Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 22, 1996)
The Battalion MONDAY April 22, 1996 Opinion Page 9 I. This rate applies et an additional 5 i to end to qualifyloi ELLANEOUS itslll Grants l Schoiwj if $$$ In private fundinj 00 AID-2 HELP(1-MMIHH nor Used BooksTC*5 niture. 822-6633 1MMATE $200/mo„ house in 8(yji i.r. 38-8416 ed 1 Own room, fumisliec'5 0- + 1/4 bills. CallDaidS i/2 ba. WiliowickApts.iwi + 1/2 util. Call RoberUJ-i: lay. near campus CoteS own room lor summer, I tri 4-plex, S220/mo ♦ 1/1iSs needed own room in tor I 775-3101 anytime. to share 2bdrm/1 1118 Summer, Shawn 764-112 ites needed. Suitoi ) rs 2 bdrm/2 ba 821-6319 or 2 bdrm/2 bth begimt]!.-- S247.50/mo. ♦ 112 utiiei it aded. Summer, own td-i rs. 696-1493 r summer, own room.®-;' ) 1-2984 reded lo share2bdrm/lbjr 12 utilities. On bus ral! 3 share room, 2 bdrm/l Will! 100/mo. ♦ 1/3 bills EntM ummer only. Will gel omr. Rent 230/monlh. Cal/Bg. carports w/ male roomnasa 64-8228 or 996-9399. rr or next year, own rcra mte, W/D, call Jennifer W rate for 2 bdrm/2 be, FdllrJI 205/mo., own room, *1111® s 764-9372 / bdrm/1 1/2badupie<,im!7'. 1/2 utilities. 776-226/ efferson Ridge Apartnus tr a 694-7855 rmo summer & next year Sfl for summer. Own W - * . Bus rt., computer dr, Jd® 2 bd/2 1/2 balh, carport job '71 male needed. Own ran 1 On bus route. W/D. N» 'Jeff 764-6469. rd to share 3bdrm/2ba Jopets. $260/mo*t(3tli 1 ' or summer with Fall/SpiW f, 3, new carpet/tile, ownff* | 'mo Call Jeromy 846-K es needed. Summer 4* nt paid. Casa Verde iq.iS-b 1-room open in big, 4 age, W/D, etc. Needlasf 1 Call 693-6559. I summer to share mo. + 1/4 util. The Eidat led. N/S own room. May 10 . 696-3937 mate needed, close I - Brad 764-9750_ RVICES getting mairiedsw : you going toi > reception? ever considered! eulty Club? it is possible, formation, ray at 862 vice. Same-day & ovenf mis & racquet-ball raqiei ! Over $6 billion in pud<17 larships is nowavailabt s ardless of grades, incone * help. Call Student FiranB 3-6495 ext. 058552 u Driving & Driver's lie'" Ticket dismissal, insrirK 1 ' 9pm), W-Th(6pm-9pm!, m-2:30pm), SalfteT Next to Black Eyed Pei T Lowest price allowed h'” 16-6117. Showup30r : all Grin & Take III Deles' 778-GRIN (4746) p://www.take.com sc k resources, internstrgi : it, travel, music, dele* EWING i sewing for merVwoisf 2-3571. 106 W. 26th ii d' FANTED o lose weighl. MetaWT ' recommended. 29.95, local delivery, (dtfi)©;' iradualion tickets lor 133 ^ tickets Tor Sat. please^' GDAtt red a 1996 A$id: f; id will not. be on ctf to pick it up, you ^ ed. You should lent Publications I'*' s, room 230 Re*'- uilding, between S-'- 3 p.m. Honda) 1 toi pay a $6.50 »' ; ': ; fee. Yearbooks f p within one semes 1 "' cation date, and th': held, nor will thej ^ lout payment oftl 1 ' andling fee. Lots of Miss Daisys need drivers Michael Landauer Opinion Editor B ack in their day, they walked uphill 10 miles in the snow to borrow a cup of flour for their mom just so she could bake enough bread to feed the family. They worked 75 hours a week and still didn’t have enough money to buy soap, so they made their own. But they also fought World War II and won it, so maybe we shouldn’t be so hard on our elderly. We certainly should do more than tolerate them; we should re spect them. They deserve that. But when I listen to Grandpa Simpson- like rambling from my Grandma, I have to question some of her logic. “Kids today have too much freedom.” Some of her ramblings she sincerely be lieves. For example, she really thought that my brother playing pee-wee football caused my mom’s ulcer. But Grandma’s logic took a turn for the worse during her last visit. “Kids don’t know how to drive,” she said. “They cause too many accidents.” In particular. Grandma couldn’t believe that a teen-age kid got away with running into her car just because she made a left turn into his lane without seeing him com ing. Damn kids. The next thing you know, they’ll be making right turns on red lights. Then the real injustice came out. “I drive as slow as I want, and other peo ple can go around me,” she explained. “I’m a good driver, too. Last time I got my license renewed, they didn’t even check my eyes.” Wait a minute. Back up, Grandma. Better yet, get out of the car, and let me back up. So the government of Connecticut has enough faith in Grandma’s driving record not to check her eyes? If they had, they would have found that she’s practically blind. She said she knows her limits — she doesn’t drive at night. But the government didn’t place that restriction on her. And it gets better. Her license doesn’t have to be renewed until 2001. Her eye problems probably will all be cleared up by then. That nasty cataract will certainly go away in good time. At