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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 11, 1998)
k‘bn. dnesday • February 11, 1998 The Battalion OPlNlOfl ATE OF THE UNION Year the woman 100 presidential elections provide opportunity for Clinton, Dole to battle [lyp;, orai,-' hinking about Campaign le 2000 yet? Up until these e ^ past few weeks, A1 Gore’s lential posturing may have he Adam Collett columnist ' Uv the only reminder that an- 11! race for the White House r around the corner. And if re thinking about the race, uir naylle you’re assuming loallbJGore and George W. Bush 1 e among their respective :s’ filemt-runners for the ienjtial nomination, i. hat’s what you’re predict- Tlljiien maybe you’re not thinking enough. Person- Tn ready to start printing bumper stickers for £ v. Clinton 2000. lOj/ait a minute,” you might say, “Clinton’s a lame ■*-^and I Dole barely made it through the last campaign ^ iut a pacemaker.” But that’s not what I meant; I’m ‘ , onrecord right now to predict a presidential race u j r 3e«lizabeth Dole and Hillaiy Clinton. r months now, the idea of Elizabeth Dole run- ; for president in 2000 has been given not entirely ions consideration in the press. Bob Dole has announced publicly that his wife is not preclud- n y le possibility. While some in the media are chalk- , ic talk up to hype, others have had to admit that l|. lea isn’t totally ludicrous. Personally, I think both n and Clinton have decent qualifications, j izabeth Dole has a solid record of public service Ip smooth her transition from candidate-for- | , lady role to candidate-for-president role. She j! ed the Office for Consumer Affairs under John- ind Nixon. She was transportation secretary un- Leagan and served as Secretary of Labor for Bush. President, coincidentally, is a title she currently s as the head of the Red Cross. And before all of she earned a law degree and a master’s degree in education and government from Harvard. First lady Hillary Clinton, on die oth er hand, has also received public atten tion of late, mostly for demonstrating savvy and grace in dealing with her husband’s most recent scandal. And like Dole, Hillaiy Clin ton received a law degree (although hers was from Yale, where she first met Bill). She has worked as an attorney for the Children’s Defense Fund, and served on the inquiry staff for Water gate. She taught at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. Finally, she is generally perceived to have redefined the role of first lady by her extensive work on national issues including, of course, health-care reform. Although Dole appears to have the better creden tials (working as president of a char itable organization rather than as an attorney for one, for exam ple), I still have to give the nod to Flillary because, unlike Dole, she’s got cam paign-strategy op tions. It’s not that I don’t like Dole. I’ve already de scribed how she has been a good, uncon- troversial public ser vant, a regular straight arrow. L Unfortunately, that’s about the only card she can play. And although straight-arrow candidates have been and continue to be elected to public office, they tend to suffer at the ballot box when competing against someone with an edge, a theme or a scheme. Hillaiy has not just one, but two possible strate gies. First, she can play the role of dutiful yet misused politician’s wife. Just before the preliminaries, she can go public with her story of how she supported Bill for the good of the country, in spite of his history of un faithfulness and shady political deals. She can even detail how he manipulated and/or bullied her into covering up for him all these years. The latter method may not be currently working for Monica Lewinsky, but one has to think that Hillary can probably get a better lawyer. Her second strategy option is to become some thing of a shady character herself. After all, flying in the face of what’s left of American conventional wis dom, Bill Clinton’s approval ratings hit a record high shortly after the latest accusations. It seems that all Hillary has to do is leak stories of her own unfaithful ness and improper political conduct, and she’ll be on her way to the podium at the Democratic convention. Regardless of the outcome, it should be a fabulous media event. If Elizabeth Dole and Hillary Clinton do win their parties respective nominations, the female voting block can’t lose. The election might even add a new dimension to the good-old-fashioned college ri valry between Yale and Harvard. And when the dust has settled, if Hillary has come out on top, there will be one additional ben efit. Assuming that Hillary’s tastes won’t have changed significantly, we’ll be able to spend a lit tle less taxpayer money on the traditional post-in- augural redecorating in the White House. Adam Collett is an educational administration graduate student RSPECTIVES CAMPUS CONNECTION 15,fr. fsUL rsoik ■lose* merican Indians erve as an example Len Callaway columnist ) ver the past ^few :ades, great des have F m made to- rd the goal 'J reparation he case of tain injus- js per med under banner of ial or reli- us degradation. All in all, the world is more sensi- 1 2 today than ciny other point in tory, and the list of apologies and rets just keeps coming. It appears as if humanity is mak- ; some