|iursday * April 16 ; 1998 The Battalion ON 1TY BEAT ace Jorthgate parking garage offers needed resource to campus, College Station residents 0 ; k* L Len Callaway columnist ver the past several months, Aggies ■Beard rumor of a parking garage to iited in the ate District, jpon id it be? Could Hits actually see a Hirking lot built da\ liable for stu- Hse as opposed Hng our already trilted parking wly devoured bv A&M construction? Th« answer is simple — students can ^ks this great event and they can have land in making the garage a reality. Stldents have probably seen the signs plainly but confusingly read “Support rking Garage —Vote Against!†at! Support — Against, k. Heres the deal. initiative will be before the voters }lege Station (that's us) on May 2 Ttates: ■he City of College Station shall not Hd, use, or lend funds, nor shall the Hf College Station make grants of fi- Hal aid or grants of any kind, for the velnpment or construction of the ■gate Public Parking Garage Project ( Icil Resolution No. 9-1 l-97-7b).†tie simple fact behind all of the politi- s|ullduggery and verbage is the City of e Station needs to get off its rump uild the garage. e City of College Station hired a pro- nal parking garage consultation ailed DeShazo, Tang & Associates, to |ate the feasibility of a “multi-leveled ng garage†in the Northgate area, ^report went through a couple of iafts using different criteria each time fttlH 1 result remained the same — build ie garage. ffhefirm specifically recommended a i2-space garage to be located on 1.65 acres of ideal land right in the middle of all the action. The garage would be in close proximity to the areas three most prominent church es and all of the local culture to be found in the Northgate district. In addition, the report indicated that by using a conservative scale of ($lper hour/$2 per day maximum) the garage will be able to annually earn 1.5 times its expenses, thereby, actually yielding a prof it its first year of operation. The garage has widespread support in cluding the police and fire departments, as well as many Northgate business own ers. The plan does not even call for an in crease in property taxes — quite to the contrary — the garage will probably boost property values. Larry Haskins, attorney for the Culpepper family, recently stated “It is extremely unlikely that the mud lot will be available for parking after December 31 of this year.†When asked why the lot would be unavailable Haskins simply replied “It will be developed.†Mud lot provides 700 parking spaces for Aggies every day of the year ,and when it’s gone those people still have to attend class. So, if the city and the voters do the right thing, they can have the 700 cars go to their new, clean, well lit and affordable parking garage with the students’ fresh green backs in tow. They could literally choose to laugh all the way to the bank. So, what’s the problem, you ask. Three of the seven-person city council doubt the reality of the numbers estab lished by DeShazo, Tang & Associates. Since when did three guys on a city coun cil become confidant enough to dispute the validity of an expert firm’s estimate? Even if this argument is valid, the city need only increase the daily maximum charge for parking and the dispute over numbers would be a moot debate. The re port does state that the numbers for sug gested rates are conservative. I know there are accountants working for the city because somebody adds up my utili ty bill, in addition to sending my parents nice little notes saying something about unpaid parking tickets. So why can’t these number crunchers check the firms estimate? I’m no math major but it can’t be that hard. Now for the interactive part. Aggies must learn to vote. The only way the city is ever going to begin listening to students is if they are put into a position to have to listen or lose their prestigious “city council†seat. The process is rather simple and can be mastered by every Aggie with just a few sec onds of contemplative practice. Pick up the phone and dial the county tax assessor/col lectors’ office. Tell the person who answers you would like to register to vote in Brazos County. He or she will ask a couple of easy questions (short response—sorry, no multi ple choice) and then mail the card to your local address. They don’t even send you a bill for the postage used to mail the card. It’s that simple. This columnist has come to understand that the margin needed to gain approval for the parking garage is only a few hun dred, there are 40-something thousand Ag gies currently enrolled so the math is real easy, even for a journalism major. The time to register for the May 2 elec tion has passed, but assuming the initiative fails (remember, it has to fail for the garage plan to move forward) but the vote for the garage plan itself will be coming soon and then we can flex a little red ass student muscle. The Northgate parking garage is truly a worthwhile undertaking on the part of those that support it, and its fruition will directly benefit the students of Texas A&M. Do what you can to ease the parking woes in College Station. Register locally and vote. Len Callaway is a junior journalism major. ——— AMPUS CONNECTION Manisha Parekh columnist T eaching creation- science in the public schools ad- fi's religious beliefs even lempts are made to el mi le overt references to the ble, the Creator or other fious concepts,†Ameri- pivil Liberties Union, illard v. Treen (1982). volution. It is the scientif- undation for how life be- [on Earth, and how it it be created on other |ds in our Universe. Ever since this theory was duced by Darwin in 1859, it has been at the infer of great controversy, ifact, until the mid-20th century, the theory of ution was not allowed to be taught in many ols.The predominant teaching was Creation- orthe creation of man according to the Bible, fter the Scopes trial, the theory of evolution nhd its way into the classroom as Creationism quietly went back to Sunday school. Until, now, it seems. Across the country, members of the religious right are waging a war to get Creationism back into the schools, either alongside or in place of evolution. Many school systems are bending to the pres sure of this very vocal group and allowing cre ationism back into the classroom or taking evo lution out. So much for separation of church and state. Despite the fact that Creationism is an idea that is solely based upon the Bible and is only adhered to by Christians, there