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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 12, 1996)
The Battalion MONDAY August 1 2, 1 996 OPINION Page 7 wins .st isn't part of th^ Mr hunting, lii*-. is a booster of lit iiition. an Demme, wk: Swing Shift, ilt , iginal. it there whocr s, romantic leai " he said. 'If ya s no one else fe now." tot afraid idout (AP) — SamDtK ers to pay log! 1 ; s sheep ranch. a ire,, and mil- be getting la*- ator control,’ 1 oout a dollar at! icres of grazing 1 n his hundreds! ? lost 80 lambs 1 jyotes. helps ranches si nesses of al 1 cl Friday. "Itil j eligible to usf j s time e months j ale, Pal | truce’ i irers lo j turning I > deliver his >dium during L I Dolls Dole leaves voters with questions, not answers A : JTjLf couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine and I were talking on the phone about the upcoming presiden tial election. Since he’s a die-hard con servative, the dilem ma he expressed sur prised me. “I don’t like Clin ton, but if I voted for Dole, I’d feel like a schmuck,” he said. Perplexed, I related this story to my roommate, who’s also conservative. She told me she felt the same way. Although I have no intentions of voting for Dole, I have always re spected him. He seemed like the logi cal choice for the Republican nomina tion — mainstream, accomplished, well-known. When my conservative friends speak about him, however, they make him sound like a Republi can Michael Dukakis. But as I thought about it, I began to understand why my friends were so uninspired by Dole: He has not given people much of a reason to vote for him. A lot has been made of the events, people and ideas surrounding Dole’s campaign over the past week, especial ly since the Republican National Con vention in San Diego has drawn near. But so far, these have only tangentially impacted Dole’s quest for the presiden cy. This week, he needs to take control of the campaign and lay out a clear vi sion for his presidency. For example, there’s the abortion issue. It has caused divisions within the platform committee and has prompted three Republican governors to refuse speaking at the convention. But the wording of the platform is meaningless if President Dole doesn’t abide by it. He says he’s pro-life, but would he actively pursue a constitu tional amendment to ban abortions? He’s never shown much interest in it, so does he even care about the abor tion issue? Jack Kemp, who was tapped as Dole’^ running mate Saturday, has en ergized delegates to the convention be cause his across-the-spectrum appeal. But Kemp’s long history of reaching out to minorities won’t win Dole any minority votes. Unlike Dole, Kemp didn’t endorse California’s Proposition 187 in 1994. Unlike Dole, Kemp does n't support another California ballot initiative to repeal all affirmative ac tion measures in the state. And unlike Dole, Kemp didn’t refuse to speak at the NAACP national convention with the paranoid excuse of being set up for public embarrassment by Chairman Kweisi Mfume. Even Republican National Com mittee Chairman Haley Barbour ad mitted that the “vast, vast, vast” ma jority of voters won’t decide who to vote for based on the candidates’ run ning mates. If Dole wants to expand his base, he has to take on the responsibility himself. Dole has created more ambiguity by calling for S500 billion in tax cuts over six years. Long known as a deficit hawk, he doesn’t explain where he’s going to get all the money to pay for it. Even in the sketchy de tails he has provided, he expects one- quarter of the revenues to be generat ed from growth caused by the tax cut — an awfully rosy estimate for some one who has been skeptical of supply- side economics until now. As far as foreign policy is concerned, Dole has been AWOL. He occasionally carps about Clinton’s policies, but he has not outlined any of his own over seas objectives. Dole’s lack of any poli cy was most apparent after the crash of TWA Flight 800, which he has hard ly uttered a peep about. It’s not too late for Dole to rebound from his doldrums. With the country fixated on him this week, he has yet another chance to persuade voters to give him a look. But with 70 percent of Americans believing Dole will lose the election, time is running out. If he doesn’t start making a case for his presidency soon, disenchanted vot ers won’t be the only ones feeling like schmucks come November. Jason Brown is a Class of ’96 econom ics major Women’s movement faces few hurdles in 21 st century I t is a revolution that began in the frontier and con tinues with Sheryl Swoopes. In this century, women proved they didn’t belong in the kitchen, that they are as intelligent as men, and that they are able professionals, soldiers and athletes. Susan B. Anthony in the ’20s, Eleanor Roosevelt in the ’30s and ’40s and Rosie the Riveter dur ing World War II are examples of women who broke the conventional stereotype to move this country for ward. Anthony was a leader in the women’s suffrage movement. Roosevelt was an unconventional first lady who inspired Americans during the Depres sion and World War II. And Rosie the Riveter was the poster girl who encour aged American women to work in man ufacturing during the war. It was in the postwar world that this image of the regal working woman be gan to deteriorate, and was substituted by the “cult of domesticity.” In the ’50s, according to Life magazine, the ideal middle-class woman was married at 16, had four kids, was a member of the PTA, drove the kids to school, was head of a Scout troop, cleaned and laundered, and had dinner ready in time for when her husband arrived home from work. Sound familiar? Thank Betty Friedan for saving the world. In 1963, she published “The Feminine Mystique.” In the book, she said suburban women living the dream of the ideal housewife were extremely unhappy. They needed an outlet for their intelligence, talent and educa tion. According to the book, the sub urbs had become “a comfortable con centration camp.” It is no wonder, then, that in 1966 Friedan founded the National Organization for Women (NOW), whose aim was to end discrim ination in the workplace. In 1964, the Civil Rights Act prohibited discrimina tion on the base of gender or race. The Educational Amendment Act of 1972 included Title IX, which orders col leges to have the same recreational fa cilities for men and women. Because of these measures, Ameri can women have progressed in society, and have almost achieved equal status as men in a lot of areas — particularly in the workplace. Sandra Day O’Con nor became the first female Supreme