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The Battalion
Tuesday
February 27, 1 996
Opinion
Brushy Creek reeks of
questionable treatment
Negative campaigning must stop
T exas A&M —
world class
university
with world class
problems.
Texas A&M
University has be
gun construction
on the Animal Sci
ence, Teaching,
Research and Extension Com
plex. Despite the fact that legal
action and mediation are pend
ing, administration officials
have proceeded with their plans
to violate the most basic of land-
use principles — when possible,
it is best to avoid using the same
area of land for two competing
functions.
When land is being used to
sustain the lives of American cit
izens no corporation, govern
ment, person or university
should be allowed to contami
nate it, particularly when there
are other options available.
Specifically, 300 sheep, 300
goats and up to 75 pregnant
sows and piglets will be housed
on a rotating basis on the small
piece of property west of College
Station on Highway 60. Three
hundred cattle are already on
the site and will remain there
after the center is built.
That the University is placing
a large number of animals on a
relatively small piece of property
in an overwhelmingly African-
American community warrants
an explanation.
Environmental racism was
defined in 1991 by Reverend
Benjamin J. Chavis, a leader in
the movement for environmental
justice: “Environmental racism
is racial discrimination in envi
ronmental policy-making and
the unequal enforcement of envi
ronmental laws and regula
tions.” It is the “official sanction
ing of a life-threatening presence
of poisons and pollutants in peo
ple’s of color communities.”
These communities, both ur
ban and nonurban, dispropor
tionately suffer from environ
mental degradation.
A&M’s choosing to locate the
center in the Brushy Creek area
is nothing unique. Rather, A&M
is added to a national list of sus
pect organizations that may
have chosen locations based on
the characteristics of their resi
dents — in this case, low-income
and African-American.
A 1987 study by the Com
mission on Racial Justice found
that 60 percent of African
Americans and Hispanics live
in communities with uncon
trolled toxic waste sites, com
pared with 50 percent of the
general population.
Statistics also show that com
munities with a higher percent
age of minorities are significant
ly more likely to have facilities
for treating or incinerating haz
ardous waste.
Historically,
there has been a
disparity in en
forcement of envi
ronmental regula
tions as well. Ac
cording to the En-
vironmental Pro
tection Agency, be
tween 1985 and 1991 violators of
the federal hazardous waste law
received fines that were 500 per
cent higher if they polluted
white communities than if they
polluted minority communities.
This is no surprise given the
different levels of political clout
that the communities contain.
Although it may be no surprise,
it is also not just.
Higher-income and predomi
nately white communities are
more likely to successfully prevent
corporations and governments
from locating potential environ
mental hazards in their areas.
Understandably, the adminis
tration chose to locate the center
in Brushy Creek for financial rea
sons. It has a right, of course, to
locate the center on the cheapest
land it can find. This does not,
however, negate its responsibility
if it pollutes the ground water of
the surrounding community.
According the the University,
it is safe to locate the center in
Brushy Creek. A&M officials
should release their scientific
studies proving this to the resi
dents of Brushy Creek.
There is already a Beef Indus
try Complex located at the site.
Perhaps this is why the land is
“safe” for the new animals — be
cause the ground water is al
ready contaminated. If s >, the
residents of Brushy Creek de
serve to know this is the case,
and the University should have
to prove that further contamina
tion does not pose an increase in
health risks to the community.
Last week, a U.S. district
judge ordered Texas A&M and
Brushy Creek residents to
share their information with
each other. Previously, the
judge denied a restraining order
that would have temporarily
stopped construction of the $5.5
million center. Mediation be
tween University officials and
Brushy Creek residents is
scheduled for this weekend.
Construction continues at the
site and is scheduled to be com
pleted in the summer of 1997. If
mediation is unsuccessful,
Brushy Creek residents will
again seek court intervention.
The University has been
planning the center for over 10
years, but years of planning do
not render the University im
mune to the legitimate concerns
of Brushy Creek residents.
