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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 21, 1997)
jriday • November 21, 1997 O The Battalion PINION Ifs Winter Spirit ofAggidand agenda raisks questions John Lemons columnist B ah hum bug! Indeed, this is a column that some will think was writ ten by Scrooge himself. That, however, is un true as this col umn is about the true spirit j of Christmas. Brace yourselves Ags, Texas A&M University has yet another new tradi tion. This tradition is the unholy cou- pling ofYuletide spirit and Aggie spirit. 11 is called the Winter Spirit of Ag- gieland. The Winter Spirit of Ag- “ieland s goal is to plaster campus with s, rings of lights and wreaths to cele- hrate the holiday season. While the ue !l-intentioned promoters of the Winter Spirit of Aggieland have a neat lc * e a, Aggieland needs to be decorated Pout as much as it needs a monorail, u hich is to say, not at all. Neat ideas, seem to abound in the Sll| clent Senate — community bicycles l,)r Aggies to ride around campus, run- off elections for yell leaders and deco- rati 0g campus for Christmas. Unfortu- na| ely, two of those three ideas proved 10 massive failures because they wer e impractical. The verdict is still uu* on whether or not the Winter Spirit Aggieland will be a failure. The Win- 111 Spirit of Aggieland, though, does J ilVe something in common with ll,cs e previous Senate failures — it, 1()0 > is impractical. According to their homepage, the Vlnt er Spirit of Aggieland committee las estimated the cost for phase I of us enormous project at $28,500. That H,K) unt is not an error. Student Gov- lmv >ent actually intends to spend j' ar| y 30 grand on decorations. This ’scene amount of money could pay 1 ar > undergraduate degree. This ,l() ney could also be used to help build 10r Ue with Habitat for Humanity. At 1 le v ery Jeast, instead of wasting the l,1(,n ey on temporary eye candy, 28,500 1 ^ could be used to benefit some- ,oc y« anybody. Surely, the Boy Scouts ,l l le Brazos Valley Food Pantry or 1 ven the Brazos Valley Animal Shelter ,i cf better benefit from this stash "“Aggies. /u least Student Government has j ,ld me sense to fund this travesty '■augh private contributions. In- U et ’ the Winter Spirit of Aggieland ‘omrtiittee has been working hard to so|,cl t funds. ( ( | ere miah Williams, Vice President ’ Student Relations for Student Gov- '■nment, said the committee’s 43 Members have been raising funds ln 5 e the summer. Ve r aised $15,000 dollars. About ^00() 0 f ( j lat j s Rom student monies.” ue Winter Spirit of Aggieland com mittee should be commended for their / diligent work in raising funds for what they believe is an important event for A&M. But, despite the committee members’ good intentions, the Wintei Spirit of Aggieland is still impractical. Consider when the decorations will be gracing campus. The month °f cember conveniently coincides with Christmas, but inconveniently con flicts with students schedules. Finals end on Dec. 17, which means students will not even be in town to see the dec orations during half the tfine they aie on display. Furthermore, when De cember rolls around, students are not interested in Christmas lights, they are worried about finals. By this point in the semester* students don’t need warm, fuzzy feelings of holiday spmt, they need the knowledge required to pass their finals. . Unfortunately, the Winter Spn n oi Aggieland benefits students in no tan gible way. It arrogantly assumes stu dents need an infusion of winter cheer, whatever that is, to make it through finals. There is a name for such useless, expensive projects — they’re called White Elephants. This is the kind ot thinking that brought to campus the Caine Victory Eagle statue and intro duced to the world innovative prod ucts like Crystal Pepsi. The worst part of Student Govern ment’s Wliite Elephant is that in an at tempt to be inclusive, it de-emphasizes the true meaning of Christmas. Unless you are a Pagan for whom the “holiday season” is a time to celebrate the winter solstice, the holiday most associated with winter is Christmas. Christmas is about the birth of Jesus, not winter spirit. When warm, fuzzy feelings, hot cocoa and $28,500 decora tion projects replace the savior of the universe, there is a problem. For Chris tians, Christmas is an important devo tional time. To have that fact ignored and replaced by touch-feely holiday cheer is insensitive and insulting. Just because an idea is neat, does not mean it should be implemented. The Winter Spirit of Aggieland is a neat idea. It also is a flawed idea. The pro ject’s expense makes Aggies look deca dent and wasteful. Furthermore, it is impractical and ignores the true meaning of Christmas. Student Senate should be creating projects that actually benefit students not wasting money. It is time for students to remind the senate of that. To that end, I en courage you to email the Student Senate at senate-s@tamu.edu and de mand they pull the plug on the Winter Spirit of Aggieland. And to make your point, be sure you finish you note with a stirring bah humbug. John Lemons is an electrical engineering graduate student. lot like Christmas. season Suzanne Smith guest columnist T he Winter Spirit of Aggieland was formed in the Student Senate in the Spring of 1997. The student body was questioned as to whether or not they would like to see the Uni versity decorated with lights for the month of December. The majority of students agreed that the Uni versity did need to be decorated during this time of year. The title ‘Winter Spirit of Aggieland,’ de scribes our mission of hoping to keep students spirits up during the winter season. Not only will the lights, ribbons and hows be up during December, but we also plan on having a fun run in January. < To make our committee a success, we have been dependent on donations from former students, Texas A&M sup : porters, campus organizations and the community. Our major fund raiser has been a program titled ‘Buy a Tree.’ All of the groups listed above have been invited to purchase one of the 72 trees lin ing New Main Drive to be decorated with lights. Donations are also paying for wreaths, ribbons and extra costs for decorating. The Winter Spirit of Aggieland encourages community spir it. Aggieland is the connection between area residents, students and m former students. B The community is very excited that A&M is decorating the campus at W this time of year. W The Winter Spirit of Aggieland is one of the numerous events featured in Holiday on the Brazos’ celebration of holiday sights and sounds throughout Bryan-College Station. Our committee is lighting the way to a new tradition, therefore all of the lights and wreaths will be stored for annual use. We feel that this committee will have a great impact on the University and the community. Signs that look similar to presents will sit in front of the trees that have been bought by clubs, businesses and residents. This display will enhance the relationship between A&M and the community. In future years, I see this committee expanding the decorations to allow for more decoration on campus. The committee is working very hard to make this first year a memorable one. To kick off the Winter Spirit of Aggieland, we are having a Lighting Fes tival at 6:30 p.m. on December 1, with music and refreshments to start the festivities. The ceremony will start at 7 p.m. with the Singing Cadets as part of t he program. Our Silver Bell sponsor is l 7 red Brown who will also plug in the ( lights. Other entertainment will be provided by the Reveliers, the Aggie Wranglers, the Fish Band and the Bryan High Choir. Everyone is invited to come and enjoy the evening and be part of the first-ever Winter Spirit of Aggieland Lighting Festival. The Winter Season can get pretty dreary around Bryan and College Sta tion. Students are preparing to go home for the Winter Break and study ing for finals. There is a lot of spirit around campus during football sea son, and during the building of Bonfire. Students can’t wait for E-Walk and have that burning desire to beat the hell out of t.u. Bonfire is a wonderful time, and then everyone goes home to spend some time with the family. When they return, it’s nasty weather, their spir its have dropped because they know that it is time to buckle down and study, study, study. What better way to keep students spirits up during this time than by lighting the campus. We feel that a little bit of decoration on campus will keep students spirits up and keep them motivated knowing that the winter break is al most here. With ribbons on lamp posts and wreaths on the entrances to campus it will be a constant reminder that the holidays are here. The lights will be on in the evening keeping the campus lit and hope fully students spirits lit, too. Not only will it help lift students’ spirits, but Aggieland is a major focus of Bryan and College Station, so the community will be in the holiday spir it mode also. Suzanne Smith is a senior agricultural development major and Chair of the Winter Spirit of Aggieland Committee. Holiday season is time for celebrating, not ignoring cultures merican educators in sist on broadening the minds of their charges. Students must be exposed, they argue, to various cultures an d foreign ideas. 1 In order to succeed, our j y°ung people must learn as as they can about cul- |Ures — except for the Christ- bn culture which must be Ndden from students. As the end of the calender | year approaches, many peo- -J Pie begin celebrating a variety of holidays. Hanukkah, Kwaanza, New Year’s Day, the Winter olstice and the evil Christmas all occur at the same |ej >rne of the year. „ Many communities, fearing the effects of the Christmas Spirit,” have taken extraordinary a ' e ans to protect the innocent from this joyous holiday. David Johnston columnist Public schools are often at the center of these anti-culture sentiments. Some school bus drivers are warned not to wish their passengers “Merry Christmas” (but are not issued decrees about Hanukkah or any other celebration). Many schools have banned religious Christmas songs from choir performances or allow only in strumental versions of popular carols. Even the Christmas tree — which actually is more Druid than Christian — endures careful scrutiny. Some schools only allow the pines if the are labeled “Giving Trees,” “Unity Trees” or some other “in nocuous” term. Here at A&M, the Student Senate dubbed a new committee the “Winter Spirit of Aggieland” because they feared any name which included the word “Christmas” or even “holiday” might cause prob lems. They pray before every meeting, but worry that students might be offended by the word “holiday”? At the extreme end of cultural sanitation is a Ne braska school that banned Santa Claus because of his ties to Saint Nicholas. The school invented a replacement — Leon, a mystical space traveler who brings presents to girls and boys everywhere. Oddly enough, this crusade to erase all vestiges of Christianity does not stop at Christmas. A New Jersey school this year banned Halloween. Not because witches, demons and zombies caused nightmares or hinted at association with pa gan religious rituals, but rather because the holiday originates from All Hallow’s Eve, a horridly Christ ian event. Christmas is observed by over 90 percent of the American population, so it makes no sense to re move it from our schools. The Supreme Court has said Christmas activities and celebrations are permissible. As long as a reli gion is only discussed and not promoted, there are no rights being violated. No court has ever questioned the legality of car ols, and Christmas trees have yet to cause major harm or scandal. The attempts to ignore this major Christian hol iday make no sense. Educators hope their students will be familiar with various cultures, but neglect the prevalent cul ture in the United States. These recent moves are not in response to laws or complaints, but are a result of fear and political correctness. The removal of Christmas decorations or carols from public schools serves no beneficial purpose. Years from now students will not credit their success to the absence of Christmas trees from their class rooms. This is a time of year to celebrate various cultures. The proximity of so many celebrations creates a great opportunity to learn about and contrast dif ferent backgrounds and traditions. In the mean time, all Aggies should go out and have a Merry Glitter Season. Dave Johnston is a senior mathematics major.