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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 27, 1997)
O The Battalion PINION ictoberT Monday • October 27, 1997 who misset hit a 29' 2 Dallas Ik: ecial Cowboys •;! eath-defying antics r Jack Kevorkian abuses individuality with assisted-suicide practices again, your Chris Huffines columnist d goals, niend and 3r by Boaine, Dr. ire 9-6 eatick r. evorkian, yard pun: as made hiladelpli ie news for ky Watteust being yards on is charis- ided wiliatic, lethal oal. jlf. it seems s’ kickoiiatDr. > forthatneath has been given an al- ick whidi j OS t carte blanche to practice iod 49 ya% happy craft across the great 2,ven tho.[ a t e of Michigan, re stalled District Attorneys in two of e, (unii le counties where Kevorkian goal, a as h een most... lively, have all ut ruled out any further prose- st in spi ut j on 0 f t j ie good (but now un- ' 1111 y censed) doctor, because they ll ^ es mi)ly have not been able to . t ' our et iti jury to convict him. Just to add insult to injury, ■ ,, ne of these DAs has been try- nn, tl. . J il; ig to arrange a better way to and Ct is P ose °O a S k th f, Dripper's l ; j s jj,, 3atients. After all, the bodies i-yarder sua ^Y s it’ waiting around and L1 p (; un . ecaying for two or more 1 a 24- e 6ks, before concerned m’s pum e *§hbors notice the smell and ilySyardsM* the police. ■ up'shoiti Tbe issue here is not so id these lu Fh whether assisted suicide gave Dalit right or wrong, but whether 38. Vi! disobedience is justified ipleted ere, and whether it is justified el Irvin t al I. drive stair: Looking at the specific case, gham hit; 41 seconc is it right for Kevorkian to bla tantly and specifically defy a law passed specifically to stop him from helping people take their own lives? The answer would have to be “no.” Kevorkian raised the issue of doctor-assisted suicide, and then the state legislature slapped him down. A petition drive was started, but it did not really get anywhere. The people of Michigan have told Kevorkian that he (or any one else) cannot help people take their own lives, no matter how much pain or suffering or any other justification that can be produced. Instead of bowing to the will of the people, Kevorkian got up on his high, pale horse and be gan racking up a corpse total that would make any terrorist group proud. Of course, every attack lawyer from Mackinaw to Muskegon licked their chops and began plotting their own personal ticket to fame. Unfortunately, not one charge has stuck, and now the DAs are even negotiating for a good way to get rid of the bodies quickly. Dr. Death has won because the people of Michigan do not have the courage to really pass a law outlawing assisted suicide, leaving their parents and grandparents to slowly waste away in unendurable agony, be hind a faceless door in some nursing home. They also do not have the stomach to mark a ballot that would possibly send voiceless ranks of the old and defense less on to a death that is per sonally convenient for the young and vocal. All of this throws civil dis obedience into a new light. Even back in the days of racism and slavery, there was no middle ground. For Martin Luther King and Gandhi, there was strong sup port and strong opposition. Not only were they fighting for something, they were fight ing against something. Without police dogs and fire hoses in the streets of Birmingham, or tanks and billy clubs in the streets of Calcutta, there would not have been the moral clout that has brought about change. Today, in Michigan, there is no moral struggle, just one man tallying bodies, fulfilling his personal vision. Until the people of America realize that the greatest threat to their freedom is apathy, sin gle men and small interest groups will slowly take their freedoms and their lives. Democracy was founded on discussion and conflict, not the lack of character that defines America today. Dr. Death has another victim. Chris Huffines is a sophomore speech communications major. _ w weather surge, time change ive students reason to slack off larkley tlij eave, arrested i was in i(j ;ame ag was lorning r Sunday rj ikespersoi n official!] discuss! with before what to: "We in hi® said. believe fe | overreact uation justcaWl James Francis opinion editor nee again, the fall season has forced people to turn their clocks an hour back in the tradition of daylight savings me. Students can now ame their “getting to class bn time” troubles on trying to adjust to a week with a new time schedule. It always seems that the 11 season is a time when jjtudents forget that classes re going on, so they take “extended” coffee breaks at local coffee shops, smoke cigarettes right outside the building they are supposed to have class in and huddle in groups, discussing how great the weather feels. But students should alize that although the month of October is |oming to a quick end, school is far from over. This is the time of the semester when stu dents’ professors begin to notice the “new” stu dents who have begun to attend class. These are the students who registered for the class, paid their tuition and fees, but forgot that “MWF 12:45 - 2 p.m.” meant the time frame in which they vere to attend Math 142, not take a trip to the tall and window shop with cafe mocha in hand. But amidst all the excuses that can be con- octed for the time change, students should |mbrace this “extra hour,” and form a new lease on college living. An extra hour gives students lore time to sleep and regain all their lost ener- y from late-night studying (or late-night goof ing off at parties). With the time change, students now can wake up at a decent hour and have time for breakfast, morning cartoons (although television does rot the brain) and possibly read a book that has not been assigned as a required reading. Daylight savings time also is the time of sea son when the day seems to get brighter and nighttime comes sooner. Although students might see this as a sign to start the trek over to Northgate earlier in the day, they must not al low themselves to become disillusioned by the sky’s transformation. The day starting earlier should be a sign for students to begin their day of work and classes sooner. In this way, daylight savings