Monday, July 30, 2001
Opinion
Page 5
THE BATTALION
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Armstrong
exemplifies
dedication
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ance Armstrong has yet
again won the most cele
brated event in cycling,
the Tour de
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the Texan is
now reach
ing toward
yet another
impressive
milestone
— the fifth-
year an
niversary of his battle with tes
ticular cancer. Along the way,
he has shown Americans the
true meaning of being a hero.
Armstrong has overcome
great personal adversity and
achieved the highest level of
professional accomplishment.
Fox News reports diat for
cancer survivors, the fifth an
niversary is usually the date on
which they can be declared
aired. Doctors say Armstrong
faces a one to two percent
chance of recurrence. There is
no greater gift that he could
give to himself or the Ameri
can public than to continue to
demolish the difficulties that
stand in his way.
Despite the negativity that
surrounds professional ath
letes, the exploits of cycling’s
champion can teach us a great
lesson. It is unfortunate drat his
feats tend to fade from the
memory of even sporting en
thusiasts. Last year, Annstrong
was overshadowed by the in
credible British Open victory
ofT iger Woods, where he
completed golf s career grand
slam, at the age of 24. Now, the
start of football training camps
and rumors about the return of
Michael Jordan to professional
basketball seem to garner more
attention than Armstrong’s tri
umphs at the Tour de France.
Armstrong and his feats
11 should be admired for reasons
beyond just winning a race
and holding cancer at bay. In
cycling, participants compete
not only against others, but
their environment. An unpar
alleled amount of mental dis
cipline is required to stay in
the race. Explaining his calcu
lated transformation from an
ordinary, middle-of-the-pack
participant to stage winner,
Armstrong said, “I assumed
that if I had to bluff, then they
j would ride even harder. In cy-
I cling, everybody is watching. I
know that [the team directors]
are all sitting back there in the
cars watching TV, and I can
hear when a motorcycle
comes up with a TV camera.
Sometimes you have to play
that game a little bit.”
Armstrong stands out
among athletes because he
has added a third competitor
to his human and environ
mental adversaries - himself.
The Austin native could have
retired as an eternal media
darling after 1999’s emotional
race, w hen the media focused
on his heartwarming story of
overcoming cancer. But it was
important to Armstrong that
further goals be set and sur
passed. Fie did that by win
ning the Tbur de France last
year. Then again this week, he
surpassed even that by win
ning the crown jewel of cy
cling for the third consecutive
year. Despite establishing
himself as the best in the
world at his profession, Arm
strong still is not finished.
“The fourth title is still the
goal,” he said after his tri
umph in Paris on Sunday.
“The Tbur de France is the
most beautiful, the biggest
and most special race in the
world for me and for the
United States.”
ITis chief competitor, Jan
Ullrich of Germany, finished
a distaqj: second. Ullrich said,
“I tried everything to seek out
the slightest weakness, but
Lance didn’t have any.” A so
cial theorist somewhere
might be tempted to appoint
Armstrong a representative of
a “cancer survivor” winning
his race. Armstrong is more
than just that. He is a true
hero, the type that is never
satisfied with simply over
coming obstacles and pushing
the limit. Instead, they want
to the very best all the time,
and then get better. They are
constantly in a contest with
themselves, determined to
live to the highest standard of
excellence. Lance Armstrong
has the heart of a champion,
leading the way for his admir
ers to aspire to similar
heights. In a time when
America needs heroes, there
is one right in our backyard.
Jonathan Jones is a senior
political science major.
Social irresponsibility?
A
■ «!
new
plan to
itake
the battle
against
AIDS to the
next level is
already off
on the
wrong foot — and leading
the plan into failure is the
United States.
The plan, organized by
United Nations Secretary
General Koffi Annan, focuses
on the rampant growth of
AIDS in Africa. Some nations
there already have rates of in
fection so high that one in
four adults are infected with
HIV or AIDS. Annan’s plan
involves treatment, research
and prevention. It is consid
ered to have the most poten
tial and to be the most aggres
sive AIDS-fighting program
ever. However, the program
will not come without a great
price. It will cost somewhere
between $7 and $10 billion
per year.
Rather than shying away
from the program, or saying
it is far to expensive, the
‘Group of Eight’ nations
have decided to offer it
$1.3 billion. The United
States offered a mere
$300 million con
tribution.
This paltry
$300.million
comes from a
nation that is
planning to
spend $60
billion on a
national mis
sile defense
system over
the next couple
of years. So why
does the United
States not invest more
of its money into AIDS re
search? Because it does not
have to.
Leaders from all across the
world are announcing how
they have committed to the
fight against HIV and AIDS.
In Russia, newspapers are
lauding President Putin’s do
nation of $20 million during
a time of financial crisis.
Dr. Vadim Pokrovsky,
Russia’s leading epidemiolo
gist and the head of the Russ
ian AIDS Research Center
said in the Moscow Times,
“I’m glad that President
Putin paid attention to the
problems of AIDS.”
The Chinese government
proclaims that there are only
22,517 HIV-infected persons
in China, the world’s most
U.S. falls short of expectations
in AIDS funding for Africa
populous nation. Estimates
from medical workers inside
the country put this figure
closer to one or two million.
