The Battalion
sday • April 16,1
UESDAY
Ipril 16, 1996
Opinion
Page 11
Castration
prevents
sex crimes
p Baseball
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nputer.”
T here’s an evil man in
San Antonio, and he
wants to be castrated.
Larry Don McQuay, con
sidered “public enemy No.
1,” has just been released
from prison and is in a
Bexar County lockup in or
der to be monitored. He has
admitted to molesting over
200 children, and he doesn’t
believe that he will ever be
psychologically rehabilitated
unless his testicles are cut
off. Maybe he’s right and
maybe he’s not, but if a man
believes he shobld be cas
trated, then someone better
castrate the hell out of him.
Currently, however, Texas
law prohibits the use of cas-
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ca said the sited:
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ititutions through:
States and Europe,
aid he is pleasei l ra h° n as one °f the terms of
his parole. The rationale is
that castration is cruel and
unusual punishment.
Instead, McQuay will be
monitored in the lockup for
as long as two years, when
his parole'expires. While in
this “mandatory supervi
sion,” McQuay must abide
by more than 25 rules de
signed to curb his pedophilic
tendencies. They include re
strictions on contact with
anyone under 18 either by
telephone or through written
or electronic means and re
strictions on purchasing or
'Subscribing to “any litera-
; toe, magazines, books
and/or videotapes which in
clude pictures of children.”
McQuay doesn’t think
these parameters on his ex
istence are enough. He be
lieves that only by some
careful slicing and dicing
around his genitalia will he
have a chance at reform. In
response to his request, a
San Antonio doctor has vol
unteered to perform the
surgery at no cost.
But the question should
not be whether McQuay
should be allowed to be cas
trated, but instead why it is
n’t legal to mandate castra
tion in cases of extreme sex
ual perversion. And the
state’s rationale of cruel and
unusual punishment doesn’t
cut the cake in my book.
I’ve seen a live castration
before. My grandfather owns
livestock and must make
steers out of his young bulls
every now and then. I can
attest to the fact that the
process might be a little un
usual. But the argument
should not be approached on
those terms.
If a person is rated a
black belt in the martial
I arts, his or her arms and
feet are considered by law to
be lethal weapons. Any ex
cessive use of these weapon
is against the law.
By the same token, if a
man is a pedophilic sex of
fender, his libido is his
weapon. And if the state has
j the means to take away that
weapons so that it cannot be
used again, then the state
has the obligation to do so.
Cutting off a man’s testicles
would be an easy way to par
tially eliminate sexual de
sire and should be seen as a
pragmatic and effective pun
ishment and deterrent to fu
ture offense.
If society considers the
death penalty legal punish
ment, then a couple of testi
cles should seem paltry in
comparison.
I am not so naive as to as
sert that castration could be
completely effective in all
cases or even that pedophilia
can be corrected entirely by
an operation. But if we as a
society have an option to at
least destroy the smoking
gun, then why don’t we?
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ollege District
Chris Miller is a
sophomore English major
S ports fa
natics love
this time of
year. The basket
ball season is
reaching its ex
citing conclusion,
the baseball sea
son is just begin
ning, and the
NFL draft is not
far away. Sports fans are so busy
cheering, betting and painting
their favorite team’s logo on their
faces that they will probably for
get one important fact about the
activities they so love: Profession
al sports embody all that is bad
about American society.
Before I begin to list the faults
of professional sports, I would
like to make it clear that I am not
anti-sport, but rather I am
against professional sports. Foot
ball, baseball and basketball are
enjoyable, healthy activities in
which to participate. When they
are blown out of proportion, as
they tend to be in our nation,
they lose all endearing qualities.
To begin with, pro sports are
sexist. The big money sports are
almost entirely all-male sports:
football, base
ball, basketball,
hockey. There
are very few
pro sports in
which women
can compete and
earn comparable salaries to the
men. Tennis immediately comes
to mind. Of course, women tennis
players are not valued according
to their ability to play the game,
but rather for their “entertain
ment” value.
Think about it. Martina
Navratilova is undoubtedly the
best female tennis player of the
last 20 years, but Chris Evert is
more popular, judging by adver
tising revenue. Why? Well, it has
nothing to do with their athletic
ability. Navratilova is an ugly
lesbian (not very entertaining, is
she?), and Evert is a straight
woman with a nice butt.
Women don’t have the oppor
tunity to participate in nearly
as many sports as men, and
when they do, they are general
ly objectified. When was the last
time you saw two men wrestle
in hot oil?
I guess that this sex bias in
pro sports is just the natural ex
tension of the belief that football
and baseball are “boy” sports
(you know, kind of like the way
medicine and law used to be con
sidered “boy” professions). Even
if we manage to even the balance
of gender in pro sports, they will
still be a far cry from fair.
