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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 7, 1999)
Battalion Page 11 • Wednesday, April 7, 1999 O PINION ig ratings from small packages odern professional wrestling too vulgar for younger audiences, teach 4,/ iRY ROBERSOH entity in-comr- s day, 200 pla-j Mark PASSWATERS ROBERT HYNECEK/The Battalion A ccording to the last batch of Nielsen ratings, 26 of the 30 highest rated Cable TV programs re volved around pro fessional wrestling. The World Wrestling Federa tion (WWF) and its competitor. World Championship Wrestling (WCW,) are extremely popu lar amongst young men in their late teens and early twenties. And that is exactly the group it should be popular with. The problem is that professional wrestling is even more popular with the younger members of society. Do not be fooled: this is not your older brother’s professional wrestling. The days of the good guy Hulk Hogan and the vile Rowdy Roddy Piper are long gone. These characters may still be around, but the plots do not revolve around a PG-rated brawl of good ver sus evil. Wrestling is now a very R-rat- ed event, selling sex and bad messages as well as T-shirts and action figures. The WWF, under the “enlightened” leadership of Vince McMahon, is the foremost offender. McMahon is a shrewd businessman and he knows sex sells. As a result, most WWF cards now have matches between two stun ning women, primed and trained to act like they are beating each other sense less. Their outfits leave so little to the imagination that they would be expect ed on the stage of Sugar’s Cabaret in Austin, not at an event well attended by five- or six-year-olds. One of the lovely ladies, under her wrestling name “Sable,” graced the April cover of Playboy. As soon as it came out, she paraded it around the ring, encour aging fans to buy it. If people think this is something that is just a fringe movement, think again. The presence of “Stone Cold” Steve Austin on an episode of “Nash Bridges” earned the show its highest ratings of the season. A lot of people watch wrestling, and a lot of them are little kids. That is why it is important to make sure kids are not getting a bad message from the wrestlers they watch so often on TV. However, screening the messages is hard to do. The lucrative demographics call for more sex and violence on TV, so the consumers get it. At a recent WWF show in Austin, phrases like “I’ll kick your retarded ass” were used over a dozen times. Not stun ning, considering phrases like that are prevalent at Hurricane Harry’s on Thurs day night. The idea that kids will be going to school the next day and telling the slow kid in the class the same thing, however, is a little unnerving. Even the supposed “hero,” “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, had his little say: “Anybody who wants me to kick this sonofabitches ass, give me a hell yeah!” Sounds like good banter around the jungle gym on Monday morning. The most disturbing thing, by far, at these events, is the blatant use of sexual innuendo. One character, who takes the wrong messages head of a mannequin into the ring with him, asks the crowd, “What do you like?” the answer is, “HEAD!” The idea of little Johnny walking into Mrs. Smith’s second grade class the next morning and informing his teacher what he likes is almost funny, until it is consid ered that the kid has been making sexual comments and not even knowing it. Another group of wrestlers, known as the “Gen-Xers”, make an X over their crotches and inform the crowd to “SUCK IT!” Hopefully, Bobby will not tell the mean Bus Driver what to do. Some wrestlers are even more blatant with their pelvic thrusts and telling the ladies in the crowd to come on down so they can “get a good bareback ride.” The ladies in the crowd scream wildly as if Elvis had just stripped to his boxers. And the little kids pick up some more knowledge they really are not ready for. So who is to blame for all this? The easy target to accuse would be McMa hon and the WWF. This move, however, would be insane. These people are enti tled to make a living any way they can, and if this is the best way, so be it. College kids are mature enough to un derstand exactly what is going on and have every right to watch. The parents of the little kids should know what their kids are watching and consider limiting what they see. This would prevent Mr. and Mrs. Jones from having to drive down to the elementary school to get Tommy out of the princi pal’s office after telling his art teacher to “suck it.” Mark Passwaters is a graduate electrical engineering student. ;s LLC nsportali® )N GUEST COLUMN 'cilleries Students should seek help for themselves, friends, show support for those in need I ast week, each of us was touched by the death of “J.R.” Berry who made the per- Jsonal decision that suicide was the only option left to him as he thought about the prob lems he faced. We cannot bring J.R. back. So, it Formoremfoc": is to all Aggies that I say, “It doesn’t have to be >• y 0Ufne6ds: ^that way.” JCommitting suicide is an individual decision, •till I urge you, in the face of J.R.’s death, to be sensitive to your friends and fellow Aggies. It’s not always easy to tell, but if you sense they are