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The Battalion
PINION
Page 5
Wednesday • November 27, 1996
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The Battalion
Established in 1893
busy durin t rials appearing in The Battalion reflect the
he said “We® 5 the edit;or ' als board members. They do
>t necessarily reflect the opinions of other Bat-
Editorials Board
Michael Landauer
Editor in Chief
Amy Collier
Executive Editor
Gretchen Perrenot
Executive Editor
Heather Pace
Opinion Editor
ivailable to lion staff members, the Texas A&M student
uildine of BP regents, administration, faculty or staff,
inn m n, limns, guest columns, cartoons and letters
on *0 DOnliiMggg the opinions of the authors,
house.” jniact the opinion editor for information on
s from thel fbmittihg guest columns.
airy build a fttor’s Note: The exchange of editorials between The Battalion and
i similar totfeB Daily Texan is a standing tradition between the two schools. This
u'ur, the X h owever) xhe Battalion is betting a case of Shiner Bock that Texas
,erched,1 l»i,M beats the hell oultat.u.
the band
the decision
use will not
in with theet
lonfire," he 1 that community college in Austin.
;s and we* J °
■ Patting Backs
|he Battalion practices charity toward
r other We®* 16 Battalion wants to break
d that wr’rfp trend of negative and ugly
■torials by focusing on the ac-
■nplishments of our rivals at
- ns university.
®Ve should show that the
■ools can work together with
■tual respect. For example,
chancellor of the texas uni-
Ol I Cl e | s By system sends his son to
’elas A&M, showing objectivity
Ben considering the quality of
>le Thee don, jigher education,
food bankAMn return for this compliment,
Junior Leayme Battalion would like to point
lut some of the fine things that
r, facility ni»me from t.u. (even if very few
is pleasingi'f them focus on academic
■ievement).
en doingi®’° start, the Cowboys should
'We try to hi® commended for efforts to
n « earh aspiring pranksters the im-
i he is gr, ,01 tance knowing how to
oi the efe ,v l m - But tBe football team has
^ Ben the lead in community ser-
) mmunitiar Last year in a pilot P ro g ram >
• , he team invited a new type of
c ' , oBege player onto the field.
ian y ^ ' r fhe first to take advantage of
. , , he program had never succeed-
1 d in his five years of previous
t toes 'jf( °ll C g e football, but through the
i uitJ& . Assume a False Name and Play”
irbgram, he was given a second
iceive the jh&nce to sit on the sidelines of
of dining ;ollege football,
g lunchdelfjperhaps the greatest contri-
mtions t.u. has given the state
seeing pews year are in the legal arena,
id duringdRluding the disastrous Hop-
ize tire bei'Sood case.
portationir In another legal event, a cre-
dio wannjtive Aggie who goes to law
:ria. school at t.u. filed an open-
ngadeliveecords request for t.u.’s play-
ic people's®^. The student newspaper, the
stand whwy toxin, in an effort to be cute
ce it is no longer taken serious-
equested A&M’s playbook.
Now here The Battalion must
digress. It is strongly suspected
that Texas A&M doesn’t have a
book per se — perhaps a note card.
But if the toxin is really curious,
here’s a clue: Look for the third-
and-eighteen quarterback sneak.
In terms of showing respect
for former Southwest Confer
ence schools, texas also has led
the way.
Last week, a Rice professor
urged texas students to help de
feat the Aggie Band in ESPN’s
virtual band tournament. In
causing the defeat, t-sips
learned something about them
selves: If they listen closely to
people who are more intelligent
than themselves and succumb
to those people’s wishes, they
CAN accomplish something.
This is surely a lesson they will
take with them throughout life.
And we can’t forget last year’s
little squabble at the end of the
game. The victory gave way to
the greatest display of childish
idiocy the fans at Kyle Field had
ever seen as t-sips stumbled
onto the field.
When the police asked the
Corps to help keep the drunk
en, rowdy fans in line, they did
n’t realize that for some it
would take force.
For sober, civilized people,
police and verbal warnings
would have been enough.