In addition to sex discrimina
tion, pro sports tend to have a
great deal of racial discrimina
tion. Teams tend to do pretty well
in hiring minority players, but
when it comes to coaching posi
tions, minorities are much less
likely to be hired. Now, I don’t
know much about sports, but
wouldn’t the people most quali
fied to coach a sport be the same
people who have the experience
of playing that sport? If so, then
why wouldn’t the racial diversity
of the coaching staffs be similar
to the diversity of the players?
I tried to track down the exact
statistics (I know how crazy you
sports fans are about stats), but
apparently the NBA, NFL, Major
League Baseball, CNN and
ESPN don’t know that informa
tion. Actually, they probably
know it, they just don’t want
everyone else to know it because
it will point out the huge minori
ty deficits in the coaching staffs.
In addition to being sexist and
racist, the pro sports establish
ment reflects a general inver
sion of the values of society.
With merchandising and adver
tising revenues, pro sports earn
billions of dollars each year. That
money continues to perpetuate a
system that has lost sight of the
fact that it is based on a game.
This sports mania has leaked
into the education system and
tipped salaries away from science
and art teachers and toward
coaches. Have we ever stopped to
think that maybe it all isn’t that
important?
Isn’t it just a game?
Apparently not.
Jeff Nolen is a senior
psychology major
Size does not always reflect quality
F or that small number of you
who are not faithful front
page readers, you missed a
real eye-opening article last Tues
day. The focus of the article was
the recent announcement that
Texas A&M University now has
the largest full-time undergraduate
enrollment in the United States.
That’s right, we finally edged
out Ohio State, topping the list with 31,439 full
time undergraduates.
In the article, Gary Engelgau, executive direc
tor of admissions, states that the large number re
flects “A&M’s commitment to undergraduate edu
cation.” Something is wrong with this picture.
We are constantly defining ourselves as a
“world class” university, yet the rest of the world
doesn’t seem to be noticing. Maybe we should con
sider the possibility that we might not be as world
class as we think.
Certainly we should not let our new status as No.l
in full-time undergraduate enrollment go to our
heads. Although it is possible to be the biggest and
the best, one is not necessarily related to the other.
The measures we use to define ourselves as
world class are not measures of quality education
at all. The massive undergraduate enrollment is
just the most recent example.
This year the the library has led the way in re
form. Prohibiting food and drink will “restore an
academic environment” to the Evans Library. Per
haps an academic environment would be enhanced
further if “Subscription Canceled” and “No Hold
ings Found” weren’t the most likely phrases to ap
pear on a NOTIS screen.
Too many classes were taught this semester by
faculty focused on their publications as opposed to
the absorption of knowledge by their students.
A&M is among the top five universities in the
amount of money dedicated to re
search. A preferred ranking would
be to top the list in amount of mon
ey dedicated to finding faculty who
can publish articles and teach well
at the same time.
True, if A&M were not worth the
money, it would not have the enroll-
| ment that it does. Remember, how
ever, that students (non-scholarship
students) pay only one-third of their tuition. State
taxpayers pay the rest.
If we all multiplied our fee statements by three,
how many of us would still be Aggies? Essentially,
A&M is insulated from the pressures of competi
tion. Taxes pay for the bulk of our education re
gardless of whether an A&M education is worth
what it costs or not.
Students should take a more active role in pres
suring the administration into focusing more on
true quality issues. Being “world class” is not just
about how happy the students are with their envi
ronment, how fun the football games are, and how
great it is to work out at the Rec Center. “World
class” is also about how employable students are
when they graduate.
When our future employers look at our resumes
and see that we are Aggies, we want our degrees
to induce thoughts of hard work and relevant
coursework. We do not want them to see Texas
A&M University and be reminded of our huge en
rollment or our stellar agricultural engineering
graduate program.
A&M is at a turning point in its history. Stu
dents and taxpayers share the responsibility with
the higher-ups to ensure that A&M focuses its ef
fort and its money on the quality of its education
and not just the popularity of its education.
Elaine Mejia is a senior political science major
Mail
Confederate flag
represents valor
James Harrington’s column
in the April 15th Batt reflects a
common misconception of the
Civil War held by some minori
ties and liberals. Contrary to
his article, the basis of the Civ
il War was states fighting to
preserve their rights.
Slavery was an issue, but it
was not why the Confederacy
was built. We just didn’t want
big government in Washington
running our lives and telling us
what to do (sound familiar?).
Texas is a state that epitomizes
independence.
As most will recall from
Texas history, we were once an
independent nation. Mexican
Americans can note the fact
that six flags flew over this
great state, and the Mexican
flag flies just as high as the
Stars and Bars. To condemn
slavery is only right, but to
condemn the Confederate flag
is only wrong. They do not go
hand in hand. The South is a
proud, friendly place rich in
culture, and we are bound to
gether by the fact that we once
fought side by side to preserve
our way of life and our culture.
I am proud to live in a state
that recognizes the sacrifices
others have made for our state
and the significance of the flag.
Mitch Paradise
Class of ’97
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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
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submitted in person at 013 Reed McDon-
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; may also be mailed to:
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