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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 21, 1998)
u jsday • July 21,1998 The Battalion PINION and shootiitj 'f arresil ttorney rors in ham \ os was lr asual corner ericans have progressed in every aspect of society except outward appearances Chris Martin Aggie life editor e mod- rn orld is 3 -woijderful t low ceofaes- crimeai lC ll< ^’ iwas de;- cement, ss alotd new ■re ever.ks'vagen le ssion, alu - ned |iur; stere- digitally- PncentriM d cornic |ecar,( |kjand the ed Tah Fawcett — all of these ion. Bodities are pleasing to the ■ ThafsB an ks to thm miracle of mod- lood, iBhnology. But despite all of |cover a.'lp^g 1-685 / there seems to be area that always is found bny Me-Jdng- Clothing. Istitied Call it a modest proposal. In foariB where no party is com- |home: teUithout a gaggle of tank- kill JorBd "woo woo" girls and no lest siness has a sound morale |v Vjjtout "dress down Fridays," it tesdt. ils the old-fashioned art Jon t ssy and elegant haberdashery onefijecome, well, old-fashioned. I He latter third of the 20th pm itury is truly going to be an arrassment to future genera- o quo ) who wake up and realize error of our ways. And de- lld face not alty, lishes spite what Devo and Back to the Future 2 have predicted, surely the future of fashion does not lie in synthetic metallic jumpsuits. Like everything else, taste comes in cycles, and the world is cur rently stuck in the lowest oscilla tion. Somewhere along the line, the world went from the pearls and spats to belly chains and flip flops. The blame for this rests squarely on the shoulders of two men, Henry Ford and Richard Simmons. Society's obsession for exercise is one of the big reasons for the great casualness. Before the auto mobile, people stayed in shape by working and walking. But walking now is seen as "exer cise," and not as a basic method of human propulsion. It is fascinating to see this in action in the school's busy park ing lots, where students late to class will park themselves in the front row of a lot waiting for someone to leave a space while empty spots lie just a few rows down. "You can't make me walk any further than I absolutely have to," seems to be the creed. Because of this, fashion has made the transition from looking good to feeling good. People must be ready at all times, no matter what time of day or night, to be able to exercise. Thus came the plague of matching purple and green jogging suits, and not surprisingly, the fanny pack. Think about the person who should embody the most class and grace in society, the presi dent. A quick stroll through the pages of history reveals riding coats, suits, hats and gloves. Then picture the president to day. Four words: itty-bitty run ning shorts. This is what history will record. Can anyone imagine Lincoln jogging up and down the White House lawn in his top hat and some Adidas soccer shorts? Or Grover Cleveland frolicking in the rose garden wearing only a smile and a pair of red Speedos? Layers may be hot and obtuse these days, but they sure look good. Besides, being a rebel today is not about a skateboard, baggy shorts and a tube-striped tee. It's about wing-tips, a pocket watch and a fedora. Chris Martin is a senior journalism major. 000 bug causes personal problems lofadf! llic lift lal. ferceive Iting lie rist all esiden! hipped [less sli rigor# lit labou* 1's saf 1 the year 2000 ing. Well, of course it is. But with it comes a big problem. No, not the end of humanity. As "Planet of the ” fans know, that happens -o,, _id the year 2500 when the in- d fill ant monkeys take over the •f nnj -What the year 2000 will 'r'. ■ is the year 2000 bug. 'I? tl» anticipation of the year 2000, [lent?' it! nited States government and the; major corporations have been I happen ing diligently on fixing it (i.e., g legions of programmers to that? * e °i d programs). In anticipa- )f the year 2000, students, too, been working diligently on computers (i.e. playing hour hour of computer solitaire), ndan; lt: the year 2000 a scant year-and-a-half away, 'thing must be done to stop the year 2000 bug from pting students' personal lives. After all, the 21st cen- will be worthless if they can't spend a significant por- >f it playing solitaire on the computer. Unfortunately, don't have a fleet of nerds to fix the bug in their per il lives. But fear not, there is a solution. What follows, 3me suggestions for beating the year 2000 bug at sA&M. y now, the bug has received considerable attention the media. Various doomsday prophets have John Lemons columnist 'ed the bug may do all kinds of nefarious things from • an