TheBi
The Battalion
O
PINION
Page 11A • Wednesday, March 31, 1999
Irhe kids on the bus...
iA&M buses antiquated, need seat belts installed to protect passengers in case of accident
mL
■campaign season is here,
■ and once again candidates
BL^are building substantial
parts of their platforms on the
neverending calls for more park-
in; on campus.
■ There seems to be no end to
|the dizzying amount of unorigi-
Inal and unrealistic parking
■'jplfenks put forth each spring by
^Halous hopefuls.
Caleb
MCDANIEL
ithon Readings
[httoi
Meanwhile, however, the continued deteriora
tion of Bus Operations remains largely unnoticed
land unaddressed by student leaders and adminis
tration officials alike.
■ This misplaced emphasis on parking not only
leaves Bus Ops in financial straits as funds are for
ever siphoned away to meet parking demands.
More immediately and much more importantly, it
sacrifices the safety of bus riders for the conve
nience of those who drive to school.
The antiquated Aggie buses, after all, have poor-
ay. was create: padded seats, no seat belts and no stop signs to
ylor a sophom Prefect riders from oncoming traffic as they exit the
bus. While students have fanciful dreams about
more parking garages or an underground tunnel to
protect pedestrians crossing Wellborn (where there
is already an overhead walkway), buses continue
to carry passengers without standard safety fea-
tires like seat belts.
■ And they are not even being discussed. “We re
ally haven’t considered seat belts at all,” Gary Jack-
son, Director of Bus Operations, said. Safety belts
would be largely “cost-prohibitive.”
I Granted, the debate over whether public school
buses even need seat belts has raged for some
years in school districts, and most transportation
researchers have persuasively argued that seat belts
would actually increase the danger to young chil
dren who ride the bus to elementary and secondary
school.
I In head-on collisions, which are the most com
mon type of accidents involving school buses, stud
ies have shown that small-bodied children who
wear seat belts are likely to double over and hit
their head and neck on the seat in front of them.
*■ Therefore, rather than buying belts, most school
districts across the country have added other safety
measures to their buses. They have installed seats
'with higher, heavily padded backs and spaced
them so that passenger movement will be mini
mized in the event of a crash.
■ These efforts to “compartmentalize” each seat
have been largely successful, and in some states it
is actually more dangerous statistically for a child
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Meanwhile, back in Aggieland,
buses have not even caught up with
these developments. Perhaps “com
partmentalizing” works for smaller
children, but the danger of college
students jack-knifing when they
wear seat belts is less apparent.
Even if that danger were real,
Aggie school buses have none of
the traditional features to compen
sate for the lack of seat belts. Most
of the buses still have seats with
metal backing, which makes sliding
forward in a head-on crash more
threatening than in school buses
with highly padded seats.
The seat backs are also shorter
than the newest school bus seats
and the seats are farther apart,
making the possibility that passen
gers will flip over the seats in front
of them during an accident a very
real danger.
More obviously, “compartmen-
tal” approaches to bus safety do not
even solve all potential dangers.
Should the bus be hit on the side or
roll over, passengers have no re
straints to protect them from flying
around the cabin.
Worse, since there are not
enough buses in the Aggie bus
fleet, an unsafe amount of passen
gers must stand up.
Rather than seeing this as cause
for concern, Jackson said the
amount of standing passengers is
the main reason seat belts would
never work. Standing passengers
and belt-less seats, he said, are not
a problem.
“We are considered a transit sys
tem,” Jackson said, arguing the Ag
gie buses operate more like a city
transportation service than a school
bus fleet.
While this may be true, it ought to be a reason
for concern, not complacency. Bus Operations runs
like a municipal transit system but uses antiquated,
unsafe school buses.
Either the buses should be modified to meet new
safety recommendations, or the buses should be re
placed with larger vehicles more befitting of a mass
“transit system.”
Outdated school buses will simply not do.
This is not the fault of Jackson or Bus Opera
tions officials. It is the fault, once again, of a wide 1
spread student attitude that riding the bus to or
around campus is an inferior mode of transporta
tion. What is needed, students insist, is parking,
parking, parking.
