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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 20, 1994)
Jeptember 20,15 PI ^eek .11 know, such astl •eedom of religioi don’t know as ivf ty and to make dt, is fulfilling its linson said, he Framers didi; ian they were,” Ton es day • September 20, 1994 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 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. • • • Many happy returns Constitution deserves notice on anniversiary im Page 1 ibject to the sat I drivers. ; of the Texas Li-1» As America celebrates the 207th an- Code, bicycles re niversiary of the United States Consti- hicles and are pv- tution, it should take a moment and ap- same rules and.eg. preciate the significance, purpose and other vehicles, accomplishments of this document. M ■ The words on this simple piece of said 1 f"] ^ is it lftper has formed the nation’s frame- ntaining thebicyciiBQj.k an( j up held the istmg other depan CCluntry ’ s va i ue s longer iving )K>( es. Jan any other constitu- a committee with I j . A u m, • a FITS UPD, and tlon \ n the world ' T c h } S 3 lant are research- Jcial contract careful- efficient way tore- ] \ orchestrated has not , parked bikes, he :oill y k 0 ? 1 the natl0n m tpct, but has faced many times wlen bikes challenges and has answered many here theyshouldnt complicated questions. ■ The Constitution has faced many ■■■liallenges over the last 200 years of its existence. From its original rati- brokei most; ication to its bloody survival of the 'iinnini «tnn ^ ar ’^ s guarantee of equal ••ja u r Bvil rights for all Americans, the at ni»ht Bonstitution still stands firm as iij i a: American cornerstone. The .aailgns, dill ^inking and ideas that went into )d brales." Bie Constitution were so profound that only 27 amendments have vf BettyLermi [4> eeri added in the last 207 years, r • ■ n I I Throughout the last two cen- | hliversu /ohci turies, the country has faced / man ^ difficult problems and have ‘ - relied on the age-old document for an- said. “Te most swers - The United States has looked ce is on hndicap Constitution to interpret issues general, indents , where thy such as abortion, gun control, eu thanasia and government rights. Be cause the Founding Fathers realized that the country would continue to grow and become more complicated, the document serves as an umbrellas to encompass and understand all these modern day issues. “We the people of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Jus tice, insure domestic tran quility ...” are just some of the goals the writers of the Constitution set out to accomplish. The American people need to take a look at the Con stitution and look at what all has been accom plished since the days of the original thirteen colonies. It’s time for Americans to stop looking at the negative aspects of government and focus more on its positive achievements. The Constitution is more than just a historic document - it was alive in 1798 and its alive today. It provides the nation with framework and without it ideas and rights would remain abstract. The Constitution is truly of piece of history that has re sulted in real causes of action. there araeveral | yclists freuentk f iroken mo; often i >p signs, rling at headlighti(bic)' e one on th front id a reflectc, ligbl and havinjgooi d. “These ce the are concenhtinf her rules CQ be the bicycleaws 3ge Statiorand Future will redefine or Id’s wor kpl aces echnological developments might revolutionize any industry, career B ry as far as riing 111 ome would say that work is the ’ she said. Trlol-1 ma j°r component of the American y adhere to aery; dream. For those of us in college, The UPD is lit- most would say that our major reason - because weist ^ or attending classes is to procure a i Bryan, theyde S 0 °d job and become responsible erever they wit adults. Our whole society expresses The need for success through questions like, “What do you plan to do after col lege?” or “Will your major help you plan for a successful career?” Your occupation is as important in .America as mom, apple pie and base- all (although I’m not quite sure if aseball and work should be discussed and think safe! the same sentence), said. “Yield to I Our major queries are, after all, wrong, becaus > “How are you doing?” or “What are you on a bike, AiiBp to?” We are a people who are mea- lured by our works, not by our motiva tions, and this leads to a desire to do Ihings, to have things that are conse- ji crated somehow as being important. ■ Ilf’If <1 ^h 0 P resstire t° H n d work out of col- 9 lAV^iVo I kge comes from young Americans’ need to prove to their parents that they to are responsible and can do the same kings that all adults can - make mon ey, get ulcers and get married, not al ways in that order. The only thing is, we have begun to discover that these driven maniacs of the previous genera- ord gets on the |j on are more ruthless, less wealthy and •eople will reall)' he said. ?nts will use ise they are be niversal across an use them as, markets, a JOSEF A. ELCHANAN igerous. that althoub many bicycle!