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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 17, 1996)
The Battalion MONDAY June 17, 1996 OPINION Page 5 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 Stacy Stanton Editor in Chief Dave Winder Managing Editor Jason Brown Opinion Editor David Taylor City Editor UT Regents The University of Texas regents' use of university aircraft warrants an investigation Allegations of regents abusing university airplanes normally are associated with the Texas A&M Board of Regents. However, recent ly publicized details of the Univer sity of Texas’ regents traveling be havior raise questions about their own ethics. UT regents should be held to the same legal and ethical standards as the A&M regents, and the UT re gents’ behavior warrants a detailed investigation by the Travis County District Attorney’s office. Travel logs show that regents and their families flew to UT foot ball games on UT aircraft. The for mer chairman of the Board of Re gents flew as often as three times a week between Waco and Austin on UT aircraft, which cost around S 1,000 a day. Because the use of university air craft is costly and paid for by taxpay ers, regents should use the privilege judiciously. A&M regents curtailed travel on A&M aircraft by 93 percent after allegations surfaced about for mer chairman Ross Margraves. UT regents’ travel has remained fairly constant, which suggests that the UT regents may be able to cut back on travel themselves. At the least, they owe the public an explanation for their questionable behavior. For example, it is difficult to see why the chairman used UT air craft rather than a car to travel be tween Austin and Waco, a distance of only 100 miles. The Ross Margraves incident set a new standard for appropriate con duct with Texas A&M aircraft usage, but it appears the UT regents felt no need to alter their behavior. Perhaps they were correct, but it would be more reassuring to hear from a Travis County grand jury. Victor Morales The Senate candidate's campaign is refreshing, but it's time for some answers. Democratic Senate nominee Victor Morales may be projecting a down- home, no-frills image with his white pickup truck, but judging from the re marks he made in Bryan Thursday, his ftruckbed is pretty dam empty. Morales faces an admittedly diffi cult challenge. Incumbent Sen. Phil Gramm has a lot of clout and visibili ty and will be tough for the relatively obscure Morales to beat. In addition. Morales’ campaign spending — only $20,000 through the April runoff — pales in comparison to Gramm’s $3 million coffers. But in spite of this, Morales’ work ing-class-hero campaign is refresh ing. Instead of conceding the race to Gramm’s might, he is using his “reg ular guy” status as a former high school teacher and Crandall city councilman to his advantage. The oft- mentioned white pickup truck he dri ves makes the candidate appear sim pler and closer to the people than his Washington-based opponent. In light of most Americans’ in creasing distrust of Washington politicians, Morales could use this populist background as a strong foundation for a well-rounded candi dacy. But in Bryan Thursday, Morales showed a troubling tendency to rely exclusively on his outsider status as a reason to vote for him. Although he is supposedly cam paigning because he “saw a need for a change in government,” his ideas for specific changes are few. He did note his support for education re form, labeled himself a fiscal con servative — what politician isn’t nowadays? — and said he supported a gradually balanced budget. But he also let slip a disturbing lack of con cern with campaign issues. “What would be the point [of em phasizing issues]?” Morales bluntly said. The point would be to give Tex ans a reason to vote for him. A can didate’s stances on the issues are what give him or her definition. Driving white pickups and collect ing campaign money in rusty gas cans may give Morales character and appeal, but they alone fail to make him worthy of election to the U.S. Senate. Defeating Gramm’s rich jugger naut will be impossible if Morales remains an invisible candidate who refuses to stand on any particular platform. The candidate needs to show more knowledge of America’s problems before voters give him a chance to help solve them. Other wise, he’ll have to turn his pickup truck around before he even gets close to the Washington Beltway. Mail i Battalion exaggerates Faculty Senate debate s It was with great dismay that I read ■'e Battalion editorial of June 11 titled I 'acuity Infighting.” My dismay was J ased on the fact that The Battalion I tok a relatively minor incident and up- , Med it into a cause celebre. Professor ii Jlen is certainly entitled to his own 1 Ws on the effectiveness of the Facul- I ^Senate. I respect Allen as a scholar teacher, and I certainly respect his I Tht to voice his opinions. A university , 15 very often a marketplace of divergent Mions and antithetical