I
Vi! 13, l||
Opinion
IPPKj Wednesday, April 13, 1994
The Battalion
Page 7
Hit BiWalim
S du rim
3osition is
confidem
^equentl)
jacksoo
»n when I
it day."
lards he is
s that his
ability to
t 4 inches
that if he
at an op-
lainst 30(11
y have to
"Playinj j
‘ the (of !
: that his
at defen-
continue
effective-
around.
•ong sea-
itay low-
The Battalion Editorial Board \
JULI PHILLIPS, Editor in chief |
1ICHAEL PLUMER, Managing editor KYLE BURNETT, Aggielife editor
3EUNDA BLANCARTE, Night news editor DENA DIZDAR, Aggielife editor
HEATHER WINCH, Night News editor SEAN FRERKING, Sports editor
frONI GARRARD CLAY, Opinion editor WILLIAM HARRISON, Photo editor
JENNIFER SMITH, City editor
Urgent words recall horrors of past
Holocaust survivor leaves message for future generations
TU£ MEDIA EXPLAINS UeALTU CAGE
TUE CUNTON
TUE COOPER
PLANT
The train qussdcn seems
to be, what Is it going to
PLAN 1
Moynihan on board?
/
Critics call it 'unrealistic!
/
fteving wen the symbolic
power of the 'centrist'
label, the plan Is new
gathering political
momentum-
y
Birr wuat
DO TUE
FLANS CO?
Many remain confused
over what the plans
actually offer The big
questav Ucw will that
confusion affect Repub
lican media strategy?
■hsii
iClass evaluations
Students should see results
ind third,
key Fere;
Buchmtii
by throw
it off the
: to Buch-
1 ggi es ex
attempt.
• tM pi* *}
Buchman
L a'throw
ome bad
oing, and
er that.”
I With registration comes the
Stress and fear of signing up for
(a class taught by a professor
|ou would rather avoid like the
plague. By the time you find
put the prof doesn’t relate well
to students or just reads straight
From the book, it’s too late to
llework your schedule.-
T Students should demand to
know more about the profes
sors who will be teaching
em, and teacher evaluations
(could be just the tool students
need to find pertinent informa
tion about their future profes
sors,
The Texas A&M system,
ihowever, will not allow it.
The evaluations we fill out at
the end of every semester go
directly to the department and
then to the teacher some time
during the next semester. Stu
dents are never given a chance
to see their peers’ evaluations
of a course.
The only information the
A&M system allows a student to
obtain on a professor is past
grade distributions. Once found
in the YMCA Building, this in
formation can now be found at
Henderson Hall.
Grade distribution is an im
portant criterion for many stu
dents when choosing a profes
sor, but it certainly is not the
most responsible and accurate
indication of a teacher’s capa
bilities. Students should be
able to find out about the in
structor’s teaching philosophy,
amount of class discussion and
lecture quality.
By reading other students’
evaluations, or even a summary
of them, registering students
can have a better idea of what
exactly they are getting into.
Students should know not only
what kind of grade they’re likely
to receive, but also they need to
try to find out how much they
will learn in their classes.
Releasing past evaluations to
students would be a great way
to meet this need.
I was 14 years old when the Nazis
marched into my village. It was 1939
when the Nazis came to Kenyen, Poland,”
Mike Jacobs said. “The first thing the soldiers
did was throw the prayer books and scrolls
out of the synagogue into the streets. They
closed the synagogue and it was made into a
horse stable.”
His Polish accent was heavy, making the
words that much more urgent. He is now an
old man who remembers vividly those hor
rors of 50 years past; yet the faces of his dead
family have faded from his mind.
“I went to the big square to watch a con
cert one evening. When I got there, the Nazis
had taken two hostages, one Jew and one non-
Jew. They were put up to a wall and shot.”
It was the first time he saw someone mur
dered. It wouldn’t be the last.
“I remember going into the buildings and
hearing the babies crying and wondering
why the mothers were leaving them behind.
Sgt. Holtz [a German soldier] told us to take
the babies to the large building. I can still feel
the warmth of the babies in my arms. I can
still feel the crying,” Jacobs said as he held
out his arms as if carrying a baby.
“I was happy because I thought that these
babies were going to live, that they would be
taken to Germany to grow up and never know
their parents or what happened to them.”
Jacobs and other boys took the infants into
a room. Soon after, he saw a soldier standing
in a window throwing out dolls as soldiers
on the ground shot at them like clay pigeons.
“But I realized that it wasn’t dolls they
were shooting out of the air. It was the ba
bies. Every shot and silenced scream marked
ROY L.
CLAY
Columnist
the shot of an expert marksman.”
