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The Battalion • Page 5:
Thursday • June 15> 19951
Street brawl blurs definition of personal
"1% /■” any of us consider our-
I %/1 selves good citizens. It is-
JL ▼ JLn’t until being a good citi-
■ zen conflicts with our individual
j; ; notions of right and wrong that we
• become aware of what we sacrifice
j || to be good citizens.
I witnessed two fights a few
* days ago.
Both were instigated by the same
| 1 group of guys, who seemingly were just looking for
iW a fight.
Normally, I wouldn’t get involved, but it was
■ four guys beating the crap out of one guy. They
i|! were kicking him in the face repeatedly while he
!| was on the ground, and laughing while doing so.
H I knew he was in trouble, so I told my friend to
H call the police while I went over to offer help.
By the time I was able to get to the fight, the
. four aggressors had run away. The guy who had
been kicked was bleeding from the mouth and
;! had a confused look on his face.
He wanted to go after the guys, but I convinced
H j him to stay and wait for the police to arrive.
His friends showed up and tried to find the
| guys who had beat him up.
Within minutes, another fight had broken out
on a nearby street. It seemed to be the same four
6 I'j guys that were involved in the first fight.
But this time, they were working some other
guy over with a metal object, while his friends des
perately pleaded for help.
It seemed like I was watching a
“Cops” episode as the blood poured
from his head.
I felt sick to my stomach watch
ing it happen, so I ran back to call
the police again — they still were
nowhere to be found.
I waited for the police to arrive.
But before they could get there, the
guys who had started the first fight were ap
proaching the area where I was standing.
So here I was with a moral dilemma on my
hands.
The “bad guys” were getting away, and I —
with all of my vigilante-esque thoughts — could
stop them from escaping.
It was all of the things that are drilled into us
during childhood: “The bad guys should never get
away,” “You should be a hero ... do something,”
“Only a coward would turn their back on what just
happened — you have a responsibility.”
As children, we are bombarded with images of
superheroes foiling the bad guys.
Television shows like “Scooby Doo” taught us
that average citizens could show the bad guys a
thing or two. Books such as the “Hardy Boys Se
ries” or “Encyclopedia Brown” implied that we
could be vigilantes and take the law into our own
hands. And with little consequence — television
shows and books always had neat, happy endings.
These childhood memories forced the testos
terone dream into my head of delivering a blow
to one of the aggressors. You know — the kind of
punch you have your whole body behind, the
kind where the person who’s been hit doesn’t
wake up for a while after.
The mere fact that I am a male and that soci
ety’s view of the stereotypical male is one of
strength, compounds the decision to do what is
“right.” I can hear some of my friends right now
saying, “Man, you should have whooped some ass.”
It’s easy to talk in retrospect about what you
would have done. So many thoughts were blitz
ing around in my head: anger, excitement, fear. I
wasn’t quite sure what was going to happen — I
felt detached and out of control.
And then there was another voice in my head:
“You’ve called the cops; you’ve done what is ex
pected of you as a citizen.” “Don’t get involved;
this isn’t your problem.”
I didn’t take any impulsive swings or try to
stop them in any way that night. I would have
been fooling myself. I probably would have only
gotten hurt if I had stepped in.
Sure, I might have been lauded as a hero if I
had nabbed the bad guys. And I probably would
have been arrested and chastised for being stu
pid if they had beat me up and escaped.
For the time being, I was satisfied with my
minimal civilian efforts of calling the police.
But shortly after, I regretted not decking one
responsibility;
of the guys as they passed me. I kept thinking of-
the helpless guy they were kicking in the head. •
They had already shown their penchant for
fighting unfairly. Even in junior high, when I
saw a guy throw a combination lock into the face
of another guy, spraying blood and teeth all over
the locker room floor, I wasn’t as sickened be
cause it was one on one.
It can be argued that I did nothing
wrong, have nothing to feel guilty
about and, in fact, did everything
the way I was supposed to do.
There were two wrongs that night — the cruel
beatings that occurred and the fact that those
responsible got away, which I feel was partially
my fault.
It can be argued that, as a responsible citizen,
I did nothing wrong, have nothing to feel guilty
about and, in fact, did everything the way I was
supposed to do. But being a slave to the strong
influence of the attractive, fictional world, I feel
that I should have done more.
Coming to terms with reality can sometimes
be a real punch in the face.
Kyle Littlefield is a senior
journalism major
The
Editorials Board
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.
Jay Robbins
Editor in Chief
Rob Clark
Managing Editor
Sterling Hayman
Opinion Editor
Kyle Littlefield
Assistant Opinion Editor
Mantle’s Example
Students should be aware of the
effects of abusing alcohol.
