The Battalion
Page
December 13,15
ity of the Studem
ys the salaries of
l in student sen
nt Affairs and Sto:
The Battalion
Thinking Back
The Battalion reflects on this
semester’s events at Texas A&M.
pplement the sen
rided by the Corps
Room.
ished already. The
s should be comp:
ter, he said.
fEMBED
ir/ Baggett
tt, a senior accour:
e first half of his
dy president hast
a very diverse,
ent body,” he Established in 1893
(k hard to make*| tor j a | S appearing j n Jhe Battalion reflect the
’• , *ws of the editorials board members. They do
ing his campapot necessarily reflect the opinions of other Bat-
nnrnve imitvam"W' on staff members, the Texas A&M student
B “ Wdy, regents, administration, faculty or staff,
amzations, Baglolumns, guest columns, cartoons and letters
d the Student B exiiress the opinions of the authors,
tuncil The ('(jirP ontact the °P inion editor for information on
r .“■bmitting guest columns,
means for stud:
i across campus
n problems,
aid the council:
ental in differentoi
king together,
ield, Student Govs
r e vice president®
1 science major I Before taking that giant leap into
ifety on campus 1997, The Battalion editorials board
' one of the mainl|ould like to pause and pass judg-
ster. The Summei ent on some things it has seen,
provided escortse ter all, passing judgment is much
ore fun than mere reflection.
Bonfire redpots (A-)
When Greg White died in a traf-
ud much of thepB: accident returning from Bonfire
was elected oni it site, all eyes cast a suspicious
ok toward Bonfire.
Charges of irresponsibility and
ills for an end to Bonfire could
ive easily followed if it were not
r the quick actions of the redpots,
ho immediately disallowed riding
the back of pick-up trucks to the
it site. Although they realized
ey could not control everyone’s
tions, they made sincere efforts
deal with the problem.
Dr. Ray Bowen (B-)
Bowen deserves credit for taking
e lead in discussing the problems
ought on by the Hopwood case,
owever, he deserves criticism for
le seemingly slow action taken to
deal with the problem.
I No matter how much people
■ay disagree with some of his ac-
■ms, no one can envy the juggling
"N A Q. ■ 1 must perform every day.
I And he is willing to discuss the
difficulties he faces, especially
■rough e-mail. (He replies to every
■essage he receives.) Although he
» 199;8 dying. on e way to improve his
■ade would be to have more inter-
and will no tion with students.
Class of’97 Council (C+)
BpilS next tall The council deserves credit for
the way it handled the mistake
up, Vdi ijith the uninclusive Elephant Walk
mailed Yoi T ' shirts - ^ ot to ° man y seniors
sj :em happy with any of the the T-
l. 00 by room shirts or Elephant Walk. But the
Jxincil can pull up its grade next
the Deed l;mester with a good class gift and
Iwell-organized Ring Dance,
d Building I The class gift provides the best
.Ipportunity because of the bad
8:30 a.tn. BIS suing of gifts left by recent senior
M rlav l asses - The Class Gift Committee is
m. [ lonao) input now, so members of
idav and p ' e Class of ’97 should help the
c / • r J louncil improve its image by offer-
g suggestions that can truly bene-
tthe University.
Corps of Cadets (A-)
This is not a misprint. The Bat-
alion recognizes the strong lead-
rship of Stephen Foster, Corps
ommander, and Cindi Ericson,
leputy Corps commander, as the
eading reason why the Corps
eems to be on an upswing. En-
lollment statistics do not tell the
hole story, though.
A new commandant, Maj. Gen.
T. “Ted” Hopgood, has brought
ome new ideas of leadership and
[espect to the Quad, and the mem-
Jiers of the Corps have dealt with
ihem maturely. And the upper-
llassmen especially deserve credit
lor their respectful protest against
A |he “running on the Quad” restric-
JB jL lion. The Corps also deserves its
jpigh grade for continuing to en
tourage cadets to get involved on
ampus beyond the Quad.
Faculty Senate (B)
While most faculties around the
ountry are being dragged to the
able kicking and screaming to dis-
uss post-tenure review, the Facul-
■ X ■ J \ Senate has tried to deal with the
101T16 0 ituation with understanding.
Although opposition to what is
. _ iewed by many professors as the
^ lismantling of tenure, the Senate
ias taken a tone of compromise,
everal professors welcome stu-
m ^£^ m 7C ents’ input on this issue and
v hould be commended for that,
lie faculty faces a tough road in its
(protection of tenure, but this Sen-
I te seems up to the task.
