e Battalion
O PINION
Page 5 • Thursday, July 22, 1999
• n the herd. IliJ
how long it taj
into the fc
eader Dick Aim
noderate
at the original j
•ding Rep S .
ter and RayUtu
dichael Cast!
Fred Uptoi
Marge Rouken
wad rage stems from individuals'
endency to shirk accountability for actions
Young Aggies contribute
to hazardous traffic problems
I ate last
month, a
!y an<i »
New York,
ns hold a si
Mark
PASSWATERS
Ftoff
Hge, Va.,
v, "'Oman was
House, with,, do „ |of
o usually vote car and
and one u ealeI110
votes to pass | I r !|bya
lot afford to loseQp
-Miibers of itsp, triage girls,
ax cut with Bhi s woman’s crime, which
upport. ■ h er i-, er iif e f n front of her
Clinton Bid and child, was passing the
iwmakers almo iris at a stop sign while they sat
ied the size of trB talked. Apparently, this was
ng it would talB too much “disrespect” for
projected $2.5i:Be young people to take, and
the next 10 yearB proceeded to cut off the
ead, want toudoi inn’s car and pound her head
surplus to ensuijo the pavement until she was
iocial Security ot conscious.
i add a presoijB'he very next day, a man pled
to the Medicaif Bty to vehicular manslaughter
dso want to set i southern Maryland after he
annual surpteBnied his car into another vehi-
tefense and edri util it tipped over onto rail-
■d tracks, where the two people
. Bde where crushed by an on-
Bing train.
JThese incidents of road rage
■ not just confined to the Wash-
pon Beltway either.
’hey now occur across the na-
. ft, with increasing frequency.
nrh Broad is a frightening enough
■jM v Ice as it is without having peo-
itrols. Colli®. J drivin 8, with ,he desire ,0 hurt
Force colonel, :fcP eo P |e (h
n cnarp ^jmi Wh y are there 80 man V People
, n P . c Jy, this,ling like their brains are in va-
milestone sltel lock on the hi g hwa V ? Ma y be
. . uj-Sause they do not realize the
terview. ninl- 7 j
7 ii a » consequences of what they are do-
■tronouls firsul' 1 ' 1 ' ' l ' ias been Hone.
.tronauts ^ .'BThat is not to insinuate that
U i ! De i mJ» se f e l° ns are any less guilty of
Heaviest P.® brutal crimes that they have
nto a ^ a f ce |Bnmitted; in fact, it should be a
1 lie 4.v oo « son f or them to be looked upon
scope, a l 0, TB|i even greater scorn,
an attached | A ca] . js a deadly weapon, and
motor and suf!« r e js no wa y t0 SU gar coat this
gear, weigh f act individuals, no matter
pounds. w l at the j r a g e> act 1,^ ij tt i e
I he shut behind the wheel, everyone
to be stnpFpund them is in grave danger.
7,000 pounds p^hat j aas causec j t his outbreak
unnecessar) rjfUiidish acts over the past
And en 8 inft :jecade? Probably the fact that
studies were fil B 0 pj e are so unwilling to take re-
to make sa J e Jonsibility for their actions,
shuttle could sigeing accoun table for your ac-
;ain the weig fJ ns j s som ething people should
ne problem, ' ir m m f rom their very first years on
arth with the * s pj anet a nd should be rein-
aoard. ,,,1'ced often. Unfortunately, this is
lould have
aut was gr
roblems, in
irds and a
eSngonSther lives as
mo™ ra | ua bie as JFK’s
'njresponse to Caleb McDaniel’s
fy 21st column.
Chris
HUFFINES
happening with less frequency as
time passes.
Like most things, this is some
thing that needs to be imparted by
an adult to a child. A teacher may
be capable of getting the message
across, but the primary responsi
bility for telling children they reap
what they sow falls on the par
ents.
Mothers and fathers must un
dertake the difficult task of telling
their children the world does not
revolve around them and that they
have to think before they act.
Thinking before acting is some
thing that should be common
sense but is becoming a very rare
character trait.
People are far more content to
place the blame for their actions
on someone else, and society al
lows them to.
Since the slaughter at
Columbine High School, there has
been a great outcry that Holly
wood and the gun lobby should
bear the primary blame for the
deaths of 13 innocents.
Very few people have stopped
to consider that if Eric Harris and
Dylan Klebold’s parents had taken
time to teach their children some
personal responsibility and they
had heeded the message, maybe
this would not have happened.
