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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 29, 1993)
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We :k and do ;t year)." ege foot- n, which teams in, • Cotton and Rose clear up i. ition has said, ne sanity k its bet- ve bowls ools and g witb n: 4 Opinion Monday, November 29,1993 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 VlUYcad’t atld Whites {JNdeRstatfd, aKld UW6 W/TW, TUeiR. cad't e>L.a<=jcs add Whites set aside, a^d ietioRje, TVleiR. biffeRetfc.es ? EDITORIAL Congratulations Football team deserves praise Congratulations. No other word in the English language can express the desired sentiment that should be extend ed to the 1993 Texas A&M foot ball team. Its accomplishments this season, considering the po tential roadblocks, are ones that will live for the ages. Twenty-two straight Southwest Conference victories. A third straight SWC title without a loss. To wit, both milestones came against the beloved neighbors to the southwest which makes it that more special. Every time the Ag gies stepped on the field, they were / marked. By the opposition. By By aTm mu 11 •y-'-'PW* ^ ' C the media, the fans. If A&M did not beat every opponent by 30 points, then how could they be a good team? Their schedule was weak. Noted college football guru Lee Corso said their confer ence was weakest in America. When they got beat by 30 points by Oklahoma, all the ex perts said that the loss was proof positive the team was not as good as it was cracked up to be. Na tional championship aspirations were buried as was a second con secutive undefeated regular sea son. And lurking off the field was the NCAA. Now, all the off-the-field hy perbole has been buried like toxic waste. A&M proved the presea son prognosticators actually were right. The Aggies were pegged to win the conference and extend their unbeaten streak. Mission ac complished. A round of applause should be directed toward A&M head coach R.C. Slocum. He had excuses ga lore after the Sooner sinking but he did not make any excuses. Slocum bluntly stated that Okla homa was a better football team that Saturday and deserved to win even though A&M had a major distrac- ' ^ tion. The NCAA de cided to hand down the player Speaking out against the darkness Facing memories of sexual abuse part of healing process TRACEY JONES Columnist T here's a poem by Maya Angelou very dear to my heart called "Bom That Way": ... Childhood whoring fitted her for deceit. Dad- dy had been a fondler. Soft Upped mou things, soft lapped rubbings. A smile forpretty shoes, a kiss could earn a dress. And a private tele phone was worth the biggest old caress. The neighbors and family friends whispered when she was seen walking up and down the streets when she was seventeen. No one asked her reasons. She con hind even say. She just took for granted she was born that way. Maya Angelou was sexually molested as a young child. As were many other people. As was myself. And I don't know anybody who was bom that way. Sexual abuse is a horrendous act that hap pens to many children and adolescents, not through any fault of theirs or any punitive act of God, but because of a sickness in an other person. It has taken me 11 years to be able to say that and truly believe it. It has taken others 20,30 and 40 years. Ironically, ! was helped most of all by a lit tle boy I was supposed to be guiding. A friend and I worked with juveniles for a time in Giddings. Volunteers are shown files of children who want volunteer brothers and sis ters and choose the ones they wish to be with. Always, for some unknown reason, I had been drawn to children who have been sexu ally abused. It was what 1 read about, what I wrote about, what I watched on television — especially the movie "Something About Amelia," which! still have on tape. I was al ways looking for them to tell me something. And this was no different. I chose a little boy who had been incarcerated for sexually as saulting a four-year old boy. Everything was fine between us until he began displaying behavior characteristic of a person who has been molested. At first I saw the boy I was counseling as a victim that needed to be saved. However, it got to the point that I felt like I wanted to hurt this child because I no longer identified him as the little boy who had been malicious ly molested by a 16-year-old he was ac quainted with. Rather, I saw him as the care less aggressor against a helpless child. I remembered how I used to be that child. And finally, I began to speak about it. 1 wanted to write this for people who have not been sexually molested as well as for those who have. It is, as a colleague of mine wrote, a kind of "coming out" for everyone. The victim of sexual molestation does not need to be pampered or sheltered or "taken care of." What happened to the person was terrible and debilitating, but it is not all there is to that