this point we kinda let her have it. We told her that maybe she shouldn’t be driving. We told her the teen-ager was not at fault and the state should have given her an eye exam. Old people don’t really like being told these things, so she stubbornly changed the subject and promised to keep driving. Then, she ran into a brick wall. I wasn’t there, but I’m sure the brick mm wall was at fault. Walls are always making lane changes without signaling and so forth. Fortunately she wasn’t hurt. Unfortunately, she still hasn’t gotten the point. She said shell just place further limits on the times when she can drive. You see, this time the sun temporarily blinded her. So while Grandma rushes out to do her errands between the hours of noon and 12:05 p.m., other elderly people are learn ing their limits as they crash into those pesky walls. Yeah, we’ve heard it all before. Young dri vers are to blame for all our traffic woes. But young drivers are more able to overcome their difficulties and become bette'~ drive Once age starts to affect how you x.- you don’t improve much. People talk all the time about rais ’ ng the minimum driving age, but we should consider a maximum driving age as well. With prac tice, I’m sure 12-year-olds could drive a car. But I have my doubts about our abilities as we grow older. Growing old is not fun, or so my parents tell me. But when they reach the point where they can no longer drive safely, they want us to stop them. A few years ago there front page story about a cute pair of old ladies who accidentally drove onto an air port runway and collided with a plane as it was landing. They were on their way to an eye exam. It sounds funny, but imagine being that pilot. Imagine being that kid who ran into my Grandma. Growing old is hard, but deal ing with accidents is even harder. Since we don’t have a maximum driving age, maybe older people should be required to take a driving test every year. It would give them something to do, and it just might keep the roads a little safer. I’m not saying we should keep all old people off the roads without giving them a chance to prove their ability to drive. But we should at least expect them to stay off the runways. Michael Landauer is a junior journalism major Schools reacted too quickly to Hopwood A nd I bet you thought those govern ment bureaucrats were slow. Last Thursday, the Texas Higher Education Coordi nating Board voted to open previously minority-targeted scholarships to all economically disadvan taged groups. According to The Eagle, the Coordinating Board reached this little compromise because there was bitter division amongst the ranks. Apparently, some Board members thought that the commissioner, Kenneth Ashworth, had gone “too far” and acted “prematurely” by deciding to suspend minority-recruiting scholarships in compliance with the recent Hopwood decision. What? Could it be that some one else has noticed the speed with which the people in power have been rushing to comply with Hopwood, a case whose ink isn’t even dry? Why, the battle has just begun, but they are pro ceeding to apply it anyway, even though it is un clear whether immediate, dras tic action is nec essary. “Oh, how we hate this, but — sniffle — we must comply with the law.” Oh, really? It absolutely amazes me that the Hopwood decision was made public on Tuesday, March 19, and the Texas A&M chancellor placed a suspension on admissions and scholarships two days later. What lightning speed! What tenacity he displayed in comply ing with “the law”! The real question is — would it have been so terrible to just wait and leave the present admissions standards and scholarships alone here at the University un til the legal haze really became clear? Why, weeks after Texas A&M’s 10-day suspension on these areas, the Texas attorney general said he “believed” that a university accepting public money fell under the ruling. No tice he did not say “definitely.” Furthermore, the state has said that the decision has called the permissibility of affirmative ac tion programs into question. The key word here is “question.” If there is a question mark, and if people obviously seem con fused about the thing, then why are they hopping to apply the Hopwood decision? Are they just acting on the side of caution? I find that hard to believe when I consider anoth er landmark case (and one that was won in the Supreme Court), Brown vs. Board of Education. Why, the government had to lit erally send troops for black stu dents to be allowed to cross the threshold of all-white schools, which was their lawful right. And do you think that people are complying with this law even today, over 40 years — not days — later? Take a hard look at the newspapers and you will