Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 4, 2003)
'uesday, February 4,2(1! ; exciting things ontli e fans who were unatl ticket to see TexasTeti oach Bobby Knight It if win No. 800 Saturfe issed out. But there; chance to see hist# is weekend. No. 3 Longhorns at to Reed Arena Saturds he Aggies have neve a team ranked highe 5 in school historyati came over the No,: ns in 1982. King needs 23 point o tonight's gameagaiiu o become the Big 12 1 ! icoring leader. If he doe: < the record tonight, lit rimed and ready to got a national televisi on ESPN Saturda; linst the ‘Homs, lay not be Marcl , yet, but there is a / Frenzy in Collect and for the first timeis ne. people aren’t read; about Aggie basebai K PHOTO • THE BATTALIOS prepares to make a taa g the 2002 season. r a return to normalcy, ove. The past week has dies and players ofjusi ve that chance, at 3 p.m. Tuesday at the :ie second game oik begin at 5 p.m. i fit Blood Center Opinion The Battalion * Page 9 • Tuesday, February 4, 2003 Bush denying children President to cut $7 billion from No Child Left Behind Act, which he introduced I t is undeniable in today’s world that education is the silver bullet. Receiving a col lege degree has become the means for maintaining a good job, whereas only decades ago, a high school diploma was the standard. Yet children in our country are not receiving an appropriate secondary-level or even primary-level education. This problem calls for attention and aid from the federal government, but President George W. Bush and his administration are not answering the call. According to The Daily Mississippian, the budget that will be presented today by the Bush administration for 2003 includes a$7 billion cut from the No Child Left Behind Act, a plan proposed by President Bush this past year to counter low read ing proficiency rates of elementary-age children. If Bush truly believes that no child should be left behind and fall short of achieving an accept able education, he must follow his words with action. The feder al government must collaborate with states, many of which are scouring to find financial stabili ty and in turn cutting from edu cation along the way, as well as communities to provide adequate education for our children. The states obviously cannot handle the task of educating the youth of our country single- handedly. Bush told Congress and the American people in his Jan. 28-State of the Union address that “We must work together to fund only our most important priorities.” According to The Las Vegas Review Journal, the president is expected to pro pose shifting the Head Start program to the U.S. Department of Education. Head Start was founded in the early 1970s to serve the child development needs of pre school children and their low-income families. If the program is moved, it is bound to lose funding and many of its strong points, including nutrition, vacci nations, and most importantly, parent training. Apparently Bush doesn’t consider these fac tors priorities. According to the Head Start Web site, parents of children involved in the Head Start program reported positive changes in their lives concerning their children, an increase in knowledge of available social services, and a decrease in negative atti tudes toward public schools. Reaching parents is the key to reach ing the children of America who are not receiving the education and resources they need. By giving parents the tools to raise their children in a well-informed, nourishing manner, children receive a full upbringing in which their most important resource remains their parents. Parents should not lose their voice in their chil dren’s early education, but at the same JOHN DAVID BLAKLEY time, parents should have the proper tools to provide their children with a solid edu cation. Head Start provides parents with these tools, but only as long as it is fund ed by our national government. According to the Democratic National Committee Web site. Bush is also propos ing to freeze federal funding for the essential program Healthy Start. Healthy Start works to reduce low birth weight, inadequate prenatal care, and other fac tors contributing to infant mortality. Despite his proposal to discontinue fund ing of this program, Bush clearly stated in his State of the Union address his desire for Congress to pass a resolution to end what he calls “partial-birth” abor tions, more properly termed late-term abortions. These abortions are performed in the unfortunate circumstances of a severe brain retardation, brain deforma tion, or death of the fetus, or when child birth poses a high risk to the life of the mother. Bush has made it apparent that his agenda includes the end of the woman’s right to choose in general. If an administration is willing to tell a woman she does not have the right to decide whether to have a child, how can that administration justify cutting a pro gram such as Healthy Start? Bush’s administration cannot remain adamant about restricting a woman’s right to choose and still be taken seriously unless it is willing to implement programs that give mothers the means to provide prena tal care for their children. According to the Las Vegas Review Journal, the cost of Bush’s controversial stock dividend tax cut alone, a cut which is inarguably partial to the wealthiest Americans, could provide comprehen sive health coverage for all 9.2 million uninsured American children, and could provide Head Start for all unserved eligible pre-schoolers in need of the services. Clearly, under Bush’s tax cut proposal, children will lose the most. A year ago. President Bush vowed that no child would be left behind. So far, his actions and decisions concern ing the welfare of America’s chil dren have proven his words empty and false. John David Blakley is a freshman political science major. Sharpton not fit to be president Political disasters define career A l Sharpton, a man who has marched alongside picketers as they shouted anti-Semitic epithets, according to Jewish World Review, has officially declared he is seeking the Democratic Nomination for President in 2004. “Al who?” some might be ask ing, but