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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 18, 1993)
ctober 18,11 ;■ ?eat 3,6-4 ated Press Opinion Monday, October 18,1993 - The p lia Phillies k ike DaveSte itches, to mi ; and to hit | corked tops! t. i hit a three-i ly Dykstrak ling the Phil Blue Jaysfe! 1 Series at rry Mulhol a. story. 1 ae Aggies to I registered a -15,15-13 win! she thought the Huskies' treak, was on t of the season! vas probably son that theti o the occasio; After those! of hard woi was it worti ly yes. coaches toll The Battalion Page 9 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 ;es for 74 yaii ate to the teal :o have theh urday. ■ road," EDITORIAL Stopping sellers Proposal limits campus vendors Texas A&M students need Ito voice their support for a ■ proposal which would place > at the (receiii| res t r i c tions on campus ven dors. The plan improves the . . .—solicitation system by eliminat- nson tripped; |. ■>, J / t a criticalfoI m § Problems and increasing m and proceeI convenience for students, ral marginofl The Concessions Commit- ■ tee, operating under the De- k Iceland '-i partment of Student Services, se,brokethroJ created the proposal in re- uchdown runflsponse to students' complaints about vendors. Many students find them selves confronted by obnox ious salespeople who yell sales pitches, throw newspapers and almost grab them. A&M ntforthedi &<hninistrators blame this i Baylor fan i Waggressive approach on d section. ; the rapid increase in competi- his hands,:! tion on campus. 1 race and prc{ all the BayltJ of Casey f 1 a students >ok in his dira d point to ard with pridi time, no ng within I him. ving that as over, he too le and heade ortal. Before k ooked at theet' owd and g; parting shot, still ain't goM Cotton ~ student yellei ut at least well Traffic problems during the first two weeks of classes, es pecially in and near the MSC, add to students' difficulties. Problems also arise from the great number of tables being set up and their scattered loca tions around campus. The Concessions Committee proposal creates a "Back to School Student Services Fair" in Rudder Exhibit Hall. The fair would begin three days before classes and end five days later. Students would be able to attend or avoid the fair as they choose. All vendors would set up in the centralized location, allow ing students to find, compare and select all the services available. Those students who live on campus or are without cars would find the new sys tem especially convenient. Another advantage is the op tion for officials to invite addi tional groups to set up exhibits. Banks and local phone compa nies are among the possibilities. Student organizations will still be able to sponsor vendors on campus during the rest of the semester after the fair. The change will not hamper fund raising efforts. The proposal to restrict on- campus solicitation will give students the ability to avoid the sales campaigns that swamp the campus at the start of every semester. It will also prevent the massive conges tion in the MSC by moving vendors off the beaten path. Support for the measure will help make the whole system more efficient and convenient for students and vendors. Congress may confirm security threat Defense department nominee dealt with convicted spy F ELIOT WILLIAMS Columnist i our years ago, the Senate Armed Services Commit tee rejected Navy vet eran and four-term Texas Sen. John Tower, a Republican, for placement as Secretary of Defense due to ru- mors of Tower's drink ing problems and his relations with women. Today, the same committee, led by De mocratic Sen. Sam Nunn of Georgia, stands ready to con firm a man renowned for his continual defense of various traitors, spies and turncoats to a position arguably as vital, if not more so, to national security. As the Senate prepares to. confirm Dr. Morton Haleprin to the defense department as assistant secretary for democracy and peacekeeping, it is important to reflect upon a little history. As the Bush administration came to an end, the United States began a humanitarian mis sion in Somalia. We had a clear goal; to reestablish the supply of food to all citizens of that country. That mission accomplished, U.S. troops should have come home. They did not. The United Nations, led by Secretary Gen eral Boutros Boutros-Ghali, convinced the United States to remain in Somalia in an os tensibly peace-keeping role. Obviously, someone made an error in judgment. The United States is now stuck in a foreign country with no clear goals, led by a global body that was recently accused of gross mis- management and fraud by CBS' 60 Minutes. But you have heard all of this before. Perhaps what you haven't heard, though, is President Clinton's plan for America,’s military with regard to the United Nations. Clinton has set forth what he envisions to be U.S. foreign policy for the remainder of his administration in Presidential Decision Directive 13. PDD-13 demands that the Pentagon build a military structure for Boutros-Ghali, trans fer U.S. troops to U.N. command and give U.N. officials access to American intelligence. Now, with