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The Battalion
Estublished in 1893
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.
Mark Smith
Editor in chief
jay Robbins
Senior Managing
editor
Heather Winch
Managing editor
for Business
Sterling Hayman
Opinion editor
Erin Hill
Asst, opinion editor
Editorial
Responsible Reading
The CSISD should ensure that students learn
how to prevent pregnancies and STDs.
The College Station Independent
School District is acting irresponsibly
by refusing to use any of the three
state-adopted health textbooks that
contain information about contracep
tives. As a result, it is sending the
wrong message to students and deny
ing them important infonnation.
In this day and age, it is vital for
students above a fifth-'grade level to
learn not only about sexually trans
mitted diseases and teenage pregnan
cies, but also how to prevent them.
This mission will not be accomplished
if students are not taught about con
traceptive devices.
It is naive to think that all stu
dents will use abstinence as a method
of preventing STDs and pregnancies.
This is by no means realistic. Individ
uals as young as 13 years old may be
engaging in sexual activity and at the
same time may becoming a statistic of
AIDS or of teenage pregnancies. As a
society, people believe that the rate of
AIDS is entirely too high, but ironical
ly, some schools are refusing to teach
about prevention.
All aspects of sex education, includ
ing the use of contraceptives, must
start in the schools. While it is true
that some children may learn about
sex in the home, in today’s world the
classroom is the only forum for such
discussions for many students. If chil
dren do not hear it from parents or
teachers, they will hear it from friends
and other sources; and in most cases,
they will be presented erroneous and
possibly detrimental information.
By teaching children at a young age
about the dangers of unprotected sex
and the methods of prevention, these
children have a better chance to grow
up to be mature, responsible adults
who understand the consequences of
their actions. This may not be true in
all cases, but by teaching about con
traceptives in health classes, perhaps
the number of AIDS cases and other
sexually transmitted diseases will be
gin to decrease.
The College Station Independent
School District should reconsider their
choice about these state-adopted
health books. Institutions of public ed
ucation must strive to keep up with
the needs of a changing, and one such
need is the education of our youth
about the dangers of unprotected sex.
wSmt i
The Battalion
Paee 13
TUB
M£W
Newspapers give public
balance of fact, opinion
W ith more relia
bility than
many alarm
clocks, every morning it
is always there. It isn’t
always in the same
spot, but it is always
there. Waiting in a
dew-drenched plastic
bag, that roll of smudgy
newsprint gives this crazy world a
kind of indexed cohesiveness.
Newspapers have a great tradition
in America. From scrawny young
boys yelling, “Extra! Extra! Read all
about it” to Yellow-Dog journalism,
newspapers have been known for ag
gressive competition that was
spurred by the desire to “scoop” the
competing newspapers.
Newspapers are heralded as the
government’s report card in a democ
racy. They are a forum to debate new
and old ideas. They are entertainment
and information, tragedy and joy —
the great recorders of history.
But one cannot help but feel that
newspapers have entered into the twi
light of their career in the world of
communication.
This feeling touched many close to
home last week, when the Hearst
Foundation bought the Houston Post’s
assets and brought their presses to si
lence after 115 years.
But Houston isn’t the only city that
has been forced to rely on a single
newspaper. The Houston Chronicle
named at least 22 major newspapers
that have been closed or merged in the
past 11 years.
It doesn’t come as any surprise that
the voice of newspapers is being muf
fled by all the other forms of media.
“We’re in the age of information,”
said Richard Shafer, an A&M journal
ism professor in a Houston Chronicle
article. “Newspapers have their place.
But they have a lot of competition
from other media: television, radio and
electronic mail. So it’s natural we’ll
have less newspaper readership.”
Newspapers aren’t the first indus
try forced to bow to new technology.
The candle and lantern makers of
the 18th century must have hated
handing over the responsibility of illu
mination over to Thomas Edison and
his light bulb.
There is one major flaw with the
candle/light bulb analogy. Light bulbs,
candles and lanterns all have a com
mon purpose — to produce light. And
light for the standard purposes, except
for wattage variation, is light.
However, news, the product of the
media, is far less definable. While
most people would agree that the light
bulb was a positive advancement in
the business of producing light, it is
not so certain that newspaper’s wan
ing popularity as a news
source is such a good
thing.
The brevity and conve
nience of telecommunica
tions has taught busy
Americans to snack on
soundbites while forego
ing a healthy, balanced
meal of newspaper read
ing. This same philosophy explains why
there is at least one Dairy Queen in every
American town. We like things fast and
convenient; substance isn’t necessarily a
major concern.
