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The Battalion • Page 5>
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Thursday • July 20, 1995'3
pfobacco industry renders Congress powerless
Kyle
Littlefield
Asst. Opinion
Editor
t’s not fair. You plan a picnic
with your girlfriend or boyfriend,
and I mean you go all out.
None of this, taking a package of
amchables. Oh no, you make egg
salad sandwiches, you pack the red
|and white-checkered ground spread
md the wicker basket, and you find
serene place away from everybody
dse near the lake.
Everything is perfect, and then from out of
nowhere, the sky turns an ominous gray, and be
fore you now it, you are frantically gathering all
the goods up and running for the car to get out of
the rain.
It’s not fair.
It is times like these that you feel hopeless, af-
|ter all, you can’t do anything about the rain.
There are countless occurrences such as this
jin life.
You believe something should be a certain way
— that it would be beneficial for you or for others
if it was — but somehow things just don’t work
out. Many times, frustration sets in.
Congress is a good example.
Needed legislation is introduced that the ma
jority of constituents support. For a minute, the
constituents are actually being represented. But
then something goes wrong. The bottom drops
out on the push to get the legislation passed.
; : The greater good proposed by the legislation
loses its appeal to the members
of Congress.
What is happening?
Well, a large chunk of the
blame should be placed in the
hands of interest groups and
their lobbyists.
If they can “persuade” one
member of Congress, then he or
she might nudge a fellow legisla
tor and whisper, “hey, if you don’t vote this way,
you might not be able to count on my vote for the
legislation that you you are supporting.”
The most likely reply is, “sure, count me in.”
Before you know it, amidst all of the back-
scratching, the “greater good” legislation which
had so much promise, is forgotten.
And who can blame the Congress members?
That’s the way the system works.
But there should be exceptions. Especially in
situations where the public health is at risk.
Tobacco accounts for more than 400,000
deaths each year in the United States alone, ac
cording to an article in JAMA.
The article also states that “tobacco is respon
sible for more deaths than alcohol consumption,
illicit drug use, violence, automobile crashes, un
intentional injuries and the human immunodefi
ciency virus epidemic combined.”
In simpler terms, it’s bad stuff.
But what happens when legislation, such as
tax increases on cigarettes, is introduced that
would decrease tobacco-related deaths?
The tobacco industry calls up its most accom
plished schmoozers and tells them to get to work.
Lobbyists are paid to give cop-out excuses like
justifying cigarettes and alcohol as a “cultural
thing” — that the government is out to take away
the only pleasures the common man has.
And then lobbyists feed on Congress members
like parasites, telling them that if they support
anti-tobacco legislation, they will lose the vote of
the grass-roots farmer, the small business owner
and the areas where tobacco is grown.
And if that is not enough to make a legislator
change his or her mind, extra dollars are always
lying around in the form of PAC contributions.
Lobbyists are paid to give cop-out
excuses like justifying cigarettes
and alcohol as a ^cultural thing."
In fact, the JAMA article details a direct rela
tionship between Congress members who re
ceived PAC dollars and the way they voted on
anti-tobacco legislation. No surprises here.
And although that the FDA now officially rec
ognizes nicotine as a drug, and the push to pass
anti-tobacco legislation through once more has
found wind, we shouldn’t get our hopes up.
The tobacco industry, which continues to
deny that nicotine is addictive, that smoking
causes cancer and that cigarette ads featuring
cartoons such as camels are appealing to chil
dren, will gear up to fight, and because of its
stronghold on the political system, will probably
win once again. ;
There are two main problems which keep anti- •
tobacco legislation from passing.
The tobacco industry has legislators convinced
that they would lose constituent votes if they
supported anti-tobacco legislation. This is a real
istic threat — legislators must look out for them
selves, too.
Also, political campaigns have to be funded by
someone, the tobacco industry is usually delight- ,
ed to donate money to a campaign for a few fa
vors in return. In 1991 alone, the tobacco indus
try donated $2.4 million to members of Congress.
Yes, it’s not fair.
The way the system operates. Congress mem- 1
bers are silly to turn this money away.
Until our representatives start refusing this ‘
money with the “greater good” in mind, we are ;
left with a political system which only supports ;
those who have financial gain at stake, not those -
who have a life to lose.
And, yes, it’s frustrating when things don’t go
the way they should.
Kyle Littlefield is a senior journalism major
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Lost Generation faces long, rough road
Sterling
Hayman
Opinion
Editor
E very generation has a
label. My grandpar
ents are members of
the Depression Generation,
a group of people who were
labeled because of the
tough economic times dur
ing their youth.
Next came the Silent
Generation, those who spent
[their youth around the time of World War I
i and spent a lot of time practicing reproduction.
The Baby Boomer Generation followed, ex
ploring free love, hallucinogens and folk music.
And then, of course, our generation ... the
infamous Generation X. The slackers who
can’t seem to buy clothes that fit, who seem to
be apathetic about most everything, and
whose behavior cannot be expressed by a
word, but a variable.
However, despite all of the criticism that
Generation X has been given recently, we are
not the ones to worry about.
The tail end of our generation graduated
from high school last year, and the genera
tion we left behind seems to be much more
troublesome.
Although a generation usually isn’t official-
I ly named until the majority of its members
reach adulthood, this generation is already
I defining itself as the Lost Generation.
