Monday, July 10,® Permits ontinued from Pagi lid he knew nothings ed with the permit ider and junior zook in Graves said he thoiii! :o spend money on rs is absurd, often do we need to ref; ines?" Graves said. "Mi ride mountain bikes /way. Mountain bikess withstand a few bumps /Vhy not spend the thing worthwhile, 1 ; the football program!' arking lots are so faravj almost impossible towil becoming a necessitj 1a DeHoyos, a junior psl lajor. :imes students throwtfel mday.July 10.2000 .A- THE BATTALION Page 5 Ticket to ride Bicycle parking permits would ease congestion, benefiting all students A ggieland is infested with parked bicycles. Bikes are parked everywhere, frustrating id annoying both bikers and non-bik- Blocking doorways, hugging trees d tripping students, parked bikes eate a nuisance on campus. Cyclists idure a daily inconvenience as they to find an open parking spot in U aC f Car liidiculously overcrowded bike racks. The Texas A&M cam- campus, e oyos Mugig p 0 n u ted by hideous piles of tangled steel. To meet .lu ad\ paid or a P ar ^ : B e neec j s 0 f bikers and non-bikers, the problem needs to be ,d now to ride fromtk ldressed an d dealt with. npus, they 11 havetopii i n 193^ the University Police Department (UPD) and r bike permit. 1 don th | e p ar ki n g ( Traffic and Transportation Services (PTTS) sep- Id have to pay twice, at ed after a long, efficient union. As a team, the two de finance major John Daiil jrtments required bikes to have permits, registering them I the system will bert > their Aggie owners. Upon the breakup of the depart- vho ride bikes to campis tents, PITS continued to enforce the bike permit regula- ;h many students arer,: onsuntil four years ago when the supply of permits ran agree with the system jut. Because bike parking was not a problem then, the de- a way, it is a good iduBartment decided to discontinue the permits. Since then, "This way, bike ridersarMie bike situation on campus has become out of control, protected. If bikes are:-: ikersare leaving their beloved transportation outside uilding doors, locking them up to trees, rails, benches and nything else that does not move. Many students complain about the overcrowded racks, ut cyclists have few options. The shortage of bike racks arces bikers to park their bikes in alternative places. While he biker population may annoy the walking and driving tudentbody at times, it is entitled to equal consideration ind attention. A&M is continually striving to better meet he needs of drivers and bus riders alike. The recent re- rrangement of parking and the coming of air-conditioned uses indicates a concern for the needs of those students, ut it does nothing for those who ride and leave their bikes t school. The on-campus bike-parking situation deserves ittentionand renovation. Accordingly, PTTS has respond- id, working to better the environment for bikers but, as isual, nothing is free. So, just like those behind the wheel, yclists will have to hand over some cash. The department has proposed returning to the bike th PTTS, then PTTSwl ck the bike down fasterii: r left on campus." astern is currently beii by SGA and PTTSti ■ what the terms of tk auld be, such as fines POPS .0ntinued from Page e projects required to si- mericans with Disabilife .) and other safety precai rpletion of these stopsb cipated to take between permit policy that requires all Aggie cyclists to buy per mits, registering their bikes with A&M. PTTS already en- rourag'esstudents to put seri- alnumbers and driver's 1 18 months. • currently awaitinp/w/ from the House-S®® itions committee whidiis l in Washington," McBet ? will receive our budget in mid-August and begin sometime in October. Jk projects will resemble tk ont of the Bush Library” English major Kevi lid a covered bus stof ake waiting outside n bad weather. have been times whet l the decision of waitiif e of a thunderstorm or gt ed bus stops would, ion :ase, improve attendance iERS o license numbers on their bikes; however, the purchasing of bike permits would give each bike an additional iden tification number connecting the bike with its owner. PTTS plans to present the proposal to the Student Gov ernment Association in the fall. While some may speculate that the proposal is another PTTS scheme to rip off Aggies, Doug Williams, associate di rector of PTTS, explained the revenue would be dedicated to bikers and improving "bike life." The proposal is not an injustice to bikers, but a way to gather revenue from this type of transportation, just as PTTS does with bus pass fees and automobile parking tickets. It seems bikers have taken