The Battalion
onday • June 1,1998
pmiori
(he marriage diploma
students should strive
pd Texi
?shmar ;
Carlos]
Hy Cu ]
4-6 art
NCAA 1
'hursdai
Itadiort
air S63SS
'd ini
to get their senior ring instead of a diamond ring
V
\
/-
April
Towery
opinion editor
"hen my mother was my age, she was mar
ried and had babies ... OK, but when my
mother was my age,
she rolled her hair on orange
juice cans and wore lime green
polyester pant suits.
The feminine mystique may
be over, but society still pressures
women to find a mate in college.
If a woman doesn't make it out
of college with a ring on her fin
ger, she is destined to become an
old maid.
For years, women have deter
mined their self-worth to equate
whether they have boyfriends.
They can be beautiful and intelli
gent, but it doesn't matter — they still feel useless if no
one wants to marry them.
Sure, plenty of people get married while they're in
college because they're in love and mature enough to
juggle school and married life. They take classes to
gether and earn their degrees. More power to them.
But then there are these dumb women who come to
Texas A&M and major in the subject that comes most
naturally to them (it doesn't matter if they're interest
ed in their major, because they'll never use it), and
seek the "MRS" degree. They stick around until the
prospective husbands finish school, then they drop
everything to get married and have babies.
You know the type — they come to class in their
cutesy little outfits wearing bright red lipstick and
flirting with the boys like high school seniors seeking
prom dates.
My advice to these women is grow up. Maybe they
would make better housewives than lawyers or ac
countants. And I'm not saying being a housewife isn't
a full-time career. It is, but it's also a career that does
not pay.
Let's face the facts. Stay-at-home moms work hard
— some put more time and effort into their jobs than
women in the corporate world do. But women have to
stop putting all their eggs in one basket.
What if their husbands die? What if their families
go bankrupt? What if their children go off to school
and they get bored of cleaning and cooking all day?
We're in school to get an education, and we have to
prepare for our future as though we're going to be
supporting ourselves.
The fact you scored a date with a football player
your sophomore year doesn't mean jack when you are
35 years old and have only a high school education.
And guys don't help matters much. They know
about these dumb women, and they date them any
way, and lead them on, all the while knowing mar
riage isn't even a possibility.
There is nothing wrong with getting married.
There is nothing wrong with having babies. But there
is something wrong with attending a major university
for the sole purpose of finding a husband. Very few
men go to college looking for a wife — they are condi
tioned to believe that college is used for getting an ed
ucation, preparing for the future and ensuring they
will be able to support themselves.
And maybe the dumb little cutesy girls haven't fig
ured it out yet, but most guys want to marry an intelli
gent woman who can think for herself. Sure, they may
take the busty blonde to Midnight Yell, but they're not
taking her home to meet Mom.
Proving you can cook, clean and have babies is
more likely to scare the prospects away.
Times have changed, and even though many of our
parents met while they were in college, it doesn't
mean we have to do the same thing. Since when did
everyone want to be like their parents, anyway?
April Towery is a senior journalism major.
EDITORIAL
(Ci
ritics target children shooters
, nee again, a school cam-
jpus has been rocked with
gunfire, and, once again,
: pundits
lave
jlBrched atop
\[ jfleir high
B>rses and
|g, 'ffeve begun
TMsigning
trtlame. And,
Irei- ike the vic-
s of those
| W lootings,
1,181 |e victims
| six 1
lo
Chris
Huffines
columnist
the talk-
g heads
d analysts
ie being viciously, callously de-
oyed for no other reason than
|ey are easy targets.
What has first been forgotten
I the shooters in almost every
â– sehave been children. These
liildren, like all children, did not
â– iderstand the consequences of
hat they were going to do. They
oceeded forward so compe-
ntly because they are not stu-
d, but they did not commit
urder—none of these children
alized they were going to actu-
fly kill anyone.
After the shooting came the aw-
[il realization that their classmates
lad died, by their own hands. The
insequences became real.
|3 Mitchell Johnson, one of the
is* Wsboro shooters, has been ask-
f xgfor his mother and saying
'Verand over, "I'm sorry. I'm sor-
y, I didn't mean to hurt nobody. I
^ver meant to hit anybody."
Suddenly, this is no longer a
Ante. These are children. These
Shuman beings. These are not
’Vets that have been manipulat
ory a callous, uncaring world
into acting like monsters.
Enter the talking heads. Pun
dits, commentators, whatever you
call them, they boil down to ego, a
mouth and an audience willing to
be lulled.
But, if these children have not
been evilly influenced, why have
the pundits and critics lashed out
so viciously at their at their own
set of victims? Because people are
more likely to believe an easy lie
than a difficult truth. The truth is
there is not a single causal factor.
