chinesday • March 25, 1998
Opinion
didr
ngtai
gnes
Bute
toy story
idays playthings fail to promote creativity, imagination in kids
Mickey
Saloma
columnist
A ttention Hasbro, Mattel,
Fisher-Price and other
toy company executives,
the future of the world is in
your hands.
It is a startling experience
going to toy stores or through
the aisles of the toy depart
ments at retail stores. The
times have definitely
changed.
Kids have traded such 80s
relics as My Little Pony and
He-man for something called
Gigapets and Goosebump toys. This transaction
has endangered our very future.
The evolution of toys through the ages has prob
ably not caused as much alarm as has the increas
ing popularity of radio, television and the Internet.
Yet, the argument must be made in order to ensure
the minds of the next generation are as creative
and as enriched as they can possibly be.
A couple hundred years ago, imagination and
creativity flowed causing such prominent periods
in history as the Renaissance, the Baroque period
and the Gilded Age.
The people of these pre-electronic times found
inspiration and stimulation through conversa
tions, experiences and other social interactions.
These events and others led to such timeless clas
sics by people like Shakespeare, Van Gogh and
Beethoven.
Because of the increased levels of technology,
our society will most likely never produce such bril
liant and influential artistic figures, however the toy
industry can preserve the little artistic possibilities
in the future by challenging kids to use their minds
and more importantly use their imaginations.
The toys of today have our children headed
into another Dark Age. The possibility of the
first generation of the new millennium to be ar
tistically and maybe even culturally challenged
is very much a possibility.
When most current A&M students were growing
up, toys were simple, basic and sometimes they
served as a tool for learning. The days of the Speak
and Spell and Mr. Professor have come and gone
only to be replaced by video games.
Today’s kids’ main toy revolves around video
games such as Nintendo 64 and Sony Playstation.
Video games serve as an excellent tool to help
build hand-eye coordination, however they do
nothing for the imagination.
As a child, the current generation grew up with
the Atari. This video game system did wonders for
our imagination.
Atari’s Tennis game consisted of two different
colored rectangles on either end of the screen, and
you used the paddle to move your rectangles in
front of the not too round ball. In today’s standard
tennis game, you can see individual strands of real
professional players’ hair as they hit the ball with
your choice of top-spin, back-spin or no spin.
The imagination developed by pretending your
rectangle to be John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors or
Ivan Lendl has been replaced by the real players.
Recently Barbie’s physical dimensions have
been changed. Maybe the old Barbie was caus
ing girls to become anorexic or worse yet, maybe
Barbie is the reason we are all concerned about
our physical appearance.
Well, I have never wanted to look like Barbie or
Ken for that matter. If Barbie has a nice body...
more power to her.
The perfect body is something sought for a long
time now. Nobody has ever accused Michelangelo
of lowering the self-esteem of men through his
masterpiece sculpture of David.
Toys no longer give children the freedom to
use their minds. Teddy Ruxpin started it all by
telling the story of an adventure with a map to
find a hidden treasure. Kids should read them
selves or have a parent read to them not some
bear with moving lips.
A child’s imagination is a terrible thing to go un
developed. Kids should be deprived of their over
priced video games and given Legos, Lincoln Logs
and Tinker Toys.
The toys of yesteryear allowed us to build cas
tles, cars and cities. In our minds, they became
real, and with our hands we constructed them to
fit our dimensions.
Toy companies everywhere, give a child a
chance to build their imagination to their dimen
sions by making the toys simpler. You’ll be doing
us all a favor.
Mickey Saloma is a senior journalism major.
l.O
ATE OF THE UNION
i30'
owering legal blood-alcohol limit does not solve problem
^ rastic
1 moves are
* being made
mbat the
ice of drunk
ig. The United
s Senate is
ng favorably
bill that would
a national
U-alcohol con-
it .08 percent.
Jfby state refus-
lf|pD pass this bill
j§| d receive a cut in their highway
luting.
. finking and driving is a terrible epi-
c. However making a lower BAG is
oing to solve the problem by itself,
dea is that a lower BAG will lower the
her of fatalities that result from drink-
nd driving.
runk driving is national epidemic,
Joe
Schumacher
columnist
however states are hardly in need of Fed
eral intervention. Perhaps if drunk dri
ving laws were more stringently en
forced, the government would not feel
the need to intervene.
The .08 BAG runs the risk of punishing
responsible drinkers.
By this new standard, a 120-pound
woman who has had two six-ounce glass
es of wine within two hours would be con
sidered legally intoxicated.
Additionally, the supporters of this bill
feel that an average-sized man would have
to have four to five drinks in one hour to
reach a .08 BAG.
