive. There was another guy waiting in
line to use the machine, so I quickly
grabbed the money and drove away.
Only I realized when I was down the
street that I was $15 short.
I turned around and went back to the
bank to see if the guy behind me had
found it in the drawer, but he had al
ready left. I figured that this person
would probably use the money to get
$15 drunker that night, but he did not.
Instead, he returned to the bank the fol
lowing Monday, took the trouble to find
out who the money belonged to and had
the money re-deposited in my account.
I don't know who was honest enough
to do this. But I greatly appreciate it!
Once again the Aggie Code of Honor has
been upheld.
Hiram A. Hodges
Class of '93