Perhaps this is how China
justifies not contributing to
the U.N. AIDS fund.
But the worst travesty is
So why does the
United States not
invest more of its
money into AIDS
research? Because
it does not have to.
the United States not taking a
leadership role.This is a real
chance for President
George W. Bush to
step up and make a
commitment, at least,
to slow down a virus
that has claimed 22 mil
lion
merely are trying to give the
people that voted for them
warm, fuzzy feelings that will
disappear when they realize
that nothing of consequence is
being done.
The richest nations were
only able to donate $1.3 bil
lion to the cause this year.
For the plan to re
ally work, another $5.7 bil
lion must be found. The
failure of the United States
to donate a pertinent
amount of money, thereby
leading other nations into
realizing what such a pro
gram can accomplish for the
world, will result in a pro
gram that will forever be 2
under-funded, underused
and destined for failure.
Reid Bader is a junior..
political science major.
far. Instead, he
relies on Secre
tary of State Col
in Powell to act as
yes
Powell, who is
leading a White
House team examin
ing the AIDS issue,
has committed the
United States to the
cause since taking the
helm of the Clinton-
era group.
By announcing all
these donations, and
saying they reaffirm
their commitment to the
fight against AIDS, the
United States and other
governments of the world
ANCELIQUE FORD/7«f Battauo^.
Early political activists had right idea
eeded for sales' 'I
d hard worker, g (U-WIRE) —This past weekend, in the
p P a w ? al n7l small Italian port of Genoa, a protester was
p ° r ' C -tt shot and killed by an Italian police officer as
,art-time help. F# he approached a police jeep carrying a fire
©• ; extinguisher, intending to throw it through a
Manager for iocs* broken windshield and at the officer inside,
yout &mamtena|'- Some are already calling the 2 3-year-old
Apply in peT protestor, Carlo Giuliani, the first martyr
ive Association 1: of the anti-globalization cause. However,
^ this simply cannot ring true. This man was
ehvery com 13 ' , no h ero - Pictures published in many daily
sdicaT'officeT hewspapers across the globe depict Guil
in 979-255-278S iani attempting to hit the officer with the
rs, stagehands. .extinguisher, which would have had
ed. Recruit w enough force to probably cave in his skull.
Reed newsu# I will side with the police officer in this in-
itance. He was guarding himself from an in-
vidual seemingly bent on injuring and per
haps even killing him. The officer was within
all reason of shooting Guiliani. There are re
part-time, rests-
Call 979-268' : ’
se: College
Bing facility is
s#
ports of at least 400 protesters being injured
attendants. ^ in clashes with police and 280 being arrested.
=kground chet*. | This shows a violent mofi, not a peaceful
i1 301 George
zilication.
ne experience
in Anusara
Dm ,268-3838
ICVCLE
oup wanting their voices heard.
However, this incident brings to light the
increasing amount of violent activity that
as become entangled with anti-globaliza-
tion meetings over the recent years. Scenes
y|'pf masked individuals spraying the anarchy
_^ x ®’ «ymbol on the glass store fronts of the Gap
Seattle and protesters breaking through a
olice barricade in Ottawa, Canada have
inued on p 0 9-
become engraved in our minds. Such scenes
will become much like the pictures of police
attacking anti-war demonstrators in Chica
go’s Grant Park during the 1968 Democrat
ic National Convention.
But the game has changed. Unlike the
majority of the anti-Vietnam protests, our
own are marked with violence. We didn’t
see hippies throwing bricks at national
guardsmen at Kent State. We saw them
approaching the guards with flowers.
Activists of a generation or two ago,
such as Ghandi and Martin Luther King
Jr. were right in their proposals that non
violent activism was the best way to per
suade others to their particular cause.
The films of police dogs being used to
attack blacks in Birmingham, or the scenes
of the Alabama state police chasing down
non-violent marchers shortly after they
crossed the Pettus Bridge in Selma showed
everyday Americans, especially those in
middle-class homes, how the state officials
were using excessive force to quell the
non-violent movements.
However, when protesters turn to vio
lence, they almost always isolate them
selves from the very people they need to
sway to their cause — the moderate, mid
dle-class members of society. Had the
marchers at Selma been carrying rocks,
clubs and other weapons and fighting the
police, such a groundswell of support
probably would not have occurred as it
did. The police would have been perceived
as enforcing the law against a violent mob.
Yes, the protests of today are needed as
much as they were back in 1968, and I am
happy to see people rallying behind what I
see as a worthy cause. As with the protests
against the World Trade Organization in
Seattle two years ago and even this past
weekend in Genoa, the vast majority of the
protesters were non-violent activists, seek
ing only to display their support of the is
sue. However, a few violent ones ruined
the limelight, and instead of headlines
talking of a peaceful march, they screamed
of yet more chaos and violence.
Our generation has long been searching
for a cause of some sort that we can be ac
tive in fighting for or against. We have
been perceived as a generation who does
not care about the issues. It seems as
though we have found our cause in die
anti-globalization movement — one that
fights indirectly to keep trade restrictions
that keep jobs in America, and one that
fights for the rights of less powerful coun
tries than the one in which we live.
Brandon Niemeyer
Daily Mississipian
University of Mississippi
Ttts