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ast week, a nasty rumor was
circulating on student tongues
Jacross the entire Texas A&M
npus. The rumor was so dark
disturbing that it threatened
ilized life as we know it.
Shrouded in the pre-spring
:ak activity was the account that
st Oak Mail would be showing
turn of the Jedi instead of Holly-
d 16. This rumor was met with
Lylappointment and despair from
eryonewho felt this “disturbance
the Force.”
When I heard it, I was somewhat
different. Return of the Jedi, being the best
oviein die Star Wars Trilogy, would be great
i matter which Venue showed it.
People stared at me as if I was telling them
atthe entire Star Wars storyline was based on
;e’s Uncle Owen.
Of course, this is all a moot point now be-
Hollywood 16 is playing the film on two
teens—the rumor turned out to be a lie. But
hythe big stink about the film possibly being
own in another tiieater?
No one should be surprised. It’s no mystery
win recent years, people have become ac-
istomed to a certain level of comfort and aes-
etic quality with every product or service
eypurchase. But recently, it seems, people
Columnist
Stephen Llano
Senior
history major
are evaluating the pretty packaging
instead of the core issue involved.
During President Bush’s term,
Americans were concerned with the
quality of education in this country.
Bush’s response was the Goals 2000
program, a package of objectives
that United States’ schools should
meet by the year 2000.
The program was met with
happiness and applause at first,
even though there were no real en
forcement provisions. The result
ing phenomenon, tokenism, re
sults when people think something
has been done about a problem while it con
tinues to fester.
Of course The Star Wars Trilogy isn’t really
that significant, but entertainment does act as
a barometer for public sentiment. The reaction
to the rumor proves that the epic George Lucas
created isn’t any good unless it is shown in a
brand new theater.
When Star Wfors was first released, there
wasn’t any arena seating or DTS sound stuff
they have in theaters today. Theaters came
complete with sticky floors, creaky seats and
the faint smell of staJe popcorn in the air.
One would think true Star Wars fans would
want the full retro experience of sinking in their
chairs and hearing their feet peel off the floor
like Scotch tape during the credits.
Plus, within the whole scope of the contro
versy, people seem to have forgotten all the
great things the trilogy has taught us:
• Affirmative Action Works: In Star Wars,
Darth Vader is subservient to this old white
guy. In Empire Strikes Back, Darth Vader is in
charge. Obviously, it’s because he’s black (or
the fact that his old boss blew up with the
Death Star).
• The American Rural Hero Prevails: Luke
starts out as a whiny farm boy from the desert
and ends up saving the universe from evil.
Nothing is more American than that (except
perhaps Willie Nelson’s Farm Aid concerts).
• Laughter is the Best Medicine: Even
when the heroes are being shot at with lasers
or about to be destroyed by alien creatures,
they still have time to deliver a few funny lines.
This obviously shows that humor is a great
stress reliever when you are about to be killed.
If I were Han Solo, being shot at by
Storm troopers, the only thing I’d be thinking
about is where I could get a fresh pair of pants.
Great messages like these lose to the com
fort level of chairs or the look of a theater.
Maybe if people paid more attention to sub
stance instead of the packaging, movie the
aters, and many other things in the country,
would improve.
vlandatory kinesiology classes are unnecessary for students
:y
ft ~ ‘
"Staying up all night cram
ming for a chemistry test is
not fun — staying up all
ight trying to do 46 push-ups
a minute is just wrong.
TexasA&M requires students
fin tell 0 takefoursemesters °f k inesi-
Illlldli |i 0 gy c i asses Some people can-
Rawl 5 ! 110161 ^ 6 tkie phy s i ca l strain
'[of exercise, and others would
aen’s Goi.'rather spend these hours taking
the B&! classes they will use in the fu-
ure. Aerobic walking credits
vill not be on many resumes af-
top Lao) ergraduation.
e tied to Maintaining health and fitness is not
g finished h e problem. The problem is that stu-
t finishedfents waste time taking kinesiology
lasses when they could be using their
me more productively.
Kinesiology classes should not be re-
uired, but optional for kinesiology majors
rfor students who enjoy exercising and
iould like to take a class as an elective.
Asst. Aggielife Editor
in AuSsv
1 travel i>
for *
To earn an “A” in aerobic
dance, one must do 46 push
ups in one minute and 44 sit-
ups in one minute. Now, that
is just not going to happen for
some people. I am more wor
ried about my aerobics final
than my calculus final be
cause when I go down for
that first push-up, it is going
to take more than a minute to
come back up.
And I have a hard time be
lieving that it is going to im
press the editor of The Washington Post
that I could do more pelvic thrusts than
anyone in my class.
Maybe this would not be a problem if
the requirements for the courses were
reasonable. Students who broke school
records for the swim team in high school
are forced to take intermediate swim
ming pass/fail because it is next to im
possible to earn an “A.”
April Towery
Sophomore
journalism major
Here we have a prestigious universi
ty requiring students to alter their
grade-point ratios and
spend two sweaty _J
days a week wasting
their time.
Many students face
the same predicament.
They never played a
sport in high school,
did not work out and
are physically weak.
The University is
forcing students to go
back in time and relive
the so-called glory days of high school.
The students who cannot lift as many
weights as others in the class are left out
and made into laughingstocks.
The aerobics instructor cautions stu
dents to work at their own pace, but all
the students look around to make sure
they are keeping up with each other.
If agricultural economics majors were
The students who
cannot lift as many
weights as others in
the class are left out
and made into
laughingstocks.
required to take not one, but four,
photography classes to graduate, there
would be an uproar. Stu
dents would protest, ar
guing the requirement
does not make sense and
does nothing to further
education in their chosen
field of interest.
