TAiyiu ld March 29,1999 ■life inist ^eal Battalion O PINION Page 7 • Monday, March 29, 1999 ISSA JORDAN Battalion ^f^andidates stereotype of: ng the pro-d tli her lectute. ? Against Ate 1 Rudder, y, vice preside:) said student; ;e to see that a lave chosen to ipport the foj n. lifferent people old,†Bailey si l* nahue, LMrSj Coaliiioo y iced support, uise for efforts r hat do par ents, cars, and candi- ats have in ill Christian ROBBINS that the bles: i is bad. dents readier responds to iolumnist’s opinion mg iot :e after e Final fcnce again I visit Texas A & M where I C Cl in j greeted by a large number of stu- ts who attentively listen; some agree- and some engaging in serious and re- ctful debate when they disagree, nd once again The Battalion falsely landers me and my beliefs by passing ■inaccurate and inflammatory stories, perefore, I will, once again, clarify what I G, Mich. (APllid and did not say and hope that this s was sweptian pu t an end to these needless contro- rs were all Persies. Michigan I am accused of being “dangerous†ast Lansing because my “intolerance†is cloaked in h of a vjoleHlwds of love and salvation when my “ac- isands follo"iual words†reveal “a man who hates etball ga/ne''jverything not like him.†As evidence that aeak such hateful words, Manisha Parekh refers to an article on Website in which I bemoan that “peo- ‘d, 24 witeffl do not make enough judgements own busMlpiit right and wrong.†While she does ested -soihot say how this is “hateful,†she fails her hey would eadership even more by not giving the pe to seeifwBitext of the statement, made. , In context of the article, I was referring ents arresiedp some people who are so “tolerant†e MichiganMnd “non-judgmental†that they refuse to Lansing Pdjven condemn Adolph Hitler as being an said. filorbadman! ite baskedj Certainly Parekh doesn’t think it “hate- had plante|r to judge Hitler as evil does she? back to ®The deceitfulness and deviousness of y. But the tder opinion piece sinks even deeper i because Wen, just two sentences later, she at- ucal probleUWks me for telling a Jew she would rampage mirn in hell†and that “Hitler did not go > Spartans’ i: ar enough." Final Four! 11 jEven though the Website that claims I ight. aid this includes a denial that it ever ibarrassinghappened and the article she quotes jpset me teom my web site clearly teaches that I ;zo said S#elieve Hitler was an evil, murderous in Sand KefBn, Parekh seems to have no bad con- r ater Beach.Bence about passing this inflammatory were throtetory on to her readership, d the first ■To do so without seeking a statement after 10 from me, the group that sponsors me on he game f ampus or even taking time to read our Btten account given in past years to The s would ; battalion takes journalistic ethics to a e team mwew low and causes me to seriously r,†said fdoubt her interest in truth and accuracy. in State sity relation 5 But is there any truth to these accusa- Campaign fever 1999 Dose a mim- emphasizf “i annoyance, ,, ,, they are im- pro-tllJiant anc j are smsKsamsKrmmammmm f c use , ^■essities as a whole, re pro-c 0lce, mvhii e Aggies may be a bit dis- ^Ji^Htled by the influx of colored ’’ Ul , L T e |..B ters - hire trucks, happy faces (’ J hard hats that flood the cam- mn ot get,.. u l during campaign season, they i Itian F nJst applaud the candidates for ^Hfmpting to win such important anahue sa n( t time-consuming positions, collegiate “ Candidates, once elected, must susceptible 30 |. f orwar( j to countless meet- ea ot abortion s i ee pi ess nights, and constant aid abort ritkism. A typical A&M senator ■st sit on a senate committee, Brplete a community service pro- vice preside ect) research bills, speak at organi- ;er of the ^» on al meetings, be a liaison to ! Women ''•■1 p US organizations, schedule instruction v-j^erous meetings with faculty questions r. nern hers and administrators and minist becaiEm n d the biweekly senate meeting ent underest» t traditionally continue until the ies to make vet , | 10ur s of the morning. These r own bodif; lre j us t a few duties, which are can be the ||iimal compared to the responsi- n a necesa" tiijiies of the student body presi- n - lent, yell leaders and other elected ibortion is officials. In addition, all of these and many #'®||tj es must be fulfilled while the best opts njintaining a C average, hat abortion5; jAt some state universities, elect- she said ;d student leaders are paid, but at udentsoti. Texas A&M all elected student leader po- auraged to Jl^ifions are unpaid, so the candidates take on rhese enormous responsibilities be- Life i( * : yMise they want to make Aggieland a bet- ^one eteoco% place. said. ,BiThe candidates spend up to a thou- I theorigiriTjand dollars and many of hours cam- rist moveraet baigning, attending meetings, networking ig, whilespcil® planning campaign strategies in the tion. Mies of gaining the most votes. It may it for stiideir- seem annoying when an overly excited to solidify “■didate sticks fliers in students’ hands irs. Foster.fWhey rush to class, but Aggies have to “She to American*’ remember that basically the candidates, from student body president to class his torian, just want to serve their university. Students who do not have the ambi tion to run for a leadership position may argue that candidates run to pad their re sumes, but simply examining this year’s