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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 25, 2000)
Tuesday, Jily;; get GED That year 524,535 U.S. aL;. :sday,July 25,2000 Jenera 1 Ed ucational Develo; re offered in 1942 to Amen® ited high school to serveiiili ests went civilian in 1947. percent of test-takers pass. THE BATTALION Lrmstroii ^ins Twvfairy-tale romance exaggerated by media, latantly disregards immigration process le France PARIS (AP) — Lance Antt sed a glass of champagne era e he crossed the finish line, iting a second straight k mce win that was even sweeter ic around. Then, on the victory podi mstrong hoisted his infant ove his head. Tears welledii ?s of the 28-year-old Texan, t three years ago was fighfe life against cancer that hadspr lis lungs and brain he storybook romance usually ends with Cinderella and her Prince Charming escaping all ils and living happily ever after — at not in today's society. As a real ro- antic tale unfolds, criminal charges iiickly kick it back to reality. Bahraini Princess Mariam A1 jhalifa was smuggled into the United States by then nited States Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Jason Johnson, he two fell in love last year at a mall in Bahrain, It was a hard TourdeFrance|| nowin 8 the Y would find a wa Y to be together. The last year, I'm glad it's finished 3uple eloped in Las Vegas and now live on a military ase close to San Diego. But while the ledia insists on glamorizing the in see more of these guys," he 1 iday as he stood with stin and 9-month-old son h hivalrous actions of now Pfc.John- o was dressed in yellow-ji dad. Because of his insurmounl! nee, riders joked and clowned’ nstrong as they coasted pasttix us sites of Paris and thronj ctators. Shortly after the cyclists too m the Eiffel Tower, Armst ined a long-haired wig. At sed the Louvre Museum, bbed a pocket camera and pshots of the flag-waving Ak s shooting pictures of him, He even was passed a glai bubbly and made a toast as: laled, even though he had ear! lared he wasn't "a champs; d of guy." "This one's even mores] year, partly because Armstrong said after* iling the son who was horn ft iths after his first Town’# on, U.S. immigration officials take a ifferent stance. Even when love is involved, rules d in the final stage of the To: mst be followed. The actions of News in Brief nese two individuals, an illegal im- aigrant and a soldier obligated to de end the country, are neither glorious, lor romantic. The couple must step mtof the spotlight and focus on real ty, because when laws are broken, legative consequences should follow. Johnson is not a hero. He used his nilitary affiliation to smuggle an illegal immigrant into he country. He secretly brought A1 Khalifa into the ountry by forging military documents. Johnson Taimed to have encouraged his fiancee to disguise her self in American clothing to keep from raising suspi- :ionon a commercial plane. And since the Johnsons uow reside on a California military base, the two crimi nals are living comfortably off government money. Johnson has been demoted from lance corporal to pri vate first class and assigned extra duty. Is this punish ment severe enough? His actions might warrant a dis honorable discharge. When Princess A1 Khalifa fled her home and coun- ,try, many felt she dishonored her family and religion. The fact that A1 Khalifa is a princess makes for a good The couple must step out of the spotlight and focus on reality, because when laws are broken, negative consequences should follow. fairy-tale romance. If this story involved a commoner instead of a princess, she would not still be in tlae Unit ed States. The media are trying to transform this into another Elian Gonzales crisis. They overlook the facts, and try to convince society that this is a heartwarming emotional tale. This princess has no right to stay in the country, and since slve came to America illegally, gov ernment actions have been taken to remove her from the country. The American dream is sometimes seen as having the freedom to do virtually anything. This be lief has led many to leave home and seek refuge in tine United States. However, to have a chance at the dream, tlie trek must be made legally. By following procedure, an immigrant has a greater chance of being allowed to stay; disrespecting American laws and coming into the country under a dis guise are immoral. If the judicial system takes its time and eventually removes the princess, many people will disapprove and once again be unhappy with the U.S. gov ernment. Therefore, action needs to be taken quickly in this case so that wide spread controversy does not erupt. If these two individuals are not swiftly and severely punished, then the gov ernment will do a disservice to the process of legal immigration. Johnson needs to be discharged. If not, more military personnel will assume that it is acceptable to abuse their positions. Likewise, the media has made it easy to sympathize with a young woman now in a for eign country to her who is afraid to return home. But this woman is royalty. If she is punished, it would not be as harsh as tlie punishment facing a commoner in the same situation. People want to see the princess and tlae private first class overcome obstacles and remain together, living happily ever after. However, Princess Mariam and Pfc. Johnson broke all tlae laws for love. America is not fan tasy land where laws are lenient and criminals run