hursday, November 9, 2(X)Q
Page 5B
THE BATTALION
Mail Call
Disapproval of pom
te suggests censorship
additional 5
endto£M n res P° nse t° Carrilyn Baker’s Nov.
1 " 5 Mail Cail.
flt is interesting that Baker uses
' ipocryphal horror stories of “porn
aarties” and “passerbys viewing
AMES hrough open doors” to justify govern-
Jg^m^nent intrusion into people’s personal
«Bs.
newa u ^rM\lever mind that dorms have resi-
■ Bit advisors to deal with the sup-
Jbr sublease jpsed disruptive behavior.
M / mo ,V5 'f'University computers (and Internet
^MMjiBnections) are paid for by the Stu-
Computing Services Fee.
tots-oi-iueuBuniversity funding also comes
state and federal sources. By
Inside Bane ;hlse two fiats, censorship becomes
lowestp^ce a t| | C ky issue.
' 84M " 7 'lit is already against University poli-
"ansses'sia-W 0 look at such sites in computer
™ ,s S iheues abs or on a computer connection
teGflE C:r *ignated for work purposes.
15 als0 current| y iHegal to view il
licit material such as child pornogra-
If Baker is offended by people
/ifiting porn sites, what about people
can are offended by individuals visit-
ng sites for Aryan Nations, Green-
. $342-":>e.ice, Free Tibet or Right to Life?
caii26hmJwhile some may deem pornogra-
Ti :: nr Dhy wrong, it is a fact that students
are legal adults with the ability (and
tksts. (71! tie right) to decide what they shall
/iew on the Internet and in the privacy
owaho-j: ofttheir residence.
js (LegW»l) I 1 1
my 823-79S !
LOSS
New Lowed
Checks, Ci
Todd Hudson
Graduate Student
Bike riders to be held
responsible for
ctions, not police
Injesponse to Cayla Carr’s Nov. 8
lumn.
I just finished reading Cayla Carr’s
iclumn about bicycle safety, and I
jmustsay I am shocked.
I Carr seems to blame the officers
for the bicycle riders’ lack of common
ibense. She even quotes the three
rnostticketed offenses as being “fail
ing to stop at a stop sign, riding the
png direction on a one-way street
hd hot having night bike lights.”
Correct me if I am wrong, but we
re talking about college students
ere — not the average 6-year-old. I
de a bike on campus while I attend
'd classes.
When I made this decision, I made
e choice to find out what the rules
ere. Not only does following the
les save your pocketbook, but they
|re also there to save the lives of the
icyclist or any innocent bystanders.
While I can agree that a bicycle
[safety class is a good idea, I do not
isee a lack of one as any kind of ex
cuse to attack the officers-who en
force the rules.
.
I
Scott Janish
Class of ‘94
[Maroon Out support
(applauded; continue
for OVJ football game
i On behalf of Class Councils, the
Maroon Out staff would like to thank
the entire student body for its sup
port of Maroon Out.
■ Over more than 40,000 T-shirts
-''^were sold to students, alumni, and
faculty for the third annual Maroon
ilDutgame against Kansas State.
BoCf c | The current 3-0 record in Maroon
Out games comes from the entire
welfth Man’s excitement and support
during these games, which could be
leard from everywhere in the city.
No one person caused our fans to
te so loud, nor did one person create
that enthusiasm. All of you did.
Further, the Maroon Out staff
would like to encourage you to contin-
Je wearing maroon, and make this
[lextgame against OU a second unof-
Icial Maroon Out game. Bring back
hat same enthusiasm from past Ma-
don Out games to Kyle Field this Sat-
your
2001
nded
1410
185.
ast six
squirt
urday; bring your Aggie spirit.
Thank you for all your support.
Without y’all we would never have had
the success that we have had.
Randy Hanson
Class of ‘OO
Accompanied by 12 signatures
Disgruntled Student
senator unsatisfied
with The Battalion
In response to Chris Carlin’s Nov. 6
Mail Call.
As a Student senator and co-au
thor of the Texas Aggie Bonfire Reso
lution, I would like to respond to re
cent Battalion articles concerning
Bonfire and the Senate’s role in this
divisive issue.
The first article, written by Andrew
Stevenson and published Oct. 6, said
that the Student Senate did not repre
sent the student body’s opinion of off-
campus Bonfire.
The humor of the article is that he
used only the opinion of the KTFB
members as support.