But no one seems to
notice that all students
are required to take kine
siology classes that are, in
effect, preventing them
from graduating sooner.
In addition to being useless, kinesi
ology classes also are inconvenient.
Students could be taking a class for
their majors, but they are forced to
arrange their entire schedule around a
kinesiology class for four semesters.
Many of these classes are at the Stu
dent Recreation Center on West Cam
pus or off campus, so students have to
factor in walking or driving time into
their schedules.
One often cannot be enrolled in a
class immediately before the kinesiol
ogy because 20 minutes is not enough
time to arrive at the class on time.
And students can forget about
scheduling a class after it because
they will need time to shower or get
back to campus.
Everyone has better things to do
than spend 50 minutes stepping to
the dance mix of “Don’t Cry for Me
Argentina.” And everyone is paying
Rec Center fees anyway, so it should
be one’s own decision whether he or
she chooses to make use of the
house of sweat.
Until the requirements are
changed, I will continue to forego
studying for classes that may actually
benefit my future career so I can per
fect that one push-up that actually
comes back up.
apitalistic dogma improves College Station community
ess
our spec' 3 '
nable us»
apitalism is going to de
stroy Mother Earth. At
least toadlicking treehug-
rswho constitute the fringes
the environmentalist move-
ent believe so.
According to these sandal-
od kooks, Gaia (the earth god-
some members of the
reen Gestapo” worship) will
ly be satisfied if we eschew
e American way of life and he
me nature-communing sub-
stence farmers.
These anti-business rants of the ex-
emist fringe amount to no more than a
ile of organic fertilizer.
Bastions of capitalism such as Ben &
try’s Ice Cream, and the less-activist,
lore common-sense Freebirds World
urrito in College Station, have success-
Columnist
fully combined the glories of
capitalism with the tenets of
conservation. They have
proven that the only way to
conserve environmental re
sources is to give people a
monetary stake in it.
Ben & Jerry’s, for exam
ple, donates a portion of
purchases of their “Rainfor
est Crunch” to environmen
talist groups.
While they obviously don’t
see the hypocrisy in donat
ing time and money to
groups with some members who have
dedicated themselves to banning ice
cream (the product of enslaved bovine-
Americans), they have proven capitalism
can be used to promote pro-environ
mental causes.
Donny Ferguson
Sophomore
political science major
While Ben and Jerry are still working
the kinks out of balancing business and
ecology, Freebirds World Burrito has per
fected the craft.
By combining a profit-oriented mind
set with common-sense conservation,
Freebirds has proven capitalism is the
friend, not foe, of the Earth.
Fluorescent lights illuminate the
restaurant, saving not only precious elec
tricity but money as well. The restaurant’s
napkins are made of recycled paper.
When building the restaurant, bricks
from Texas A&M’s demolished DeWare
Field House were used instead. Even af
ter customers are finished eating, tor
tilla-munching patrons are urged to re
cycle the aluminum foil wrapper.
Compare these capitalist forms of
ecological awareness with practices in
socialist nations.
Communist Russia, a supposed
utopia of environmentalism, was noto
rious for dumping toxic wastes at a level
far surpassing any found in America.
Following suit, Sweden, a nation with
more regulations and restrictions
against business than Bubbas in a Hous
ton phonebook, is being decimated by
acid rain.
The problem lies within the nation’s
economic and government structure.
Government bureaucrats in Moscow and
Oslo could not care less about what hap
pens to poor turnip farmers hundreds or
thousands of miles away.
Capitalist businesses, on the other
hand, have a vested interest in protecting
the environment. Wealthy CEOs such as
Bill Gates and Pete Dupont breathe the
same air we do; Chevron can’t drill for oil
if rig operators are sick and Temple-Inland
can only exist as long as trees do.
People are not going to ruin some
thing if it costs them money.
Instead of wrecking loggers’ chain saws
and picketing factories, “Kumbaya” hum
ming, guitar-strumming environmental
ists should open their minds and realize
capitalist nations are indeed the cleanest,,
most sophisticated nations on Earth.
Businesses such as Freebirds de
serve respect for their ability to operate
a highly profitable, ecologically con
science enterprise. They have proven
capitalism is the best way to protect the
environment, because it makes conser
vation profitable.
Prudent capitalism is the most effec
tive way to save the environment, and
the environmentalist movement can put
that in a tortilla and eat it.
Grad students must
wait for Aggie ring
I’ve recently become quite dis
turbed because I will not be able to
get my Aggie ring before graduation.
As a graduate student at A&M,
I consider myself a true patron of
Aggie tradition and pride. How
ever, because I’m a graduate stu
dent that doesn’t matter.
I’m graduating this May, and
have completed all of my re
quirements, including dead
lines and fees, but unlike under
grads, I still will not be able to
wear my ring at graduation cer
emonies. Non-transfer under-
Mail
Call
grads can order their ring after
completing 95 credit hours hav
ing a 2.0 cumulative GPR at
A&M, and be in good standing
with the University.
Graduate students, on the
other hand, must complete all
degree requirements and either
present an original Letter of
Completion from the Office of
Graduate Studies, or wait until
the degree is posted after gradu
ation, and be in good standing
with the University.
But, graduate students must
complete all their course work,
not the 75 percent required of
undergrads. They cannot get a
Letter of Completion until after
the semester for fear of failing cur
rent courses and not meeting the
cumulative 3.0 GPR to graduate.
I guess the Aggie Ring Commit
tee, Former Students Association
and Board of Directors do not con
sider graduate students as trust
worthy and capable of pride as the
undergraduates at A&M.
Our time here is precious, and it
should not be able unnecessarily
biased or unfair.
Troy D. Sparks
Graduate Student;
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