In an age where our schools
have huge and diverse student
populations, it was nice to have
texas’ actions serve as a reminder
that some things never change.
Aggies will always have re
spect for others, but t-sips never
will. It’s what separates humans
from beasts, and the Aggies from
the longhorns.
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Most Ridiculous
Schools take absurdity to a new level
W
Columnist
Jenni Howard
Senior economics and
international studies
major
e may all be winners deep down in
side, but the application of this Hall
mark-like sentiment has gone too far.
Mental damage control
patrols in high schools
across the nation are in
creasingly concerned
that not being picked as
“most likely to succeed”
or “class clown” could re
sult in years of counsel
ing for those not chosen.
Consequently, many
schools are now elimi
nating the traditional se
nior-year elections.
Cromwell High
School in Connecticut is
the most recent school
to jump on the bandwagon and opt to end the
selections of “most likely to’s.”
Apparently, the school believes that stu
dents would prefer to receive rainbow rib
bons of universal approval rather than
blue-ribbon recognition of unique talents
and accomplishments.
Please. If there was a study that proved an
overwhelming number of serial murderers is
also bitter about not being picked “most likely
to be famous” during their high school ca
reers, maybe this politically correct move
would make sense.
But in their mission to make schools more
sensitive to feelings, officials have killed an in
nocent and sentimental tradition of students
being recognized by their
peers for their achievements or
individuality.
It doesn’t matter whether
students are selected for “best
hair” or “least likely to get
caught by the security guard
while walking through the
metal detector,” but rather that
they have received acceptance
from fellow students who ap
preciate a certain talent or
quality they possess.
Attempting to shelter stu
dents from not being recog
nized does nothing more than
leave them unprepared for the real world.
What will students do when they aren’t recog-
Trying to protect
the emotional
well-being of
students is
an honorable
endeavor, but in
this case, they're
trying too hard.
nized as “man (or woman) of the year” or
“employee of the month”? If they were as sen
sitive to not being recognized as their high
schools had predicted, they might jump off
the top of the Empire State Building while re
peatedly humming the theme to Sesame
Street. But being exposed to the
possibility of non-acknowl
edgement in high school could
prepare them to deal with being
another face in the crowd.
Ironically, many people con
sidered geeks or failures go on to
highly successful careers, while
those chosen as the cream of the
crop sink to the bottom. For ex
ample, Peter Jennings dropped
out of high school and is now a
major network news anchor.
David Graham and Diane Zamo
ra, on the other hand, were high
school sweethearts with extraor
dinary academic records, who went on to at
tend prestigious military academies, and now
stand indicted for the first degree murder of a
fellow classmate.
Eliminating “most likely to” categories also
robs those attending their 10-year and 20-year
high school reunions of the opportunity to com
pare where their classmates came from and
where they’ve gone since graduating. Instead of
being dumfounded at the transformation of a
shy, brainy, awkward valedictorian into a world-
famous supermodel, old classmates will just
have to sit around with their Very-Berry Kool-Aid
in hand and congratulate themselves on being
the same generic class they were decades ago.
Trying to protect the emotional well-being
of students is an honorable endeavor on the
part of the school officials, but in this case,
they’re trying too hard.
Allowing students to continue the tradition
of identifying admirable traits in each other
should not be abandoned. Rather, it should
be upheld as a reminder that it is more impor
tant to recognize individual excellence than to
ignore it for the sake of affirming a general
level of mediocrity.
Students give thanks
I t’s a great time of
year. Three months
of work culminates
in a 55-foot tall (or
taller) structure that
lights up the night sky,
symbolizing the burn
ing desire to beat the
hell outta t.u. Aggies
then go to Austin to
show those freaks how
to yell, party and play
football. But there’s a
time sandwiched be
tween these events that
we sometimes take for granted.
Sure, we might go home for a
day, eat some turkey and dress
ing, kiss our parents and tell
them we love them, but few peo
ple actually take the time to slow
down from our busy lives and re
flect on how phenomenally for
tunate we are.
