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The Battalion • Page 11
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Tuesday • August 30, 1994 T^T'NJT~ >
From sports to politics, egos inflate every problem
JOSEF A.
ELCHANAN
E veryone is quite familiar with the
many statewide scandals Texans
have had to deal with lately. Peo
ple have been so bent on doing things
their way around here that we often
wonder if anybody in charge of anything
has any brains at all or if they just allow Columnist
their ego to run their life.
Let’s take this Dallas Cowboys thing for
instance. Two grown men, who are sup
are caught being
promiscuous — not
very heroic pur
suits. Yet, sports
stars really believe
that making people
pay higher prices
for sports tickets
and charging kids
for autographs is all
posed to be making money by running a football
team, have a falling-out because they do not like
each other. Jimmy Johnson, the coach who took the
Dallas Cowboys to victory and brought in money
and fame for Jerry Jones, is replaced not because he
did not do his job, but because he didn’t give Jones
warm fuzzies. If Jimmy Johnson wanted to come in
my house slobbering drunk every night and fall
asleep on my couch, but kept winning football
games and making money for me, I wouldn’t care.
The baseball strike can be perceived in much
the same way. Do players really believe that they
deserve as much money as they get already? Af
ter all, we are talking about baseball (i.e., enter
tainment), not brain surgery.
I guess it would be different if our sports heroes
would at least keep up the facade of being heroes.
Instead, they are often sent to drug rehab clinics and
right, because they deserve it.
A little closer to home, many people will miss
this year’s Aggie football season because a few
people believed that they deserved to get paid for
work they did not do as a reward for playing col
lege ball.
These people must really think that they are
something special. They were allowed to ruin a
whole year of college football for everyone, so
they could get a new car or something. It is obvi
ously not enough for them to be able to go to
school on scholarship.
So what does the professional sports industry,
which obviously abounds with inflated ideas of it
self, have to do with daily life?
The battles between Republicans and Democ
rats represent the more dangerous form of this
thinking. Instead of talking about what they are
:inue
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going to do about everything from health care re
form to international crisis, it seems that all ei
ther group wants to do is put down the other so
that A) they will look like big shots and B) they
will win more elections.
Now, let’s say that somebody wanted to run for
public office without having to appease a political
party and simply do a good job, would they succeed?
Probably not. Only people with bigger egos then
If Jimmy Johnson came into my house slob
bering drunk every night and fell asleep on
my couch, but kept winning football games
and making money for me, I wouldn't care.
brains run around sponsoring bills that they think
can solve national problems all by themselves.
As for presidents, well there haven’t been many
of those who could get that far in politics without
feeding an ego the size of Manhattan. In fact, it al
most seems like a requirement. Can you ever see a
president saying, “Well, I really do not know what
we are going to do about this problem, but we will
continue to look into it,” or, “I have decided to sup
port my opposition in this subject.” »
It will never happen, because these peopld
have to believe in themselves and their own in
fallibility in order to do their jobs. If they mdke a
mistake, they have to justify it to protect thefn-
selves from external forces and from letting
themselves admit that they can fail.
How far can this kind of thing go? How about reli
gious leaders who go around telling people to give
money to them for an inside line to heav
en? Even further, what are all these eth
nic wars, besides one side saying, “I am so
much better than you, that you shouldn’t
be allowed to live here, or even live at all.”
What gall! It all starts when people stop
thinking and start pushing everyone else
around for their own benefit.
So much of business and govern
ment, throughout the ages, has been
dominated by small people with inflated visions
of themselves, that one often can wonder whether
they will ever go away.
Maybe we are all lucky that sports exist, so
more of these people will have something non-de
structive to do.
Josef A. Elchanan is a senior
business management major
The Battalion
Editorial Board
Belinda Biancarte, Editor in chief
Mark Evans, Managing editor
Jay Robbins, Opinion editor
Jenny Magee, Assistant opinion editor
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.
Contact the opinion editor for information
on submitting guest columns.
Cultural Quandary
Watered-down requirement loses purpose
Kids need quality over quantity time
Judge punishes mother for trying
to get education, better home life
ERIN
HILL
Columnist
J ennifer Ireland
was stunned
when her
pregnancy test
turned up positive.