not OK, help them get to the people and offices on campus that can help. Remember, that to get help at A&M, all you need to do is call or walk through the door and ask. pDo not believe the myths that it’s “crazy” for anyone to ever think about suicide, or that once I someone hals made an attempt another attempt is unlikely, or that there’s nothing you can do to help a suicidal person, or that mentioning the possibility of suicide will give them the idea to do it. Those ideas are simply not true! You can make a difference. Academic problems, the break-up of a rela tionship and not getting an A&M degree are not worth suicide. No matter what the problems facing you, there are ways to help you lessen your stress, anxiety or despair. You have coun selors, psychologists and physicians on our campus who are here to help you and your classmates. The evidence is clear. When some one participates in counseling, they are far, far less likely to ever attempt suicide or to try it a second time. A completed suicide is the one MAIL CALL problem we cannot help. Watch out for each other. If you or someone you know is struggling with a problem, encour age them to come to the Student Counseling Service. If they’re hesitant, come along with them. We’re in Henderson Hall behind the Chapel. If you cannot convince them to come to the Student Counseling Service, call us at 845- 4427 during the day and 845-2700 (HelpLine) in the evening and on weekends. Be willing to take the risk of having a friend be angry with you for trying to help them rather than the risk that they may not get the critical help they need. And re member ... “It doesn’t have to be that way.” Dr. Wade Birch is the Director of the Student Counseling Service stay , staff should mainstream y if jor |:| must say that the quality of the Battalion has gone to yellow Kirnalism recently. Publishing a |pnt-page picture of someone's remains getting cleaned up after a suicide is a little extreme. ■Additionally, the opinion arti cles have been terrible recently, ■ne of them are backed up with any facts, and they are all slander ous and use things out of context and in some cases, flat out lie. Bl was very disappointed with ■Inisha Parekh’s coverage of Tom Short and her recent article on SUVs. Most of the facts she used were either wrong, misstat ed. taken out of context or confus ing and are prime examples of yel low journalism. Additionally, and more importantly, she is not repre sentative of the campus and does not consider the atmosphere of the campus in her writing. IIAt A&M, where there are more giant trucks and, in general, trucks than at any other campus she writes an article that she knows everyone is going to ab solutely despise and thinks she is doing her job. H Why don’t you hire a columnist that will write to the viewpoint of the majority and create more cam pus enthusiasm and agreement than finding some non-main stream columnist that belongs at University of Texas. pAdditionally, I feel it is time The Battalion grew up in its respect and treatment of stories. Sensa tionalism and drama are cool for a .h-school newspaper, but for a college newspaper I expected a lot more. Benjamin Borgers Class of ’02 Professors respond to Res Week letter in response to David Myers’ Mar. 30 mail call. We wish to respond to the letter by David Myers entitled “resurrec tion Week equals intolerance.” The purpose of Resurrection Week is to provide the opportunity for Christian students at TAMU to celebrate to gether this most important event, which is central to their religious be lief and to share the significance of Easter to those unfamiliar with this religious holiday. It is a sad commentary that My ers and others find such a celebra tion intolerable and then have the gall to accuse the Christian stu dents of intolerance. Tolerance is defined as the “dis position to be patient and fair to ward those whose opinions or prac tices differ from one’s own." Where is the evidence of Christian stu dents treating the religious beliefs of other students with the disre spect and contempt Myers’ express es toward the Christian students? John Stewart Mill, in his classical essay On Liberty, argued strongly that in a world of ideological pluralism, en gaging in thoughtful discussions of our differences is the only way to move toward the truth of a matter. Rather than castigating Chris tians for what they believe, Myers might spend his time more produc tively engaging students and col leagues in thoughtful discussion re garding why he does not believe in the resurrection, trying to persuade them by historical evidences. Retreating into the safe, political ly correct, post modern world of all truth as “subjective and personal” will not help us to get to the truth of the matter. Did Christ really rise from the dead and prove He is God or not? This is really the question. In a university environment where we should all be in pursuit of truth, let us skip the name-calling and get on with a discussion of the facts. Walter L. Bradley Professor, Mechanical Engineering L. Roy Cornwell Professor, Mechanical Engineering Ramon Goforth, Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering Student defends article, photograph In response to Alan Wilson’s Apr. 6 mail call. Aaron