Sure, our generation has had its share of
I ups and down, but the rocky road that the
I Lost Generation is travelling down seems to
be leading nowhere, fast.
The fact that the only major crime category
j to increase in Texas last year was juvenile
crime is testimony to that.
Public schools have always been breeding
grounds for trouble. When we went through
school, sure, we got in trouble too. The
! weapons of choice were straws that shot spit
| wads across the room. We rebelled against so
ciety by wearing shoes without
socks and keeping our shirt-tails
untucked. Hell, we even lit up cig
arettes and guzzled a few beers
occasionally. And we thought we
were tough.
However, school grounds today
are filled with guns, drugs and
sexual promiscuity.
I remember in 5th grade when
a friend showed me a condom —
the technical term was “rubber” in those days.
I thought to myself, “What is that? I wonder
when I’ll get to use one of those?”
Today, many 5th graders find themselves
thinking, “What is that? Damn, I wish I would
have used one of those.”
When I return home ever so often to vis
it my family, I always see people I once
thought of as kids, walking around with
their own children.
Each week, my hometown newspaper fea
tures the arrests made by the city police de
partment. Younger brothers and sisters of
friends I graduated with are being arrested for
crack possession, armed robbery, attempted
rape, burglary and attempted murder.
The biggest trouble my friends and I had
was forgetting to fill the liquor bottles with
water after we had “skimmed” from our
parents.
Yes, the generational gap definitely exists.
Where we once sported colorful “friendship
pins,” members of the Lost Generation are
now sporting gang symbols.
What happened? How can people only a
few years younger than us seem like they are
members of an entirely different species? Why
is it that we cannot effectively communicate
with today’s youth because the English they
speak has been mutated to such an extent
that it’s barely even recognizable?
Things only seem to be getting worse.
Rather than attempting to help the youth,
we have adopted an “every man for himself’
attitude.
Politicians find it more important to buy
votes from the Depression Generation than to
buy time for the Lost Generation.
Rather than seeking solutions to the prob
lem of crime, we just want to toughen the
penalties.
Rather than providing financial assistance
to young, accidental families, we insist that
they have made their beds, and “now, they
must lie in them.”
While we may not be responsible for these
wayward members of the Lost Generation, we
are doing little to change their course.
Rather than attempting to
help the youth, we have
adopted an "every man for
himself" attitude.
Instead of defining society for them, we are
letting them define society.
Robert F. Kennedy once said, “The task
of leadership, the first task of concerned
people, is not to condemn or castigate or
deplore; it is to search out the reason for
disillusionment and alienation, the ratio
nale of protest end dissent — perhaps, in
deed, to learn from it.”
It is time for our generation, and all the
ones before us, to start helping instead of
harping.
Unless we start to steer their ship in a dif
ferent direction, the Lost Generation may very
well be the Last Generation.
Sterling Hayman is a senior
political science major
The B/v i xvylic>w
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
Bad buzz
Aggies should act more
responsibly when they drink.
The Harvard School of
Public Health recently re
leased survey results from
its latest study of college al
cohol consumption, and the
results for Texas A&M were
far from flattering.
The survey found that
last year, 35.4 percent of
Texas A&M students have
become so intoxicated they
forgot where they were or
what they were doing.
The statistic for other
large colleges — those col
leges and universities with
populations of 10,000 or
more — was 27.4 percent.
Over the same year,
29.5 percent of these
surveyed intoxi
cated Aggies “en-
gage(d) in un
planned sexual
activity.”
Of these un
planned sexual
encounters, 13.3
percent were un
protected.
Translated
into simpler
terms, this study
shows that approx
imately one in
three A&M stu
dents is accus
tomed to abusing
alcohol on a regu
lar basis, and that abuse
may be connected to other
dangerous behavior..
For a university that
seems to be obsessed with
projecting a polished and
pristine image, being na
tionally infamous for drunk
enness and irresponsibility
does not contribute to the
desired effect.
Gen. George Patton once
made a comment about be
ing able to win a war with
only a handful of Texas Ag
gies. This may seem an im
possible feat if the Harvard
survey is correct in report
ing that 24.8 percent of
those Aggies are getting
drunk at least once a week.
Alcohol is a powerful drug
that should be consumed in
moderation and with much
responsibility.
On several Friday nights
during the Fall semester, a
great many Ags can be
found marching down to
Kyle Field to participate in
Midnight Yell.
And while this excitement
is all well and good, the fact
that quite a few of these
participants are nearly
“falling-down drunk” is not
exactly a good thing.
And then, as an added
bonus, after Midnight
Yell, many of these
intoxicated indi
viduals attempt
to drive home.
The Har
vard survey
reported an
overwhelm-
ing 41.9 per
cent of Aggies
have driven
drunk at
least once
within a peri
od of 30 days.
Aggies
have a great
many things to be
proud of — a nation
ally competitive number of
National Merit Scholars, an
extremely successful sports
program, a world-renowned
academic program and a
proud heritage of honor and
tradition.
However, Aggies should
not take pride in their abili
ty to consume vast quanti
ties of alcohol and then hit
the road.
Texas A&M is a world-
class university. The stu
dents here represent the
finest that our state and
country have to offer.
Perhaps it is time to act
that way.
The B/v i ivvlicyni
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, aggieufe 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 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
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