lay, June 28, 2001
d). This rate appl
t an additional 5
d to end to quali
C' r
AND THE RURAL
RURAL
COLLEGE
t’s amazing what can be
overheard at the pool when
people a couple of lounge
chairs down think they are talk
ing quietly. Mild bickering over
how long is long enough before
le^row'n Acade* J a cou P^ e can g et engaged, and the
ve certification p-dlftininent, “girls want to get married and
seated in greaterkids, that is why they are the moms,”
°training d arrf me won der how many people are de
ne world On-stsBrmined to find diat one person to spend
seling student re st of their life
nt available. Vist !■ ■ , , •, n
with while in college.
gtrainers.com ffBitrigued by their
Our graduates iiB^versalion, I decid-
n the industiy. ■, , , ,
— i to ( j e | vc in to the
wy to goodh^M'orld of lifetime
m/blakeythebea'poninu til 1C n t.
Marriage. Bou-
uets. Rice. Family.
Vedding bells. Rings.
IVait. Calm down.
ne: playful, yea'
mix, spayed i i
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K
Graduation. Classes.
Finals. My life. My
money. My youth.
B his scenario needs to be rewound, re
versed and rethought. College is a time of
discover)’ and freedom, right?
[ In a town of 40 some odd thousand col
lege students and an even less proportion
ate few of dating prospects, is it really pos-
ible or desirable to search for and claim to
find die one you are going to spend die rest
of your life with?
“It is sad to see so many young and
promising college students turn to an en
gagement in a belief that it is genuine love
before they even have a chance to get their
feet wet. I have had a couple of friends ‘go
.down’and it ended in divorce. Plus, if all
these women are getting engaged, that is
less for me to pick from when L graduate.”
— Kevin Thurman, senior
economics major
eded 4-bdnt h:lve al ";fy s bought if you are going
inutes from campus ||come to college to just find marriage you
ire wasting money. If you want to get mar
ried that badly, get your parents to arrange
a marriage. So many people get married so
that it ends in divorce so early. Get-
320/mo. +i/3biis jffug married early is not really a had thing,
ft is the thought that you have to in order
1 feel whole. People getting married at
ur age weirds me out anyway. Last sinn
er 1 had friends that got married who had
een together since high school, but it
ems they cheated themselves of new ex-
iriences college has to offer.”
te needed, 3MrcS
e townhomes, $4001 j
(979)255-6885.
as, 1 st month
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eeded for
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rnsive Driving.
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— Brooke Sikes, senior psychology major
I Are you kidding? This is College Sta-
§on, a town where a cultural and non-con-
rmist barricade surrounds its perimeter,
is time to break from diis town’s walls
id believe diat you can find someone in a
ty that houses more than one bowling al-
y and adult video store.
Some may argue that the reasons for at-
nding A&M include group mentality,
mily atmosphere and universal morality,
Dwever, while that is very idealistic, the
teer odds are against anyone finding their
IduI mate. For those of you diat have found
love, congratulations, revel in it.
I But people should date different people
ip college. It is healthy. Sow your wild oats,
ftut try focusing on graduating from coL
lege before focusing on a chapel. Maybe
your wedding dress will not he white, but
who wants to marry a virgin. So remem-
when trying to locate that special
someone in this town, do it because you are
ady for it. Make sure you aren’t engaged
iecause you feel pressure from friends or
at stupid, drunken $50 bet you made last
eek. Maturity comes with age, and if we
k we are all mature enough to get mar
ried now, I know why the world fears our
jenerarion. (This column in no way has
anything to do widi being jealous of those
who are not lonely.)
ed customers
customers
I to buy.
JeffKempfis a senior
rnanagement major
PINION
Page 5
o
Glaring hypocrisy
U.S. execution of Germans violates human rights
THE BATTALION
T he United
States has
long sought
to assert itself as
an international
power and “a
lighthouse of
freedom” that
the rest of the
world could look to for protection,
as well as an example of how gov
ernment should work and justice
should be served.
However, the myth that the
United States truly offers any of
these things to the rest of the world
was dispelled yesterday when the
International Court of Justice
(ICJ), the judicial arm of the Unit
ed Nations, ruled that the U.S.
government violated the civil and
human rights of two German citi
zens it executed in 1999.
CNN reports that Karl La-
Grand and his brother Walter La-
Grand were executed after being
convicted for a botched bank rob
bery in which a bank manager was
killed in 1982.
Karl LaGrand was executed on
Feb. 24, 1999. His brother was exe
cuted March 3, 1999, the day after
the International Court of Justice
ordered the state of Arizona, in
which the men were executed, to
postpone the execution.
This is the real affront of the
case. The United States feels the
need to impose its will on other
nations and to force other nations
to respect U.S. laws, but America
will not bow to the ruling of an in
ternational court. The United
States was instrumental in the
mpm#
founding of the U.N., but it seems
the United States all but ignores
the organization except when it
suits U.S. interests.
Granted, in this case, the U. S.
government did apologize to Ger
many and promise to apprise its
citizens of their rights in the future.
But that does no good for the La-
Grand brothers.
There would have been no harm
if the Arizona courts had stayed the
execution until after the issue could
be resolved before the ICJ. After
all, the LaGrands had already been
imprisoned for 17 years, it seems
that one more night could not have
caused much more trouble.
The ICJ ordered Arizona courts
to postpone the execution because
the ICJ justices believed the Ger
man citizens had been denied their
right to due process.
