The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, August 24, 1994, Image 17

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    Wednesday • August 24, 1994
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You never know
what you’ll get
Accentuate positive perspective '
of life's difficulties, experiences
MICHAEL
LANDAUER
Columnist
D essimism is easy. Counting your
blessings is what is hard. If this
weren’t true, then we’d have
Thanksgiving 364 days out of the year and
save all our gloom up for one day in late
November.
I’m glad we have so many days to deal
with our problems, but maybe we should
start making more days to think of how good we have it, too.
After all, no one knows when something will come along
to make everything else seem trivial.
A friend recently called me and asked if he could stop
by. Just from the sound of his voice I knew what he was
coming over to talk about: his older brother who had AIDS
had died.
He had been fighting for his life for over a year. His
doctors told him that he would be dead by his birthday, but
he turned 28 several months ago. They had given him
another six months, but he couldn’t wait. Although too
weak to open envelopes on some days, he got a burst of
energy, and had someone drive him to a park near where
he grew up. It was there that he had played with my friend
as a child and it was there that his battle with AIDS
ended.
He shot himself.
We both sat there shaking our heads. How do we react
to a disease that takes every ounce of strength away from
people, reduces them to nothing and still expects them to
prefer life to death? There was nothing to say.
Soon we started talking about how much worse it could
have been. This is hard to imagine at first, but it really
could have been worse. My friend had the chance to tell his
brother how much he loved him several times in the past
year. His brother knew he loved him when he gave him an
extra-long hug to say goodbye on his last night alive.
If his brother had died in some random act of violence,
then my friend wouldn’t have had these opportunities. He
may never have found out his brother was homosexual. He
may have never confronted the whole new set of feelings he
encountered as he disagreed with his brother’s lifestyle.
But he never questioned his love for his brother.
Times have been hard for my friend, but it has made
lim a better person. His brother ended a long, painful
Experience, not just for himself, but for all those who loved
him. And for that, my friend can be thankful.
In the movie “Forrest Gump,” Mrs. Gump teaches her
on that “life is like a box of chocolates - you never know
j/vhat you’re gonna get.” My friend’s box of chocolates is not
easy to swallow right now, but that hasn’t stopped him
from looking for the good in his situation. He said it’s
easier to look at how good he has it, and he’s probably
right. Maybe we should adopt this policy with our everyday
prsbkwns. •
Everyone has their trials in life. Baseball players think
they have been genuinely wronged by their clubs’ owners.
Rwandans wonder where they will get their next meal.
Teenage girls worry that they’ll look fat in their new formal
We don't have to be fanatical and pretend
that a bad situation is a good one when
putting things into perspective. Unless we're
masochists we're still going to feel the pain.
The Battalion
Editorial Board
Belinda Blancarte, Editor in chief
Mark Evans, Managing editor
Jay Robbins, Opinion editor
Jenny Magee, Assistant opinion editor
Editorials appearing in The Battalion re
flect the views of the editorial board. They
do not necessarily reflect the opinions of oth
er 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.
Contact the opinion editor for informa
tion on submitting guest columns.
Freshman Challenge
'Responsibility' brings up many questions
Education remains
best prevention
Teaching children about sex now
will help them make safe choices
dress. These problems, both big and small in the grand
scheme of things, always seem huge in one person’s life.
Although it may not be the worst thing that is going on in
the world, it may be the biggest problem in our own world.
1 Comparing our problems to others’ difficulties is a waste
bf time.
if No one should ever say, “Well, I just got kicked out of
school, my parents are getting a divorce, my dad lost his
job and my heroine addiction is only getting worse, but I
shouldn’t get upset since I’m not starving in Rwanda.”
< We don’t have to be fanatical when putting things into
perspective. We shouldn’t block out emotions because we
feel like our situation does not merit having feelings.
When bad things happen to us, we don’t have to pretend
that a bad situation is a good one. Unless we’re masochists
we’re still going to feel the pain in our lives.
