I'ALION
Wednesday • November 9, 1994
The Battalion • Page 9
The Battalion
Editorial Board
Belinda Blancarte, Editor in chief
Mark Evans, Managing editor
Jenny Magee, Opinion editor
Sterling Hayman, Asst, 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.
Campaigns conclude
Battles and oddities entertained voters
:onds
,ch last year's
start.
jpt the sellout
tiet in the ear-
27-12 lead late
er with a run |
ee 3-pointers, [
iobert Horry,
r blocks in
ce missed aft
Congratulations! We survived.
The red, white and blue banners have
been put into storage until 1996, the
mud was left to dry and babies can
rest peacefully in their cradles with
out being accosted by overzealous can
didates — at least for a little while.
Nonetheless, the 1994 election sea
son, in true political form, embodied
all the excitement and drama of a su
permarket tabloid. The neck and neck
race between Gov.. Ann Richards and
George W. Bush occupied the spot
light. Bush berated Richards for be
ing soft on crime and not helping edu
cation, while Richards accused the
young Bush of riding on his Daddy’s
political coattails and of being an in
competent businessman. In the Texas
senatorial race, Sen.. Kay Bailey
Hutchison battled the aftermath of a
public investigation of possible mis
handling of public funds. Personal
battles between candidates grew in fe
rocity and vigor. But, at Texas A&M,
students embraced the opportunity to
proclaim their party loyalties.
Texas wasn’t the only site of politi
cal excitement and scandal, the 1994
election proved entertaining, if not
downright ridiculous, throughout the
nation. A Hawaiian candidate van
ished. A bank robber ran for the Mon
tana Legislature. And, the token dead
candidate planned to return from the
afterlife to seek re-election in West
Virginia.
Election 1994 asked voters to con
sider important questions on crime,
education, prison systems, immigrant
rights,and whether the Bush or
Kennedy family will have more rela
tives in office.
As in any good election, candidates
were quick to point out their superior
qualifications. For example, Joseph
Brennan, the Democratic candidate
for governor in Maine enticed voters
with the fact that he had “more expe
rience with firearms than any other
gubernatorial candidate.”
If the candidates were eager to tout
their personal virtues, they were
quicker to point out the deficiencies of
their opponents. In Alaska, Republi
can Jim Campbell, who is partially
bald, attacked Democrat Tony
Knowles for having “good hair” like
President Clinton.
While, elections often entertain the
population with oddities and humorous
partisan battles, they are supposed to
be serious events. The emphasis soci
ety places on the “image” of a politician
often leaves the candidates looking like
groveling children at a candy store, beg
ging for votes. As a voting public, we
should want people with integrity and
intelligence in office. But, there is al
ways 1996 to look forward to.
History must include everyone
Students will benefit from
more accurate textbooks
AJA
HENDERSON
MBMaaiBMI
Columnist
I am taking a Black Histo
ry class and loving every
minute of it. The class is
wonderful (I highly recom
mend it) and vastly enlight
ening. This experience is
very different from the ones
I encountered from elemen
tary to high school.
What usually happened
was that during Black His
tory month, my teachers would put a bookmark in her book,
stop the “real” lesson and start distributing hand-outs on
slavery and black figures. Then, we learned a neat little
phrase for buzz names like Martin Luther King, Harriet Tub-
man and Rosa Parks. Martin Luther King—I Have a Dream.
Harriet Tubman—North Star and Underground Railroad.
Rosa Parks—’’You’re not getting this seat” and the Mont
gomery Boycott. Then, as soon as March rolled around, the
teachers would tell us to open our books: It was time to “get
back down to business.”
I never felt right about all of this, I always felt like
something was missing, like I was not
getting the whole picture. Now that I
am older and have matured intellectu
ally, I look back and realize that the
reason I never felt quite right about
American history is that my history,
from both the Black and female stand
points, was in the text, but not inte
grated into the text. Yes, slavery was
touched upon, and the Civil Rights
movement was even given a couple of pages. Still, it didn’t
... flow. It was as if the pieces of the puzzle were there but
were not synthesized. The history I was taught not only
failed to synthesize Blacks into the text, but also women
and other minority group members, as well.
This will soon change.
Last week, the National Standards for United States
History released a teachers’ guide for the fifth to twelfth
grade levels. This guide adds the viewpoints of women.
Blacks, Native Americans and ordinary folks to United
States history textbooks.
