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Opinion
Monday, January 17,1994
The Battalion Editorial Board
JUU PHILLIPS, Editor in chief
MICHAEL PLUMER, Managing editor KYLE BURNETT, Aggielife editor
BELINDA BLANCARTE, Night news editor DENA DIZDAR, Aggielife editor
HEATHER WINCH, Night News editor SEAN FRERKING, Sports editor
TONI GARRARD CLAY, Opinion editor WILLIAM HARRISON, Photo editor
JENNIFER SMITH, City editor
The Battalion
Page 11
EDITORIAL
MLK day dismay
A&M starts class on holiday
When the administration de
cided to proclaim Texas A&M's
commitment to multicultural-
ism, it should have taken a look
at a calendar and acted on its
promise.
A&M and Baylor are the only
two Southwest Conference
schools that did not cancel to
day's classes in recognition of Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr.'s birth
day. King was killed
April 4, 1968 in Mem
phis, Tenn. after
years of leading the 4
civil rights move
ment.
Today is a na
tional holiday
when banks, the
post office and
most schools
close to honor this
man who would
have been 65 years
old Saturday. A&M has
chosen to be an exception.
Students should have this
day to remember and honor
King in whatever way they
wish. It is hypocritical to expect
students to respect other cul
tures by forcing them to take
multiculturalism classes when
they will not even give students
this one day to show respect for
King.
After all, the multiculturalism
debate would never have been
an issue today if men like King
had not accomplished so much
in the past.
Regardless of whether we
agree with King's politics, the
1964 Nobel Peace Prize winner
was instrumental in gaining
rights for blacks by advocating
nonviolence.
King said he had a dream of
Tired of working? Be a worthless child
Holiday laziness cultivates new at-home survival skills
LYNN
BOOHER
Columnist
I am a worthless
child. My Christ
mas vacation con
sisted of getting up
after noon, sitting
around the house
watching MTV and
then preparing for a
night on the town.
Don't get me
wrong — 1 didn't in
tend to let my free
time waste away. Au
contraire. I had all
sorts of noble enter
prises planned.
Foremost was the
novel a friend and I
were going to produce. I am proud to have
an entire four pages to my credit.
T also meant to do lots of volunteer work
like
tute
those programs had ended because it was
too close to Christmas.
I even meant to call all the old high
school chums that I hadn't seen since this
summer as well as to keep in touch with
my college friends who live in Austin. That
sort of happened, but mostly I sat around
feeling guilty about not calling people
without) actually getting near a phone.
Of course, they didn't get around to call
ing me either.
The hand-made Christmas cards 1 was
going to send out managed to get left in my
dorm room over the break in the form of
construction paper.
The one card I actually did complete
was just too cute to send to anybody, so it's
now tucked away under all the classic liter
ature 1 was going to read.
But back to being a worthless child. My
mother informed me that I am not a pro
ductive member of the family.
This means that since I am not forced to
get up at six each morning and go to work,
1 should be cleaning the house all day or
something equally useful.
Obviously, this was not appealing.
Once, as an idealistic youth, I thought
when mom told me to clean the bathroom
she meant REALLY clean it. Not only did I
scrub the sink, tub and toilet, but also the
floor, mirrors, cabinets, fixtures, tile, grout,
on them,
knob,
Three hours, two raw hands and one ex
hausted, good child later, I stood beaming,
waiting for mom to heap on the praise.
"That looks so great," she said. "Why
don't you clean my bathroom?"
Quickly I learned to emulate my
younger, smarter (read: more worthless)
sister. She is affectionately known as "the
roach" because she manages to leave a trail
of stuff behind her wherever she goes. Not
a room in the house is untouched by
clothes, books, crumpled papers, old gum
wrappers. Big Gulp cups or anything else
she chooses to leave.
She can clean the bathroom in under 15
minutes
Her method basically involves throwing
the clothes from the floor into the hamper,
pulling the shower curtain closed to hide
the mess in the tub, throwing the bottles
and junk on the counter into a drawer and
finally dimming the lights as she leaves to
hide the grime she didn't remove.
While this method isn't necessarily sani
tary, it saves a lot of time.