person. There are many other inher ent traits this person possesses which seem to be forgotten when something as devastating as this happens. He is not a walking doll with black tape strapped across his genital area. He is still a person, with feelings, thoughts, and emotions. In fact, survivors of any kind of abuse are some of the strongest people, perfectly capa ble of doing for themselves and helping themselves to heal. And for the victims, healing comes from acknowledging the abuse and getting coun seling. It can be psychological, pastoral, psy chiatric — whatever you feel most comfort able with. What is most important is that you speak with someone who is professionally Truly, they are painful. It was almost un bearable to think back to that time and see myself as that helpless child. The abuse start ed when I was around six and continued up until I was about 11. A little elementary school friend was molested by the same young girl who molested me. 1 believe that the person who abused us had in turn been molested by some of the men in her household. T still sometimes think of how withdrawn I am from men and how I cannot relate to the majority of them. I still think of my friend who went the other way and gave her body away to any man who showed the slightest interest in her. And 1 still cry sometimes for what happened to the both of us. However, I know it is all a part of the healing process. While I do not ever wish to see the girl who fondled us again throughout our life times, I do not harbor anger and resentment for her. I know she was hurt, too. That, too is a part of my healing process. I am learning to live with the violation that occurred to my body. It was a horrendous act that happened; but I handled it. I survived. And it came to me: I must be a very worthy person. Not weak or invisible or unheard as I believed — rather very worthy and strong. But I had to break the silence in order for someone to hear my voice. And that is the most important one of all. Tracey Jones is a senior psychology major suspensions in the summer job scandal as the team was preparing • to board the plane for Norman. All season long the NCAA cloud hung over the team and to his credit, Slocum directed the atten tion elsewhere and away from the team. But there is one stone left un turned. The Cotton Bowl. While the Aggies have passed this sea son with flying colors, they would have to receive an incomplete without accomplishing something in Dallas on New Year's Day. So, best of luck in the Cotton Bowl, and remember one thing. Congratulations. What the Dead Sea scrolls really say. j 4ti<l IqI*' f** Q n1mt 5^37/ & - jeiien, 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. Address letters to; The Battalion * Mail Call 013 Reed McDonald Mail stop 1111 Texas A&M University College Station, TX 77843 Fax: (409) 845-2647 New welfare reform rejects 'big government' philosophy C fertainly everyone re- ' members Bill Clinton's campaign promises: reduce the tax burden on the middle class, guarantee homo sexuals the right to serve openly in the military and re structure our wel fare policy to get the poor back to work. Today, the tax burden has been raised, homosexu als are still forced to hide their sexuality and we have heard nothing about welfare reform — until recently. For those of you who don't have a photographic memory, Clinton's cam paign promise was, "It's time to honor and reward people who work hard and play by the rules .... (T)hat means provid ing opportunity, demanding responsibili ty and ending welfare as we know it." Certainly an ambitious goal, but to ELIOT WILLIAMS Columnist date Clinton has not taken decisive action against the failures of the welfare state. The current welfare program is in shambles. Established as part of the New Deal and crystallized during Johnson's Great Society, welfare was supposed to be a safety net. Today, welfare is not a short term program to help people down on their luck, but a way of life. According to U.S. News and World Report, few ex perts deny that welfare dependence is passed on from generation to generation. Additionally, the evidence has been building for some time that the welfare state is destructive to the very people it was meant to help. In 1984, Charles Mur ray showed in his book Losing Ground that the Great Society programs of the 1960's had not only failed to help Ameri ca's poor and disadvantaged, but they had made the poor poorer and more numerous. The welfare state encouraged the poor to behave in the short term in ways that were destructive in the long term. "The welfare state is inconsistent with human nature as we know it," said Mor gan Reynolds, an economics professor at Texas A&M. "Economic theory suggests that individuals respond to incentives, at the margin. Subsidizing poverty, there fore, does not reduce it." Although it was clear in 1984 that the welfare state was a tremendous failure, it was