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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 24, 1997)
597 . .■ J hursday - July 24, 1997 The Battalion bbacco hadows emphasis hemp use men be Camel lost his job, the Marlboro Man has to face an lyretirement and tdoor cigarette ads Jpromotional niate- s only will be seen in tory books and mu- imsfrom now on. The big, fancy tobac- settlement is in, and nation is still wait- to see what effect it lhave on the nation’s economy, tobacco companies are re- msible for a lot of capital inging hands — everyone from liters and pickers to the guy o drives the truck to drop off tons at the local corner store, tcould be argued that ciga- tesare a staple item for many lericans, and therefore are tty stable in the marketplace, ichlike butter and milk. The a ^agreement, although hurtful tobacco companies, clears the thto make new “agreements” thliquor and beer companies well. It looks as if the Con ner doesn’t have a choice any- irewhen it comes to products it might prove harmful to his her own health. If the price is too high be- use of all the legal mumbo nbo, consumers might start make the market lucrative for reign cigarette companies. Besides forcing tobacco com- nies to pay $50 billion over the xt25 years, $2 billion if the smoking rate doesn’t de ne 30 percent in five years, there ealso provisions for what gov- nments, both state and federal, in and can’t do regarding the anufacture and sale of tobacco. Government can order a change if Icigarette ingredients any time it d ants to, but it cannot ban or re nte the amount of nicotine per igarette until 2009 — good news M the nicotine dependent who teritlike those funny looking mches. As usual, the federal gov- mmentcan blackmail the states ho don’t wish to comply with lesenew regulations by withhold- gfunding and grants. Of course, ley are free to enforce stiffer laws lanthe settlement prescribes. The most interesting element of lisrevenge-angled agreement be- feen activists and producers re nds something else the govern- entis able to do: Government lust encourage policies that give bacco industry incentives to de lop and market ‘safer’ products,” cording to the agreement, avail- leon USA Today’s Web site. “Safer” products — if only left to the realm of tobacco — doesn’t leave much room for the gov ernment to assist any new development. The best thing to be done for the tobacco companies is to legalize the production of hemp. Yes, hemp, that trendy little weed that is usually associated with a life far more evil than Joe Camel or the Marlboro Man. Usually, the economic aspects of hemp are ignored. Currently, hemp is the trendi- est weed in American history. Hats, shirts and other parapher nalia made of hemp sell extreme ly well. Since it is not legal to grow it in the United States, the market comes entirely from imports. If it were legalized, the market could make up to $30 billion dollars per year for Americans. Avery interesting Web site run by the Boulder Hemp Initiative Project lays out the advantages of commercial hemp production for Colorado. But this could be an in teresting way for tobacco compa nies to cope with tremendous legal pressure and still save and create many more jobs, as well as get a corner on a new market. For all the moralists out there, hemp is not marijuana. Hemp is just the plant stalk itself, minus the portions that are used to make joints. Hemp can be used to make anything from rope and paper to plastics and some exper imental fuels. As a weed, hemp requires no pesticides. The estimate is approximately $860 per acre — over twice what cotton, soybeans, corn and wheat yield currently. True, some of this is due to the high demand and low supply for a trendy fashion materi al, but the government is mandat ed to help tobacco companies come up with a safer product. Pa per products are about as safe as it gets, and much cheaper to pro duce, giving companies such as Philip Morris Inc. a competitive edge once again. To keep hemp illegal for such commercial ventures seems like a poor decision when there is an en tire industry needing help in a vis cous judicial environment. These companies need to be given a new market in order to start fresh if ef forts to phase out cigarette pro duction continue. Hemp is a new, safe industry that the government owes consumers to open — minus that occasional paper cut. No vacancy available Hotel-convention center must not burden taxpayers Columnist General Franklin Junior history major I he city of College Station should only proceed with plans for a hotel-con ference center if con crete evidence, not wishful thinking, can guarantee no undue burden will be placed on taxpayers. The main reason for the project is for the city to capitalize on growing interest that some groups have in holding conventions in our area. Additionally, the city hopes that business and events generated by Reed Arena and the George Bush Presidential Library will warrant the need for the hotel and meeting facilities to accommodate more visitors. The city must proceed with this proposal before risking $6 million of city funds, be cause the potential for new business is merely that, potential. Without any real boost in tourism and business, a new con ference center could have adverse conse quences for the taxpayers. The city is currently proceeding wisely by authorizing a feasibility study to determine the market potential for the proposed hotel project at Wolf Pen Creek. Even if Chuck Carroll & Associates, the firm commissioned to do the study, finds a need for a new complex, its findings only represent an estimate, not a guarantee. The analysis cannot insure a steady stream of business to keep the hotel and conference center financially