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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 26, 1995)
The Battalion • Page 5 Monday • June 26, 1995 June 26,1% rous opinio: ;r spoke fort ugurated bus;, esegregation: public access; banced womet Us crimination us health pro! as hospital^ nonia. died last yea: nd a daughte: ildren. ^hips Hedies itify the dogs »rd said, rn back to the; sure they ar be animals c: s competitk ps. Three coir! d not all sea: jchips. ' agreement o:-, response froil better off if i lary medicine ome a popular r pets until it's? sed most wittB ily have a: d take the doe s on, though.' mascot. A mi- stolen and re| *gest rsities acation. cal American ill of Europe ra,” Lawler 3 sit and di experiencing, ppreciate the nior Spanisl study abroac ilahara. She who taught cellent. ssors were Wells said, ery helpful; M studentsl ould be pre w obstacles . >n, a senior , vent to Italy :| ludson said l remember te different ites. ; being in a mtry com Hudson ivenient so Europeans mscious as nuch more information udy Abroad ;an call 845- lizzell Hall. Tses ifety safer if bicy 11 the rules. would stay and not the ouldn’t be a i said. “The i force traffit :s, including Smith, a se ness major, links bicycle ould be able o the scene accident or ency faster a police offi n a car. like the hat bicycle "s patrol ar- • f campus rking lots Smith said revent bur in.” puntiotsi igh near 94, ph. rological SocieO White House at fault for failed nomination D r. Henry Foster should have been the next surgeon general of the United States. For those of you who live in a vac uum — please e-mail me directions if you do — Dr. Foster was not con firmed by the Senate as surgeon gen eral of the United States. Dr. Foster went before the Senate committee and said, gosh, I don’t re member doing any abortions. A few days later, when he was reminded, he said, well, maybe a dozen or so... Well, next thing you know, a dozen became 40 ... and then 50 ... and then finally 55. I guess this is what they cadi “new math.” Dr. Foster’s nomination was doomed from the get-go, but not because he had performed abortions. Rather, Foster went down because he misled Con gress about performing abortions. It didn’t have to happen this way. Take a close look at Clinton’s cabinet, and it reads like a list of Who’s Who in the world of pro-choice. All these people had to be confirmed by Congress. In fact. Dr. Foster’s would-be boss at the Department of Health and Human Ser vices, Donna Shalala, is a strong supporter of abortion on demand. Obviously, the real problem is not Dr. Foster’s stance on abortion. For some reason. Congress has this peculiar tendency to become an noyed when it thinks someone is pulling a snow job. Dr. Foster, in the eyes of the Senate, was pulling a snow job. This wasn’t a partisan problem. Oliver North felt the ire of a misled Congress as much as Lani Guinier and Zoe Baird. The fact of the matter is the president never should have sent a nomina tion to the Senate without a detailed background check first. This is the whole reason why we have Senate confirmation hearings. It isn’t meant to be a rubber stamp, and we would be poorly served if it was. This mess begs a question. Why would Foster lie to the Senate? Henry Foster is an intelligent, widely-respected and civic-minded man who is well-qualified to be surgeon general. Why trash all this with a lie? One guess might be that he was told to lie in a misguided and amateurish attempt to overcome po tential controversy. If that was the case, it was a bad plan. Anything that forces scrutiny on an issue as divi sive as abortion is guaranteed to become political. Barbara Boxer, the ever-sanctimonious senator from California, declared in an ever-so-sanctimo- nious voice that Senators should not play politics with the surgeon general nomination. Just a thought: the job description of “politician” includes “politics.” On Thursday, President Clinton stated, “Make no mistake about it, this vote was about nothing more than a woman’s right to choose.” Note to Clinton from Boxer: presidents should not play politics with the surgeon general nomination. The surgeon general is not supposed to be a politi cal position. For example, Dr. C. Everrit Koop was the surgeon general for many yearn under both Presi dents Reagan and Bush. The only guarantee anyone had about Koop was that he would say what the re search indicated, whether it was popular or not. Dr. Foster was nominated to replace a surgeon general who always would state her opinion, whether any facts existed or not. Is Henry Foster the best possible choice to replace former Surgeon General Dr. Jocelyn Elders? Not in my mind. Throwing gasoline on a fire will only make it burn hotter. At this point. Dr. Foster must feel pretty scorched. Then there’s the president. A frustrated congressman from Clinton’s own party told CNN last week , “If you don’t like the president’s policy, just wait