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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 13, 1996)
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College similm - ee pull larrizo- :ommon College ies, i® >nt and is said, senior ie can- ste of water, aves a 3 an af- kind of 1 to my lollege iperim in this y high levels igrams tion in ns per Water lid the t has to rec on sys- i must ,ake. on wa - d chlo- } «We n lo*- een re- ors." peopl e n sys- way lolled js cur- n atioa invob' on i n a Bry an ' water ed U P The Battalion Tuesday February 1 3, 1 996 Opinion Page 11 Gyrate all you want, but be sure to conform M y mother always told me to tuck in my shirt. I could never under stand her reasons for such nonsense. Perhaps it was the private school that forced me to don a hideous green and yellow tie, blue pants and a white button-down shirt. An untucked shirt just doesn’t work with such a stunning ensemble. Grade schoolers usually aren’t ex perts on fashion sense, but I knew what I liked and what looked dorky — which is redun dant anyway, since everyone is a dork at that age. But when the bell rang at 3 p.m. and the school emp tied, the first thing to come out was that shirt tail. It wasn’t so much a sign of rebel lion, just more comfortable than the stuffy confinements of a uniform. But that was then, and this is now. Or so I thought. This is college — no parents, no restrictions, no authority figures to deal with. I thought it would be Untucked- Shirt City. Instead, I found Conformity Cen tral. This revelation came in the form of several clubs in College Station, where an untucked shirt was like a scarlet letter P for “perpetrator.” As I attempted to enter J.D. Wells, I heard the condemning demand like an order from a drill sergeant. “You need to tuck your shirt in,” the employee demanded. “Excuse me?” I asked, astonished that such a rule was possible in a club that is better known as a meat market. “Tuck in your shirt.” If it hadn’t been for the friends I was with, I would have stormed out of there lickety-split. But I swallowed my pride and stuffed my shirt into my jeans. I was all set to go in and laugh at the fools dancing to the ridicu lous song sequence of “Y.M.C.A.,” “Shook Me All Night Long,” and “Ice, Ice Baby,” when I was given my second strike. “You need to tuck it in better than that,” he said. Needless to say, I haven’t returned to this sterling establishment that keeps such ruffians out, protecting those wholesome enough to dirty dance inside. But the conformist disease hasn’t stopped there. At Xtreme, I was stopped again because my long-sleeve shirt wasn’t tucked in. But at least Xtreme gave me more options. I could tuck in my shirt, un button it all the way and expose the T-shirt underneath, or leave. The T-shirt option proved to be the best one, but still ridiculous. I talked to an Xtreme employee who did the shirt-tuck check. He said the rule was in place so that the crowd would look “neat and clean.” I suppose it’s necessary for some one to look “neat and clean” as they perform sexual gyrations in a cage. This might-as-well-be-having-sex style of dancing is performed by many on any given night there. Also, he mentioned clubs that have been forced to shut down because of alcohol and weapons hidden by an un tucked shirt. The safety precautions have good intentions, just weak methods. A gun or knife can fit just as well in a pocket or purse as under pants and a belt. No pocket or purse searches are re quired, but the bizarre shirt rule is in full effect. This is silly. The collective efforts of clubs mandating such dress codes suppress individuality, a trait that is quite rare in Bryan-College Station. It eliminates a major reason to fre quent these establishments — to es cape the conservative cowboy style that seems to dominate fashion, music and style in this town. So for now. I’ll be avoiding places with tucking requirements. Even if Mom doesn’t like it. Rob Clark is a senior journalism major who disobeys his mother In an equal society, women can take the initiative A scarlet, heart-shaped mist will descend on College Sta tion tomorrow. Romance forecasters promise hazardous driving conditions by late after noon. Yes, it’s that Valentine’s fog that smothers us this time every year. For you females who will be out there wading through the wist all by yourselves tomorrow, it’s not too late. I’m not talking about cyber-sex or taking back an ex-boyfriend. I’m talking about picking up the phone and taking the initiative. When the Women’s Movement opened profes sional doors for women, it opened personal doors as well. The problem is that women aren’t walk ing through them. All of us know women who sit at home on the weekend or go out with friends when that’s not what they really want to do. Often, they know plenty of available men they are interested in. A Valentine’s Day challenge to these women is to call one of those men, just once, and see what happens. They may be surprised. It’s not that women are always completely passive in the beginnings of their relationships. On the contrary, women have a relatively effective strategy for at tracting men. It is called flirting, and it requires little explanation. In short, a woman does anything within her personal boundaries to make it clear to that special some one that pursuing her would be easy, at least initially. There is one major prob lem with this strategy, however. If a woman starts out a relationship by flirting and “waiting for the fish to bite,” she sets herself up for one of two bad situations — indefinite disappointment or a relationship that starts off on unequal ground. Don’t get me wrong, flirting is a natural phe nomenon, and it has its time and place, but it can never replace honesty