Still, when it all seems to be crashing in, try to find the
good in a situation. Even in the worst catastrophes, people
become strong enough to see things in a way that makes
any problem bearable.
| We all have crosses to bear. And although his is a bigger
burden right now, I know my friend wouldn’t trade his for
iy other.
Michael Landauer is a sophomore journalism major
Class of
Freshmen hitting the college books
for the first time this fall will probably
discover they have many questions
about life here in Aggieland. The
biggest ones usually concern that most
frightening concept: responsibility.
Taking care of every little thing in
college life can be a daunting prospect,
and Texas A&M is not an easy place to
figure* out.
Students
should know
three places
to go:
The
Pavilion -
you can take
care of fee
payments,
registration
problems, ID
cards and
eating lunch
while you’re
there.
Heaton
Hall - issues
your tran
script, works
with transfer
ring your credit hours from other colleges
and eventually processes your degree ap
plication.
Your academic adviser’s office -
this individual can almost always find
out what happened to get you into
some mess and what it will take to get
you out of it.
The important thing to remember is
that nobody is going to trek over to
these offices for you, and there won’t
be someone reminding you to take care
of the endless “little things.”
Those little things plague everyone.
The easiest way to manage them all is
by following the advice from freshman
orientation and making a list of places
and people you need to see.
It takes a
while to re
in e m b e r
that your
credit card
bill payment
won’t mail
itself, and
your parents
might call
missing per
sons if you
take off for
the weekend
and don’t
tell anyone
where you’re
going.
Everyone
here has
gone through the same process of ad
justment. That doesn’t make them
sympathetic, but it might help relieve
some embarrassment when you have
to cancel a date because your car got
towed out of a reserved lot.
Just don’t forget — if you don’t take
care of it, no one will.
KIMBERLY
NEVILLE
Guest Columnist
M atl
Call
Marijuana laws illustrate
lack of American freedom
i Americans give much lip service to the no
tion of liberty and freedom, but what is free-
iom? In it’s most fundamental sense freedom
is the ability- to engage in any action which
does not harm another person or endanger
their property: Jefferson’s “pursuit of happi
ness.” Based on this definition the question as
to whether the U.S. is a country of freedom is a
resounding and unequivocal no.
I Few examples better exemplify this point
than America’s marijuana laws. The U.S. has
3y far the highest per capita incarceration rate
if developed nations (far greater than even
South Africa’s). Around 30 percent of these in-
nates are behind bars for consensual crimes,
pi other words, crimes for which there were no
idctims. In America the average time served
or murder is eight years and eight months.
Compare this fact with the case of Mark
foung. Young, although he had no other relat
ed priors, was recently sentenced for life in
prison without parole for brokering the sale of
700 pounds of marijuana. Unfortunately, his
case is not unique. One out of six inmates in
crowded federal prisons are serving sentences
for marijuana charges and currently the num
ber of people effectively condemned to die in
prison due to marijuana is in the hundreds.
Whether a person buys, sells, or smokes mari
juana - all voluntary transactions — would, in a
land that is truly free, be of no concern to that
nation’s government. How sad that our nation
chooses to persecute marijuana users in a
harsher fashion than violent criminals who
have actually harmed or interfered with anoth
er person’s private property.
The use of marijuana is a personal choice.
How can one reconcile the idea that modem
democracies require citizens capable of making
extremely complex economic and political deci
sions necessary for responsible voting, yet
these same citizens are not capable of deciding
whether or not they wish to consume a piece of
bio-mass. Hundreds of thousands of people
have died fighting this country’s wars, presum
ably partly due to the fact they thought they
were fighting for freedom. Based on the fact
that this country punishes individuals more
harshly for non-violent lifestyle choices than
for armed robbery and murder, it would appear
those individuals died in vain.
Jason F. Carr
Graduate Student
Texas A&M should take
pride in its hospitality
Before leaving the A&M campus after five
weeks of study on an NEH grant, I would like to
express my appreciation for the kindness I have
encountered from staff and students here. From
professors to food service to dorm service to li
brary to swimming pool, everyone has been cour
teous and willing to help. It is pleasant to be
greeted with “Howdy” by passing students. I find
the same note of hospitality even in the posted
notices about rules to be observed. There is a
positive spirit about the school you should be
proud of. Perhaps civility is a more important
thing to learn than, say, civil engineering.