Football Team (F)
This was not a grade earned by
Editorials Board
Michael Landauer
Editor in Chief
Amy Collier
Executive Editor
Gretchen Perrenot
Executive Editor
Heather Pace
Opinion Editor
ailing
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Defunds
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rtue of a poor record, because the
llayers’ talent cannot be ques-
oned. Rather, the team’s worst
5cord in more than a decade is an
ther side-effect of the team’s real
tilure. Bad attitudes and a lack of
Aspect plagued this year’s team,
'hich seemed to lack inspiration,
adership and direction.
Players did not seem to respect
le coaches, and fans questioned
every play called on the field, often
making a good case. The season
was nothing short of a disaster, but
even more disturbing is the trend
that has taken hold of the players.
It was not long ago that the
Twelfth Man tradition meant
something on this campus. The
team and the fans were one cohe
sive unit, and not just on game
days. But R.C. Slocum’s team does
not seem to be part of the Universi
ty; it is merely a display to be ad
mired by those at A&M. Three
coaches have been asked to move
on, but the most important coach
ing change still needs to be made
— Slocum needs to step down for
the Aggies to move forward. With a
new direction, this team can earn
the respect of its fans again.
Graduate Student Council (A)
John AMs and the Graduate Stu
dent Council have effectively kept
the spotlight on several key issues.
The need for a child-care center
that will be useful to students, fac
ulty and staff and a safer Wellborn
Road are two issues where the
Council’s persistence may pay off.
The MSC (B+)
As the gods of co-programming,
the MSC has helped foster an envi
ronment of interaction and mutual
understanding on A&M’s campus,
which has more student organiza
tions than any other university.
The MSC Council, which sits
atop a complicated web of commit
tees and programming, actively
seeks input from outside groups on
how to improve its service to stu
dents and become more efficient.
The MSC produces a million lit
tle opportunities, many of which
go unnoticed. But in regard to ser
vices and leadership opportunities
for students, the MSC continues to
lead the way.
Student Senate (D-)
The most recent embarrass
ment came last week as the Sen
ate approved a motion to ignore
student input in the run-off elec
tions referendum.
A lesser known embarrassment
that speaks volumes for the Senate
came earlier this semester as it
struggled to create and pass an effi
ciency bill. A resolution with the
word “efficiency” in its title was
adopted, but few changes were
made to help things run smoothly.
The Senate should be a voice the
administration will hear. The poli
tics and procedures with which the
senators busy themselves should
give way to this simple task. In the
meantime, is there any such thing
as a No-Confidence Referendum?
Dr. J. Malon Southerland (A)
Axmed with an arsenal of Chat-
N-Chews and an open-door policy,
Southerland makes time for stu
dents every day. As a resource, he is
probably the most helpful person
on campus. He may not know the
answer to a student’s question, but
he can find someone who does,
and he makes this promise to every
group of students he meets.
Student Body Presidents (B)
Toby Boenig and Carl Baggett
have represented the students
and the University well. As an out
sider to Student Government,
Baggett has surprised students
with an inclusive style of leader
ship. As president, he has brought
groups together for discussion
and programming that may have
never cooperated in the past.
The Student Body Executive
Council, which is a collection of stu
dent leaders that deals with campus
problems, may be his legacy, but he
is far from finished; and students
are anxious to see how well he rep
resents A&M next semester when
the Legislature is in session.
Yell Leaders (D)
Anything is better than last year,
but by stubbornly trying to protect
the Corps bloc and fighting run
offs, Head Yell Leader Chris Torn is
taking the yell leaders in the wrong
direction. Making fun of homosex
uals in grode stories doesn’t help
either. As a group, the yell leaders
are close to losing the respect of the
student body.
Page 11
Friday • December 1 3, 1996
Christmas wishes deserve equal
rights
W ith the holidays coming up, we all
need some sort of list of the things
we want for Christmas. Back in ele
mentary school, we
used to make out our
lists and send them to
what’s-his-name, the
big guy “up there.”
Now, of course, we’ve
grown up and we know
to send them to some
one more reliable,
who’s a little more in
charge — Santa Claus.
Now, as an end-of-
year column extrava
ganza, I’ve thought up
some recommendations. And I hope it gives
everybody ideas for what they could request
under the tree this year. I’ve also included
the retail prices of everything just to make
shopping easier.
Finally, in an effort to make the things on
the list seem more equal, I made each one No.
1 on the list. That way, it places no particular
importance on any single item. It’s a kind of
Hopwood compliance for Christmas list items.
So here it is:
1. The first thing on any innocent’s Christ
mas list always has to be world peace (Retail
price: five bucks and a Laffy Taffy wrapper). Of
course, it didn’t come with the end of the Cold
War, so why should we expect it now?
1. Just in case that world peace thing doesn’t
work out, we should hope for some sort of holi
day spirit between us and the folks at t.u. (Retail
price: the cost of all those logs we burned in
Bonfire. And generations of Arab-Israeliesque
bad blood between our two peoples.)