viable. According to Mayor Lynn Mcllhaney, many new opportunities for conventions and other engagements will blossom with the addition of the new facilities. While opportunities may exist, they are too few and too distant from the horizon to provide any secure and steady activity for the center. First the city must devise ways to increase tourism and business, then concentrate efforts on the infrastructure, private and public, to meet the demand. The potential danger with the convention center is that the city will encounter prob lems acquiring new engagements and con ventions. The city of Houston has learned its painful lesson with the fiasco concerning the George R. Brown Convention center. You build it, and they may not come. Like Hous ton, College Station taxpayers would bear the wasted costs of maintaining a vacant convention hall. The necessity for a second large hotel in the area seems questionable at the moment. Mcllhaney said cities of comparable size to College Station have three major hotels that manage to thrive harmoniously. College Sta tion is unique because it is a college town whose revenues vary with season. Therefore, a more substantial rationale is needed to justify a new hotel that could withstand the area’s fre netic pattern of business. — If the city and the Wolf Pen Creek group can devise better ways to draw visitors to the area, perhaps greater hotel space would be merited. Current evidence seems to demonstrate a slight excess of hotel space. Barren Hobbs, president of the College Station hotel associa tion, said hotel occupancy has been in decline for the past four years. Furthermore, area hotel businesses have been forced to increase rates to keep up with inflation. In this stagnant environment, the city must have more than optimism to avoid the disaster of over-saturating the market with flailing businesses, causing a strain on all area motels and hotels. The entire process of planning the hotel- complex has preceded the economic spurt to justify its construction. The city should delay any plan for a hotel- conference center until actual evidence of greater demand on present facilities surfaces. Market forces will eventually lure private sec tors into initiating a plan that is independent of the government, thereby reducing any risk to the citizens of the College Station. Meanwhile, current facilities in this area should be used to host engagements which will promise to deliver more revenue to the local economy. Although somewhat plausible, the “build it and they will come” theory of hotel advo cates can be financially disastrous if the complex cannot generate the funds to keep it self-sustaining. The city must attain a certain degree of prosperity from current hotel and meeting fa cilities before undertaking a large public in vestment into a convention center. Once heightened interest in the College Sta tion tourist and convention center blossoms, the city should proceed with development to accommodate the new demand. Currently, the combination of a slow market and idle businesses do not suggest the need for a new conference center. The city should pursue the proposal with deliberation allowing for full consideration of risks as well as benefits for taxpayers. The city’s focus should include enhance ment of present economic activity to attract new businesses and tourism without posing a strain to taxpayers. Once the demand material izes, then and only then, should a project of this magnitude proceed. &M students must prepare or new millennium, change omplacency fosters apathy, and ap athy leads to the disintegration of V^-ithe desire and will to succeed. It is oo easy for people to fall into common latterns in their lives. The “normal and amiliar” become the only thing they aiow, the only thing they are willing to iccept; tradition becomes accepted as iQspel, and nothing is ever allowed to hange. These individuals feel that any- hing that stands in opposition to their reliefs and opinions is wrong and should )e wiped from the face of the earth. When people reach the point when they are un- villingto accept others who have different views of the world, they fall one step down on the intellectual tod evolutionary ladder. Blind acceptance and un- ompromising views only allow for the hindrance of others' freedom of expression and thought. No example proves this point better than the totlook that many Aggies take of the world. Old Irmy demands that you have to love Texas A&M or eave. It demands that tradition be followed to the etter, and that the only way to think and live is by Old School” values. Those who refuse to accept new organizations and individuals who refuse to conform to the A&M mold tod continually look only to the past for the ways they hould act and believe hinder the progression of A&M nto the future. Refusing to allow new Aggies to adapt Editions to mold to the realities of the coming mil- ennium only keeps A&M stuck in the past. Too much progress is bad for society, but too lit- Jeprogress is even worse. Radical change will result nthe collapse of society, because when too many hings change at one time, anarchy becomes the re- toit. Too little change and a stagnation of society Hakes people complacent and unable to react lv hen new ideas are introduced. So many things can be learned if people are per- toitted to think freely, without the fear of retribution 7 a conformist mob. At A&M, people are handed -Editions and expected to accept them or leave. ^is places the University in a very unique situation. purpose of receiving a higher education is to ex- ^nd students’ minds and allow them new and chal- etl ging thoughts. Some people are expected to dis- Columnist Dan Cone Junior economics major agree, but disagreement is