p orn
ame
mmerman, The BaTO
net against UK
\ggies (17-4) will
he Universityol
i in their last horn;
gular season atC.
liseum at 7 p.m.
nay be a factor'
/e’ve been onbatk-
)s and our play bai
bit because of that
e’ll get the oppor
out some things
ising on in pracfc
ng and individual
enters the contest
1, having won four
ve matches. The
■d by Heather Hoy
y. Hoy leads UTA
ind a .236 hitting
le Foley has con-
sts.
ang team building
they have experi
Corbelli said,
in the middle and
at the outside hit-
surpassed the
assists plateau
d the Lady Aggies
prepared to deal
;ricks’ blocking
big block,” Wente
faced BYU this
ey have the No. 1
tion, so I think
est will also be a
or three A&M se-
heir final home
id outside hitters
ms and Dana
be honored in a
y-
is easy. Just
Heaton Hall)
)ok, you may
: the English
. Discover or
try
stop by the
m. and 4:30
>.
;n you regis-
us tax at the
Building (by
:s, you may
3. Cost is $3
ber, account
:hat directo-
)rk order for
The Battalion
Opinion
Tuesday
October 31, 1995
9
Strides of march must be furthered
I t is finished. Those
who attended the Mil
lion Man March have
returned home with their
souvenir T-shirts and
buttons. The remnants of
the march have long since
been cleaned up.
Many have deemed the
march a success, but as
the hush over the Mall takes the place of the inspirational
words that reverberated across America, the question
arises: “What is next?”
This question plagued me. After all, the march has lit
tle value if the unity and positive feeling fades away.
But last week I attended a forum sponsored by Al
pha Phi Alpha fraternity that renewed my hope that
the achievement accomplished in Washington was not
in vain.
I heard three simple, but effective suggestions on how
to further the positive impact established by the march.
Cedra Brown, a student who attended the forum and
the march, suggested a three-point plan to get the
African-American community back on track.
“First we need to focus on being more brotherly and
sisterly towards each other. The next step is to promote
voting, and lastly, we need to take up the slack for young
children by going to the area school and being a mentor,”
Brown said.
As usual the audience members nodded their heads in
affirmation, but unfortunately the same people who
talked about the changes, will do little in their everyday
lives to help make the change.
The idea of being brotherly and sisterly toward one an
other isn’t anything new.
The basis of that point originates from the lack of
friendliness that African-American students show toward
one another when walking on campus. Although a simple
hello could work to break the barrier among African-
Americans on campus, that is just a minute part of being
brotherly and sisterly.
The idea of being brotherly and sisterly toward each
other isn’t as simple as saying “hello.” Extending a
hand — tutoring one another, offering a ride or simply
lending an ear to someone who needs help are all ways
in which African-Americans can show their brotherly
and sisterly love.
Promoting political awareness isn’t anything new ei
ther. It is time to realize that in order to have a voice in
America, it is important to be knowledgeable of politics.
It is useless to complain about being under represented
in politics, but until voter-turnout increases considerably,
African-Americans will not be taken seriously.
The children of the African-American community
should not be overlooked. If we are able to make time to
go to the mall, or to a party, we can certainly make time
to visit a child who may only need a little attention which
could make a positive change in their lives.
Other suggestions that emphasized similar change
dealt with a more personal plea to students on campus.
David Washington, Student Government executive vice
president, suggested that students get more involved in
all facets of Aggie life. “Where you see there isn’t a black
face in an organization, put your own there.”
For instance, the number of African Americans that
participate in student senate are not representative of the
population at Texas A&M. The change could be made if
African-Americans decided to apply for those positions in
order to have more input on issues that concern students.
But it doesn’t stop at Texas A&M. There are state-
level positions to be filled, and national-positions that
could be filled which would strengthen African-Ameri
can representation.
Another Aggie who attended the forum, Germaine Hai
ley, somewhat echoed this sentiment when he said,
“Where we don’t have representation, we have weakness.”
All of these suggestions and the march that spawned
them, have one thing in common: African-Americans have
the power to change their communities and the world
around them.
It is important to understand what the march was all
about in order to keep its promises alive.
The march served to generate the motivation to vote, to
strengthen black families and to achieve full equality in
economics, politics and everyday life.
It was a wake-up call for the world.
It helped to illustrate that the very weakness Hailey
referred to, is the same weakness that could slow the pace
of African-Americans’ march toward unity within their
communities and equality with those elsewhere.
Pamela Benson is a senior journalism major
Library takes back seat to gridiron
Chris
Stidvent
Columnist
I guess it’s time that we as
a group of relatively intel
ligent University students
faced up to some of the un
pleasant facts around here.
Our football team is really
popular. Our library is not.
Our football team gets a
bunch of money and alumni
and student support.
Our library does not.
People go to our football games and stand
for hours on end in the blazing sun, often
times kept from fainting only by the sharp
kick of a good-minded traditionalist Aggie
standing right behind them.
People go to the library, rip some pages
out of some random periodicals, photocopy
their friend’s butts, throw books all over the
damn place, eat Tabasco-flavored Fritos and
jalapeno-coated Trail Mix while using the
computers and then fall asleep in one of the
less well-lit study rooms.
Those of us who are not really sports-
minded, as in we never really had a chance
to make the Twelfth Man, often pause to ask
ourselves why this might be.
Why do our fellow Aggies love athletics so
much and show such astounding apathy when
it comes to doing what we are supposed to be
doing around here?
That’s studying, by the way.
Maybe it’s because athletics in general
are more exciting than academics. I guess
that’s one possible explanation, and it makes
sense when one considers how much money
our University just spent for that fab new
sports complex. Yet, I don’t think that quite
covers the issue.
