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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 8, 1996)
:h 8, 1996 ISt :t fall and The Battalion Friday March 8, 1996 Opinion Page 5 the movie, se to fame, r talent at setheart of cross over r death at brates the t’s positive the age of looking for play Sele- fperactive, ; to find a n age 18 to d they are lart, bead le. ) Selena at e “spirit of exas ace freezing ight, drop- iss most ar- immediate Valley. The ervice said eopardy for jion. Friday d cool with the 60s. s forecast f snow flur- ;ible lows in cted in the for the 50s mde.Near- itures were t in North and clear to should push ;he teens to region. isociation: •al meeting 30 p.m. in re informa- 16-2282. •eak in the egin today, tropical ar- Lio Grande, ers a taste Green and lilled Kites, aged King- iformation, 8. is: Non-de- :, confiden- support ihare group sexual, and sons, their s. Students re welcome, m call Gay- aen rsh sy refused to ling today; it merican mili- jnt at all the 3 no problems iapanese judi- on under the s the United der the rule of atement said. )ck and Chieko Agiitti r rape victims \ other’s legal er Ryutaro Kyodo News ; were “some- s” than past t he suggest- t was fair in s age. aese officials s fourth ses- committee » scale back iinawa and burdensome We should accept liability p Jason J! Glen Columnist / ■ Y ou are five to 50 years of age. Your spouse is caus ing problems in your marriage. You smoke, eat, pop pills or see a counselor all the time because your life is too stressful. Your boss is unrea sonable. You pay too much in taxes. Your kids are running away or doing drugs. Your local and national government rep resentatives don’t do their job. God is very unfair to you, and you can’t understand why. What are you? A Whiner, and unfortunately only one of many in this coun try. If this does not apply to you then don’t take offense, but it does apply to too many people in our society. Within the last few decades our country has be come a haven for crybabies. We are living in a society that is los ing its responsibility and losing it quickly. It may sound funny, but nothing is anyone's fault anymore. It is either someone else's fault or some kind of nat ural phenomenon. This lack-of-responsibility trend is destroying our nation. It slows down the learning process of children and limits what we as a society can at tain. Many people blame their problems on others when it is usually their own fault. This explains why there are so many lawyers in our coun try. It also explains why it is so hard for our government to get anything done. As soon as our government decides to stand its ground on something, we get rid of it and elect someone new who will be the next to be abused. People manipulate politicians and government of ficials more than politicians manipulate the people. We whine and groan about what is going on up on Capitol Hill and about what they have or haven't done for us; yet there are lots of us out there they can't read, write or point out all the states on a map. These people have no right to com plain about our government when they don’t even try to comprehend our political and economical system, let alone our written language. Another example of this lack of responsibility is our judicial system and the jurors who make the decisions. People are literally getting away with mur der because they were raised wrong or they had a bad day. Life isn’t fair sometimes and we need to realize that blaming problems on others or variables only delays the recovery they could attain if they would only get off their rears and use some motivation, heart, responsibility and intelligence to better their lives. Temporarily having your feelings hurt or not being able to attain some position in life that you want is no excuse to start cursing out the president or Congress, or go out and harm someone mentally or physically. Rich people say that poor people drag down our society. Poor people say that rich people are greedy and keep all the money in this country for them selves. Minorities complain that majorities hold them down. Ma jorities complain that minorities hold them back. Parents com plain that their children don’t obey. Teenagers complain that their parents are too strict. The list goes on. If you actu ally look at it all together, it is a pretty sickening sight to be hold. All of these corrupted thoughts could be remedied by personal responsibility. Imagine a world where all people were responsible for their own actions. It would be an awesome place to live. It would not be a sinless place with a perfect government, but at least we would cut our bu reaucracy to a minimum and we wouldn’t have to endure any more of those horrid talk shows. So quit whining and suck it up. Jason T. Glen is a sophomore political science major New Internet rules stand in the way of reason Jeff Nolen A ttention computer users. You can now rest at ease. Your government has taken steps to make sure that you don’t have to go through the arduous task of think ing for yourselves. The intellectual training wheels appear