the problems in Somalia, Haiti and Bosnia, this seems to be a strategic for eign policy blunder. "I'm really not that interested in all of that foreign policy stuff,” Clinton seems to be saying,, "Why don't you go ahead and cover it for me, Boutros?" Clinton clearly overestimated the ability of the United Nations to manage troops ef fectively. The lesson that he should be learn ing from Somalia is that the United States is the United Nations. If Clinton expects the United Nations to pursue any vital objective in the world, then he must lead that effort. However, our president does not seem to be heeding that lesson. With these things in mind, it is clear that the person most directly related to the imple mentation of PDD-13 will have tremendous influence over our national security for the next few years. That person, assuming Senate confirmation, will be Dr. Morton Haleprin. Haleprin began his illustrious career in the Nixon White House as a member of the Na tional Security Council. When Henry Kissinger alleged Haleprin was leaking national security secrets to outside parties, Haleprin resigned his post to begin work at the ACLU, where he announced his goal to cripple the Cold War ac tivities of America's security agencies. When Philip Agee, ex-ClA agent and U.S. defector, exposed the names of hundreds of CIA agents — an act of treason that immedi ately resulted in the assassination of a CIA station chief in Greece — Haleprin jumped to Agee's defense. "Haleprin concentrated on the positive re sults brought by my revelations ... and on the traditional abuse or the 'national security' cloak by security services," Agee said. When David Truong was on trial for turn ing over U.S. secret documents to the Viet namese communists, Haleprin again scram bled at the chance to testify for him. Al though Truong later received a 15-year sen tence for espionage, he attended a party host ed by Haleprin during the trial to celebrate the release of a documentary that savaged the FBI and CIA. Haleprin went so far as to have a photograph made of himself standing with the communist agent. Haleprin's escapades don't end there. He also served as chief of staff for the defense of Daniel Ellsberg, the man who stole the Penta gon Papers in an attempt to destroy the U.S. war effort in Vietnam. LBJ called this act "close to treason" while N ATO Commander Gen. Lyman Lemnitzer called it "a traitorous act" It is clear Haleprin has advanced an agen da that is un-American in nature. It is one thing to voice one's beliefs in the immorality of war and to object to certain U.S, policies. It is another thing to actively support the trai tors and saboteurs who are on the other side. Haleprin has no place in our government, and he definitely has no place in the com mand structure of our military. Eliot Williams is a sophomore electrical engineering major G BN ERA V- HEREf,,. HOW \NE£E1 YOU GUVS A&LE "To PULL A GCToNT L i TH AT ^ * ^ Ms/ 6 L L You Ica/ova/ ... 1 O on/ THINK HAVTi HAS A6 C?! l AS KcjvueHt ^ * ■••'A i i\ —■ w H * rU&’rt'ViSisK 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, facufty 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 Setters 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 1111 Texas A&M University College Station, TX 77843 s from the views, iew free! Quest for cure makes life hard for those suffering from flu T i ; hey're back. Those pesti lent members of society that in vade our lives without warning and make us slaves to the Kleenex company have re turned. On your mark, get set, go. Flu sea son has come to town. It all began so in nocently. It was a normal day, and I had normal inten- tions — go to class. All right, go to class and stay awake. As it turned out staying awake was no problem. Quality snooze time does not come easily when the guy next to me is playing boomerang with his lung cavity. Red-nosed and armed with a Kleenex, this guy was coughing so hard that I was certain that his innards would begin to shoot out of his mouth in rapid JENNY MAGEE Columnist succession. I looked closer. The signs were all there: blurry eyes, reddened skin around the nose and a mountain of cough drop wrappers at his side. He was a victim, pure and simple. But there he was, loyal to the classes' three absences only policy, copying bits and pieces of the lecture in between sneezes. And like a thoughtful and con siderate student, my fellow classmate brought enough of the flu virus to share with the whole class. At this point, it appeared that a good majority of the class had already received their party favor from this guy or some other subservient flu-victim walking the streets and spreading the disease. I was surrounded. These little micro scopic viruses that looked like Papa Smurfs were flying at me from all direc tions. With sadistic grins and T-shirts that read "It's an influenza thing — we want you to understand," they were slowly invading my health space. They were everywhere . I couldn't run. I couldn't hide. Then all of a sudden, a large sneeze erupted from the guy next to me. Ah! Ah! "Cover your mouth!" I screamed at him. But it was too late. The influenza family had