O The Battalion
PINION
ictoberT
Monday • October 27, 1997
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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
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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
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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.