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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 15, 1998)
~4 he Battalion O pinion Page 11 •Thursday, October 15, 1998 thatedd that wt 'emonaii, ms have i rs inanj3 selves, hr moaie! rats speak there cans to as.; ection j ive mortisi tisingi notivate;:! e F medtott-i nf seats' ing. > indica:;! een able: :ore votr'a oppos;:.::j a cohol-free units genuinely reflect Corps goals, values ilgarettes are haz ardous to your 'health. The second- id health dangers are lificant. Many people id smoke annoying. is a result of these neg- |e aspects of tobacco se. restaurants and many ler public facilities offer larate sections for pa- -1 DAVID JOHNSTON try, andt: bis who choose to smoke and those who [fer not to partake. 'or identical reasons, the decision by Corps of Cadets units to go alcohol is a great move. o Corps units. Company P-2 and adron 12, now have official no-alcohol Jicies for their members. This is a posi- e policy that will not only improve the ps’ image, but also help combat the eotypical view of college students. lAlcohol use and abuse is prevalent election pong college students. While most of 'hat appffi well. asei ria ijir alcohol use is legal and much of it is fconsible, underage drinking still takes gee, and the annoying side affects of the Itjphol use are frequently evident, niversity Police Department has is- dmore than 78 minor-in-possession dons since January. Unfortunately, al- ol-related deaths are not uncommon ollege campuses. By implementing sse new alcohol-free policies, these ps units are distancing themselves these negative images. Icohol does not complement the image P Corps tries to portray of itself. Cadets disciplined and responsible. Those ds do not fit a drunk college student. Ithough not all drinkers wind up ine- ttted, banning alcohol eliminates the 3S 01311' — l00fe:t| ial. poses isk" beta atial relea st seiisiita s jbj]jty entirely. e. “Soniefl ■The presence of alcohol makes the rmatioiM-pg s t a ff s j 0 5 mo re difficult. They st worry about open containers, un- 'Mfc>g e roommates and disposal of empty bottles. Eliminating alcohol in these ii |nit’s residence halls prevents confronta- nd Fa* s and countless headaches. ies test: Aside from the administra tive difficulties, the presence of alcohol can be annoying to others nearby. Those who drink irresponsibly require an extra level of care and supervision. Roommates or unit buddies do not want the responsibility of getting a drunk friend to bed, putting up with odors or cleaning up any mess left over. Now that two units in the Corps are alcohol free, incoming Corps members may choose to avoid the problems that often accom pany alcohol. Corps units are, by de sign, very close-knit. Alco hol hinders the unity the group strives to achieve among its members. Alcohol creates a division between members who are over 21 and those who are under the legal drinking age. It separates the drinkers from the teetotalers. An alcohol- free unit can avoid the pos sibility of alienating some of its members. Compared to the other sacrifices Corps members must make, giving up alco hol is nothing. Even for those who insist upon their booze, there are other Corps units that continue to allow alcohol, There are few positive aspects to the use of alcohol. Certainly no one has been hurt by the absence of hard drink. Mem bers of the alcohol-free units will not suffer under the new policy. College life will con tinue, and weekends will still be as fun as they were before. The alcohol-free policy reflects the Corps’ aim to develop responsible leaders for tomorrow. In this case, the simplest and best way to avoid alcohol-related problems was to go to the root and get rid of the alcohol. Hopefully, these units will now be able to better focus on producing quality leaders for tomorrow. ROBERT HYNECEK/Thk Battalion Dave Johnston is a senior mathematics major. rlier this ig ways’ ions on jl riminal offenses ixtend past attitudes Absent parents lead to school violence has been a lisquieting 7 eek at the jversity of loming. There, student, tthew Shep- died from a ting apparent- hggered by his nosexuality. Crimes are assessed to actions. JOHN LEMONS not attitudes. Yet with the push for all this legislation to address hate, soon the law will address three types of crimes — felonies, misdemeanors and hate crimes. Hate crimes do not belong in separate legal category be- ny are calling it a hate crime. Unfortunately, this tragic event le j n g manipulated to achieve a hical agenda. As a result of yard’s death, many are calling ihe passage of hate-crime leg- ‘fion. There is, however, a 'blem with hate crimes — they not belong in the law. |Tne scene at the crime site It Wednesday was horrific. IjPard, 21, was found beaten i 1 tied to a fence in near-freez- I temperatures. He died from I'njuries Monday. |Aheady, two suspects have fn charged with the crime. Rus- ■ Henderson, 21, and Aaron ■Kinney, 22, were charged Fri- f with first-degree murder, kid- iPPtng