Television and radio newscasts
aren’t designed to give in-depth infor
mation. They give the basic facts.
When journalism students are taught
to write in broadcast style, they are
told to eliminate detail under the as
sumption that interested viewers will
turn to a newspaper for comprehen
sive coverage. Television and radio
newscasts function wonderfully in giv
ing their basic information, but they
simply lack the time that is necessary
to go into proper detail.
Another integral part of newspa
pers, that only appears in a watered-
down form in telecommunication
broadcasts, is opinion pieces.
Television and radio stations are far
too concerned with ratings and boxed
into time frames to carry the wide
range of varying opinions, some of
which are radical and unpopular.
It would be a great tragedy if radi
cal opinions lost their passageway to
moderate citizens.
Maybe we don’t agree with radical
ideas, but many times we find a flower
in a plot of mud.
Furthermore, one of the surest
ways for people to figure out what
they do believe in is to know for sure
what they do not believe in.
Newspapers will probably still be
an integral part of the world of com
munication for many years to come,
but it is the form that they will be in
that remains unanswered.
It is very possible that our children
will read the comics by clicking on icon
of Ziggy.
And maybe there is nothing funda
mentally wrong with using computers
as a medium to distribute newspapers.
The dog can’t fetch it in the morning,
but it would save paper.
The past couple of decades have one
thing clear — the convenience of
telecommunications has blown out the
candle on the days of competing daily
newspapers. Only the future will tell
us the news of what became of the
great American tradition of newspaper
journalism.
Aggie Buck expansion raises questions
Drew
Diener
T he evolution of Aggie
Bucks took another step
forward last week when
the Texas House of Represen
tatives passed a bill permit
ting the usage of Aggie Bucks
at off-campus locations.
For the bill to be enacted,
it must pass a vote in the
Texas Senate. Assuming the
bill passes in the Senate, students will likely be able to pur
chase books, groceries, meals, gas and other goods at various
off-campus businesses.
Although University officials are unsure exactly what prod
ucts would be available for purchase with Aggie Bucks, it is al
most certain that alcoholic beverages will not be among them.
In an April 21 article in The Battalion, which announced
the bill’s passage in the House, Texas Aggie Bookstores own
er John Raney said that, “the only concern that the Universi
ty has expressed to local businesses is that alcohol could not
be purchased.”
The University’s stance on this matter raises the question:
By not allowing Aggie Bucks to be used in purchasing alco
hol, is the University trying to govern the morals of the stu
dent body and community, or is the University being appre
hensive of any legal debacle it may face if someone was to
purchase alcohol with his or her Aggie Bucks and get into an
alcohol-related accident?
The University would almost assuredly justify their posi
tion by claiming the latter. But how much, if any, trouble
could the University find itself in if an alcohol-related acci
dent was to occur after someone involved purchased alcohol
with his or her Aggie Bucks?
If the University would indeed find themselves in the heat
of legal turmoil over such an incident, then their stance on
the policy is correct. In the case of Aggie Bucks, the Universi
ty, a state institution, is essentially acting as a broker in that
they hold debit accounts for students that allow for purchase
of items outside of University domain. Without the Universi
ty acting in such a capacity, Aggie Bucks would only be al
lowed to be used at University-owned businesses like the din
ing halls. That is considered a monopoly, and that’s why the
scope of Aggie Bucks usage will, with an almost assured pass
ing vote in the Senate, expand to off-campus businesses.
So if the University is essentially a mere broker in the pur
chasing process, why would they face legal consequences if an
alcohol-related accident were to occur? In its capacity as a
broker, the University selects which businesses will be al
lowed to take Aggie Bucks as a purchasing means.
By selecting the businesses that will be allowed to deal in
Aggie Bucks, the University has a hand in the purchasing
process even if it is not selling the products itself.
It would appear, that as a broker, the University has
made itself a viable cog in the legal puzzle if something
tragic were to happen.
However, who’s to say that if a person uses his or her Ag
gie Bucks to buy a piece of pizza from an off-campus vendor,
and that person gets some horrid digestive disease, that the
University would not be liable. Acting as a broker, the Uni
versity selected that business as one that would be allowed to
accept Aggie Bucks.
True, the business did not sell alcohol to the student, but it
fed the student bad food that resulted in a fatal case 6f food
poisoning. What is the difference between that and a fatal
drunk driving accident?
The drunk driver, a 21 year-old Aggie Bucks using stu
dent, died after leaving a bar where he or she became intoxi
cated by alcohol purchased with Aggie Bucks.
