pinioist
The Battalion • Page 5
Tuesday • June 6, 1995
TmE RyV I T /V LICTTNI
Established in 1893
Editorials appearing in The Battalion reflect the views
of the editorials 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.
Editorials Board
jay Robbins
Editor in Chief
Rob Clark
Managing Editor
Sterling Hayman
Opinion Editor
Kyle Littlefield
Assistant Opinion Editor
Playing Politics
Wilson should not attempt to end
all affirmative action programs.
Last week, California gov
ernor and Republican presi
dential candidate Pete Wilson
signed an executive order
eliminating all affirmative ac
tion programs not mandated
by federal or state law.
Unfortunately, good politics
does not always mean good
policy. Gov. Wilson’s blatant
attempt to score political
points has come at the ex
pense of many beneficial and
even necessary affirmative ac
tion programs.
The order applies only to
previously issued executive or
ders, but it will have a large
impact in certain areas.
It eliminates about 150
advisory boards that
offer guidance to
state agencies on
affirmative action
and hiring goals.
It also will
greatly impact
several hundred
million dollars
worth of contracts
in the Depart
ment of Trans
portation,
since the s
order re- Ad
duces the r
amount
of pro
ject contract mon
ey set aside for minority- and
woman-owned businesses from
20 percent to 10 percent.
In an open letter to Califor
nians released at the same
time, Wilson encouraged resi
dents to pass the California
Civil Rights Initiative, a No
vember 1996 ballot proposal
that would eliminate affirma
tive action programs in state
jobs and higher education en
rollment. He has also request
ed that governing boards at
state colleges and universities
follow his lead when dealing
with admissions.
Gov. Wilson is sending a
negative message — that all af
firmative action programs lack
merit. This notion is untrue.
Although affirmative action
has made progress in reducing
discriminatory hiring prac
tices towards women and mi
norities, discrimination still
exists. In many cases, affirma
tive action programs allow
historically disadvantaged
groups to compete on an equal
basis with white males.
Diversity especially is im
portant in educational institu
tions. State colleges and uni
versities should seek to repre
sent as many sections of
American society as possible.
The need for these types of
programs still exists, even at
Texas A&M University. The
representation of minority
faculty members and students
at A&M is far below where it
should be.
Gov. Wilson’s
hypocrisy on the
issue of affirma
tive action has
reduced
his credi
bility on
the sub
ject. As
mayor of San
Diego, he
supported sev
eral affirmative
action pro
grams. At the
signing cere
mony of the
executive
order, he
sat in
front of a group of exclusively
female and minority firefight
ers, although his statement
mentioned moving “toward a
colorblind society.”
Presidential politics have
obviously entered the picture,
as his press office issued a
statement trumpeting Gov.
Wilson as “the nation’s first
governor to roll back affirma
tive action programs.”
Hopefully, Gov. Wilson’s
actions will not encourage
other political leaders to ex
ploit the complex and sensi
tive issue of affirmative action
for political gain.
The lack of good judgment
and hypocrisy Gov. Wilson
has displayed do not serve
Californians well, and are
traits that certainly should
not be spread to other states
and institutions.
Christian “contract” not family-based
P oor old Christianity, it
sure is lying down with
some strange bedfel
lows these days. A few
weeks ago, Ralph Reed and
his 1.6-million-member
Christian Coalition unveiled
the “Christian” sequel to the
Republican Party’s Contract
With America.
Their new set of suggestions is titled the
“Contract With the American Family,” But
I have had a little trouble determining just
what exactly is family-oriented about this
new package, other than its title. For one,
I’ve always been a little suspicious of the
right-wing fundamentalist definition of ex
actly what constitutes a family.
Under one provision of the earlier Re
publican Contract, specifically the Person
al Responsibility Act, more than S60 billion
in governmental spending on poor women
and children would be gutted from the fed
eral budget over the next five years. This
would be accomplished mostly through the
elimination of such programs as Aid to
Families with Dependent Children, food
stamps, the Jobs Program, as well as oth
ers whose aim is to guarantee child nutri
tion, protection and welfare.
