Paf
December 3,
Spot
Brie
Opinion
Page 9
Tuesday • December 3, 1 996
xmspiracy
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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
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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