12,1993
filers
a
35-7
ress
Opinion
Tuesday, October 12,1993
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The Battalion Editorial Board
CHRIS WHITLEY, editor in chief
JULI 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
The Battalion
Page 7
0»ST. BY ONION flATUMS
EDITORIAL
Wrong turn
Texas Avenue plans fall short
The Texas Department of
Transportation should rethink
its plans for the expansion of
Texas Avenue. The proposal
does not address the root of
the community's traffic prob
lems around the Texas A&M
[campus.
Tne $2.5 million plan
would increase the width of
Texas Avenue to six lanes
from 700 feet north of Univer
sity Drive to 400 feet south of
Dominik Street. Noise walls, a
bus lane and a raised median
would also be included with
the proposal as part of the
construction.
Other suggested amenities
area pedestrian walkway, a
lighted bicycle path and a jog
ging path. The final design
argely depends on costs.
These benefits seem insuffi
cient to justify the expense
and drawbacks of the project.
Despite any plans to ease con
gestion, the current problems
will be greatly intensified
during the building period.
Construction on the street
will take at least two years. At
times traffic will probably be
confined to only two lanes.
The layout of the commu-
Learn to relax instead of becoming a slave to your work
m
>NS
^ 4
iD
r f
nity streets generates many of
the area traffic problems. Ifhe
basic cause of the current and
foreseeable traffic difficulties
is the fact that motorists have
no other routes available.
Texas Avenue is the only
central north-south thorough
fare capable of handling
heavy traffic. Officials esti
mate daily traffic on the sec
tion to be improved will in
crease over the next 20 years
from from 37,000 to 48,000 ve
hicles.
FM 2818, Wellborn Road
and the Highway 6 Bypass
are too far out of the way to
be of practical use to most
drivers traveling to campus
or the surrounding business
districts. The improvement of
side streets or access roads
near Texas Avenue would
help divert some of the pre
sent demand.
Although the Texas Depart
ment of Transportation pro
ject would provide some re
lief, the larger problem would
remain unchanged. A more
prudent use of the money and
effort earmarked in the pro
posal would be to devise a
better long-term solution.
Second chance after suicide attempt
No matter how bad it seems, there's someone who cares
ROBERT
VASQUEZ
Columnist
M y roommate,
Jim, got a call
last week
from an old high
school friend. They
talked about old times
and tried to update
each other on the lat
est developments in
their lives.
Then Jim's friend,
Travis, said, “Oh, did I
tell you? I'm blind
now."
Jim was quiet for a
second and then asked
what had happened.
His friend explained
that he had been hav
ing trouble at his school in Indiana. His
grades were dropping, and the people he
called his friends were turning out to be less
than reliable.
The winter was especially cold that year,
and the semester had only begun. Finally,
Travis stopped going to class. He couldn't
handle it anymore. He stopped caring. He
gave up.
Travis called his parents to let them know
that he was leaving school. He didn't know
what he was going to do. He might return
eventually, he said, but he just couldn't han
dle it at the time. He needed to take some
time off. He needed help.
He turned to his family. But they only
turned away.
"Well, don't bother coming home," his par
ents said. "If you need some time off, and
you're so sure that you need to leave school.
i yr
ne
you figure out what you're going to do."
Travis didn't know what to do or where to
turn. He only knew that he needed to leave,
to get away. So, he packed a bag and started
walking, never to see that school again.
There was a friend who lived a few hours
away who had a nice apartment where
Travis could stay for awhile. Without a car,
it would be a long trip, but the walk would
do him some good, Travis thought. It was
snowing outside, and the cold air felt good.
It seemed to give new hope as he thought
about what to do with his life.
Two days later, Travis finally reached his
friend's home. He was looking forward to
seeing him. It would be nice to talk with a
friend who could listen without spouting off
lectures about responsibility and disappoint
ment and failure. Travis knocked on the
door. There was no answer.
In the times Travis had been there before,
his friend had shown him how to let himself
in. Inside, it was warm, a welcome feeling
after all that snow. Travis looked around for
a while and finally sat down with a bottle of
scotch he found in the kitchen. He drank as
he waited for his friend to come home. He
thought back on all that had happened. How
his life had changed so drastically in the last
few days. Everything had been so right at
one time. How could it all go so wrong so
quickly, he wondered.