The key to this whole thing is that these added views are
not just brushed upon in the books or inserted in the form of
some glossy insert, but rather are “folded into the American
landscape,” according to Newsweek magazine. Gary Nash,
the codirector of the project, said, “History comes alive with
these stories. America’s beginnings were not just a simple
tale of Americans meeting savages, it was really far more
messy and far more interesting.”
Speaking of “messy,” the debate surrounding these
changes in the way American history is taught is just that.
Critics gripe that this new curriculum is loaded with political
correctness. The biggest enigma of all is that Lynne Cheney,
the former head of the National Endowment for the Humani
ties (NEH) and the woman who appointed the panel during
the Bush administration, is complaining that the National
Standards paint a picture of America that is “gloomy.”
The history experts who compiled this work counter the
political correctness argument with the reasoning that it is
not full of political correctness, but rather correct history.
They further contend that most of the debate surrounding
this issue is missing the point. The point, they say, is to get
away from teaching history as just a spiel of one great person
to another.
Given all of this debate, you might wonder why these new
standards have been issued in the first place. Some Ags
might even be jumping up and down, damning Clinton right
about now. This idea did not start with the Clinton Adminis
tration, though, but rather in those of Reagan and Bush. A
1983 Carnegie Foundation Report revealed that American
students were lagging far behind their foreign counterparts
in key subjects. The American public lifted its voice for re
form, reform, reform!
A committee was formed, and new guidebooks for art, ge
ography and US
history are
awaiting ap
proval from a
Clinton-appoint
ed panel. Now
that the reforms
are on the table,
some folks are ei
ther singing a
different song or claiming that they never sang at all. '
Whether you see these new standards as “reforms” de
pends on where you stand as an individual on this issue. I
believe that no student, whether black, white, yellow or
red, benefits from a fragmented history lesson that treats
certain groups as inserts or as mere supplements. I think
that it is ludicrous to equate American history with the
words “white history.”
We are all Americans, so doesn’t that make your history
mine, and mine yours? By integrating women and minorities
in the history texts and not just randomly mentioning them
here and there, American students will rise to the caliber of
their foreign counterparts and gain a more accurate picture
of the making of our great nation.
Aja Henderson is a sophomore finance major
■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■I
The history I was taught not only failed to
synthesize Blacks into the text, but also
women and other minority group members,
as well. This will soon change.
Dishonesty serves as
part of everyday life
an
if
MICHAEL
LANDAUER
Columnist
&W4 TUB
NEW
“Tie illegals want the same things you do... a safe place to lire, f}ood
schools far our kids, a chance to I>e on the O.J. Simpson jury...
Mail
C^l
Professors should stop
wasting time, money
I just have one question for all of you
diligent students out there. We are here
at this University to obtain a well round
ed education to help us better ourselves
and our chances to find a job once we re
ceive our piece of paper that say we have
achieved little more than minimal stan
dards of memorization of petty facts in
the classes outside our major (a degree).
Granted, in-depth learning is of obvi
ous importance for classes that relate to
our major, but doesn’t it seem to y’all
that some of these professors waste our
time, our money, tax dollars and count
less other university resources to provide
us with information that is of no rele
vance in expanding our educational hori
zons or improving any part of our life.
I’m not saying that we shouldn’t be
required to take most of these classes
because I realize that a well rounded
education is necessary and important,
but why doesn’t this University provide
overview/general exposure classes for
non-majors in more areas.
We pay a lot of money to come to Ag-
gieland and attend this University. If
the most important part of a class is
one-day memorization for an exam,
then these professors (no matter how
few) aren’t teaching anything at all!!
What does their career consist of? Just
dictation?
Ben Krieger
Class of 97
Campus map in course
guide causes confusion
While searching for the location of a
class in a building we have never heard
of we discovered a few minor problems
on the map (p. 42) in the Spring ‘95
course guide. For example, numerical
ly, Heldenfels and the Psychology build
ings are now next to Sbisa, Wisenbaker
is now located in the Commons, and all
classes scheduled in the Academic
building will now be held in Walton
Hall. Is this some kind of cruel Aggie
joke? Is someone trying to confuse us?
Our guess is it was printed in Austin.
Renee’ Ramsey
Class of 96'
Jeannie Westmoreland
Class of ’96
Students thank prof
for bonfire hospitality
As participants of Rebuild Bonfire
‘94, we would like to thank all of the
A&M staff, professors and TA’s for a
time of understanding and leniency
during these late nights and
long days.
