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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 6, 1998)
HELP WAN? unwer |obs. A numberolsur? Sletoginning in May 1998. Br. jporlunities are available irlicipate in sample collecwi)!!! id contribute to laboratcwy rolling oil spill remediation, fei i enjineenng and science ass ice Applicants must be atilec, ilaiy range is between $5.50-J7S'| penence. it interested contadt^ S45-9778 or 862-4J?! | icdonala@envcsOO.taniu.e()ii immer work lor rent program, 6-sa peal work experience to worth iy-31st in exchange foranapa-: plyal 3904 OkJ College Road - : j Deluxe Diner hiring waii-slf r son. 203 University Dr. nisialt Flexible hours. Pies- as.300-North Bryan Street rehouse help needed Wednesci is Sat. full-time, full-time eve's.- pnday • April 6, 1998 Opinion TATE OF THE UNION LOST & FOUl III Aggie ring class of ‘97, wotf | L computer lab around midny •/.* 775718) MOTORCYCli I Kawt EX500. sport t insurance, great parking,! PERSONAL mg Distance Re-a i Of Then J7M819 f,penence Ore III | 900-407-7782 ext.295C In iByrs. Serv-U: (619)645ir' VI Have To Be Lonely Any: 170 3305. Ext 9311. S2 99pe" Serv-U: (619)645-8434. PETS Puppies. Kittens, C* 9 i! Brazos Animal Shelter-77X i year oW male, neutered! l accessories included, gentel H 691-2131 arad Boxer pups Flashy Sr socks. 9 weeks. $150 Pea? 547724 The arming of America lecent tragedy in Jonesboro reignites gun control debate I tchhunt psycholo gy follows linct pattern, iwiih difficul- lople lash out bhall\ at what xeived to be ause. Primi- Donny Ferguson columnist nmates. 3bdi All bills paid- 823-2351. Hcuted he? ’ during Bor famine, ^^^■Joseph Mc- ty Attacked ROOMMATt. £) fl|)artrnent “communists” after nob* ac; ine under the control of Chair- M^o and now gun banners lash out JHj^Kcond Amendment in the wake of mates m f . shootings at an Arkansas middle 'fhose who wait on baited breath ImsheeTw a dose ic lass slayings so they can push their (/spring 361 :44o Copstitutional gun control campaign Id sit back, show some sympathy for J-SMering families and realize this hor- : tragedy should not lead to more ob- control laws. Vhat we have to do, again, is take a siiftck, take a deep breath,” said Jim .of the Law Enforcement Alliance of iurnr-f: r } ca “i t ’ s another reason that some that wants to make a name for dupiex^w^pemBwill come out with a piece of feel- m i,oath dupteTSTTTt legislation,” Fotis said. non-smoker preiemc oiwanting to prove Jim wrong, anti- md Amendment activists Sarah a , . , ly of Handgun Control, Inc. and )wn room. Pets ok 69 4 251. 3 ’ . . — gressman Charles Schumer, a New le needed to • ° , t summer $357mo •' Democrat seized the opportunity to ••as 1S5'- oitthe tragedy. B in a quickly-released press state- es wanted 3-bedroc^* itfepeatedly blamed the rifles the two c.sta. Tom - 693 ' 438v rt- Rrs | K |.,i i ;i | her than tlieir own lack . S uny bl turnished.wd l0rais and judgment. Instead of point- )Ut that the two boys were sick indi- SERvICES :a i s 3 rac jy blamed “a nation that al- :e Technicians with EPA«- jits children unimaginable access to 1-time work Will work*:' ,» g nc j “ t j le yast num ber of gUOS aCCCS- Dall JG Innovative Services: „T P i. She even went so tar off the deep : Defensive DrivingT^yake the incredulous statement, nissal/insurance discoum Mas is a State whose lax gun laws 3 9 0 P pm). ha,Hl an AK ' 47 OVert ° j/cash. Lowest price allow^ rChild 1*611. ’ >te.2i7. 846-6117 sho»*'«p rQr ixr’c information, sport shooting nates needed lor May adrin/lbath. w/d. Stacy.f roommate needed a s a; ioute 5-minutes ftati ca) s ok. ile Mechanic 693-0726 :ards eating you alive? Cal' ncial Fitness Centers, (4®l' ee@txcyber.com alfree.com ome Tax Preparation. $5(71 k. 694-2819. ? nance service. Mowing, f'jj ug or Joe, 847-3360. mui Or Brady’s ii k is a popular pastime in Arkansas and many poor families depend on hunting to help put food on the table. The problem is not firearms, but a culture which glorifies violence and disregards the conse quences. Rather than hold the murderers accountable to their actions, anti-Second Amendment activists like Brady overlook their murderous impulses and seize the opportunity to blame inanimate objects and Constitutional rights. Her Constitution-ripping colleague, Schumer, goose-stepped right behind her. "You should lock your gun. Every gun should be sold with a child-proof safety lock that only parents know how to unlock.” And like Brady, Schumer con veniently ignored the facts. Trigger locks jeopardize a victim’s life during the com mission of a crime (I challenge you to find the criminal who will give his victim some time to unlock and load his weapon.) Locks also have a nasty habit of making guns backfire and explode, lock manufacturer Winchester places big, bold warnings on locks explaining the dangers. Most important, Schumer did not mention that the guns used in the killings were locked and out of the reach of children. The murderers had to break into a shed to steal the weapons. Instead of being lead around on a leash by anti-Constitutional opportunists like Brady and Schumer, people should know the truth about firearms and the fallacy of "gun control.” Respected criminologist Gary Kleck finds firearms are used 2.5 mil lion times a year to defend the lives of their owners, causing the anti-gun Kleck to become a staunch defender of the Sec ond Amendment and point out “general gun availability does not measurably in crease rates of homicide, suicide, robbery, assault, rape or burglary in the U.S.” James Wright, an anti-gun member of the Carter Administration was commis sioned to conduct a study extolling the ef fectiveness of gun control laws. After a long, in-depth study, Wright abandoned his anti-gun ideology and became a gun control opponent. “I am now of the opin ion that a compelling case for ‘stricter gun TUDENT LIFE TRAVEL & offers accredited program -» languages & humanities ^ in, Ecuador, France, and G con and new sessions beg 1 "* £3-4440 for literature. 