While this is suspect, it should noted
for a person to have four or five drinks in
an hour, they must drink every 15 to 20
minutes, probably indicating they are
not a social drinker, and may very well
have a problem.
One of the states that has already
adopted this national standard in North
Carolina. The state has a vigorous pro
gram to deter drunk driving to go along
with the state’s lower blood-alcohol lev
el. Cars can be impounded on the spot
for repeat offenders and those driving on
suspended licenses.
Since 1993, over 22,000 checkpoints
have been set up and over 35,000 people
have been charged with a DUI. Alcohol re
lated deaths leveled off in 1995. However,
they increased in 1996 by 17 percent,
when 460 fatalities were reported.
Most people who drink and drive are
going to do so no matter what the legal
blood-alcohol level is. According to the
National Highway Traffic Association, the
average BAG of fatally injured drivers is
.18 percent, with more than 80 percent of
these drivers have a BAG of. 14 percent.
Many drunk drivers are also repeat of
fenders — still driving after previously
being convicted or even after having
their licenses revoked.
People are not afraid to be stopped for
drunk driving, it is not looked upon as a
hassle— not a serious offense.
Deaths related to drunk driving are
treated in pretty much the same manner.
Too many times, a drunk driver who has
killed someone has his case pleaded down
to involuntary manslaughter. If this is is
their first felony offense, a drunk driver
may spend some time in jail, attend coun
seling for their problem and receive com
munity service.
Drunk driving is not an involuntary ac
tion. Nobody made them drink irresponsi
bly. Nobody made them get behind the
wheel of a vehicle. Several alternatives ex
ist to drinking and driving.
The punishment for killing somebody
while drinking and driving should be a
stiffer than involuntary manslaughter.
People who get behind the wheel know
they are running the risk of murdering
somebody. This should be considered pre
meditated. The drunk driver thought
about his possible actions of recourse and
instead decided to drive.
Perhaps if people were afraid of the
repercussions of drinking and driving,
that might actually deter alcohol related
deaths.
A .08 percent BAG is not a clear cut so
lution. It will only punish the already law-
abiding, and will probably have no effect
by itself.
It will have no bearing on those who
already disregard current BAG standards.
Additionally this does not target the real
problem of higher BAG drivers. The new
level has the potential to overload the
court systems.
Perhaps the real solution is harsher
punishments to go with an already rea
sonable BAG level.
Joe Schumacher is a junior
journalism major.
•*>
MAIL CALL
^satisfaction more
/^Tble in other nations
May I begin by dispelling any ru-
rs of racism that might result in
onse to this letter? A close
nd of mine with whom I grew up
20 ideed black.
' Thank you Len Callaway. I ap-
ly ud your March 12 column con
ning the foolishness of reverse
crimination.
an, Dne particular shred of informa-
<e 0 lyou offered cauglit my eye. The
Dose Kwame Nkrumah wrote, en-
iraging all youth of African descent
the “brothas” and sisters of Latino
cent to, “stay strong while in the
hells of this beast we call Amerikkka!!!”
Allow me to enlighten those of us who
subscribe to these sentiments so prone
toward the contempt and the dissatis
faction of our country.
Two years ago I crossed the Thai
border for a brief stay in the Peoples’
Democratic Republic of Laos, a
reclusive third world country in
south-east Asia yoked with the bur
den of Communism.
At the beginning of this year, all of
these people I had come to know,
nearly 20, were cast into prison fac
ing persecution in the form of tor
ture, brainwashing, a “spiritual
cleansing” if you will. All prosecu
tion is based on the premises that the
Christian religion is simply illegal.
Anyone heard of such a thing hap
pening around here lately?
Perhaps those of us who find it so
painful here in the hells of the
Amerikkkan beast would like to take a
vacation to a more tolerant part of the
world? I hear Algeria is quite nice this
time of year, so long as you manage to
keep your head. Maybe a caning in
Singapore would go well with your re
cently decapitated body. If that
tongue piercing has become infected,
you may want to travel to one of the
middle-eastern nations which I am
sure will gladly remove your tongue
free of charge in exchange for any dis
paraging remarks about their country
(Too bad your head was already sev
ered in Algeria).
You must forgive my sour disposi
tion. I really shouldn’t get in a rage
over such trivial things as patriotism.
After all, it is your First Amendment
right to cry like a child about the intol
erance of the most tolerant nation on
the face of the planet. You are free to
abuse the freedom our ancestors
fought to preserve, but don’t you ever
forget men died for your right to insult
their life and dishonor their grave.
Todd Grijfith
Class of’98
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~rV\\$ WAY. 1 ,