a few days and it will change.” Dr. Foster, unfortunately, was the recipient of about 14 different “strategies” (that means “idea we came up with at 3 a.m. this morning) all meant to strengthen the chances of his securing confirmation. I know it’s radical and pretty unpopular, but ever so often, people — like, say senators — react very well to the truth. This nomination was done in by the politics of Mr. Magooism — that wonderfully fun-to-watch game where someone accidentally does the right thing and knocks everyone else over at the same time. When the president makes his next nomination for surgeon general, assuming Congress doesn’t eliminate the position, Clinton may want to do a lit tle counting first. If that new math doesn’t work, he can try fingers and toes. David Taylor is a senior management major The B/viiwi.ioini 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 Foster Failure The U.S. Senate should have voted on the surgeon general nominee. Last Thursday, the U.S. Senate let the American pub lic down. Not that this is any thing new, but each time the senators fail to do their jobs, it deserves attention. One duty of the Senate is to vote on the confirmation of the president’s nominations for positions such as surgeon general. But the senators just didn’t bother to vote on Dr. Henry Fos ter, Clinton’s surgeon general nominee. During Foster’s career as a physician, he performed 39 legal abortions. So two senators decid ed to filibuster the Senate’s vote for Foster’s confirmation. Cloture, the procedure used to stop the filibuster, fell three votes short and was not achieved, despite the fact that Foster had enough support to be confirmed had the nomina tion been put to a vote. The blame for this injustice falls squarely on the shoulders of Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, R—Kan., and Sen. Phil Gramm, R—Texas. The two front runners for the Republican nomi nation for president seemed so obsessed with the politics of the 1996 election, they forgot one of their most important current re sponsibilities. Abortion always will be a con troversial issue in American pol itics. Despite differing views on the morality of abortion, the fact remains that each of the abor tions Foster performed was le gal. Foster’s stance on abortion should not have been the Sen ate’s sole reason for preventing his confirmation. Unfortunately, special in terest groups controlled these confirmation proceedings. The Christian Coalition issued a letter to all senators, stating that a vote of “no” would not suffice, but that the issue must not even go to vote. The letter warned that, “Cloture will be scored in the Christian Coalition scorecard which is distributed to mil lions of voters nationwide.” In short, senators who even sup ported an actual vote on Fos ter’s nomination would lose Christian Coalition support. The real issue here is not whether Foster performed abortions but whether he could lead the nation’s medical professionals and whether he had the necessary qualifica tions to fill the position. Texas A&M Health Center Director Dr. Kenneth Dirks thinks Foster was more than qualified. Dirks said Dr. Foster founded the “I Have a Future” program in Nashville to fight teen pregnan cy, and because of it, he was des ignated a “point of light” by Re publican President George Bush. Foster also was Chief of Ob stetrics and Gynecology at George W. Hubbard Hospital of Meharry Medical College from 1973 to 1990, and in 1990 became Dean of the school of medicine and vice president for health ser vices at the same institution. But all the wisdom from those experiences will not matter be cause the Senate will never vote on the nomination. Americans don’t have to stand for this kind of disrespect. Senators were hired to do a job, the voting public should make sure they do it. Mai i A&M faculty, staff deserve pay raises This letter is in response to Ginger Coffin’s June 25 letter to the editor and the 19 signatures sent in with it. Our staff has been patient about salary increases. Our last pay raise was three years ago and was a small 3-per cent increase. Drop by the A&M employ ment office and look at our pay scales sometime. A fee increase hurts you, as I am well aware. The cost of living hurts us. The last three years has seen the cost of life increase a little more than 4 percent each year. We have been patient, but we have to make a living wage to provide for our families. The staff at TAMU maintains the facilities and provides ser vices that allow the students to study at our University. Charles F. Walden TAMU Graphics Arts Center The Battalion encourages letters to the editor and will print as many as space al lows. 