ar ’ : n 8 die world's economy to wrecking the Internet. even has a melodramatic name — the Y2K bug. Y2K Caro) ds an awful lot like the title of a Terminator movie n, ojr ? years back. If this Y2K bug is somehow connected less li borg killing machines from the future, then it really dine, rves all the attention it has been getting. nagine this terrible scene. It is the morning of Jan. 1. ^orom )ld Schwarzenegger, dressed in black leather and *1 to the teeth, busts down someone's front door. He 3 at: die homeowner through his dark sun glasses and ui his thick, Austrian accent, "I'm looking for Sarah asoli* jior,",after which he proceeds to pull out his sawed- botgun and target the family. Wow, that is a scary thought. Anyway, onto solving the year 2000 bug problem in students' lives. My first thought was that the perfect solu tion to the bug is time travel. If one can transport him or herself and their electronics back in time, they can avoid the year 2000. Upon contacting the physics department to ask how one might travel backward in time, one will find department employees will laugh and inform the caller time travel is impractical unless one has access to Michael J. Fox, a Delorian and 1.21 gigawatts of power. Since most students probably don't have access to these things, they should make their most important pos sessions year 2000 compliant. For example, one definitely want one's refrigerator to be safe from the bug. If a refrig erator fails on the morning Jan. 1,2000 and all of the food spoils, people will not be able to cook breakfast. Starting the new millennium out on an empty stomach is not a good idea. Fortunately, some refrigerator manufacturers say their refrigerators are year 2000 compliant. Lastly, students should protect their VCRs. Since many students never figured out how to program the clock, it stays at 12 a.m., continually blinking. Students should briefly un-plug their VCRs and then fail to set the clock. This way, the VCR will never reach Jan. 1,2000, keeping it safe from the bug. One will also get the added benefit of never being able to set the timer to record "The Jerry Springer Show." Hopefully these suggestions will help students protect tliemselves from the year 2000 bug. Oh yeah, if a student comes across one of those com puter nerd types that got Americans into this mess, give him or her what he or she deserves — a swift kick to the rear. After that, just say, "That's for those cyborg killer ro bot terminators, you geek." And if the person gives you a puzzled look, don't fall for his or her bluff. Just walk on by, secure in the knowl edge that you are prepared to handle the year 2000 bug. John Lemons is an electrical engineering graduate student. Ahirt proposal r omotes unity Wsponse to Chris Huffines'Thursday, I 16 , column: Chris Huffines not only attacks Pride, but his opinions are ririse assumptions and un- I ^1 ^ffines has somehow come to p^ous conclusion "Maroon i r i fewest project being re- I l .,, e d y class councils is some- ); ,JJ^ng Texas A&M into "the I J f slar ? es t cult." His belief is ti P dents H titUteS ^ large gr ° up of HI alike and s i nging II n - So beware of all choir J that members, football players, girl scouts or even janitors, for crying out loud. Huffines then questions the idea of how Aggies "sweating together could possibly be fun. He states "the last time anyone checked, maroon is a dark color." The last time anyone checked, we are also the same Aggies who stood, soaked to our underwear, at the University of Texas game. What does Huffines think everyone presently wears to football games, thong bikinis? Huffines talks about former stu dents as if they were rotisserie meat, roasting along, standing in the sun watching a football game in the mid dle of September in South Texas." The former students sit in the shade and will be doing so in the middle of October in Central Texas. In closing, Huffines assumes Ma roon-Out T-shirts will divide the stu dent body because of all the sponsor ships listed on the back of the shirt. The class councils generate their own revenue and do not use sponsorship. We do disagree with the last point presented in the column when Huffines states, "Maroon Out is a well-meaning idea." Precisely — it is an idea, and it is just an idea. It is not a cult, not a forced tradition and cer tainly not something developed to divide student unity. By raising funds through tradi tions such as E-Walk and Ring Dance, working with the Association of Former Students and hopefully. Maroon Out, we are able to donate $90,000 each year to A&M. We appreciate any kind of feed back, as long as it is based on