esday • August 4,1998
The Battalion
PINION
ipstick liberation
nniversary of Seneca Falls celebrates progress of women
Meredith
Hight
columnist
1 most
■venttoanirr A ta t' 1116 when feminism seems
en became, / * to most often be associated
and when '.-I A. with debates about “Ally
country, s[ kBoal" or contentious abortion
me-show ghts arguments, it may serve
off the air, si If en well to
lyorchestras »ke a look back to
she retumi |t irne when
'vision wit- pmen did not
•Along.' 1 ven have a voice
nade several Bperican soci-
arances. ty,l:o take stock
n to Emmw how far women
ard, the John, avh come,
rd for Exa .Several weeks
even Parav 50] the 150th an-
heActiontorG virsary of
card. vornen's rights
hari Lew- ; vas celebrated.
Id to Gold ■ mem ora ting the event in Seneca
tainmentfo: alls, New York that pioneered the
■inist movement. At the Seneca
ho lived ir alls convention in July of 1848, the
vedbyherli rstnational public call for women's
lisher jeremi II citizenship and equality was is-
aughterand pd through the Declaration of Sen-
also sun: gents.
oily of da what 150 years has shown is over
Charlie He Intury of progress and consider-
’ the fair:, ble gains by women in both the pub-
cand private domains. This is not to
I will bepnviB wornen are’unequivocally equal
Jbday's society. It does indicate
or, Begh" ' lough, that the past 150 years has
iched women closer and closer to
goal — that in and of itself is
hh celebrating.
Instead of lamenting the appear-
of skinny, gorgeous models on
cover of fashion magazines and
oaning men's poor treatment of
jmen in romantic relationships,
women should acknowledge the
at strides that have been made.
ebuts Tuestoj
;e will i
mas album if
m release
uppers
might Shov
faithful.
of good bar;]
is commiiniL,
ineofthesfctfckmy has many more important ex-
itnples of women being treated as ob-
than those of trivial concerns.
|n 1848, women could not vote or
inland. They typically did not
e access to quality education. For
majority of women, the life plan
was marriage and children, period.
Fo those who did not follow that
te, the only career options avail-
e up until the 1960s and 1970s,
re secretary, teacher or nurse.
■ fl( <||dFoday, of course, is a completely
0Onv)vd|ferent ball game. Women are doc-
, lawyers, and engineers. They are
cessful in business. Sixty million
re jobs are held by women now
n in 1964, according to the U.S.
partment of Labor Women's Bu
rn If women continue to make
ns as they are doing now, the
I lass ceil ng" should hopefully be
i I )ken through by the 200th anniver
sary of the womens
rights' movement.
One problem remains
— a wage gap still exists
between men and
women.
Women only earned
74 cents for every dollar
that a man earned in
1996. However, in 1966,
women earned only 58
cents for every dollar.
Women are slowly but
surely closing the gap.
A college education,
the ticket to a successful
career, is no longer a rar
ity for women. Just as
many women attend col
lege as do men. Since
Texas A&M officially ad
mitted women in 1963,
female students have
grown increasingly im
portant to the Universi
ty's success. A&M would
not be able to vie for Top
10 status with other pub
lic universities if it was
still an all-male military
institution.
The Class of '00 was
the first class to admit
more women than men.
Women have assumed
numerous leadership
roles on campus, the
most notable being that
of Brooke Leslie, the first
female student body
president and Laurie
Nickel, the new student
body president for 1998-
1999.
On a national scale,
some of the nation's
most prominent political
leaders are women.
Among these are Senator
Kay Bailey Hutchison,
New Jersey Governor
Christine Todd Whitman
and Secretary of State
Madeline Albright. First
Lady and Yale Law
School grad Hillary Rod
ham Clinton and Ameri
can Red Cross president Elizabeth
Dole also are examples of women
who have achieved success.
In the past decade, domestic issues
concerning women who were former
ly dismissed as family problems have
become important social issues. The
Clarence Thomas Senate confirmation
hearings alerted national conscious
ness to the issue of sexual harassment
in the workplace, despite the fact that
he was cleared of the allegations.
Women do deserve a working envi
ronment that is not sexually charged,
and that is now an expectation rather
than a hope for women.
