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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 21, 1997)
The Battalion p t iv i n iv i i ■■■ Page 7 Friday • February 21, 1 997 rmed farces or a few good men? he image, mission of the armed forces continues to be hotly debated t is ironic how Ameri cans criticize and de mean the United ites military, the very titution which pro- ts the right to free ech. Everyone has a ted psychics on quest jm rsona l opinion of how <t n 1650 $3 99 ™ military should be 8434. However, many of individuals have er actually served in Columnist ipirations. All swealshi inly $12.99 PETS Mens. Cats, Dogs, elter. 775-5755. m military. "Bit has become a com- |>n occurrence these s to pick at our military institu- s. Scandals in several branches academies have hit the papers the national newscasts, giving Bd to the judgmental general pub- 30MMATES ■ Everyone, from cadets to the en- ■ed ranks, to officers, has been «rged with a myriad of offenses, ed a sap. 2bdrm'2trBm the all-too-frequent sexual ha- paid. shuttie/bike. s&B smen t to battery and murder. ) needed A.s.A.p. 2wi®These severe occurrences have is own phone-rme w* to new re g U i a tions and scrutiny. 9 needed ASAP 3/lJ In 110 Wa Y are theSe offenSCS Steve May economics graduate students el long asking SIISI d rock and light. Cal ion? Black lab puppa ■ $250. Please cal 698 Ibath house. Lessthar' S250/mo. +bills. 696-759" Shuttle, W/D Veiy N KERVICES ive Driving/Drivel's Train Ticket dismissal/insurait W-Th(6pm-9pm), Fd, Sat(8am-2:30pm). W lelcome. $25/cash, H 111-Univ. Dr., Ste.217 arly. (CP-0017). ;tom made. Can wAtJ idonable or excusable, but the |nzy in which added regulations eeded toshare2Be: m( | actions have been demanded us, Richard 696-17 o^side military has I a.s.a.p.!! Large , mpus. $275/mo. + i/4b"#e overboard. ■The branches of The United Id" 2bdrm/ibath. oBtes Armed Forces are not typical ies R ichard. 622H9:B fernmenta | a gg nc ig S "I’hey have d ' as A a P ' BlI'xtrenu'lv specialized task which ills. Anderson Place It ■ - ^ ie often forget. The basic duty of the military is to [Over 100,000 Iraqis were killed ing Desert Storm. Whether in de- se of the nation or its interests, its Ids simple. However, its purpose is not to be Mitically correct. To do the job the ■litary is required to do, a certain ;s can soon wend;: type of person is needed. One must be patriotic, self-sacrificing and dis- ilined. One must have the ability to M instinctively under dire circum- ces. It is not for everyone. ,rt h em New Mexico. 7|| Members of the U.S. military are i River, Taos s AifAftquired to give up many of the ; 916, ask for John. ordinary citizens enjoy, spring Break Partyphe right to privacy is sacrificed, axes. From $33perpe®fpce men and women may have ir quarters searched and their be- gings confiscated at any time [thout warning. They are held to a higher standard responsibility. Individuals are not y responsible for their own ac- ns, but for those of their families well. An undisciplined child or Sschievous spouse can impede or 'en end a healthy career. The right to due process is also t. In certain circumstances, one Hay be held without trial. TRAVEL iver, Angel Flyer, l» newly refurnished 46-8916, ask for Jolr -800-SUNCHASE. do Mustang Island th, sleeps 6, king-size . deposit required. (5* VANTE0 > female C&W dance f< ers. 764-9372, to lose weight, I VDisc, & Checks. 1307 B./C.Sta. or I#* 1 ings. Individuality is sacri ficed. To many civilians’ dismay, soldiers are told what is appropriate and what is not in regard to professional and person al attire. In the Marine Corps, the ability to wear civil ian attire is a privilege, not a right. It is difficult to apply what is deemed politi cally correct to the mili tary without degrading its performance. Open homosexuality in the mili tary is not appropriate. It disrupts the bond and trust soldiers must have between one another. When one’s life is on the line, one needs and expects complete trust. Whether homopho bia is deemed wrong by many Amer icans, the fact remains it causes mis trust and disrupts unit cohesion. Members of the armed forces can not be forced to trust someone whose lifestyle they find repulsive. A member of the Corps of the Cadets, who declined to be iden tified, voiced his opinion of gays in the military. “Gays do not belong in the mili tary,” he said. “It’s not conducive to a military lifestyle, especially in close quarters.” Women have become an even more integral part of the U.S. mili tary, however they should never ex pect complete equality. When it comes to infantry warfare (hand-to- hand combat), the average woman is not as capable as the average man. It’s not chauvinism — it’s a fact of na