I have also recently discovered a trick
that husbands and fathers have known for
generations: act like you have no due how
to do anything,
I am making an art out of pretending
that I don't know how to cook. Without
warning 1 went from a woman who could
whip up jambalaya or a souffle to someone
who couldn't follow the directions on a
macaroni box without assistance.
It's saved me from having to make din
ner numerous times. The people I call on
for help generally get frustrated enough
that they'll take over just to get me out of
the way.
I also refuse to learn to light the barbe
cue pit. If I did learn, I could be held re
sponsible for producing hamburgers, hot
dogs, or any number of other grilled
things.
A friend of mine has perfected the art of
not knowing how to do things. She actually
got away with not knowing how to feed
the dog. Her excuse was that she'd been at
college so long, she had forgotten where its
food and bowl were kept.
Unfortunately, that excuse doesn't fly at
my house. Still, J do manage to get away
with a great deal. If I could just learn my
sister's method for cleaning her room in
five minutes. I'd have it made.
Lynn Booker is a sophomore psychology
English n,
and
major
Or you <i© To THE ?Jpl-, THSy't-t-
e»e pat'ini' You Much
equality, and although
racial tension is not a
thing of the past, his
i dream has not
died. Today is the
day that our
country, as a
whole, remem
bers and cele
brates this man
and his dream.
A&M cannot sit
out such an impor
tant event.
The U.S. Congress de
cides if a day is to be recognized
as a national holiday, not indi
vidual public institutions. It
does not matter if a person is
black, white or an Aggie — if he
or she is an American, they
should take this day to remem
ber Martin Luther King.
The administration needs to
remember that fact when they
are looking over the calendar for
next year.
Gr bcrCe-K
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
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author's name, class, and
phone number.
We reserve the right to edit
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length, style, and accuracy.
Contact the opinion editor
for information on submitting
guest columns.
Address letters to:
The Batta lion - Mai I Cal I
013 Reed McDonald
Mail stop 1111
Texas A&M University
College Station, TX 77843
Fax: (409) 845-2647
LettermaiTs gap-toothed smile ... as sexy as it's ever been
A s Abigail
Van Buren
said, "1993
certainly was an
eventful year." Of
course it was. They
always are. That's
what years are for,
to be eventful.
1994 won't be
unique. There are
365 days of dying,
living and every
thing in between,
not all of it worth
writing about. For
that reason I
promise you won't
find the following things in my column
j this semester. If you do, feel free to write
7 in and demand my immediate resigna
tion from not only The Battalion, but
Texas A&M and public life.
I promise that I will not write about
Bonfire '93, or NAFTA and whether or
not it should be passed. They're both
over.
I won't discuss Madonna, Billy Ray
Cyrus or speculate if the two are romanti
cally involved.
I won't enter the ring to debate the six
ticket limit at graduation until it's my
turn to walk up and accept the degree.
This means no time soon.
And nothing about the Bobbitts. I
promise.
Some stuff is bound to pop up though.
Stuff like my cats, my home in Minnesota,
my cats in Minnesota, my observations of
Texas, cats I've known in Texas ... and
David Letterman.
The verdict is out. Letterman is king of
the late-night air-waves. Magazines from
People to the New Republic have recog
nized Carson's rightful heir. Letterman is
not only the best dressed host but the
hands-down funniest. Even Rush Lim-
baugh, who has made a guest appearance
on the show, thinks Dave's show is the
best production on television. Every
where people are tuning in, especially in
Bryan/College Station, where CBS is our
only choice without cable.
During my high school years and his
tenure at NBC, Letterman (at midnight)
was too late for me. But as a college stu
dent, things have changed. Late at night
is when I study — the perfect time to
watch TV. Plus, Letterman's switch from
NBC to CBS means a more accessible time
... and host. His humor, while still as off
During high school. Letter-
man was too late for me.
As a college student, things
have changed. Late at
night is when I study — the
perfect time to watch TV.
the wall as slime that won't stick, has
mainstreamed, and he's not as rude to his
guests. While there are critics, wretched
as they may be, who say he's sold out.
