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Wednesday • July 30, 1997
The Battalion
Laying a solid foundation
College students should take caution in the world of long-term investments
av„
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lUti
my me students who choose to contin
ue their education after high school
do so with the intent to become more
sponsible and intellectual individuals.
Students with majors that deal pri-
arily with financial issues are taught
wut theory and markets, but little is
P _ ught about specific products or invest-
ents — particularly when concerned
“ thhow some of these financial tools
iuld be used to benefit college stu-
mts in the years after graduation.
Students make the unfortunate mistake of
mbling on high-risk investments such as
oclcs and commodities. These types of invest-
entsare excellent and help to make peoples’
res easier and more comfortable each year. Due
the fact that these investments are speculative
leyare best used as part of an appropriately di-
:rsified and balanced financial portfolio. De-
)ite the alluring possibility of a big payday stu-
ents almost always lose money, or they
riously damage their financial situation.
When dealing with these speculative mar-
bts, some college students do not have the
powledge to diagnose a market or a particular
pck trend to make a responsible investment,
[here are brokers who have a minimum trade
mount and college students often cannot af-
ird the minimum and the fees associated with
traditional stock broker.
Mutual funds are another investment that can
eused, and they are often an excellent choice,
lutual funds usually have a much lower mini-
mm than stocks and can even be contributed to
a monthly basis which allows for the freedom
jadjust the contribution based on an individ-
al’s particular situation each month.
College students should focus on aggressive
avings plans such as convertible, level premi-
term life insurance or even participating in
ash value life insurance. Too often students
amp the gun and forget that they cannot actu
Columnist
Len Callaway
Junior journalism major
ally afford to lose whatever sum they
invested in a more speculative market.
They also forget that at younger ages,
the primary focus should be cash ac
cumulation for some of life’s expenses,
such as marriage, mortgages and even
college careers for their kids in the
years to come.
Cash value life insurance is a solid
method of saving large amounts of
cash, and it is non-restrictive enough
to allow access to the funds by the in
sured individual at any time. In other
words, it is not necessary to die for the policy to
be beneficial to the purchaser. These types of
savings plans can provide cash at any time that
the insured has a need.
These policies are also participating in how
they yield dividends to the policy owner on a
yearly basis. The dividends can be taken in
cash as a return on the money used to pur
chase the policy, or they can be returned to the
policy to purchase more insurance. In the case
of more complex policies, such as variable life
policies, the dividends can even be rolled into
an investment regimen that could include the
S&P, Dow Jones and NASDAQ markets, as well
as mutual funds. This versatility allows for the
purchaser to have a little bit of both worlds in a
matter of speaking.
Level premium term insurance does not allow
for the accumulation of cash value, but it does
provide a death benefit that could be used to pay
back student loans or any outstanding debt in
the event of of an untimely demise. Term insur
ance can be purchased with some benefits that
allow for the additional purchase of term at rates
consistent with the attained age purchase price.
They can even be converted to cash value insur
ance at certain ages without having to reprove
medical soundness.
Students should remember that although we
all aspire to have large lives and be financially se
Presidential film depictions
display powerful leadership
Opinion Editor
{ nAmerica, there al
ways has been a fig
ure oi leadership to
govern the land. This
person holds the high-
estgovemment posi
tion in the country and
always has been a man.
He is the president of
the United States.
Until recently, the
role of president has
no reason to fear any compe
tition outside of his job descrip
tion, with exception to the FBI
and CIA secrets that are locked
away in some undisclosed desert
location. But now, a new symbol
ofAmerica has come into play—
BPresidente Cinematique.
The president has been por
trayed in many recent films; The
American President, Dave, Indepen-
ience Day, Contact and Air Force
One to name a few. In each of these
films, the role of president was per
formed by actors, except for the ac
tual cut file footage of President Bill
Clinton in Contact. And in each of
these presentations, the president
was portrayed in what most people
deem a good light.