1. R.C. Slocum’s humble resignation (Retail
price: what’s his salary?). Of course, it didn’t
come with the end of the Cold War, so why
should we expect it now?
1. The beginning of another O.J. Simpson
trial to give the Aunerican people a chance to
prove they don’t care anymore (Retail price:
$30 for gloves and billions in advertising).
1. A red lightsaber (Retail price: overpriced,
but not enough that they won’t sell millions to
nostalgia trippers like myself).
1. Speedy installation of smoke detectors in
airplane cargo holds, which are now blessedly
required by U.S. law and will now make air
planes — big pieces of metal that float
through the air — perfectly safe (Retail price:
the cost of a time machine to go back to a
time when people, including me, still margin
ally respected their government).
1. Everything sappy and personal I can
think of (Retail price: a month’s worth of my
salary at The Batt, a deliciously underrated
chunk of money I’ll really miss).
1. Finally, it’d be nice if opinion columnists
just shut up for once and let people make
their own opinions — and sure as heck not
tell anybody what they should want for
Christmas (Retail price: a pack of cigarettes).
Columnist
Shannon Halbrook
Junior English major
Muslims wrongly face jail for ignorance of laws
T wo Iraqi refugees
are quickly learn
ing that the new
lywed game isn’t all it is
cracked up to be, espe
cially if it’s played in
the United States when
their wives are 13 and
14 years old.
Majed Al-Timiny 28,
and Latif Al-Hussani, 34,
were married in Lincoln,
Neb., on Nov. 9 to a pair
of sisters who were 13
and 14 years old. It was a
traditional wedding ceremony per
formed by a Muslim cleric and, fol
lowing the ceremony, each couple
went to separate houses to con
summate their marriages.
Today, however, both Al-
Timiny and Al-Hussani are not
preparing for a blissful honey
moon in the Caribbean. Instead,
they stand accused of statutory
rape, facing up to 50 years in
prison for their crimes.
The idea of a 13-year-
old being forced to mar
ry someone against her
will is unheard of in our
country. But in the con
text of the Iraqi culture,
this is quite normal. And
according to close
friends of the parties in
volved, the two girls ex
pressed excitement and
anticipation typical of
brides-to-be the day be
fore the wedding. The
prosecutors and the
public should take these facts into
account before judging the men
according to standards they’ve
never been acquainted with.
But many say it is the responsi
bility of the immigrants to ac
quaint themselves with the laws of
the United States. If there were
only 25 laws in the United States to
know, this would be a fair argu
ment, but this isn’t the case.
To ask immigrants to overcome
their language and cultural barri
ers to educate themselves on laws
in the United States may not seem
to be too much of a request, but
consider how hard it is for even our
own voters to take the time to truly
learn about what candidates stand
for in elections. In a country where
there are more rights than there is
time to learn about them, it seems
a little harsh to punish these two
men so severely.
If it were an American citizen
who had been raised in our culture
and exposed to our legal system
through education, ignorance of
our laws would be an unaccept
able excuse for committing a
crime. But these two men had
much less of an opportunity to be
come acquainted with the way
things go in the Land of the Free.
If the United States plans on
being this diligent in punishing
immigrants for violating laws,
then it should consider the fact
that the cost of keeping these
men in jail for 50 years is much
more than that of hiring someone
to produce an orientation-type
pamphlet that is specific to the
culture from which an immigrant
comes. Such a pamphlet could
address the significant cultural^,
differences between the immi
grant’s own country and the Unit
ed States, including marital laws.
Although we cannot be expect
ed to let every immigrant live ac
cording to the way things used to
be, in this specific situation, 50
years in prison is too harsh of a
method to teach newcomers this
lesson. It would be better to just
annul the marriage and greatly
decrease the possible punish
ment for these two men than to
take away 50 years of their lives
for violating laws that they truly
weren’t aware of.
Columnist
Jenni Howard
Senior international
studies and
economics major
Internet eliminates
America’s work ethic
W ant some infor
mation for a
paper or
maybe even some
sports stories? Try the
Internet. How about X-
rated pictures? Well, you
know. And while using
Yahoo or WebCrawler,
search for the topic
“lazy” because that’s
what the Internet is
making us all.
The Internet is one
in a long line of effort-saving in
ventions that have eased everyday
tasks and have largely shaped to
day’s society. Beyond their practi
cal applications, these inventions
have also contributed to a philoso
phy that the less work it takes, the
better it is. People have started to
look for the effordess way out and
have begun to lose sight of the real
meaning of hard work.
Speaking of the easy way out,
the thought of going to the library
for research seems old-fashioned
and really unnecessary when it is
possible to look up anything and
everything at a computer termi
nal and print it out.