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, and accuracy. Address letters to: The Battalion - Mail Call 013 Reed McDonald Bldg. Texas A&M University College Station, TX 77843-1111 Fax: (409) 845-2647 ©WS TH£ FBCQ&? NEW J*=f3£eY ’Til Death Do Us Part? Unrealistic expectations account for soaring divorce rates Elizabeth Preston Columnist L ast weekend I attended the wedding of a friend. In addition, I have six friends or acquain tances my age or younger who are en gaged to be married. This is a frighten ing prospect, one many people do not take as seriously as they should. In 1992, 2,362,000 people were married in the United States, while 1,215,000 peo ple were divorced, according to the prelimi nary findings of the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics. Almost one third of all marriages in the United States end in divorce. This is part of the reason it seems odd to look around the classrooms of Texas A&M and see so many diamonds winking from the hands of friends and strangers alike. Not everyone wants to wait until they are finished with college - or even high school - to get married. The reasons behind these young mar riages range from unexpected pregnancies to finding intense compatibility with some one met at a young age. While the hormones are raging and the young love is flowing, it is relatively easy to gaze into each other’s eyes and promise “forever.” However, time and closeness all too of ten turn love into boredom and ultimately disgust. Young couples should take several steps to make sure their love is a durable one, in stead of marching blindly down the aisle to the tune of “Love Will Conquer All.” Firstly and most importantly, those who enter into a marriage should do so with open eyes. A recent study on unrealistic be liefs for mate selection by Dr. Jeffry H. Larson found that some of the ^ biggest problems in marriages result from erroneous beliefs many of us have heard all of our lives. These include: “There is a ‘one and only’ right person in the world for each person to marry,” “Being in love with someone is suffi cient reason to marry that person,” and “Un til a person finds the perfect person to mar ry, they should not be satisfied.” Larson points out that these and other commonly-held beliefs are dangerous be cause they encourage people to have impos sible expectations about their mate. He suggests alternatives to these beliefs could be, • “There are several individuals to whom a person could be happily married.” • “Although romantic love is important ... other factors are equally or more impor tant to marital satisfaction and should be considered before marriage.” • “No one is perfect.” Marriage is not always a blissful state of affairs filled with endless shared giggles and serious talks about the state of the world. At its worst, it is a messy, difficult and trying experience. At its best, it is a sound base for the partners to count on and grow from. Marriage is an endeavor that must be nourished, encouraged and respected in or der to succeed. Simply believing a person is “The One” is simply not enough to make a marriage last. No marriage is always at its best, and not many thrive on the lowest level. It is important that marriage partners care enough about their relationship and each other to make it through the difficult and boring times, as well as the dramatic and exciting ones. Attending premarital counseling is a good way for partners to find out if they are compatible. While this may seem expensive or use less now, recognizing problems and expec tations of each other is well worth the cou ple of hundred dollars. In addition, the communication tech niques learned in these sessions may save marriages down the line. Everyone has seen marriages that should have never taken place, or seen friends who were very happy dating and then were married and quickly began dis agreeing all the time. Those thinking about marriage should have realistic expectations of their part ners. It is naive and foolish to pretend the giggly, excited love between newly-weds will be enough to last for the rest of their lives. Anyone in a relationship should take a closer look at their partner and make sure that person is someone who they are will ing to work hard with to make a marriage last a lifetime. Though it may not seem like it now, the pain of breaking up today will be 100 per cent easier than the pain of a divorce later. Elizabeth Preston is a senior English major TFhE ByVTTTALLIOfSr 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 GeORCANDIS, Sports Editor Stew Milne, Photo Editor News: The Battalion news department is managed by stu dents at Texas A&M University in the Division of Student Publications, a unit of the Department of Journalism. News offices are in 013 Reed McDonald Building. Newsroom hours: Sunday, 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. Monday - Thursday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday 1 0 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://1 28.194.30.84 Subscriptions: A part of the Student Services Fee entitles each Texas A&M student to pick up a single copy of The Battalion. 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