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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
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Luke McMahan is a senior industrial engineering major.
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