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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 24, 2002)
% THE BAT!. 'pinion THE BATTALION 5B Thursday, January 24, 2002 bine's topf m an Associated 3l#n of 2001 re ait Stores Inc. t •i&OO list, lompany in theU md the world tor mnues Last; •Hart Stores Inc i Motor Co ■nns i eral Electric Co 3E30 >C0 Wa/ Msmtac* .* eddii Jersen personne dnesday on thf aintiffs’law yen 1 ces directly in' possible, y important a! £ fresh to get tear srach said. “Lc 3e.” resents the Fkr itds, said his die ag the Andeben: ant to inierfert' 'hey also wanit 1 Andersen probi . but we want tot ► r them," Yetier . es disagreed on: -vservation. Har. ■srotect paperwofi cst of the plaint: EDITORIAL Bonfire Funds FFERED Too LATE mwsuits already underway Blexas A&M University officials recently created a 50-year trust ■nd to help cover the long-term health care expenses of stu- d nts injured in the 1999 Aggie Bonfire collapse'. This fund will b* established using close to $500,000 in private money and BsO.OOO from the Association of Former Students' Bonfire Belief Fund. Money left over at the end of the trust fund's life Bill be transferred to an endowed scholarship fund in memory B the 12 students killed. ■ But some family members of the deceased are crying foul. Bid rightfully so. Such a fund should have been set up two Kars ago. Since the collapse, several injured Aggies have strug- Bed to pay medical expenses. The report into the tragedy Bund the university partially responsible, and A&M should not ftve delayed its effort to ensure none of the injured are forced to struggle just to meet their basic needs. ■The reason for the delay is the advice of A&M attorneys in response to a lawsuit, the first of several, alleging that University administrators shared responsibility. A&M President Some family members of the deceased are crying foul y and rightfully so. Such a fund should have been set up two years ago. Hr. Ray Bowen said, "Once the lawsuits were filed, (the la vyers) became more active in the decisions because these d< cisions can impact litigation." HTie creation of the trust fund is a positive, and necessary. Hove for the families of the injured. But it is also too little, too l$te. Sean Breen, the brother of Christopher Breen, one of the 12 Aggies killed in the Bonfire collapse, told The Battalion the trust fund "is a step in the right direction, but the University has H^ny more steps to take because they took so many steps in t|e wrong direction for the first two years." ■Texas A&M has taken too long to formally establish a means to compensate for medical expenses, and all because of the fiear of litigation. Now that partial responsibility has been estab lished, the trust fund is a positive step. Unfortunately for the families of the injured, especially those who have struggled to ptiy expensive medical bills, it is also too little, too late. THE BATTALION wuaging Editor Opinion Editor News Editor News Editor EDITORIAL BOARD Editor in Chief MARIANO CASTILLO Melissa Bedsole Jonathan Jones 5ALEI New Home luary 3 >Ff Shelve “uary 14 ^ I .00 P " -phg Battalion encouiages letters to the editor. Letters must be 200 words or Added Dail) less and include the author's name, class and phone number. The opinion editor - —reserves the right to edit letters for length, style and 'accuracy. Letters may be submit- — FphniarvJ ted 1,1 P erson at Reed McDonald with a valid student ID. Letters also may be mailed to: 014 Reed McDonald, MS 1111, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 3 50C P! 77843-1111. Fax: (979) 845-2647 Email: mailcall@thebatt.com ! Come Ofte® Brian Ruff Cayla Carr Sommer Bunce Brandie Liffick Member Member Member Member Jennifer Lozano Kelln Zimmer !2-Fe0™ry.* CA R TO Q N QFTHE DAY Per Bar CHANCE! vide the Bags — - —‘ Items Excluded -693-4499 argeBushDr. IrTew!* 1 NTOfl M SA Dear God, I ^ would like to pray to end abortion < 1 senoo *3* • nil ' Off FREE0a£ : in Bryan Colleges-' '500 NWfcUrf ? TUi£ OHcIN Rf6C>^\s+-© Not a political issue Enron investigation should focus on employees THOMAS CAMPBELL I n the wake of Enron’s collapse late last year, there has been much ado about nothing over Enron’s political contributions. For years Enron and its employees were top political contributors to a large number of campaigns. Enron’s money was received by many candidates includ ing both presidential candidates and seven of the nine Texas Supreme Court justices. Enron’s political influence seems far reaching, but that influence did noth ing to prevent it’s collapse. The investigations of Enron’s possible wrongdoing should concentrate on audit ing firm Arthur Andersen LLP and Enron’s top executives, not on political contributions. The real victims are those who lost their retirement funds and 401k Their political influence seems far reaching but that influence did nothing to prevent collapse. plans because of the stock’s drop from more than $80 a share in February to 67 cents on Jan. 10, the last day it was traded on the New York Stock Exchange. According to the Federal Election Commission, Enron gave money to both Democrats and Republicans, concentrat ing on commerce and energy committees. These politicians had no way of knowing Enron’s business practices or hidden debt. If the stockholders and the company employees did not realize what was hap pening within their own company, the Senate and House of Representatives had no way of knowing. Because of the appearance of impro priety, Enron could have been involved with illegal campaign contributions. If that is the case, then it will come out in time. Right now, the committees looking into Enron’s collapse need to concentrate on the more than 4,000 people who are jobless and may go bankrupt themselves, because they were not allowed to pull their money out of the company’s 401k when the stock dropped. Houston already had a job market flooded with Continental’s and Compaq’s recent lay offs, so these 4,000 men and women looking for jobs to feed their families are a heavy burden on the Houston economy. These people need to be taken care of before the investigative eye is turned toward politicians. Today’s media often looks toward the sensational story rather than the one of immediate