I*
: Battalion
O
PINION
Page 13A • Monday, August 30, 1999
Close* sfcele+ons
ir jyjegot/°ns of past drug use against Bush
t relevant to his pursuit for presidency
'ON (AP) -
ied teammate.i-
orge W.
ush
ants to
nefeident,
' niw some
ik it is time
iegiu worry
about him
igp man
i a past.
^—JMhere anyone out there in
po! tical world who does not
, el past’ Forget politicians. Is
it in tnesixtniiii* one over 30 w i 10 ^oes
'SS 10 h » i lave a past?
■ great, anonymous “they”
it to know what drugs he
d, when he used them and
it le did with whom,
lid anyone notice during
9a Lewinsky’s circus side
wihat people do not care?
pans did not seem to care
K ey made Bush governor.
ime to be selective has
9. Bush already occupies
highest executive office in
9te. To worry about his im-
|past is absurd.
Ire are just some things
■ do not need to know
ut others.
■urday night entertainment
■ one’s college days does
"■■■■■■■'■““feem important from a dis-
lof 30 years.
Ink about it. If Bush had
ten deeply involved in drugs
MUNriY9ayed there, how would he
ChurchJl gotten to be governor?
■ does not seem to be a
King rate of career success
Big practicing drug addicts,
e can pass a drug test to-
at should be enough. His-
history. It is what he is
today that is of interest,
at people do care about is
rformance.
of interest whether he re
ed in Houston before he
d to run for governor or
' owned real estate there.
TO ^Bewise, it would be interest
ed : tlknow how honestly he
& ^Ks income taxes.
ce he is putting himself
s the nation’s premier
he first for the
his own team
52nd double
added a tht
ie seventh.
1 (17-3) overt
, tying seven
ed to 8-Oinhii
llowed threei
3 innings.
■d off the Ast
ith a single a;
Iked. With tve
ndez gave
5 homers by
an into thei
public servant, perhaps one
should ask what kinds of service
he has given to his country, his
state and community. Voters
want to know about what he has
given back to the community, not
about what (or whom) he did.
Fiscal responsibility is also
relevant: On how many credit
cards does he carry a balance?
What kinds of gifts did he give
to government officials when he
was in business?
The current cul
tural milieu is
centered on
entertainment.
Consequently,
news has been
redefined as
that which sells
papers rather
than those things
that an informed
people need to
know,
When election
time comes
around, the media
will move in like
sharks smelling
blood.
Unfortunately,
they don’t deliver
meat, but old, picked
bones.
It is time for the
electorate to de
mand relevant
information and
insist that dirt be
confined to su
permarket
tabloids.
Whatever possible
bearing past drug use
could have on,.Bush’s ..
qualifications as a pres
idential candidate, it
was not important
when he ran for
governor.
Never forget
that Adolf Hitler
was a non-smok
ing, teetotalling
vegetarian. Purity
of lifestyle does
not necessarily qualify one for
public service, and it is impor
tant to stress that the focus here
is on past drug use.
If he is on drugs now, that is
news, and it is important. Other
wise, it should be a freebie.
Anyone who has never done
anything wrong is welcome to
cast the first stone.
Ann Hart is a senior
English major.
Candidates must be willing to subject
themselves to criticism of past actions
T
I he Re
publican
Party’s
overwhelming.
zeal for uncov
ering an office
holder’s past
transgressions
has turned bad
on them faster
than year-old milk.
However, just because
Mark McPherson/Thh Battalion
investigating a candidate’s past
would be inconvenient now is
no reason for them to stop.
In fact, the Republican Party
watchdogs were on the right
track all along.
Texas Gov. George W. Bush,
the likely GOP choice for the
ballot in the 2000 presi
dential campaign,
now finds himself
under the
same kind of
scrutiny Pres
ident Bill
Clinton en
dured during
his terms in of
fice.
But this kind
of pre-emptive
background
check of a candi
date’s history
should be conduct
ed in public in or
der to prevent the
kind of embarrass
ing situations that
can taint a presiden
tial term.
Once all the facts
come out about a candi
date’s past, then the
people will ‘decide with
their votes whether he or
she has enough merit to
be considered for the of
fice of president.
Questions have surfaced
concerning Bush’s alleged
past drug use, which friends
have hinted at and he avoids
discussing.
He skirts the question, say
ing if there was anything to
the claim, the said use was at
least a generation ago.
