' e teams in "3 collect ■place volts ; Hirough 'sed on 25 vote i 25th-pla (( e previous Pts 1,508 1,480 1,410 1,366 1,339 1,255 1,139 1,075 1,029 1,018 878 844 810 720 694 630 551 476 423 384 321 241 230 141 34 e 5 o go back Phis year to Dallas t." bled nu- - A g8'es' tate. Last uled Hill r ers from tuse of al- pted pay led, iking for- limself in eat," Hill to Dallas, ed (in the id a bad myself 1 game like end Eric ring fora ption for end to his Aggies, has been id said." who we ; is to get ,sful. 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