The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, October 15, 1998, Image 11

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    ~4
he Battalion
O
pinion
Page 11 •Thursday, October 15, 1998
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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