8 Inesday • August 5,1998 The Battalion PINION for them to is are," he^ r asketball par! complish that merica always has taken vacation travel seriously. After all, what ^^other nation on earth can boast of th the con; lt j n g the shopped Watkins' hs e came, we saw, we 'actioners forsake traditonal tourist attractions for America’s shopping malls I the first dav h. ays' overall f to do there |i les said thetf ■nsive sets in drills waste i nd amenta mvard to t his hard r inebago 'Yet Ameri- 5have hit a new low in r choice of ation desti- jhns: shop- smalls, pecent sur- shows that States, in- ■g Texas, Steven Gyeszly columnist He [Watkin- Rng malls t and thatweMecome some of the most visited ■attractions. It is hard to believe /ton kept hi^tanyone would take a vacation just to king out andrH time at an out-of-state Post Oak mmer scnoo prints at tli re two-houi us into Rut apparently more and more peo- are planning their vacations around a ito the Food Court. Hie observers say that shopping va- ■s merely reflect many Americans' ■le to keep a balance in their every- 10 minutes*lh es. However, the problem runs ore player-■deeper then this. The recent trend ■lily vacations at shopping malls ■t the very idea of American vaca- e integral aspect of American vaca- Iture to be swept away by a flood iewalk sales is the bonding built by hallowed traditional family vacation. Ran forget the great American road ■pf bygone days as everyone piled rr Re family station wagon and sib- 3.S lg|P unch ^ each other for crossing the ■nary line dividing the back seat? sed to p, And what about all the memorable 1. Rs? Out-of-focus shots of Grandpa ns bv these front of the mystery monument can- so found t itbe replaced by the picture of the fication aKiply standing next to the mall foun- jtion. Eilluminated by the romantic glow basketba adepartment store sign, orfeited its |Lefsface it, nothing brings a family 1997 and ItsRrtogether than reminiscing about iment dcti Itime little Timmy got sick all over actions coi leofthe rides at Disney World, or that TecfipR Uncle Joe was chased by a bear ts 1996 met'ilecamping out at Yellowstone Na- ment nionf anal Park. > through2(•■hat kind of memorable stories can t() percent, jtold about a mall? Aunt Louise scor- aid the tot; | a 50 percent discount on a designer the schd k S6 doesn't quite make for a very riv- 10,000 plus Ig tale. ■ose family ties are not the only as- eam remo't® 0 f ]jf e w j|] j os j. jp mofg f arn i- consideraf } || on ) ; j nue vacation at malls. The it cost u’^liuniqueness of America itself will be ig Hbow M'jj an en ti re generation of children, thletic depajp a ma j] ever the place of ! ’’ dpnial Williamsburg — the only place "gges ."'Re northern hemisphere where gruel )n the child's menu? And what about all the other charm- locales across this nation? The curse echnology tightens border security ast April, authorities began call ing in visa documents held for I decades by millions of Mexicans eplace them computer- 2000. SO B0 which li®l lure top at® ; taking ai«; ships over had voluatf ?r two years team will years, one f iggested. > lose 7 h rough 20I * 1 - >d that by i 1 ! basketball ost a schob 's recom® CAA is tfd \isas with a ptal finger- pt. It is all of a sweep- ew effort to rol travel ss the Mexi- jborder. he plan was lake effect on 11,1999 as of a 1996 igration ,but legislation moving in con- >s could change that. The reason ag that Mexican shoppers are not ected to buy into the new United res visa card plan, n January, however, authorities Bed a building in Ciudad, Jaurez, I se ^ zec * more than 400 old cards on the spil P Were being rented for illegal bor- I crossings. This is proof that ^lerica is being taken advantage of, YiTSw I a new strategy is long overdue, the documents being replaced, [st of them bearing outdated pho- Jraphs, allow more than 100 million lal border crossings each year by piness people, tourists and shop- tsfrom Mexico, the United States' tend biggest trading partner after riada. The hope is that the new cards. of the small town — too much spare time, leads to strange hobbies and odd collections — all on view for anyone with the quarter entrance fee. Any visitor to Houston can go to the Galleria, but it takes a true connoisseur to visit “The House of Bottle Caps" (not to be confused with College Station's landmark "Bottle Cap Alley"). A vacation in America means an un expected overnight