student body president candidates dis proves this pessimistic argument. The majority of the candidates have more than impressive resumes without adding student body president to their list of ser vice and leadership positions. Other Aggies who probably do not take part in organized political processes anyway may contend that elected posi tions have no power, so there is no point in having elections. All anyone has to do to see the error in this opinion is look at the “Lupe Medina†and the “Outbound Dining†bills, which are accomplish ments of A&M elected students. Texas A&M would be a better place if more students would go out and seek leadership positions for no other reason than the desire to serve. All of the candi- MAIL CALL tion? Several years ago, when debating the wrongness of abortion, a student ar gued that abortion is OK if the child is un wanted. My answer is that we don’t kill people because they are unwanted. Not “wanti ng†some people is the source of numer ous horrors throughout history. “Hitler didn’t want the Jews,†I said, “maybe he didn’t go far enough.†My comment was obviously sarcastic and my point was the opposite of how i was represented: Hitler, abortionists and others make a grave mistake when they claim that any human being is “unwant ed.†Parekh can disagree with me all she wants, but please have the integrity to cast stones at me for what I really believe and not make me out to be some mon ster in cahoots with Hitler when you know that is not the case. Did I tell this Jewish student she would “burn in hell?†Again, the context sheds valuable light on what happened. The in teraction went like this. An A&M student challenged me by saying, “I’m Jewish, am I going to burn in hell?†“Well,†I said, “it all depends on your relationship with Jesus. Do you accept Je sus Christ as your Messiah and Savior?†“Of course not, I’m Jewish.†“I know many Jews who believe in Je sus. Why don’t you check Him out?†“Listen! I’m Jewish! I don’t believe in Jesus! Just tell me, am I going to burn in hell?†“Well, if you won’t believe in Jesus and you die in that state of unbelief, then it doesn’t matter what you are, yes, you will burn in hell.†The important point that this student, Parekh and all of us need to understand is that no one goes to heaven or hell based on their ancestry, race, culture or even their religion. Jesus Christ alone can forgive sins and bring us to the Father. Apart from Him, we die in our sins, unforgiven, and yes, we go to hell. This is what the Bible teaches and no desire to be politically correct will get me to deny the clear teaching of the Bible. Parekh claims that “intolerance is alive and well in America†and that it “keeps neighbors from understanding each other.†Despite acknowledging that what she actually heard me say was a message of salvation, her hatchet job on me and the Christian message makes me wonder whose really the intolerant bigot. Tom Short Worthington, OH Student challenges preacher’s statements In response to Joshua Hill’s Mar. 25 mail call. Conscientious Christians should be concerned with both Tom Short’s ideas about “evolution†and Joshua Hill’s March 25th defense of Short’s remarks on the subject. Short apparently said that “if evolution was true, then Hitler did not go far enough.†Darwin’s theory of evolution states that species evolved as their lesser mem bers died off and the stronger ones were left to reproduce. Relating Hitler’s policies of extermina tion to the theory of evolution means as suming that people who were not mem bers of the “master race†(Jews, blacks, and others) were hindering the progress of the human race. In his attempt to apply evolution to hu man activity, Short makes an assumption that Hitler himself made. If being a Christ ian is (at least partially) about spreading the message of Christianity to others, then Short has a special responsibility. Because his words are going to be heard and considered by so many, he should avoid the types of messages that allow others to label him as intolerant. Daniel Lauve Class of ’00 Legal system rules in place for good reasons In response to Demond Reid’s Mar. 24 opinion column. In response to Demond Reid’s Opinion article, I would like to present another view. As a licensed attorney, I find that the outlandish cases that are publicized RUBEN DELUNA/The Battalion dates should be commended for their ambition and if nothing else, they should be respected for their effort to serve their university. Students should take a good look at their service to their campus and community before criticizing the elec tions. Maybe if they put more effort to ward service, they would have less time to criticize those who try to make a dif ference. Christian Robbins is a junior speech communications major. in the media can lead one to the conclu sion that money is the sole pursuit of lawyers and their clients, and that with enough money, one can create any loop hole necessary to prove innocence. How ever, state legislatures, the Congress and the American Bar Association are working to curtail the size of the civil financial de cisions that are being granted by juries. And, for every ridiculous case that is publicized in the press, there are thou sands of cases that never even make it into the courtroom because a judge or an attorney found them to be without merit. As a former prosecutor, I understand