Three years ago death came to
my house to play, Two friends
and I were driving down the high
way going about 65 miles per
hour when a car
swerved into me. It hit
us on the back left cor
ner, causing my truck
to spin sideways and
slam head first into the
side of a semi’s trailer,
sending the hood of my
truck underneath the
trailer and the wind
shield into our laps.
Unfortunately, it did
n’t end there. The con
trol in the steering
wheel left my hands as
the truck continued to spin out
from underneath the semi and
head into the guardrail on the
other side. Still moving at a high
rate of speed, we hit the rail, the
wheels caught on the grass of the
median and we began to roll. Af
ter three violent swirls of light
and dark we came to a stop.
We were bleeding, we were
scared and we were upside-down,
but we were alive.
Alive — something a para-
Columnist
David Boldt
Senior marketing and
management major
for more than turkey
medic told me I shouldn’t be. He
looked into my eyes at the hospi
tal and said with devastating sin
cerity, “I’ve been in this business
for ten years and I’ve never seen a
vehicle that destroyed without
someone killed, or at least perma
nently injured. Someone’s looking
out for you.”
I thanked him and walked of
of the hospital with nothing but
a sore neck, and a lot of cuts
and bruises.
Standing at Silver Taps three
years later, I thought about the
accident. I wondered why I was
alive and once again thanked God
that I was.
Even people who have stared
death in the face sometimes
take things for granted. We all
do. Not all students on this
campus count their blessings
every day. Our minds are too
cramped with chemistry, ac
counting and alcohol.
But that’s the beauty of
Thanksgiving. It’s a scheduled
time to set aside to be thankful
for all the many things we have
but don’t deserve.
We have so much to be
thankful for. Even if an Aggie
thinks his grades suck and he
has no friends, there is always
someone who loves him, some
one who cares.
We all at least had enough in
telligence to get into a world class
university. We are all part of an
Aggie family. That will carry us
through the rest of our lives.
If we have nothing else, we
have our lives, we have our
health. AA/hether one believes in
God or not, life is fragile and can
be expelled at any time.
Don’t take this holiday lightly
and don’t fall into the trap of the
commercialization of “turkey
day.” Take time out to count your
blessings. Call the ones you love
and tell them so.
The Pilgrims at Plymouth rock
didn’t take life or freedom for
granted. Why should we?
Yell leader election
bill poses problems
Regarding JoAnne Whittemore’s
Nov. 25 story, “Yell Leader bill
tabled by committee”:
Such a run-off election would
just turn into a grudge match
between the Corps of Cadets and
non-regs.
Students would end up not
voting for who they want; rather,
they would be voting against
who they did not want.
The recent conflict with Rice’s
MOB band is a perfect example
of what the results of the elec
tions would be like.
The Fightin’ Texas Aggie Band
lost that election, not because
more people voted for Stanford,
but because more people voted
against Texas A&M.
If students feel that the result
of ESPN’s Battle of The Bands
election is a good representation
of who has the best band, then
by all means pass this bill.
But if students think we got a
raw deal and that Texas A&M
should have won, then students
should not support the bill.
True, most yell leaders are in
the Corps, but the Corps only
represents about 5 percent of
our student population.
The numbers are against the
Corps, and non-regs should win
every time.
The Corps should be com
mended in being able to tri
umph in such a situation.
But instead, the Student Sen
ate is trying to change the rules so
that that the majority has even
more of an unfair advantage.
The Corps puts forth the ef
fort to inform its members on
who is running in what elec
tions and encourages its mem
bers to vote.
If the rest of the student body
feels that the results are not a
good representation of who
should be yell leader, something
should be done.
But having a run-off election
would just encourage people to
vote against Corps or vote against
non-regs.
Nobody would actually be vot
ing for who they really wanted.
The results of such an election
would definitely not be a good
representation of who the student
body wants to be yell leaders.
Rather, it would be a representa
tion of who the student body
does not want to be yell leaders.
If you want the outcome of
the yell leader elections to
change, I have one simple solu
tion ... vote.
PS. Good job Aggie Band! We
know you are the Best!
Craig Calhoun
Class of’95
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