effort to heal itself of past aries and is trying to prevent :se same grievances in the future, rirf wever, at least in America, one I evance is consistently missing m ffie politically motivated, me- -induced, regret list. From the moment that Ameri- i colonies began to form, the terican government and people irdered, raped, robbed, shunned, [P^titui ionalized, confined and at- pted to ruin the American Indi community. One is inclined to view this as er hypocritical behavior from ople searching for a better life or 2aping one form of oppression another. Americans are all co-conspira- r ^s in this great travesty, whether by |^ect action or by silence. In short, the buffalo that the Indi- s used for food, shelter and |ms were slaughtered by the ■fends in the name of sport and 1 to rot upon the prairie while a civ- :ation began to face its demise, j|1 The government made treaties d deals it never intended to keep, the while allowing the systematic ^termination of a people. The land the Indians occupied I on became flooded with strange J ople and European disease, for llffiich the Indians had no immunity. Over the years, American chil- en have played “cowboys and In- ans” in the backyard while the an responsible for the slaughter d abuse of thousands of people a still touted as heroes in schools ross the country. Although it is true that no one ve today had an active role in the mise of the various Indian tribes, it is also true that Americans contin ue to give their consent to actions long past by their silence. Americans have been beaten over the head for years about the woes of slavery and the evil of the Flolocaust; yet if silence is the meter, we must be proud of our predecessor’s behavior toward the Indian peoples. Americans today have deter mined, or forced the media to deter mine for them, that they must take responsibility for the institution of slavery and the people of Germany and Switzerland must take responsi bility for the Holocaust; even though none of them had a part in perpetu ating either sin, they must also take responsibility for the destmetion of a once peaceful and powerful people. Many use the argument that American actions were justified be cause of violent and inhumane raids by the “savage Indians” on settlers camps and wagon trains, yet think of the way diat America would react to a new people invading our soil by the millions. The Indian people never had the opportunity to try to exist as one with Americans because Americans could not tolerate any difference in beliefs. From the moment Americans began interacting with this commu nity, they attempted to change the Indians by using the mission system to acquaint them with “civilization” and introduce them to Anglo-Saxon religion. Settlers attempted to teach them their language and values, but made no effort to understand or tol erate the Indian’s customs or form of religion. Long ago, America took a pass on the opportunity to learn and take example from a peaceful and content civilization that lived com munally and took care of its own people. In today’s cold harsh world where it seems as if it is every per son for themselves, maybe Ameri cans could use the American Indi an as an example. It is sad that in a society where people collectively claim to care for those who have suffered in the past and seem to express a desire to make some sort of reconciliation, society still neglects to acknowledge the harm done to these people in the name of securing an avenue for the pursuit of the “American Dream.” Len Callaway is a junior journalism major. SGA could help implement Vision 2020 Stewart Patton columnist T exas A&M re cently formed the Vision 2020 Com mittee to prepare the Uni versity for future glo- columnist ry as it strives to become “world class.” The first order of business should be a bold move to give students power to aid in the transition to world-class status by creating a bicameral legisla ture consisting of the Faculty Senate and the House of Stu dent Representatives. Let’s face it folks. The Student Government Association is little more than a social club to which the members are elected by a largely ambivalent student body. Students do not care who repre sents their side of campus or col lege, because student govern ment can only recommend policies to the unseen hand of “The Man” who controls the ac tivities of the University. Since they do not have any power, the student representatives them selves are also lax to respond to the needs of their constituents. For example, how many of you have seen your representative this semester? Do you even know who he or she is? Under this new system, bills could originate in the Faculty Senate or the Student House, but unlike the national government, the administration, acting as the executive branch, could also pro pose bills to Congress. The legislature would oper ate under the same rules as the national legislature: the house that originates a bill must pass it, then the bill is sent to the other house. Once the Faculty Senate and the Student House have passed the bill in the same form, the bill would be sent for final approval to Bowen and the Board of Regents. A two- thirds vote in each house is re quired to overturn a veto by the executive branch. One qualifier for the introduc tion of bills will make the new system