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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 19, 2000)
Wednesday, July 19 - 'ednesday July 19,2000 dead in cell jfficials on Tuesday might death of a Ten? nd on the floor of his jnd his neck. /ilson, 27, was killed bi Id be the latest in a [ have recently disrupts prison system, p.m. Monday lying on their rounds, said thecollapseof Page 5 THE BATTALION Moving on Removal of remaining bonfire logs a matter of helping students cope, not a lawsuit issue e Texas Departmentoi d on U.S. servicemen a, Japan, stem from rece T demonstrations in Sen 1 stabbing death last mont rmy doctor, said Kim Yoii| J.S. command spokesperso: e 37,000 American trooi ioned in South Korea doctor, Maj. David Bern led in broad daylight by iorean man with a record illness. The military sar ck was unprovoked, rsands of South Korea® the streets Saturday all . military acknowledged imped formaldehyde in Han River, a major source king water for Seoul's 12 people. protesters lobbed toyrafc the U.S. military coMpom! ted a nearby building with nt, demanding punishment responsible, military said the 20 gallons aldehyde was treated byte system before it entered te id was therefore not harm- ie environment. South Korean media crib *Sales have pped as much 30 percent” — Hahm ji-won Iteawon bar owner the 1999 Aggie Bon fire, the polo fields rave seen a series of mem- irable events. First, the aves of heart-broken stu- lents left letters, Twelfth dan towels and pots along he orange plastic fence, text came the candlelight vigil on the night refore the Texas A&M — University of Texas- \ustin game. Then the investigators took the ield as the Special Commission on the 1999 \ggie Bonfire examined the fallen stack. But those events have passed, and all hat remains are piles of neatly stacked ogs and bonfire remnants such aS the yell leader stand. Students walking and driving by the polo fields still find their jyes drawn to the bonfire site for a stark eminder of Nov. 18. Like a photograph of an ex-boyfriend or-girlfriend, the logs remaining at bon- S. place rfew on Idlers UL, South Korea (AP) ;rowing anti-Americans the U.S. military in Soul las instructed soldiers not at night and told them n pairs and stay out of to cials said Tuesday, restrictions, similar to tliolfire site linger as a constant reminder of rule of spoliation says that a judge presiding over a legal case can rule that any evidence destroyed by the accused (potentially A&M) can be assumed to contain information dam aging to the accused's case. In other words, if A&M moves the logs and a lawsuit is filed, the case's judge could rule that A&M's deci sion was an attempt to hide incriminating evi dence. Because of this danger, and the fact that the collapse was an unprecedented event, A&M has used an abundance of caution in handling bonfire remains. Last November, when victims were trapped, the main concern was getting the logs off the pinned students. Eight months later, the main concern should be getting the logs off the students' minds. A&M officials have repeatedly said their handling of bon fire affairs would keep the students' best in terests in mind. The students' best interests now are having the logs cleared from the polo fields before August, when the campus will be flooded with new and returning stu dents. It is bad enough that students had to carry on their daily affairs through the spring semester with the logs refreshing terrible bonfire memories. Another semester filled with those memories would not help a still healing student body. August marks a new school year and a new beginning for A&M students. Fall 2000 should begin without reopening returning students' scars. Likewise, incoming freshmen do not need to see the remains of last year's bonfire. Most new students already know how important bonfire is to many students and how tragic the collapse was — seeing it firsthand will not do any good other than sat isfying their curiosity. As for the legal issues surrounding the logs' removal, A&M and Turner need to re think their wait-and-see approach- The Uni- a painful past. And like that nostalgia- inducing picture, the logs and the rest of the site need to be cleared immediately. Students have be^n burdened with the sight of bonfire's remains long enough. Moving the log stacks will only help ease the transition A&M is about to make into another school year — one without bonfire. A&M officials have no set time line for the logs' removal, but they are working with Brazos County District Attorney Bill Turner to determine how and when the logs can be moved. The delay in remov ing the logs has been caused by concern for the logs' relevance in potential law suits. Although no lawsuits have been filed, the statute of limitations will not be up for more than a year, and the possibili ty of future legal action remains. A&M and Turner are concerned that moving the logs could introduce the rule ofspoliation into future lawsuits. The 'Mil MlllSli ■ e chemical dumping as "te ig the South Korean people 'ou in the United States dun[ isonous chemicals into fa River?" asked a recent edh e Chosun Ilbo newspaper, spouse to the uproar, tfl ommand also extend by its military police ight spots in Seoul that)' ted by American soldiers ? shops and bars reported rop in