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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 7, 2001)
ATTALIOn' :ent srs /on ployea it pem'M ay. June 7, 2001 o PINION Page 5 THE BATTALION )N, v . telecomm ucent Ted f feting vol note than ill removes ■ ity officials across nit erical cl Monday .‘ither for a check your guns cities’ rights, but offers no added protection in return thi :ir t£ Texas ■ gasped when ^■xas Senate jyees targttcM a that icstly muidB remove a s light to ban sealed weapons ml lie property. snian ^ or ' l ®le the bill has not received final cent. AllthR.^ that it passed the Senate at all * 1 ?’‘ ire insanity. insitM-niakers who support the bill said is designed to eliminate confusing Biat differ from city to city and Bilish the state’s power to regulate igims. Bile this is a noble goal, the execu- is lacking. h(| state has not laid down concrete s for where handguns can be car- .1 his is like building a boat from top down and launching it before At the bottom on. o,hfthe bill ultimately passes, the ; would have the power to over- lilcal regulations on where hand- s could be carried, but so far it has made any substantial limitations vhcre concealed handguns could arried. Inder state law, it is illegal to carry a [Bled handgun into a bar, prison, isement park, school or at collegiate rqressional sporting events. t€Hl it COr I {ns ever, the law is not specific i-UCent... utlnany other public locations. For 7 ino no5l! ' ant e ’ ^ t ^ ie Senate’s current bill _ f / “T .c.ye to pass, concealed guns would be /. / ,v>, j p U i ) ii c pools, churches and rtroonis. ^ te !o, the only way for a city to attempt Lehman E e A late any of the hundreds of ' "res not covered in the current state ' 1 isio lobby the legislature in two noo others rs |o impose limitations, selling oper p his is absurd. How can local gov- About 2,00i natuts be expected to operate effi- •y the end ofiH an AT&T financial ta lid a sluggisl micadons and sonic j has fallen Ians ')0 ii ciently if they are forced to sit on their thumbs for two years and pay lobbying fees up to $100,000, simply to be heard by the legislature? This two year limit puts an unrea sonable burden on Texas citizens. If the Senate bill passes, every Texan will be forced to look over his or her shoulder while in public. This will continue for at least two years, or until the legislature gets its act together, which will undoubtedly be much longer than two years. No parent should have to watch oth er parents at a public pool to make sure they are not carrying a weapon around children. No party in a court proceeding should have to hire bodyguards to make sure they are not shot during a lawsuit. No city, municipality or county should be disavowed of its right to defend its citizens. Presumably, the authors of the bill had good intentions. However, imple menting those intentions leaves a lot to be desired. Sen. Todd Staples, R-Palestine, said in a statement to the Dallas Morning News that the bill was passed so the government could keep its records straight. “Driver’s licenses, hunting licenses, fishing licenses, professional licenses are all controlled from the state perspec tive,” Staples said. “As a matter of con sistency, the regulation of fireanns should be done at the state level as well.” Staples may be right, but the state should provide for the safety of its cit izens before considering the best way to do its bookkeeping. One can only hope that legislators will come to their senses before this bill is passed, or we will all have to go around armed. Jason Bennyhoff is a senior journalism major. 3ut 104,000 k Tde. iccepting the receive impro 1 enefits, incluii sting of stock fl umors are flying not have beenfj around Capitol Hill time, althougb-^ th;1t another senator .less now give^J by thinking of bolting np tumble sine ; RepubHcan Party, and tncial problem^ senator is none other ic in 1999 njohn McCain of Ari- the offer,’ empl 1 ! If McCain wants to rible to retire T e ^ GOP, Republicans they have at le|§| t ' | et: McCain ran for the Republican nomination -mallv for anet P resi dent last year, and lost a bitter cam- full pension, tli S 11 to President Bush - The laded campaign -jf service must! 1 left Mc Gain consistently opposed anything t the president has sent to the Senate floor. . l " McCain was one of two Republicans to vote another cor? „ . , , r . nnst Bush s tax cut package, using traditional i mocratic phrases such as “the president has ny sources preoT® 1 >f those getting® will take themanfl Republicans should bid i left the lower classes behind” to state his oppo sition. McCain recently spent a weekend in Ari zona with Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, while refusing to come to the White House to meet with the heatl of his own party. Some of McCain’s supporters have taken this to mean that he will switch parties. Then, A^c- Cain will confront Bush in 2004 as an inde pendent and be victorious. Before he joined die senate, McCain was rec ognized as a hero, a man who withstood five years of imprisonment in the “Hanoi Hilton” and never cracked. Sadly, it is time to recognize McCain as a political fraud. He could never be a Democrat — he is far too conservative on a wide variety of issues. McCain strictly interprets the Second Amendment and has one of the most consistent pro-life records in the Senate. McCain good riddance Both of these would not make him an asset to Democrats. His crusade for campaign finance reform is one of Washington’s ultimate hypocrisies; McCain