These programs would all be lumped
into block grants given by the federal gov
ernment to the individual states. The
states would be under no obligation to
spend the money in the same manner in
which it was originally being spent, and
some predict that the net result of all of
this tinkering would be the elimination of
government aid to 6.1 million children and
their families. So, maybe the right-wingers
responsible for this little gem might want
to modify the name of their new contract to
read “Contract With the Financially Inde
pendent American Family.”
Because poor families sure as
hell aren’t going to be any
better off under this “pro-fam
ily” union of politics and reli
gion.
But wait, the concerned
reader might pause, even if
the Republican contract is ap
parently targeting the depen
dent poor, where is the link between it and
Reed’s Christian Coalition?
Well, other than the more than Si mil
lion that the Coalition donated to the Re
publican party’s efforts to get the contract
passed, not much.
And, in return for this generous out
burst of Christian charity, the conscien
tious observer might have noticed such Re
publican party honchos as Newt Gingrich
and Bob Dole vociferously condoning the
Christian Coalition’s own little contract.
The Christian right is starting to swing
some formidable weight within the con
fines of the Republican party, and it’s a
safe bet that the right people have sat up
and taken notice.
So, just what does this new “Contract
With the American Family” set out to
change? Well, for one, it seeks the elimina
tion of such programs as the National En
dowment for the Arts, the Corporation for
Public Broadcasting and the National Ser
vice programs created under Clinton a few
years ago. Boy, those Christian Coalition
guys sure must be pretty sharp.
I hadn’t even thought about looking for
Satan and his anti-family denizens on
Sesame Street, in the local community
symphony or in the programs designed to
improve our country through skilled, vol
unteer labor.
The main point of the Contract is that it
proposes a possible constitutional amend
ment designed to allow the expression of
“voluntary” religious sentiments in our
public schools.
This means that students would be able
to pray before football games, observe a
moment of silence sometime during the
day and place religious symbols and arti
facts in prominent places throughout the
school.
My gosh, for a group of people that seem
to have no trouble remembering and apply
ing the Second Amendment of the Consti
tution to the benefit and protection of us
all, these guys still can’t seem to get a grip
on that pesky “separation of church and
state” thing.
If you hang a picture of Jesus on the
wall and then tell everybody that religions
other than Christianity are still accept
able, it isn’t that far of a leap to figuring
out which religion is not only acceptable,
but preferred.
Christianity may be the predominant re
ligion represented in our public schools,
but it certainly isn’t the only one. “Volun
tary” moments of prayer only serve to dif
ferentiate between the religious and the
non-religious.
Maybe some of our public school stu
dents could use this generously provided
prayer time to their benefit each morning
if all of the pieces of the Coalition’s and the
Republican Contracts are enacted.
If the government won’t feed, house and
clothe a poor child, there doesn’t seem to
be any harm in appealing to a higher pow
er. The Republicans and the Christian
Coalition may not be listening to the poor.
Maybe God will.
Chris Stidvent is a senior
philosophy major
OWG 7W£ FBcoff?
I ALLIES
Childhood, advice still applies to college students
“Look before you cross”
T exas A&M often seems
like a world unto it
self. Here, the rules of
the “real” world don’t seem
to apply.
This manifests itself in
many ways, from students
who survive off of ranch
dressing and soda pop to
ones who sleep until noon
and stay awake until three in the
morning.
One particular way that we all par
ticipate in thumbing our noses at the
general rules of society is when we cross
the street. Students on campus general
ly act as if cars do not even exist.
Usually the most a student does be
fore crossing a busy street is to hold the
book that they are reading a little high
er so they do not trip while stepping
down the curb.
This becomes a problem when stu
dents begin ignoring crosswalks, walk
ing out from behind bushes without
looking and generally making it impos
sible for drivers to
even guess where they
will pop out of.
I am a part of this
problem. My policy is
to pretend that I am
not crossing the street,
so I don’t have to stop
what I am doing.
I don’t deign to look
at the cars I walk in front of — this cam
pus is for pedestrians (I righteously de
clare in my head).