more impor tant than blind acceptance. When people hold the same views of how society should work, how people should live their lives and think in the same ways about the direction society should travel, they soon run out of original , thoughts to add to society; they become stagnant and trapped in a world that is ob solete. The refusal to permit new thoughts becomes the catalyst for their downfall. If any branch of thought in society reaches the point where everything has been said, and every thought explored, then that portion of soci ety becomes dead weight. A&M, fortunately has not reached the point where the student society has become stagnant and dead, but it is safe to say that it is in neutral. As much as it is necessary to proceed into the next millennium with a purpose and a unified sense of itself, A&M must find itself first. The University is going through an identity crisis. A&M is the third largest school in the nation and is still trying to act as if it is the little technical col lege it was at the beginning of the century. New people are entering the school and asking themselves, "Why should I accept everything that the Old School says?” These are the people who will de fine the University in the coming millennium. Only after old Ags and new Ags find common ground will A&M find a place for itself in society. The school has to overcome the image of “hicks and CTs only.” This will be difficult, since there are still many people at A&M who believe this to be, how the school should remain. I am a third generation Aggie. My grandfather was in the Class of 17, and by the middle of the 1960s, he believed that A&M had become too liberal and had been taken over by communists. Fortunately, his “Old School” view of A&M was mistaken. Texas A&M can not be a slave to its past. The rich history of traditions and sense of family is an important trademark of the school, but it can’t be all for which the University is known. Times change, people change and so must the University. If A&M refuses to accept this fact, the new millennium will only bring the death of this institution as a place of higher learning. No one wants to learn a methodology that is stagnant and dead in a society that is on the verge of rapid and extraordinary change. Mail Call Parking citations mean big hassle In response to James Wallace’s July 21 Mail Call: After reading what some of you whine about, all I can do is hope that you grow up before you grad uate. I spoke to the municipal prosecutor for Galveston County about parking, so get out your cal culators and pay attention. Defendant X gets a parking ci tation. It costs a mere $10, if paid within 20 days. Defendant X does not pay the citation, and after the 20 days a $10 late fee is added. Defendant X still does not pay the citation, and a warrant is is sued for his or her arrest — war rant fee approximately $20. Defendant X is arrested (this does happen) and goes to jail. Bond is set for between $100 and $200. This bond is refunded if he or she shows up for trial. Defendant X pays approxi mately $10 in court costs. If Defendant X was arrested from his or her vehicle, then there are also impounding and towing charges to get the vehicle back. I guarantee you, judges will not be too kind with excuses such as, “I know it was a 30-minute * parking place, I only had to work 8 hours.” Yes, the real world has 8 hour days. My advice, if you insist on parking where you want and when you want, then carry a quar ter so you can call your attorney. Tracy Martin Class of’98 Not all UT students wish to bash A&M In response to Cris Angelini and Rob Dunn’s July 23 Mail Call: I felt it was necessary to Com ment on the response sent in by the two “UT students” and apolo gize to A&M for their words. Although I don’t have a prob lem with them voicing their opin ions on the matter, they handled it in an extremely rude fashion. They do not represent the majori ty of us in Austin, because most of us are not inconsiderate a—holes. In the future, I hope The Bat talion will be more selective be fore printing responses such as these two people who only serve to make other schools look bad. The issue with moving Reveilles’ burial place has absolutely noth ing to do with UT, so why print a Mail Call that is only trying to piss off some Aggies? Trust me, we don’t care. Have a nice day. Brian Swick Un i vers i ty of Texas A&M student pens poetry for Reveille This poem was sent in response to recent deliberations over moving the Reveille gravesites at Kyle Field: “The Tunnel, the Love, the Whoop No More” Another tunnel will soon fall silent, Unlike the one before. This time greed will do more damage, Than the guns on Corregidor. So that a few can ride in comfort, We will lose so much more. The Battalion encourages letters to the ed itor. Letters must be 300 words or less and in clude 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 Mc Donald 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: 3111 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. Say Goodnight to the 12th Man’s fiery breath, when the crowd begins to roar. Say Goodbye to the pride and joy BQ’s feel, Unleashed on the field they adore. The beat, the pulse, the whoop no more. Let’s forget our love ones buried at rest, Rewarded for service to see the score. Whose peace will be disturbed not once but twice, Never again to see the score. How will our ladies know victory has been won, No yell leaders,no band will out pour. The decision was made by only a few, The sacrifice ... we must all en dure. The tunnel, the love, the whoop no more. Anonymous Aggie Editor's Note: In the July 23 issue of The Battalion, the opinion column on Corps and fraternity problems was written by John Lemons, not Jack Harvey.