Baseball legend Mickey
Mantle’s recent bout with liver
cancer and subsequent organ
transplant have succeeded in
bringing badly-needed attention
to the shortage of organ donors
in our country. Perhaps more
important to college students,
though, is the reminder of the
dangers of alcohol abuse.
Mantle’s “four decades of
drinking,” which began in his
early 20s, undoubtedly helped
bring about the hepatitis C, cir
rhosis and liver cancer he suf
fered from. Disturbingly, many
college students are following in
Mantle’s footsteps.
More college students
drink than people of the same
age who do not attend college,
and people who have had
more than 12 years of educa
tion are twice as likely to be
drinkers than others.
The degree of heavy alcohol
consumption is shocking. In a re
cent survey conducted by the Na
tional Institute on Drug Abuse,
almost four percent of all college
students said they would drink
every single day next month.
A University of Iowa study
reported that three percent of all
18- to 25-year-olds have experi
enced alcohol withdrawal symp
toms, even though it usually
takes several years of drinking
to develop such a tolerance and
addiction to alcohol. Heavy alco
hol consumption often leads to
drunk-driving accidents and sex
ual assaults.
Obviously, most colleges, in
cluding Texas A&M University,
have problems with alcohol, and
the immediate risks usually do
not appear as threatening as
the eventual dangers.
Studies indicate that be
tween 240,000 and 360,000
current college students will
eventually die of alcohol-relat
ed causes. Most of these deaths
are preventable, and responsi
ble behavior now can ward off
future problems.
Binge drinking and frequent
drinking both can lead to chron
ic alcohol abuse or alcoholism.
Students should be aware of
these dangers and shape their
behavior accordingly.
Mickey Mantle’s lifelong
struggle with alcohol should
make everyone aware of the con
sequences of alcohol abuse, and
he was one of the lucky ones.
Many others face a similar
situation but are not given a
second chance.
Hopefully, Mantle’s example
will prevent many others from
making the same mistake.
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See^ to
GET AtWviHfcfcf?
fteVEK
Dole not the first to
attack rap, movies
This is in response to Rob
Clark’s column and the editorial
about Bob Dole’s stance against
the entertainment industry.
Clark begins by saying, “The
censors are coming.”
May I remind Clark that Sen.
Dole stated, “I am talking about
citizenship not censorship.”
Clark claims that Sen. Dole
wouldn’t last a minute in L.A.
Maybe not, but he does live
in Washington, D.C., the crime
capital of the U.S. Also, Sen.
Dole has probably never lis
tened to rap music, but you
don’t have to smell garbage to
know it’s trash.
It is sad how some speech is
considered obscene depending
on who says it.
Mai I-
O 11
These groups can use lyrics
filled with racial slurs, state
ments full of hatred and sexist-
language, and some consider it
acceptable.
But others would be reviled
and persecuted if they made
such statements.
Rap artists are excused be
cause they “are products of
their environment.”
Mr. Dole is not the first to
make such an attack. Republi
cans and Democrats alike have
been saying these same things
for years.
Leaders such as Sen. Daniel
Patrick Moynihan, William
Bennett and former Vice Presi
dent Dan Quayle have all made
similar attacks.
Heaven forbid that a presi
dential nominee say those
things: he is just being judgmen
tal and seeking political gain.
President Clinton has dis
cussed the same things, but
where was the backlash against
him? There wasn’t any, and nor
should there have been.
Where is the NAACP in re
sponse to “gangsta” rap?
The editors of the Battalion
are right — there is a double stan
dard. But not by Sen. Bob Dole.
Jason Frasier
Class of ’96
Ideas of McCarthy
still plague society
This letter is in response to
Rob Clark’s column on June 8,
“Dole’s duel with entertainment
is misguided.”
It seems that Dole and his
golf buddies’ problems with
rap music is deeper than sim
ply disagreeing with songs
about killing policemen and re
jecting the law.
Obviously, Dole sees this
voice from the depths of society
as threatening the traditional,
American way of life — not the
American way of life that he
wants us to associate with, but
his American way of life, the
way of life of the status quo.
Bob Dole, who has worked
hard his entire life to inherit
his comfortable position in
American society, is concerned
that the members of the lower
class are pulling their way up
from the muck by speaking
against America’s so called
“capitalist democracy.”
Not too long ago, a senator
by the name of Joseph Mc
Carthy saw his cush position
in America threatened by the
murmur of communism —
which proposed to elevate the
working class to a similar sta
tus as the ruling rich.
In order to protect his way of
life, he wanted to eliminate this
idea from Americans.
Dole brilliantly echoes that
with his insightful “think what I
think you should” philosophy.
Matthew T. Krueger
Class of ’94
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