She and her
boyfriend were
scared. They
planned that Ireland
would have an
abortion. But when
she visited the clinic she realized that she couldn’t go through
with the procedure, even though her boyfriend Steve Smith told
her he didn’t have time for a girlfriend, let alone a pregnant
one. He explained that he needed to concentrate on football.
Throughout the duration of the pregnancy Smith avoided
Ireland. So it was without any input from him that she decided
not to give her daughter Maranda up for adoption.
‘When I called Steve to tell him, he was so mad,” Ireland
said. “He said he didn’t want her, and I shouldn’t want her. He
said I was doing the worst thing in the world.”
When Maranda was a year old Smith asked for visitation
rights, though he fought against giving any financial support.
After Ireland formally requested child support, he fought to
have his S62 payments reduced to IB 12, ;
With the help of her mother and younger sister, not Smith,
Ireland completed high school, graduated third in her class with
a 3.98 GPA and earned Si 1,000 in scholarships to the
University of Michigan.
So far, so good. Ireland didn’t drop out of high school. She
didn’t take a dead-end, low paying job. She didn’t go on welfare.
She avoided the pitfalls that many young single mothers fall
into. She decided to get an education, for herself and Maranda,
so that they could enjoy a better life than it seemed they were
destined to.
After enrolling at the University of Michigan, Ireland placed
Maranda in a day care run by a woman with two small children
of her own. Again, she made what many said was the right
choice. She was making it possible to stay out of the cycle of
poverty associated with unwed motherhood.
But, at this point Smith reentered her life. He filed a suit to
have custody of Maranda turned over to him, so that his own
mother could care for Maranda in their home. He planned that
his mother would watch Maranda while he attended a nearby
junior college or worked at his job cutting grass. They
considered this a better arrangement than the day care option
that Ireland had arranged.
What is so surprising is that a county circuit judge agreed
and granted custody of Maranda to the Smiths. Judge
Raymond Casden said, “There is no way that a single parent
attending an academic program at an institution as prestigious
as the University of Michigan can do justice to their studies and
the raising of an infant child.”
Perhaps if Ireland attended the county junior college, as
Maranda’s father does, then she could handle school and
the rearing of her child. But apparently she wasn’t thinking
along those lines. She is trying to take advantage of the
opportunity she has been given to study at one of the finest
universities in the nation.
What seems frightening to many people is the idea that
a woman can’t be a full time worker or student and an
adequate mother.
“Women across the country are frightened by this ruling,”
says Kim Gandy, executive vice president of the National
Organization for Women. “I have a two-year-old myself, and
the idea that somebody could come and say that I’m a bad
mother because she’s in day care part-time is a scary thought.”
Ireland will be limited to visiting her daughter on alternate
weekends and a few holidays. It is no surprise that she worries
about her daughter feeling abandoned. She was abandoned
once already by a father who didn’t want the responsibility of
rearing her.
Though Smithes motives may be perfectly sincere, it is wrong
for him to waltz into Maranda’s life at this time and yank her
away from a mother who has made the best of a very difficult
situation, who has done much to insure a bright future for
herself and her daughter itiid who has done it all without the
help from Mm.
For a judge to rule that a full-time homemaker, any full-time
homemaker, is always the beHlguardian for a child despite the
recommendations of two state agencies saying the contrary; and
for a judge to give a little girl over to a young man who basically
abandoned Ms responsibilities earlier and in fact wanted to
abort lie baby he now welcomes; for a judge to do such a thing
is a disappointment and an example of why so many Americans
feel that justice is no longer served in our courts.
What Judge Casden seems to be encouraging is for Jennifer
Ireland to quit college, quit any type of work, get on welfare and
AFDC and live on the dole for the rest of her life. In that case,
she would at least be home all the time to care for Maranda.
By trying to be the exception, Ireland has been punished.
This legal precedent is indeed frightening and needs to be
overturned.
Due to several incidents of insensi
tivity toward other cultures, a multicul
tural requirement is being built into
the curriculum for liberal arts majors.
Multiculturalism, often defined as the
recognition, knowledge and under
standing of other cultures is a term
widely heard among the ears of the “po
litically correct” society including those
of liberal arts students at A&M.
