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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 3, 1996)
Paf December 3, Spot Brie Opinion Page 9 Tuesday • December 3, 1 996 xmspiracy 4r IV; "eVmjuanell X Sail I reveal >ach Don Wat” id ay. j the additio'l im Houston, om Leominsjl T 1 "’" 1 s '^ the words , o- irea Stewart(■\/ cainc an d crack, what is , should impii * die first image that all speed. Jes to your mind? ruits are fastM Is ^ ake a contnbAst Columnist image of >xt year," WajL i some thug- ! much bettef’-Mji^^V gish inner- sddition oftr« city crack ig athletes." I m?* addict bent ee-time mM over smok- te championr«: ^ ^ J ing his ater freestyleaF ^ peace pipe, MVP at the >j t' i enjoying :e meet. Cha# ® his free- 5 junior nador van Wheatfall based co- 16 Massachus«un/or business caine that in the lOOmJana/ys/s major rushes nile Stewart s* from his state champ:«s to his heart, and then to kneterfrees:,®rain causing an immediate e three are -M, and then, an equally pow- tie direction rBl crash? ;re,’' Wagners;®o you imagine a corporate ®utive, a member of the Joint ®fs of Staff, a chief executive ®er, or even a former Presi- )m Page ent of the United States? If you iv back the m | on iy imagine the former and vest Texas ot 1 * ie latter, I would be the one elt better ( ’ s pY that you too might be a it did] early I® high — that is in your ex- snot lOOpenaBtatlo 118 - le did not e®t Texas A&M, we are in the to keep he: ro F ess °f erecting a library in re season. 16 honor of former president it, I wouldn't ; e([rge Bush. • if I didn'thastily erect this building able to play, light of the fact that there has ly would've recen t evidence that clear- tunity lastyfili'ks Bush, along with Oliver ) fill my posit: lor ih and Donald Gregg, to had antic: Jcb cocaine ring leaders as igs, Sevinsa::|»win Meneses, Enrique Mi- d coaches inda and Marcos Aguado, to ■r decision, ame a few. she appred: Would Texas A&M rename or to accompliiven stop construction on the li- ery couragec.rary if George Bush were in- it she hasdo icted as a drug super-kingpin? I 2 is a&imdMik not. Texas A&M would ionise. But shimply find some way to justify capableoipbe building, just as it has justi- ted to andthf ei the statue of Sul Ross. A&M ter to.” ould say it was just another she feels the caudal to scar the character of y Sevin willbod ’ol George Bush, team. this scandal hits home vas able to gcjrme, for it is the very result of akes us a tejie cocaine epidemic that has i, Harvey ent so many African-American r as not capabpminunities spiraling down into tt, and that var zones that provide the target te realizedth:j rS uch television shows as Cops UAmerica’s Most Wanted. ■ hear people talking all the He about equality and about T) Page 7 he fact that everyone has a fair a n to theo[i“ nce America, but is this re aid. “Sport: . Hy true? -pxnrpssinn.H^ 6 look at the dysfunctional .. ^ Hiilies, the crack addicts, the aeies nreoartfr^ babies, the drive-by shoot- 1 match af ^ and rampant drugs, and :• /Yficansas-bfr we dud there may well be iptain hope (nenem y within. It as if our ve on last'r°untry declared war on us. nee. B n an attempt to expose the eyes set or ^ alliance that has been created e said. "Thatffween the Bush-led Nicaraguan ason goals ^ mocra tic force and the e of going." Karaguan Contras, Harley this year's sHanger of the Executive Intelli- zear’s, andp^Hce Review magazine, and am chemisir Juanell X of the Nation of Islam h good friei ie coming to Rudder Theatre at 7 id [White] b hn. to uncover the truth. 5 with everyhTAccording to the testimony of shman mi^teque Miranda, Menesse’s liaison olsey is exp^Hhe Columbian cocaine cartels, ce. Woolsey fenesse obtained Columbian co- gh act to foUr'lhe from Marcos Aguado, a aspiration f ol Oaraguan pilot, ey said. “Sh^Mguado would fly planes to Co- g shoes m Hbia, load up the planes with co- vill remai | ’Bi e an d then fly to the United degree ae!i ,jHtes, where he landed on U.S. olleyball wi lj tar y y )ases Records presented ° ivl 1987 Congressional Iran- n at A&IVl M^tra hearings revealed that Gregg lite said. .» g us d were f u Uy informed on all tion. Hopeb; ith the tean 1 • Men ive Cut 997 iversity guado activities. ht the inbound flights full of co- e could not have been cleared iout the involvement of senior tagon officials as well. They too e subordinate to Vice President h, as per national security deci- n directives, creating the Special