I'm so busy laughing, I can't make a judg
ment.
Actually, my roommate and I go be
yond finding him funny. We find him at
tractive, too. We wish there were guys
like him hanging around College Station.
The general reaction to this from females
is "You must be crazy!" The guys just
look really, really confused.
For us, it's the gap-toothed grin (I can
relate as a dentally challenged American)
and his modesty. He simply refuses to
take himself too seriously; when a photo
of Lyle Lovett, Class of '82 appeared on
the show, Dave said, "What's up with his
hair?" Then he paused. With THAT look
(just short of a grimace) on his face, he re
stated the question. "What's up with my
hair?!?" Classic Dave.
He knows, as Larry King recently stat
ed on The Late Show , that the work they
do is so fun it can hardly be classified as
work. No wonder Dave seems so merry.
He's making a fortune at CBS and gets to
meet famous and interesting people like
Dennis, the really strong guy. Thrills ga
lore.
The refurbished Ed Sullivan Theater is
a great location, if for nothing else than to
provide something to talk about with
guests and to give the bandleader Paul
Schafer more room to display goofy out
fits. It opens to Broadway (the street) so
Dave can make quick exits to neighboring
merchants. These people, like Sirijul and
Mujibar — two Bangladeshi men who
work at Rock America, a cut-rate gift
shop — are our late-night friends. And
Billy Crystal's, too. While walking down
some street in New York City, Crystal
recognized Mujibar from The Late Show
and said hello to him.
I used to laugh at a friend who's high
point in life was having Letterman read
his letter from the mail bag and say his
name on the air. That was before I tuned
in. Now my roommate and I are plotting
how we can meet him. In fact, why stop
there? We're devising a plan to rope him
into marrying one of us.
And there you have it.
Erin Hill is a sophomore English major
.IT
I
A simple solution to
booster problems
$20 million. That's the amount that
I Auburn says that they lost last year due
to similar NCAA sanctions (no TV, no
bowl games, etc.).
It's also the amount for which
TAMU should sue "booster" Warren
I Gilbert. Wealthy, overzealous boosters
have affected many college athletic pro
grams around the country, and it's time
to set a precedent against these maver
icks.
Did Gilbert use money from Aggie
Cisneros to pay $18,000 of HUD money
to nine players for work that they did
not perform? That's the federal govern
ment's problem.
Was there a "lack of institutional
control" or a lack of personal responsi
bility on the part of the players? That's
the University's problem.
Whose car do we use for the road 3
trip to Louisville in November? Since
there is no TV, that's my problem.
Mike Edwards
Class of‘89
Accompanied by seven signatures
Conservatives apply
past lessons to future
Near the end of last semester, John
Scroggs wrote a column about Texas
A&M's deep-rooted conservatism.
He made a valid point about certain
people blindly clinging to a particular
philosophy. I believe he gave quite a
tainted description of conservatism,
though.
In Scroggs' article, he claimed that
conservatism "always looks to some
perfect past and longs for the return to
those standards or values."
True, conservatism does look to the
past, and religion does play "an impor
tant role." But, it is really about learn
ing from the past to improve our fu
ture.
Writers like William F. Buckley, Jr.,
Jean Kirkpatrick, and George F. Will
search for solutions that have worked
in the past as well as ones that can be
improved upon for the next generation.
These intellects as well as our forefa
thers also realized the importance of
God to the success of this nation. These
are the ideals conservatives strive for.
Returning to the Stone Ages is not.
John Scroggs also suggested that
"freedom of thought [is] inherent in lib
eralism."
I question this assessment, too. Right
here at Texas A&M, the traditional lib
eral organizations were fighting for a
mandatory multicultural requirement.
Elsewhere, many instances have oc
curred where, again, traditionally liber
al groups have set out to rewrite the
facts of history.
Maybe these people also felt that lib
eralism allowed for free, uncontested
"learning."
John Scroggs' intent was noble:
everyone should evaluate and substan
tiate their beliefs, not just follow tradi
tion. In the future, though, I would ap
preciate a more truthful presentation of
the facts instead of biased assumptions.
Curtis Neason
Class of'96