Court justice in 1981; Sally Ride be came the first female astronaut in 1983. Billie Jean King began the fe male athlete’s revolution by demanding prize money equal to that awarded to male tennis players. And thanks to James Earl Rudder, women can attend Texas A&M. They were later able to enter the Corps of Cadets, and in the early ’80s, they were allowed to become part of the Aggie Band. And looking at the Reebok and Nike commercials of the ’90s, this trend does not seem to be halting any time soon. First, there was Florence Griffith- Joyner, who, with her long, patriotical ly adorned nails, advocated that women runners should be permitted to look feminine. Then came Sheryl Swoopes, the first woman to have a Nike shoe named after her, Air Swoopes. With Swoopes followed the “other” Dream Team, the U.S. women’s basketball team, who won a gold medal in Atlanta — along with the women’s soccer team, the softball team and the women’s gymnastics team. These advances notwithstanding, women still have not achieved full equality in sports. Physically, they might never be equal to men, but they deserve to show off their best on the same playing field. They proved themselves these past Olympics, and they have proven themselves many times before. Kudos to Nike for the Air Swoopes, and for the “If you let me play” com mercial (the one where all these little girls say that if you let them play, they’ll run less risk of breast cancer and of early pregnancy). Soon there will be a National Women’s Baseball League, and there are plans for na tional basketball and soccer leagues also. It remains to be seen whether they will receive the same salaries as the men in these fields, of course. The women’s movement is not over yet. Women still have to achieve equali ty of salary. Sportswise, they are doing an excellent job. Who knows, maybe in the next century 7 , we’ll have a National Women's Football League. Maybe you’ll come to Kyle Field to watch the Lady Aggies pounce the Lady Longhorns, while the first female president watches from the press box. Rosie Arcelay is a Class of ’98 history major We ppsow? OaHMorg gaol .<*** Utopian Aggie summer winds down W ell kids, the summer semester is almost over. Wednesday’s final exams will bring an end to the quiet this campus has known for the past three months. Not that I enjoy sitting in each class for over an hour and a half Monday through Friday, but I’m going to miss my one and only summer semester here at A&M. For one thing, the sidewalks aren’t crowded. Nobody’s bumping into one anoth er. And you don’t have to brave your way through a frightful gauntlet of pesky roller bladers and bicyclists. And the buses aren’t all full. You not only don’t have to stand in the aisle, but you get a whole seat to yourself. As a matter of fact, you usually get 10 or 12 seats to yourself. The lines are short at the Pavilion and the MSC post office. And the parking. Oh, the parking. Have you ever seen so many empty spaces? Sometimes I park across two or three spaces just for the hell of it. Hey, why not? And there have been enough Battalions for everyone to get their own brand spankin’ new copy each and every day. Yes, life has been good this summer. No, wait. Life has been great this summer. And now it’s almost over. Pretty soon, though, our friends who spent the summer with their folks will be back. And with them will be 6,000 ma niacal little freshmen yelling “howdy!” at every man, woman and tree they walk past. , Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I think “howdy” is great. But among those 6,000 fish will be my brother. j j >«>!•» IT TAKES A TILLAGE TO RAISE A CHILD HniAKTCLP Not only will he be at A&M this fall, but he’ll also be liv ing with me. He swears my two other roommates and I can’t force him to cook dinner for us and clean the apart ment. Silly fish. But it will be fun to watch him swim through his first se mester before I leave in December. I’ll be there when he is formally initiated as an Aggie when PTTS gives him his first parking ticket. And I’ll be there when he makes his first “F” in calculus — just like I did. And when he changes his major — just like I did. But I’m really eager to see his reaction to his first good ol’ fashioned Fightin’ Texas Aggie Yell FYactice and Big 12 football game. I’ll get to tell him about the OF Army days (or was it last week?) when a big pink building used to cast a shadow over the north end zone of Kyle Field. And how the field used to be real artificial turf. And when half the streets on campus weren’t blocked off. And the grackles stayed in the fish lot where they belonged. And no noisy construction. Ah, the memories. Cut, Bonfire, Sbisa, the Chicken and all-night cram ses sions. My younger brother and every other freshman will go through it just like we all have. I just hope his GPA is a little higher than the ... uh ...1.9 ... I pulled during my first semester. Yeah, this past summer was a lot of fun. But I’m really looking forward to having my brother here during my last semester. ' Hey, nothing beats autumn in Aggieland. Michael Heinroth is a Class of’96 political science major IT TAKES AN jECTION to HARM A CHIU) i J 7 " 1. O.IKTON' Mail Call Admissions changes will drag University down Scenario: A student sits down to read the paper and comes across bad news. That’s right. He read the front page article. “Students react to crite ria changes.” After reading the article, he lets out grunt of frustration. Maybe this scenario sounds a little too unreal. Well, I can assure you it is very real. As a student who was ac cepted based on merit, I find the new, all-inclusive nature of A&M’s admis sions criteria very unpalatable. Maybe, this more-the-merrier idea is good for a party, but it doesn’t belong in an institution of higher learning. I would like the degree that I am going to earn mean something. If this school becomes a dumping ground for people who cannot normally get into college, it will only ruin the impor tance and value of a degree from this institution. The education of the prospective students’ parents would be evaluated for the new selection crite ria. What’s next, letting the doors swing open for those whose ancestors immigrated from a foreign country? If this is implemented, practically all. Americans could be accepted even if their SAT score is below zero. I don’t just want to complain, so I have a solution. Let’s make admission standards vary directly with fees. Every time our fees get raised, so do admission standards. That way, by the time we get out of here, it will really seem impressive. Scott Willock Class of ’98