Domestic violence also was
brought into the national spotlight af
ter the O.J. Simpson trial revealed
frantic 9-1-1 calls from Nicole Brown
Simpson, fearing for her life at the
hands of her husband. While it is
tragic that it apparently took her
death to demonstrate the horrors of
domestic violence, it is important the
issue is recognized.
Overall, the last 150 years have
seen an increase in equality for
women, through the workplace, in
politics and in social issues. This
Graphic By Quatro Oakley / The Battalion
should be the focus, rather than a
continued emphasis on the supposed
unfairness that comes with being a
woman in today's society. Although
there are gains to be made, 150 years
of progress is definitely something to
celebrate.
Meredith Hight is a junior
journalism major.
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Drug epidemic hits suburbia
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T wenty-nine Plano youths,
most of them in their early
20s, were charged with con
spiring to distribute cocaine and
heroin to
youths and
adults. If con
victed, they
could face a
stiff sentence
of 20 years to
life in prison.
The inves-
JOE
Schumacher
columnist
tigation was
conducted not
just as a drug
case, but also
as an attempt
ed homicide.
From now on, this is how all drug
investigations should be treated.
The selling of drugs is premedi
tated and everyone involved knows
the eventual repercussions: death.
In addition, to profit from some one
else's suffering is despicable.
"This is definitely a new twist
from dealing with an overdose
death as 'too bad so sad, you should
not have been doing drugs' to treat
ing it as almost a homicide and run
ning a full-blown homicide investi
gation," Paul Villaescusa, a
spokesperson for the DEA, said in
an AP report.
These arrests come after a 15-
month investigation and 20 over
doses, of which 17 were fatal, since
1994. Twenty-four of the accused
are charged with the deaths of four
people ranging in ages from 16 to
20.
These arrests, as well as the
severity of the sentences, is a result
of changing attitudes toward drug
dealers that is past due. The victims
of these alleged drug dealers paid
the ultimate price for shortsighted
ness and if convicted, so should the
pushers.
Until now, many people have
seen deaths from overdoses as the
price a person pays for taking
drugs. This attitude was generally
accepted until kids in upper mid
dle-class neighborhoods started ex
perimenting with heroin.
The public never really seemed
to care much about the drug prob
lem when it seemed to be confined
to the poor. The "just say no" cam
paigns and the anti-drug after
school specials seemed to be
enough, almost always portraying
the drug dealers as villains from the
wrong side of the tracks. However,
these drug dealers from Plano are
not young juvenile delinquents but
honor students and athletes.
Also, many addicts are por
trayed as deranged fiends. But, the
addicts in Plano were hardly that.
Nobody had any idea, not parents,
not teachers, no one. The arrests in
Plano show just how bad the drug
epidemic is in America.
Yet, some people would go so far
as to say the pushers also are vic
tims in this crime. To lock up these
young, well-to-do kids for mistakes
that they made in their youth is a
great tragedy.
These kids have a future in front
of them, and their lives also are be
ing thrown away if severely sen
tenced. Perhaps these kids are just
effigies in another wave of getting
tough on crime and drugs.
Moreover, if convicted of the the
drug conspiracy charges, these kids
also suffer from another problem:
greed. There was no economic pres
sure forcing these kids to sell drugs
in their comfortable middle class
neighborhoods — and economic
conditions are never an excuse for
selling drugs, any way.
According to the investigation,
the heroin these dealers were dis
tributing was 37 to 70 percent pure.
This is almost five to 10 times the
level of potency of common street
heroin. The heroin was probably
not cheap for the dealers to buy or
for their clients to purchase. To the
dealers, money meant more than
human life.
Stricter penalties on dealers are
much needed and past due. How
ever, to make this policy work com
pletely there needs to be a way for
those who are addicted to seek help
without fear of legal repercussions.
Otherwise, the repercussions of
these laws could result in a crack
down on those who need help, not
those who are the actual problem.
It is a tragedy what happened in
Plano. The fact that it took lives of
17 youths for America to realize the
severity of the drug problem is pa
thetic. What is sad is these deaths
had to occur in a nice, middle-class
neighborhood in order for drug en
forcement officials to change their
mentality toward arresting and con
victing these criminals.
Joe Schumacher is a junior
journalism major,