Later they found a young child crying on a
corner. As Holtz reached for his pistol, Ja
cobs said he stood in front of the child and
begged Holtz not to do it. The soldier told
him if he didn’t get out of the way then he
would suffer the same fate, but it didn’t mat
ter to him. He had to do something to stop
it. But his effort was in vain.
“Holtz fired six rounds into the little
child, but the child did not die. So, he
picked the baby up by the foot and dashed its
head against the wall,” Jacobs said.
After the cold, starvation and torture of
the Polish ghettos, the Jews were separated
and sent to other ghettos or concentration
camps that littered Europe. Most of Jacobs’
family were taken to the hell known as Tre-
blinka, where they were exterminated.
Jacobs ultimately arrived at Auschwitz-
Birkenau. He remembers thinking how won
derful this new place was. It had a huge bak
ery that burned all night. He told his com
panions that if the Nazis asked, he would tell
them that he was a baker. The camp also had
its own doctor who wore a spotless white
medical coat and inspected, the ranks of new
arrivals as they stepped off the train.
He later found out that the clean white
coat belonged to Dr. Josef Mengele, the ’’An
gel of Death,” who selected those sent to
“special treatment.” The “bakery” was a cre
matorium that processed the bodies of men,
women and children after they choked for 30
minutes in the gas chambers and died.
But there was a purpose to the killing at
Auschwitz. People’s bones could be made
into fertilizer. Their hair, shaved off before
entering the chamber, was made into rugs
and mattress stuffing. Human fat was made
into soap.
Jacobs survived Auschwitz. He lived
through the fate that took the lives of his en
tire family. Why does he speak of these terri
ble accounts of human degradation and evil?
Because we have to remember. There are
people who would have the world believe
that the Holocaust never happened, that six
million Jews and five million non-Jews sim
ply vanished into thin air, and in 30 years
there will be no living witnesses to refute
their claims or tell of the atrocities of Nazi
Third Reich.
“Your children and your grandchildren
won’t have the opportunity to listen to a
Holocaust survivor,” Jacobs said. “You will
have to teach them. You have to say, ‘This is
what one person can do to another if you
don’t speak out.’”
It is our duty to humanity to remember
and to teach. If we don’t, the same thing may
happen again — and that would be an unfor
givable sin.
Roy L. Clay is a senior history major
MASSACRE iN MOSSCIE,,,
006 ATTACK 0V HAMAS
LaJhatS wrong with this Picture?^
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
State budget ranks criminals over law-abiding citizens
kend!
;t
r | Ahe Texas prison system is eating the
I state’s budget for lunch. If some-
X. thing isn’t done to alleviate the prob-
em of paying to house, feed and entertain a
monstrous number of prisoners, the meal
will be over before the law-abiding citizens
:an get to the table.
One could argue that things like the
state’s education, welfare and even trans
portation systems should come first in line
tor budgetary allowances. However, in the
wake of the success of the 1992 Ruiz
prison-reform lawsuit, the prison reform
movement has mushroomed from a cry
igainst prison overcrowding to a growing
list of grunts and moans about being de
prived of cable television and being served
'inedible” food. And the state, crippled by
its fear of the growing number of prison
rights lawsuits, has placed itself in a head-
lock trying to provide “the lawful caliber of
facilities” to too many prisoners and no
way to pay for them.
i To begin with, the idea that prisoners
have rights is an oxymoron. When people
commit crimes, they relinquish their rights
L in the moment that they violate the law.
Tes, we live in America, where everyone
JENNY
MAGEE
Columnist
has rights, but shouldn’t we at least spend
our money on programs that benefit the
citizens wno obey the law, instead of those
who break it? Why should law-abiding cit
izens, especially the state’s children, handi
capped and elderly stand in line behind
E risoners on the state’s financial priority
st? What kind of message are we sending
to the people of this state anyway?
It would be interesting if the state had to
explain its prison funding decisions to a
child. Perhaps the explanation would go
something like this: ‘ We’re sorry, sweet
heart. We know your school needs better
equipment and your teacher should have a
better salary. We are going to spend your
mommy and daddy’s tax dollars to buy
comfortable beds and television sets for all
the thieves, murders and rapists. We hope
you don’t mind.”
And if this child was particularly naive,
maybe legislators and bureaucrats could ap
pease him with the promise that the
thieves, murders and rapists would now be
safely off the streets for a good six months.
However, if the state tried to explain to
this same child some of the findings from a
year-long audit of the Texas Department of
CriminaTjustice by Comptroller John Sharp,
they might become a little more tongue-
tiea. According to an article in the Houston
Chronicle, Sharp’s report made 224 recom
mendations to alter the current wasteful
practices that could save taxpayers $740
million dollars during the next five years.
Some of the problems cited in Sharp’s
report are as follows (let’s see how the state
explains these to a child):
• An average of one prisoner every two
months is paroled accidentally because of
faulty record keeping.