importance, looking to break the next public scandal. The story now is if there were wrongdoings between Enron Chief Executive Officer Kenneth Lay and the politicians who accepted money from Enron. Instead, the people who have lost their money should be the focus. Enron’s collapse from the seventh largest company in America into bank ruptcy is a debacle on the grandest of scales. It has affected thousands and will continue to for some time. Those people need to be taken care of before the inves tigation continues to look for political improprieties. Thomas Campbell is a senior agricultural journalism major. FRANK CHANCE • THE BATTALION Life, liberty and the pursuit of tattoo removal? A fter petitioning the Justice Department for funds. Senator Lois Capps (D-Cal) has expanded the “Liberty Tattoo rm## MATTHEW MADDOX Removal Program” of San Luis Obispo County. The program will operate in part on $50,000 in federal monies that every U.S. taxpayer pays. This is a sad use for the word “Liberty” and shows just how out of control the idea of entitlement has gone. The free service will be aimed at the unemployed and former gang members. The procedure uses a laser to break up the ink within the skin until it is dissolvable by the body. Eligible persons must have tattoos that “inter fere with their daily lives” and must promise not to get any other tattoos. In addition, applicants must complete 16 hours of community service, a punishment usually reserved for convicted law breakers, not people who have exercised their right to free speech in getting a tattoo. Senator Capps justifies the federal spending by stating that per sons with tattoos are often dis criminated against in job hir ing and promoting situations. She may be right. Many employers will not hire applicants to positions that interact with their cus tomers if the applicant has visible tattoos. Even worse, people are gawked at, even ridiculed for their sometimes offensive body art. Studies have also shown who men prefer to hire women with larger breasts, and discrimi nate against those that do not possess them. Should women with small breasts be entitled to free breast enlargement to better their chances of being hired? Taxpayers should not foot the bill when John Q. Ex thug decides the flaming swastika on his elbow was a mistake. Once he has taken on the responsibility to pay for a tat too, he has taken on the responsibility to pay for the consequences, whether they are social or financial. Former gang members should not have the most visible reminder of their violent past erased by the government. Recovering hardened crimi nals need pennanent reminders, not just memories as to what their lives had been like with crime. The idea of tattoo removal at taxpayer expense has been exported beyond California to numerous U.S. cities and even to Canada. Last summer, Manitoba’s (Canada) Attorney General Gord Mackintosh refused to introduce such a program in his jurisdiction. “We’re not going to prioritize cosmetic surgery at taxpayer expense,” Mackintosh said. “Why should the public pay to remove a tattoo the person paid to put on? I have a real problem with that, in general.” Dressing up the name of the program with the term “Liberty” is one of the great est misnomers of all time. It is enough to make the Founding Fathers and every soldier that has died since then spin in their graves. These programs need to be curtailed before any reason that makes one person differ ent from another that causes social discomfort is changed to the “norm” by the federal government. It is logical to say that if this trend contin ues, there will be federal pro grams for subsidizing plastic surgery, hair styling, even wardrobe changes. Some wise advice to those considering potentially offen sive tattoos — stick with tem poraries. Matthew Maddox is a sophomore business administration major. ore Mideast courses should be offered at A&M to broaden students views AVAILABLE WA.C. 5FUTONCO.COM J 12-5 • CASH-VISA-'' ith a student enroll ment of around 45,000 students, xas A&M University [enis to embody all the mponents of a world-class hversity, with students from pross the United States and around the rid. Ranked as the fifth largest uni- sity in the United States according the Office of University Relations, it ironic that one of the areas in which &M is greatly lacking is diversity, as :en in the variety of classes, or rather. RUBY LEE the lack thereof. With the classes offered in history, sociology, interna tional studies and religious studies, it is hard to find a class about the Middle East. While there are some classes on eastern religions, there are far more on Christianity and the Bible. According to the Religious Identity Survey of 2001, Islam is the third largest organized religion in the United States. This should spark ini tiative by the administration to expand mideastern religious courses. As a result of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, student interest in the Middle East has increased dramatically, shown by requests for classes covering those areas. However, students must be con tent with individual research if they wish to learn more about these foreign places — as those few courses cannot accommodate all interested students. Students are going to feel the repercussions of world events in a way that no previous generation has. For students to be adequately pre pared to enter such a world, it is imperative for them to have a basic knowledge of the history and culture of different countries. Texas A&M must make an effort to expand the curriculum for a varied course selection. To compete with graduates from across the nation, A&M students need to obtain more from their college education than the ability to recite the dates of the Civil War. To reach Vision 2020, A&M will have to expand, especially in the area of liberal arts. How can A&M be ranked in the top 10 public schools if the majority of the history and sociology courses are important only to Texans? A lot has already been accomplished, but more needs to come. Vision 2020 requires the praise of the United States, and not just Texas. To achieve this, it is neces sary for A&M to start paying attention to the rest of the world. Ruby Lee is a sophomore computer science major.