They were never informed that
as foreigners, they could receive le
gal advice from the German con
sulate. Under the Vienna Conven
tion on Human Rights, this is a
violation of the accused prisoners’
civil rights.
The ICJ ruled that the United
States broke the Convention and
committed a human rights offense
against the LaGrand brothers and
the German people as a whole.
Despite foreign-born residents
of this country not having the
same access to legal representa
tion as those born here, it is despi
cable that the United States, of all ‘
nations, would so blatantly disre
gard the laws it helped write. The •>
ICJ is meant to be a moral body.
Since it has no power to unilater- .
ally enforce its rulings, it depends 1
on the honesty and goodwill of
the United Nations’ members it
serves.
The United States should be
above such petty actions — how > ‘
can the rest of the world ever re- ' •
spect a country that ignores the
rules it helped foster when they be- ' .
come inconvenient?
^ <
Jason Bennyhojf is ct.
senior journalism major.'- \
Less confusion, please
Nation needs to take less ambiguous stance on drugs, including alcohoT
(U-WTRE) — The courts ordered me to go
to a Mothers Against Drunk Driving meeting.
But, I don’t drink and drive. About a year ago, I
walked to a friend’s house and had beer. I was only
20 and, unfortunately, the police officer that asked
me for my driver’s license could count that high.
I had become a minor in possession of alcohol, not
a drunken driver. But, I was ordered by the court
to attend a A1ADD meeting.
“If you are over the age of 21, go ahead and
have a good time,” one of the speakers said, “Just
don’t get behind the wheel.”
It was a well-meaning phrase, but it tainted the
otherwise extremely effective presentation.
I think everyone should attend a A1ADD meet
ing at least once, — but not everyone should
drink.
Some people in that room had been convicted
of drinking and driving for the second time. That
sort of behavior is indicative of alcoholism. A per
son who has been pulled over twice while drunk
should never use alcohol — ever.
It struck me as odd when I heard someone en
courage a room of drunken drivers to drink re
sponsibly — a feat of which the audience had
proven most incapable.
To bring the arbitrary age of 21 into the equa
tion just makes things more confusing. There are
some people under the age of 21 who drink re
sponsibly. And, there are people over the age of
21 who do not. It is a simple concept; some peo-
CARTOON OF THE DAY
pie can handle the responsible, recreational use of
drugs, and some cannot.
But, when it comes to this country and drug
policy, logic is never a factor. Things are always
confusing. One of the reasons alcohol is such a
problem is the circumstance surrounding its le
gality. Other drugs, some more harmful, some less
harmful, are illegal — it is as if alcohol is some
how a better drug.
For this country to have a healthy attitude to
ward drugs, it must choose prohibition or legali
ty — not political ambiguity.
All drugs are bad. The question is whether we
should treat drug addiction as a disease or a crime.
Instead of making this decision, America has cho
sen to treat some drug addictions like a disease and
some like a crime, and it has drawn these lines with
politics, not logic.
When decisions of health are based in politics,
unhealthy results will come to bear. When I
walked into a huge auditorium full of convicted
drunken drivers, the unhealthy results of our
twisted logic were readily apparent.
Alcoholism is glorified in this country — so
long as you are “over the age of 21Consumers
of alcohol enjoy preferential treatment from the
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, which
regulates the content of the drug.
Other narcotics are not protected in such a way
and, as a result, often result in overdoses. Forest
Gump’s famous phrase might be changed to
-;’*4
“Life’s like a needle full of heroin ... because, in T i
the politics of drug prohibition, you really never,-A
know what you’re going to get.
In our paradoxical nation, marketing alcohol to
children is, for all intents and purposes, accepted
by society and, more importantly, the Federal
Trade Commission. Yet, we tell our children not
to drink. Beer ads that feature talking frogs and
lizards do not miraculously float past the con
sciousness of those under the age of 21. The me
dia are no magic bullet, but the power of adver--
tising’s ubiquity is imquestionable.
When mom and dad drink beer at Super Bowl’
parties and at the same time, three wacky guys ut-*
ter “whassup” to each other while downing Bud-
weiser, we are sending mixed messages to minors.
We might as well allow drug cartels to place ads'
that feature witty, marijuana-smoking cats.
It is reprehensible that some drug addicts are
treated like criminals.
But it is equally disturbing that some drug deal
ers are allowed to advertise on network television
and attract children. All drugs should be legal and
no drug should be advertised.
Until we adopt a healthier attitude toward ad-?
diction in this country, programs like MADD will
unfortunately be necessary.
Reed Albergotti
The Daily Aztec
San Diego State LL
Mail Call
'TUS OUeft Kt6C>|s/\s+-©
People are too easily
offended by cartoons
In response to all the whining
about the Uncartoonist, I'd like to say
that I think he's great. He draws well
and his cartoons are actually funny.
As far as his making fun of PITS, it
is ridiculous to get angry about that.
Our RTFS officers are generally obese,
but more importantly, they are part of
a corrupt system that exists solely to
bilk the students out of more money.
What's wrong with poking fun at
that? Woufed people get mad if I
poked fun at Hitler for being short?
And about the Corps cartoon. I'm
in the Corps and it didn't offend me.
There is a running joke among both
non-regs and CTs about how brainless
Corps fish can be. What's wrong with
putting that joke down on paper?
The Uncartoonist is one of the few
good things about our droll and er
ror-ridden student paper. I think the
Battalion should put him on the front
page. ;;
Nick Nethery
Class of '03
The Battalion encourages letters to
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and accuracy. Letters may be sub
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ters may also be mailed to:
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