and aggravated robbery. Pording to Laramie, Wyoming, ■•ne, the two men lured Shep- i trorn a campus bar and then IJedand beat him. 1 ow, the knee-jerk reaction to Pard’s death has been a call I °ugher laws against hate F e s. Saturday, President Clin- )r p ase d a statement calling [ ongress to pass the Hate l?h eS K Prevention Bil1 - I ne bill would permit federal Motion of hate crimes. The bill I bes a hate crime as “a violent - CIO Cl v 1WJC1 a using death or bodily injury L Se of the actual or perceived cil. l Lid I VJ1 ]Jt:I VCU. L’, or ’ religion, national origin, Elih ° rientatlon > gender or dis- y ai unent MWdf the victim. L U n rrent law allows federal pros- 5;)i i n only in cases in which an ** Was motivated by one of previously stated biases to pre- „ e Wctim from exercising a tino y Protected right, such as Art 0r attending school. ctnfAY’ 41 states and the Dis ' Ip Columbia already have na if lrri o laws that create stiffer it of 68 f° r orlmes committed ^lv;i 0r ? e sort Prejudice, often tdose states’ laws cov- to'c o Ses motivated by the vic- * s sexual orientation. <n 0r k a H ihis talk of cracking :) Wn n T UUb lalK 01 crac Jj^hate crimes, a vital W been missed — cause current law already covers them. The susoects in the Shep ard incident are charged with first-degree murder. The penalty for first-degree murder is death — the stiffest penalty available under U.S. law. Branding the Shepard murder a hate crime will add no justice to the Shepard trial. His killers will be punished no more justly than if they were convicted of murder. Perhaps the proponents of tougher hate crime laws want to see Shepard’s murderers strapped into two electric chairs instead of one. What hate-crime laws do ac complish is making society fall into the same trap as hate-crime perpe trators. Society sees these victims just like the assailants do — solely as members of some group. Consider the Shepard case. Stories on Shepard never fail to describe him as a gay student. Suddenly, the Shepard murder becomes focused on Shepard’s sexual preference when the real issue at hand is the murder of a human being. Surely there was more to this man than his sexual orientation, but the public will never know it because this case is a hate crime. The individual’s sexual orienta tion has become more important than the individual. At its heart, all this talk about hate crimes is a exercise in moral relativism. A murder becomes worse because it was motivated out of bigotry, as if greed or jeal ousy are more appropriate moti vations for murder. This is the type of relativism that allows the President’s defenders to claim he did not perjure himself because he lied about sex, as if lie about sex is not really a lie. Clearly, the Shepard case is re pugnant. But the heinousness of the crime does not justify tinker ing with the justice system. Under the bright lights of logic, hate crimes make little sense. After such a terrible crime, though, maybe Shepard’s murder ers do deserve two electric chairs. W , u , nas been missed — 1( J hate become a crime? John Lemons is an electrical engineering graduate student. L ast Monday, jury selec tion began for the trial of Michael Adam Carneal on charges of killing three students and wounding five others in Pa ducah, Kentucky. STEWART PATTON A few years ago, discussions about adolescents and crime fo cused on preventing child pornog raphy and kidnapping. From shooting other students at school (Paducah, Jonesboro) to murder ing a policeman (Houston) to tak ing LSD to school (fourth-grader in Los Angeles), young people today increasingly are perpetrating crime as well as falling victim to it. Department of Education sta tistics show that for the 1996-97 school year, 10 percent of all ur ban public schools experienced serious violent crime such as murder, rape, robbery, but 77 percent of public high schools reported at least one less-serious violent incident. The bread and butter of public school administration is finding new ways to “get tough” on school violence. A study released recently by the Mayo Clinic, however, shows that a child’s relationship with his or her parents is the single greatest factor determining whether a child will be involved in violent activity. Parenting is a strange profes sion: Almost everyone has the ca pacity to become one but almost no one receives any training. Americans have taken their love of individual rights and liber ty so far that they have severed a parent’s responsibility for the ac tions of their children. By paint ing children as completely au tonomous individuals, parents are now absolved of all responsibility to raise them properly. Dr. Robert Blum, co-author of the Mayo Clinic report, tells par ents that “you can’t buy into the myth that you are no longer rele vant in your children’s lives.” Blum and other researchers had more than 90,000 adolescents fill out questionnaires; the researchers then conducted face-to-face inter views with 12,000 of the respon dents. The overwhelming conclu sion of