Now Republicans are wav
ing the flag of personal privacy
for Bush after they made every
effort to uncover all of the dark
secrets in the Clintons’ closets.
This hypocrisy concerning
a candidate’s privacy hurts
the country by withholding
possible past illegal actions
from the. voters.
This charge differs from being
wild in high school and going
out drinking after the big game.
Drug use is a serious offense,
and the people of the United
States, Bush’s possible con
stituents, have a right to know
about this part of his life, if the
allegations are true.
Other government offices
have endured and even benefit
ed from personal background
checks.
A prospective U.S.
Supreme Court Justice faces
a virtual inquisition before
his or her nomination can
be approved.
Presidential candidates
should be subject to the
same public scrutiny.
After all, the.people who
interpret the Constitution
should not be held to a
higher standard of scrutiny
than the person who is
charged with carrying out
those laws.
Currently, though, the
only public background
check for a president seems
to occur after he has been elected.
Perfection is not what
anyone is looking for out
of a candidate. The presi
dent should be in touch
with society. The American
people are supposed to be
in control.
But people need assur
ances that behind the white
toothed smile and perfect
hair, there is a law-abiding
citizen who might have a
few parking or speeding
tickets but no history of ille
gal drug use.
Everyone has their
menacing skeletons hang
ing in the dark corners of
the closet, but those with
the ones that resemble
museum exhibits should
settle for city council
runs instead.
Jeff Webb is a senior
journalism major.
sper trial gives Bryan community chance for self-reflection
’’bile students
and faculty
are working
their first
of classes,
[ence Russell
ler is facing the
■week of a murder
las the accused.
}ry selection for
pal officially starts
ay, but controversy about the trial
gan months ago.
■ewer is one of three men indicted
gruesome murder of James Byrd
d is facing the death penalty if
icted. Brewer’s trial follows seven
[ths after the trial of the first defen-
John William King, which took
in Jasper, the backdrop of the .
le and the incessant media coverage
followed.
ow it is Brewer’s turn to face a jury,
—because the likelihood of the sec-
PA 3.^i tr ' a l mimicking the first is high, the
Ind trial has been moved to Bryan.
rMotetakefjving the trial to Bryan was a decision
1999
Notes
>623
HORT 201
JOUR 102
MGMT105
MGMT211
MGMT363
IVIKTG 321
IVIKTG 345
IVIKTG 401
IVIKTG 435
made out of the fear of juror partiality
due to the aggressive coverage of the
first trial.
For many weeks it was debated if
Bryan should be the host of the new
murder trial. Many people were against
it, but now that the decision has been
made, Bryan has the most to gain from
the murder trial.
It seems strange to characterize a
murder trial as beneficial, especially
when considering
the nature of the
crime. Not only was
James Byrd Jr. mur
dered, he was tor
tured in a way remi
niscent of past Texas
lynchings, his body
dragged for miles to
ward the formerly segregated cemetery.
More than a year has passed since
his death, and it is just as shocking now
to note the details of the murder as it
was then. From the trail of blood his
body left behind the truck to how prose
cutors in the first trial proved Byrd was
''The effects of the
Bryan trial will run
deeper than the
verdict itself."
alive when the dragging began — by cit
ing the bone damage in his elbows,
showing he was frantically trying to
hold himself up from the road surface
until he was overcome by the over
whelming trauma, the crime was horrif
ic.
Hearing such details makes people
flinch with disgust, condemning the in
dicted without even considering their
side of the story. That is why the trial
had to be moved
from Jasper. The resi
dents were too close
to the crime and too
ready to make racial
amends, no matter
the cost.
Justice is hard
enough to get when
jurors are impartial; it is impossible
when the jurors are biased.
If Brewer had remained in Jasper
along with all of the media circus sur
rounding him, then any conviction com
ing out of Jasper would be tainted.
Also, by moving the trial to Bryan,
there is a better chance that the media
will not hound the residents or present
so much fevered coverage.
The security issue will also be less
pressing in Bryan. “The only thing we
have to draw on is the first trial, and it
went very smoothly in the security as
pect,” Bryan Sheriff Chris Kerr said.
“There is no reason we should expect
any difference.”
Judicially, it is best that Bryan is now
the site of the murder trial instead of
Jasper. No city wants to be picked as the
new site for a racially charged murder
trial, but in the case of heavy media
coverage, it is a necessity if fairness is to
be achieved. .