was busted for taking illegal cam paign contributions from Charles Keating. Why would one of the “Keating Five” sud denly have such a change of heart? Perhaps because it is easier to cheat when you make the rules. McCain’s staffers often note that McCain’s hero is Teddy Roosevelt. Former President Roosevelt left the Republican Party in 1912 to run against his self-appointed successor, William Howard Taft. Roosevelt’s need for the limelight helped split the Republicans and gave the presidency to De mocrat Woodrow Wilson. Is this what McCain wants to do in his seemingly blind desire to get back at Bush? But who is to say that McCain is not a De mocrat in waiting? McCain himself, allegedly. “I have no desire to leave the Republican Party,” he said in a press release this Monday. He probably could have fooled President Bush and Minority Leader Trent Lott. Is this the same individual who said, “The Republican Party needs to grow up?” Is McCain a rabble-rousing moderate who is turned-on by the charms of the Democratic Party, or is he the strong conservative his voting record says he is? The truth is simple. McCain is the guy in front of the TV cameras, and that is where he will continue to be found. Mark Passwaters is a senior electrical engineering major. payroll and UPON OF THE DAY n g| uld total $100flf a rely touches t! i annual cost' s aiming to tri uni cations ( v of Lehman Bn iwas encouragiif. it comes to 1# positive is worn id. ued from eMulvaney, ho' ngth of the Moijj trough her dau? 1 husband’s a let' : of her four ch' ome, CorinnC D°NT V00 HKM0 poT TUs Weft RteoNMF © etters to the editor. Letters must be 300 words )()iU llCl, actll: , ss anc j j nc | u d e the author's name, class and phone number, this novel, leaii he opinion editor reserves the right to edit letters for length, style and r n iracy. Letters may be submitted in person at 014 Reed McDonald with ‘ id student ID. Letters may also be mailed to: ioes a superb f I..ft The Battalion - Mail Call ly portraying 014 Reed McDonald ES of what W'H-' Texas A&M University College Station, TX 77843-1 111 American Beth A Campus Mail: 1111 Fax: (979) 845-2647 E-mail: battletters@hotmail.com Guest worker program bad for all O n May 21, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft an nounced the Bush Ad ministration is planning on working with Mexico to establish a guest work er program. Proponents of the program try to make the plan sound beneficial to the Unit ed States, but the plan would hurt more than help on both sides of the border. A guest worker program between the United States and Mexico would give mil lions of illegal Mexican immigrant and mi grant workers automatic legal status if they sign up for the program once it is in place. Thereafter, they must return to Mexico and reapply for guest worker status every year. One of the strongest supporters of this program is Sen. Phil Gramm. In his 2001 prospectus for the guest worker program he states, “It would encourage them (illegal immigrants) to come out of the shadows, to * work in dignity, and then to return to their families in Mexico with the capital and skills they acquire as guest workers in the United States.” Gramm and other supporters say they have the best interests of both countries at heart with this plan. However, the guest worker program does not offer significant solvency for current problems, such as low ering the number of illegal aliens entering and residing in the United States, stimulat ing the United States and Mexican economies and providing stronger interna tional relations. The program calls for all undocumented workers to apply for legal status and it be automatically granted. Doing this will cer tainly lower the number of illegal aliens be cause the plan in essence eliminates the tide “illegal alien.” Gramm is right when he says the pro gram will allow illegal workers “to come out of the shadows.” However, he neglects to re alize there are American citizens in those shadows too. Turning illegal immigrants into legal workers means the workforce will grow. If the guest wi TKer program is imple mented then a possibility exists for mini mum wages to remain stagnant for years. Stimulating the economies of both coun tries is another reason supporters of the pro gram encourage its passage. Gramm’s plan does not explain how allowing millions of Mexican workers to remain in the United States benefits both countries. Supporters of the program, especially those along the border, say that a guest worker program will end the recent deaths of illegal immigrants coming over with “coyotes,” people who guide immigrants across the border for a fee sometimes as great as $1,000. Andres Morales, an illegal immigrant cur rently working in the United States stated in a Dallas Morning News article, “Why would I want to do that if it would mean having to come forward and then I’d have to reapply every year? If I’m not selected, I will have to pay a coyote again. What’s the point?” During the Clinton administration, a guest worker program was never enacted because there was no confidence that it would benefit the United States. The Com mission on Immigration Reform in 1995 stated that “a large scale agricultural guest worker program ... is not in the national in terest ... such a program would be a grievous mistake.” Any guest worker program offered by Mexico or the United States must be met with harsh criticism,' because of the possibil ities of reduced wages and a greater compe tition for low wage jobs. Reid Bader is a junior journalism major.