Thursday, Maids
OPINION
Irsday, March 23, 2000
THE BATTALION
Page 13
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The question must be raised whether
B is turning its back on the ugly problem
[has recently regained media attention
blast week’s announcement that Straw-
ryhad tested positive for cocaine for the
dtime in five years. This action follows a
year suspension for violating the New
:kYankees’ substance policy.
In his first statement since Bud Selig’s
mouncement of the suspension, Strawber-
;eemed apologetic and asked for the
ince to restore public faith. He declared
intention to indefinitely purge himself of
drag addiction.
The irony in Strawberry’s decision to
hn> ,i war. and parts for IT himself to a rehab program is that he
tently published an inspiring book about
flercoming cancer and drug addiction called
warning Life. In addition, the troubled
ggerwas a spokesperson for the National
luncil on Alcoholism and Drug Depen-
ice’just one year ago. Strawberry's earlier
larent interest in being perceived as a
idel citizen is repeatedly overshadowed
his actions and causes questions to be
raised concerning his sincerity.
Strawberry’s one-year banishment from
the world of professional baseball is not
surprising to those who have followed his
history. Beginning with the accusation of
breaking the nose of his ex-wife to the most
recent cocaine-related suspension. Straw
berry has seen the inside of more court
rooms than Perry Mason.
He has been arrested for assault on sever
al occasions, failed to pay child support and
threatened suicide. The .259 career hitter was
indicted in 1994 for failing to report half a
million dollars in income and ordered by a
court to pay $350,000 in back taxes the next
spring. In February of 1995, Strawberry re
ceived a 60-dqy suspension for drug-related .
problems and was released from his contract
with the San Francisco Giants. Last June, he
was suspended again for a 120-day period
but was allowed to return one week early.
Evidently, Bud Selig has decided that contin
uing to extend Strawberry’s time away from
the game is sufficient punishment.
Fellow teammates have speculated
whether their former designated hitter could
return to the league at the end of his suspen
sion next season. If Strawberry can rid him
self of his drug problems, it remains to be
seen if he can rejoin the two-time World Se
ries champions and contribute to a team that
may be better off without him in terms of
team discipline.
Turning 38 in less than a month, it seems
unlikely that Strawberry could make a
strong comeback after fighting his addic
tions and being out of training for 12
months. It is disappointing that a baseball
player who exhibits such talent and skill is
left off the Yankee roster because of sub
stance abuse. The life of money and fame is
too much for Strawberry to handle, and his
exclusion from the game should be perma
nent. His repeated disregard for MLB poli
cies reflects poorly on the league and sets a
negative example for society.
It seems evident that Strawberry may not
be able to overcome his drug addiction and
return to the game of baseball. The use of
suspensions for violators like Strawberry is
clearly ineffective because of short terms
that are often cut by appeals and lifted soon
after their being instated. Making a repeat
offender sit out q, few games is virtually a
slap on the wrist, and considering the length
of the regular season,, is only a ipinor set
back in the career of a baseball player. For
this reason, baseball administrators should
consider the possibility of banning him from
the game indefinitely.
Strawberry’s disrespect for substance
abuse policies should result in his use as an
example to other players. A new policy of ab
solute intolerance for violators is essential to
ensure the integrity of baseball.
Drug violations are not a new problem to
professional baseball, but they seem to be be
coming more prominent.
The league needs to take a firm stand on
this issue and the necessary course of action
is for Bud Selig to make an example of Dar
ryl Strawberry. Burning this baseball great
in effigy may seem harsh, but would defi
nitely give new meaning to the term “He’s
outta there!”
o
Summer Hicks is a senior
English major
MATT ROY/Thf. Battalion
TANZANIA
V eS
MOZAMBIQ&
gnorant celebrities lead
tay on ^Politically Incorrect'
150 miles
150 km
Indian Ocean
elieveitor not, there is a
television program out
there that manages to spew
ire ignorance and misinforma-
ln than The Touchstone and The
fie Review combined — that
)gram is “Politically Incorrect
tii Bill Maher.”
Broadcast weeknights on
1C, “PI” is a never-ending pa
le of celebrities sitting in on a round-table discus-
mshowcasing their thoughts on politics, current
ents and pop culture. With stand-up comic Maher
rving as host, “PI” has given the late-night network
evision landscape
;we
-Xai
Low-lying southern
Mozambican towns
are at risk of being
flooded for the
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| than a month
m AP wire reports
itrovers
have received over
tn all sections of theco®
Ballymena as beingfflrf
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'hich I may have achiev
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C urrie, mayor of the Coirf
trough, called the
sa ^' , . frcibly berates his
mena and Northern Ire®! ^ tU ^ : A -,
nit,” Currie said. “It»
a golden opportunity
boost for tourism. II
: who voted against him®
kelift with its dif-
rent framework.