ideas, all of- [ e fed in the quest for the advance of Mwledge. And so while I do not agree "ith Allen’s ideas, I do respect his ; dght to express them and I encourage ‘din and other faculty members to work '^ward constructive change. I do wish to restate my personal be- tafthat the Faculty Senate is a diverse ftoup of faculty who hold conservative, Moderate and liberal political views; 'hat the Senate accommodates and wel- 'omes diversity of views; that the Sen ate is, in fact, representative of the fac ulty and has done a credible job in speaking on their behalf, despite some recent setbacks caused by the higher administration, chancellor and regents; and that the Senate can function suc cessfully only when talented and vision- oriented faculty, including Roland Allen, become active participants in the deliberative process. Steven M. Oberhelman Faculty Senate Speaker The Battalion encourages letters to the editor and will print as many as space allows. 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 McDonald. 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 B-CS loses out with no concert L ollapalooza was going to be the biggest thing to hit the Bryan-College Station community since Phil Gramm. Phil Gramm dropped out, now, so has Lollapalooza. It would have been interesting to see how a traditionally conser vative town dealt with a traditionally liberal type of music. Lollapalooza would have been an op portunity for the community and partic ularly Texas A&M University to be rec ognized in a more positive light. A&M seems only to make news if the College Republicans post racist flyers, the Board of Regents buy alcohol with school money or Phil Gramm an nounces his desire to run for president on the Administration Building steps. Bryan-College Station is not particu larly known for its alternative music scene, but it is slowly growing. When people think of A&M, cowboy boots, 10- gallon hats and Wranglers come to mind. Students here believed the biggest concert A&M has hosted in the last couple of years was John Michael Montgomery and Clay Walker. People are ready for music, other than country, to make a breakthrough in this town. The Memorial Student Council Town Hall has been desper ately trying to attract big bands to come and play at A&M. If Lolla palooza would have graced the area, other bands would realize there is a market for music that does not involve a fiddle and a banjo. The stereotype of A&M being a school full of cowboys, poultry science and cattle majors, is just a that— a stereotype. The College of Engineering is the largest on campus and the Col lege of Liberal Arts runs a close sec ond. A&M is no longer the agriculture and mining school it was when it opened in 1846. The music scene here is growing. In 1989 R.E.M. was here; in 1992 the Vio lent Femmes performed and the Gin Blossoms opened up for Toad the Wet Sprocket. Last year, the Indigo Girls and They Might Be Giants played a show here. Last semester, The Nixons were here twice and said they love to play in Bryan-College Station. See, we are all not country lovin’, to bacco spittin’ hicks out here. A&M is a large campus with a diverse student population. Lollapalooza would have also given Bryan-College Station a chance to be on the map and given students a chance to take a break from the monotony of country clubs and seen a type of music that usually involves a two hour drive to see. Instead of people thinking Texas A&M University was somewhere in Houston or Dallas, now they would know it is in College Station, home of Lollapalooza ’96. While it may have seemed ridiculous for Lollapalooza to come to Bryan-Col lege Station, it was pretty exciting for a town that is frankly a little boring in the summer. If Bryan-College Station is too small to host this huge concert, then what is Ferris, and where is it? Ferris is an hour from Dallas and concert promoters were apparently looking for somewhere that was close to a metropolis. Bryan-College Station may be considered out in the boonies but it is only and hour and a half away from two of the biggest cities in Texas, Austin and Houston. I think Lollapalooza promoters were just a little too scared to host a concert of this magnitude in a town where peo ple have to ask, “Where is that?” A Lollapalooza spokesperson said who were searching for the perfect place to host the concert. Ferris was ob viously the perfect choice. I don’t know much about Ferris, but what I do know is that College Station has a population of college students who are craving a big concert to be played in this town. Lollapalooza would have ended that hunger. Plus, I guarantee that if you ask ten people where Ferris is, nine people will have no idea where it is and the one person who knows where it is probably lives there. Pace Concerts, the one in charge of booking dates, announced earlier this year that the Texas World Speedway would host the only Texas date. If, ac cording to a Lollapalooza spokesperson, they were “bantering” around dates, then why did Lollapalooza announce at least a month ago that the Texas World Speedway was the lucky winner of the Lollapalooza cook off? Whatever the reason, people need to realize we can handle a large concert and there is an audience for different types of music. For the last few years owners of clubs and Town Hall have been trying to convince promoters that Bryan-College Station is ready and has been ready to host the big name bands. Lollapalooza would have been an oppor tunity for this town to show that A&M is ready to break out of the country mold, but instead we will just continue to wait. Lollapalooza ’97 anyone? Kristina Baffin is a Class of ’97 journalism major Mythical gender roles trap society T his week I’m us ing a pink tow el, even though I’m a man. It isn’t a radical step. I’m not cross dressing at the Chick en or wearing lace panties. It is just a small personal stand against gender roles. The concepts of masculinity and fem ininity, in other words gender, are the worst invention of mankind next to blood sausage. All those social rules just sit in my mouth like chunks of liver and congealed blood. Little girls wear pink dresses. Little boys wear blue. Little girls are made of sugar and spice and every thing nice. Little boys are made of snips and snails and puppy dog tails. The insanity! Gender roles do not exist; gender does not exist. It is a social-cultural pile of blood sausage that was shoveled down our throats from the moment we popped out of our mothers into the (probably) male doctors’ hands. The gender brainwashing continued into kindergarten where Barbara Chasen found that, in the mid-’70s, nearly half the teachers thought boys were naturally more aggressive, and more than one-third thought girls were naturally more passive. These were the teachers who educated all of us. And their assumptions placed boys and girls and men and women into cages. Women are assumed to be passive. Next they are assumed to be vain. Pret ty soon they wonder why they spend an hour-and-a-half putting on makeup each morning. Men are assumed to be aggressive. Next they are assumed to be career-ori ented. Pretty soon they wonder why they spend so much time away from their homes and families. The problem with these stereotypes is that there is a kernel of truth in them. Otherwise, they wouldn’t exist. Masculinity is task-oriented. It loves sports and mowing the lawn. It drives a car better. It demands sex but doesn’t communicate well. This masculine gender role probably stems from the fact that men are typi cally stronger. In the military-focused societies of the dark ages, men were naturally dominant. They held the physical power. The only way a woman could pro tect herself from these sex-deprived, aggressive barbarians was to marry a big, strong one. She could then be pro tected in his kitchen, where she would bake lots of sausage to keep her man big and strong. Unfortunately, College Station in 1996 isn’t a barbaric society. Don Pow ell didn’t hack his way to the Board of Regents with an axe. Gov. Bush didn’t skewer Ann Richards on a two-handed broad sword — although it may have felt like it at the time. Women don’t need the physical pro tection they needed in military soci eties. They don’t have to love cooking and children. Their appearance won’t save them by attracting a real man to kill their enemies. Women can enjoy a little power of their own these days. And men don’t have to be powerful. If a woman wants to be a full professor at A&M, she shouldn’t have to worry about sexism. If a man wants to concern himself with fashion and theater, he shouldn’t be la beled homosexual by barbaric boys’ clubs on the Northside. But what can be done about our sexist society? How can we all escape our own gender prisons? Is this just another anti-Aggie column whining about idealism? Well, it may be idealistic, but it is go ing to do more than just whine. Gender stereotypes exist, but gender roles do not. They are a cultural fabrication that all of us have been taught through the materialistic Barbie and the stoic Han Solo who rescues poor defenseless Princess Lei a. Gender roles exist only in our minds. We created them from pop icons and from Hamburger Helper commercials that help her make a great meal. But they aren’t sacred. Men can be unmasculine and show interest in opera. Women can be unfem inine and refuse to carry a purse or en joy cooking. Turn the world upside down. Step outside of your sexuality cage and ex periment. Guys, register for women’s literature or psychology of women in the fall. Women, sign up for history of seapower or poultry meat production. It’s not too late. The end of sexual stereotyping be gins with an individual decision to re ject gender roles. Becoming genderless doesn’t mean castration, either. Forget genitals for once. If we could all look beyond each other’s genitalia, we might inch closer to a society without gender roles. Marcus Goodyear is a Class of’97 English major