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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 14, 1997)
'er 14, i), Hoi Friday • November 14, 1997 O The Battalion PINION 1 Urris ter olleyballle niatch agai Oklahoma ■ A&M won iht sets, 'ictoryover 1 Wednesd ‘id theyarei e for grantej a diffici d. "OU m.” ' Stacy Syka 1 game agai kd Corbet will havei [ners. veteran tea [id. "Theya ig team lo game aa 1 it.” |iis gamew A victoiy lirove tit pme bid ly balance JiitterKrisc live of the Ivill have! |nse in ordl big threat! (ting hitta Jid Meliss ps her teal lerson isss re a stroq liessive. it I'day will l* outside hit jfense. (ensitive is laid. ‘'When Ird to stop; play drops to keep Lir side as ping off a [r Kansas, tin a win id game, Ire playing lating top llenge wil The Art of the Sale Future ofNEA secure ifbig-money solicitors put money where their mouths are .iiJNtk., Robby Ray columnist T liis is Arts Aware ness Week, but for most Aggies, the closest the arts come to them is when they walk past the galleries in the MSC. In the world outside the confines of the college cam pus, however, the arts have been very much in the news this year. Specifically, there has been consid erable debate in Congress con cerning the continuation of federal funding for the National Endow ment for the Arts (NEA). The biggest problem is that those who are complaining the loudest are not pulling their weight when it comes to giving their money. The heart of the debate stems from the fact that most Americans feel the NEA does not support pro grams they would agree with. In fact, many feel the NEA is being used to fund so-called “art” that is not only not artistic, but alsooffen- sive and completely contrary to their values. This “art” is little more than anti- religious propaganda and hard-core pornography and is not worthy of public funds. . There is no doubt that much of the money being spent by the NEA is not being spent on these obscene, pornographic exhibits the public would not support if given a choice. Rather, most is being spent on worthwhile things like ballets and symphonies. But there is no way to separate the worthwhile from the excre ment. Repeated attempts in the past to regulate the flow of NEA dollars have met with obstinate re sistance on the grounds that the taxpayers have no right to infringe on the artists’ freedom of expres sion. We will ignore for the mo ment the fact that it was religious and political, not artistic expres sion .that was meant to be consti tutionally protected. But the point is if taxpayers are not allowed to determine where their money goes, then the entire program should be eliminated. This is not to say all funding for the arts should end, justthat it should come from the private sec tor, from those who complain so loudly that the public should pay for the arts, yet are able to person ally finance the national debt. An example might be one Bill Cosby, who is set to be featured in a series of public service an nouncements on CBS encouraging people to support public funding for the arts. It isn’t that the arts aren’t worthy of money, but he made over $30 million last year. The total NEA budget was only $99.4 million last year. If Cosby and a few of his friends would stop asking taxpay ers to give money they don’t have and would start giving from their overabundance, then we would no longer need to support the arts with government funds. For instance, the top twenty or so Hollywood moneymakers made over $1 billion last year. If just these few people were to give a paltry 10% of their income, the NEA would be paid for, and it could be taken off the tax roles. Just think what could hap pen if even more than these twenty were to donate; the individual per centage would keep going down. In fact, if this policy were to be implemented, the annual budget available to the NEA should actu ally increase. There are those who would ar gue this same logic should be ap plied to the Defense Department, that those who think that the Unit ed States should have more Stealth airplanes should pay for these planes themselves. But that logic is seriously flawed. If we were to follow this system, there would be no military whatso ever. The difference between the military and the arts is that without the arts, the country would still ex ist, though it would most certainly be a less civilized place to live. With out the military, the country would very soon cease to exist. The bottom line is that while there does need to be funding for the arts, in this time of billion- dollar budget deficits and high taxes, there is no excuse for spending taxpayer money in an area which would be better served by private donations. Those mul ti-millionaires who keep encour aging taxpayers to dig ever deeper into our shallow pockets should put their own money where their mouths are. ■ ; ; Ili Robby Ray is a senior speech communications major. y i [range 93 OMS'* I of IsK [practice ush<? Pugk Holiday season marks a time [or contemplation and thanks Len Callaway columnist WE- Aggie Bonfire, sweaters, ex cellent red wine and those oh-so- special nights by the fire can only mean one thing — the two greatest American holi days, Thanksgiving and Christ mas, are rapidly approaching. As 1 venture across our beloved campus and through the daily routine of my per sonal life, 1 am repeatedly en countered with the fact that so many of us have a plethora of things and people for which to be thankful. I find myself becoming down-trodden and feeling sorry for myself at times over some trivial something or other, then I remember — Iremember the spirit of these holidays. We have Texas A&M Uni versity and all of its tradi tions and honor for which to be thankful and proud. Thankful and proud of the fact that they both exist and thankful and proud that we each are allowed the oppor tunity to experience and en joy A&M as we spend our years as students. We have each other, we are not all friends, nor do we all know one another, but it has been proven time and time again that when one Aggie is in serious need, the rest will take up the slack and provide what they can. Point in case, recently an A&M student named Jennifer lackson, needed to raise $40,000 for an operation. Needless to say, all of the money was raised, and she will have the surgery in a couple of weeks. Good luck Jennifer, we are all pulling for you and trust that