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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 18, 1995)
July 18, illness. The duo love an Ameri- nobody here at nobody came id he came to son sings a nev- about relation- Is like a comer- adents may har ; lyrics lackma s musical so ld eventually pe lt the top of the nisrioisr The Battalion • Page 5 Tuesday • July 18, 1995 ' at is wrong with bisexuality Elizabeth Preston Columnist O iveland, when >m 40 years suddenly fir: .ching the ber ■Id. By the fe me stand end- acobs Fields out 21 consec. aurs day’s gan: the Indians k: because then: Id honor 41,i ily about ok my seats an igh the resit tnday cmditioning. E: itt Smith said- best shape of: blown out of p 5 ready, n the bestsk year, and It right track," si id last seaso: ers in the NI game has ms: n-to-back char “Watching the per Bowl let r mouths, ng that’s on o. a lot of play; rd in the off-s: • bodies in aha: d to go througi dls i 13tii uson moved jroundout at ady Andersoi r’s sixth-innit sas a 2-1 leads <levin Brown hs row. The hot t of the gamei tome run cont . streak agair ter Texas tea: . Palmeiro k langers via ft; try after the 1$ on and was ('■ g his best yf professional h lay was intf by last seaso: smendous deff e 13th inning away. Witho' Juan Gonza! rive toward If- at Orioles’ sk en managed y hobbling is as able to fire Gonzalez i’ loss kept thf nd California [ very relationship has at least one thing in common, I they all need boundaries. ■Some are clearer than others, /bile some boundaries are so blurred that they almost don’t ex ist. If people live with either too few or too many boundaries, then there is usually trouble. For instance, if a professor makes sexual or rovocative jokes with a student, that profes- or has stepped over the student/professor oundary and into the gray world of sexual arassment. If your significant other asks your best riend out, and your best friend accepts, hey have both stepped over very clear boundaries and have probably destroyed both relationships. On the other hand, when people have too many boundaries, they spend a lot of their lime making sure those boundaries are protected. However, people who are lacking in boundaries often reach out to everyone and have trouble saying “no” to anything. A lot of these people end up abusing drugs or liv ing reckless lives. One social phenomenon that has no boundaries is bisexuality. Newsweek wrote a positively gleeful y article last week chronicling the rise of a “new generation of sexuality.” The bisexual people featured in this article were not only excited, but eager to share de- giPails about their open marriages, free sexuali ty and cutting-edge coolness, s Many of the people quoted seemed to be coming from not only another perspective, but another planet. I For instance, Howard University professor and new father Elias Farajaje-Jones, who be lieves that gender lines aren’t definite, said that when people ask if his child is a girl or a boy, he replies, “Ask the baby.” In another example, a 25- year-old bisexual man, said “I don’t desire a gender, I de sire a person.” Bisexuals are not neces sarily promiscuous, and sev eral who were interviewed were involved in long-term, committed relationships. However, sexual orientation destroys many boundaries that are better left alone. My best friend and I were dis cussing bisexuality a few years ago, and on an intel lectual level we could ra tionalize being attracted to women. $ $ hotosl >N > FOR After all, we often notice at tractive women and comment on their beauty, and we feel closer to some women friends than we uo with some men we have dated. However, we realized that as soon as both genders Eire objects of sexual attraction, problems would arise. This would make both genders subject to the weird and crazy feelings that usually ac company sexual relationships. When I am fighting with a boyfriend or am sad about a bad date, my women friends are people who I can count on to be sympathetic and understanding of my problems. Likewise, homosexuals have the opposite gender who they can count on for non-sexual friendship and advice. With friends of the opposite sex — even men who I have never had any romantic interest in — there is always an edge of sexual tension — whether good or bad, intense or slight. If I find the person attractive, I am more likely to flirt and tease, whereas if I do not find them attractive, I am always extremely careful not to flirt or act in a sexual manner. However, bisexuals have no boundaries set up against sexuality, because every re lationship that they participate in has sex ual potential. Jenny, a 23-year-old bisexual I spoke with, said this isn’t a problem because sex brings people closer together. “I sleep with my best friend because it gives us a different bond than most friendships. Also, my husband and I don’t believe in monogamy. Why should we limit ourselves to one person or one sex when you can explore the bounds of your sexuality with every gender?” I couldn’t have argued against bisexuality any better myself. Sexuality is important and provides many comforting and tender moments. But any sexual relationship is occasionally fraught with tension, despair, nervousness and jealousy. In a non-sexual relationship these things generally are missing, or at least they are not felt as passionately or as often. Instead, non-sexual relationships offer sta bility and a calm that many sexual relation ships cannot match. Bisexuality is not wrong. But it is a world without boundaries, a needlessly- complicated world where sexuality satu rates too many aspects of life. Elizabeth Preston is a senior English major &WS TWE Ram? N£W ARE YOU SAYING THAT THEY MAKE BULLETS THAT PIERCE THESE THINGS!! TThE ByVT TA,LI ON 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 Flawed focus Race should not be a factor in deciding the fate of adoptions. A Texas court case con cerning allegations that an Austin couple’s adoption was delayed by state social work ers because the children were of a different race than their prospective parents, has raised questions about the adoption process and the ethics involved in interracial adoptions. The couple, an American Indian and her Caucasian husband, currently is seek ing the adoption of two black children and claims that state social workers are de laying