re search facts. We look forward to sell ing you a T-shirt. Kendall Kelly Class of'99 president Kyle Valentine Class of'00 president Kevin Weeks Class of VI president The Battalion encourages letters to the editor Letters must be 300 words or less and include the author’s name, class and The opinion editor reserves the right to edit letters for length, style, and accuracy. Letters may be submitted in person at 013 Reed McDonald with a valid student ID. Let ters may also be mailed to: The Battalion - Mail Cali 013 Reed McDonald Texas A&M University C0, ^l4 S ^ TX Campus Mail: 1111 Fax: (409) 845-2647 E-mail: batt@unix.tamu.edu Nation’s anti-drug campaign could change youth attitudes F rom the wealthy suburb of Plano to the Amish country of Pennsylvania, young peo ple are in creasingly being enticed by the allure of illicit drugs. In the latest battle in the war on drugs, the government has invested $195 million Meredith Right columnist m a year long ad cam paign to dis courage teenagers from using illicit drugs. It could be one of the most ef fective tools the government has in combating the popularity of il licit drug use among youth in this country. Some activists and politicians claim the money could be better spent on after-school programs and drug treatment centers. Al though these also are viable op tions in the attempt to dissuade teenage drug use, the power of television should not be underes timated. One of the main ads features a young woman angrily tearing her kitchen apart with a frying pan while screaming about the rav ages of heroin on her body, her family and friends and her job. The new ad is a twist on the 1980s campaign that featured a frying pan and an egg being fried , with the voice over of "this is your brain, this is your brain on drugs." This time, the frying pan is used as a weapon by the young woman to destroy the kitchen, and the egg is immediately smashed against the kitchen counter as symbolic of heroin's effect on the body. Before it was a national media blitz, this ad was aired in 12 test cities all over the United States. In those cities, there was a 300 per cent increase in calls to a national drug information resource center, according to Gen. Barry McCaf frey, the drug policy director un der President Bill Clinton. Al though it will take three years to determine if these ads are effec tive, that is a promising sign. It seems as if drugs have left no part of the United States un scathed, leading to the need for national attention to this subject matter. "Nobody in America is free of this — not the president, not any community, any school, any church, any neighborhood, " Clinton said at the official an nouncement of the ad campaign. The entire community of Plano was reportedly shocked at the heroin overdose deaths of several local high school kids. A family- oriented, wealthy suburb is the last place one would expect to find teenagers addicted to a drug as hard as heroin. Even more bizarre was the dis covery Amish youths were caught using drugs. The Amish may be one of the least assimilat ed social groups in America, but even it did not manage to escape the influence of drugs. Television is one of the most powerful mediums in American society, and therefore is one of the most powerful ways to make an impact, no matter what the audi ence background. This correlation between drug use and anti-drug advertisements is most easily seen with the rise in teen drug use when public ser vice announcements were shifted to late-night/early morning slots. Since cable television was creat ing intense competition, prime time television could no longer afford to air public service an nouncements against drugs. During this time, drug use more than doubled among teens. At Texas A&M, students gener ally have reached the age when they are not quite so vulnerable to the peer pressures that middle school and high school students are under. In addition, "Campus wide surveys have shown students are not tolerant of illicit drugs on campus or at parties," according to Helen Gutierres, coordinator of campus wide alcohol education. Generally, a very small num ber of students use illicit drugs. The new anti-drug ad cam paign may not necessarily be tar geted at the college age audience, but that does not mean their im pact will not be felt. At the end of the new ad de picting the young woman tear ing her kitchen apart, she stares in to the camera and asks, "Any questions?" If one has any questions regard ing drug use, confidential, free counseling is available through the Alcohol and Drug Education Pro grams office at 845-0280. Meredith Might is a junior journalism major.