advantage of the fact that they do not have to pay to park, leaving the financial burden to all students. The new policy would not only clear the walkways for pedestrians, but also provide better facilities for bikers. Requiring bikers to buy permits is a wise idea and a long-needed improvement. The UPD supports and encour ages the idea because it would significantly contribute to law enforcement and crime prevention. Being able to asso ciate a bike to an individual A&M student would help po lice identify clear leads for stolen bikes. Although the idea of permits (and their price) may not appeal to those riding bikes, the policy would undoubtedly benefit cyclists and non-cyclists in the long run. Bikers are as much a part of the University as those with cars and bus passes, and they should have ample opportunity to commute. Just as drivers are con tinually "blessed" with those sweet, little yel low envelopes, bike riders will also rightful ly reap the conse quences of disobeying PTTS . In response to per mit fees, bikers may try to beat the system by not buying the permits, simply believing that if they are not registered, ticketing is impossible. Those taking this gamble must real ize they run the risk of having their property confiscated. PTTS never fails to enforce its rules; it has the ability and authority to break locks, leaving bikers stranded. While PTTS has a tendency to irritate everybody, the i /r -eg? KELSEY ROBERTS/Thk Battalion Boy Scouts have right to exclude homosexuals ames Dale was a Boy Scout, an Eagle Scout, a Scout leader and a recipient of an award that only 3 percent of Scouts 115 minutes for thebusil eceive. He had been a Boy Scout for 13 ears when, in 1991, he was asked to leave eep," Bailey said, "limaf he organization. However, because he was ilso an outspoken gay rights activist,the lonmouth Council (N.J.) of the Boy Scouts equested that he leave. ! Many people probably feel sympathetic to Dale for what seems to be a prejudicial judgment of his character, even though he .ontinued from Page iroved his character worthy to the Boy said the college < lcoulsforover 13 y ears ' , works hard to reerf But that should not color people's judg- , , .. fnent either. The Supreme Court's decision n to become elemental 1 1 r . in Boy Scouts of America v. jame Dale was a ound one. Chief Justice William H. Rehn- quist wrote the opinion for the 5-4 majority, declaring the Boy Scouts can legally exclude 1 Dale. The case originated in New Jersey, [yhere Dale had been a Scout leader. New ersey's Law Against Discrimination (LAD) pplies to all public facilities — such as chools and government centers — and all ublic accommodations — such as high ways and restaurants. So if the Boy Scouts it the description of one of the two, then ire trying to encouraj 1 n to become element® but it doesn't seem t is making any imp itary schools struggled nale teachers in stair exas. On average, only f the nation's public d ichool teachers are men lid the shortage of Spey cannot discriminate based on sexuality, s a problem that will C and hence could not exclude James Dale. The Supreme Court of New Jersey Wrongly classified the Boy Scouts as a pub- c accommodation, and compromised its ntegrity as a result. ause of the lack of resp 9 ’ think there is no presh an elementary teach 1 "Also, I think parents ; uirage boys to becotj- ike they do with girls." Here is just one implication of the New Jersey Supreme Court's reasoning. Consider a liquor store. If it is a public accommoda tion, then the LAD's age discrimination clause would demand that it must serve 19- year-olds and 22-year-olds alike. No right- minded court would ever label a liquor store a public accommodation for this rea son — doing so eliminates the state's ability to set a drinking age. But liquor stores are often run by the states themselves. Hence, if no court would call a state- run liquor store a public accommoda tion, then surely the Boy Scouts — a pri vately chartered organization one either. Seeing that the Boy Scouts are not a pub lic accommodation is crucial to understand ing the Court's ruling. Depending on person al tastes, one might consider the position that homosexuality is immoral, an unthinking prejudice. Everyone is entitled to make that judgement. So is the Boy Scouts of America. In fact, one of the treasures of the First Amendment is that people have a right of as sociation for the purposes of expression. If aggregation is to have this power, there must be a right to exclude. Forcing the Boy Scouts to accommodate homosexual Prevention of discrimination in this case conflicts with First