not curtailed by the Reagan or Bush administrations. Perhaps the their inac tion is best explained by the Spring 1989 edition of the Loyola Law Review: "Once implemented by 'big govern ment,' a social service can be difficult to Thompson has instituted welfare reforms that have decreased Wisconsin's wel fare rolls by 17 percent in the last six years, the biggest reduction in the country. curtail even if it is not serving the best in terests of those it was intended to benefit." The situation is not as desperate as it may sound, however. As Reynolds said in 1986, "Nothing is inevitable in public policy, including the future of the welfare state; it all depends on what ideas come to dominate political opinion." It appears Reynolds' prediction is beginning to come true. In a surprising move, the Clinton Ad ministration has granted Wisconsin a waiver from federal welfare regulations to conduct "Work Not Welfare," a program that requires every able-bodied welfare recipient in two selected counties to sign a contract pledging to work for their bene fits. The experimental policy begins in January of 1995 and is the brain child of Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson. During the first 30 days of the pro gram, every welfare applicant must begin work or work training. A year after that, every participant must have a job to con tinue benefits. "For too long the welfare system has provided disincentives to self-sufficien cy," Thompson said. "'Work Not Welfare' will help change that. It will make wel fare what it was meant to be — a tempo rary hand up, not a permanent handout." Thompson has already instituted other welfare reforms that have decreased Wis consin's welfare rolls by 17 percent in the last six, years, the biggest reduction in the country. One of the reforms encourages a teenage boy to marry the teenage girl he gets pregnant by allowing the couple to keep more of their earned income. Anoth er program, called "Leamfare," reduces state payments to families with children who are chronic truants. While Wisconsin's reforms will not significantly reduce our nation's welfare roles, they are a harbinger of things to come. These reforms show that the public is beginning to reject the philosophy of the Great Society and big government. Thompson deserves credit for holding Clinton to his word. He also deserves credit for advocating such massive change in a policy that has gotten out of hand. Hopefully Clinton will be true to his word and mandate the Wisconsin re forms on a national level. While they may not be politically popular today, the re forms would redeem him from his failure to implement the other campaign promis es while bringing thousands of unproduc tive welfare recipients back into the main stream of the American working class. Eliot Williams is a sophomore electrical engineering major University donations In response to the Nov. 16 Battalion ed itorial, I feel compelled to provide some clarification on the "Capturing the Spirit" Campaign and some examples of its posi tive impact. The campaign does not raise money for the Development Foundation, but rather the foundation, established in 1953, solicits, receives, invests and coordi nates private support for Texas A&M Uni versity and its academic programs. Private contributions support every academic discipline at the university. Though the university and foundation do suggest funding opportunities and priori ties to donors, it is, as it should be, the donor who decides which programs will benefit from his or her gift. Very few gifts are unrestricted, and thus the vast majori ty of monies raised by the foundation will not directly offset budgetary cutbacks, nor are they intended to. In just over three years, the Campaign has raised over $332 million. Of this total, $57 million has been raised for student programs, including scholarships, gradu ate fellowships, and the Honors program. Approximately $16 million has been raised by the Association of Former Stu dents and $13 million has been raised by the Twelfth Man Foundation. Over $13 million has been raised for the Sterling C. Evans Library. As for faculty support, over $22 million has been raised to create some 18 en dowed chairs and 16 endowed professor ships. An additional $55 million has been raised for special programs, including re search enhancements and international progr ams. re lion's share, over $156 million, has gone to college and unit programs, includ ing high-profile items such as the Appelt neland Visitor Center, the Runyon Art lections, and the Stevenson Compan ion Animal Life Care Center. We at the Development Foundation are here to support the faculty, students, and programs or Texas A&M, an institution of which I am extremely proud and find ex tremely deserving. I would be happy to share additional details with the Battalion editorial board. Dr. Eddie J. Davis '67' President Texas A&M University Development Foundation