What seems ironic is that
White House officials are in up
roar about presidential represen
tations in movies. Sure, it would
seem that Hollywood has found a
new toy to play with, and it might
be overexposing the role. But as
long as there is nothing factually
James Francis
Junior English major
incorrect or slanderous
about the depictions, of
ficials in high govern
ment positions should
have no problems with
the film pictorials.
In Air Force One, Har
rison Ford takes on the
role of a no-nonsense
president. In the films
television advertise
ments and in the theater
trailers, viewers get to
see a portrayal of a true American
president, one who is not afraid
to stand up for his family’s lives
and the future of this country. In
previews, Ford can be seen wag
ing an on board fight with Gary
Oldman as the bad guy.
This is the kind of president
that this country needs. For White
House officials to be upset about
displaying the position of presi
dent in this film shows that they
must not be watching the same
movies that are being released.
Their versions must show the
president as an evil, money-hun
gry man who has his aides killed
for not bringing him files on time,
or exiles his security guards to
unknown islands when they fail
to keep the press from invading
his personal space.
The most unusual situation
for White House officials to be
mad about is the presidential
file footage used in Contact. It is
not as if an actor took on the
role and made the position Idok
like a joke; it actually was Clin
ton. The only thing that the film
makers did was borrow some
television footage of Clinton
commenting on the advances
that scientists have made in the
recent Mars expedition. His por
trayal in the film was neither
good nor bad; the footage was
used to give the film a sense of
realism, something White House
officials could take a lesson in.
Once again, the United States
government has found some
thing to take interest in that is
unimportant to the governing of
this country. To this day, millions
of people are still homeless,
many people are dying from in
curable diseases and some parts
of the world are at war with one
another. It would seem that
these are the important issues,
but obviously the government
doesn’t feel the same way.
As far as presidential depic
tions in film goes, White House
officials, President Clinton and
future presidents to come can
take something away from these
recent representations. The pres
ident should be someone, male
or female, who doesn’t take the
back seat to important situa
tions, such as threats toward the
American society. So far, film
representations have brought
justice to this idea of what the
president should symbolize.
The white house is
AMSRY BECAUSE THE
IAOVIE 'CONTACT" SHOWS
FOOTAGE OF CUNTUH
TY\AT MAKES IT APPEAR
HEs RKRT OF THE FILM
For the official
WHITE House RfeFDNSE
WE GO TO HARRISON '
fbPD, WHO PLAYS
THE PRESIDENT IN
nr force ore:.,.
cure it is key to remember one’s station in life and
behave accordingly. All too often students invest
essential money in speculative endeavors and
come out with the short end of the stick.
Life insurance, with a solid and reputable mu
tual company, is one of the single best ways for
people to provide financial security for them
selves and their family in the years to come.
Students should always ask themselves,
“What will losing all of this money do to my cur
rent financial situation?” If the answer is any
thing other than “not much,” students should
probably choose a safer and somewhat guaran
teed avenue to allow their capital to grow.
vAu
dternjffctw
Mail Call
Parking tags show
PITS’ intelligence
We would like to congratu
late PTTS on the new parking
tags. What brilliance it took to
brainstorm such a catchy
phrase, and then to top it off,
angle it at an artistic 30 degrees.
This new design will put
most junior colleges’ parking
tags to shame. We’ll tell you
this: when we go home to visit
our friends and family, our
chests will swell with pride as
we dangle these art works from
our rearview mirrors.
We are happy to see that the
thousands of dollars students
pay in tickets are not going to
waste with PTTS hiring a de
sign team of monkeys to work
around the clock on such a
difficult project.
Our praise goes out to PTTS
for overlooking such traditional
ideas of well-known Texas A&M
icons such as: the Aggie Ring,
the Academic Building, Kyle
Field, the Systems Building,
Bonfire, the A&M Seal, Albritton
Bell Tower or the new multi
million dollar Reed Arena.
Following this new trend of
simplicity, we would like to sub
mit our own suggestions for
next year’s parking tags. “Texas
A&M,” but a flashy change in
font, "Hang on Mirror,” “Aggies
Lead by Parking” or our person
al favorite, “Aggies, we Put the
Par in Parking.”
