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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 2, 1997)
lesday • December 2, 1997 O The Battalion PINION i/Vanted: Male Escort Mminatinggender bias in Corps service exemplifies practicing political correctness Chris Huffines columnist V dark and lonely night. The wind is howling. A silent sliver of moonlight ts Its deathly, silver pallor I oss the faded concrete as a e, Solitary figure hurries l oss campus. Behind the figure, the quick p ol shoe on ground is trd. Someone, something is :re: The figure begins to try, all but running in haste get away, to get anywhere m the danger behind. Heart racing, the figure races toward a lit door, eeping the door open, he hurries inside, safe at last. This is a familiar story to over half the student dy here at Texas A&M, the story of fear and the bit- denial of protection while walking across campus, tile women enjoy the protection of the Corps of det’s Escort Service, we men are forced to walk in ir every night. Men’s rights are being violated, and one but men can regain them. The Corps Escort rvice unfairly discriminates against men, and it ist stop. Forget the fact almost 95 percent of sexual assaults ; against women; men cannot be denied their uality. Forget muggers and murderers sitting in the adows view women as easier targets than men; an demand equality. And forget common sense |/s both the entire idea and this column are really ipid; political correctness requires everything be- le equal. | If men are not allowed to make use of the Escort :e, think of all the damage that could be caused, ■the Fish Drill Team fiasco, the entire Escort Ser vice would have to be disbanded. Then a twenty- thousand student class-action lawsuit, spearheaded by F. Lee Bailey and Johnny Cochran, would be slapped on A&M. The University would be dragged through a slow trial full of weeping male Aggies testifying about how they cannot sleep without a night light because of the severe emotional trauma suffered while walking across campus alone at night. And then the parade of psychiatrists testifying to ex actly how horrible it is for their patients to have suffered so horribly every night. That, and the in famous, “Men were not picked, you must con vict.” closing statement would create a mockery of justice the likes of which O.J. Simpson would cringe at. Then there would be the appeals, the picketing, the mass of men leading lives of quiet desperation. It would be a circus. In the end, even the men who would use the Es cort Service would look back at the entire situation and shake their heads, wishing for OF Army days, when things were a little less equal, but made a lot more sense. All of that pain and misery would be irrelevant, though, because there would be equality. No one would feel left out, and the world would be one step closer to Utopia., which is unachievable, but that’s re ally not the issue. No, the fact is measureless human sorrow and mis ery would have been caused in the name of an un reachable ideal and political correctness. Men of the world, unite. CAn YOO UIPvLK ff\g rf\Y Chris Huffines is a sophomore speech communications major. ^3 terrorist environmentalists leserve punishment for actions Downy Ferguson columnist S wooping in on unsus- pci ting men and women with me chanical pre cision, the black-uni formed troops rushed into the front room and seized the building. I Though it sounds like some- thing out of “PTTS-The Movie,” tlie Waco-style raid was instead launched by members of an en vironmental fringe group who have now sued the government for damages they incurred dur ing the highly illegal raid. Environmental terrorists with the ultra-radical group jEarth First!” masterminded a faramilitary raid on the Eureka, California, office of Congress man Frank Riggs. I Clad in black, some wearing ski masks, the “Green Gestapo” smashed open the front door, . issaulted the frightened em ployees, chained themselves to a large tree stump they placed in the center of the office and linked arms in metal sleeves failed “lock boxes.” I Police officers soon arrived on the scene and asked the friminals to leave. I The eco-ten orists were re peatedly warned of the possibili ty pepper spray would have to be Hsed to disperse the lawbreakers, *et they rehised to leave. 1 After several hours, numer ous requests to surrender peacefully and repeated re fusals, officers dabbed some spray under the eye of one pro tester and asked them to leave again. Again they refused. Offi cers were forced to spray four ntore Earth First! militants to break up the riot. I The only thing more dis gusting than the toadlickers’ siege on Congressman Riggs’ qffice was the eco-thugs’ reac tion to police efforts to break tip the attackers. 1 The toad-licking treehug- gers have sued, claiming their civil rights were violated by the police officers called to the scene. Compared to the rights they have taken from the American people, these envi ronmentalists’ sacrifice was irsignificant. I For the past three decades, they have robbed honest Americans of their homes, their property and their livelihoods. The reign of ter ror environmentalists have unleashed on innocent prop erty owners reads like an Or wellian novel and dwarfs anything the Green Gestapo has experienced. In the nearby Texas hill country, Marj and Roger Krueger bought a $53,000 lot were they planned to finally build their dream home. According to The Wall Street Journal, they and other citizens were stopped from building their homes after an endan gered golden-cheekedwarbler was found in a canyon next to their land. A congressional report found James and Mary Mills of Broad Channel, New York, were fined $30,000 for building a deck onto their home because it cast a shadow on a supposed wetland. Homeowners often are sued and fined by environmentalists for removing trash, adding dirt or plowing wet areas of their property in a heavy-handed, zealous attempt to protect “wetlands,” even if they are on private property. Eco-thugs even had Ronald Angelocci thrown in jail for putting dirt in his backyard. A close family member suffered from severe allergies and life- threatening asthma, prompt ing Angelocci to fill in the wet, low area where the pollenous plants grew. Obsessed with government power and indifferent to human suffering, environmentalists waged a legal jihad against him and had him jailed for violating the Clean Water Act. Resurrecting visions of KGB raids, two dozen state and feder al agents swooped in on the