business, with fe" 1 in visitors. s have dropped as much ?nt," said Hahm Ji-won e Extension, a bar in Itaew orhood near the army base J.S. military imposed a W' rfew and a drinking ban 5 rvice members in OkiiP his month after several 1 legedly committed crite e enraged the Japanese. Tder seemed aimed at cah ommunity ahead of Presite” i visit to the island for : anal summit this Weekend. South Koreans support 15 ig of U.S. troops in tK as a deterrent to mili^ om communist North Kot* y are worried about crte I er controversies allege g American soldiers, sts have been on the rly May, when a U.S. 1, ;hter jet dropped six boi®' Koon-Ni Range near 1 ast village of Mae Hyte southwest of Seoul. versity's guiding principle thus far has been fear — fear of encouraging a lawsuit and fear of making a mistake that would liurt the school in court. Instead of being motivated by fear, A&M and Turner should be using logic. Keeping the logs where they are now does not hold any evidence relevant to potential . lawsuits. All the logs' current location indi cates is how and where they were moved by students and safety workers in November, and later by engineers working with the bon fire commission. This information is not im portant to lawsuits, which almost certainly would be about the construction and safety of the bonfire structure. The material that is important to any future bonfire lawsuits has already been moved away. Centerpole, sample logs, baling wire and the 2-by-4 boards that were used as crossbeams are now in an indoor storage facility on West Campus. Furthermore, the commission took de tailed photographs, recorded eyewit ness accounts and made other records from the days immediately following the collapse. These records, including the commission's final report, along with the material in storage, most likely will be used as evidence in any lawsuit. The things relevant to bonfire lawsuits have been properly cared for and stored. The logs still remaining at bon fire site are not critical to potential law suits. Not moving them out of fear of the rule of spoliation should not be a concern for the University. The only purposes the logs lingering at the polo fields serve is bringing bad memories to returning students and putting the stain of the tragedy in the memory of a new class of incoming stu dents. Turner and University officials need to clear the most prominent visual reminder of the tragedy and give stu dents the closure they seek. Eric Dickens is a senior English major. Feds bully big tobacco for own gain A bizarre and twisted analogy is form ing in the minds of many Americans as they witness the ongoing punish ment of tobacco companies. It is an image of a boxing match in which one of the contestants is both the referee and a boxer. He removes his gloves and proceeds to pound the life out of his opponent by means of low blows, ear bit ing and other normally illegal* tactics. The ag gressor in this case is the U.S. Justice Department, and the beaten figure in the corner is the once undefeated Big Tobacco industry. Anyone with sense knows that frequently smoking cigarettes is bad for one's health. The clever nicknames cigarettes have re ceived over the years are indication enough of the recognition of their danger. "Cancer sticks," "coffin nails" and "slowly but sure ly's" constitute negative descriptions. In fact, the federal government agreed. It passed a law in 1966 requir ing all tobacco product packaging to contain a written message warning cigarette consumers about the serious potential dangers associated with use of the product. At the time, the tobacco companies must have thought that was a serious blow to their busi ness, but the future would have worse times in store. Tobacco companies have since been successfully sued in class-action lawsuits numerous times. Until recently, the cri teria for determining culpability on the part of tobacco companies has been the date the plaintiff started smoking. Plain tiffs who started smoking before ciga rette packages bore a warning label were considered to have been conned into a life of addiction. This notion was logical. People who start ed smoking after 1966 have no one to blame but themselves. In a revolutionary judgment in March, how ever, a California woman won $21.7 million from Phillip Morris and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Holdings despite the fact that she started smoking after feder ally mandated warnings appeared on cigarette packs. She also became the first plaintiff in a U.S. tobacco lawsuit to win a punitive-damage award that was not later reduced by a judge. Unfortunate as it may be, tobacco producing is not necessarily an industry that has benevolence as a main concern. Like any big business, tobacco sellers intend to do little else than line their pockets. This may be a distasteful concept, but it is raw capitalism, a truly American concept. Plaintiffs who started smoking after 1966 are exhibiting child like behavior. There is little else that tobacco product makers could have done to warn these people. The model the tobacco industry followed was that of the alcoholic beverage industry. The warning on a bottle of beer cites the dangers of consumption for pregnant women, the dangers of operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of the