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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 19, 1996)
The Battalion WEDNESDAY June 19, 1996 OPINION Page 7 ho do s. But ?ot to ws 10 s rev- James, y only on op- re will 5 mil- funds it two- ig. 31, ition, 3 mil- ad an- in ad- uld be or jns be ATF d, r ed two becom- jss the re fires in just f up to ^st and Renville i emer- ss sew- Depart- neigh- and re in Fire Texas rted or inantly nantly ic; and egation igures, DU vention •ent law mi if re- ged be- ic char- federal :ases of digious mtly ously HYDE Chairman thorize s to re- im the 1 creat- :an al- crimes t and il pro- l Rep- iut he me for tically urches ;nt. 1 i Tyler of the ed the 3ve Og- io prob- a philo- ■e could i. js from isaid. like to is. ie Col- •tment in Col- y’2,500 year. ier of >urage 1 | e legal 3nt. ik dri- iaid. “1 ments Taking lea].” Provisional students run wild at A&M DAVID BOLD! Columnist T he other day, I was sitting in my dorm room when a young lady I had never seen be fore suddenly barged in and demanded to know who I was. “Well, the sign on the door says David Boldt,” I said. “Oh, well, this guy I know, his name is David and I thought he lived here but, like, you’re not him. ... What is that wooden thing?” she asked. “That would be a loft. It saves space,” I explained. “Oh wow, that’s cool. See, I’m new in town (no, really?) and I’ve never seen anything like that.” As she left, my roommate and I looked at each other, and without hesitation said si multaneously, “Provie!” What is a provie? A special breed of stu dent, better known as a provisional student, that appears on this campus when the tem perature reaches 97 degrees. The provisional student program is actu ally a very beneficial program. A lot of good students I know would not have had the chance to be Aggies if it were not for this op portunity. The 230 students here this sum mer are probably good enough students to succeed academically at A&M, and the ad ministrators who run this program are also fully competent. What intrigues me is the behavior of these people that makes them so easy to spot in a crowd, a huge lecture hall or anywhere else on campus. I want to know why these people party more days a week than this pa per runs, and why a high percentage of them seem to be, well, “morally challenged.” My first contact with this strange species of Aggie came in the summer of ’95 when I took Political Science 206. These young, confused-looking students kept ask ing people next to them questions like “What’s a syllabus?” and “Where’s the aca demic building?” Others just seemed to sit there looking clueless. Then, I saw these same people out at the Chicken, J.D. Well’s and Harry’s every night I went out. After getting to know some of them, I discovered they were going out two or three nights in addition to that, and, despite being underage, they were drinking like fish (sorry, I couldn’t resist). These people party harder than I did on my 21st birthday. And as far as being “morally challenged,” let’s just say to all the good little provies out there that there are a lot of your kind mak ing you look bad. So what’s the meaning of this mass hyste ria? Why are these provisional students so naive and so crazy? First of all, these people come to college about two or three weeks after graduating from high school. The grip of parental super vision and high school rules is suddenly lift ed and, like a wild monkey let out of its cage after 18 years, they go bananas, prompting statements like: “Party hard man, we’re in college!”; “Wow, nice Aggie ring, will you buy me some beer?”; and “Who cares if we have class tomorrow, we’re in college, dude.” Be sides, they only have to make a 2.0 to stick around, so why shouldn’t they spend most of their time partying? Next, remember that these people have not been to Fish Camp, Corps Freshman Ori entation Week, or any other type of Aggie ori entation, which would explain their naivete. Last but not least, we have to remember that these people are 17 and 18 years old. Immaturity is expected. So maybe we shouldn’t be so hard on them; after all, most of them probably can’t help it. This behavior is only natural for re cent high school grads, right? To all you provies out there — go ahead, live it up while your classes are easy. And don’t worry, you won’t be clueless and imma ture forever. Experience breeds wisdom, so be patient. David Boldt is a Class of ’97 marketing major Hangtag abuse inconveniences the needy W e get to campus at least 30 minutes early and sit like vultures — waiting and waiting for someone to re linquish a parking place. Finally we find a spot, but it’s so far away we need a map to find our class. When we’re almost at the building, we notice our good buddy Dick’s car parked in the reserved for handicapped parking spot. We grimace, thinking, “Last I checked, he was holding up just fine from his girlfriend’s breakup, besides a paper cut or two.” By the time we get inside, we’re 10 min utes late, sweating profusely, and disrupt our profs lecture. We slump into our seat and think, “It sure would be nice if there were more parking spots closer than B.F.E.” So what about those handicapped hang- tags? We’ve all seen them hanging from the rearview mirror of one of our friend’s cars. The first thing that pops to mind is, “Hey, he doesn’t need one of those. Where can I get one?” It is obvious that the abuse of the blue handicapped hangtags has become preva lent, particularly on the A&M campus. It is not fair to those who physically require the use of such hangtags to have a difficult time parking and therefore traveling across cam pus because of this abuse. Since acquiring such a tag simply requires an application, a doctor’s signature and five dollars, no won der student abuse of them is on the rise. People must be buying and trading these hangtags like they are Aggie football tick ets. What about the Aggie Code of Honor, which we are constantly reminded of? “Ag gies do not lie, cheat or steal, nor tolerate those who do.” Is it presumptuous to say that people are lying about their physical needs, cheating someone out of a parking spot and stealing away the rights of those who deserve the privilege? Sorry if I sound bitter. I have become ac customed to driving