the adoption process based on the fact that the adoption would be create an interracial family. Hopefully, this is not the case. Adoption agencies are re sponsible for finding the best possible homes for those chil dren who are without families or whose families have de serted them. Neither the race of the children nor that of the par ents should even be a factor in deciding the fate of the adoption. For an adoption agency to deny an adoption based on the issue of race smacks of segregation and should not be tolerated. If a state agency decides that one family is better than another simply because of race, this action clearly would be racist. Far too many children to day are in need of families that can provide the love and attention that orphanages and state agencies cannot. When the adoption process is halted by such a trivial issue, the entire process suffers. Couples interested in adopting children can become discouraged, and the place ment of the children in loving homes can become delayed even more. The children are the most important reasons of all for the adoption process to not fo cus on such particulars. Adoption agencies should worry about more important things such as the number of children who are in need of families and the number of children who are being abused or neglected. The couples who are inter ested in adoptions are acting in the children’s interest. The state should follow their lead. Today’s youth must actively take part in shaping the future It T he laws of time teach us that there are 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours in a day and 365 days in a year. These are cold, boring facts which we rarely pay attention to. However, if we are not careful, the constant march of time passing by can lull us to sleep. And the deeper into sleep we go, the harder it is to wake us up. Today, America’s youth are comatose. We have been put to sleep by society. We have been taught not to care if we ever wake up. We have learned to think so little of ourselves that we are only satisfied when we sleep. I admit that I too have been sleeping. I took a dose of America’s sleeping pill and fell into a deep slumber. Now I have awakened ... and my, how things have changed. I remember the days of the movement to free Nelson Mandela, when shanties were erected on Texas A&M’s campus (and each time destroyed in the night). F*ublic Enemy had us fighting the power, and Spike Lee told us to “do the right thing.” Frank ERNANDEZ Guest Columnist “X” caps in red, black and green were spotted everywhere, and a march was held following the Rodney King verdict (which is a misnomer — King wasn’t on trial). I look around A&M today and see that students have disappeared from the scene, both physically and mentally. Why? The problems still exist. Minority enrollment has increased, but not sub stantially, and not from a percentage basis. The faculty still shines with a dominant white hue. “Multiculturalism” is still a foreign word that seems to translate as an expletive. Athletics is still more important than acade mics. The Aggie Band still has a larger budget than the Department of Multicultural Services. And more money will be spent on a special-events center than on expanding the library. In all fairness, however, I shouldn’t blame the students’ disappearance entirely on Texas A&M. The reality is that society as a whole has de stroyed us. We are taught that our young minds are only good for talk shows that give us free rein to shame ourselves. Attending college can be an unrealistic pipe dream because some students must endlessly search on campus for anyone that looks like them. These are the stale messages that are fed to us everyday, seasoned with self-hate. We have fool ishly eaten this poison and actually thanked soci ety for giving us something to do. The messages we receive from this community alone reek with the stench of destruction and worthlessness. Some law-enforcement officers feel paddywag- ons are necessary to convince us to quiet down at a house party. And others haunt our every pool party, hiding behind the facade of “we received a complaint.” We often are seen as gang-banging, car-drop ping, bass-booming punks who cannot be allowed to freely associate without supervision. Ironically, society teaches us that all of this was our creation. We are the ones who brought this about. It’s the way we live. It’s a fact of our lives. The time has come to wake up. We must rise up and destroy these negative characteristics that have been unjustly put upon us. If we return to the business of educating our selves, involving ourselves, and changing our selves, we will overcome society’s desire to judge us by their prejudices. But, we must first reject the notion that we are too young to make a difference. We cannot fall prey to society’s desire to talk “at” us like children while speaking “for” us as if we were mute. Martin Luther King, Jr. was in his mid-20s when the Montgomery Bus Boycott began. SNCC stood for the “Student” Non-Violent Coordinating Committee. The fraternities and sororities we now join were started by students. If we choose to, we can set our minds on re building ourselves. We can enter into intellectual conversations about the state of this world and our unrealized dreams. We can fight every time we see society pointing us in a negative direction. We can attack every in stance of prejudice and reshape society’s attitude toward us. We can stand tall and proud, with dignity, class and self-respect. Our youth is our strength. We are the future. Let us lead, for we have the energy. We simply need to wake up and find the desire. J. Frank Hernandez is a senior agricultural journalism major DAY. APPLY. TT HI E B /VTU P/VLICDN Editorial Staff Jay Robbins, Editor in Chief ROB CLARK, Managing Editor Sterling Hayman, Opinion Editor GretchFN PERRENOT, City 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, Jill Saunders, Michael Simmons, Wes Swift & Tara Wilkinson Aggielife Desk - Assistant Editor: Amy Collier Fea ture Writers: Elizabeth Garrett, 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 Craeber & 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 013 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 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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