■ s, it has been sr there was a fat he said, some le has seen ha even if you’re of f lutes.” Page 1 eople do not real the new form hich was imple- some students :en using Aggi nscripts. up because tt g out and nt knew about it ’iginated las 1 Student Senat ion to put tran ire $5 each, ot presented thf anscripts on fe* ,er he looked at ou’re crazy, idents get tran sfer and then slips.” putting tram os is not some- nsider. n request them ; currently em Ve graduated, ut them on fee never pay for ve outstanding Economy and self image go hand in hand. Debate about na tional debt and our generation's weakness aren't unrelated. divorced more often than any of us Iwant to be. Also, the future will not support this kind of ravenous job-ob sessed frenzy that just ended with the beginnings of the ’90s and the start of the new century. So for all of you that have made defi nite decisions about your future occupa tions (taking the same attitude that you did when you decided on your major for he third time), you may not be ready ! or the future. For instance, many of our parents went to work every day, driving from he suburbs to the business districts of great American cities to battle in offices or factories. In the near future, this may no longer be true. Instead, many of us will be working at home, using virtu al desks to go to work in a virtual office while still in our robes. Office buildings will be almost nonexistent. Manufacturing plants are already changing radically. Robots are replacing a normally unionized, expensive and temperamental workforce all around the country. With everything from automo biles to computers becoming compart mentalized and easy to fix through changeouts, mechanics and technicians will also no longer be in demand. If doctors and dentists think they are safe, they are wrong as well. Al ready, a robot is being developed that can mend broken bones. Virtual reali ty systems are also being used to study the human body inside out, a technology that can be applied to car engines and aircraft design. OK, so maybe I should get out of my cyberpunk-induced dream world and back to reality. How are we going to make money, gain power and domi nate this new world? After all, this passion and drive must be allowed to expel itself, right? I am not so sure. Cooperation and partnerships based on mutual reliance seem more and more necessary to prof itability. Companies are finding that they need to commit to their employees in a fair and just way. With the possibility of automation causing a reduction in work time per person - or increased unemployment - people will have to find interests other than staying at work all day. Our economy and our idea of our selves go hand in hand. The debate about our country being in debt and our generation being weaker than the one previous did not coinicidentally occur at the same time. What we do and how well we do it has caused a debate in America. When we talk to each other now, we question whether we will be able to compete, to do for our children what was done for us. Have we been bested by the other Europeans, Africans or Asians we left behind to form this country of freedom and democracy? Fortunately, all the debate means nothing. We will define ourselves through our actions. The jobs of the fu ture will be uncertain as every moment passes us by. People will continue to ask, “What do you want to do when you graduate?” You do not have to answer this question, you simply have to do your best to gain from the future. TUB BESW new jeg-sey Find your values - and live for them Lowell Bennion writes about recognizing priorities for 'The Things That Matter Most' ERIN HILL ur* O creativity omebody said years ago that man is an infinitesi mal bit of nothingness standing on the brink of eternity ... but each of us can carve out of the larger world a life of our own. We begin to get possession of life when we concentrate not on the whole of reality in which we feel insignificant, but when we select certain things that we are determined to live for.” So said one of my heroes, an educator and scholar from Idaho named Lowell Bennion, who taught at the University of Utah and the University of Arizona. At a time when rhetoric about values is everywhere - but the values themselves seem to be disappearing fast - Lowell Bennion’s words are refreshing. ‘Ton need to find your values and live for them,” he once said and shared some of his values, both religious and secular, in an essay called “The Things that Matter Most.” Though they are not new, they make sense. In fact, they make more than sense. They can make a person’s life fuller and more meaningful. I would like to share some of his secular values. First visualize a pyramid. At the base of it are the val ues of health and economic adequacy. Our success in these areas can determine how well we are able to culti vate other values. While ma terial possessions shouldn’t be most important, it is diffi cult to get excited about art when you are hungry. And when you are hungry, eat right, exercise and take care of your body. Good health can pro vide a strong foundation for your happiness. Up one side of Bennion’s value pyramid are what he calls sensuous satisfactions, not to be confused with sensual. Value your hearing, sight, ability to touch, taste or smell, he says. Eat slower and taste your food. Take an early morning walk and listen to the world waking up. Sleep in flannel sheets. Wear silk. On that same side of the pyramid are aesthetic feelings. Learn to enjoy the arts: music, literature, architecture and art. They aren’t just for folks in the College of Liberal Arts. On the other side of the pyramids are the values of learn ing and human relationships. Get excited about ideas, says Bennion. And give your best to your relationships, not just what is left over after all other demands have been satisfied. Columnist Pyramid of Values