and candor. When a woman graduates and looks for a job, she doesn’t throw a sultry glance and flash a sexy smile at a prospective employer (most women don’t anyway). She puts together a re sume and goes for it. Few people get the job they want by waiting for it to come to them or by let ting the company know that they are interested and available. I’ve asked men how they would feel about this approach, and several of them have indicated to me that they would go out with any woman who had the courage to call and ask. They know from personal experience how hard it is, and they will reward the effort. Women should just pick up the phone and Flirting is a natural phenomenon^ and it has its place, but it can never replace honesty and candor. call. It sounds hard because it is hard. If it were not, we would never be without a date when we wanted one. Women should keep in mind that one phone call may turn out to be one of the smartest ones they ever make. It was for me. Now, I can’t promise that the guy you go out with will turn out to be the man of your dreams or that you will be the woman of his. But you can both contemplate the possibilities, at least until the Valentine’s Day fog clears. Elaine Mejia is a senior political science major Construction never seems to get done I have noticed a new race of people on the streets of College Station. To be honest, it fright ens me. I see them frequently, usually when I am driving around town on an errand of some sort. Perhaps others have seen this new and strange breed of people, too. Let me describe them. They all wear orange. That is their most distin guishing characteristic. This bright orange garb makes them stand out from every other race of humans. I be lieve they do this to attract attention to themselves, which is a good thing to do when your job is to stand in the middle of the street amongst flowing traffic. Each of the blaze-orange men stands with blaze-or ange flags, and they wave them. The first time I saw this, I happily waved back a Texas flag to symbolize a treaty between our two cultures. They just ignored me and continue their flag waving. I was so perplexed about the whole mess that I asked one of my friends if he had any clues as to where this strange breed came from, and what their purpose was. He told me they are called “Construction Work ers,” and that they come from the land known as the “Texas Department of Transportation.” He said their goal in life was to make my driving experience more pleasurable because they exist to improve roads. “Wow,” I responded after hearing this. I found it comforting to know that in this cruel world we live, there still exists unadulterated altruism. I decided to drive to the last place I saw them working and express my humble appreciation for their kind endeavors. I noticed them all waving those flags again. I saw many orange cones around the area. I saw huge pieces of intimidating yellow machinery parked casu ally within the cones; they were not moving. It seemed an impressive sight at first, but after watch ing the scene for a few minutes I began to wonder how it was that they were improving the roads. I saw them successfully directing traffic — there were eight or nine of them working on that — but the ! machines were not moving and the other orange m< ti were just standing around watching the flag waver ; I saw a huge pile of gravel where there once had bet black asphalt, but none of the orange men was at tempting to make those places black again. They seemed content with the gravel, the cones, the flag waving and the idle yellow machinery. I suddenly remembered something else my friend said about the Construction Workers: supposedly, my tax dollars were funding this grandiose project. That’s; when I became mad. I couldn’t believe that my tax dollars were funding people who were doing nothing. I had never been totally against affirmative action be- ■ fore but in this case, for this particular race, I simply couldn’t justify the subsidization and support this race of orange people was getting received. I called Young Contracting, the company contract ed by the city to complete the Texas Avenue construe- ; tion. Anthony Raphael, estimator (and representative ; of the orange race), told me that the estimated cost for the project would be $4.2 million. Keep in mind, folks, that this bid is significantly lower than initial estimations of the project, which were so high the construction was delayed. One can buy a lot of orange flags and piles of grav el for $4.2 million. Please don’t call me a bigot. Please don’t think I’m racist. But I must say, I just don’t see the reason of existence for these strange men known as Construc tion Workers. Chris Miller is a sophomore English 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 Sterling Hayman Editor in Chief Stacy Stanton Managing Editor Michael Landauer Opinion Editor Jason Brown Assistant Opinion Editor Editorial Toward tourism College Station deserves credit for its efforts to promote visitation. Although Bryan-College Station is not Acapulco, the area’s attempts to promote tourism are not surprising. Texas A&M’s rich history and its status as one of the largest universities in the country bring hundreds of thousands of visitors each year to B-CS. The new George Bush Presidential Library, which is scheduled to open in Fall 1997, will only increase the number of visitors. Given the increased attrac tion, the city of College Sta tion’s attempts to offer tourism training to its employees are very commendable. Currently, most city em ployees must complete 10 hours of tourism training. The training includes educa tion on directing services to ward a different group of people, and also addresses possible safety problems re sulting from