in the form of the Telecommunications Re form Act, which Congress recently passed by an overwhelming margin. Much of the act deals with the deregulation of the broadcast media, but another section of the the act is slightly more interesting. That part has to do with the regulation of what is or is not “obscene” material. Television stations have long been re stricted by law concerning the material and language that they are able to broadcast into our homes. Now, television manufac turers are required to include a V-chip, en abling individuals to filter what subject matter is allowed to be displayed on the screen. The V-chip is a good idea. It allows an individual to control the ideas and im ages to which that person is exposed. The legislation crosses the line, howev er, when it expands the umbrella of censor ship to the Internet. By treating the Internet in the same manner as the broadcast media, the act makes it illegal to say any of seven “bad” words online, to discuss abortion openly and to discuss certain parts and functions of the human body in any but the most clinical of terms. I don’t want to sound paranoid, but doesn’t this whole scenario seem the slight est bit Orwellian to anyone? And besides, isn’t abortion legal? I looked it up; it is. Coincidentally, sex is also legal, and as I’ve been told from time to time, somewhat enjoyable. Now I defy any one to tell me why people shouldn’t be able to discuss perfectly legal activities over the Inter- f. net. Ironically, no one has ever attempted to prevent people from discussing il legal activities such as drug use and murder. I have surfed the In ternet often, and for vari ous reasons. Never, in all my experience, have I come across an image or page that I had not personally chosen to expose myself to. The Net works on the same principle as our fine campus library: There is in formation available, but you have to know what you want to be able to find it. Even then, you might not be able to find it. Simply put, no one is being shown material who has not explicitly at tempted to find that material. Despite the irrationality of the new law, it fails an even greater test. The act doesn’t recog nize the rights guaranteed to American citizens by a rather ob scure legal docu ment written by James Madison — the Bill of Rights. The willingness of Congress and the president to ignore these rights is a slap in the face to any intelligent American. The greatest paradox of the Telecommunications Act is that it was borne of a legislature that claims to be fighting tooth and nail to keep the government out of our lives. Granted, the act received wide, bipartisan support, but its passage shows the true colors of our fair Congress and its conservative leader ship. The people who passed the act are not in favor of less government. They are in fa vor of a government that is allowed to con trol the information to which its citizens MX it ftm JFlrsv^? ■\ can be exposed. For a group of people who find abor tion so offensive, I find it interesting that they do not flinch at such a miscarriage of justice. The Telecommunication Reform Act does not enable common people to think for themselves. Rather, it selectively deletes ideas and images from our collective con sciousness to ensure that no one adopts values that are “wrong.” Now that is what I call obscene. Jeff Nolen is a senior psychology major ISs Affiliations left behind at the polls E ddie Mur phy usually isn’t re garded as a mas ter political strategist. But he did express some words of wisdom in 1992 during the presidential race between George Bush and Bill Clinton. “Well, I’m gonna have some body’s foot up my ass,” Mur phy said, “so I might as well vote for whoever has the smallest foot.” This seems to be the prob lem for most of voting Ameri ca. Once you get past the diehard Democrats and Repub licans, the voting population seems to be stuck between the lesser of two evils, or whoev er has the smallest foot. This uncer tainty is to be expected. De spite what can didates like to believe, it is difficult for regu lar citizens to identify with wealthy politicians. This is what makes the diehards so unusual. Regard less of the issue, some auto matically vote in the direction of their favored party. Any politician who tiptoes too close to the opposing border is sure to be shot down. When was the last time a major Republican candidate came out as pro- choice? And for that matter, a Democrat who wanted to jack up military spending? These ideas are clearly marked in the “don’t cross this line” mentality of American politics. What par ty leaders say becomes the rule, which trickles down into the stream of party supporters. But the arguments of Democ rat vs. Republican and liberal vs. conservative are more con cerned with labels than with is sues. This begins the dangerous practice of stereotypes, a prac tice that seems to have grown. "Well, I'm gonna have somebody's foot up my ass, so I might as well vote for the person with the smallest foot." — Eddie Murphy comedian For example, I grew up as an Army brat (the child of a military