As for The Battalion, it was a helpful window
onto the local and national scene for someone
who had little time for anything but study.
Keep up the good spirit.
Rev. Laurence Kriegshauser, English teacher
St. Louis, MO
The Battalion encour
ages 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 for length, style,
and accuracy.
Address letters to:
The Battalion - Mad Call
013 Reed McDonald
Texas A&M University
College Station, TX
77843-1111
Fax:
409/845-2647
E-nvaii:
Batt@tamvm1 .tamu.edu
L ately I’ve been reading in The
Battalion the different
opinions on abortion. It seems
nobody wants to talk about the
best pregnancy prevention method:
knowledge. I mean sex education.
This topic raises a variety of
intense opinions. Everyone knows
that if you come out and openly discuss sex, children
will rush out and experiment wildly. Naturally, it is
better to keep silent about it, and just wait until your
13-year-old daughter is four months pregnant, or your
17-year-old son is the father of three children.
So when is the RIGHT time? 15? 13? 12? Seven? Do
kids need to know the facts when they pass into the
realm of puberty? Is the time right when they first ask,
“Why are boys and girls different?” You can’t answer
them with a blunt “boys have penises and girls have
vaginas,” without raising HUNDREDS of curious
questions. Do you leave it up to the school, church or
cable television to teach your children the facts of life?
Many parents feel awkward talking to their children
about sex. They don’t want to realize their sweet,
innocent babies are growing up and need to know
enough information to make sexual decisions maturely.
Children are incredibly uncomfortable when they
have the infamous birds and bees talk with their
parents. I know people who believe firmly that the stork
dropped them down the chimney. It’s either accept that
as truth, or admit that their parents have ... sex. Just
ask some of your friends about their parent’s sex life.
You’ll usually hear, “Gross! I would rather drink an
entire cup of used dip than picture my parents in bed!”
Ridiculous as it sounds, parents do have sex. Just take a
look at A&M’s population of 40,000 students for proof. The
stork could not have been delivering ALL those Aggies.
Because both generations are so timid, where else
can a curious child go? A possible source might be
school. There is often a token “sex education week”
taught in high school health or biology classes. If the
students can hear their teacher over everyone’s
embarrassed giggling, they’ll only hear the pure
scientific facts. In science, sex is just a means of
reproduction. If you want to know about birth control,
Naturally, it is easier to keep silent about
sex, and just wait until your 13-year-old
daughter is four months pregnant, or your
17-year-old son is the father of three.
you have to ask a specific question about it. This lack of
information is based on the incredible reasoning that if
kids know about contraceptives, they’ll go out and test
their newfound knowledge at the first available time!
Anyway, who wants to risk the incredulous stares of
her classmates as she asks, “What is the correct way to
put on a condom?”
You could go to your church minister or priest, but
one problem is many churches’ belief that premarital
sex is a sin. Some church officials would be
understanding and try to give good information, while
others will shove Biblical quotes so far down a person’s
throat they’ll be scared to have sex at all.
Maybe cable television is the answer. Here they will
see people having sex after one drink and an exchange
of their first names. Violent sex is also shown, where, to
put the woman ‘in the mood,’ the man beats her up. Sex
on television has no emotion or lasting feeling, just a
meaningful act cheapened to increase the viewer’s
pulse. And it works. Sex sells. But, is this how children
should learn about sex?
I’ve raised a lot of questions, but I cannot find an answer.
Children need to have answers to their sexual questions as
soon as they’re asked. This time varies widely from child to
child, but they all need to know the truth.
Every child WILL learn about sex. It might be on the
playground at school while “Brandon” recites what his
parents told him yesterday. Or it could happen while
they flip through the TV channels late at night. Parents
have to be ready and confident enough to answer the
difficult questions when their innocent children ask
that dreaded question - Where did I come from?
Kimberly Neville is a junior English major