are some groups who feel that it needs to taught in school as an “alternative†to Darwin’s theory. That sounds fine ... as long as children are also taught about the Hindu, Shinto, Muslim, Wiccan, and Jainist ideas on the creation of life, along with every other religion of the world. We would not want to give the idea that Ameri can education has a religious agenda, right? Other wise, we might as well rename Biology 101 as Christianity 101. But the religious right might have a problem with their children being taught about those “hea then†religions. Therefore, some schools have taken out the dis cussion of evolution all together. Never mind the fact that the theory of evolution is a scientific theory that has been highly regarded and accepted as the most likely explanation for life as we know it. It goes against the teachings of the Bible and Christianity. Therefore, it must not be allowed to be taught or heard. Just like Galileo was silenced when he taught that the Earth revolved around the sun, and not the other away around. It is pointless to point out that if the religious right wants their children to be exposed to the Cre ationist idea, perhaps they should send them to a private Christian school or teach their children at home or in Sunday school. That would mean that public schools are not centers of religious conversion to Christianity, which we know is the religion of all Americans. True, it is hard to believe in the theory of evolu tion and in Creationism at the same time and it might cause some conflict in the minds of impres sionable children. But that conflict might also cause the children, the students, to think for themselves and decide what they believe is true and what is not. And it is this ability, the ability to think for one’s self and choose one’s beliefs, that is threatened when op posing ideas are censored. Religion has its place, but that place is not in the science class. Christianity has its place, but that place is not to alienate members of other religions, which most assuredly will happen if Creationism is brought back into the classroom. Public schools are supposed to be places for learning and thinking, not indoctrination and brainwashing. Manisha Parekh is a sophomore journalism and psychology major. PERSPECTIVES accusations against pro-life group exemplify “terrorism†witch hunt Robby Ray guest columnist 11 of you peace-lov ing people !iit there may not e aware of it, but is country is nder attack by a mup of terrorists so insidious that they ondone and even encourage murder in old blood to advance their cause. What is even more shocking is that they re not slinking around in shadows and iding under rocks. In fact, they are a na- ally-recognized organization and have n been spotted on this very campus. The terrorist group is none other than sp) Operation Rescue. If all of this wasn’t shocking enough, it ms the law enforcement agencies are owerless to protect us from these in- ers. It has fallen to the National Orga- zation of Women to defend this coun- from its enemies. The above was sarcasm. What follows is absolutely true and deadly serious. NOW has filed a federal lawsuit alleging that Operation Rescue and the Pro-Life Action League, another similar group, are engaged in a campaign of “force, violence and fear.†NOW is asking the court to hold these groups responsible for acts of terror against abortion providers even though they neither condone violence nor practice it. It is similar to trying to hold yell leaders responsible for a fight that occurs at an Ag gie football game versus the University of Texas. In fact, their exact argument could be directly applied to our yell leaders. NOW attorney Fay Clayton said even though the individuals named in the suit did not directly participate in or advocate the acts of violence, they should be blamed for them because they, according to Clayton, created an atmosphere in which others carried out these acts. By the way, let’s put this terrorism thing in perspective. More people have died on this campus from food allergies in the last two years than in abortion clinic bombings since abortion became legal in the United States. Not only is this lawsuit a threat to pro life advocates, it should also frighten anyone who ever speaks out on anything at all. For example, The Battalion’s own Michelle Voss could be held liable for damages resulting from the Unabomber crimes, because she has spoken out against technology. There is no doubt that most women, even most members of NOW, are not so blinded by a single issue that they are not able to see the danger in this lawsuit. What a NOW victory would mean to the country would be an end to free speech, as no one would be able to advocate any moderate position that happened to be similar to one held by a terrorist group. People would be able to believe that Is rael should grant Palestinian autonomy, but no one in this country could ever form a group in support of the Palestini ans or even speak out against Israel for fear of being subjects to a lawsuit brought by victims of Palestinian terrorism. Others might dislike the Internal Rev enue Service and think the government had overstepped its bounds at Waco, but they could not say it in public, because some holding those beliefs have commit ted acts of terrorism. No one could even advocate affirmative action or racial equality because some racial groups have committed acts of violence and terrorism in pursuit of these beliefs. No one could preach any kind of reli gion because millions of people have died through the centuries in such a divi sive religious atmosphere. Every religion has its radicals. And listen up environmentalists, the environmental movement would be outlawed because some radical “eco-terrorists†have com mitted murder by spiking trees in order to kill loggers, and caused millions of dollars in damage through vandalism, all in the name of protecting the environment. In short, freedom of speech would al most completely disappear from this country. Conservatives, and especially pro-life advocates, are often accused of being “one-issue voters,†which is to say that they allow a candidate’s position on a single issue, such as abortion, to deter mine their vote. But in this case, it seems to be NOW that is being so narrow mind ed and short-sighted so as not to see the long-term consequences of their actions. Then again, maybe they know exactly what they’re doing. Robby Ray is a senior speech communications major.