Such an argument would not hold
up in kindergarten, much less any
valid public arena.
The truth is that the senators who
authored the resolution consulted
many students concerning the issue
and found the majority of students
opposed to off-campus bonfire.
No one is working harder for stu
dent input than Student Body Presi
dent Forrest Lane.
Since he took office last March, he
has fought daily to ensure that future
Bonfires will be student-oriented,
making Andy Hancock’s accusation
two weeks ago that, “The Senate is
not doing its job ... nor is Lane,” com
pletely unfounded.
He must have flunked the same re
search class as Stevenson.
Lane is doing an excellent job as
student body president. Period.
Even those who supported his op
ponents in the spring election can
not but admire how hard he is fight
ing for students, especially
concerning Bonfire.
As for the Student Senate, our job
is to formulate student opinion and
interests and represent them before
the administration.
Before its passage, the Texas Aggie
Bonfire Resolution was made public at
the MSC and received nothing but
good feedback from the student body.
The Corps of Cadets, RHA, all
class councils and even TMC, com
posed of almost all former Bonfire
leaders, also supported it.
Had Stevenson and Hancock
read the Texas Aggie Bonfire Resolu
tion before writing about it, they
would have noticed this overwhelm
ing support.
As I recall, it was The Battalion
that constantly bashed Bonfire over
the last few years, so the sudden
change of heart is obviously due to
sensationalism.
It is easy to attract attention using
such sensitive issues.
Thus, if you want people to read
your articles, you can either learn to
use good grammar, research your top
ics well and write a logical, flowing ar
gument concerning your opinion.
Or, if you are incapable of doing so,
then take the easy road and just write
about Bonfire.
KTFB board members and disgrun
tled supporters can continue to whine
to The Battalion they are not being
represented, but when only a few hun
dred people at a campus of more
than 43,000 students support a
movement, the student body obvious
ly is not in favor of it.
The Student Senate and Presi
dent Forrest Lane will continue to
represent the opinions of the stu
dent body regardless of the media
circus that results.
Last time I checked, nobody elect
ed The Battalion to represent his or
her concerns.
Micah Belden
Class of ‘02
Rn honest mistake ...
Premature ‘calling’ of Florida by press an accident
F ew questions sum up
the events of the past
three days better than,
“How did we ever get into
this mess?”
The president-elect is
still undetermined. Both
candidates are a hair short
of the 270 electoral col
lege votes needed to claim
the presidency.
All eyes are on Florida, the last unclaimed
state in the election.
Although Gov. George W. Bush has what
looks like the slimmest of wins in Florida,
the pending recount of votes and the
potential influx of absentee ballots
from abroad has made the race
too close to call.
Too close to call? It did
not seem that way early
Tuesday evening, when
virtually all the major
television news net
works projected a win
in Florida for Vice
President A1 Gore.
By 9 p.m., a hasty
about-face was
called.
“We don’t entirely
trust the information
that we have,” said
CNN anchor Judy
Woodruff.
CBS anchorman Dan
Rather repeatedly apolo
gized to viewers, saying, .
“Clearly, we were wrong in
calling [Florida] as early as
we did.”
Obviously, this mistake has
given the public more reason to
resent the media.
However, it must be made clear
that the public must not rush to
judgment of the media. In a race so
tight and unpredictable, most news
outlets did the best they could with
the available information.
Due to the high cost of previous
Election Day operations, ABC, CNN,
NBC and CBS established the Voter News
Service (VNS) in 1990. The data compiled by
the VNS is interpreted by the networks indi
vidually, and each makes its own decisions
before “calling” a state on the air.
Sandy Genelius, a CBS News spokes
woman, said the network acted responsibly.
“When the [VNS] information came in,
there was no reason to believe that any of it
was bad,” Genelius said.
“As the information continued to be ana
lyzed and interpreted, it became aware to all
the networks that there was some bad informa
tion included in the data. We pulled the call
Back, which was the responsible thing to do.
No system is 100 percent foolproof. This one
has worked awfully well for a really long time.
There is an amazing success rate in calling
with all the net
works, us included.”
Calls to VNS by The Dallas Morning
News seeking comment were not immediate^
ly returned.
Of course, supporters of both major candi
dates were quick to the trigger in lambasting
the press.
Soon after the initial projection of a Gore
win in Florida, Karl Rove, campaign director
for Bush, appeared on NBC to scold anchor;
Tom Brokaw, saying that it was “irresponsi
ble” in awarding Florida.