It is time for the copouts to
end. Some people truly do have
diseases or psychiatric problems.
But a vast number of people
who commit crimes do not think
before they act and then want to
pass the buck when they are
caught.
After New York Yankees out
fielder Darryl Strawberry was
caught with cocaine for what
seems to be the 800th time, he
Gabriel Ruenes/The Battalion
blamed his “illness” for getting
the better of him.
Once again, Strawberry was
trying to deny that he had screwed
up, and today’s society will allow
him to do just that.
When people blame something
or someone else for a self-destruc
tive action, that is their problem.
When people get out behind
the wheel and start killing people
because they got mad or were
“disrespected,” it becomes a far
bigger problem.
It is time — actually, it is past
time — that people started taking
accountability for what they do at
all times.
Think, then act.
The sooner people start recog
nizing their actions do indeed
have consequences, the more like
ly it is that people will be able to
drive down the road (and do other
things) with less fear.
Mark Passwaters is an electrical
engineering graduate student.
nr*
L-J Hous
ton brings
about a curi
ous sort of
reaction in
even the
most calm
and collect
ed of indi
viduals.
Everyone behind the wheel,
upon entering the greater Hous
ton area highway system, feels
compelled, at the slightest dis
courtesy, to whip out a 36-inch
samurai sword, confront the of
fensive driver in a terrible high-
octane apocalypse, and carve his
(or her) bones into heirloom
flutes for the grandchildren. For
tunately, no one has quite gone
to that extreme. Yet.
The sad fact is that drivers in
Houston are not alone.
In fact, they have a small sur
rogate colony right here in
Bryan-College Station. Students
who, despite spending four (or
more) years of learning, never
figure out that driving home
should not remind anyone of the
chariot race from Ben Hur.
It is not just Houston. Dallas
and San Antonio and every other
stress-inducing driving area in
the state have their little
colonies, too. This has turned
Bryan-College Station into an au
tomotive melting pot.
It has also made this area the
most dangerous driving arena
outside of a Mad Max movie.
And the funny thing is, just
like the old man said, it really is
the fault of those darned kids.
College students are the prime
cause of most or all of the dri
ving problems in Bryan-College
Station.
Of course, that college stu
dents tend to drive a bit faster
than the speed limit, lack com
mon sense, believe they are in
vincible, tend to be more tired
than everyone else, lack good
driving judgment, drink and dri
ve, speed and lack common
sense does not help at all.
Nowhere close.
There is a reason males be
tween 16 and 25 years old have
the highest insurance.
There are other factors that
have kept Bryan-College Station
from becoming automotive heav
en. The roads could use some
work. Sight lines are absolutely
MAIL CALL
was saddened by Mc
Daniel’s call for further reflec-
• ' Ion regarding the death of JFK
Maybe I am alone on this is-
f|je, but I would rather live
aniongst a people who can
jlal with the demise of a
'Banger with but a momentary
linge of sadness than in a so
ciety of rabid mourners.
| McDaniel’s mistakenly at-
ep. Jbutes the media frenzy and
ur of the®mb|jc hype to the belief that it
Con” i s result of a devastated
?maining
itate Depai
itional ag
lities abro;
hey never
lep. Ben i aI
society full of thoughtful sor
row.
Unfortunately, this is not
true. Ours is a society with a
short and perverse attention
span for that which is famous,
that which is exciting and that
which is grotesque. We choke
on information spoon fed from
the media in order to live the
vicarious lives of stars instead
of placing the emphasis on our
own existences. We thirst for
tidbits of useless gossip con
cerning their daily lives and for
get to ask our families how
their day was.
It is unfortunate, but we
have been taught that some
lives mean more than others.
It is time to consider what is
happening in our own lives, to
mourn the deaths of our own
families and friends and to turn
off CNN.
Joshua Levar
Class of ’01
PBS should not be denied funding
for swapping donor lists with DNC
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 accura
cy. 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-maii: battletters@hotmail.com
Ryan
GARCIA
YOUR PWIENTs Wkve a Lor
or NERVE CALLING ^oli STINGY,.
ologist a>
Cambria j
led the
CftN\PAlSfV rn .
%
%
W ith the
Bill
Clinton
witch-hunt pre
sumably over.
Republicans have
shifted their fo
cus to a new tar
get, the Public
Broadcasting Sys
tem (PBS).
In a perfect example of the perils
of bipartisan politics. Representative
Billy Tauzin, R-La., chairman of the
Commerce Committee’s telecommu
nications subcommittee, said he will
reduce his funding proposal for pub
lic broadcasting.