Amendment expressive association rights. ■ cannot be lifestyles also forces it to accommodate a tacit contradiction of its moral message, since part of that message is an objection to homosexuality. In the case of James Dale, who was publicly identified as president of the Rutgers University Lesbian/Gay Al liance, this contradiction is not so quiet. It is no different than an intelligent, out spoken, environmentalist lawyer who might repre sent an oil firm. Just as homosexual Scout leaders are as compe tent as hetero sexual Scout leaders, so an environmen talist could be a competent representative of a company that causes significant damage to the environment. Such a lawyer's associ ations, however, diminish the effectiveness of his speech. The same is true of the Boy Scouts. The more gay rights activists it must accommo date, the more watered down its message would become! Its right of expressive asso ciation would be meaningless. The Supreme Court, by favoring the Boy Scouts, allowed it to remain meaningful. Several homosexual groups agree with this reasoning. They filed friend-of-the-court briefs arguing that if the Boy Scouts cannot ex- Mail Call RS, TRUCKS & )RT UTILITIES IASSLE FREE from IRSITY FORD vw.varsityTordcstx.com ER SUMMER SAVINGS HIGH REBATES )W INTEREST RATES USTANGS, RANGERS EXPLORER SPECIALS! Questions? - e-mail us at car@varsityfordcscx.comU UT employees justified in strike over benefits I i/n response to Sunnye Owens’ June 29 olumn. I was appalled to read this extremely Insensitive article in The Battalion. How can Owens act like the UT employees do not have the right to strike because they might hurt the students? I Any strike affects someone, but thank goodness in this country we are allowed to stand up for ourselves when it comes to important issues like health insurance. I am afraid that some col lege students who still live off their par ents’ insurance do not realize how ex pensive health insurance really is. Recently, my husband and I had a beautiful baby boy. The bill for the anesthetic alone was $800. Without the insurance that I receive through my part-time staff position, we would have been in debt before we even got the rest of the $5,000 bill. For someone like me, whose pay- check is little more than $300 a month, an extra $80 is quite a bit of money to take away from it, and lowering it to an extra $30 with the pay raise is still a week’s worth of groceries. I think it is interesting that some peo ple do not realize that to those who make less than $30,000 a year, it would be much easier just to go on Medicaid, which requires no premium whatsoever, instead of actually going out and getting a job to provide healthcare for a family. It is very easy to judge when you have never been in that situation. Anna Hawkins Class of '01 The Battalion encourages letters to the editor. Let ters must be 300 words or less and include the au thor's name, class and phone number. The opinion editor reserves the right to edit letters for length, style, and accuracy. Letters may be submit ted in pe/son at 014 Reed McDonald with a valid stu dent ID. Letters may also be mailed to: The Battalion - Mall Call 013 Reed McDonald Texas A&M University College Station, TX 77843-1111 Campus Mail: 1111 Fax: (409) 845-2647 E-mail: battletters@hotmail.com elude them, then they cannot exclude hetero sexuals in purely homosexual associations. Prevention of discrimination in this case conflicts with First Amendment ex pressive association rights. The New Jersey Court favored the for mer on shaky grounds. The Supreme Court could not favor the former and yet maintain its jurisprudential integrity. "Discrete and insular minorities" — sucE as racial minorities — are protected equally under the Fourteenth Amendment. Not only did Congress not intend the Fourteenth Amendment to be a protection of homosexuals, tmt judicial precedent does not either. In Bowers v. Hardwick (1985), the Court ruled that states can pass laws against sodomy, which means they can regulate ho mosexual conduct in ways they cannot reg ulate heterosexual acts. This demonstrates that homosexuals cannot have a blanket protection against discrimination along the lines of what New Jersey had in mind. The Boy Scouts have circulated several position papers on the immorality of homo sexuality. They may have taken the wrong position; they may not have. But the Court has the law and its integrity. Americans can rejoice that neither was compromised. Jeffrey Eisenberg is a columnist for The Cavalier Daily at the U. of Virginia. Viewpoints New Vietnam plaque rightfully honors soldiers T he black