'WEIGHT LOSS «ose weight. Warned: 421 natural. Dr. recommerf] Debusk lost 165-lbs. and i' ! | Jim Lane has already K 13823-7383. Evaluating professors at idterm makes sense Van is quite easy ior a Texas &M student ecome en- hed in the ex- ig yearly cul- on campus, fire, football, ®certs, organi- ional involve- ts and the with Texas Guard# —c, nonprofit corpc'A idents realize their P r o vide , Hough memo- ^gram matches yodff fn ^ for _ —^rs you practical r —self today. TG ini# Adam Collett columnist ~ie following ar# between borrower vorking on TG's syil - assess, develop,# —otions and public r< communication ■nplementation, and i^o the following soul ■nan Resources 2) 219-4512 ^ (5 1 2) 21 9-459? - e (512) 219 Speech Impaired affirmative Action/ m^pportunily Employer to keep for- students thinking positively about r experiences here for years, ut the warp and woof of any insti- lon of higher education is its teach- To ensure that former students e lasting, non-superficial satisfac- , A&M needs to be ever watchful of quality of this instruction. One thod of doing this is to conduct term evaluations of professors, he current practice of evaluating ruction once each semester (at the ii) is good; adding a second round (at midterm) is better, nd of semester evaluations are sum- tive: they allow professors, depart- nt heads and students to assess qual- lonly after the process is finished, idterm evaluations, on the other d, would be formative, thus allowing mid-course corrections, adjust- nts and improvements. From a student’s perspective, the nd-term evaluation is ineffective for reasons. First, by finals time students often for- about the compliments or complaints they had from earlier in the semester. Second, students aren’t as invested in the process at that point. They think “Any input I give won’t help me, so why should 1 bother to be thorough or constructive?” Midterm instructor evaluations have the added benefit of helping students to think critically and holistically about their education; they can analyze their own midterm performance in relation to the structure of the class and the per formance of the professor. Professors can do the same. At the same time they are gauging how the class is doing as a whole, they can get valuable feedback on their own prac tices that may be positively or negative ly affecting student success. Granted, this increases the workload for academic departments and moder ately reduces valuable class time for pro fessors. But departments and instructors alike would be best suited to think of the new requirement as an investment. One of the key tenets of continuous improvement and total quality manage ment is assessment. Kenneth Blanchard, in the One Minute Manager, punctuates this by emphasizing that when one slows down, one goes faster. In other words, the more time you take to accurately evaluate up front, the more time you ulti mately save in making fewer mistakes. Midterm instructor evaluations would be a simple yet powerful tool for maintaining and improving the good quality of instruction at A&M. Adam Collett is an educational administration graduate student. control’ can not be made,” Wright said. The United States has a crime problem, not because we have guns, but because we glorify violence. Rappers and movies portray criminals as heroes and those who shoot and kill never face the conse quences of their actions. The tragedy in Arkansas is the product of a sick and twist ed mind, indifferent to suffering and inca pable of reason. More gun control will not stop crime. Jf gun control worked, anti-gun states like New Jersey and Washington, D.C. would be free of crime and pro-gun states like Utah and Vermont would be crawling with trigger-happy criminals. The reverse is true, states which overstep the bound aries of the Constitution and infringe upon the rights of its citizens to keep and bear arms pay the price in higher crime rate, while those who respect the tenets of freedom and good government allow its citizens to keep and bear arms. Gun con trol is synonymous with failure and scapegoating. It never has worked and it never will. MADD doesn’t strut in front of TV cameras and push for bans on auto mobiles in the wake of tragic drunk dri ving deaths and anti-gun opportunists like Brady and Schumer should hold criminals accountable for what they do, instead of shifting the blame to legally- protected pieces of wood and metal. People should sit back, take a breath and think about this horrible tragedy in clear, rational terms. This savage