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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 19, 1993)
Opinion •shiprosej; Tuesday, October 19,1993 a.m. andi; >udsonit$ t mission in ely on mes; 1 more test V condusit ts of space fe weakened fe 'stems. The Battalion Page 9 The Battalion Editorial Board W W CHRIS WHITLEY, editor in chief | JULI PHILLIPS, managing editor MARK EVANS, city editor 1 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 fest Tex iated Press O - San As School md his camp; y, ripped up :ed by overr. mmeled pan Texas. )it covers a: ling from area were 'inds. ThepJ a across the a f sections# EDITORIAL 1 ruining a ni dley said. [ tSedpi Maroon tape oofs - occ.» JL nd early , i , verestomfotudents are names, not numbers No injuries# wasanotheiui Bureaucracy rules. At least ■msatara.!;«h at seems to be the case at ripped looiBp exas University al- JPaynefcfcwecj two students to s i ip Id was desto®, , ,, , £ ,, r jst part ofitsfl hrou § h the cracks of the s y s " ■tem by error, and it seems as its at Lakei Ihough the school made no ef- cted by theiBort to help them. ies were retool Wade Graham changed his is weekandflnajor last semester from nu- rooms fore clear engineering to business, day. He said the College of Busi- fortunate k ness assured him that they aage thaUi ! wou j d process his class a l n \}''j.lhanges. They didn't, and he sS e Li eceived a11 failin 8 grades for - and estima® he engineering classes he 1 thousand# tho ug h t he had dropped. The irony is that Graham, a that mustbij Corps member, was named the pit cover guidon bearer‘for hvs"Outstand- g, which Hu; j n g achievement hi^-first year, irated, and; Another student, Chris ent that had» a ] <u t )Cza k^ was forced to leave Idmgs. because of poor semester e grades he received after being ^Some of it hospitalized for two weeks uring his freshman year. When he went to the Col- ege of Business to erase his ades, advisers told him there asn't enough evidence that he had been hospitalized, de- Some ever find, ck athletic«; 1, a football pment." •m hit near an Monday s departmen: S pj(- e doctor's notes and ere werenou tujpng statements he pro- ,orts - Jduced tral Texas, wr UULt;u ' mph hit elec s Sunday nij nts in West, dthout power t mostly limb- said a dispatl ice Departmer ;o fell in No one ever told Jakubczak that he could have withdrawn from classes for medical rea sons. Jakubczak said Les Fiechtner, the director of un dergraduate programs for the College of Business, told him that it would take too much time and effort to wipe out his file for that semester. Fiechtner denied making that statement. What can be done in the fu ture to prevent more students from being swallowed by the system? Graham and Jakubczak probably should have double-checked adminis trative work or gotten help at the first sign of trouble. But is it really fair to expect them to have taken action when they didn't know what options were available? The University needs to set up a program during freshman and transfer orientations to in form all incoming students of University policy regarding changing majors, adding and dropping classes and with drawing from the University. Texas A&M also needs to do what it promises students when they get here, which is to treat students like individuals and not like numbers. Grandchildren: The parents' revenge People have kids, but their folks get the most satisfaction ROBERT VASQUEZ Columnist C ollege students are usually such rational people. They have their priori ties and objectives in all the right places. Then they graduate; and suddenly they're overcome by this in tense nesting urge. What is it that moves people to give it all up for a bunch of rug rats? One bumper sticker captured the delicate relationship enjoyed by parents and chil dren the world over. It said, "Insanity is ge netic. I inherited it from my children." Over the weekend my father and I drove to Kansas where my sister and her husband have been working steadily to populate the earth with as many male offspring as they can possibly produce. In the last two years, my sister has had two sons and — as my par ents have noted — no daughters. My brother and his wife produced their first son a few weeks ago. This brings the total count to: Grandsons: 3 Granddaughters: 0 In near desperation my mother turned to me and asked, "Robert, when are you going to have children? Maybe you can give us a . granddaughter." I just spent the last 48 hours with three screaming, hungry, wet, tired, cranky babies who spend half their time filling their bodies with food and the other half, emptying them. Their only means of communication is crying at a decibel level reached only by 747s, DC- 10s and hungry babies. And my mother asks when I'm going to have children. Can you say "vasectomy"? I remember the days when my mother's only advice to her children was a simple, but solemn, "Don't get married," She tried so hard to save us from the painful consequences she was forced to en dure — namely, kids — by helping us avoid making the same mistakes she made. The simplest way to avoid the pitfalls, she fig ured, was relayed in those three simple words: Don't get married. Then adolescence set in and, hormones coursing through our bodies and rational thought hovering just beyond our reach, we subjected her to the horrors of parenthood and instilled in her a deep desire to return the favor. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Now, my mother is encouraging us to have kids. And, as she watches her children strug gle with children of their own, she now whis pers three new words: "Revenge is sweet." So my sister was planning to spend a little time with the family and visit old friends. Whereas once she could have hopped onto a plane and been home in no time, she now has two strollers, two car seats, a playpen, six diaper bags, nine bottles and a million dia pers to pack. Oh, yeah, and the kids. So my dad and I had the pleasure of dri ving the moving van all 370 million miles to the middle of BFE just to turn around and come back. The road trip was long enough, but now we had two kids whose only mis sion in life was to make mine miserable. My oldest nephew, Christopher, is at that special age that all children reach when they are old enough to walk, in their cute little way, across the house and stick their cute lit tle fingers in the cute little electric socket. Or they toddle to the edge of the staircase and take that first little step down a winding flight of stairs which ends rather abruptly on the tile landing at the bottom. Meanwhile, adults are scrambling to catch falling vases which were placed so thoughtlessly atop del icate shelves which nobody would have guessed could be toppled so easily by short, little twenty-pound monsters. Whereas, Christopher once demanded to be held and would screech when released. Now, he flails endlessly, fighting to be put down so he can run to the nearest open flame or heavy-traffic intersection. Exhausted after the thirty hour drive, we finally reached home, ready to sleep for a week or so. My sister carefully pulled Christopher out of his car seat and handed him to me, careful not to wake him. "Hold him close to you, or he'll wake up," she said. As I walked gently to the house, 1 watched his face for any sign that I might be disturbing his sleep. His little round face was so calm and peaceful. It was hard to imagine the little devil who ran around screaming all day was now resting quietly in my arms. And then he moved. He shifted around a bit. Then he smiled. His eyes never opened. He just smiled. And for a moment, I thought... No, I didn't think anything. Robert Vasquez is a senior journalism major 74 gl A / , -a.» GriTlife; 1 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, faculty 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. • • • Add ress letters to: The Battalion - Malt Call 013 Reed McDonald Mail slop 1111 : :3f&xas A&M University Station, TX 77B43 74m) 645-2647 besity no laughing matter to those with weight problems eight is a central is sue in . ome young men counties in n c and women's lives. I in several ci# s ome weight roblems are ge- etic. However, thers seem to be a earned behavior, w g^n a sense it can be in and Carls ^ consequence of was report j ow self-esteem, gelo and GfJ y 0 those of us s-Fort Worth were reports 1 as, the Natil said golfballi who have never h, Page 1 -ol. Jean-Rol ad a problem with obesity, large people are funny. [They ar TRACEY JONES Columnist ey are more or less a joke to us. It seems hilarious that some people cannot [ose weight because we imagine this huge erson laying lazily on the couch with a Haitians to rc^ bowl of chips on one side, a cake on the ( on Radio Mpther, a hoagie in the left hand and some litians not t: cookies in the right, d said ther I've joked about it. My friends have control. joked about it. I've even heard Mama say rmy headqirf is not availab le U.S. Embasj the Aristide-' : of having nment witl ting with fort ■mer Sen. Rey' : gratulated G- ing and tharf ert Dole, R-V D-Ga. ( foropjl nerican invc >ehind pierl is last week 1 - ;hip from dod T mission sotj itler side flowers to fort ws confereno ight sociolof ialvo-Despei! lessage for 1C send boys, 7 bags." something to the effect that "so and so needs to pull away from the table. I would have to hurt ya'll if you got that big." Just this weekend at Baylor, a friend of mine made oinking noises at an obese girl who passed by as we sat on the suspen sion bridge. There is a young man who I meet fre quently now who has the most God-aw ful shape. I laugh and joke about him all the time, along with many others, because it is humorous to us. But below the surface, it is not a laugh ing matter. I imagine it is not funny to be encumbered with 35, 55, 75 or 100 extra pounds. I imagine the high blood pres sure, the aching feet, the heart complica tions that may result from obesity. And it is not a problem of just "pulling away from the table." It is not a matter of willpower. It is a matter of learning to feel good about yourself. If the reason for the low self-esteem