marble of the Vietnam Memori al in Washington, D.C., was meant to honor those soldiers who gave all in de fense of their country during the Vietnam War. The memorial, which displays more than 50,000 names and has had 261 names added to it since its completion in 1982, is now slated for another update. Legislation signed by President Clinton in June ordered the addition of a plaque bear ing a eulogy to veterans of the war who died afterward due to post-traumatic stress disor der, exposure to Agent Orange during combat and other causes not directly associated with combat wounds. While some people may balk at the idea of altering a national memorial, this plaque is an important step in recognizing that the wounds suffered from wartime conflict some times surface after the fighting is over. Post-traumatic stress disorder; Hodgkins lymphoma, which the government has recog nized as an effect of Agent Orange exposure; and other afflictions that haunt war veterans need to be acknowledged not only by memori al visitors but by the public in general. Doctors believe the number of people who have died from conditions related to combat experience rivals the thousands of names al ready listed on the Vietnam Memorial. The new plaque will be nameless, but putting a short commemorative inscription describing the battle these soldiers fought after the war ended is the least American can do to honor their memory. Some veter ans believe post-traumatic stress disorder is a sugar-coated term for suicide and that such actions should not be honored. Veterans who lost the battle with post- traumatic stress disorder died from wounds received when they answered the call to de fend their countries, just as those who took enemy bullets in the hills of Vietnam. While others burned their draft cards and marched through the streets of D.C., these soldiers were shipped across the Pacific to fight in a war in which they had no personal stake. While their deaths did not come for years after combat’s end, their wounds still had the same root as those of soldiers who died overseas — the defense of freedom. The shape of the Vietnam Memorial, a long thin swath cut out of the rolling landscape, was designed to symbolize a veteran’s battle scar. The new plaque is a fitting and important way to recognize those who were scarred in battle, even if those scars were not evident until after the war was over. — Eric Dickens ‘Survivor’ shows full of unnecessary danger T hink back to “traditional” game shows like “Jeopardy.” The contestants, for the most part, stand calmly behind a podi um and win money by demonstrating their knowledge of various subjects. The modern- day counterparts of these shows are striking ly different from their predecessors and in creasingly more violent and sensationalistic. Two examples are CBS’s TV-drama-meets- game-show program “Survivor” and Comedy Central’s new prize show “Don’t Forget Your Toothbrush.” Sensationalism is well and good in its place, but many game shows are taking it too far. People stuck on a desert island and other dangerous escapades are undeniably excit ing to watch. But some of the activities the contestants perform are potentially danger ous and would be better left to trained stunt- people. Game shows are meant to be fun and challenging entertainment, not activites where contestants risk life and limb for a chance at big bucks. Eerily enough, modern game shows seem to be moving ever closer to competitions such as those featured in Stephen King’s The Running Man. In The Running Man, less fortu nate people in a futuristic world can enter themselves in a variety of game show compe titions. For example, an elderly man with heart problems would be placed on a tread mill until he either died or completed a cer tain amount of aerobic activity. If the contes tant won, he would be financially set for life. But in the process, crucial body parts and even lives are prone to being lost. Although American game shows have not progressed to this level, one still has to wonder exactly how far the obsession with sensationalism will go. In addition, the premise of many of these game shows is idiotic. For example, the very idea of a group of people “trapped” on a desert island with television crews is utterly ridiculous. Instead of devoting their time to helping those truly are trapped in desperate situations survive, the contestants devote their time to petty arguments and dangerous activites. It is arguable what is more disturbing: that this is a real competition or that people actu ally watch it. Either way, Alex Trebek would not be pleased. — Jessica Crutcher