He bad failed at school. His friends had
turned on him. His parents were disappointed
in him and had turned him away. And now,
the one friend he could turn to was nowhere to
be found.
The scotch felt good as it ran down his
throat. The world, which had spun so wildly
out of control, was finally slowing down.
Travis got up and staggered to a place in
the house he had avoided earlier. It was where
his friend kept a gun hidden away for protec
tion. He hoped it wasn't there. But it was.
Travis picked up the gun, held it to his
head and shot himself.
Travis doesn't know how he survived.
Most people don't get a second chance. All
he remembers is waking up, his body soak
ing in a pool of blood. He made his way to
the phone and finally did what he could
have done all along. He called an emergency
service for help.
Too many students, looking for a solution
to their problems, never find the help they
need. Each year, thousands of students face
seemingly insurmountable problems in
school that are allowed to swell far beyond
their proper perspective. Many of these stu
dents decide that the only solution to their
lives is to end them. These students are
wrong. There is hope. There is help.
The Department of Student Services at
Texas A&M provides professional counselors
who have faced these problems before. They
know that the challenges are real, and they
know how to help students deal with them. If
you have a question — about anything — that
no one else seems able to answer, talk to them.
We have all faced a point in our lives
where there seems no hope. Some feel aban
doned, forced to face their darkest hour
alone. But there are people who can help
them see that the sun also rises.
Robert Vasquez is a senior journalism major
and nobody woke
y OU up. i
Your class ended
two hours ago
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,
cartoons and letters express
the opinions of the authors.
The Battalion encourages
letters to the editor and will
print as many as space
allows. Letters must be 300
words or less and include the
author's name, class, and
phone number.
We reserve the right to edit
letters and guest columns for
length, style, and accuracy.
Contact the opinion editor
for information on submitting
guest columns.
; Address letters to: .
The Battalion - Mail Call
013 Reed McDonald
Mail stop lilt
Texas A&M University
College Station, TX 77S43
O ne of the
most lucra
tive busi
ness operations in
the 90s is organizer
manufacturing.
The idea that orga
nization and to
getherness can be
bought caters
blindly to the great
American dream of
being able to fit 27
hours of work into
24 hour day.
Check out the
office supply aisle
in the local office
supply speciality store. Variety and as
sortment ceases to be an explanatory
phrase. There are pocket-sized to brief
case-sized binders filled with thousands
of specialized pieces of paper, on which
an hourly account of day to day activi
ties can be recorded. Business meetings,
upcoming assignments, quality family
time and even sleep can be conveniently
plotted out into their proper time slots.
With the aid of tabs, stickers and time
JENNY
MAGEE
Columnist
slot spaces galore, an organizer offers an
easy way to synthesize, categorize and
formulize life. It is a mandatory accesso
ry for any successful member of corporate
America. But trying to buy organization
is like trying to buy a sense of humor — it
is just not possible.
The important question to ask is not
whether it is good or bad to own an orga
nizer, but why Americans feel the need to
account for every hour of their day.
There is no questioning the fact that
college life demands organization. Even
the most carefree and absent-minded stu
dents' lives are molded to some degree at
the beginning of each semester when the
dreaded syllabus falls into their hands —
a dated and numbered map of doom.
Unfortunately, there is no way to
avoid the necessity of a certain degree of
organizational skills in everyday life.
Without it, many of us would never make
it past number one on the day's agenda
— lift head from pillow. However, there
is a grave danger in falling mindlessly
into this "together career person" image.
In essence, college is supposed to pre
pare students for the work force. But I
wonder if the work force ever questions
what it is asking for. The last thing
America needs is a bunch of stressed-out,
young employees trying to accomplish 10
years of work the first week on the job.
The business world has enough em
ployees who are skilled at eating a bagel,
talking on the phone, watching the news
on TV and typing a memo all at the same
time.
What American companies need are a
few employees who have the ability to
Our standards of what con
stitutes success have be
come so high that function
ing at a normal level of ac
complishment has become
shamefully passe.
place their entire concentration on one
thing at a time. Seriously, it is a very rare
and highly marketable skill.