stay at the strangely familiar "Motel 6" in Mississippi, or stopping off at the random fruit festival destined to be happening at a country side near you. Visiting shopping malls as a primary vacation destination signals the exhaus tion of the American imagination. Ac cording to a recent Associated Press sto ry, in a study of 8,000 leisure travelers to Las Vegas, 67 percent listed shopping as their primary activity. With all the activities that are legal in Las Vegas, it is a sad, sad day when two- thirds of the American population would rather try their luck at a 50 per cent off sale, rather than Caesar's Palace. This lack of creativity will continue to haunt long after the vacation is over. Drinking coffee out of the Elvis mug bought in Memphis lets one reminisce about Graceland long after the memo ries of shag green carpet and peanut- butter-and-bacon sandwiches fade. Wearing the souvenir T-shirt bought at a store in the mall only will remind oneself that even though you bought the shirt, you will never look anything like the people in the ad. Much like the eternal question of how the Egg Roll House has stayed open all these years when it seems no one has ever eaten there, one can only wonder why people are willing to travel to spend their vacation in a mall. No one goes out of state just to eat at Arby's, so why leave town just to shop at another store chain? By abandoning familiar tourist desti nations, Americans abandon a way of life. Traditional tourist areas are filled with potential memories. Shopping malls are filled with power walking senior citizens in the morning and skanky teenagers hanging out until their moms come to pick them up at night. It may be a matter of choice, but a vacation destination should never in volve Corn Dog 7. Steven Gyeszly is a junior finance major. Jv*- =^11. Reined ilion Do It which the State Department calls laser visas, will help to screen out criminal and illegal immigrants and to possibly expedite the daily torrent of northbound traffic across the 2,000 mile border. The laser visas will replace three documents in current use: business and tourism visas, which like other visas the State Department issues elsewhere in the world allowing trav el to any part of the U.S., and other border-crossing cards. For 50 years these cards, authorizing travel within 25 miles of the border for 72 hours, have been issued by the Immigration and Naturalization Service only to Mexicans. On the other hand, the new laser uses CD-ROM technology to store a digital photo, fingerprint and other data. The laser visas will be valid for 10 years, unlike the old cards, which were good for a lifetime of use. The old visas were issued without the expiration dates in at least 15 dif ferent formats. Many have childhood photographs of middle-aged Mexi cans. Old photos on the old cards make attempts to compare cards with bearers' faces difficult for border offi cials — a situation that gangs have taken advantage of for too long. The replacement of the old border crossing cards, mandated by a 1996 law written to tighten border con trols, has many Mexicans upset by a $45 possessing fee, despite American assurance that most holders of the document will qualify for the new ones. Fearing that their applications may be denied, many say they cannot or will not buy the $45 laser visa cards. The fact that many Mexican shop pers are saying that they cannot af ford the $45 visas is ridiculous. Mexi can consumers spend hundreds of millions of dollars each year in Amer ican border-town Wal-Marts and Safe- ways. One would think the Mexican con sumers could shell out an additional $45 with all of the money they are saving by shopping in the U.S. The main reason for their hesitance to ad here to the new plan is the fact that many of the millions that are entering the U.S. each year are doing so illegal ly and have been for the last five decades. The fact is, those who hold the old cards and have not abused their privi leges should not worry. Since they are not the problem, they are assured a new visa. Admittance into the United States should be considered a privilege. The reason for the new visas is to curtail the many who are taking advantage of this privilege. Legislation needs to put this three-year-old law into effect. Guests should not be able to deter mine the house rules. Rich Paddack is a junior journalism major. MHeep AH 0/E ON THE FLW3 SO NO0CDY BURNS in..