parent). I was bom barded with conservatism for 18 years, so I pretty much thought of myself as a Repub lican. Although I didn’t pay much attention to politics, I knew who I was supposed to support. Ronald Reagan was a king; Walter Mondale was a moron. George Bush was a leader; Michael Dukakis was a loser. The Democrats were a mys tery to me, until I finally fig ured out the main differences between the two parties. That, plus the freedom of college, forced me to examine my naive political beliefs. I had escaped the rigid en vironment that screamed “con servative!” — military men and women everywhere, bark ing out orders to their troops. But stereotyping runs ram pant everywhere. When people hear I come from a military family, I’m immediately thrown into the Republican circle. When people hear I am pro-choice, I am stuck with the Democrat label. Which political party people choose to affiliate themselves with should not be determined by a particular belief in one is sue. Adopting the creed of a po litical party over individualism begets assimilation. With the Republicans bat tling it out for positioning in the presidential race, voters who make their decisions based on character, not party, have little to hope for. There are the extreme racist views of Pat Buchanan, and the severe ly out-of-date beliefs of Sen. Bob Dole. To borrow from Murphy, they’ve both got big-ass feet. Rob Clark is a senior journalism major Mail Student Advisory Board wants input The PITS Student Advisory Board would like the student body to know that there is a way to voice your concerns and ideas to PTTS. This committee was created last semester to solicit input and advise PTTS on meeting the needs of the student body. If you have input concerning parking our shuttle bus issues, please feel free to e- mail us at: kaml624.acs.tamu.edu. PTTS Student Advisory Board is a University commit tee, and anyone wishing to serve on the committee can pick up an application in the Student Gov ernment Office in Koldus, the Student FYograms Office in the MSC, or Multicultural Services in the MSC. Applications are due April 10. To specifically address the Rec Sports parking issue, PTTS is handling the situation as re quested of it by the Rec Center. Finally, we want to point out that PTTS is making an effort to serve the student body bet ter. Their participation in this committee is one example. PTTS has also made an effort to inform students in advance of changes in parking condi tions by placing ads in the Bat talion. Last semester, Bus Op erations provided shuttle ser vice for the t.u. game as a re sponse to student input. The service ran smoothly and pro vided effective. PTTS hopes to provide the service for all home games next year. We hope this letter has demonstrated the proactive effort PTTS has made this year. Kim Matthews Class of ’95 Accompanied by 3 signatures Aggie conservatives on the right track As always, Chris Stidvent’s argument is cute and consis tent. Or better, thoughtfully worded like a smart criminal careful not to leave tracks. Don’t get me wrong, I hear what you’re saying, Chris, but your validity is shaky in my eyes. Saying that “true conserva tives” simply want to “be left alone to make more money” and refuse to acknowledge “poor people and social respon sibility” is as foolish a general ization as saying that liberals are all too weak and ignorant to stand up for what is right and instead take the lesser route by supporting everything. I analogize this to any dishon est campaign, political or per sonal, where becoming a chameleon is the safest bet for success. The “social conscience” of conservatives is just as wrong for supporting old values and tradition as the liberals' thoughtless view that these things are a waste of time. Of ficially voiced “good reasons” to support a good thing (that has been more than consistently supported for years) is not nec essary to prove it true. Unless, of course, the one questioning is unable to accept the ideas of someone else he accepts as his own. Do I smell a contradic tion? But if you need a pacifier that badly, here are some “good reasons” to support tradition: The knowledge the past gives us about the present and fu ture, the growth and equality generated by celebrating them, and the years of statistics and incomparable support of Texas A&M to prove it. Perhaps the more one lacks of their own integrity and di rection, the more he will shift the blame and question to those who do have these quali ties—the “right” ones, if you will. Including racism: Yes it exists and is wrong, but it is equally wrong to say racism is more prevalent among conserv ative Aggies than anywhere else. Just like other problems, it is recognized and should be dealt with, but I argue that Ag gies are smart for focusing on the positive issues—after all, the positives are the bigger is sues around here anyway. What good does it ever do to stare back at your mistakes? Aggie conservatives aren’t about avoiding and rationaliz ing — WE THINK! Marissa Anne Agosta Class of ’9 7 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