moved into my body. Mama and Papa flu took per manent residence in my stomach, and I was certain the children had set up a pingpong table in my head. Not to men- By the time I made it to the cough drop section, I felt like chucking the en tire display of cherry-fla vored, assorted berry and citrus medley at Mr. Vicks himself. tion the cousins, who decided to rollerblade across the back of my throat. I am all for helping the homeless, but be coming a host for a virus family was not exactly what I had in mind. I walked out of class just as a house warming party in my body was getting into full swing. Medicine. I needed medi cine. I'd take a few pills and rid my body of the new inhabitants. No problem. So, there I was in the local grocery store in the medicine aisle, surrounded on both sides by a collage of assorted miracle cures. The miracle cure was only avail able to me, however, if I could figure out which of the medicines fit my exact symptoms. Did I have the runny-nose, stuffy head and sore throat combination? Or was I suffering from itchy eyes, a hacking cough, and fever? I even had an option of nighttime or daytime varieties. But from what I could deduce, the in fluenza family did not seem to be worried about adhering to a nine-to-five workday, so I had no idea if I should concentrate on daytime symptoms or nighttime symp toms. Frankly, at this point I just wanted medicine that would give me relief no matter what time of day it was. After 30 minutes of comparative shop ping, I resorted to eenie-meenie-minie-mo. By the time I made it to the cough drop section, I felt like chucking the entire dis play of cherry-flavored, assorted berry and citrus medley at Mr. Vicks himself. I was sick; I didn't want to make decisions. I went to the cashier and unhappily sur rendered $19.46 to the lady for my box of medicine, cough drops and three cans of soup. Walking home, I began to think that perhaps I should seek medical assistance. But I figured that sitting in the Health Cen ter for about four hours would only give my influenza family the prime opportuni ty to meet up with all sorts of relatives. I decided to nurse myself back to health. Really, what were a couple of thousand minute viruses compared to a big, semi-strong me? I think I managed to hold-out for about five minutes of coughing and sneezing be fore I gave up. I had tried inner strength. I had tried medicine. I had even tried the microwaved version of vegetable soup. There was only one thing left to do. I picked up the phone and dialed .... "Mom, I'm sick ..." Jenny Magee is a sophomore English and journalism major .. v MAXI* CALL Let's blame it all on Beavis and Butt-head Beavis and Butt-head named as re sponsible parties in three more fires ...? New FBI investigations are considering a link between the crude pair and the Kennedy assassination. That's right, if you look closely, the Zappruder film re veals a glimpse of what appears to be Beavis' head just above the horizon on the grassy knoll. A former employee of the book de pository has also identified Butt-head as being on the fifth floor of the build ing at the time of the shooting. Are these mere coincidences? The unsubstantiated "magic bullet" theory has new explanations for its va lidity. Oliver Stone, try that out for your sequel. Hold on, there's more. The American public has been misled by political leaders. Mistakenly, the Republicans were blamed for the 4.3 trillion dollar national debt. Unconfirmed rumors have placed both Beavis and Butt-head in the White House at exactly the time everything hit the fan. We apologize to all corrupt politicians. Proper punish ment will come to these characters. Why not pin all our problems on a couple of cartoon characters? It's "politi cally correct," right? No, wait just one minute. Why don't we accept responsibility? Rather than locking up Beavis and Butt-head and throwing the key away, let's face the re sponsibility. Parents should maintain re sponsibility for their children; young adults should take responsibility for their actions, and we all should take responsi bility for current condition in the U.S. Or we can remain on our comfortable couch and flip the channel until we have a new scapegoat: Bart Simpson. Russ Huntington Class of '95 A&M needs to add courses in fine arts As correctly reported in The Battalion (12 Oct., "Gage encourages administra tion, faculty to work together for fu ture"), I stated that I believe Texas A&M University is "painfully shy" of offering acceptable courses in the arts. The 1993 "Reported Gains by TAMU Graduating Seniors" clearly underscores this fact. Those Aggies perceived that they were deficient in "cultural aware ness," "knowledge about the world," "enjoying literature," and especially lacking in "understanding art, music and drama" as compared to students of other doctoral institutions. If our university is going to be consid ered a comprehensive (not "supplemen tal," as incorrectly reported) institution it must include curricula in the fine arts. We face a changing world that will re quire fundamental changes in how we do business here. Joseph M. Hutchinson Professor of architecture