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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 23, 1997)
nber 23, ] Rio jesday • September 23, 1997 O The Battalion 'PINION le two e 19-17 vie overTexa: , a lot ofpt us off fot[ said offens; y. "We We have eagoodfa vlackovics ig with co: win o ikely will sage toTej i Souths Big 12. R id Southi forced to 6 ding in Conferer:; erenceURi ince to Shu /ic said. 1 I AC powei s have son r were dis. itting into n influem ed with i . She was t )k up tofo teamwori i-0-0 thissr hird in fielder Gili is "very si she is alsot Rowe on, who v” madeati raska, ami ey would I at the end ting Nebn r are stand; ites, Fends profession^ an leagues lay as ” she said, Disturbing the peace rresponsible police officers give law enforcement unfavorable reputation .• Y Len Callaway columnist es, Sir. No, Sir. Thank you, Sir. Have a nice day, Sir. These are the standard responses that law en forcement officials prefer when they are forced to deal with the general public. What happens and what op tions do members of the popula tion have if these simple answers are not enough to calm an overexcited peace officer? The fact is that when a per son is stopped or detained by a peace officer, that person no longer has certain rights that they previously had. If people are intelligent, they will keep their mouths closed and allow the officer to do whatever he or she feels is necessary at the time. If citizens were to disagree with an officers’ decision, they may always choose to dispute the claim in court. However, they should be aware of the time and energy re quired to even be allowed to pre sent their case. Some peace officers need to calm down and realize that they are employed to protect and serve the good in society, not to lecture and berate in some asi nine attempt to make a good citi zen feel like a criminal. Incidents such as the one last week involving a University of Texas running back illustrate this fact out infallibly. Ricky Williams was pulled over in a car registered to his father, Ricky is a college student and this practice is absolutely normal. Try as he may he could not make the officer understand that the vehicle did, in fact, belong to him, and he was eventually ar rested and taken to jail. Only lat er was he released, sans apology. As much as one hates to side with a t-sip, all of this does seem a bit ridiculous. While on the scene and dis pensing their justice, officers must be in complete control, and citi zens must obey their commands. Agreed. However, officers must also behave with such decorum as they are worthy of the trust and respect of the general public. Too many officers demand the re spect of the citizens, but they do not respect the citizens. Respect is a two-way street. The question arises as to what the proper protocol may be if a citizen is truly being put in an un fair situation by a law enforce ment official. This event should never tran spire, but it does. The answer is to be careful what you say and what you do. Cops are cops be cause they are control freaks, and any infringement upon their ability to control their kingdom will not be tolerated. Peace officers have voluntarily, by career choice, voiced a willing ness to be in control. They have said that they will be the citizens that live by the letter of the law. They will be the ones that enforce the laws on the rest of society. Some police officers have de veloped the notion that a commu nity, or a campus for that matter, is their private domain and that visi tors to their private domain must answer to them personally. Peace officers, law enforce ment officials, cops, pigs, the fuzz etc. — whatever one choos es to call these people, one thing remains the same. They work for us. They are nothing more than the enforce ment branch of our legislature. Some members of the law enforce ment community would prefer for people to believe that one cannot fight city hall or the police, but the truth is just the opposite. Most commanders and senior officers are wise and patient from many years in the field. They realize the proper way to behave and do not approve of the ‘holier than thou’ attitude perpetuated by some officers who take advantage of their power. They are more than inter ested in complaints and seem to exhibit a genuine willingness to get to the bottom of an issue. With the responsibility of be ing a law enforcement officer comes the responsibility to re main calm and level-headed on the job. This does not mean that officers are doing an excellent job by not shooting, beating, cuffing or stuff ing any and everyone that they feel is challenging their authority. It does mean that if officers can be kind, courteous, profes sional and safe they are doing an excellent job and should be lauded for it. The police that are out of their element are the minority on any force of officers but they are also the ones that pose the most dan ger to the general