Bakersfield, California, farm of Taung Ming-Lin, racing about his property and taking pictures. Federal agents somehow found out Lin accidentally had run over a Tipton kangaroo rat while plowing his field. Trying him like a murderer, government prosecutors told the court Lin, “did knowingly take and aid and abet the taking of an endangered species of wildlife, to wit, Tipton kangaroo rats.” The zealous fervor with which environmentalists crucify those who disturb kangaroo rats is frightening. In fact, according to The Washington Times, shin ing a flashlight on a rat is pun ishable by one year in jail and a $10,000 fine. The golden calf of environ mentalism is undoubtedly the spotted owl. Government ef forts to save the supposedly en dangered animal have cost over 30,000 jobs, reduced lumber harvests by 3.9 billion board feet and closed off over 4.2 mil lion acres. Thanks to environmentalists, the cost of building a 2,000- square-foot home skyrocketed $4,000 in only three years, forc ing 80,000 potential homeown ers out of the market. Adding insult to injury is the fact spotted owl are by no means endangered. According to the Audubon Society, 1,500 spotted owl pairs must thrive to stave off the species extinc tion. Steven Self and Thomas Nelson, researchers for the en vironmentally progressive Sierra Pacific company, find close to 8,000 pair live in Cali fornia alone. The liberal New Republic found “as many as 10,000 pair may exist...” Both figures by environmen tally friendly sources are three to five times as many needed to protect the species. Neverthe less, eco-thugs continue their quest to harass honest Ameri cans and inflict severe econom ic damage in the name of Mother Earth. The innumerable lawsuits, police raids, property seizures, loss of jobs and increased con sumer prices are far more seri ous than the temporary dis comfort of belligerent lawbreakers who raid offices and destroy property. In a movement rife with mili tant extremism, Earth First! thugs are the Hezbollah of the environmentalist movement. Often destroying property, sab otaging bulldozers and pound ing nails into trees to cause chainsaws to explode, it’s about time Earth First! got a taste of its own medicine. After three decades of ter rorizing property owners, de stroying jobs, robbing people of their livelihood and exploit ing unchecked government power to fulfill their whims, the eco-thugs who invaded Con gressman Riggs’ got what they deserved. Donny Ferguson is a junior political science major. Mail Call Worthy purpose served by camp In response to Kendall Kelly’s col umn ‘The Crying Game:' I would like to say “Keep your opinion to yourself”. For eighteen years my mother loved and cared for me, and when I was accepted to A&M, she was the proudest mother in the world. For weeks she told everyone her daughter was going to be a first-generation Aggie, but as the time for me to leave grew near her joy turned to sadness. After I left she would of ten call just to see what I was do ing or to ask me if I had eaten. This does not mean she is med dling in my business. It just means she cares, because for the past eighteen years she had known where I was, who I was with and when I would be home. Just be cause I am off at college she is suppose to quit worrying about me? If the Aggie Mom’s Fish Camp helps mothers such as my own to cope with the stress and sadness they feel when us Aggies leave, then what is the point in bad- mouthing it? Many mothers question them selves as to whether or not they did the best they could in raising us, and if we are able to make the right choices without them being there to guide us. The camp is only for the mothers in helping them deal with what they are go- IRAQI WEAPONS FACILITY ing through. I am very sorry Kendall Kelly would be embar rassed if her mother attended the camp, because I would be proud if my mother was to attend the Aggie Mom’s Fish Camp. Teri Brazelton Class of '00 Ridiculing moms abuses position It seems to me columnist Kendall Kelly has left her compas sion and manners back where she came from. If she can’t find any thing better to do than ridicule a few loyal Aggie Moms, then she should utilize her “talents” else where. Just because someone has the privilege of writing for a daily newspaper, that does not give them the right to act rude and conde scending to their readers and the very public that supports them. Bryan Alan Hill Class of’95 University of New Mexico Graduate Student Speech article not without errors I was glad to see James Lyon’s presentation make the front page of The Battalion. Most of the arti cle accurately reports the contents of his talk. However Mr. Lyons was mis quoted on one not-so-trivial matter. The quote in the insert box of the article says: “The public is less interested on what is going out of the national forests and more on what is on the roll of film from the recreation parks (sic).” As Under Secretary of United States Department of Agriculture, with oversight of the Forest Ser vice and Natural Resource Con servation Service, I’m sure he said “...rolls of film from the national forests.” Neither the USDA Forest Service or the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (or any other federal agency, including the Unit ed States Department of Interior, National Park Service) manage any category of lands or waters known as “recreation parks.” This is not written as a letter to the editorial staff. It is not written to criticize the work of Ms. Becks. It only serves to bring the quote to your attention so that the informa tion can be verified and corrected. Myron F. Floyd, Ph. D Assistant Professor Department of Recreation, Park and Tourism Sciences Volleyball wins deserve coverage I just finished looking through today’s Batt and again found my self disappointed. You gave coverage to a mens’ pre-conference basketball game, yet ignored the final two Big 12 matches of the Volleyball Team. You also skipped over the fact the Volleyball team is hosting the first and second rounds of the NCAA tournament. Your reporting on the last two home games included running the same photo with two different cap tions and reporting a match the girls won in four was won in three games. This is a top-twenty pro gram and deserves at least equal attention to the basketball pro grams. Speaking of the basketball programs, there was no mention of the women’s Aggie basketball team’s weekend play; could this be a gender thing? Bill Coady Lecturer Dept, of Health and Kinesiology ..\MRMER, WARMER, WARMS?... mm fti