ture. In regard to arcade warfare, such as air-to-air combat and other forms of victimless combat, in which weapons of war are used at dis tances and are based on hand-eye coordination and mental abilities, women perform as well as men or even better. One should not classify the military as sexist due to the lack of complete integration. Rich Wright, a senior business analysis major and a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, said the military is a different environment and needs to be treated accordingly. Regarding the recent rash of sex ual harassment cases, he said, “The Marine Corps doesn’t have a prob lem like the Army and the Navy be cause they realize men and women are different.” Wright has no problem with gays in the military if their sexual prefer ence is kept secret, but said it would definitely undermine morale and disrupt the chain of command if made known. “You learn from Day One that there’s a hierarchy,” he said. “You’re not dealing with everyday situations. There has to be disci pline and respect.” As Wright alluded, discipline and respect are the cornerstones of oper ations in the military. Their absence is a problem. The military is not, nor has it ever been, an institution comparable to anything in the private sector. With out firsthand experience, it is hard to believe many critics of the military can hold the opinions they do. The United States military is a watchdog. When it bites the hand of a prowler and performs its duty, it is praised. However, when it bites the hand of a friend, it is scolded for do ing what it is trained to do. Do not attempt to judge what you Hi "uman nature al ways manages to .get in the way, and it doesn’t seem to be help ing the U.S. Army’s image these days. With sexual harass ment accusations flood ing the Army since No vember and female cadets in the Citadel accusing males of attempting to set their clothes on fire, it is impressive Texas A&M’s Corps of Cadets hasn’t faced similar problems. Although soldiers who commit acts of sexual harassment should be harshly punished, they should not be singled out for what occurs in every walk of life. However, the Army could take a few lessons from the Corps on creating an environment in which mutual respect can grow, decreasing Columnist Heather Pace sophomore English major UoOUV UKC v\ L * %AToNte LOOKING FOR jOTfcitr A FEW* GOOD ME NT likelihood of harassment. At the beginning of February the Army’s image took another shot when retired Sergeant Major Brenda Hoster accused the Army’s highest ranked enlisted man, Sergeant Major Gene McKinney, of sexual harassment. The same week, al most 500,000 soldiers began watching one of the Army’s response to the flood of complaints a video in which the same McKinney de clared that sexual harassment must come to an end. Before publicly charging McKin ney with sexual harassment, Hoster called the Army’s sexual harassment hotline. In Time magazine, she said her call was nothing more than a frustrating experience with an un trained staff. Although similar calls since last fall have resulted in more than 1,100 crimi- Jl nal probes, the Army could have dealt more ef fectively with charges of sexual harassment. However, the private sec tor probably needs as much help with the problem of sexual harassment as the Armed Services — it just seems to get the most publicity. What has come the way of the Armed Services in the way of scandal has been dealt with effectively, though not always promptly. In 1991, the Navy received the first major charges of sexual ha rassment when naval aviators be longing to the Tailhook Associa tion, made drunken fools of themselves by harassing females. After initially failing to identify the responsible officers, the Navy reacted by booting admirals and even the secretary of the navy. The Air Force has taken steps to prevent sexual harass ment by implementing sexual harassment training in 1982 and initiating a task force on discrimination and sexual harassment in 1994. Although such measures are a step in the right direction, there is only so much that can be accomplished with policy. Sexual harassment is diffi- cult to prevent, but the most effective way to deal with it is to create an environ ment in which it cannot thrive. One guide to discrimination and sexual harassment, written by Lt. General Billy J. Boles, USAF, says: “Despite commanders’ involvement and education programs, people will occasionally behave inappropriately. It takes a strong continuing commit ment by everyone to minimize these behaviors and their effects.” Sexual harassment occurs most often because of a desire for power. Incidents of sexual harassment should decrease as some males dis cover, whether they like it or not, fe males