MARK MCPHERSON/The Batialion
Surely, though, what is most needed is the safe
ty of fellow Aggies. It would be wrong to wait until
a tragic accident occurs to act to improve our bus
system. Instead, students and student leaders
should rally around initiatives to help Bus Opera
tions.
Caleb McDaniel is a sophomore history major.
EDITORIAL
;re!
I Editorials appearing in The Battalion reflect the
liews of the editorials board members. They do not
Becessarily reflect the opinions of other Battalion
eoc/i/ej^Estaff members, the Texas A&M student body, re
lents, administration, faculty or staff. Columns,
uest columns, cartoons and letters express the opin
ions of the authors.
you want to jO'
jre no cumbers)"'
rsjuirement ^
Editorials Board
AARON MEIER
Editor in Chief
KASIE BYERS
Managing Editor
MANISHA PAREKH
Opinion Editor
BETH MILLER
City Editor
Conservation efforts by humans foolish,
presumes ability to affect environment
C
iummetf
SBP Endorsement
Battalion endorses Will Hurd for student
body president due to experience, leadership
onservation efforts in
America today are point
less. While the mission
statements of
environmen
tal groups
contain such
broad state
ments as
“preserving
economic di
versity for
the children
of tomorrow,”
Luke
SAUCIER
I The Battalion has decided to
endorse Will Hurd for the office of
student body president. Hurd, who
is currently MSG president, dis-
ugg a getobackpJ a y s the communication, leader-
ack ,tnd ianny"-' s r 1 P and diplomacy skills neces-
slry to make a successful student
rv Jpdy president.
Hurd is well-respected by stu-
, ———^cfents, faculty and administration,
ICING * a ^ n g him a good representative
u for the student body at Texas A&M.
* i jHe is also a good communicator a
SSIStclth quality that makes him an ideal am
bassador for this University.
B Furthermore, Hurd, through the
v^st experience gained from his
leadership roles at A&M, knows
how to make things happen on
Program pis campus. He knows how the
7 lampus is organized and who to
talk to to get things done.
£ ii K; M° st importantly, though, Hurd
one 0[ taf Bpresents the kind of student body
,j , JBndidate who can actually im
prove the University. Hurd has real
re office B^hons for improving student life,
' not vague promises. His ideas in
ch ide working towards a seamless
pansition between his administra-
-m. tion and current Student Body Pres
ident Laurie Nickel’s Hurd plans to
e of Profess’'start taking the reins of student gov-
, n , 7 i, eminent immediately instead of al-
_ic building
-trier Students
LOpS
flying to
it Progr
lission?
lowing issues to fall to the wayside
as the semester ends.
Much of Hurd’s platform centers
around — and supports — Vision
2020, the blueprint for A&M’s role
into the next century. He plans to
rally students together in order to
voice important concerns to the ad
ministration, making the University
more responsive to its most impor
tant customers, the students.
Hurd also plans on making
changes to the way student gov
ernment works in order to make it
run more efficiently and effective
ly. Some of these changes include
utilizing University resources,
such as Measurement and Re
search Services, to poll students
about their top concerns and pos
sible solutions. Hurd plans on
making sure Student Government
reaches out for student input in
stead of relying on students to
come to them.
The Battalion believes Will Hurd
is the best choice for student body
president. His commitment to im
proving A&M through both long-
and short-term goals will have a
positive effect for the students and
faculty alike. His experience, knowl
edge and ability make him the
strongest candidate for the job.
people in
volved in conservation have for
gotten to ask themselves why
they are doing what they do, and
what benefit will be gained by so
spending their time and money.
Greenpeace argues that hu
mans should conserve other
species because they have a right
to exist on Earth and are at least
as important as humans. But
who are we to say which species
have a right to exist? If it had
been up to people, the more cud
dly of the dinosaurs would prob
ably still be around, but that is
not the way it turns out, and we
are glad of it. Earth is a dynamic
place, and a view that does not
take into account the existence
of natural cycles of extinction
and ecological change is a nar
row one at best.
Certainly Darwin’s theory of
evolution and its theme of sur
vival of the fittest pertains to hu
manity and its activities as well.
