THE BATTALION
Page 9
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iiesday, October 9, 2001
IFFICULT TRACKING
indent database may be necessary to combat terrorism
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note posted on the door of a
California public school promised
a massacre of Muslims in response
othe Sept. 1 1 World Trade Center attacks
wMfive students' names listed under
neath.' Needless to say.
the students went home,
This type of backlash
has prompted an exodus
of Arab students from the
nation’s universities and a
renewed government
effort to track the nearly
600,000 international col
lege students in the
States. For the students’ safety and
Hesafety of the country, an international
latabase should swiftly be compiled. To
insure the future safety of everyone, this
snot a bad idea,
peer counsel Efforts to track foreign-born students
>e?an after the first World Trade Center
in 1993. But political opposition
eft the database as only a pilot project in
lieAmerican southeast. Currently, the
ptigration and Naturalization Service
32-4-nigMs^ |1NS) does not know the whereabouts of
nostofthe 570,()()() international students
nthe United States.
The question remains whether such a
latabase will help prevent terrorism and
erious help*-
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not be
be worth the costs involved. According to
the FBI. many of the suspects and materi
al witnesses from the World Trade Center
attack entered the country on student
visas — a fact that has those who oppose
student tracking clamming up.
Had the database been in place after
the first World Trade Center attack,
authorities might have been alerted to
Hani Hanjour, a hijackers one the airplane
that hit the Pentagon. Hanjour was
allowed to enter the country to study
The question remains whether
such a database will help pre
vent terrorism and be worth
the costs involved. *
English at the Oakland-based Holy Names
College. He never enrolled.
But certain considerations still must be
made. Though this database is the right
move, it cannot be done for the wrong rea
sons. This must be a calculated decision
done out of concern for safety and human
life, regardless of whether that life was
born in America or elsewhere. Americans
must not let their patriotism and emotions
lead to discrimination and racial profiling.
In the wake of the terrorist attack,
harassment and hate crimes have skyrock
eted. The American-Arab Anti-
Discrimination Committee has reported
more than 200 incidents of discrimination
and the Council of American-!slamic
Relations has seen more than 400 cases,
all in the weeks following the attack.
And perhaps most disturbing is a
recent Gallup Poll that states 71 percent
of African-Americans and 51 percent of
white Americans favor profiling people of
Arabic descent. With such widespread
contempt running rampant, the govern
ment has no choice but to keep an eye on
the country’s international students, for
the safety of everyone involved.
As an enlightened nation, the United
States cannot sit by and allow racial
hatred to be reciprocated by Americans.
America must take whatever steps are
necessary to ensure a disaster of this mag
nitude does not happen again. If creating
this database means possible infringement
on the civil liberties of a few, so be it.
After all, to cure cancer, you have to kill a
few mice.
George Deutsch is a senior
journalism major.
Student Senate missed
an opportunity to help
A t its Sept. 19 meeting, the Student Senate passed two
resolutions regarding the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks:
one was a letter to the American people and the other
was a statement called the “Spirit of Aggieland resolution.”
Both resolutions are nothing more than
attempts by the Student Senate to take
advantage of a headline-grabbing situation.
The first resolution was a letter to the
American people pledging the Senate’s sup
port of President George W. Bush, as well
as expressing their condolences to the vic
tims of the terrorist attacks. The letter was
to be presented to New York City Mayor
Rudy Guiliani.
The second resolution, under the pompous title of “spir
it of Aggieland resolution,” expressed the Senate’s admira
tion for Aggies who donated their blood, money and time
to help those affected by the tragedy. The resolution also
encouraged Aggies to come together regardless of their
religion, creed or national origin.
Neither of these resolutions accomplishes anything. The let
ter to the American people is a mediocre idea at best. Rather
than giving the citizens of New York their verbal support, they
should be taking active leadership of the student body and pro
viding the victims with whatever support they need.
As individuals who have stepped forward as leaders of the
student body, the responsibility of the Student Senate is to
lead Aggies in actions that will result in the greatest benefit
to those around us. Instead, the Senate took actions that will
not accomplish anything worthwhile, only expending time
and resources that could have been better used.
The Senate could have come up with any number of res
olutions that would have directly assisted those in need.
