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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 19, 1995)
Tme B^vtt^veion 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 JUNETEENTH We should all observe the holiday and continue to work for equality. So many times when a person sits down to read the newspaper, the stories tell of scandal, murder and other forms of mayhem. Not very familiar are the times when the news is good or joyous. But today is definitely a day to celebrate. Today is Juneteenth. On the nineteenth of June, 1865, word reached Texas of the Emancipation Proclamation, and slavery was no more. The day has become an anniversary to celebrate with fervor, as much if not more than the Fourth of July. In 1776, those men who became free celebrated, while their African-American slaves sang songs about enduring captivity. Almost a century later, these wrongs were made right. In theory. There is much work that still needs to be done. No one should stop until everyone can rest assured “they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character,” an idea preached by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. However, Juneteenth is a day set aside to celebrate our society’s racial accom plishments before continu ing the quest for freedom and equality. There are few precious days like this, so we should all take part in its celebration. We should remember those who gave their lives so that others could live free. We should stand on the shoulders of giants — the past and present leaders of the civil rights movement — and make every effort to advance their ideas. Over a century ago, the black slaves of Texas learned of their freedom and cele brated. One-hundred and thirty years after that mo mentous occasion, we should celebrate still. However, we should re member that the fight for equality has not yet been won. One day set aside to cel ebrate an achievement is pointless unless we recognize that more can be done. Juneteenth should serve as a reminder that our soci ety is not perfect. In our cele bration of the holiday, we also should recognize our re sponsibility to do even more. Increased fees not fault of students Why should the A&M stu dents pay for the controversial errors and questionable power struggle created by those in au thority over the students? The $6.8 million budgeting shortfall at Texas A&M is not the fault of the students, but is in the hands of the perpetrators and “management.” Justice will prevail. Helen Pugh College Station Rap music must be able to police itself It is long been an American tradition to generalize or stereo type those things about which we are ignorant. It seems that “gangsta” rap is the current re cipient of such unfair treatment. Sen. Bob Dole and the other politicians who occasionally comment on rap music, consis tently generalize about gangsta rap. They make references to the use of racial slurs, sexist language and violence against women. These “hot topic” references incline the uneducated citizen to think these lyrics are repre sentative of all gangsta rap. As a student of rap music since its beginning, I, too, am alarmed at some of the gangsta rap that actually gets produced. I don’t support a lot of what is Mail out now. I believe that much of it is simply capitalizing on a fad and preying upon our youth. I agree that we might need some guidelines for what is produced. But Sen. Dole and his fellow congressmen are hardly in a po sition to be the ones to set such guidelines. They are not follow ers of rap music. They do not possess the ability to put these songs and lyrics in their proper context. They rarely, if ever, sit down to understand these rap pers’ feelings and the communi ties from which they come. This being the case, they can not be the ones to “police” rap music. Give me Ice Cube, Q-Tip, Chuck D. and GangStarr. Let these rappers be the judges if there must be judges. Rap must be controlled by its artists, not by outsiders focus ing solely on individual pieces of the puzzle. For those who say rappers have yet to “police” themselves: Very few of the record labels that distribute, sell and make the most money from rap music are owned by rappers. Ironically, those in control of the major companies look more like Sen. Dole than Russell Simmons. Another irony is that country star Ty Herndon was recently arrested on indecency and drug possession charges. I wonder if congressmen will crucify him like Tupac and make sweeping generalizations about country music. I doubt it. e7. Frank Hernandez Class of ’95 The Battalion • Page 5 Monday • June 19, 1995 Does O 5 Grady fit definition of “hero?” A nother American hero was suppos edly created last week with the rescue of Air Force pilot Scott O’Grady. Many different fac tors contributed to his rise to fame. President Clinton and his admin istration, in an attempt to manipulate the polls, quickly hailed him as a hero and invit ed him to the