Here are some possible alternative rea
sons. Has anybody checked out the penalties
for overdue books around here lately?
I think if you keep a book for something
like six months, you “might get barred in the
future from further library borrowing privi
leges.” Gee, that’s a stiff punishment.
A student could just run down to the li
brary, check out some books, and then turn
around and loan them to his friends for a
fee. I think the library limit on how many
books a person can check out is
somewhere around 800.
So let’s get this straight. I
can go down to the library,
check out an entire floor’s
worth of books on some subject
that I think students might
want to research in the near
future, and then open my own
little book-lender’s operation
right in front of Sterling C. Evans.
I figure I could charge the students some
thing like $5 a day, and then when my six
months are up, simply go back to the front
desk and get a whole new batch of books.
There are tougher ways to work my way
through school.
Now, let’s compare this with the penalty
for running on Kyle Field. Those of us who
remember the old midnight yell practices of
a couple of years ago can look back fondly.
We remember fellow students getting the
holy hell beaten out of them by the Corps of
Cadets as they tried to sprint across our il
lustrious football field.
Same thing holds for Simpson Drill Field.
For some good ole Aggie fun, throw an unsus
pecting individual onto the band’s practice
field and watch the band pour screaming out
of its dorms and take turns kicking the poor
guy in the ribs and gleefully step on his head.
I propose that we make the penalties for
overdue books a little more harsh. Maybe we
could have our own little library goon squad.
Turn in a book three months overdue, and
they haul you out back and take turns
punching you in the face.
If the book is six months late, they could
tar and feather you and parade you around
Kyle Field at halftime.
Or, better yet, they take you over to Simp
son Drill Field, tie your feet together, and
throw you in the middle wearing a “University
of Texas Rules” sweatshirt.
And how about that beeping noise that
goes off when students “forget” that they
stashed seven magazines and three books
under their overcoats and made a dash for
the front door.
Let’s set up a trap door over a pit of alli
gators and just dump them right down in
there. Sure, the books might get eaten, but
at least well cut down on theft.
Or maybe we could throw some statues up
in the library lobby.
Our University alumni seem to have an
unnatural fascination for putting up metal
monuments to our dearly departed stu
dents and heroes.
There’s some kind of relationship be
tween the amount of money that a Univer
sity institution receives and the number of
statues that can be found within a hun
dred-yard vicinity of it.
Head over to Kyle Field and take a look at
the Reveille graves, the Twelfth Man statue
and the brand-new S3-million “Coach’s En
dowed Spot.”
That’s right, S3 million for a big rock with
somebody’s name on it.
If we put up a bunch of statues in our li
brary, maybe some wealthy alumni will be
fooled into thinking that they play sports
there. It doesn’t really matter who the stat
ues are supposed to represent, maybe we can
have some sort of tribute to our dearly de
parted chief microfilm curators.
Then we could dress up or librarians in
their official “Academic Twelfth Man Jer
seys” and make them run wind sprints from
the front doors to the elevators and back.
Boy, I bet the money and support would just
come pouring in.
Or maybe we could think up some tradi
tions for our library. We spend the entire
football game humping it, stepping off the
wood, standing up and generally contribut
ing to an advanced state of heat exhaustion
and fluid dehydration.
I say we get rid of all of the tables in the li
brary* make everybody uncover when they
walk in the front door and tell everybody to
“keep off the grass.”
If they ask us what grass we’re talking
about, we’ll make them do a yell.
We’ll make our library as popular as our
football team if it kills us.
Chris Stidvent is a senior
English and philosophy major
The Battalion
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
Rob Clark
Editor in Chief
Sterling Hayman
Managing Editor
Kyle Littlefield
Opinion Editor
Elizabeth Preston
Assistant Opinion Editor
Bitter Sweets
Conservative parents should not ruin
Halloween fun for schoolchildren.
Tonight, “kids” of all ages will
celebrate one of America’s most
enjoyable holidays — Halloween.
Strangely enough, some people
want to see it ended.
In the 2,000 years Halloween
has existed, it has evolved from
a Celtic ritual, to a Christian
holiday, and now to a nonreli
gious festival. The current pur
pose of Halloween is simple —
to have fun.
However, a hypersensitive
group of Americans has identi
fied Halloween as glorifying evil,
or even Satan. Not content to
privately maintain these beliefs,
these people are hell-bent on
eliminating Halloween wherever
they can, particularly from pub-
lic schools.
Although the idea that Hal
loween is satanic is ridiculous,
these people are having some
success. Some schools, fearing
lawsuits and irate parents, are
suppressing Halloween obser
vances just to satisfy a small
fringe group.
According to an Associated
Press story, the principal of a
Boyertown, Pa. elementary
school eliminated Halloween to
appease parents who had “satan-
ic-type concerns.”
Granted, Halloween does suf
fer from problems, such as an
occasional prank gone too far, or
candy that has been tampered
with. These problems are seri
ous, but they are rare and gen
erally unrepresentative of the
holiday.
Those who argue for the elim
ination of the holiday call to
mind the story of the Puritan
who would lie awake at night,
worried that somebody, some
where, was having a good time.
Apparently, some people are
disturbed by the idea of a holi-
' day in which people have fun for
the sake of having fun, but that
is exactly the appeal of Hal
loween. It allows even young
children to understand and ap
preciate it, while adults can also
have a good time.
Halloween should remain a
time when kids can have fun
without worrying that someone
will take it away. With all the
fun at stake, the thought of end
ing it is just plain scary.