Elaine Mejia is a senior
political science major
Black History Month
teaches the real past
Despite the opinions of Bren
dan O’Reilly, Black History
Month is not an attempt to fur
ther divide ou‘r races or to throw
the past in one another’s faces.
One of the purposes of Black
History Month is to try to en
lighten people who mistakenly
believe that, thanks to History
106, they know everything they
need to know about American
history. O’Reilly wrote, “Most
people know about the cruelties
of slavery, and they do not get
uncomfortable when they are re
minded of what has happened.”
If you believe that, try sitting in
on a HIST 301 lecture (History
of Blacks in the U.S. since
1877). Try learning about post
slavery lynchings when it was
common for people to come from
miles around to watch a man be
burned alive and have his flesh,
teeth, fingers and toes be torn
from his body for souvenirs,
sometimes before he was dead.
Try listening to that without
sinking in your chair, without
being “uncomfortable,” without
thanking God that you and your
friends were born generations
later. We cannot take the re-
Mail
sponsibility for the atrocities of
the past. We could never right
all of the wrongs, and our shoul
ders would surely not withstand
the weight of the burden. It’s a
past that still haunts us because
we are not anywhere close to
learning from it what we should.
The shame I feel is for the
locked minds today — the ones
who continue to hurl the word
“nigger” at fellow Aggies, who
think that equality was granted
to blacks by Abraham Lincoln,
who have the audacity to dis
play their own ignorance so bla
tantly. I feel the shame of shar
ing my school with those deter
mined to stunt its progress —
those who are voluntarily limit
ing their own education. I feel
the anger from injustices that
occur on this campus that no
longer shock my black peers.
Black History Month is a cele
bration of those leaders who we
skim over in most history class
es; it is a plea to learn from the
mistakes of those who came be
fore us, and it is an opportunity
for all of us to respect the perse
verance of people who refused to
be treated like second class citi
zens.
Christine Eason
Class of’97
N obody likes a tattle
tale. But it sure
seems like the bicker
ing candidates for the Re
publican presidential nomi
nation never learned this
valuable lesson. Gov. Lamar
Alexander, Pat Buchanan,
Sen. Bob Dole and Steve
Forbes have been firing
shots at each other like a na
tional championship game of
“smear the front-runner.”
Dole calls Buchanan an ex
tremist.
Buchanan calls Alexander a
liberal.
Alexander says Buchanan has
“the wrong ideas” and Dole has “no
ideas.”
And everyone jabs at Forbes for just
being a big, fat, rich guy who can’t
seem to answer any question — even
about the weather — without talking
about his flat tax proposal.
The negative campaigning has reached
epidemic proportions for Dole. Once the
front-runner, his run at the presidency has
taken a turn for the worse, much of it stem
ming from his negative ads targeting
Buchanan as a monster (which is actually
pretty accurate).
But as the race continues, these ads are
only getting worse. Dole seems to be grasp
ing at anything to grab the top slot back
from Buchanan. And Alexander wins the
audacity contest, suggesting that Dole
should drop out of the race, although
Alexander hasn’t defeated Dole in any pri
mary yet.
The candidates are behaving with less
maturity than third-graders at recess. “My
dad can beat up your dad” is sure to be the
newest campaign slogan for one of them.
It’s a disease that is spreading ... even to
The Battalion. A recent ad read something
like this:
“Hi, I’m Rob Clark and I’d like to have
your vote as Battalion columnist supreme. I
believe I possess the vision, the knowledge
and the wisdom to lead The Batt’s readers
away from the Mail Call section and away
from the evils expressed in the other colum
nists’ wrong stances on the issues.
Just look at my fellow candidates on to
day’s page.
You can’t read Elaine Mejia’s column
on environmental racism. Mejia was
once president of the National Organi
zation for Women! Do you really want
to read the opinion of a former NOW
president? Should such an extremist be
allowed to have her voice in such a
prominent position?
And then there’s Chris Miller. When
Miller isn’t stinking up the Opinion page,
he can be found in the Student Senate,
where he and the other senators spend
ridiculous amounts of time achieving al
most nothing. Do you want a student
government insider to inflict his opinion
on you? Do you want to have to wade
through the bureaucratic muck when
you read The Batt? Or do you want to get
back to the issues at hand?