White House. The American public automatically fell for the sensationalism surrounding the story and watched every development as if it were the O.J. Simpson trial. The press, as always, scrambled to report every detail in the race to boost ratings. The truth is that O’Grady is not a hero, and President Clinton and his staff deserve little commendation for O’Grady’s rescue. In addition to joyfully celebrating O’Grady’s re turn from Bosnia, Americans should ques tion why he was in enemy territory in the first place. O’Grady was the average Air Force pilot before this incident, according to a recent ar- tice in Newsweek. His SAT’s were too low to enter a service academy, so he learned to fly at a small aeronautical school. Then he joined the Air Force and began flying fighter planes. According to his broth er Paul, he loved to fly, and the Air Force quickly became his life. His F-16 fighter plane was shot down over Bosnia as he was flying over enemy territo ry. He parachuted down to the ground and survived off the land for six days. Then an other Air Force pilot picked up his weak ra dio signal and a group of Marines went in to rescue him — a story as American as apple pie. This is all well and good — an American pilot rescued from a treacherous and dangerous place is certainly cause for celebration. And of course, this rescue was dramatic enough for the national magazines and newspapers to throw O’Grady on their front covers and hail him as a hero. The problem remains that he still isn’t a hero. While it is nifty that O’Grady likes to fly, believes in God and his country, that he re membered his survival course and even that he didn’t eat the “fuzzy” bugs, all of this has little to do with whether or not he is a hero. It is also neat-o that 41 Marines were sent in and successfully saved him, but this still does not make him a hero. An unanswered question remains. Why exactly he was flying over enemy territory where he could have been shot down in the first place? If the Serbians, or anyone else for that matter, were flying fighter planes over America, United States forces would proba bly shoot them down before they got half a mile into our territory. O’Grady was already two to three miles into enemy territory when he was shot down. Our military probably would have cap tured the foreign pilot immediately and then interrogated them intensely. So what gives America the right to fly fighter planes over other countries territo ries, rescue the downed pilot and then hail him as a hero? The truth is we can do this because we are a bigger and stronger country and have a tougher reputation than almost any other nation in the world today. When America talks, other countries not only listen, they usually cower. And that is exactly the way we expect and want it to happen. Scott O’Grady is not a hero. It is great that he is home safely, and a relief that he was not captured, tortured or killed. But should he have been there in the first place? The American public is so busy hailing him as a returning hero that they have forgotten ; to ask questions. For President Clinton and his adminis tration to use this in the media as a politi- - cal victory that they somehow orchestrated- is ridiculous. However, he has used this in-- cident as a personal and political victory I and has gained popularity with the Ameri- ; can public. This illustrates that Clinton’s popularity - is based on more than his domestic policies I or his bumbling way of handling foreign af- 1 fairs. Perhaps the president sees this as an * opportunity to cover his lackluster dealings with the new Republican-led Congress. It is sad that the president’s popularity is I affected so intensely by an Air Force mishap,! and on the Marines luck in rescuing the downed American pilot. Eleanor Roosevelt, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Barbara Jordan are stellar ex amples of true American heroes. These three people changed the way we view different races and genders, and their accomplish ments will be felt for generations. In comparison, is Scott O’Grady really a hero? Elizabeth Preston is a senior English major Texas Legislature needs major reconstruction I n 1981, Texas State Repre sentative Mike Martin paid his cousin Charlie to shoot him in the arm with a shot gun and then claimed the injury was committed by a satanic and communistic cult. Why? Because he thought it would help him get re-elected. It seems that Martin wanted the voters to take notice of his pro-family and pro-American stances by stressing that the “bad guys” were out to get him. Well, Martin’s cousin finally confessed, and Martin went into hiding. The Texas Rangers were called to track him down, and he was found hiding in his mother’s house in her stereo cabinet. This true story, as told by Molly Ivins in her book titled, Molly Ivins Can’t Say That, Can She?, illustrates just what kind of freaks Texans have the tendency to elect to the