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.