There are countless people who have lost loved ones in this
The Student Senate has
found an easy way to draw
attention to itself without
doing any work.
tragedy and are in desperate need of assistance. Donations of
all sorts are needed to help these individuals get through the
most trying time in their lives, yet the Student Senate is con
tent to provide them with a letter of condolences. With its
resources, the Student Senate could have easily set up a way
for all Aggies to assist the victims of our nation’s most dev
astating tragedy.
Courtney Eschbaeh, an off-campus student senator who
will hand-deliver the letter to Mayor Guiliani, said in the
Sept. 21 Battalion that “as the representative body, they felt
compelled to speak.” The problem, however, is that the
Student Senate did not feel compelled to act.
The Spirit of Aggieland resolution has a similarly hollow
nature. The document expresses the Student Senate’s admira
tion for those who assisted our fellow Americans in crisis,
yet the Senate did not provide help. Rather than admiring the
work of others, the Senate should accept the leadership role it
has obtained and perform a service to the community by
helping those in need.
By writing a letter to the American people and passing
the Spirit of Aggieland resolution, the Student Senate has
found an easy way to draw attention to itself without
doing any work.
By composing a letter of condolences and passing a reso
lution in opposition to terrorism, the Senate has let down
each student attending Texas A&M and every victim of the
terrorist attacks. At a time when Aggies need leadership
and organization, the Student Senate offers empty words
and little action.
Richard Bray is a junior
journalism major.
CARTOON OF THE DAY
Choosing baby gender before conception
is wrong, should be left to Mother Nature
MELISSA
BEDSOLE
TUs Rt6e>NVif-
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Attachments are not accepted.
F or years, the issues surrounding
medical professionals “playing God”
have been debated in courtrooms and
hospitals around the world. From cloning
humans to cutting off life
support, no one knows if
and when the world of
medicine has gone too
far. The Center of Human
Reproduction, one of the
largest fertility clinics in
the United States, is
offering a new feature
that takes things a little
too far.
Last week, an announcement was made
that the center’s nine facilities in New York
and Chicago areas will begin offering gen
der selection as an option for parents-to-
be. Parents will be able to choose whether
they have a boy or a girl prior to concep
tion. Something that seems like such a
harmless option is, in reality, extremely
detrimental to this unborn child.
The process is called a preimplantation
genetic diagnosis, or (PGD), and allows
doctors to screen embryos for genetic dis
orders. In the process of gender selection,
the parents undergo invitro fertilization,
producing multiple embryos and then,
using PGD, doctors will determine the sex
and implant only female or male embryos
•into the mother.
The fertility doctors involved here have
had the technology to do this for a while,
but have refrained due to ethical concerns.
Unfortunately, these doctors have let go
of their ethics and have made a decision
that can be disastrous.
One should say up front that this is
obviously not how God intended it. He
places certain gendered babies with fami
lies for a reason, and by making that deci
sion on their own, parents are taking away
from what should be planned by a higher
Many things in this world are
natural for a reason and the gen
der selection of a child should
remain in nature's hands.
power. With that said, it is time to also
realize that a great deal more than just
ethics of “playing God” is involved with
this issue.
When parents have the opportunity to
decide for themselves whether they should
have a boy or girl, there are expectations
that come into play. The parents choose
the sex based on what they expect that
child to be, when the only thing guaran
teed by this procedure is the specific sex.
Parents may decide to have a boy with
dreams of him being a star baseball player
or decide to have a girl that will dedicate
her life to being a champion figure skater.
But what happens when their little boy is
interested in taking ballet or their little girl
decides that she wants to play softball
instead? There are expectations underlying
the decision of a child’s sex and when
there are great expectations, there is
bound to be times when the people
involved are sorely disappointed as their
dreams do not come true. Whether or not
the child is ever informed of the procedure
that was performed prior to their birth,
there are great pressures being put on the
child.
There is another procedure that allows
gender selection called Sperm Sorting,
which allows the size of a male’s sperm to
be evaluated. A larger size indicates a
“female” sperm. However, this procedure
has not shown to be as successful as the
PGD procedure and will most likely be
surpassed by (PGD’s) popularity.
Just because science allows for the
world of medicine to grow does not mean
that everything natural should be forgotten.
Morally, this procedure is not right and
ethically it is not fair to the child. Many
things in this world are natural for a reason
and the gender selection of a child should
remain in nature’s hands.
Melissa Bedsole is a senior
psychology major.