free. Actions must be taken against these two individuals. They should have thought with their brains, not just their hearts. If they followed proper procedures, their Expulsion should be last resort ussian rebels ttack, kill three NAZRAN, Russia (AP) - ibels launched an unusua 1 ytime attack Monday, unde; ing their growing boldnessfe; ibushing a Russian nvoy in Chechnya's c?pil d reportedly killing seven 1 issians. The Russian soldiers wen iveling in a three-truck convt Grozny when the rebel: :acked, said the office t rgei Yastrzhembsky, ft emlin’s spokesman G echnya. The rebels setoff ne under one of the trucks m opened fire on the softs :h automatic weapons an made-launchers. M ssians returned fire. Three Russian soldiers ed and 17 wounded in tlf ack. ilitary apologize r river pollutior SEOUL, South Korea (AP)- 5 U.S. military issued a pub ology Monday for dumpii naldehyde into the Han Rive 1 nain source of drinking watf Seoul's 12 million people. It was the first public apoloj ued by the U.S. military 1 ' Jth Korea since its deplo; nt here in the 1950-5’ 'ean War. Earlier this mo# military admitted releasi gallons of formaldehyde if Han River in February. Vacationing student deals with E arlier this month, state House of Representa tives members introduced a new education bill to Illinois Gov. George Ryan, which he vetoed. The bill would have allowed, but not required, sus pended or expelled students to attend alternative schools, and also would have required school districts to enforce full suspensions for disciplined students. After passing through the House and Senate unani mously, the bill was rejected by because lie felt that signing it would send an inappropriate message about the importance of kids being in school. He is absolutely right. Students should be required to at tend an alternate school wlaen suspended or expelled, and school districts should be required to send sus pended students to school while they are serving their suspensions. Do whatever is necessary, but kids need to be in school. It is most definitely the responsi bility of the state's representatives to keep them there. Unfortunately, some of representatives and lawmak ers do not agree with that. The authors of tlae bill, Todd Sieben (R-Geneseo) and Kirk Dillard (R-Hinsdale) and contributor Gerald Mitclaell (R-Sterling) have laad more than a few choice words to say in response to Ryan's rejection. Mitchell came to the defense of the bill, saying, "This is not a bill refusing alternative schooling. We're not talking about kids who are talking back to their teacher. Students have to work pretty darn hard to get suspended." Even though getting suspended might involve a lot of "hard work" on the part of a delinquent student, does it matter? Schools should not give up on the stu dents who misbehave "badly enough" to get suspend ed. Often, it is too much of a hassle or costs too much to set up an alternative school for suspended or ex pelled students or to transport students to an alterna tive school. Instead of taking the initiative to include these kids in some kind of program, tliey are sent home to their parents, and often, their own devices — and that will never solve anything. Sieben said: "My view is, once tlaey're expelled, let them sit out for awhile. Once they're serious about their education they can think about re-enrolling." All of these representatives insist that this bill was meant to help kids and help keep schools safer. It does not help kids to simply send them home. They run the chance of being unsupervised because their parents are working, or in more unfortunate cases, cannot or do not give their children the attention they desperately need. It is also not realistic to see all kids who misbelaave in school as "unsafe." It is not realis tic for misguided youths to be concerned with their long-term education, and they cannot be expected to take initiative on their own. Sometimes misbehavior in school is a cry for help or for attention. Because it is not always possible to deter mine the reasons behind the behavior that leads to sus pensions and expulsions, the problem cannot be ignored in the hopes it will go away. Time and energy need to be put into the students who need them the most. Staff editorial from the Daily Illini at the University of Illinois. Mail Call Col. Samuel Taylor read F 1 tement to television cal GTE s poor phone service s. Petrosky said the U.ST'j y will take "appropriate &| tn response to Luke McMahan’s July 24 column. tive action" after an inqu r : ipleted. ) Thank you so much for ail the articles about the The investigation will be * GTE monopoly in College Station. I spent 20 minutes vlaj. Gen. Barry Bates, who* on the phone with one of their “customer service” ponsible for all U.S. AfC (representatives last week because they have totally allations in South Korea. ; screwed me over on charging me this summer. ' am not even in College Station, but I chose to have my phone put on Vacation Freeze so that I would not have to pay to have it re-installed this Au gust. Instead of charging me $20 to reconnect w -When I get back down to school, as the original lady e July 24 article, loa ^old me, they are charging me half of my regular E defend business,"^ phone bill each month. However, I am still paying full price for features such as caller-ID, call forwarding, etc., even though story might have had a real-life fairy-tale ending. But since they acted on impulse in