find story after story of states being told by courts that they are not complying with that law. My home state of Louisiana is a prime example — it is locked in a desegregation battle that seems to never cease. Desegrega tion of schools is by no means complete and has been ad dressed at snail’s pace, even though it is the stone-hard law. So, I find it a bit strange that many cannot handle Brown, but, boy can they handle Hopwood. It seems as if they can handle ex actly what they want to handle. If the Hopwood case is struck down in the highest court in the land, let’s just wait and see whether administrators and public officials will hop to re move their recent changes in the same Speedy Gonzales manner that they have shown us they are capable of in the past few weeks. Aja Henderson is a junior political science major Quanell X hits sour notes in his race song I am writing this letter in re sponse to the speech given by Quanell X last Thursday night. The topics of hi s speech were “Black and White: Can the Dream be a Reality?” and “Unity Among African Americans.” Un fortunately, I interpreted him as coming to the conclusion that blacks and whites won’t ever be able to come together because they have too many differences that won’t allow it to happen. He suggested that blacks should no longer depend on whites so much, but should come together to help each other as a race instead. It really concerns me to see that he chooses to use the differ ences between the races a reason M AIL to keep them apart instead of bringing them together. It’s hard for me to understand why it’s so difficult for us to see the beauty in the different races instead of the negative things in them. Why do we close our minds with stereotypes instead of opening up our hearts to individuals? Every person, no matter what his or her race, has something to offer the world. If one race choos es to cut itself off from another, its people will miss out on so much. It’s like having access to a field full of so many different lus cious fruits, ripe vegetables and wondrous animals, but limiting yourself to spot where only a few pretty flowers grow. What about all the potential friendships and eventful experiences that could occur? What about all those things we can learn from each other and our differences? He often brought up the topic of religion. I can’t help but won der if God had a good reason for placing such a diverse group of people and races on earth. But the world would be a boring place without all that diversity. It is difficult for me to see why He would put all those races of people here only for them to stay away from one another. One of his main arguments was about how blacks had been suppressed for so long. But there’s not much we can do to change what has already hap pened. All we can do is learn ' from the mistakes that were made in the past and move on in an attempt to make things bet ter for tomorrow. Just maybe one day the many differences with their notes ringing so sweet will fit together into perfectly interlocking puz zle, thus releasing the true mag ic of the long-awaited music box of peace and harmony. DeSorrow Golden Class of ’98 Picture this: Kappa Kappa Kappa has invited David Duke to speak in Rudder Tower on the preservation of white cul ture and the evils imposed by interracial dating and mar riage. He will also address the reverse discrimination prac ticed in affirmative action poli cies, such as race-based admis sion quotas. I now ask what would be the difference be tween Duke’s message and what Quanell X had to say Thursday night at the MSG? I believe Texas A&M would im mediately be condemned as a racist university that has no re spect for minorities and a lack of sympathy for their feelings. As I recall, Quanell X has radically changed his views if he is now for unification and peace among the races. Anyone famil iar with him knows that is false. In fact, just a couple of years ago Quanell X visited A&M and compared white women to swine and repeatedly criticized the white race. If A&M has room for Quanell X and his rhetoric, then speakers such as David Duke should equally have the right to visit the campus and express their views. Blake Knutson Class of’96 New student body president promises more accessibiKty H owdy! My name is Carl Baggett, the 1996-97 student body president. Next year offers many opportu nities for Texas A&M University. We will be entering the Big 12 Conference and welcoming the first class of the new cen tury, the Class of 2000. Stu-* dent Government would like to be at the forefront of these new opportunities, ensuring the representation of each and every student. To be able to effectively represent the stu dent body, Student Govern ment must