public. Len Callaway is a junior journalism major. DESIGNS Beating the heat in Aggieland requires common sense Iniversily Dr ieorqe Bu hft I713S. Texasl 694-69 D. cio Robby Ray columnist F or those new to Aggieland, the oppres sive heat and hu midity may have come as a shock on the first day of classes. For people who have experienced it before, it can still be a problem, especially for in dividuals who spent their summer in a cool, air-con ditioned office or some similar situa tion. Keeping cool is a vital part of being an Aggie and the University is doing its part to help. Maintaining the correct body tem perature is especially difficult between classes, as hundreds of Aggies tiy des perately to make it from West campus to the main campus and vice versa. Due to the distances involved (in the old days they used words like “trek” or "journey” for such trips) students are faced with the choice of either crowding onto a shuttle bus whose in terior temperature approaches that of the planet Mercury, or walking to their next class. Actually, the word “walk” doesn’t re ally apply, because often the speed needed to arrive in class on time is ap proximately that reached by Carl Lewis on a good day. Factor in the heat, oppressive hu midity and sun beating down on the unfortunate student, and you have a situation ripe for dehydration and heat exhaustion. Enter Texas A&M University, guar dian of sanity and savior, of all who pay tuition. In response to this crisis, the health center issued a warning that students should remember to drink plenty of water to avoid passing out because this would create a hazard for other students who might trip over them or sustain injuries carrying the afflicted Aggie to the emergency room. This advice might seem like it should rank right up there in intelligence with the “Aggies Lead by Example” parking tags, but think for a moment about the situation on this campus. There are always students walking around suffering from the residual ef fects of too much liquid entertainment in the form of various “amber-colored beverages” the night before. In addition, many students mistak enly believe that cafleinated beverages are as good to drink as water. While they do contain water, caffeine is a diuretic, which serves to remove water from the body through frequent urination. Anyone who has used coffee or soda as a method of staying awake to pull an all-nighter knows that it would n’t work nearly as well if it didn’t make you get up every five minutes to visit the bathroom. A student might get away with this carbonated strategy during football games, because the somewhat limited time span does not allow the caffeine to take full effect. Usually by the time a victim would be dehydrated and pass out, they are already at home, and because of efforts to rehydrate using another popular chemical (present in above-mentioned amber beverages), have another rea son to be unconscious. During the class day, however, there is much more time for the process to drain the body of necessaiy water, and students often don’t drink enough wa ter between classes as they sprint from building to building in order to catch and retain every last word uttered by their professors. This situation makes the heat much more dangerous. According to the Health Center, there have been no in stances of students passing out from the heat this semester, despite uncon firmed reports of sightings of uncon scious students who are not actually in a class at the time. That number is in contrast to previ ous years, when numerous cases of heat exhaustion are generally reported, especially during these first few weeks of classes as students adjust to the heat, stress and exercise of the new se mester. The Corps’ Freshman Orientation Week has typically been a problem, but even it was firmly under control this year thanks to a new program designed to in form upperclassmen of the signs and symptoms of heat-related problems. The heat will never go away, and students may never become much more responsible about dealing with it, but at least the University is looking out tor our interests and keeping us safe. Robby Ray is a senior speech communications major. nal Security international ilia, and NeW . 1 pm. . 