the frustration with the case involving the cocaine that was seized. Many of the de cisions that created these rules came from officers stopping “suspicious†indi viduals who had committed no overt crim inal act, but were based upon the race of the individual within the car. The cost to the rights of untold individ uals who are stopped without any cause or crime is too high to allow this. Unfortu nately the judges and attorneys who are out there, doing their jobs with the high est degree of integrity, are rarely deemed newsworthy. In closing, I would also ask you to keep in mind that pointing out the inadequa cies in a system is easier than finding the solutions. If you believe that you have a way to make the system better send in a letter about that, or write your legislator or congressman, or, and I know this may scare some of you, sit down and talk with an attorney about it.and whatever you do, do not let him or her charge you for it ei ther. MacGregor Stephenson Graduate student The Battalion encourages letters to the editor. Letters must be 300 words or less and include 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 McDonald 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 Demond REID Campaigns, races waste of energy CC T Tote for \ / me.†Once V again, the week following spring break marks the beginning of campaign mania across campus. From sunup to sundown, A&M stu dents are bombarded with fake smiles and empty promises from ambitious Aggies looking to pad the “extra-curricular activities†section of their resumes. Despite the obvious enthusiasm showed by all those in volved, it is quite apparent that the ma jority of the Spring 1999 campaigns suck more than a Hoover vacuum pow ered by a diesel engine. From the student body president race all the way down to the election of the campus dog catcher, it is no secret that all this campaigning is more annoying than jock itch. For example, a good portion of the student body president candidates are taking their campaigns a little too seri ously. These are the candidates whose supporters pounce on unsuspecting pedestrians and swamp those pedestri ans with an absurd amount of fliers. And the fliers never say anything simple like “Vote for Joe Blow.†The fliers are like autobiographical mani festos with entirely too much informa tion about the candidate. No one cares that Joe Blow won the 1983 second grade remedial spelling bee or that he was once president of the Vanilla Ice Fan Club. Is it too much to ask to be able to walk around campus without being mauled by someone in tights and a cape, resembling some sort of out-of- work comic book hero? What makes the situation worse is that Super Dork’s only comment about the person he is endorsing is that the candidate is a “re ally good guy.†“He is a really good guy†is not something a person says to endorse a candidate; it is something a person says at their brother’s parole hearing. To all the people walking around with the yellow plastic hard hats, stop it. Believe it or not, the yellow hard hat people actually look dumber than Super Dork. At least Super Dork looks silly enough to get a laugh, while the yellow hard hat people just look silly. Candidates waste voters’ time by pre senting platforms because student gov ernment has no real power. Yeah, Joe Blow might actually have a good plat form idea, but once he is elected he will not have any power to carry that idea out. There will be an all-white starting five for the Harlem Globetrotters before any of Joe Blow’s platform ideas get im plemented. It does not matter who gets elected as student body president because all the candidates will do the same equally pathetic things. Whatever this Universi ty is going to do, it will do it regardless of who the student body president is. Koko the gorilla could get voted into of fice and things still would run the same way. The big issue among the student body president candidates is diversity and mul- ticulturalism. Now, isn’t that the pot call ing the kettle white? With most of the presidential candidates, their idea of mul- ticulturalism is watching two Spike Lee movies in the same week. Also, a lot of the campaigning is un necessary. There is actually a person putting up fliers to run for historian. Why? That is a senseless waste of a tree. If by some minor miracle more than one person wants to be the histori an, let them. Being the historian is not a privilege. On the top-100 elected posi tion preference list, historian ranks slightly above campus pooper scooper. Voting for yell leader is a waste of an election. It would be better to have some sort of fundraising contest for a charity than have an election for yell leader. The yell leader race has been re duced to who can be the biggest fool and the competition is pretty stiff this year. It does not take much talent to prance around in front of a crowd like some sort of disgruntled postal worker in a Good Humor Man uniform scream ing “Beat the hell out of†that week’s ri val opponent. Anyone considering a campaign for next year should take into consideration the mistakes of this year’s campaigns. It is not necessary to annoy the voting public or be a complete idiot. To run a successful campaign it is important to remember two key words that the A&M voting public will respond to: free alcohol. Demond Reid is a sophomore journalism major.