have a way to hear the needs of every student. the student body president coming to the students. Every week during a desig nated time pe riod, I will be available in the MSG to discuss issues and concerns facing the students. I also believe very strongly in an open door policy; please feel free to stop by any time you want to talk. The last point I would like to address is the need for stu dents at this University to be educated and knowledgeable of the issues that directly af fect them. For example, stu dents must understand the long term effects of the Hop- Currently, not enough students know where the office of the student body president is, much less converse with the president on a daily basis. One of the goals of my Ex ecutive Council wijl be to make sure that this becomes a reality. Representatives from the IFC, Corps of Cadets, MSG, RHA, BAG, as well as some campuswide representatives will keep me in touch with the needs of the entire student body. Another personal goal I have is acces sibility. Currently, not enough students know where the office of the student body president is, much less con verse with the president on a daily basis. Next year, this problem will be averted by wood case and how we as a student body must create an environment where all poten tial Aggies are welcome and needed to ensure a diverse Aggieland. I am looking forward to a great year. We have so many opportunities and expecta tions. I have no doubt that as a student body we will contin ue to strive for excellence. Together we can and will make a positive impact on Texas A&M University. Carl Baggett is a senior accounting major Grecian Formula Leave it to Dad to create the ideal frat O ooh, it’s tempting. Writing an anti-fraternity / sorority column has been almost as tantalizing as making fun of Sen. Bob Dole. But inevitably, someone every semester beats me to the punch with a column that says “paying for friends is wrong.” Columns detailing this stigma just rarely break any new ground. But I heard a story recently from a wise old man (who hap pens to go by the name of “Dad”) that gave the light of sensibility and reason to the frat rat/sb issue. As a sophomore at St. Mary’s University in San Anto nio, my father was approached by a few fraternity members to go through rush. Politely, he declined. But their reaction wasn’t quite as civil. He quick ly became an outcast in their eyes, words and actions. Despite being glad that he hadn’t joined such a classy or ganization, he knew he had to do something. Then he had the big idea. Along with a few friends, he started his own fraternity. The letters were YKY — but it wasn’t Upsilon Kappa Up- silon. Instead they were the Yippy Ki Yos. Silly? Perhaps, but sensible as well. The Yippy Ki Yos were es tablished with only two sets of ground rules. First, anyone could join. Second, membership only cost $1. The first rule was perhaps the most groundbreaking of the two. Anyone — male or female, black, white or Hispanic, big or small — whatever. All anyone had to be was a student willing to join. As for the second rule, well, the price was right. This was n’t an organization that de manded annoying T-shirts every time they had a party. They used what resources they had and went about their business. And business was good. By the time my fa ther left St. Mary’s, Yippy Ki Yo was the biggest frater nity on campus. The large number of members meant they could have official frater nity T-shirts, and they were members of the university’s fraternity council. The reason the organization was so successful was that it in cluded everything that is good about Greek organizations and eliminated the bad. By including everyone who wanted to join, the usual petty immaturity of rived Greek organizations was never even a consideration. And it provided a good op portunity for freshmen — peo ple to immediately associate with to help alleviate the often traumatic transitions from high school to college. And the widespread “Rent a friend, join a frat” sentiment that runs rampant at A&M among non-Greeks was irrele vant with the Yippy Ki Yos, since $1 doesn’t exactly get you far when it comes to friend rentals. It’s doubtful that such an organization would be accept ed at A&M. The mighty pow ers that be in the twisted Greek realm of keggers and T- shirts would strike down any such attempt. In a way though, many A&M organizations could be consid ered of the same ilk as the Greeks. The Corps of Cadets, athletic teams and even The Battalion staff have many characteristics similar to the demented, cult-like madness of the frats and sororities. The only difference is, of course, only the Greeks pay ridiculous amounts of money to join. Rob Clark is a senior journalism major