We also suggest the removal
of any eye catching colors. In
stead, simply print the color of
the tag in black and white with
the simplest of fonts.
Again, kudos to PTTS for do
ing such a bang-up job on the
stunning new parking tags. We
hope officials take our sugges
tions to heart and consider our
ideas in the future. Remember,
Aggies lead by example.
Matt Jeffryes ’99
Ehren Buttlar ’99
Friends of Reveille
fight for tradition
I know there has been much
concern over the moving of the
Reveille graves. I wanted to give
my two-cents. I recently be
came aware of what was going
on, only after the article hit the
Dallas Morning News.
My heart skipped a beat. I
began e-mailing Aggies, 75 in
one day. The majority of the re
sponses I received were great.
Not many of the alum knew this
was even being considered.
I got in contact with Robert
Keathley, who was mentioned
in The Battalion’s article. I
have put up a Web site (it’s not
great, but it’s there) for
Friends of Reveille at the re
quest of Keathley.
Anyone who is interested in
helping the cause and fighting
for tradition can e-mail me
from the site. The address is
http://members.aol.com/TX-
Aggie95/frndsrev.html. Gig ’em.
Sonja Reinhold
Class of ’95
A&M students show
poor school spirit
In response to Todd Dixon and
Ross Hinman’s July 28 Mail Call: >
How do you both, after all
these years at Texas A&M, ex
plain your pre-school mentality?
Your collaboration on the re
cent Mail Call letter (two half
brains equaling a whole,
maybe?) was an absurd collec
tion of baseless statements di
rected toward an entire univer
sity, instead of the two
Longhorns who took time from
their obviously busy schedules
to write to our newspaper.
We certainly didn’t see them
as University of Texas’ ambas
sadors to A&M as you have so
blindly done.
Your statements that people
living in Austin cannot talk
about “civilized societies” be
cause all the politicians “run
ning around” make the place
“corrupt and immoral” was a
successful step onto the path
of ignorance.
The rest of your letter fol
lowed suit. To insinuate that “t-
sips” don’t know anything about
war heroes is an insult to every
Longhorn who has ever served
our nation.
Understand that war extends
outside the bounds of school ri
valry. To top it all off, you took
cheap shots at UT’s football
team because of its quarter
back’s name.
It is asinine comments such
as yours that are the foundation
of many of the malevolent feel
ings people have toward our
outstanding university.
These things you said as an
Aggie do 10 times more to
hurt our image than any flip
pant comment an outsider
could ever make.
Amy Turner
Class of’98
Tonya Lee
Class of’98
PTTS should have
parking sympathy
In response to Carino Casas and
James Wallace’s July Mail Calls:
To quote Casas: “He is just
doing his job, and the ones with
‘holier-than-thou’ attitudes
aren’t PTTS officers, but those
individuals who think that they
shouldn’t be penalized for not
following the rules.”
And to quote Wallace: “What
a bunch of whiners.” You’re com
pletely right Carino, no conde
scending attitude there at all.
Is PTTS always completely
wrong? No. Do some people de
serve to be ticketed? Yes.
I received one ticket in my
recently completed career at
Texas A&M, and I probably
deserved it.
What I personally would like
to see is a little competence,
and perhaps a little (gasp) com
passion from PTTS.
When my girlfriend’s car was
towed, for example, I think it
would be neat if PTTS could’ve
actually told me where it was.
They narrowed it down to
three or four different lots for
me (scattered all across cam
pus), but if someone had the
forethought to jot down which
lot it was towed to, it would’ve
been a big help.
As far as compassion, how
about giving the person sitting
in his or her car a chance to
move the vehicle instead of
ticketing them?
Or maybe when you see that
person pull up to a curb and
rush into a building, wait a few
minutes before whipping out
the PTTS TicketMaster 2000.
Just try to give people a bit of
a break, and maybe try smiling
once in a while.
Christopher Figat
Class of ’96
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