On CNN later in the evening, Rove said,
“You all called Florida before Florida called L
its polls,” referring to the fact that some por- '
tibns of the state had later closing times than
others.
It was made clear that all of the networks
made their Florida projections before 7 p.m..
Former education secretary and conserv
ative commentator William Bennett
voiced his critisism, as well.
“You don’t call a state like
Florida and take it off the
board,” Bennett said. “This
should not happen. You don’ t'
have to te\\ us something
that you’re not reasonably )
sure of.”
On the Internet, ru
mors tell of a “liberal
media” conspiracy — .
that pro-Gore news out
lets were motivated to
award the state prema
turely.
It does not take a
rocket scientist to figure
out that this unsupported
accusation is utter non
sense.
In the midst of this
criticism, the fact that L
many news outlets went
out of their way to apolo
gize and rectify the mistake
went largely unnoticed.
Nearing the end of the elec
tion night broadcast on CNN, a
round table of anchors spent a seg
ment discussing the mistake
and its ramifications.
During the exchange, an
chorman Bernard Shaw repeated
ly said that the network was at fault,
was apologetic and “was doing the
best [it] could.”
It was an honest mistake — nothing more.
Whether the public is capable of accepting
that fact has yet to be determined.
David Lee is a senior economics and
journalism major.
Justice served
Harsh verdict against Aryan
Nation justified because crimes committed were hate motivated
I n Coeur d’
Alene, Ida
ho, another
victory in the
fight against
hate has been
won.
The Aryan
Nations, the
group’s leader
Richard Butler and some mem
bers of its members were found
negligent in a lawsuit brought by
Victoria and Jason Keenan.
The Keenans were shot at
and chased outside the Aryan
Nations’ compound when the
mother and son stopped to pick
up a dropped wallet.
The ruling stated that the
defendants were negligent
when selecting and overseeing
the guards who assaulted the
Keenans.
The verdict awards the
Keenans $6.3 million, the
group’s compound and the
rights to the name “Aryan Na
tions.”
First District Judge Charles
Hosack denied the Aryan Na
tions a new trial and declined
to reduce the amount of the
settlement.
The verdict is fair because
the group’s message of hate
was carried to the extreme.
A group’s right to free
speech does pot include the
right to endanger lives.
Butler has been advocating
the message of white suprema
cy and anti-Semitism in Idaho
for three decades, and, with
this decision, that message will
be less pronounced.
Critics of the verdict say
the settlement was too a
harsh. jmL
Yet as juror Judy Jacobson
said of the jurors, “They wanted
to get the Aryan Nations out of
the. country.”
Many feel that these types of
racist groups will fade away if
they have to declare bankruptcy
after these extravagant settle
ments.
But the experts do not share
the opinion of the jurors and
much of the nation.
According to Brian Levin, a
professor at California State
University who has researched
and studied hate groups, “Legal
moves have damaged the
groups, but their strong ideology
has proved as vital as funding.”
This means that, even though
the Aryan Nations’ leader has
declared bankruptcy, it will take
more then a lack of funding to
end the Aryan Nations’ message
of hate.
Even though the verdict will
most likely not end the reign of
hate in the Aryan Nations, it did
send a message.
This kind of expression of ha
tred and violence should not be
tolerated.
When the guards got in a
truck to chase, assault and beat.
the Keenans, they went beyond
legal limits.
The verdict also says that the
group, its leaders and its corpo
rate entity will be held account
able for what their guards do.
The jury used the law to help
curb this hatred that has been a
part of Idaho for the past three
decades.
By using the law in this way,
it paves the way for other states
and other trials to have similar
results.
The jurors in Idaho tried to
make a dent in the disease of ha
tred that has been plaguing the
United States for centuries.
While groups like the Aryan
Nations are still spreading the
seeds of hate, America cannot
move forward and cannot be
come what it should be.
The real solution to hate
crimes is not causing the groups
to go bankrupt, but preventing
the next generation from being
swept into that cesspool of hate.
If parents and schools work
together to teach tolerance and :•*
acceptance of all races and cul- *
tures, the message of hatred will
have a long-awaited death.
By teaching acceptance and
tolerance while respecting free- [
dom of speech, these groups can ■
be stopped in ways that the law
cannot.
Brieanne Porter is n
sophomore chemical
engineering major.