^The Battalion
Opinion
Guilt by Association?
Thursday
September 21, 1995
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All Republicans who attend Texas A&M are not members of College Republicans
7/
Michael
Landauer
Aggielife
Editor
V
T hese are the
times that
try Republi
cans’ souls.
A friend was
shocked to hear
me express my
outrage about the
College Republi
cans’ blunder o’
the semester.
“I thought you’d be for them,” she said.
But not every pro-lifer works for Operation
Rescue. Not everyone who is environmentally
conscious joins Greenpeace or Earth First.
And not every Republican at this school is a
College Republican.
And so the buzz surrounding our hottest de
bate since the double-strapping issue of last
fall has prompted me to
write a few letters
of my own —
hopefully contain
ing some truth.
First to fellow
Republicans:
Don’t be afraid
to separate yourself
from the College Re
publicans.
You can be a Re
publican without
signing up with the
leading source of
misinformation on
campus.
You will still be al
lowed to vote for Repub
lican candidates, and they are
working out a deal to let us hold some of the
same beliefs that they claim as their founda
tion. For example, the copyright on family
values ran out last month, and now anyone
can be pro-family.
It is hard to associate yourself with the
party of the elephant when Republican “lead
ers” are acting more like the backside of the
Democratic Party’s symbol.
But be strong.
The difficulties in being Republican don’t
end when we look outside this campus.
It is hard when we see all the Republican
candidates for president coddling up to the ul
tra-right, but try to understand.
They will all go far to the right to get the
Party’s nomination, but once they have it,
they will go toward the middle to get the
votes from the real people.
The radicals never win in the end.
When we see members of our party
making headlines with their radical an
tics, we should not grudgingly stay quiet
nor should we leave the party.
We should speak up and let others know
that some Republicans stand on middle ground,
get the facts right and don’t break the rules.
Now, my letter to the non-Republicans:
The College Republicans claims to be the
largest student organization on campus with
over 2,000 members.
Using that new math, if you subtract 2,000
from 43,256, you get 41,256.
Either there are 41,256 Democrats in our
student body, or maybe — just maybe — not all
Republicans at this school want to be associat
ed with the College Republicans.
When you consider that there are only 18 De
mocrats and 38 Perot-ites on campus, College Re
publicans’ membership is not too impressive.
Don’t lump us all together into that big Re
publican category. Some Republicans are pro-
choice or anti-death penalty.
Some are not rich.
Some are not even white men.
But we all vote with our pocketbooks and
want government to b( ore responsible with
our money.
In fact, Democrats and Republicans pretty
much want the same things — world peace,
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equality, good education and for A&M to beat
the hell outta Colorado this weekend.
We just believe in different methods of
achieving those goals.
Unlike the College Republicans, most mem
bers of the party want to see cooperation and
an end to divisiveness.
There are a lot of silent people who are
afraid to speak up because they don’t want to
be associated with the radicals on either side.
But don’t think they aren’t out there.
The buzz on campus is not about political
ideology. It is about a student group with a col
lective ego that rivals the size of Bob Pack-
wood’s libido.
Just because a student group includes the
word “Republican” in its name does not mean
that it represents everyone who believes the
basic principles of the GOP.
If we change the name of the group to the
College Liars, Cheaters, Racists and Fascists,
fewer Republicans would feel guilty about the
association, and we could more clearly define
the people who deserve the negative image.
The College Republicans don’t know the dif
ference between a right and a privilege.
They have a right to free speech.
No one questions that. But it is a privilege
for them to use University facilities as an offi
cially recognized student organization.
That is what is in question.
And it is not a tough question.
The “highest ideas of the University” may be
a vague phrase, but can’t we agree that telling
the truth is a fairly attainable goal?
Maybe they lied on accident.
But did they know that the Board of Re
gents, not professors, hire and fire the presi
dent of the University?
It’s called fact checking, and the College Re
publicans didn’t do it when they assumed how
the president got his job, nor did they check any
of the other misinformation they presented.
Lying is bad enough, but when the Col
lege Republicans lied to old Aggies to get
them to write their checks to the political
group instead of the University, that makes
the College Republicans a band of
thieves, as well.
If they don’t know what they did wrong,
I can’t explain it to them, but they shouldn’t
pretend it’s a free speech issue.
The College Republicans are selling
something, and its got twice the re
quired daily amount of misinforma
tion, but it’s lacking the integrity
that every diet needs.
For non-Republicans, this .
latest stunt is just too hard
to swallow.
And it leaves a bad taste in the
mouths of most us normal Republicans.
Michael Landauer is a junior
journalism major
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One language would unite U.S.
Teaching English to immigrants empowers them to act for themselves
W e conservatives hate people.
No, we do. Just look at what
we have done.
First, Gov. Pete Wilson of Califor
nia decided he didn’t want to pay
welfare benefits to people who are
not American citizens.
Next, we hear the crazy idea that
Sen. Bob Dole wants to make Eng
lish the national language.
These kids today, what on earth will
they think of next?
The “Left Coast” never really made
sense, anyway, so it’s no surprise that this
whole mess started there.
That oddball Gov. Wilson was re-elected
on the same ballot Proposition 187 ap
peared. Proposition 187, in an utterly
shocking move, forbade the payment of
welfare benefits to illegal aliens.
After it’s passage, 187 quickly came un
der fire from the left. President Clinton, for
example, promptly apologized to Mexico for
the proposition, and then threatened to
take away the birthday of every California
resident if 187 were not reversed.