Legisla ture. You may think Martin was just one ‘Lad egg” in an otherwise normal legislative body, but unfor tunately, that’s not the case. Texas boasts a long line of odd legislators. Ivins, who has studied the Texas Legisla ture for over 20 years, tells of many such weird members. •Former House Speaker Gib Lewis, after issuing a pro- claimation on Disability Day, asked the disabled persons who had filled the gallery with their wheelchairs to “stand and be recognized.” •Former State Representa tive Hudson Moyers went to prison for buying a pickup truck with postage stamps from his legislative expense account. • Former State Representa tive Walter Knapp, after being released from prison, where he spent some time for abusing his postage priviledges, killed his ex-wife and then himself. Democracy is a wonderful thing, ain’t it? Well, a Republican-led idea in Washington that continues to gain momentum calls for the national government to trans fer more power to the state gov ernments, where more respon sible legislating can take place. Obviously, these people have never been to Texas. However, our Legislature cannot help the way it is. It was designed to be that way. In 1876, the framers of the Texas Constitution decided that the state legislature would only need to meet for 140 days, every two years. As the state has grown and Texas’ problems have become more complex, the Legislature has kept its original format. Also, our legislators should not be expected to be professional. Representing the citizens of Texas is only structured as a part-time job. After all, it only pays $7,200 a year. That’s less than most blue- collar workers make. It’s sad knowing that some Texas legislators have success fully applied for food stamps. This low pay has largely con tributed to the fact that the Legislature is heavily influ enced, if not controlled, by spe cial interest groups. These in- ! terest groups like to help make up for the legislators’ low pay. However, Republicans are ; convinced that programs such as welfare. Medicare and edu cation would best be handled by the state legislatures. In theory, this idea seems logi cal. After all, different states have different needs, and the politi cians of each state should be able to best assess those needs. But unfortunately, the prerequisites for elected officials in Texas some times aren’t that high. The structure of the Texas legislature needs some serious adjustments. We cannot expect our repre sentatives to responsibly legis late when we only pay them enough to flip burgers. Maybe if we made represent ing the state of Texas a full time job, we would no longer have to look for our legislators in stereo cabinets. Sterling Hayman is a senior polical science major Sterling Hayman Opinion Editor TTme B/VriyYI_I O TS1 Editorial Staff Jay Robbins, editor in Chief Rob CLARK, Managing Editor STERLING Hayman, Opinion Editor GRETCHEN PERRENOT, City Editor JODY Holley, Night News Editor Stacy Stanton, night News Editor Michael Landauer, aggieufe Editor NlCK 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 Aggieufe Desk - Feature Writers: Amy Collier & Libe Goad; Columnist: Amy Uptmor Sportswriters - David Winder and Lee Weight Opinion Desk - Assistant Editor: Kyle Littlefield; Columnists: Elizabeth Preston, Frank Stan ford & David Taylor; Contributing Colum nists: Justin Barnett, Margaret Gordon, 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 Page Designers - News: Kristin DeLuca Sports: Robin Greathouse; Aggielife: Stew Milne Copy Editors — Rob Clark & Sterling Hayman Graphic Artists — Toon Boonyavanich & Melissa Oldham Strip Cartoonists — Valerie Myers & Quatro Oakley Office Staff - Office Manager: Julie Thomas; Clerks: Wendy Crockett & Heather Harris News: The Battalion news department is managed by students at Texas A&M University in the Divi sion of Student Publications, a unit of the De partment of Journalism. News offices are in 01 3 Reed McDonald Building. Newsroom hours: Sunday, 2 p.m. to 1 0 p.m. Monday — Thursday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Newsroom phone: 845-3313; Fax: 845-2647 E-mail: Batt@tamvm1.tamu.edu The Battalion Online: The Battalion offers photos and the day's headlines on the worldwide web. Web Site: http://128.194.30.84 Advertising: Publication of advertising does not im ply sponsorship or endorsement by The Bat talion. For campus, local and national dis play advertising, call 845-2696. For classi fied advertising, call 845-0569. Advertising offices are in 015 Reed McDonald and of fice hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Fax: 845-2678. Subscriptions: A part of the Student Services Fee entitles each Texas A&M student to pick up a single copy of The Battalion. Mail subscriptions are $20 per semester, $40 per school year and $50 per full year. To charge by VISA, MasterCard, Discover or American Express, call 845-2611. 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