This requirement, which calls for
students to take six hours in interna
tional or American cultures has
good intentions, but has
been basically watered-
down due to compromises
and amendments.
First and foremost, it
should be clearly under
stood that this require- ,
ment is only for those stu-
dents enrolled in the liber- \
al arts college. Looking at
the University catalog and de
gree plans, one will discover that
most liberal arts students will basically
fulfill some sort of international or cul
tural class before graduation.
For example, any student working
on a Bachelor of Arts degree is re
quired to take 14 hours of a foreign
language — that requirement in it
self exposes a student to a large
amount of cultural awareness.
Clearly, there are two options re
garding this issue. Either a program
should be adopted wMch would require
all majors to participate in some sort of
multiculturalism course, or do away
with the requirement all together.
The first option would open new
doors for students as far as learning,
but it would also require more facul
ty, curriculum and resources that
would simply add to the cost of at
tending the University in the first
place. Tuition costs would rise and
there would most likely be more
complaints than compliments.
The second option, doing away with
the requirement, however, would
leave liberal arts students or
any student with the option,
not the requirement to take
some of the available
classes. This would allow
for more decision-making
on the part of the students
— they would not be forced
to take cultural classes.
Being culturally aware
and educated about other
races, religions and even sexual
preferences is extremely important in
today’s world. The truth is that this
campus is a melting pot and there must
be a significant decrease in the intoler
ance and ignorance among others.
However, basically forcing students
to take a class is not going to make
them sensitive to other cultures. If any
thing, it may turn them off entirely to
the whole idea. Individuals must find it
within themselves to be tolerant, re
spectful and un derstanding — concepts
not found in a book or a classroom.
<S>WM THE P&afiP
sen
Erin Hill is a senior English major, , But vre thought eYdyune YmS free to leave Cuba ?...
: ttMggaaii
Co-op student finds out
‘what blocks are for'
Today I found out that I was blocked
from class for a parking ticket from the
spring semester. The amount due was
$15. I asked the person I talked to on the
phone to please unblock me so the Co-op
Office could register me in ENGR 385
(the co-op class for my department); this
is a one-hour class. I explained that I
was unaware of the outstanding $15 and
would mail the check this afternoon, but
could she please unblock my registration
now. She said, “That’s what blocks are
for.” She said she could not unblock my
registration until she received the check.
I explained to the clerk that I was in Vir
ginia and couldn’t just walk over to the
Pavilion to pay $15, an amount which I
am good for since I make almost that
much every hour. She was not very help
ful or friendly.
I pay this University over $1000 a se
mester and would have appreciated a $15
credit for a few days. I have never
bounced a payment to the University and
feel that I have established a reasonable
amount of credit. I felt insulted.
Well, this is my $15 check. Please un
block my registration.
Sid Boswell
Class of ’95
'Beavis and Butthead'
ban would punish cons
I would like to address a philosopMcal
query - if we want to be tough on crimi
nals, why don’t we take away the right to
watch “Beavis and Butthead” (the truly
second greatest pleasure on Earth) once
they are convicted. Let’s show the con
victs the real meaning of the phrase ‘to
suffer for past sins.’ After a year without
Beavis and Butthead, the criminals will
be repenting in hordes, and that is a
guarantee (place the accent on “guar”
otherwise you will be incorrect in pro
nouncing the word).
Well, actually this point is moot since
MTV is only airing reruns of the show.
However, after one viewing of the
episodes entitled “The Vending Machine,”
if you are a sane and well-endowed man,
you will become hooked - regardless of
how many times you have seen the
episode. In this particular episode the se
cluded Beavis is left to guard a vending
machine which had trapped a bag of Sour
Cream and Salsa Pork Rinds in its evil
clutches, and Butthead is off to find 60
cents to retrieve the bag. I can still hear
Beavis’ lonely desperate voice crying out,
“BUTTHEAD!, BUTTHEAD, Wherefore
art thou BUTTHEAD!” As Butthead sits
at home watching TV and eating nachos.
Who can forget the scene where Beav
is mocks Andy Rooney of “60 Minutes”
fame by asking questions in a skewed
voice and ending his questions with the
punctuation of “Punk That!” OK, I must
admit I live a repressed and down life,
but Funk That!
Claude E. Wilkinson
Class of ’95
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