are here to stay in the military. Although the situation at A&M is still touchy, as indicated by several fe male cadets unwilling to be quoted, the situation is nowhere near as bad as it is at other places. One former cadet said there were few incidents of harassment, but those she did see were dealt with quickly. She said the key for her was to gain the respect other peers. Another cadet said the problem is not so much sexual harassment as it is males not knowing how to deal with females. Although she said she hears comments that make some females uncomfortable, she just doesn’t take her buddies seriously. Tara Tripp, a junior English major and a member of the Corps, said her buddies spend more time defending her than offending her. “My three other female buddies and I have been the first women to make it through our outfit since 1993,1 believe, and we have never had any problems with sexual ha rassment,” Tripp said. “If anything, our male buddies have been pro tective — like big brothers to us.” This continuing commitment has been developed naturally in the Corps in the form of relationships based on mutual trust and respect, not gender. Matt Reynolds, a sophomore gen eral studies major and a member of the Corps, said he has complete re spect for the only female sophomore remaining in his outfit. “I think she proves herself to be a worthy cadet because she does every thing we do,” Reynolds said. “She does even more than some people and she stays involved. I think she gains a lot of respect because of that. What people need to do is open their minds to new views and simply accept the fact that females can excel as much as males.” Give the Army a handful of soldiers and there are sure to be charges for sexual harassment—give the Armed Forces a handful of A&M cadets, and hopefully, it can win the war against sexual harassment. JON ums Harsh adult punishments fail to rehabilitate juvenile criminals Effective ill out on th rtunity to » A&M's _ earbook. sss pictures sn 9 a.m.' _1 Friday, ‘uvenile crime is on every || politician’s hit list, p Tougher policies are tout- p by legislators of all parties, and some are talking about lepealing the federal man- dates which keep juveniles i^jfrom being incarcerated in he same facilities as adults, personal responsibility and he realization of crime’s con sequences are essential to to- Jay’s youth, but the useful ness of rehabilitation must jot be overlooked. In an age when criminals rarely serve 1 sentences, society must decide whether to allow these young criminals ip be released after extensive rehabili- ition or to expose them to the self-rule hd mayhem of the Texas Department Corrections. Plato said when hu- Columnist Courtney Phillips Junior Psychology major mans err, it is the result of poor teachings or bad genes. Today, most people would rightfully balk, saying individ uals are always in charge of their actions — no one con trols them. While no one can deny that environment has an impact on children, the common belief that they start out pure, but become cor rupted by their environment, is not on target either. Still, some people say the opposite — children start out as criminals and learn how to live ac cording to society’s rules. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, Golding toyed with a society’s restrictions and showed how, if inter dependencies were removed, humans would return to a basic criminal nature. In light of this thinking, all students of Texas A&M are potential robbers, rapists and murder ers. Furthermore, a belief in this basic nature is really much more democrat ic. People are much more likely to have compassion on a person if they recognize that deep down people are all the same. Of course, most Ameri cans suffer from the prideful “I’m spe cial and I’m different” mentality, and they cannot handle the thought of their own potential criminality. Chip Harrison, commandant of a Texas Youth Commission boot camp, said disciplining kids and restructuring the way they think is more beneficial than yelling and abusing them. “What good would that do?” he said, “These kids have been hollered at all their lives, they've had semiautomatics shoved in their faces. They’ve been stabbed. You think a little yelling is go ing to change them?” This is clearly not the typical A&M student’s upbringing. Over the past few years, the TYC has been overhauling its programs in an effort to become more strict and tai lored to individual situations. Its four fold mission is to protect society from juvenile offenders, make the offenders productive while incarcerated, reha bilitate criminals and prevent future juvenile crime. Staff workers are forming under standing relationships with the youths, but every waking