If a species becomes extinct to
day, regardless of the cause, it
was still phased out by the
process of evolution just as sure
ly as were the trilobites. Humans
never have and never will toler
ate the existence of anything per
ceived as a threat to humans.
There is no question that
smallpox, measles, tuberculosis
and AIDS will be utterly wiped
out if humans get the chance.
There would be no question of
their “natural beauty” or “right
to live,” yet they are life just as
surely as humans are. If a dis
tinction is drawn between the
lives of bacteria and viruses and
the life of an owl because one is
more complex than the other,
then only the most complex life
forms are worth anything and
humans are by far the most com
plex life form on Earth. By this
logic, all other life is secondary
to the needs of humans, which is
obviously not the philosophy en
vironmental groups adhere to.
Perhaps they strive to pre
serve only life that is not a threat
to humans. This is a good guide
line for now, but eventually, hu
mans will be so numerous that
any species that does not directly
benefit humans as food will be
come competition for food and
space and will doubtlessly be de
stroyed.
So humanity will ultimately
only conserve those life forms
which are of benefit to humani
ty. Thus cows, chickens, pigs,
wheat, corn and oats will proba
bly never become extinct. But
are not all life forms useful to us?
So it can be argued — to para
phrase John Donne’s For Whom
The Bell Tolls, every time the
earth loses a species to extinc
tion everyone is somehow im
poverished.
The world is fearfully and
wonderfully made, and the com
plexity of its operation is so far
beyond human comprehension
that we are only now beginning
to understand how it works. Our
reckless use of this wonderful
creation is dangerous, regardless
of whether or not its wrong. Just
as dangerous however are our
fumbling attempts to fix what we
have damaged. Like it or not
there is no ecosystem on Earth
unaffected by humans, so even
isolating fragile environments
has become a moot point. Earth
has been around for quite a long
time and has seen many violent
events humans would call eco
logical disasters but has sprung
back from each such event even
more wonderful and diverse than
before. The world has proven its
ability to take care of itself. Are
humans so arrogant as to as
sume that they have had some
lasting impact on the planet, let
alone that they can possibly fix
the damage they may have done?
Our role in any conservation at
tempts must be a humble one,
not relying on what humans
think they understand and mak
ing rash decisions to “fix” what
they think they have ruined. In
stead, humans should focus on
learning more about the wonder
ful creation that is Earth and en
gage in a much more passive
role that focuses not on other
species but on humanity itself.
Luke Saugier is a sophomore
petroleum engineering major.
MAIL CALL
Reader provides
verses about gays
In response to Aaron Meier's
Mar. 29 opinion column.
I am writing in regards to
Aaron Meier who wrote the article
concerning the Church’s action
against homosexuality. In his arti
cle, he stated that in his four
years in college, he has yet to
have anyone be able to quote the
exact chapter and verse in the
Bible where homosexuality is
deemed an abomination.
Well, get your pen and paper
ready Meier, because here it is; 1
Corinthians 6: 9-10 states, "Do
you not know that the wicked will
not inherit the kingdom of God?
Do not be deceived: Neither the
sexually immoral nor idolaters nor
adulterers nor male prostitutes
nor homosexual offenders nor
thieves nor the greedy nor drunk
ards nor slanderers nor swindlers
will inherit the kingdom of God.’’
It is pretty simple, huh? It is in
the Bible after all.
Also in the article, Meier asks
the question, “ Why is it so diffi
cult for religion to accept the ho
mosexual community?” Well, I will
tell you why, and again, I will use
scripture to do so. 1 Corinthians
5: 11 says, “But now 1 am writing
you that you must not associate
with anyone who calls himself a
brother but is sexually immoral or
greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a
drunkard or a swindler. With such
a man do not even eat.” So, when
two men or women come to a
Church to be wed in holy matrimo
ny, it cannot be done. God will not
recognize it, and He will not toler
ate it.
That is why the Church cannot
accept homosexuality. Now I ask
you, why is it so hard to see that
homosexuality is wrong? It is
straight from the Scripture. It is
the word of God, and God’s word
cannot be compromised.
Clint Harris
Class of '00
The Battalion encourages letters to the ed
itor. Letters must be 300 words or less and in
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The opinion editor reserves the right to edit
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be mailed to:
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