The food poisoned pizza lover, an Aggie Bucks using stu
dent of regardless age, died after eating a piece of bad pizza
purchased with Aggie Bucks.
What is the difference? Both students were well within
their legal rights in making their respective purchases. Both
purchases ended fatally.
It’s the 1990s, someone is going to sue.
Will they come after the University? Possibly.
Is that what the University believes? Possibly.
Is that the reasoning it may give us for not allowing Aggie
Bucks to be used in purchasing alcohol? Probably.
Given the threat that the multi-headed monster bred
from the mere inception of Aggie Bucks poses to the Uni
versity and the community as it relates to the sale of alco
hol, my guess is that the University ideally wants to govern
the morals of the Aggie Buck-holding student body, and do
so by hiding behind the robe of Mother Justice.
The student body will buy into the the University’s word
that potential legal troubles are too much to risk when mea
sured against the sale of alcohol via University-brokered Ag
gie Bucks.
That is a shame, not only for the 21-and-over Aggie Bucks-
holding faction of the University, but for the integrity of the
University itself.
Drew Diener is a junior English major
Jenny Magee is a junior English
and journalism major
MAIL
call
Republican agenda
sadly misrepresented
As a conservative, I feel compelled to
respond to Sterling Hayman’s April 20
column. Surprisingly, I am more open-
minded than most people would expect
from a conservative.
However, there is nothing I disre
spect more than an uninformed opinion.
I believe Hayman was grossly unin
formed in this article.
First, the misconception that the Re
publicans in Congress want to cut fed
erally subsidized school lunch programs
is just not correct.
Actually, the federal government will
be increasing the school lunch program
by three to four percent, given to the
states as grants. Rest assured that the
children will not “go undernourished.”
Second, all Americans would not be
paying income tax under the flat tax
bill. The proposed legislation would ac
tually raise the tax exempt statue to
Americans making less than $25,000.
As the tax code stands now, the
wealthy can utilize so many loopholes
and tax write-offs that their tax per
centage is much lower than their tax
bracket would suggest. A flat tax would
prevent the use of these techniques and
actually raise the percentage they are
currently paying.
Finally, I would like to address the
fact that FYesident Clinton has not low
ered the deficit; he has merely slowed
its growth.
Furthermore, since he refinanced the
national debt on short-term bonds, the
interest payments have soared, piling
more on the budget deficit.
It saddens me to see a political science
major stoop to the depths of party politics
when he asserts that the Democrats are
suddenly the “better party.”
Curtis Neason
Class of ’96
Taylor right on target
condemning Shalala
I just wanted to let David Taylor
know how much I appreciated reading
his column, "Vietnam Vets still deserve
respect." I always thought Vietnam
Vets were always the least respected.
And I do remember my History 106
class when there were many people who
protested the government and its
wicked ways for sending troops to fight
a winless war. I never really under
stood, though, why they were protest
ing. I always thought that we shouldn't
have been protesting the war, but sup
porting the troops that left their Mother
country to fight in the war. To die for
the country that seemed to turn its
back when they most needed it. It's nev
er too late to respect the ones-that gave
their life for one's country.
It's not a political thing.
Anybody that is willing to give
blood, sweat and tears deserves my re
spect; I could care less what any secre
tary of health says. And anybody that
is willing to stand up to people like
Shalala, who does not seem to respect
the People, should be considered the
"best and brightest."
Joseph Piotrowski
Class of ’97
Threat of terrorism no
reason to deny rights
If there is one thing in this world
that truly disgusts me, it is the knee
jerk reaction of those who would give
up their civil rights in the face of ter
rorism.
Adam Hill's opinion guest column
on Monday, April 24, which suggested
that we should grant 'total authority'
to a 'counter terrorism agency' flies in
the face of everything that our govern
ment is founded on.
Hill is calling for nothing short of a
return to the McCarthy era purges of
suspected communists.
It seems that the communists of
yesterday have become the terrorists
of today.
I am not advocating leniency to
ward terrorists. Rather, I ask that the
government abide by the laws of the
land and respect the rights of its law-
abiding citizens in its search for the
perpetrators of this heinous crime.
It is only when the terrorists have
struck such fear in the hearts of
Americans that we are willing to give
up our civil rights that they have tru
ly won.
Stanley Wood
Class of ’96
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 for length, style,
clarity and accuracy. Letters may be submitted in person
at 01 3 Reed McDonald. A valid student I.D. is required.
Letters may also be mailed to:
The Battalion - Mail Call Fax: (409) 845-2647
01 3 Reed McDonald E-mail:
Texas A&M University Batt@tamvm1.tamu.edu
College Station, TX 77843-1111