Why fight the traffic and search
endlessly for a parking spot when
the computer is right in your
room? Why venture through vast
volumes of books and magazines
hoping Joe Blow has not already
swiped the issue you’re looking for
when people can access the same
site at the same time on the Inter
net? Because college is about more
than just information. It’s about
learning how much you can ac
complish if you really work at it.
For people that think running
up and down six floors is inconve
nient and difficult, take a shot at
life in the real world where life’s tri
als and tribulations are tenfold.
Think that this is all farfetched?
Saying to yourself, “I'll
never get that lazy”?
Well, rethink this after
a proven example —
television.
If television hasn’t
had an effect on society,
then where did the term
“couch potato,” a term
synonymous with lazy,
come from? And if tele
vision hasn’t made peo
ple lazier, why do net
works have to threaten
blacking out home sporting
events unless there is a sellout?
Simple: If they didn’t, people
wouldn’t bother going.
What if our children are so lazy
that they will hate anything and
everything that requires effort?
Go research at the library? Hell,
they might not even want to type
because voice recognition pro
grams may spell the the end of
something as easy as typing.
The innovations we consider
convenient our children may
consider cumbersome.
In an automated world, that
thing called a work ethic will be re
defined. Mornings will become a
time for power switches instead of
commuting. People who roll up
their sleeves will only be doing so
to keep themselves from hindering
their operation of a mouse.
Computers may well trivialize
what we call the sense of accom
plishment. Will computers and
whatever new technology that
comes along do everything for us?
At the present pace — yes — un
less everyone takes time to think
about what detrimental effect that
might have on us. Sure, it's conve
nient to get on the computer and
venture through cyberspace, but it
progressively makes people what
most despise — lazy, unmotivated
and easily manipulated.
Columnist
Sean McAlister
Senior accounting and
finance major
Prejudice perseveres
H i. I’m Bryan X,
and I hate you. I
don’t know you;
don’t need to. I hate you
for what you’ve done to
me (though you haven’t
done anything to me).
Sound familiar?
These are the kinds of
ideas espoused by such
“leaders” as Louis Far-
rakhan and Quanell X.
Men such as these
spread their ignorance
and irrational fears through
broad-based accusations that
have little or no relation to reality.
Also, they hurt my feelings.
That’s right; call me a sissy, but
I really don’t like hearing about
how little I care about the black
race, or how “my people” are just
about ready to do away with them
for good. I mean, I guess my copy
of the top-secret White Man’s
Agenda must have gotten lost in
the mail and arrived at some dis
sident’s address. I hope the Great
White Brotherhood doesn’t hold
me responsible.
Oh yeah ... I forgot. There is no
plot against black people. The
truth is, people are individuals and
don’t share a group consciousness.
Hmm ... the truth. Interesting
concept. What exactly is the truth?
The truth is, the only white groups
that preach racial separatism and
superiority are those such as the
Klan and the Neo-Nazi movement,
and they are unanimously con
demned. They should be. But peo
ple like Farrakhan and Quanell X
have turned the discrimination
around and applied the old verse
about “an eye for an eye.”
Unfortunately, fighting fire with
fire doesn’t work, either literally or
figuratively. We need love and un
derstanding amongst all people, not
long-standing grudges over color.
Yes, some pretty terrible things have
happened in this world and this
country, and I’m sorry and ashamed
that they ever took place,
but if we are ever to
move forward as a peo
ple — humans, I mean,
not these artificial color-
coded groups we cling to
in such a cowardly man
ner — we have got to let
the past rest.
I’m optimistic; I be
lieve that racism is slow
ly being bred out of peo
ple over time. But
unfortunately, some
people are fighting to spread
racism. Here’s an all-purpose indi
cator: If you hear people railing
against a racial group as a whole,
dismiss everything they say. They
have only their own interests at
heart, not yours.
Furthermore, racism is born
out of fear. Must and always shall
be. Does anyone consider Adolf
Hitler a brave person? He was a
small, cowardly man who must
have hated himself, because he
praised attributes he did not him
self possess. Racism comes out of
a common need to feel superior,
and thus occurs mainly in people
with poor self-esteem, such as the
uneducated.
To get beyond our own limita
tions, we must approach the
idea of truly accepting people for
who they are with open hearts
and minds.
So what is the truth? Have I un
covered it here? Unfortunately,
I’m afraid I know the truth all too
well. The truth is, some person
will come up to me today and ask
me why the hell I was implying
that blacks are his equals. On the
other hand, the truth is also that
today, somewhere on campus,
some students will discuss “that
horribly racist column in The
Batt.” Because we fear change.
Because hate is easier than love,
and far less dangerous. Still, I can
hope and pray that the world is
bigger than that. And I do.
Columnist
Bryan Goodwin
Junior English major
'
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