His decision was made after learn
ing this month that PBS Boston affili
ate WGBH-TV traded a list of its
donors to the Democratic National
Committee (DNC) in exchange for a
list of DNC donors.
The list swap was discovered after
Sam Black, a 4 year-old boy who
watches “Barney,” began receiving
mail from the DNC, including an
agenda survey and a fund-raising
pitch.
In Tauzin’s fervor to assign a po
litical ideology to PBS, he neglects to
evaluate and recognize PBS’ actual
contributions to society as a broad
casting system delivering educational
and objective programs oriented to
ward all age groups, from 1-year-olds
to adults.
In an Associated Press article,
Tauzin’s spokesperson, Ken Johnson
said, “The worst part about this
whole thing is that it feeds the old
stereotypes. There are a number of
people in our party who are ab
solutely convinced that public broad
casting is in the hip pocket of the De
mocratic Party and the liberals in this
country. ”
Tauzin’s actions certainly associ
ate him with this group of paranoid
political radicals who have the au
dacity to believe Barney and Big Bird
have hidden agendas detrimental to
the Republican Party.
Some Repubiicans
“believe Barney and
Big Bird have hidden
agendas detrimental
to the Republican
Party.”
House Republicans’ partisan-di
rected anger had to be somewhat
squelched when after further investi
gation into the matter, it was re
vealed that various other PBS affili
ates, such as WNET and WETA, had
previously swapped donor lists with
Democrats as well as Republicans.
So much for a conspiracy theory.
In fact, several affiliates admitted
to a history of swapping donor lists
with all sorts of groups, not just po
litical ones.
In an article appearing in Current,
atrocious, especially around Post
Oak Mall. Residents arrange for
streets to be blocked off. There
are trains.
But except for the trains, all of
these can again be traced back to
Aggies. Aggies use the roads,
which tends to increase wear.
Aggies shop at the mall, which
makes it able to afford large,
opaque shrubs. It mostly is col
lege students.
What can be done? After all,
most students do not know any
other way to drive. They have
been raised in bad traffic since
birth. It is like asking a Bedouin
to make an igloo. They just have
not been exposed to the knowl
edge.
What can be done? There are
two schools of thought on the
topic. The college students can
have their driving sharply re
duced, or even eliminated,
which would make it difficult for
them to cause any trouble.
Or they can be required to
start thinking.
Yes, thinking — the bane of
the collegiate experience.
Closer examination of the list
of what college students usually
do wrong while driving reveals
the alarming fact that each and
every one of those little problems
can be reversed with a little
thought and maturity.
Speeding is easy to fix. Go the
speed limit. Common sense is
just a matter of keeping options
open in case something goes
wrong. Obviously, no one is in
vincible. These are simple prob
lems that can be simply fixed.
The purpose of driving is not
to get from point A to point B.
The purpose is to get from point
A to point B without getting in
jured, maimed, killed or inflict
ing the same on others. All too
often, that is forgotten or over
looked, and bad things happen.
College students — Aggies —
are the problem here. Aggies are
also the solution. Students are
supposed to learn not only from
their own mistakes but also from
the mistakes of others.
Every death on the highways
is a lesson that is being ignored
in favor of convenience and false
necessity.
Learn from them and do not
ignore them.
Chris Huffines is a senior
speech communication major.
a newspaper about public broadcast
ing, WETA spokeswoman Mary
Stewart said, “We’re looking for peo
ple who have a giving history, but if
Congress becomes concerned, we
will reevaluate our policy.”
If anything, this is where Tauzin
and Congress should focus their ef
forts — on reformation rather than
punishment.
By their own admission of policy
practices, PBS affiliates nationwide
have shown an inconsistency in their
policies and the actions associated
with them.
Whether station management be
lieves violations of practices have oc
curred, or the Internal Revenue Ser
vice finds any technical violation of
laws governing tax-exempt organiza
tions, PBS has erred.
Instead of attempting to turn this
into a political issue, all parties in
volved should recognize this and
work together to develop clear guide
lines, applicable to all PBS affiliates.
A reduction in funding accomplishes
nothing and is a misdirected punish
ment that is punitive in nature, no
matter what Tauzin says.
PBS’ programming is too valu
able, both educationally and cultur
ally, to be threatened by the inconsis
tent practices of its flawed
bureaucracy and the over-zealous-
ness of radical Republicans who
think Teletubbies are conspiring
against them.
Ryan Garcia is a senior
journalism major.