the increased traffic through the area. The benefits of the train- ; ng are obvious. Visitors will leave B-CS with a better impression of the area because of the hos pitable treatment they re ceive. Also, the employees will know how to react bet ter to problematic situa tions, such as traffic acci dents and thefts, through their training. All of this will encourage visitors to return to B-CS, and the increased tourism will improve the economy of the area. College Station has taken smart steps in anticipation of the increased number of tourists to the area. The city of Bryan and local business es should follow College Sta tion’s lead and prepare their employees for the impact of additional visitors. Generalizations of soldiers are unfair Last Thursday, I was read ing The Battalion and I came across Shannon Halbrook’s col umn about servicemen. I would primarily like to say that this young man has obviously never served in any military organi zation, thus is filled with stereotypes and misconcep tions. He writes about service men being “raving sex ma chines with no self control”. Servicemen are service men, with imperfections and faults like everybody else. Halbrook also describes life in Okinawa as not being stressful, only tedious. How can anyone make that judgment when they have never left the canopy of free dom the U.S. military provides. The ignorance is further high lighted in this article due to lack of adequate research. Civilian sexual assaults are far more prevalent in both case numbers and ratios, than the spotlighted military sexual assaults. The U.S. military does an outstanding job of picking out the bad apples, but sometimes you find a worm. Instead of getting caught up in “cringing” at hard working soldiers, that allow the freedom to speak our minds and watch television in the comfort of our homes, maybe, we should step out of the shell of ignorance for a sec- Mail (^AT T ond and realize that a soldier is a person too. Max Villaronga Class of ’98 Accompanied by 99 signatures Religion, Bible can't go out of date I was angered, but not in the least surprised, when I read Kieran Watson’s Feb. 12 col umn on religion. The Bible’s critics are as old as Christiani ty itself. I find it humorous that so many people today— writers, artists, musicians—try to be controversial or progres sive by attacking the Bible, God, Christians, etc. It’s noth ing new, but for some reason it still gives people a kick. I’ve never read “American Psycho,” but it sounds interest ing. I have read the Bible. For almost ten years now I have been trying to follow Jesus Christ, and I am all too familiar with His critics. Being a Christ ian can be terribly difficult, but Jesus never said following Him would be easy. The way Watson talks about the Bible, I wonder if he has re ally read much of it. It’s almost always the same; people who show no interest in knowing the God of the Bible have no idea what it means to know Him. They’re closed up. There are depths to God and to the wis dom in the Bible which will nev er be understood by its naysay ers. The Scriptures are clear in saying that if anyone sincerely seeks God, He will reveal Him self. He created the world. I would think He has some idea how to solve its problems. The Bible’s critics will contin ue to throw rocks from afar, but their arguments will always sound trite and simplistic to those who have begun to under stand and know the One who in spired it. A man with an experi ence is never at the mercy of one with an argument. H.C. Ross Class of’94 I am sure Kieran Watson was just trying to stir up anger and frustration with his theory that the Bible can’t fix modern problems. Maybe he thought mail call was lacking in letters so he wrote something contro versial that he knew would make people indignant. Regardless, I would like to thank Watson for his interest ing point of view—he has some valid points. Yes, the Bible was written over a thousand years ago; but, does that make it out of date? William Shakespeare wrote his plays about 400 years ago but their themes still impact us today. Why is that? People fun damentally haven’t changed much. People today still want the same things people 400 years even 2,000 years ago wanted. What do people want —love, friendship, acceptance, significance. Think about it. Why are we all here at college? We are here to make some thing of ourselves, to develop friendships, and to possibly find love. All of these issues are directly addressed in the Bible —the things that mean the most to the human heart are what the Bible has to talk about. So, as for me, I’d much rather stick to the Bible than move on to “American Psycho.” Good Samaritans are still out there. They are the people who let you into crowded traf fic, who pull over on the side of the road to help someone in need, they are the heroes who help people in their darkest hour. Sometimes they do get kicked in the head but then — don’t we all? I just have one more thing to say. I don’t mean this to be an insult to Watson — he’s enti tled to his opinion and I’m enti tled to mine. I am not minister Phil banging his Bible, or a tel evangelist. I am not like the campus preacher ranting about God outside the MSC, or even one of those people who attacks you on campus questioning whether or not you know Jesus. I am just a student here like everyone else who happens to believe that Jesus is much more than “one hell of a guy”. Amanda Anderle Class of ’98 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. Letters may be submitted in person at 013 Reed McDon ald. A valid student ID is required. Letters may also be mailed to: The Battalion - Mail Call 013 Reed McDonald Texas A&M University College Station, TX 77843-1111 Fax: (409) 845-2647 E-mail: Batt@tamvm1.tamu.edu