We would especially like to thank
our Genetics 301 professor for allow
ing us to make up our exam after
Bonfire.
It does not matter whether we are
in the corps of cadets, residence halls,
old or new students, we are all part of
this awesome student body who joined
together to keep the tradition of our
“Burning desire to beat the Hell outta
t.u.” alive!
Lance Ferrell
Class of 96
accompanied by 8 signatures
Some questions require lies. If we didn't
lie on occasions like these, people would
think we were jerks. I have fessed up to
my dishonesty, and it feels good.
The Battalion encour
ages letters to the editor
and wiil print as many as
space allows. Letters
must be 300 words or
Jess and include the au
thor's name, class, and
style, and accuracy.
Address letters to:
The Battalion - Mail Call
013 Reed McDonald
Texas A&M University
College Station, TX
77843-1111
We reserve
to edit letters for length,
E lections are over,
and we’ve been
duped again.
Many we elected yester
day have been dishon
est in one way or anoth
er. Whether it was a
mere' distortion of the
facts or a blatant lie,
we’ve been duped.
There is nothing wrong with ac
knowledging this fact. It does not di
minish the value of the democratic
system. In fact, the system practically
relies on citizens being kept in the
dark. It’s human nature, and we vot
ed for it.
We don’t like to openly admit that
we lie to each other, but we do. Some
questions require lies. Do I look good?
Do you like my new girlfriend? Would
you mind doing me a favor?
If we didn’t lie on occasions like
these, people would think we were
jerks. In Japan, it is considered un
professional to
tell the truth
when you dis
agree with a co
worker’s ideas or
information.
My roommate,
who is an inter
national studies
major, told me
the Japanese place morale above hon
esty. Telling someone their ideas
stink or that their information is
wrong might hurt morale, so one
should therefore lie.
This may sound ridiculous to us, but
certain lies are even part of common
courtesy in our society. We just like to
pretend we are completely honest.
I used to want to be a politician, but
my sister always told me I was too
honest to get into the profession. I
used this joke to win an honor as a ju
nior in high school. I won a great trip
to Washington, D.C. to see our govern
ment up close.
Part of the reason my classmates
sent me was because I told them I
knew I would be a politician someday
and I would greatly appreciate the ex
perience. Well ... I lied.
I have since decided I would never
go into politics, unless I could main
tain some form of ethics, which I think
would be unlikely. I also ruled out a
career in law for the same reasons.
Although journalism has its share of
dishonesty, it is one of the last profes
sions which rewards telling the truth.
The pay will always be crappy, but
you can live with yourself.
Lately I have felt bad about being
dishonest to someone. I’m a big be-
liev'er in the “I’m only mad because
you didn’t tell me” philosophy. My
friends can get away
with anything if they
just tell me what
they’ve done to my
face.
To this day one of
my best friends is a
guy who admitted he
had mugged with a
girl I was dating. I
thought he was a jerk for going behind
my hackbut I respected the fact that
he had the guts to tell me what he had
done. My best friend took great joy in
showing me how my actions had been
dishonest and hypocritical.
Another friend of mine recently act
ed out of character and stole some
thing. I felt that it was my duty to
make him feel guilty, which was not
difficult. Although he could not rectify
his situation, he realized he was
wrong and felt badly about it.
A few days later, he told me about a
test he had gotten back that had been
graded incorrectly. One of the mis-
!§«S
takes affected a question he had hon
estly missed. He wanted to change his
answer to the right one, and he could
have gotten away with it. His score
would have changed a whole letter
grade. It’s hard to do the right thing
in that situation, but he did.
He told me how surprised he was
that the temptation was so strong. He
said that the more often you are dis
honest, the easier it becomes. Many
people don’t smoke for that same rea
son. I have known friends who have
done almost every drug there is but
won’t touch cocaine because it is too
addictive. And yet we all dabble a lit
tle into dishonesty and expect to be
able to quit at any time.
It would be nice if we could live
honestly at all times. Unfortunately,
we are wimps. We like to leave things
the way they are and hope no one ever
finds out.
I have fessed up to my dishonesty,
and it feels good. We should not live
honestly because of the Aggie Code or
because we’re afraid people will find
out. We should try to be true to each
other because we would want them to
be honest with us.
The less we have to hide, the less
hiding we will have to do.
Michael Landauer is a
sophomore journalism major