product, and other warnings. It does not warn of alcoholism, of the aggression often associated with alcohol con sumption or of cirrhosis of the liver because these conditions are not certainties. The government would never endorse a warning stating the certainty of a smoker's getting cancer. Why, then, has the present tobacco warning been deemed misleading? The system of class-action litigation has been running wild for some time now. A sharp, dramatic and persuasive attorney is worth his or her weight in gold. Meanwhile, fueling the wildfire is the government's encroachment upon citizens' right to eat or con sume whatever legal product they desire. Another interesting area is the government's two-faced ap proach to the tobacco industry. It is naive to believe that the gov ernment's interest in pounding big tobacco companies is,fueled by some innate desire to protect the governed. The government has profited from tobacco's existence since colonial times. Being well aware that the demand for tobacco will not subside despite a moderate price elevation that results from an other successful lawsuit, the government has apparently opened the door for these plain tiffs. The result of these lawsuits against to bacco companies has been an increase in the unit price of the good. While the tobacco companies might falter for a quarter or so, the feds never lose pace and watch tax revenue in crease every time. There is no logic in continually pun ishing tobacco companies without clearly stating what they need to do to avoid punishment. If the bureaucrats in Washington truly cared about curbing smoking, some of the tax money would go to ward implementing programs to help smokers quit. The gov ernment-sponsored com mercials on television are dramatic and a solid move on the part of Washington politicians, but they are not a complete solution to the problem. Tobacco companies should not continue to pay off smokers who started smoking after warning labels appeared. What started as a fair fight to arrive at the truth has turned into a money-d riven brawl in which the government, sick smok ers and tobacco companies are in it to the end. In this fight, the government is helping one side defeat the other in order to line its own pockets, in a situation very reminiscent of the referee-box er analogy. Pandora's box has been opened and likely will not close for some time. The divisions of the federal government al lowing and advocating this rampant legal badgering to continue are tol^lame. Nothing good happens when government tinkers with free enterprise. English soccer criticism amiss In response to Mark Passwa- ters’July 17 column. Passwaters wrote: “Eng lish hooliganism first be came an issue in 1985, when 40 Italians were killed by English fans during a game in Belgium between Liverpool and the Italian team Juventus.” I found several newspaper articles that state a wall of the sta dium fell, crushing 38 foot ball fans including 11 Bel gian youths. Passwaters also claims that during the recent Euro 2000 match, English fans ri oted for seven straight days. In fact, English fans took part in only one two-hour riot on June 16, the evening before the Germany-England game. Passwaters’ article also suffers from hasty generaliza tions. The problem delineat ed in the article is not charac teristic solely of soccer, but is indicative of large crowds and mob mentality. It is possible to discuss the topic in a rea- Mail Call sonable fashion, without such gross inaccuracies and emotional appeals as “peo ple are crushed to death yearly” and “pregnant women climbing over razor wire.” Good debate takes place when people rely on logical arguments, rather than emo tional appeals. Heather Cheatwood Class of ’97 Passwaters must brush up on a few facts before he de cides he knows best how to run the British government. He claims that “large ri ots have become common place in Great Britain," when nothing could be further from the truth. Violent inci dents at soccer matches in England have decreased markedly in the last 15 years and are much less common than in many places in Europe, such as Italy and Turkey. Furthermore, the hosting of the European Champi onships by England in 1996 was widely regarded as one of the best organized and most problem-free tourna ments of recent years. True, when English fans travel, there is a recurring problem of violence which cannot be condoned, but to suggest the fault lies with Blair is rather short-sighted. Measures were taken by the British government at Euro 2000 to stop known trouble makers from traveling, but it was the decision of the Bel gians to allow drinking in the venues to go unrestricted. Nothing excuses violence of any sort, but Passwaters really must understand the situation better before he es pouses any more solutions. Mark Johnson Dept, of Physics 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 ac curacy. Letters may be submitted in person at 014 Reed McDonald with a valid student ID. Letters may also be mailed to: The Battalion - Mail Call 014 Reed McDonald Texas A&M University College Station, TX 77843-1111 Campus Mail: 1113 Fax: (409) 845-2647 E-mail: battletters@hotmail.com hope ExtamNG A (YAH \*jWO r(\f\V hot mjB Been g\Mxy He'S (Hoping for a REPRIEVE PRopn ms Luke McMahan is a senior industrial engineering major. Mteb