time almost forces students to work faster (this is a good thing by the way — procrastination is an entity all students should avoid). Do not let the weather and this time change alter daily schedules. Instead, make an attempt to take the rest of this semester head on. Go up to a professor, give him or her a big hug and explain that the time has come to take charge of acade mia. At home, break out the hot chocolate and blankets, but instead of turning into a vegetable for Must-See TV, spread out the books and get to know the classes that money has been spent on. Although the old saying used to remember time changes is “Spring forward, Fall back,” stu dents should use this time to revitalize study habits, increase class attendance and forego weekday-bar hopping. Bundle up students: the weather is making its winter entrance, the midsemester chaos is about to make its presence known and “the times, they are a’changin’.” James Francis is a junior English major. man isnose MimU- r. 1 Mte QUATRO OAKLEY/The Battalion Mail Call Liberal belief system judges United Nations In response to Donny Ferguson’s Oct. 24 ‘Fightingfor the wrong cause” column: In reading Ferguson’s column, it is apparent that he skipped his History 106 class too often. Hitler, Mussolini and World War II came about precisely because America refused to participate in the League of Nations. The United Na tions was formed to prevent the repeat of world wars. Ferguson claims that it is im moral to fight under the banner of the United Nations, but did he for get that the Korean War and Desert Storm were both fought under U.N. directives? I guess in Ferguson’s world, the brave men and women who risked their lives in these wars are im moral, but Michael New is a saint for cowardly disobeying a direct or der and refusing to follow the com mand of his American superiors. The U.N. promotes an array of stupid policies, but when it comes to military efforts sponsored by the U.N., it is America that provides the manpower and the leadership. As for Ferguson’s attacks on Republican Congressman Kevin Brady, he could not have been more wrong. Brady has been con sistently voting against U.N. sponsored efforts to increase world abortions and promote anti-American multiculturalism. Ferguson’s claim is that Brady is a liberal for voting against this kooky bill to abdicate America’s role as the leader of the free world. With the Cold War over, it is important to guard against tak ing steps that will lead us into war again. If we follow the beliefs of liber tarian crackpots such as Ron Paul, Gene Fontenot, Andre Dean and Donny Ferguson, and pull the United States out of the U.N., we might all be forced to put on a mili tary uniform and fight another war. Glenn Janik Class of’99 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: 1111 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. Exam recycling dismisses idea of using old tests as study guides Robby Ray columnist I t is test time again, and stu dious Ag gies are looking desperately for every possible advantage they can find. These efforts can include studying the textbook and lecture notes or even (gasp) visiting the professor to ask questions. There also is one other highly useful method — looking at tests from previous semesters. Inexplicably, this practice is of ten forbidden by professors as being a violation of the Univer sity’s policy against cheating. This robs students of a perfectly legitimate opportunity to study, and it also shows the laziness of many professors. Old tests can be a valuable tool for students in which they can leam the habits of the professor giving the test. The usual method is not trying to memorize the actual ques tions, which can often be more difficult than actually learning the material. The use of old tests is to give students an idea of the types of questions that the professor is likely to ask. This can be especially im portant when the exam covers five weeks of lectures and sev eral hundred pages of readings in multiple textbooks. The po tential for little, nit-picky ques tions is almost infinite. For example, is a particular professor more likely to ask for small details such as names, dates and such, or will the test cover broad concepts with an emphasis on analysis and un derstanding? This is informa tion that is extremely valuable and is often not given by the professors, even if they realize what their tendencies are. Looking at old tests is only un fair and cheating if the student does not intend to actually learn the material. Students are bom barded with so much informa tion each semester that learning it all is humanly impossible. Part of the college experience is learning to manage time wisely and work with multiple deadlines. One excellent way to accomplish this is to learn the most efficient way to study for a given class. In the intense, high-stress col lege environment, students should take every opportunity to make the phrase “study smarter, not harder” a way of life. Ironically, there is no col lege at Texas A&M that pro hibits professors from making tests available to students. Several departments maintain files of old tests and quizzes and encourage students to utilize them. Additional files of tests are available through the Corps of Cadets and at the Reference Desk of the Sterling C. Evans li brary. These resources are avail able to all students. Why then, do some profes sors refuse to allow students ac cess to their old tests? The obvi ous answer is that they recycle them and use the same ones se mester after semester, thus sav ing themselves the trouble of creating new tests. This is an inexcusable situa tion and it shows the misguided and misplaced priorities of the few professors who do this. In all fairness to the profes sors, it is possible that pressure from above, the so-called “pub lish or perish” mentality, is in fecting professors and forcing them to take such shortcuts. But if a student has to deal with several hundred pages of reading per week, two 14-page term papers, three group pro jects and working 20 or more hours per week, it seems only fair that a professor should not have too much of a problem writing three or four tests per semester. Robby Ray is a senior speech communications major.