is due to verbal and/or emotional abuse, it is a matter of relearn ing what you have previously been taught about yourself and your worth as a person. We don't always eat because we're hungry. People often use the relationship be tween themselves and food to compen sate for feelings of emptiness, worthless ness or guilt. Even fear. Not everyone can be a size five. It just isn't possible. However, it is possible for you to be the size that is appropriate for your bone structure and genetic make-up. A lot of times, we eat out of habit — because we're bored, because we're de pressed. Maybe we're studying and want some popcorn, or maybe we didn't do so well on our first round of tests and need something to make us feel better. It's important that the people who are experiencing this problem know that there are alternatives to eating. There are activities such as speed walking, jog ging, reading or talking to someone about the problem that can relieve stress and anxiety. I can't stress this enough: Your weight is not what is most important. It is the way you feel about yourself. I've known large boned people who would be considered fat, but they always looked nice. They kept their appearance neat and clean. Not everydne can be a size five. It just isn't possible, even though magazines present this image. However, it is possi ble for you to be the size that is appropri ate for your bone structure and genetic make-up. Most importantly, stand up for your self. If someone is saying things to make you feel inferior or worthless, leave the sit uation. Say, "Excuse me," and walk away. It is not rude on your part to do this. You are not obligated in any way to laugh at a comment that hurts your feelings. You are not obligated to stand and take it. If you are experiencing health prob lems because of your weight, consult a doctor about what can be done to allevi ate these complications. His advice is something that is meant to help you. So, in essence, you are doing something good for yourself by losing weight. But the key is to do it for yourself — not anyone else. I guess I should say something to those of use who have been guilty of poking tun at obese people. They are people with feelings. And while we are not responsi ble for how they may look to us, we are responsible for the way we treat them. That's not to say that you have to make friends with every obese person you see or that you have to like him or her. Just be polite and move on if that's the case. * I can safely say that if the situation were reversed, I wouldn't be happy. I wouldn't think it was so funny. All who can say the same thing, let's try harder to consider the feelings of oth ers who might be hurt by our words and snickers. Tracey Jones is a senior psychology major • : x. _ _ MAIL GALL Courtesy impresses visitors to Aggieland On the weekend of Oct. 9, my husband (Charles E. Wyatt, Class of '43) our daugh ter, her husband and our almost 16-year- old grandson, Jeff, came to A&M for the A&M-Houston game. We came also to show Jeff A&M. He hopes to attend A&M. I am writing this letter, as I was so im pressed with all the courtesy we received from the students we encountered. "Yes ma'am, no ma'am." "May I help you?" "Excuse me, please." Both my husband and myself are on canes. The young people helped us every way they could. We cannot express our ■ appreciation enough. What a joy to see such young people in today's world- Thanks, Aggies. Mrs. (Charles) Joyce Wyatt Bandera, Texas There's a face behind the parts you stole To the person who stole my bike parts: I am writing to attach a bit of humani ty to the non-entity from whom you stole. My name is Eric Madsen, and I'm a 24- year-old graduate student in mechanical engineering. I PAID for my bike, as well as the handlebar extensions, the bike pack and the repair tools with my meager as- sistantship salary. That means Mom and Dad won't be replacing what you took. So, if your conscience is starting to twinge, call me at 268-0234 or write me via e-mail at epm5369. All I want is my stuff back, and you can go your anony mously merry way. Eric P. Madsen Graduate student Please give credit to events' organizers This letter is in response to the arti cle, "Officials at forum question bene fits of NAFTA," written by James Bernsen. I am the Secretary and one of the many members of Texas Environ mental Action Coalition (TEAC) that worked hard to help bring this event about. In the past two weeks, we made flyers, a banner and manned two tables in the MSC. Everyone in our organiza tion participated in this event. It is inconsiderate and unprofessional to cover an event and not mention who was responsible for making it happen. The article made no mention of our advi sor, Dr. Gary Varner, who put this whole event together, or the three organiza tions, the Brazos Sierra Club, the Rio Bra zos Audubon Society and TEAC, who sponsored this event. In the future, please, be considerate enough to mention the people behind the events as well as in them. James Rohrer, TEAC Secretary Vanessa Traylor, TEAC President