1 2 p in. 5. ...2 p.m. .10 p.m. >2. ...3 p.m. vIail Call rofanity reveals ick of originality response to Michael Schaub’s W. 18 column “I was country len country wasn’t cool:” Since so much money is being on all that “bad country,” I ggest investing in a thesaurus da bar of soap. One would give you great read- ? pleasure and the other you tichew on for a while ... which teed for what purpose I will we to your discretion. Throughout my five years of •ting experience, I have learned at anyone can portray anger tough profanity, but it takes a •ly talented writer to be expres- without insulting readers with scene language. The words you choose to ex- tes yourself reveal a lot about you are and your intellectual status. Perhaps your image would improve if you introduced your self to Merriam Webster. Jamie Richardson Class of’99 Lack of research harms music review In response to Michael Schaub’s Sept. 18 column: Like you, and almost every other Ag, I despise the new crap that’s played on the radio. However, your first flaw was in criticizing George Strait. He’s not my favorite singer, but he does put out good country tunes and limits the Nashville scene. I also must say that your hated Out law Thursday is the best thing to happen to Aggieland concerning country music. I’m guessing you haven’t seen Highway 6 perform, but it doesn’t get much countrier than that. From the songs they cover to the originals, they put out music that rings out as true as Texas itself. You are also having a little trouble understanding what outlaw music is. It is whatever Nashville refuses for whatever reason. I think you just need to research the music you say you understand be cause somebody out there might know a little more than you. Kent Weber Class of’97 Political correctness should apply to all Chris Huffines columnist I n America today, a certain ethnic group is being un fairly denied a privi lege enjoyed by all oth ers. This group is daily reviled and belittled by a derogatory and un fair name. This treat ment is leading to prej udiced perceptions and bias. This group, those of the Caucasian heritage and tradition, should have a politically cor rect name just like every other ethnic group in our fair country. “White” is obviously not appropriate. That name has the weight of years of oppression and evil behind it. After all, it was white men who killed off most Native Americans through disease and war. It was white men who led to both the rise and fall of the Roman empire. It was white men who started both World Wars, circumnavigated the globe,and claimed credit for discovering fire, not to mention spreading the Black Death and allegedly cru cifying the Messiah. So “White” is out. “Anglo” and “Anglo-Saxon” have come into the spotlight recently as alternatives. While they do have the benefit of not carrying any oppressive baggage with them, there is the problem that they are not representative. “Anglo” derives from the Angle tribe which invaded England in the mid 400’s A.D. “Sax on” comes from the Saxon tribe who invaded right along with them. Unfortunately for the sake of accuracy, the Angles and Saxons invaded with the Jutes and a host of other Germanic tribes. They displaced the Celts. All of these were of the fair-skinned ethnic majority. Plus, this would leave out the Vandals, Sacks, Slavs, Gauls, Normans, Scandinavians, Moors, Arabs, Jews, etc. “Anglo” and “Anglo- Saxon” simply will not work. They would leave just too many people out. Another obvious choice is “European- American.” Here we run into the previous two problems all over again. Despite the con tinental precedence of “African-American” and “Asian-American,” “European-Ameri- can” carries the weight of oppression as well as inaccuracies. After all, it was mostly Europeans who started the plagues that wiped out Native Americans and themselves. They definitely started both World Wars. Like most neighboring countries at war on and off for 1400 years, Europeans habitually bicker amongst themselves, making unity within any European-American community difficult. Also, many Slavs crossed the Ural Moun tains into Asia, the Moors were primarily African in origin and the Arabs and Jews come from the Arabic Peninsula, all of which lie out side Europe. In light of these geographical ne cessities and oppressive tendencies, “Euro pean-American” is no longer viable, either. There is still an option, one I think cannot and will not offend open-minded people. That is “Caucasian-American.” Caucasian, as a term borrowed from the realm of anthropolo gy to describe one of the three basic racial groups on the planet, is without inherent bias or baggage. In addition, there is no continental bias, such as the one that exists with “Euro pean-American.” It is accurate: “Caucasian” describes the entirety of the ethnic group. And, while nations and races have done terrible, horrible things, Caucasians as a whole have had the good sense to stay out of trouble as a group. Furthermore, the term “Caucasian” is al ready used by professional associations to describe Caucasian-Americans. Policemen, the military and businesses across the country already classify people using Cau casian. It is already in common usage, which would aid integration of the phrase. Right now, in this country, an ethnic ma jority is being hurt by the unfeeling, cold ac tions of individuals who refuse to embrace the future. Crying “Political correctness has gone too far!” these bigoted anti-Caucasians should be banished from decent company and left to stew in their own guilt. Follow the call, join the masses, accept the inevitable. Chris Huffines is a sophomore speech communications major.