complete: all bills related to decreasing tuition or fees must originate in the executive branch. Spending issues are too complex and far-reaching to be fully com prehended by either the faculty or students. I do believe the stu dent leaders are responsible enough to not let their new pow er go to their heads, but every once in a while the House would inevitably get some yahoo who would propose the “End the Uni versity Authorized Tuition Bill.” The beauty of this system is it requires virtually no additional spending by the administration. All of the pieces are in place. The administration needs only to al low them to work together to cre ate a better Aggieland. This system is much closer to how current national and state governments are run, so it will do a much better job of training stu dents to enter the “real world” beyond the University setting. The students who serve as repre sentatives are not the only ones who will be better prepared. The student body will actually pay attention to who they are voting for, because their repre sentative will have real power to affect their lives. Students will make voting decisions based on the candidate’s policy stances, not because she put a Glamour Shot next to some witty rhyme on her 6-foot by 6-foot fluores cent pink sign. Students would then carry their voting habits into their lives after college and help reverse the trend of fewer Americans show ing up at the polls. Instead of getting maroon in the face ranting and raving about all the problems with the Univer sity, students could campaign for office and make changes for the better. Our new system would end much of the complaining and moaning that is so prevalent as the academic year draws to a close. Students would know that they have the power to change the situation — or their friends would tell them to shut up and run for the Student House. Texas A&M University would receive the attention of the world from this bold statement of trust form the administration to the students. No other university in the nation has allowed their stu dents and faculty as much influ ence in policy matters as would occur under this new system. Instead of wondering why A&M should adopt this system, I wonder why Student Govern ment has not been given some real power already. My mother always told me, “If you are going to act like a child, then I will treat you like one.” If the administra tion desires that A&M produce responsible citizens, it is time it started treating students like re sponsible citizens. By creating a bicameral legis lature on equal footing with the administration, A&M and the world could witness the awe some power of a fully-armed and operational Aggie student body. Stewart Patton is a junior sociology major. MAIL CALL Character counts for President Clinton’s job In response to Frank Stanford’s Feb. 9 column: I’m not sure which is more scary, the fact the President of the United States may have had an affair in the White House or that Frank Stanford, and others like him, try to justify the presi dent’s actions. If Bill Clinton considers his marriage vows “flexible,” regard less if Hillary cares or not, then how strong is his word he gave in his oath of office. The basis of anyone’s “word” is character. Character does matter. With out good moral character, the president’s word isn’t worth the paper Stanford’s article was printed on. Keith D. Gatewood Class of’99 Purpose of yearbook missed by columnist In response to Amber Benson’s Feb. 6 column: Let me start this letter by say ing that I agree wholeheartedly with our First Amendment rights. They are essential to our freedom... that’s great. My problem actually stands in Benson’s comment that, “just as it is important for a stu dent newspaper to report the news of the year, so is it with the yearbook.” Wrong. A yearbook, as I see it, is something I can glance through with my kids ten years from now to reminisce and giggle at the goofy hairstyles and such. This is not what most year books give. A good example of this, which Benson even brought up herself, is the 1995 Aggieland in which the “controversial open ing pages explored the problems of alcohol abuse and racism on our own campus.” These are pretty serious issues concerning our University and world, but a yearbook is not the proper forum to place this in. I rue the day that I’m thumbing through that tome, turn to my kids and say, “... hehehe. Yup, that was OF Army; we was all a bunch of drunken bigots back then. Ahhh, the good old days.” No. That’s wrong. Some news does belong in the Aggieland, as well as The Battal ion. This news is what will be the historical text of the future; war, famine, controversy. The stuff that memories are made of. If Dr. J. Malon Southerland were caught in a kinky love-triangle with David Duke and that friggin’ purple dinosaur, hey, that’s news. I’ll probably remember that and have a good story to tell, but generic issues like the social strata and entertainment won’t be worth a dime. So please, all of you who are in charge of the Aggieland, give us a break. Don’t sugar-coat it for the sake of comfort and political cor rectness, but don’t give us contro versy for the sake of controversy. It’s a waste of my future ‘quality-time.’ Clint Van Horn Class of’97 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