the study is that as the quality of the relationship with par ents increased, adolescents were less likely to have suicidal thoughts or behaviors, use marijuana or al cohol, engage in violent activity or have their first sexual experience at a younger age. Clearly, Americans are con fused about how to be a “good parent.” Since Dr. Spock’s work in the ’50s and ’60s, literature about how to raise good children has become wildly popular. Additionally, it is estimated American adolescents spend 10 to 12 fewer hours a week with their parents than they did in 1960 be cause of increased workforce pres sure on parents. Parents are con fused about what to do, and they have less time in which to do it. Blum notes, however, that some of the most important things a parent can do for a child are also the easiest and do not take much time. “Kids repeatedly told us that small messages are important”. Blum says parents should sim ply give their kid a hug and wish him or her good luck on a test. Or a parent should ask a child about last night’s date. Sure, these little messages can be goofy, and sometimes a child will not want to discuss her date — the important thing is that ado lescents realize their parents care about their lives. Ask your child how his day went and even though he only answers “fine,” he will get the message. As Aggies approach the time when they will get married and have a family, they should commit themselves to taking the time and effort necessary to be good par ents- Better parenting is the only way to keep the next generation from being as violent as this one. Stewart Patton is a senior sociology major. KrLMEis MAIL CALL New viewpoints bring diversity In response to Oct. 13 mail call: Despite Miss Phelps’ “disap pointment” with The Battalion’s failure to run an anti-homosexual rebuttal on the same page as Lisa Foox’s column, here in America we have a little thing called the Constitution that pro tects the freedom of speech not only of right-wing fringe funda mentalists, but the rest of us, even at Texas A&M. If a student finds periodic ex posures to different points of view to be too disturbing, they can transfer to one of the many Bible colleges in the state. If even this proves to be too much, they can move onto a compound with other “good Christians” like the Branch Davidians. As for myself, I am glad to see a smidgen of diversity on the opin ion page for a change. Mitch Lawyer Graduate student Statement ignores part of scripture In response to Lisa Foox’s Oct. 12 column: It seems Coming Out Week has become more about biblical precepts than actually coming out of the closet. Foox claims there are numerous Bible verses that promote loving others with out judging their sins. Obviously she has not read the New Testament, or at least she has not looked very closely. Most people read “do not judge so that you will not be judged,” and stop. However, there are four verses after it that ex plain exactly what Christ was talk ing about. Scripture says, “You hypocrite, first take the log out of you own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.” A command not only to judge his sins — as op posed to judging his soul, which is clearly forbidden — but to rebuke it as well. John 7:24 states, “Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.” While advocates of the union of Christianity and homosexuality proclaim the Bible tells us not to judge, they make it even more ob vious they do not have a clear un derstanding of the scriptures, or they have not read them at all. Who then can trust their interpre tation over verses that conflict with their everyday lifestyle? (Ro mans 1:22-27) Let us stop throwing the Bible around like we did the Corn- Huskers, and read it before we preach it. Ryan Holland Class of '00 Gay students deserve respect In response to Lisa Foox’s Oct. 12 column: Thank you, Lisa Foox, for advo cating understanding and toler ance of homosexuality. As a gay student, I do not ex pect everyone to agree with my lifestyle. I simply wish them to re spect my right to love who or what ever way I choose, just as I re spect them. Most of my friends are conservative Christians, but we honor each other’s individuali ty. They do not pressure me to ward heterosexuality, just as I do not encourage them toward homo sexuality or against Christianity. In this manner, we have built en riched friendships. With increased compassion, we students can enjoy each oth er’s commonalities rather than be segregated by our prejudices. Kent Carter Class of ’01 The Battalion encourages letters to the ed itor. Letters must be 300 words or less and in clude the author's name, class and phone number. The opinion editor reserves the right to edit letters for length, style, and accuracy. Letters may be submitted in person at 013 Reed Mc Donald with a valid student ID. Letters may also be mailed to: The Battalion - Mail Call 013 Reed McDonald Texas A&M University College Station, TX 77843-1111 Campus Mail: 1111 Fax: (409) 845-2647 E-mail: batt@tamvml.tamu.edu