act was carried out by two boys with no regard for decency or human life. If access to guns caused tragedies like this, then Israel, a nation with heavily-armed citizens, would RYAN ROGERS/The Battalion experience similar calamities. Unlike Is rael, the United States glorifies violence, and pays the price when sick children murder their classmates. No amount of gun control would have prevented this horrific massacre without endangering the freedom of law-abiding citizens. Rather than embark on an emo tionally-charged, irrational witchhunt against responsible, law-abiding gunown- ers, we should reexamine our national morality. In this time of great national mourning, we should extend our sympa thies to the victims and their families, and begin to discuss how we can change a vio lent culture which sowed the seeds of this unfortunate event. Donny Ferguson is a junior political science major. STUDENT LIFE America needs wave of nationalism a: Stewart Patton columnist s Aggies com plained about a minis cule on-campus rent increase earlier this month, police in full riot gear ac costed protest ers in Pristina, Kosovo, killing at least 14 people. And while most students in Aggieland unsuc cessfully tried to avoid getting be- stickered by armies of Howdy Week and Big Event volunteers, Kanwar Ah- son unsuccessfully tried to avoid members of a rival ethnic group in Karachi, Pakistan, who wanted to kill him for marrying one of their daugh ters. From the continuing unrest in the Middle East to the crisis in the Asian financial Markets, the entire world is in turmoil. It is time to realize anew that de spite our faults, America is truly the greatest nation on the face of the earth. Most critics would argue that na tionalist sentiment underlies all of the mud slinging and scandal chasing rampant in the press. If we truly believe America is the best country in the world, however, we must proclaim it clearly, lest the grains of nationalism be swept away by the El Nino of negativity. We must proclaim, as Lee Green wood sang during the GulfWar, “I’m proud to be an American where at least I know I’m free.” Let me be clear: the philosophy es pousing “everything about America is wrong and corrupt” so popular among journalists is not in and of itself op posed to nationalism, for the First Amendment guarantees freedom of speech even when that speech de fames the country — or is just down right annoying. The ranting and raving does, how ever, take “air time” from nationalism by focusing on smaller issues and for getting the framework that makes this country so powerful. America is entering a unique era in modern histoiy since Saddam Hus sein, America’s most recent persona non grata, has agreed to allow U.N. weapons inspectors survey areas he had previously kept hidden. For the first time since the 1930s, the United Sates is without a main enemy. During World War II America de feated the Axis powers and then re sponded to the threat of post-war communism in a Cold War which twice grew hot in Korea and Vietnam. America then found a new enemy in Iraq shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union. Now that America is free from the burden of juxtaposition with another power, the country can focus on itself and prepare for the year 2000 and the dawning of a new “American Century.” Feelings of nationalism seem to rise and fall with America’s pocket- books, and as the record presiden tial approval rating indicates, Americans are very happy with the state of the economy. As well they should be — the un employment rate hit a 24-year low of 4.6 percent in February. Many economists predict unem ployment will sink further to four per cent by late summer, a level unseen since the 1960s. “These are good times for Ameri ca,” said President Clinton in an ap pearance at the Rose Garden. America is poised for a wave of nationalism to catch up with the reality of a good economy and plentiful jobs. In addition to the slow process of amnesia that is eroding nationalism, America is now being threatened by its own citizens more fervently than ever before. Joe Roy, an expert on American hate groups, said, “Mainstream America is being targeted in a way that this coun try hasn’t seen in decades.” Klanwatch and the Militia Task Force have documented 474 hate groups — an all-time high. Many preachers of hate are looking to the millennium for fulfillment of their apocalyptic vision, and they see 1998 as “the start of the end times.” The majority in America can res cue the country from the clutches of extremism with an infusion of good oT fashioned apple-pie patriotism. Our president might have been in volved in a little Oval Office hanky- panky, but in Japan, a top govern ment official recently became the fourth to commit suicide because of an ongoing scandal. Besides, America is larger than any one man, and Clinton will soon be replaced during the next presi dential elections. America is nowhere near perfec tion, but we must realize America has made significant strides in the areas of racism, sexism, and other forms of discrimination. With a renewed sense of national pride and purpose, the next millenni um will show that America has learned to be the “city upon a hill” without pummeling the cities in the valley: Stewart Patton is a junior