nations Group. Bush was put in charge of all 'ert operations. He became his ti watchdog. For all of those of Uwho think the CIA had some- ng to do with all of this, you’re rldng up the wrong tree. This el- ttor of involvement goes all the yup to the top floor. So the next time you say that hyone has a fair chance, look dsee what kind of obstacles Ve been placed in the runway like broken crack pipes and 'perdermic needles. Kevorkian lacks justification in assisted suicides I would have recog nized him earlier if I hadn’t been so hung over. But as I took my seat in the plane to re turn from the Thanks giving break I was fo cused on my yogurt and Gatorade, an unlikely pair that works wonders the morning after a night of overindulgence. It wasn’t until the flight attendant started the safety features lec ture that I realized I was sitting next to Jack Kevorkian, Dr. Death himself. I tried to start up a conversation. “Good morning, Dr. Kevorkian. What are you doing so far away from Michigan?” I asked. “Well, you know how things go. It’s the holidays, and I have a little time to kill.” “Good one, Doctor K!” I laughed. “None of your sound bites do justice to your great sense of humor.” I was nervous: I wasn’t expect ing to conduct an interview. My scrambled brain worked to conjure up questions for the doctor. “So what would you have done if you hadn’t gone into medicine?” I asked. “Well, I always thought it might have been fun to be a lawyer,” he said. “Really? I agree. I want to prac tice law. Anything except criminal — I couldn’t stand defending guilty people,” I said. “Me neither,” he said. “But for the good guys, I would make fre quent use of the temporary insani ty defense. That one can get any body acquitted.” “Well then how come you’ve never pleaded that in any of your criminal trials, Doctor K?” I asked. “Because I’m not temporarily insane,” he replied. I wondered to myself whether the most important word there was “temporarily.” I remembered some of the eccentric doctor’s more embarrassing mo ments — like the time he insisted on wearing colonial garb and a pow dered wig to his arraign ment hearing. Or the time he killed Judith Curren, a women who had stopped taking her prescribed anti-depres sion medication. Kevorkian claimed that Curren suffered from chronic fatigue, immune dysfunction and a painful muscle disorder. Medical examiners, however, could find no evidence of any of these ailments. Authorities concluded that Curren suffered only from depression, obe sity and possible spousal abuse. All of these are serious problems, yet they are all non-terminal. These recollections made me a little more aggressive. I decided to tell the doctor what was really on my mind. “Doctor, something that’s al ways bothered me is your lack of a bedside manner. After all, you were a pathologist. You probably spent most of your career looking at dead or diseased tissue through a microscope. You help patients make life or death deci sions, yet your medical work dealt overwhelmingly with only one side of that equation,” I said. “Maybe so, but I have worked with a few live patients. And after all, every doctor goes through es sentially the same basic training. I think that makes most of us pretty qualified,” he said. “I’m not sure I agree. I don’t support assisted suicide, but I think that if I did, I’d want some one a little more charismatic to be the standard-bearer,” I said. “A doctor’s a doctor,” he said, looking away with impatience. “I know. But even though lots of people have told me to pull my Columnist Jeremy Valdez Senior chemical engineering major head out of my butt, I still wouldn’t go to a proctologist for psychiatric help,” I said. “Well, at least I’m not moti vated by financial concerns,” he said. “I never charge peo ple for helping them to commit suicide.” “Well, I think that’s pretty fair. I know that if I were one of your patients and you were charging me for an assisted suicide, I’d be really tempted to write a bad check,” I said. Then the doctor be gan to give his soapbox speech. “I feel that it’s time for the med ical profession to break the long estab lished taboo against euthanasia. Doc tors who kill the dying are practic ing what I call ‘medicide.’ Lots of people argue over ‘the right to life,’ but the right to choose death is something that ought to be con stitutionally protected in this coun try,” he said. “Well, Dr. Kevorkian, I’d argue with you some more if I were in a better frame of mind,” I said. “But I had a few beers last night and I’ve got a splitting headache. It’s kinda hard to concentrate.” A little glimmer ap peared in the doc’s eyes and he flashed a toothy grin. “Are you sure its not a brain tumor, or a * / » A-/ i s c big fat embolism? Because I could help you out with that.” I told him thanks, but no thanks. All I needed was a spoon for my yogurt. Edited for content Wal-Mart fights against creativity L ooking for that new death-metal CD by your fa vorite group, “Vomit ing Hemorrhage”? Well, you won’t find it at Wal-Mart. But how about some Michael Bolton or Luther Van- dross instead? That’s right, Ameri ca’s largest discount re tailer, Wal-Mart, is cen soring your enter tainment. Still. It has been hap pening for some time, but several specific cases have gained media attention lately. The title of the Nirvana song “Rape Me” was changed to “Waif Me.” Cover art has been changed on CDs by artists ranging from White Zombie to The Black Crowes to John “not the Cougar anymore” Mellencamp. Countless CDs come with songs that have either been edited (311, Beck, Outkast, etc.) or dropped from the CD completely, which to my dismay has happened to Jackyl. Watch out Ratt and War rant, you may be next. In my own undercover investi gation of the music department at the local Super Wal-Mart, I found stickers strategically affixed to the covers of all copies of various CDs, in one instance covering the con nection between Siamese twins on Van Halen’s “Balance,” and in an other instance on Aero- smith’s “Get A Grip” cov ering a cow nipple. Co incidence? I think not. More likely someone in the Wal-Mart hierarchy got excited at the site of a cow nipple and de manded it be covered lest someone assume he likes cows “in that way.” Artistic integrity is taking a major hit be cause the record labels are bowing to Wal- Mart, the single largest seller of pop music in the country. Do re tailers have the legal right to do this? Sure. It’s their store, and if censorship is the method they want to use to allocate shelf space, then it is their prerogative. But it still isn’t a good thing for us humans. Darth Vader, commander of the “Empire,” was overheard say ing, “I think what Wal-Mart is doing is great. It lowers public morale and makes the inhabitants of Earth more docile and ripe for invasion.” But the only reason retailers like Wal-Mart hold such influence over record companies is because of the amount of music they sell. If more people realize that they may not be getting the real thing when they buy music at Wal-Mart then they might buy it somewhere else. After all, no one says you have to buy your music at the same place you buy your maple syrup, condoms and car wax (which are separate purchases unless you’re a superfreak.) Other stores also engage in this type of censorship. Blockbuster is one of them. They refused to carry the unedited version of “Showgirls” and made the director cut out nearly a half hour of bad acting. Yet they inexplicably carried the full version of “Tango and Cash.” We must show these stores that we don’t want them making these decisions for us. We can do this by voting with our pocketbooks. In the end, Wal-Mart will listen to its bottom line, not to uptight wackos like the Christian Coali tion. But Tm not advocating a boy cott ofWal-Mart altogether. The everyday prices are too low, and in the end you readers will lis ten to your bottom line, not to an all-knowing all-seeing columnist such as myself. But please buy your music elsewhere. There are plenty of op tions, even for those in rural ar eas, where Wal-Mart is the only major store. There are always mu sic clubs and, with the invention of cars and the construction of the national highway system, civ ilization is never far away. All you have to do is speak up — and in this world, money talks. Mason Jackson Senior marketing major A&M senators don’t represent students I’d like to express my frustra tion with the Student Senate. In the very election in which stu dents elected these representa tives, over 60 percent of the stu dents voted in favor of the yell leader referendum. Yet, these same representatives voted to table the bill. It is no wonder only 10,000 students vote in student elec tions when this is the kind of representation they have to look forward to. I’d like to encourage students to encourage students to think twice about re-electing senators who are more concerned with their own personal