However, there is
ierious flaw with
s setup — the
tehrities that ap-
ll far on “PI” often
ipear to be ex-
ijnely simple-
inded and down-
iht ignorant. When
j ey argue a side of a
pic, they often rat-
:off arbitrary num-
ys and sources in
tier to support their
! “f rational logic. Mak-
g matters worse,
[aher does not serve
.pn impartial medi-
or. Instead, he
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346-4242 if
tests when they disagree with him and he takes no
i fort in hiding his “libertarian” slanted views.
'If“PI” and Maher wish to be seen as a somewhat
gitimate source of information, they must realize
eseflaws and fix them. In order to better inform
eirviewers, an impartial host and better informed
Ms are needed.
The list of idiotic arguments made on “PI” is
linhilly lengthy. The following is a snapshot of the
Mmonth and a half.
“Don’t you think it’s kind of risky for George
ishto say that he’s pro-life, pro-life, pro-life, pro-
...and then kill a grandma last week?” said actor
Im Henton.
>,John. That line of reasoning is completely asi-
ne.The woman in question was sentenced to die by
Dry of her peers because she committed a brutal and
useless murder. Without proper justification, Bush
fin no position to stop the execution. It is called
stice, John — look into it.
in a later airing of “PI,” Kristen Short of The
>ting Americans Foundation made the elementary
sumption that President Clinton has something to
'with declining prosecution rates.
‘The number of prosecutions of people who hold
odguns illegally in the United States has dropped
44 percent in the Clinton administration ... they
•n’t enforcing.”
News flash, Kristen — the president has nothing to
with district attorneys’jurisdiction. Individual state
Wts preside over the vast majority of illegal hand
'll prosecutions and even then they are in the judicial
anch, not Clinton’s executive branch. Her anger for
the low prosecution rates is seriously misplaced.
Furthermore, where did Short get her numbers?
The impressionable viewer has no way of confirm
ing their validity. It could really be 3 percent for all
they know.
Later in the same show, actor Ben Savage from the
television show “Boy Meets World” managed to pull
the showstopper — he made the entire college-age
population seem clueless with the proud statement, “I
think Gore is stupider than Bush.”
When asked why he feels that way about Gore,
Savage supported his intelligent assertion with,
“Because they ask him a question — he goes, ‘Well,
this is what I think, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,
blah.’ ”
If Savage had
the wherewithal
to actually listen
to the “blah, blah,
blah,” he would
have an intelli
gent answer as to
why he does not
support Gore.
During his entire
line of reasoning,
he did not men
tion a single
stance of any
candidate. In
Savage’s case,
who says a per
son needs a clue
to vote?
Unfortunately,
correcting “PI” ’s
problems would
be an uphill battle. In order to maintain a fresh
daily dose of celebrities, “PI” has slowly started
to dip lower and lower on the Hollywood totem
pole — as of two weeks ago, the celebrity list in
cluded the likes of Rick James, Super Dave Os
borne and Johnny Rotten. Needless to say, the
lower they get on the totem pole, the more bel
ligerent and incoherent the discussion.
In addition, the current low-brow setup has proven
to be a great lightning rod for the show’s ratings —
inflammatory and ignorant remarks tend to raise eye
brows. For instance, when Maher initiated a discus
sion concerning the bonfire collapse during “PI” ’s
Super Bowl special, he incorrectly stated that the bon
fire had previously “fell on its own” in 1994 and that
bonfire as a whole was a “stupid” tradition. With the
help of actor Jason Alexander, the unfair stereotyping
of the typical Aggie took place — Alexander went as
far as putting on a phony redneck accent in imitating
the football team’s reaction to bonfire.
Needless to say, the negative response to this discus
sion was tremendous. “PI” and ABC were deluged with
email and letters in the following weeks. As morbid as it
sounds, however, this whole hullabaloo managed to
raise the local awareness and viewership of “PI.”
The bottom line is that until Maher and “PI” real
ize the level of influence they have over their viewers
and take some responsibility, there is little hope of the
show ever being seen as a legitimate source of intelli
gent discussion.
David Lee is a junior economics and
journalism major.
ROBERT HYNECEK/The Battalion
Pradhan’s allegations outrageous
Ex-professor’s claims of victimization show misconceptions
CHRIS
HUFFINES
A fter reading
the evi
dence accu
mulated in the case
of Dr. Dhiraj Prad-
han, former profes
sor of computer sci
ence, one is left
with the impression
that he is either a
naive busybody or a slinking weasel try
ing to play the system. No matter what
interpretation is correct, this episode in
A&M’s history needs to be swept into
the same dark hole as ’80s big hair, pet
rocks and Gidget.