Motorists have come to understand
these rules, and they tend to drive very
slowly when on campus. Usually.
Today, a cyclist was quickly wheeling
out of between the old and new parts of
the Chemistry building and crossing the
street to Halbouty. Following the usual
college rules of street crossing — cross
walk? what is a crosswalk? — he sped
into the street.
The problem was that he was about
two feet away from a little old man in a
huge, old car, and that the cyclist was
Elizabeth
Preston
speeding out from between two buildings.
The motorist slammed on his brakes and
the car squealed to a halt.
The cyclist barely looked twice
as he sped on his way.
The driver was a little more
shaken.
He stepped out of his car and
shook his head in dismay and
awe at the audacity of the stu
dent cyclist, all the while holding
his hand over his heart.
Those of us who were watch
ing shook our heads in wonder
and murmured to each other
about the need for paying more
attention while crossing the
street.
It was by the skin of his teeth
that the cyclist did not end up in
an accident or worse.
The campus is still saddened by
the thought of Trevor Shockley, an
A&M student who was involved
in a bicyclq/bus accident last se
mester. While it has not been
decided whose fault that was,
both probably could have been
driving more defensively.
This cannot just be ex
plained away as a college
campus problem. I spent
endless hours at the Uni
versity of Houston while
my mom was finishing her
dissertation.
I have also been to Pennsyl
vania State University three times
— all while school was in session.
The University of Houston is a
commuter school, so the cars there ac
tually have the right of way over the
pedestrians. Students must wait pa
tiently for several minutes as cars
whiz by on the many campus streets.
Penn State has a campus much like
A&M’s. It is located in a small, college
town with approximately 40,000 students.
When I began to cross the street without
looking or hesitating, my friend
grabbed my elbow and pulled me
out of the way of the oncoming
traffic. I was even at a crosswalk.
She explained to me — in language
that she would normally reserve for a
particularly dense 3-year-old — that in
Pennsylvania they look before crossing
the street. Sheepishly, I began to follow
her lead.
It is a great part of Texas A&M that
the drivers on campus have learned to
act with caution and drive very slowly.
Unfortunately, this does not stop all
accidents.
Students will continue to be injured
until they realize that they are not in
vincible.
If Robert Fulgham, the author of All 1
Needed to Know I Learned in Kinder
garten, is right and we all did learn
everything we needed to know in kinder
garten then a lot of us have forgotten one
of the most important lessons.
Look both ways before you cross the
street. Your life could depend on it.
Elizabeth Preston is a senior
English major
TThE 13 /VTTyY IICT N
Editorial Staff
Jay Robbins, editor in Chief
Rob Clark, Managing Editor
Sterling Hayman, Opinion Editor
GretCHEN Perrenot, Cm Editor
JODY Holley, Night News Editor
Stacy Stanton, night News Editor
MICHAEL Landauer, Aggielife Editor
Nick Georgandis, Sports Editor
Stew Milne, Photo Editor
Staff Members
City Desk - Assistant Editor: Eleanor Colvin; Re
porters: Katherine Arnold, Javier Hinojosa,
Scott McMahan, Jill Saunders, Michael Sim
mons, Wes Swift & Tara Wilkinson
Aggielife Desk - Feature Writers: Kristen Adams,
Amy Collier & Libe Goad; Columnist: Amy
Uptmor
Sportswriters — David Winder and Lee Wright
Opinion Desk - Assistant Editor: Kyle Littlefield;
Columnists: Elizabeth Preston, Frank Stan
ford & David Taylor; Contributing Colum
nists: Justin Barnett, Margaret Cordon, Alex
Miller, Chris Stidvent & Mark Zane; Editori
al Writers: Jason Brown & Alex Walters;
Editorial Cartoonists: Brad Graeber &
George Nasr
Photographers — Mike Friend, Roger Hsieh, Nick
Rodnicki & Eddy Wylie
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DeRocha; Sports: Robin Greathouse; Ag
gielife: Stew Milne
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Oldham
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Office Staff - Office Manager: Julie Thomas;
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