Integrity creativity Aesthetic Feelines creativity Sensual Satisfactions creativity Health All of these won derful things lead to the two most im portant values of this pyramid: in tegrity and love. Integrity is trying to integrate our living with our convic tions, living the way we believe we should and doing what we know to be right. For example: it’s important to be honest, not because it is the best way to get rewards but instead because we believe it to be right. Rewards may or may not follow. Love, the other key value, is the mother of all social virtues. Tolerance, patience, kindness, forbearing, forgive ness, empathy and compassion come from love. We definitely could benefit from adding this value to our lives. Love doesn’t mean we have to do for people what they want us to either. “It is an unselfish interest in the welfare of an other person,”said Bennion. For Bennion, the value that glues the entire pyramid together is that of creativity. He agrees with Remain Rolland, a tum-of- the-century French writer who fOVe said, “There is no joy but in cre ation. There are no living beings but those who create. To create is to triumph over death.” Bennion adds, “You don’t have to be a Beethoven or a Shake speare to be creative; do something with your imagination. Anytime you help a person to find their own worth, anytime you can con vey love to another human being or spark his mind, you are playing a creative role.” Lowell Bennion has played such a role in my life. He has certainly sparked my mind. I admire him because he has made his life one of meaning and purpose, and has helped others to do the same. I have tried to find my place in a world where often lit tle makes sense. Perhaps you live there too and know what I am talking about. By making sure that the things that matter most are not at the mercy of those things that matter least, and by finding values to live by, I have begun to carve out a small world for myself out of the larger one. I hope you can do the same. Erin Hill is a senior English major Human Relationships creativity Learning creativity Economic Adequacy Josef A. Elchanan is a senior business management major Who cares how others wear their backpacks? I’m writing in response to the Sept. 19 letter by Cindi Matkins and Chris Car ney. My letter’s intent is not to anger or offend anyone, but to merely inform read ers of the benefits of double-strapping. First, the backpack is ergonomically designed to be worn on both shoulders, thereby equally distributing the load across the shoulders and back. As an en gineering major, I usually carry more than just “three spirals, a five pound text, and a half dozen pencils (and a calcula tor)” to class every day. My textbook col lection rivals any set of encyclopedias in bulk and weight. Such cumbersome ma terials, though, are by no means limited to engineering majors. When I walk across campus, I often feel like I’m carry ing my Army rucksack (By the way, I have yet to single-strap my ruck on a road march). Second, it’s human nature to seek the easy way to do things. I “suck it up” enough in the classroom without MS having to suffer while in transit. A Marine Corps sergeant once told me, “It’s easy to be ‘hard’, but it’s hard to be smart.” I think that’s a pretty ap plicable statement. Finally, who cares? Maybe I like hav ing symmetrical wrinkles on both shoul ders of my shirts. Whatever the reason, who cares? I don’t. If you want to carry your backpack on one shoulder, hooah, that’s cool, too. I sincerely appreciate your growing concern for the personal ap pearance and well-being of all us double strapping Aggies; thanks for coming out. In closing, I hope everyone finds this let ter as insignificant as theirs. Gig ’em. John K. Baker Class of ’94 Cartoon depicts close mindedness, ignorance I have never been so disgusted in all my life. Sept. 14, someone decided to attack every woman who currently retains the right to choose. What I mean, specifically, is the filth on the last page: the cartoon de picting abortion as the slaughter of children. Ha, ha, funny; Ditto, Rush. I can’t believe that there are Aggies out there that are so oblivious to the rights of women that they would try to make them feel guilty about using them. The right to choose an abortion is the right of every woman, whether or not she believes in abortion, she still has that option. What kind of a world are we coming to when we begin to limit the rights of our people? It seems to me as if anti-choicers want to digress back to the era of poll taxes and grandfather clauses because that’s where their belief to limit rights be longs. I, on the other hand, want to keep progressing to a time when everyone will be treated fairly. When they will be able to exercise the entire faculty of their rights without fear of being killed or injured by an angry, gun-toting anti-choicer who cannot live with the fact that their opinion is not universal. I can understand that there are some closed-minded people in this world, because I know that they are ignorant and do not under stand the other side of the argument. Rene F. Aguiluz Class of ’9 7 Jennifer Elaine Ybarra Class of ’9 7 The Battalion encour ages letters to the editor and will print as many as space allows, tetters must be 500 words or less and include the au thor's name, dass, and We reserve the right style, and accuracy. Address letters to: The Battalion Mail Call 013 Reed McDonald Texas A&M University College Station, TX 77843-1 111 Fax; (409) 845-2647