There is not a single root cause for
these children's crimes. There was
only an unnoticeable, silexit series
of steps that eventually spiraled
down to the madness the whole
world has lapped up eagerly on
CNN. And what lie is easiest to
swallow than the one already
shoved down our throats by
countless action groups before.
Don't believe it? Look at the criti
cized issues.
Violence in television and
movies has been criticized. The
increase in violence in movies and
television has mirrored the in
crease in violence in society. How
ever, this does not prove a rela
tionship between the two. One
did not cause the other.
After all, it can quite conclu
sively be proven that the more fire
trucks called to a fire, the more
damage the fire causes. Is the an
swer then to send only one fire
truck to each fire, because the fire
trucks obviously cause the in
crease in damage? Or is the an
swer to look at the truth and real
ize the relationship between the
damage and the number of
trucks, as well as the relationship
between violence on television
and violence in America, are
caused by some other factor, as
yet unidentified?
Another victim of the talking
heads is gun control. The ratio
nale is the availability of guns is
leading to these shootings. Of
course, while the commentators
have answered the questioxi of,
"What?" they have never an
swered, "Why?" and "How?" be
cause there are no answers. The
pundits say the guns help create
the violence, but never point out
why or how the relationship ex
ists or works. This is what those
in the communications and gam
bling industries call "bluffing."
This is talking big with nothing to
back it up. But, with the recent
emphasis on gun control, it is easy
to tack another crime onto the list.
Now, before our own talking
heads here in Aggieland get into
things, the issue here is not vio
lence in the media or gun control
or any other issue that has been
blamed for these shootings. The
opinion being put forth is that the
American public, the individuals
who have lived half-truths and
propaganda for years now, need
to exhibit the maturity needed to
discriminate rationally between
fact and fantasy.
Jump off the bandwagon and
think for yourselves. There is no
excuse, and there will be no ex
cuse for our children, for letting
others not only think for the pub
lic, but using that power to make
them believe their misinforma
tion. The American public is being
spoon-fed sugar-coated lies —
eventually they will eat them
from within.
Chris Huffines is a sophomore
speech communications major.
The Battalion
Editorials appearing in The Battalion reflect the
views of the editorials board members. They do not
necessarily reflect the opinions of other Battalion
staff members, the Texas A&M student body, re
gents, administration, faculty of staff. Columns,
guest columns, cartoons and letters express the
opinions of the authors.
Editorials Board
James Francis
Editor in Chief
Mandy Cater
Managing Editor
April Towery
Opinion Editor
Amber Benson
City Editor
Cruise Control
College Station City Council should take into account the
concerns of students as well as neighborhood residents
In their second attempt to curtail traffic woes for res
idents of Munson Avenue, the City of College Station
decided Thursday to close the street indefinitely at Do-
minik Drive.
The decision comes after a flurry of complaints
from residents of Munson Avenue concerned with
the preservation of the neighborhood's "small-town
character."
However, this decision shows evidence of partial
ity by the council. College Station is anything but a
small town today. With a population of more than
58,000 full-time residents and upward of 42,000 Texas
A&M students, the city has grown exponentially in
recent decades and must evolve with its changing en
vironment.
The council's decision was based heavily on a peti
tion signed by 41 families citing their desire for the per
manent closure of Munson Avenue to thru traffic.
The requests of 41 families pale in comparison to the
more than 3,000 motorists who use the street each day.
And the wants of a few must not overshadow the ne
cessity of many.
Munson Avenue is the center of a growing network
of neighborhoods that includes not only permanent res-
idents, but also homeowning students and rental prop
erties. These citizens, who by contributing to College
Station's economy through taxes and expenditures, de
serve to have their needs evaluated with equal consid
eration by the council.
While the neighborhood residents' safety concerns
are legitimate, the council has already has taken more
than appropriate steps to reduce traffic volume and de
crease traffic speeds. The massive speed bumps and nu
merous stop sign additions have already have decreased
average daily traffic counts from 8,000 to 3,250.
With construction on Texas Avenue nearing com
pletion, the council should take a conservative stance
concerning action on Munson Avenue. It is likely that
motorists using Munson Avenue as an alternative to
Texas Avenue will return to the thoroughfare as con
struction allows.
As its final action, the council formed a committee to
solicit the opinions of those living in the area to find a
permanent solution to the problem. The council would
be best suited to solicit the opinions of not only the vo
cal neighborhood association, but also the tacit majori
ty who voice their opinions not by signing petitions, but
by using the street daily.
HIGH SCHOOL
GRADUATION
48
''/a
Cl
'rm
m