The problem stems from the fact that
Americans are obsessed with accom
plishing what was once thought to be
impossible. Look back at this country's
history. A bunch of poor rag-tag rebels
miraculously defeated a much more or
ganized and proficient English army.
Thus, generation after generation has
perpetuated this inherit need to do more
better and faster.
Then look at the figures that our cul
ture idolizes: Superman, who can leap
buildings in a single bound, Michael Jor
dan, who basically defies gravity and An
drew Carnegie, the classic rags to riches
entrepreneur.
As a culture our standards of what
constitutes success have become so high
that being normal or functioning at a nor
mal level of accomplishment has become
shamefully passe.
So here we are surrounded by ap
proaching project deadlines and impend
ing mid-terms. It is obvious that a "take
time to smell the flowers" outlook will
not make day to day pressures melt
away. That is not the point.
The point is that as a society, we need
to become secure enough with ourselves
again so that we can relax every once in
a while. We need to slow down long
enough to take in what is happening
around us today. Americans are so busy
planning the future that the present
ceases to be a reality.
Economic activity today is based on
predictions that were made months ago.
Many people have already spent next
month's paycheck, and political figures
begin to plan their re-election campaign's
the second day in office.
Other nations around the world do not
advocate self-imposed stress the way
America does. In Japan there are public
bath houses were business people go and
enjoy an after-work massage.
In Italy it is a commonplace occurrence
for a store owner to close the shop early
to spend a leisurely late lunch with a rela
tive. These and many other countries rec
ognize an extremely simplistic fact about
people — that they need the time and
freedom to have lives outside of work.
In today's society, one of the most vital
skills a college education should give stu
dents is the knowledge to balance work
and persdnal life. Otherwise, colleges
will be providing the American work
force with robots, not employees.
Jenny Magee is a sophomore journalism major
, %.
%
2ND
ACT
MAIL CALL
College grants make
investment in future
I am writing in response to Charles
Heard's guest column of Oct. 7. In this
column, Charles says to help reduce to
deficit by not taking money from the
government unless you have earned it.
While I agree with this philosophy, I dis
agree with his attack of college grant
money as an example.
First, he insinuates that a grant is like
a loan from a bad lender. I would like to
point out that a grant is not a loan; it is
money given to people in need who meet
certaiYi criteria and is for the purpose of
aiding them in achieving certain goals.
Second, federal college grants are an
investment in America's future. The
government awards these grants to
needy students who use the money for
an education they might not otherwise
be able to afford. These students go on
to become productive citizens and, in
essence, repay these grants by their con
tributions to society.
They become the researchers who
work to cure disease; they become the
doctors who treat us when we are ill; they
become the teachers of tomorrow; they
become the business men and women
who keep our economy afloat, etc.
Cutting educational grants to lower
the deficit could have negative repercus
sions in the future. By not giving people
the opportunity to attend college, they
are kept in lower income dead-end jobs,
or they may end up on welfare. Besides,
grant money is not the major expense
contributing to the deficit. There are
many wasteful programs that could be
cut or reduced that would save far more
money than cutting college grants.
Martin Gross' book "The Government
Racket" shows many wastes and abuses
in the government that, if eliminated,
would save a tremendous amount of
money that could be used to fund need
ed and useful programs as well as help
pay off the deficit, and possibly lead to a
reduction in our taxes.
However, this will never happen un
less you, the people, get involved.
Write your congressman and vote out
the pork-barrel politicians. Give the
president the line-item veto. It starts
with you.
David R. Webb
Class of '93
Smash and run driver
please come forward
On Sunday, Oct. 10, at approximate
ly 4:00 in the afternoon, an accident oc
curred in the Davis-Gary parking lot. A
1990 white Chevrolet Cavalier was
rammed on the driver's side by a
"white Grand Am" — so it was wit
nessed by an admirable Aggie.
If the individual who was driving that
so called "white Grand Am" is noble
enough to come forward and take re
sponsibility for the actions which were
administered that afternoon, please con
tact Margie Aguilar at 847-2066 or the
University Police Department at 845-2345.
Margie Aguilar
Class of '95