Meier chose to publish a photo of custodians scraping the re mains of a young man off of the street. The young man hurled him self from atop a campus parking garage, intent on dying. He was suc cessful. Placement of the photo graph on Page 1 caused controver sy. Some say it was insensitive. I support Meier’s decision to put it there. Reality is occasionally grue some. Why should The Battalion pre tend it is not? Unfortunate as the event was, the story is accurate, and the photo supports it. The Bat talion’s coverage of the event was perfectly reasonable. Like it or not, it happened on our campus. The Battalion’siob\ report the news. Meier did that. He did not create this news story nor did he create the image. He merely trans mitted it. Let’s not attack the mes senger. Since when did we start criti cizing newspapers for accurately reporting the news? Sure, Meier could have covered up reality by having the piece written in “soft” euphemisms or by choosing a more “sensitive” photo. But newspa pers are for reporting the news, and that is what The Battalion did. One critic, Alan Wilson, berates Meier, inviting him to “join us in reali ty.” It seems to me that what Wilson really wants is for Meier to not inte grate so much reality in his reports on reality. I like it when newspapers relate the news in a straight-forward fashion. Pleasant or unpleasant, I want the story not an “edited for sensitivity” version. Why shroud re ality? No amount of careful wording or prudent choice of photographs changes it anyway. Douglas J. Claycomb Graduate Student 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 Morality not always relative, vague concept T here is a philoso phy that life consists of people climb ing up a huge mountain. There are about a mil lion different paths up the mountain and all have different admittance standards. Some require certain foods to be carried with them up the path, some require the help of a guid ing shepherd, and some merely believe in climbing to the best of one’s ability. In the end, however, all the paths are leading to the same place. The different paths represent different kinds of religions, and just as the paths are all heading in the same direction; so are all of the religions. Since religion is dictated by a moral code, one can assume that all morals are relative and, since they are only individually ab solute, must be guided by the in dividual for that one individual. An example: protestants be lieve that drinking is immoral. Therefore to abstain from drink ing, for many Christians, is not a matter of preference but rather one of moral choice. However, a variety of religions incorporate the use of wine into their ceremonies. For these reli gions, drinking is not a matter of morality because it is not frowned upon by their moral code. What needs to be realized is that whether one views drinking as immoral is a relative issue and one should not insist that their viewpoint is entirely correct and perfect. This is what relativity means in today’s society — that one can de cide moral issues as they please without harassment by the majority. Another example: Abortion. Now, is this really an issue that can be considered morally rela tive? Yes, with a qualification. Those who believe that de stroying the potential for life is immoral do not need to have an abortion. However, there is the moral flipping coin in which one weighs a child being born to a girl/woman/teenager who does not want it, will not love it and will not have money to care for it. against the destruction of the po tential of this being. Some might say that it is im moral to bring that child into life because it will not experience love and nurturing. The issue must then fall prey to the individual’s beliefs on life versus suffering. The qualification? If, at some point, there is proof that abortion is murder, then the relative moral ity of the situation changes. Why? Because murder, wife beating, child molesting and other crimes are illegal under the laws of the country. Most religions include a clause that subjugates its believ ers to the just laws of the country. It is clear that murder and the "/n the end, all paths are heading in the same direction; so are all religions” other crimes committed are an in fringement on somebody else’s expression of their moral code and therefore can be talked about in the black-and-white terms of right and wrong. Of course, this does mean sub jugation to unjust and obviously unfair laws, such as segregation, apartheid and totalitarian regimes. It is to be applied with common sense. If a law is blatantly infringing on one’s right to express their morality, the law need not be obeyed. So, overall, morality is a matter of finding the right choices for the indi vidual. Hopefully, these individuals can find the choices that will lead them up the mountain to the top. The only real way to get to the top is through finding a moral code ... even if it does not quite agree with the majority’s opinion of what is moral. So choose wisely and choose privately. Once found, these moral codes can be shared but not forced. There seems some thing immoral about forcing morality onto somebody whose relative morals differ. Lisa Foox is a senior journalism major. Lisa FOOX