agendas than the voices of the very people that put them in office. Summer Belleperche Class of ’96 The Battalion encourages letters to the editor. Letters must be 300 words or fewer and include the author’s name, class, and phone number. The opinion editor reserves the right to edit letters for length, style, and accuracy. Letters may be submitted in person at 013 Reed McDonald with a valid student ID. Let ters may also be mailed to: The Battalion - Mail Call 013 Reed McDonald Texas A&M University College Station, TX 77843-1111 Campus Mail: 1111 Fax: (409) 845-2647 E-mail: Batt@tamvml.tamu.edu For more details on letter policy, please call 845-3313 and direct your question to the opinion editor. MSC fee increase deserves support T he University Cen ter needs our help. Tomorrow, Stu dent Government will hold a referendum on a proposed increase in the Student Center Complex Fee. The Student Center Complex Fee funds the physical operation of the MSC, the Rudder Complex and the John J. Koldus Building. These facilities, in turn, support our student activi ties program by providing space for offices, meeting and events, besides offering a convenient place to hang out. Most of us visit the University Center once a day, whether to eat, cash checks, study, visit the book store, check our mail or sleep. When you really take the time to think about it, the University Center is the “living room” of Texas A&M. Here’s the bottom line. Right now, each student pays $24 each semester for the Student Center Complex Fee. That’s far below other public universities in this state. The pro posal under consideration in the referendum would increase that amount by six dollars over a three- year period. In other words, the fee would be increased by $2 in Fall 1997, $2 in Fall 1998, and $2 in Fall 1999. This would bring the total amount of the fee to $30 per stu dent per semester by 2000. Please understand that this fee is per semester, NOT per credit hour. If this proposal passes, then three years from now we would each be paying $30 a se mester for the University Center, which is still less than other public universities in Texas. So, now that you understand why we have this fee, let me ex plain why we’re being asked to vote on this proposal. By law, any increase in this fee must be ap proved by student vote. That’s be cause it’s a student center, and it’s only right that the students should control the funding. However, this fee has not been increased since 1992. Since then, the cost of operating the University Center has increased substantially, mostly due to in flation and repeated increases in the mini mum wage. The Uni versity Center staff has made every effort to offset these rising costs by increasing revenue from sources other than student fees, but after nearly five years, they’re run ning out of options. In addition to the nor mal operating costs of the University Center, a number of renovations need to be made, and the money just isn’t there to fund them. Obviously, if we choose not to support the referendum, the University Center must either increase its revenue from users of the facility or reduce its ex penses by cutting services. This would most likely create some difficult situations. Up to this point, the University Center has avoided using student groups as a source of income, but if the referendum does not pass, they may have little choice. If student groups are charged for their use of the University Center, we may be saying good bye to some of our most tradi tional programs, most notable those of MSC OPAS, MSC Town Hall, or even Class Council events such as Ring Dance. These programs typically have very small profit margins, and usage charges could make them financially impossible. Some student groups might not even be able to meet in the Uni versity Center if they are charged for usage. When our University Center ceases to be accessible to all student groups, it ceases to be a true student center. I hope that each one of you reading this will take the time to study the issues involved with this referendum and make an ed ucated decision. I hope that sometime before you vote, you’ll take the time to visit the University Center and re flect upon what it means to you. I know I will. I have no great love for fee increases ... but I will sup port this one. I hope you will too. Chris Williams is the Memorial Student Center president Guest Columnist Chris Williams Senior speech communications major