I see the president’s point.
Of course, no justification exists to give
welfare benefits to American citizens when
over 4 billion people in the world don’t get
any. Instead of complaining, Californians
should feel honored that so many people
would pack up and leave their homes just
to avail themselves of the state’s seemingly
boundless hospitality.
Right.
California should pay any price and bear
any burden to keep the president from
prostrating himself in front of foreign lead
ers to apologize for his people’s unenlight
ened viewpoint that their money should ac
tually be spent on their citizens.
In another unbelievable idea in the
news, Sen. Bob Dole wants to make all
Americans learn English.
Dole went way over the line on this one.
Next thing you know, he will propose that peo
ple with driver licenses be required to actually
know how to drive.
It’s sick and wrong.
Never mind that
English is the in
ternational language
of business ... or that
almost every other
country in the world
teaches English in
their elementary
schools. Any guesses what language an In
dian businessman will use if he meets a
Filipino businessman? No, not Spanish.
This is America. If we want to keep our
Hispanic immigrants poor, then that’s cer
tainly our right.
Oh, you mean no one pointed that out,
yet? Gosh, I didn’t mean to be the one to let
that little secret out of the bag. But since I
already did ...
Remember that old adage that says give
a man a fish and feed him for a day, but
teach a man to fish and feed him for a life
time? Well, that’s the crux of this debate.
While people who are criticizing Dole’s
proposal claim to be in the pursuit of a
“multicultural society,” it’s really just an
issue of power.
Yes, power.
As long as the Democrats can keep giv
ing the immigrants fish, so to speak, the
“givers” hold the power.
Bob Dole’s proposal would force the pow
er back where it belongs.
The English language debate is not
about racism, it’s about the power to act for
one’s self. In fact, the whole immigration
debate comes down to this point.
America is a country of immigrants,
make no mistake about it. It derives much
of its strength and innovation from the
people’s varied backgrounds. However, var
ied backgrounds have nothing to do with
immigration reform.
“Reform is needed in policies that permit
the continued entry of thousands of illegal
aliens and blur the distinction between
what is legal and beneficial and what is il
legal and harmful.”
This quote comes from Barbara Jordan,
a former Democratic congresswoman and
the first black woman ever elected to the
U.S. Congress.
Jordan continued, “We must assist them
(the immigrants) in learning our common
language: American English.”
While people who are criticizing
Dole's proposal claim to be in the
pursuit of a 'multicultural soci
ety/ it's really an issue of power.
Jordan’s rationale is quite simple and
runs parallel to most immigration reform
proposals on the table.
She wrote, “The United States has unit
ed immigrants and their descendants
around a commitment to democratic ideals
and constitutional ideals ...”
Jordan doesn’t propose making all immi
grants become exactly like all Americans
— as if this were possible.
She and the United States Commission
on Immigration Reform simply suggest, in
addition to teaching English, we “must re
new civic education in the teaching of
American history for all Americans.”
Just when you think you know someone.
That Barbara Jordan must have fallen off
her rocker. She sounds mighty conserva
tive these days.
Then again, maybe it’s not that conserv
atives hate people, maybe it’s simply that
we trust people.
Jordan trusts that immigrants, if admit
ted legally and given the proper tools, can
make the American ideal work for them. In
other words, it’s time to stop giving fish,
and start teaching how to catch them.
Of course, it’s a lot more fun just letting
people think you hate them.
David Taylor is a senior
management major
JVC ail
Call
Battalion wrong
to condemn CRs
In the rush to condemn the
College Republicans in the
Wednesday edition, The Battalion
failed to report many of the com
ments of John Doggett, the speak
er at the Tuesday College Repub
licans meeting.
Doggett is a fairly well-
known African-American
lawyer, international business
man and lecturer at the Uni
versity of Texas.
He was a Yale Law School
classmate of the Clintons and
Clarence Thomas. He testified in
support of Thomas during the
infamous Anita Hill hearings.
He stated flatly that the
moves toward multicultural
curriculum requirements at
Texas A&M University and
elsewhere are misguided at
tempts by liberals.
Doggett used the example of
a specialized international busi
ness course he teaches at the
University of Texas to make the
point that just as many interna
tional aspects of business really
should be taught in regular
business courses, so should sig
nificant work by members of
ethnic and racial minorities be
included in regular courses in
every discipline.
Doggett said segregating the
contributions of minorities into a
ghetto of separate courses and
forcing students to take some of
them is really an admission by
the faculty that they are not
properly integrating that mater
ial into their regular courses.
He also said he reviewed the
A&M policies and the College
Republicans fund raising letter.
As a lawyer, he concluded
the University didn’t have a
knee — much less a leg — to
stand on.
Funny that The Battalion
would miss all that.
The Battalion wouldn’t last a
week if every article had to
pass a review by the Texas
A&M administration.
As a former student, I am
embarrassed frequently by er
roneous reports and outrageous
comments in The Battalion.
Rodger Lewis
county chairman
Republican Party
of Brazos County
Class of ’76
Editor’s note:
In Wednesday’s story “Stu
dent, state leaders react to letter,”
John Doggett is mentioned as a
long-time Republican activist
who spoke at the College Republi
cans’ Tuesday meeting and is
quoted as saying, “There’s a little
thing called the Constitution. I’ve
looked at the rules they’re using
to hammer you guys , and they’re
unconstitutional. ”