Rob Clark will talk about the issues.
Rob Clark’s columns will get columns
moving in the right direction. This is a
battle for the heart and soul of the
Opinion page and I won’t stop writing
until The Battalion Opinion page takes
America to new heights!
"""Paid for by the Rob Clark for
Columnist Supreme campaign* *
Of course this is ridiculous, but the
Republican candidates have a real inse
curity problem that’s just as bad. It’s silly
for the candidates to believe their own
status will be improved with political
“dissing” (although I can’t imagine Dole
sitting around saying, “Why is Lamar
Alexander ‘dissing’ me so much?”).
The right candidate will be the one
with the right ideas and the right mes
sages. But the Republican candidates’
constant negativity only shows their
lack of maturity.
They need to grow up.
You’d think Dole would’ve had time to do
that by now.
Roh Clark is a senior journalism major
who is running neck-and-neck with Mejia
and Miller in the latest polls
By definition, we are all guilty of hazing
I t’s easy to ac
cuse the Corps
of hazing.
Every day its
members organize
on various grass
fields around the
campus to yell,
scream and make
each other do
push-ups. Having
no idea what military training
entails, the typical student can
easily associate these behaviors
with hazing.
It’s also easy to accuse frater
nities of hazing. Every week
they organize in various houses
and perform secret rituals to en
hance bonding between brothers.
Having no idea what these se
cret things entail and why one
would need them to enhance
friendship, the typical student
can easily associate these behav
iors with hazing as well.
The recent incident with the
Fish Aides and their alleged haz
ing of Student Body President
Toby Boenig also raised some
eyebrows. The
question floating
around campus be
came, “Can they
really accuse
someone of hazing
for doing that?”
The answer re
turned was yes.
The reason they
can is because the
Fish Aides did haze Toby
Boenig, according to University
regulations. Section 4.51 of the
Texas A&M University Regula
tions handbook spells out a num
ber of actions that constitute
hazing, among them “sleep de
privation”-and “any activity ...
that adversely affects the mental
health or dignity of the student.”
The Fish Aides did wake Toby
up very early in the morning, de
priving him of sleep, and pro
ceeded to grode him and display
him on the side of the street in a
very undignified manner.
But wait, before you support
the disbanding of Fish Aides
and punishment of all parties
involved, take a look at the def
inition again. Upon closer ex
amination, I realized that I,
too, am guilty of hazing. I was a
Fish Camp counselor last year
and personally applied shaving
cream to the heads of all of my
“fish.” They were humiliated,
and I laughed at them. I also
made sure all the “fish” in my
cabin woke up before 8 o’clock
in the morning, and by doing
so, I was depriving them of
sleep. In my camp my freshman
year, my counselors made
freshmen participate in a game
called “The Wheel of Misfor
tune.” The game forced fresh
men who lost their name tags
to “heinie-write” their home
town or act like a dying cock
roach, among various other
“humiliating” acts.
It was at this point that I real
ized I needed to be punished se
verely. In fact, every one of the
over 600 counselors last year did
the same thing. They all should
be punished. And, if I remember
correctly, our co-chairs participat
ed. I say punish them, too. Christi
Moore, last year’s Fish Camp di
rector, should also be punished. It
seems ironic that she happens to
be one of the individuals pursuing
the investigation of the Fish
Aides incident when she was the
big cheese of an organization that,
by University definition, oozes
hazing from every pore.
When looked at from the
standpoint of the University’s
definition of hazing. I’d venture
to say that almost everyone on
this campus has hazed someone
at some point in time. It’s not
just the Corps and fraternities
anymore. We’re all hazers. And
we should all be punished.
Wait a minute ... perhaps the
University could allow some
leeway in its interpretation of
its hazing definition — that
might solve the problem. Naw.
That’s too easy. And it would
leave The Battalion very little
to write about.
Chris Miller is a sophomore
English major