Let no mistake be made — Pradhan’s
“situation” (as the euphemism goes) is in
tensely complex, highly charged and
about as controversial as a Ku Klux Klan
rally in Harlem. It is also probably true,
as Pradhan claims, that the University
was a bit excessive in its investigation of
him. However, the overriding issue here
is not the situation that Pradhan found
himself in but his reaction to the charges.
The allegations of witch hunting, racism,
constitutional violations, and official co
ercion have turned this case into the cen
ter ring ’a la P.T. Bamum.
Speaking of suckers bom every
minute, Pradhan’s defense tends to lead
one to believe he is simply an innocent
victim. Pradhan claims that, while he was
out of town. University System officials
broke into his office and took his comput
er. He believes this was a reaction to his
recent stand against post-tenure review
policies the University adopted as well as
an example of overt racism on the part of
University officials. Pradhan then claims
that the University began something akin
to a reign of terror: trumping up charges,
forging documents (incidentally, some
thing Pradhan himself pled guilty to), re
canting statements and having him arrest
ed on Christmas Day. Unfortunately for
Pradhan, he is neither innocent nor a vic
tim. Instead, the claims are a combination
of half-truths, pretension and Pradhan’s
own preconception that he was coming to
a backwater school where he would be
resented and the object of prejudice.
For example, Pradhan complains
about racial and religious harassment in a
memorandum he issued Sep. 8, 1997.
Reading Pradhan’s own words, the thin
ness with which his argument is stretched
is painfully apparent. Pradhan claims a
member of the hiring committee asked
about his religion and the religion of his
wile (he is Hindu, she is Jewish), and
about Pradhan’s “mixed marital status.”
Another professor, unsure of Pradhan’s
religion due to the different religion his
wife espouses, asked him if he was Jew
ish or Flindu. Pradhan apparently believes
these instances constitute the religious
harassment of his “ensuing six-year
nightmare.” It seems Pradhan believes
any professor who expresses confusion
regarding another’s religion and oh-so-
callously tries to directly remove his con
fusion, rather than continue in ignorance,
should be immediately fired. Pradhan sets
a standard for the most outrageous of his
claims. He sends out a shotgun spray of
accusations rather than provide objective
proof of his claims. It is possible the reli
gious questions were motivated by preju
dice, but without evidence, the over
whelmingly more likely conclusion, that
the professors were simply confused,
should be adhered to.
Pradhan also contends racism in his
memoranda, this time with evidence, al
beit misleading and out-of-context evi
dence. Pradhan’s chief harasser was ap
parently Dr. Dick Simmons. An
examination of the email Simmons wrote,
rather than Pradhan’s misleading quota
tions, reveals that Simmons was offended
by, and responded to, apparent impropri
ety in the hiring of Pradhan and certain
oftensive, pretentious statements made by
Pradhan in a previous email. Simmons is
also supposedly a racist for referring to
students from Third World nations as
“Third World.” Aside from the fact that
“Third World” is an economic designa
tion and has as much to do with race as
the terms “democratic” or “communis
tic,” Simmon’s actual comments were in
reference to the policy of some Third
World countries of inflating GRF1
scores. Concerned about these scores,
Simmons advocated serving more na
tive Texans and fewer Third-World stu
dents. Frankly, these comments show
Simmon’s regard for the integrity of his
department, high educational standards
and the taxpayers of the state of Texas.
Racism is not a factor.
Not content with misguided accusa
tions of racism, Pradhan claims his vocal
stand against post-tenure review of facul
ty is what prompted the “witch hunt.”
Pradhan, who came from the University
of Massachusetts-Amherst, also claims
there is an anti-Yankee bias at work with
in the University. Those claims are red
herrings, meant to distract others from the
real issue of Pradhan’s misconduct. Cir
culating a memo calling for the fonnation
of a professor’s union certainly did not
win him any friends among the adminis
tration, but to state that the University
went after him simply to stifle his voice
of protest is an unfounded claim.
What should be looked at are facts,
not the untrue ramblings and misleading
accusations of Pradhan. The facts are
that Pradhan was placed under investi
gation and audited and he came out of it
dirty. He pled guilty to over 50 felony
charges. Pradhan forged documents and
printed, even after being fired, over
100,000 pages at University expense.
He came to this University expecting to
be treated poorly, but he earned that
treatment.
No one has come out of this situa
tion smelling like roses. But the situa
tion has become so removed from the
truth and so divorced from reality it re
sembles an episode from “The Twilight
Zone.” Like the fiction it is, this saga of
finger-pointing and mindless accusa
tion should be put back on the shelf and
never opened again.
Chris Huffines is a senior speech
communication major.
YOU CftH TELL WHICH IS gore
AUfi WHICH IS BUSH. SORE'S
THE ONE WHO'S STARTED
COmPUMMlttG AfiOUT IT....
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