“Hey kid, change that promise of keep
ing criminals off the streets for six months
to two months.”
• 43 percent of inmates released are back
behind bars within three years.
“Hey kid , if you never go back out on
the streets again, you might be safe.”
To begin with, the idea
that prisoners have rights
is an oxymoron. When
people commit crimes,
they relinquish their
rights in the moment that
they violate the law.
• The prison system pays $ 3 a gallon for
gas sold at its own gas pumps. Some prison
units have more cars available than employ
ees to drive them.
“Hey kid, maybe if we had had better
schools 40 years ago, we would have
learned math better.”
• Senior managers live in free housing
maintained by white-coated inmate ser
vants who cook, clean and baby sit.
“Hey kid, you know the prisoners aren’t
the only ones who have rights.”
• In some central shower areas, all 30 to
60 shower heads are turned on simultane
ously even if only one inmate is showering.
“Hey kid, well, uh,.. uh...”
• More than $3 million in inventory is
missing.
“Hey kid, listen. If you don’t tell any
body about all this, maybe we could take
you to a baseball game, okay?”
First of all, we question die importance
that the state places on housing criminals.
Next, we should question the fact that the
agency in charge of these criminals, which
employs 28,000 people and receives $4 bil
lion in state funds during the next two
years, is not far from being criminal itself.
And, while we’re at it, we might as well get
to the root of the problem and question the
whole Texas prison system itself! For a state
that has more criminaJs than many small
countries, we can logically deduce that we
are putting far too many people in prison,
and once we get them there, we treat them
far too well.
Jenny Magee is a sophomore English and journalism
major
51
tth
ts.
Equality, education
Women’s Week goals
• The first Women’s Week (March 27
through April 1) was an unqualified suc
cess, and the planning committee thanks all
those who helped organize events, provid
ed financial or moral support, or took part
in this historic week. We’re grateful for the
strong support from the University admin
istration, the Faculty Senate, community
organizations, and local and state officials.
This support was especially evidenced
by the diversity of the groups who partici
pated in the week’s events. We were par
ticularly honored that Gov. Ann Richards
officially proclaimed Texas A&M’s wom
en’s week, noting that “Texas women have
left an indelible imprint on ... politics, re
ligion, education, business, sports, and
civic involvement.
Our goal for this first ever women’s
week was to celebrate women’s accom
plishments, not to emphasize gender dif
ferences. There was no intent to isolate
ourselves; rather we sought to strengthen
our connection based on shared interests,
information and ideas, enjoy our success
es, and look ahead to future challenges. It
was good to see a number of men at our
events, and we are particularly grateful for
the assistance and encouragement we re
ceived from President E. Dean Gage.
As we plan Women’s Week 1995, we
hope that at some point we’ll be “out of
business.” Gender, racial and ethnic equali
ty is a goal sought by all of us at Texas A&M
— women and men, students and faculty,
professional and support staff. But it’s go
ing to take us a while to get there. In the
meantime, we beheve celebrating women’s
accomplishments encourages women to
greater achievements, educates everyone
about women’s contributions to the institu
tion, and builds relationships that advance
the cause of equality.
Gail Brooks
Chair, Campus Climate Task Force, Status of Women
Subcommittee
Texas A&M Faculty Senate
• In response to Aaron Tutde and James
Staley’s letters to The Battalion, we would
like to educate the public about the pur
pose of Texas A&M’s Women’s Week and
the platform of the National Organization
for Women (NOW).
First of all, women have always been
suppressed. We are a minority, if not by
members, then by lack of equality. For ex
ample, if you have taken at least one history
class you would know that women were
denied the right to vote until the early part
of this century while white males took this
privilege for granted.
Second, the purpose of Women’s
Week at Texas A&M University was to
educate females and males about wom
en’s issues that are not addressed or rec
ognized as often as they should be. To
receive a broader understanding of a
topic, you must educate yourself on its
full spectrum.
Finally, to redefine the misconcep
tions written in the letters, the purpose
of NOW is to take action to bring
women into full participation in the
mainstream of American society now,
exercising all the privileges and respon
sibilities thereof in truly equal partner
ship with men. Our main objective is
not to redefine the act of sex, nor to
conquer men. Just equality.
In the past there was no civil rights
movement to speak for women as there
has been for African-Americans and
other victims of discrimination. NOW
serves this purpose and is dedicated to
the proposition that women are human
beings, who, like all other people in our
society, must have the chance to develop
their fullest human potential. We be
lieve that women can achieve such
equality only by accepting to the full
the challenges and responsibilities they
share with all other people in our soci
ety, as part of the decision-making
mainstream of American political, eco
nomic and social life.
Paula Fedirchuk
Graduate Student
Shari Hunt
Vice President, Texas A&M NOW
Class of ‘93