The effects of Brewer’s trial in Bryan
will run deeper than the verdict itself.
Brewer’s trial has the chance to make
people re-evaluate the nature of race re
lations here in Bryan, and hopefully on
the A&M campus.
Bryan is a racially diverse communi
ty, and it is not unheard of for people to
make derogatory remarks toward the
community. Bryan has been unfairly
characterized as “the ghetto” by some
A&M students, largely due to the black
population.
This is something that should be ex
plored. Racism on college campuses is
dangerous, not only because of the di
verse, young group it involves, but be
cause racists tend to get even more
adamant about bigotry as life progress
es.
When young adults choose racism as
their new dogma, by the time they are
middle-aged, the chances for them to act
out unfairly against another race are
even more viable.
The trial will proceed, whether resi
dents of Bryan want it to or not. But due
to its presence, everyone has the chance
to rethink the generalizations that often
supersede race relations. There is always
the possibility that if people review the
way they treat each other enough, then a
tragedy like the James Byrd dragging
death might not happen again.
Beverly Mireles is a junior
microbiology major.
urrent students have vested interest in supporting Vision 2020
exas A&M
University
has always
a committed
nproving its
ty.
e Vision 2020 project, com-
dover the past 18 months, is
ample of the University’s de-
o continually improve what
IVIUSC201.51ll5f er s its students and the peo-
F^OLS 206 Texas.
|ision 2020 aimed high — it
|d project participants to con-
what the University must do
widely considered as among
ation’s top 10 public institu-
by the year 2020, while still
Gaining its distinctiveness,
s good as we know we are.
Iso know that reality and our
tation do not yet place us in
group of top 10 schools
dally.
F^OLS 207
F^SYC 107
30CI319
THAT 101
3O0L 107
From June 1998 to June 1999,
nearly 260 dedicated faculty,
staff, undergraduate and graduate
students, former students and
friends of the University gave
their time, energy and creative
abilities to discussing the right
ness of this ambition for A&M
and suggesting ways the ambition
might be realized.
The resulting report was pub
lished last June and can be found
on the Vision 2020 Website, ac
cessible by hyperlink from the
University homepage.
Why should a current A&M
student care about a vision of the
University not expected to be ful
ly realized for 20 years?
President Ray Bowen has said
the degree he received in 1958
had great value then, but is even
more valuable today because of
the increase in the quality and
reputation of A&M since he first
slipped on his Aggie ring.
That kind of increase in quality
is not always the case with large
universities. Complacency and in
difference about the core issues of
quality will undermine develop
ing excellence.
The intent of Vision 2020 is to
make sure that we continue to
improve, so that what a student
acquires here, manifested in a
simple way through the degree he
or she receives, will appreciate,
rather than depreciate, in value.
The only way to do that is to
improve the whole University —
to make it a better institution and
to increase the real and perceived
quality of the enterprise to a
wider audience.
The prestige of a university is
increased through long-term
stewardship of academic quality.
In the end, the way we serve our
students — past, present and fu
ture — is by improving the quali
ty of the degree that we offer. The
only way to do that is with honest
self-assessment that results in
positive change.
Students who want
to improve their
academic per
formance
must evaluate
their strengths
and weaknesses
and concen
trate on im
proving those
areas where
they are weak
and perhaps
get even bet
ter in areas where they are strong.
An institution that wants to
prosper and return great value to
2 0 2
its students and its state must do
the same.
Vision 2020, as well as earlier
planning efforts that resulted in
positive change, have demon
strated A&M is willing and able
to chart a course of positive
change and achieve it. The
role of current students in
achieving Vision
2020 is to work
hard at being out
standing students.
A significant part of
|r an institution’s ex
cellence is the
quality of its stu
dents and their
achievements both
before and after
graduation. During
the Vision 2020 process, former
students, many of them highly
successful in their chosen ca
reers, were an integral part of
helping us see ourselves as the
world sees us and helping deter
mine the direction we must go to
achieve greater excellence.
Twenty years from now
when I am retired, I fully ex
pect to read in the Texas Aggie
that the University is embark
ing on another long-range
planning process aimed at con
tinuing its culture of excel
lence.
I also expect to see that
many students, who are now
just beginning to discover and
build their own futures, will be
involved in helping the Univer
sity plan for a yet brighter fu
ture.
That is what makes us Texas
Aggies.
Walter Wendler directed the
Vision 2020 project.