the name of love, theTaw must step in. Ironically, though, if the couple is pun ished appropriately, tlien their story can join the mil- KELSEY ROBERTS/The Battalion lions of other tragic love stories, loved by society, that did not end happily ever after. ) Cayla Carr is a junior speech communication major National mourning for JFK Jr. excessive, unrealistic there is no phone even plugged into the line. It is absolutely ridiculous. I am going to end up paying $60 for my phone this summer instead of the $20 that I was promised. I told the representative that as soon as there was another option for local ser vice, I would take it. Sara Martin Class of ’01 Correction /ritten by Kim TrifiliO’ 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 accuracy. Letters may be submitted in person at 014 Reed McDon ald 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: 1111 Fax: (409) 845-2647 E-mail: battletters@hotmail.com T he first an niversary of the crash that claimed the lives of John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife and his sis ter-in-law was two weekends ago. The amount of attention the an niversary garnered was astounding. Fox News dedicated its entire week end schedule to "JFK Jr.: as it hap pened," and three books on Kennedy were released, including one with the sappy title, The Day John Died. Members of America Online were asked: "JFK Jr.: Where were you?" when they logged on. While Kennedy's death was un questionably sad, the nation's re sponse to his passing — indeed, to his whole life — was unreasonably excessive. The desire of some Americans to place people on a pedestal prevented Kennedy from having a normal life. That same idol worship has also prevented many Americans from seeing the basic facts surrounding his death. Simply put, it is time for America to get over Kennedy's death. Why was John F. Kennedy Jr. one of the most sought-after men in America? Why was he People mag azine's "Sexiest Man Alive" in 1987? Because he was a Kennedy. President John F. Kennedy has become an almost mythical figure. People remember the young presi dent, his glamorous wife and the ideal of Camelot. They remember his little son saluting his casket as it passed on the way to Arlington Na tional Cemetery. And, in the process, tlie nation forgot that the Kennedys are human. The flaws of Kennedy seemed minor compared to those of some of lais family members. He was a de cent student, an adequate lawyer and tlae editor of a moderately suc cessful magazine. Unlike his rela tives, he did not laave a drinking or drug problem, he was not caught having a sexual affair with an un derage babysitter, and he did not cause tlae death of a young woman by driving his car into the Chap- paquidick River. Basically, Kennedy would have been a regdlar guy, if not for his last name. He had some success, but most was not gained through his own personal merit. Yet, when he died, the country's outpouring of emotion was greater than for the deaths of Joe DiMaggio, Frank Sina tra or Payne Stewart, who all achieved greatness through their own efforts. Basically, Kennedy would have been a regular guy, if not for his last name.. If a son of a bus driver went to Brown University, became a lawyer and later a publisher and had been People's "Sexiest Man Alive," he would have been more worthy of the nation's note than Kennedy. After all, it would have been someone who worked hard, strove for excellence and attained it — all on his own. If that man, who had attained what many consider the American dream, died young, it would truly have been a tragedy. For some reason, people around the nation were obsessed with making Kennedy into some thing bigger than life, a base for their own personal American dreams. Such idol worship has made it im possible for some people to see that Kennedy died because he made an error in judgment. Kennedy was a novice pilot, having flown solo fewer than a dozen times. He was not certi fied to fly an aircraft primarily by in struments instead of sight. Despite of his inexperience, de spite poor visibility, despite the night time landing, Kennedy decided to make the flight. The result was the deaths of Kennedy, his wife Carolyn and her sister Lauren. Showing the trait that has gotten so many of his kin in trouble, Kennedy acted as if he were invincible. Experienced pilots agreed that they would not have made the flight in those circum stances. The official report by the Federal Aviation Administration con curred with these assessments, blam ing tlie crash on pilot error. Yet, not one year later, the mem bers of the press and public continue to act as if Kennedy were some kind of deity. Gone too soon, perhaps, but so are many others. Such blind wor ship of human beings, such as Princess Diana, is counterproductive. It prevents those in the spotlight from living real lives and denies the public to grow as people. By trying to shel ter themselves in the aura of a figure who has become an modern legend, regular citizens deny the realities of life. These are realities that the younger Kennedy attempted to em brace, but was not allowed to. Kennedy suffered a great deal of loss in his lifetime. He saw his father and his uncle murdered and watched his motlier succumb to cancer. He has watched his cousins die and another uncle disgrace himself. Yet, through it all, Kennedy moved on. Now it is time for Americans to do the same. Mark Passwaters is a senior electrical engineering major