Sharpton is a well- recognized figure from New York City whose only agenda is to further his political influence while paying lip service to the disenfranchised. It’s a sad joke that he is aspiring to hold the same noble office as Lincoln, Roosevelt and Reagan. The Rev. Al Sharpton thrust him self upon America’s political scene in the late 1980s with the case of Tawana Brawley. Brawley, according to USA Today, falsely claimed to have been kidnapped and raped by several white assailants as a teenager. Sharpton was the high profile adviser to the Brawley fami ly who even accused prosecutor Steven Pagones of taking part in the rape. Pagones successfully sued Sharpton for defamation, receiving $65,000 in damages. Sharpton never retracted the charges or apologized for his actions. Al Sharpton, even today, will not admit that he was wrong and that his thoughts of being a glo rious civil rights crusader clouded his judgment. The reverend has been an FBI informant against mobsters, several black politicians and the boxing promoter Don King, according to Newsday. He was also jailed for 90 days after trespassing on federal property during protests of the U.S. Navy bomb tests on the Puerto Rican Island of Vieques. He protested with a hunger strike, which suppos edly showed support for the people of Puerto Rico, but it was just another headline grabbing sideshow. According to the Washington Post, Sharpton has never held any public office and is the first black to seek the Democratic nomi nation since Jesse Jackson in 1984. The only positive thing that can be said of Sharpton running for president is that he is a minority face among a sea of rich white men. Africana.com cor rectly suggests that Sharpton’s true reason for running for president is to gain an advantage within the Democratic Party and to even displace Jesse Jackson as the top black power broker. Compared to great civil rights activists of the past such as the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Sojourner Truth, Sharpton is a shal low racial opportunist. The Democratic Party will have to do better if it hopes to overcome Bush in 2004. Matt Cheshier is a senior economics major. MATT CHESHIER Ifs a sad joke that (Al Sharpton) is aspiring to hold the same noble offce as Lincoln, Roosevelt f f and Reagan. MAIL CALL Battalion coverage needs work I find it interesting that the editors of The Battalion could not completely put two articles about a national tragedy into the paper, yet they were able to fit a full article about the Olsen twins not coming to Texas A&M on the front page. If there's a more credible source of news in Texas, I haven't found it. Matt Norman Class of 2002 Half of The Battalion's front page articles continue on page NOWHERE. Believe it or not, today (and everyday) is an impor tant newsday, and this type of mistake happens fre quently. At least once a week, I can not find the continuation of at least one article. It was silly of me to think I could rely on a daily news paper to cover this week end's national tragedy. If The Battalion is going to publish a paper, it must do it correctly. This isn't a time to put forth "C" effort on what should be an "A" paper. I know you may not get paid or treated like professionals, but you never will provided this is the caliber of product you deliver. Aleisha Penrod Class of 2003 What do a University President, a Texas Senator and all the Class Council Presidents have in common? They have all had to defend themselves against a student publication in the past three weeks. I am glad they have written in, because when I have turned to the back page in The Battalion, I have seen that I am not the only one on this campus who thinks the Battalion reports the news with an inordinate amount of spin. Most stories read just fine without the sensationalism that is regularly added by The Battalion's writers. Please stop publishing a tabloid and writing it off as a newspaper. John Boehm Class of 2005 First Amendment also for celebrities I find irony in reading a col umn that tells adults simply because they are famous, that they should not be pro tected by the First Amendment and should just shut up. The irony is not in the blatant disregard for our fundamental rights, but for the fact that it is coming from a college student. The article blasts various artists for taking a stance against war with Iraq from someone who is pandering to George W. Bush and the other chicken-hawks in his administration. People must stand up for the rights that were given to us by the founders of our country and stop nonsense like this. From the U.S.A. Patriot Act to the Total Information Awareness pro gram, our civil liberties are being trampled at the feder al level, and now we have to read an article condoning such egregious injustics. McCarthyism in The Battalion, laughable yes, but obviously this article goes down that road. Justin Hill Class of 2004 Forum nothing but rhetoric The TAMU Christian Faculty Network claims that the pur pose of their Veritas Forum is "the pursuit of truth." I attend ed Dr. Fritz Schaefer's Forum talk, "The Big Bang, Stephen Hawking and God," on Monday night. The talk gave no evidence of any pursuit of truth, as least not of any sci entific truth. Rather, we were given a high school-level description of the Big Bang based on 20 to 50 year old documents and then treated to quotes from a half dozen well- known scientists and a few lame jokes. The quotes were taken out of context so as to suggest that the quoted scientists believe in the Christian God, and it was strongly suggested that most scientists do. Some probably do, but not most, and not Stephen Hawking. Most scientists believe that scientific laws work at all times and in all places. They don't believe in miracles. Toward the end of the talk, Dr. Schaefer got to his real ; message, the necessity of ; worshiping God through Jesus Christ. The selling of the Jesus message is appropriate in a Christian church but it is not appropriate in a public university lecture. Especially when it is disguised as a sci entific talk in the pursuit of truth. Bob Presley, Professor of Oceanography