around parking lots in search of two adjacent parking places so my sister can use her wheelchair lift to get out of our van. She requires the use of such a hangtag because she is legally blind and has severe physical handicaps. I’d like to think it is a simple ignorance is sue. Surely people would not intentionally take advantage of a convenient situation. Just because they are on crutches for two weeks does not give them the right to occupy handicapped spaces for two years. So Dick, when exactly do you expect those paper cuts to be healing — or am I going to be forced to give you a real reason to use that hangtag? Gina Panzica is a Class of ’9 7 journalism major Capitalism kept on life support in Russia H old on just a minute. It’s not time to start building nuclear fallout shelters. The Communists haven’t taken Russia back — yet. One thing is clear, though. President Boris Yeltsin and his little box of democratic reforms are in trouble. Big trouble. This past Sunday, the Russ ian people were given their first opportunity to democrati cally elect a new president. But instead of embracing Yeltsin and his reforms, a large portion of the public threw their support to Genna di Zyuganov and seven other candidates. Even “Gorby,” our favorite former Soviet leader, was running. (He only got 1 percent of the vote.) So who is this Zyuganov guy? And why did so many people vote for him? Well, he’s the leader of what’s left of Russia’s Com munist Party. And his cam paign promises include things like crushing capitalism in Russia, rebuilding the Red Army and resurrecting the old Soviet Union. Lenin and Stalin must be grinning in their graves. In short, Zyuganov sees the West and everything it stands for as one great big evil thing that didn’t deserve to win the Cold War. With that in mind, he doesn’t have a problem with closing the Iron Curtain once again. This is scary because Russia still has over 20,000 nuclear warheads at its disposal. But Zyuganov doesn’t exact ly sound like an appealing presidential candidate — un less you’re in Russia. To say the least, the Russian people have been through the worst of everything. For the past 1,000 years, all they have known are czarist autocracy and Soviet totalitarianism. Then, the whole boat sank after a failed coup in 1991. So now they are trying out democ racy and a free-market econo my under the leadership of the ex-Communist Yeltsin. To us, that sounds great. But not all Russians have fared so well under the reforms. A grow ing number are becoming disen chanted with democracy. Some members of the older generations are eager for a re turn to the law and order of the Soviet regimes. They see Yeltsin’s reforms as chaotic. And many want to see Rus sia return to its former super power status as a major world military force. Millions of workers have not received a paycheck in months. Some have been faced with un employment for the first time ever. Others have seen their life savings devastated by stratospheric inflation. I suppose freedom of speech doesn’t mean much when you can’t afford a loaf of bread (or a bottle of vodka). Let’s just say democracy hasn’t been friendly to every one in the crowd. As a result, 32 percent of voters cast their ballots for Zyuganov. Yeltsin only managed to get 35 percent. His supporters tend to be the religious, the young and those prospering in the free-market reforms. It’s not surprising that even the leader of Russia’s 96 mil lion Orthodox Christians, Pa triarch Aleksi III, gave an un official endorsement to Yeltsin. The Russian Orthodox Church justifiably fears a return to the days of persecution under Communist rule. But it wasn’t enough for the vodka-loving president to win 50 percent of the vote. Now there will be a run-off election in July between the top two candidates. For Rus sia, this means a race between moving forward into the future or falling back into the past. And let me tell you, Russia’s past ain’t pretty. But at least the Russian peo ple can now choose the direction their country takes. It’s a choice they’ve never had before. We can only pray that Rus sia buries its hammer and sickle once and for all and re elects Yeltsin. Some Russian hard-liners have other plans, though. They’ve spent the last few weeks marching through the streets of Moscow with old So viet flags and Bolshevik ban ners. After seeing this, I was fearful that Zyuganov, the “dedicated Communist,” might have the momentum to win. But after hearing countless interviews with ordinary Rus sians and looking at Sunday’s preliminary election results, I’m going to go out on a limb and predict that Yeltsin will be re-elected in July. I may have to eat my words. But if I’m right, you heard it here first. OK? If I’m wrong, look for me out back behind the Batt office in Reed McDonald. I’ll be the one in the tinfoil radiation suit building my nuclear fallout shelter. Michael Heinroth is a Class of’96 political science major Mail Deadbeat Patrol harps on dead issue I am writing in regard to the stories run on Victor Morales >n the June 17 issue of The Battalion, and I would like to question the credibility of the “Deadbeat Patrol.” When one considers that the issue the group keeps hounding Morales about is essentially a null issue, it loses its credibili ty. The issue concerns a grant received by Morales’ wife. The Morales family thought, and tvas given assurance, that the issue had been resolved 13 years ago. They were contacted that it had not been resolved snd Morales proceeded to take fare of it a second time. Miroughout the whole affair, Morales has stood by his wife. A College Republican and Gramm supporter remarked to me about the "Deadbeat Pa trol,” saying that “the cam paign should be concerned only with the issues and policies that affect Texans and not an extraneous issue that has been settled.” Aggies, of all people, should carry themselves with integrity. Aggies should not lower themselves to dishonor able and undignified acts. There is no honor or dignity in hounding a man so persistently and vehemently about some thing that is nonexistent and meaningless. I just hope that the Aggies who are participat ing understand what a farce they are involved with. Ryan C. Rankle Class of ’98 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