second of the youths’ lives is structured and demands the re spect of their overseers. Uniforms are worn and for the first time in these kids’ lives, someone expects productivity and humanity from them. One can never know for sure how authentic the rehabilitation is. Howev er, the new direction TYC has taken in dealing with juvenile offenders seems to beat the lack of control and efficien cy in the adult-justice system. Juveniles stand a chance of being more productive members of society if given a chance to undergo rehabilitation. More over, communities would be a lot safer having tried to rehabilitate these juveniles than sealing their fate by categorizing them as hardened criminals through in carceration without rehabilitation. Top-notch chemical dependency treatments, sexual offender programs and a stellar capital offender program help juveniles identify their bad choices and develop empathy for their victims. Meanwhile, Texas legislation should con centrate on encouraging higher stan dards for families and communities, two support systems lacking in the lives of most juvenile criminals. Mail Jniv. 1.US ^erajBarbef 2th man absent n G. Rollie White regards to Jamie Burch’s .. let’s ve hoops a horse laugh." Aggie basketball is plagued by low (tendance and little fan support. Bas- etball is a fast-paced sport that’s both :ography ■(citing and fun to watch, but as Ag es, some of us don’t know how to be asketball fans. Basketball games should be characterized by its high- energy both on the court and in the stands. One problem is most A&M tra ditions were built around football, not basketball. Therefore, the role of the band and yell leaders should be differ ent in conjunction with the different sports. The slow pace of band works well for football, but the music for bas ketball needs to build and maintain the momentum. There are times dur ing the game when the coach calls a a 20-second time-out to calm down his team—not the crowd. Often, the yell leaders take this time to quiet the crowd to do a yell. Unfortunate ly, that’s just what the opponent needs. If a coach scouts our team in an earlier game, they know what an opportunity a 20-second time-out presents for them. Fan support is the key and we need to create that high energy for the team. Anyone who has ever competed in sports knows that it’s always easier when you have fans behind you. It is disheartening to our teams when they go to out of town games and see the support their opponents have and then come back to G. Rollie and have none. We need to learn to be basket ball fans and that starts when we show up to the games. We have the opportu nity to see great teams play in the new Big 12 Conference and we should take advantage of the chance. I encourage everyone to attend the games and support our team. Kimberly Crawford Class of’97 Accompanied by 14 signatures I have never enjoyed an article so much as the one Jamie Burch wrote for today’s Battalion. The truth can be very refreshing! Although it is true that Texas A&M University is not just about sports...neither is it just about educa tion. My husband and I attend a majori ty of the Aggie sporting events—which are always a lot of fun and great family entertainment—and cannot under stand why there aren’t more people in attendance in a town of more than 100,000 residents plus 40,000 students. Although I am an adopted Aggie (graduate of UTA), my husband is Class of 75 and I have heard for may years how G. Rollie White had standing room only for every game when he was in school—and A&M was not even half the size it is today. What has hap pened? I would also like to know where the Corps of Cadets’ support is, as well as the fraternities, the sororities, those that support the football team, etc. Regarding the yell leaders, I think that if one or two of them would be on the other side of the basketball court with the former students and older fans, they could get them to be more excited and to make a lot more noise. As for the band...why would they have to play just one kind of music...why not play some jazzy tunes and some traditional marches? There is one thing I would like to add to the article, however, and that is the unfortunate fact that the lack of support is not only seen at the men’s basketball games, but at all Aggie sports—men and ladies! The football team and coaches are always talking about how important support is and yet I see very few players (or coaches!) at any other sporting events. Sharon Lee College Station 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 let ters for length, style, and accuracy. Letters may be submitted in person at 013 Reed McDonald with a valid student ID. Letters 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