everything will be al right. We have the intelligence to have earned the right to be Texas Aggies, and as a result, we have earned the right to have a wonderful and successful life. Many of us have close friends and loved ones that we all too often take for granted. One day some set of cir cumstances could take those people from us. It would be very unfortunate and a shame for one to feel as if they had not allowed the oth er to know how much they re ally cared, or how much they really loved them when they were here. I Turkey, dressing and all of | the rest is just rhetoric... j The real point is for people I to reflect and be thankful j for whatever positives they j may have in their lives. ■tee ; t : : t tetT EE'T'E;::': 1 -VEy Tt:, , ,E- ■: E'E-T; We have a wealth of pro fessors and support staff, many of whom are willing to he more than just the person at the front of the room es pousing about some topic or an other. The list of possible posi tives in all of our lives is sim ply too long to list. Thanksgiving and Christ mas are different holidays, but they both have come to have a similar undertones: Love and appreciation. Thanksgiving is a time for all to recall each element of their lives which they might normally take for granted and make an effort to give thanks, even if it is just a mental recognition, of all the positive that one may have in their life. Turkey, dressing and all of the rest is just rhetoric, how ever if you are eating at my house, it is good rhetoric. The real point is for people to reflect and be thankful for whatever positives they may have in their lives. Sometimes t life can give you a lot of nega tives, but more often than not, positive mental attitudes and a little TLC from those around you can make all of the difference. Christmas began as a reli gious celebration, but over the years it has become com mercialized and even non- Christians enjoy the holiday, because it is an opportunity to gather with friends and loved ones and spend quality time. Not time in class, not time with an agenda, not even time on the phone. Live, in person, quality time. Christmas is also a time to exchange gifts — not always expensive gifts but gifts that mean something or hold some importance between the giver and the recipient. Gifts that one can reflect on in the years to come and have a smile or a laugh. Many of us have wonderful families and networks of car ing individuals that are there for those moments in life when only an ally can make the true difference. For those that are fortu nate enough to have a signifi cant other make an effort on a regular basis to let them know how much they are val ued. For in the words of the great Eddie Vedder “ Hail Hail the lucky ones, I refer to . those-in love.” We all have regrets and events that we wish could have happened differently, but for the most part, we col lectively have good lives, and that is something for which we should all be appreciative. Casino of College requires taking chances, going against the odds Len Callaway is.a junior journalism major. Kendall Kelly columnist Y ou gotta know when to hold ’em and know when to fold ‘em, sang Kenny Rogers in his infamous hit of the early eighties. But it seems now that “The Gambler” has become a more appropriate title for the college student. Recently, it has become a commonly held belief among university students that their de grees are no longer a row of cher ries symbolizing the jackpot of education. Instead of graduat ing from college as winners, students feel cheated out of what they perceive as a valuable education. However, instead of taking the risk to change the odds, students accept the cards they are dealt and take no action to improve their hands. Students go to the Casino of College and are dealt a hand of cards. Whether they keep what they are provided with or take a chance against probability is their choice. Unfortu nately, students at A&M choose to stand more often than they choose to take a hit. Most students have placed their bets that the odds of winning the game of education are stacked against them. When dealt a hand they do not like, they choose to play it safe, afraid of taking a risk. They feel they are cheated out of a fair education and claim that profes sors do not encourage independent thinking. The fallacy with this is that it is tire responsibility of the student to think for himself or herself, not the pro fessor’s responsibility. Independent thinking is not something that is taught, but something that is devel oped. Education is not something that happens to stu dents, rather it is the students that happen to education. I hkvent felt TWS &OOD in Students are dealt cards that they must keep... in the game of college, these are the required classes. They must inevitably keep these in order to win a de gree from A&M. Students therefore enroll only in classes necessary for their degree, then blame the educational system because they feel cheated. If students feel their classes are not contributing to a quality education, then they should enroll in classes that call for the “independent thinking” they are missing from their standard curricu lum. Aggies are a at world-class university that offers everything from three-hour courses in philosophy and creative writing to non-credit clay pottery and Japan ese classes. It is classes such as these that truly allow people to think for themselves and provide some kind of recreation for the mind. But the chances of a stu dent enrolling in an “extra” classes such as these to re create their mind and think independently is about as large as winning the lottery. The great majority of college student players state that they can’t enroll in these extra classes because they carry a full house of 15 hours. By being satisfied with what they are dealt and not taking action to in crease our odds of conquering the black and white curriculum of some college degrees, they are victims of this dependent thinking. Students can keep blaming the system for their luck, but the reality is that their educations are not defined merely by chance, but by choice. Those unsatisfied should press their luck every couple of semesters and bid a little higher than usual when registering for classes. For the students who depend only chance to edu cate to fully educate themselves, their education may as well be craps. Kendall Kelly is a junior Spanish major.