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EDITORIAL
Saving journalism
During the past decade, the journalism department has been
dying a slow, painful death as faculty leave and are not replaced
and as the last tide of degree-seekers swells the department, tax
ing classroom space and hurting advising capabilities. As more
complications arise within the department, Texas A&M’s loom
ing budget cuts have provided an excuse for the College of
Liberal Arts to consider eliminating the program altogether.
According to the Vision 2020 Mission Statement, one of the
missions is to achieve academic excellence “by which we mean
the achievement of national and international prominence
through ... facilitation and support of interdisciplinary and multi
disciplinary faculties and programs.” But if the University seeks
to successfully fulfill these goals, the journalism department
must not only be saved, but improved. The primary reason for the
necessity of its recovery is not the academic standing of A&M,
but because students demand the program.
Journalism remains a sought-after degree that provides a
well-balanced curriculum as entrance into a preprofessional pro
gram or toward a career in the field of mass communications. As
America becomes increasingly affixed to the television screen
for its daily dose of news, the need for well-trained journalists is
evident. Cutting such a vital department from one of the state’s
flagship schools is dangerous, not only because it leaves Austin
no alternative for Aggies who want to be journalists, but because
A&M would be left behind in an evolving field.
Students want the program, are interested in the field and
desire the degree, but the University denying them of this
undermines the central purpose of A&M.
But just saving the program is not enough. The ineffective
ness of the department cannot be denied, but steps should be
taken to improve it through the placement of a permanent depart
ment head and the restoration of full-time faculty in the numer
ous positions vacated in recent years. Budget cuts will undoubt
edly harm various facets at A&M, but the damage should not
include the permanent removal of the journalism department.
bility
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On in 1986 and tt The Battalion encourages letters to the editor. Letters must be 200 words or
ess and include the author's name, class and phone number. The opinion editor
eserves the right to edit letters for length, style and accuracy. Letters may be submit-
edin person at 014 Reed McDonald with a valid student ID. Letters also may be
trailed to: 014 Reed McDonald, MS 1111, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX
|77843-1 1 1 1. Fax: (979) 845-2647 Email: mailcall@thebatt.com
THE BATTALION
EDITORIAL BOARD
Editor in Chief
Managing Editor
Opinion Editor
News Editor
Brandie Liffick
Sommer Bljnce
Brieanne Porter
Rolando Garcia
Asst. News
Member
Member
Melissa Sullivan
Sara Foley
Matt Maddox
t crasl
in history, and he
MAIL CALL
ortion is the best
)e back at the speed*;
e great memories option for women
m,” he said followiiii I
"fc in theda,.;i«l„ se to Jerad Najvar's
ve enjoyed this j® JLjj 24 column:
way it looks froniE|
the way I remember L sac jdens me when someone
tti also remembers | 10nest |y t> e |j eves that overturn-
m, when sometln n g p oe v wade will somehow
eemed to go wre: improve U p 0n the sanctity of life
his chances to add in our society,
title to the one he''| Overturning Roe v. Wade, Mr
Najvar, is not the way to rid this
ti crashed six times world 0 f abortion. Like many
een 1971 and 1992 anti-abortion advocates, you
bought he won ther>-seem to have forgotten what the
>y Unser was penalWorld was like before safe and
l a line of cars dunnf healthy abortions were available
ution period. But fcto women. Have you forgotten
iter, a USAC appfi&bout the back-alley abortion?
turned the penalty* Do you really think women
not seek out the illegal alter-
jatives if you destroy their right
to control their bodies? All over-
ictory to Unser.
i, Andretti led
ed second to Dar.'
with a bad
the finish. In
i in 1994, a
3 laps.
vho won despite spi' turning Roe v. Wade will accom-
years later, At# ^ish is the return of women
m the pole and # flying as a result of a punctured
70 laps before hisi 1 pus caused by the screwdriv-
irthey inserted in their vagina.
You will not accomplish your
of protecting lives by advo-
stem knocked I* d « truction of safe
ind healthy abortions.
Women have an essential
fight to protect their lives, and
allowing women access to safe
and healthy abortions upholds
this right.
)OWN
ti
rs is the
OHS ofi
1
IS
©
-.ENTER
Leslie Landis
Class of 2003
Mistakes need to
be corrected first
In response to the April 24
editorial:
According to my rough tally,
so far this year contributors to
The Battalion have misquoted
the president of the University,
a state senator, and countless
students in pursuit of "fierce
independence."
Perhaps rather than trying to
survive as the first line of
Idefense against a nonexistent
tyranny, The Battalion and its
ditors should first focus on get-
Sng the facts straight and keep
ing their opinions on the opin
ion page. The relationship
between any news organization
and the people it serves would
be at best symbiotic: the press
would be free to report fairly,
fully and accurately, leaving the
public free to make an informed
decision about the matter at
hand. As it stands with The
Battalion and Texas A&M, the
relationship seems rather para
sitic: the contributors to The
Battalion strive to create turmoil
from nothing to serve their own
ends, leaving University officials
and student organizations exas
perated and constantly defend
ing themselves from an unfairly
antagonistic press. The Battalion
may not have a duty to reflect
positively on the University, but
it does indeed have a duty to
reflect airly and impartially.
William A. Liddell
Class of 2006
More publicity is
needed for football
In a discussion with a high
school football player's mother,
the son was wavering between
Texas A&M and University of
Oklahoma because of the "BAT
TLE of the RED RIVER" that has
given t.u. and Oklahoma so
much press and TV time that
gives Big 12 hopefuls the
impression that these are two
schools where players will be
noticed more. Texas A&M, on
the other hand, has been play
ing less publicized games caus
ing recruits to not know as
much about us. I hope that
Coach "Fran" and all others
involved read this and under
stand this fact. A&M needs to set
up one or two games against
respected teams to gain recruit
attention. With that said, not
only does the University need to
do this but A&M needs to estab
lish itself as a leader and a force
to be reckoned with in college
football before we lose that
recognition we have fought for
so many years to gain.
Terri Wood
Class of 1999
Opinion
The Battalion
Page 58 • Thursday, April 25,
Saving the economy
Bush’s tax cuts will not help looming recession
A mericans have
finally stood up
against President
George W. Bush’s failed
revival of trickledown
economics. Last week,
the Senate denied Bush
his plutocrat-tilted tax
plan for a scaled down
version aimed at imme
diate economic stimulus.
Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board
Alan Greenspan, in speaking out against
the dividend tax cut, could have delivered
the prophetic kiss of death in early
February when he doubted the stimulative
effects of Bush’s dividend tax elimination,
according to CNN Money. Americans and
some courageous congressmen on both
sides of the aisle have joined Greenspan in
declaring that a time of war, nation build
ing and ballooning deficits is not the time
to push a large, questionable and heavily
slanted tax cut on the United States.
Bush came into office with a stalled
economy, and claimed to hold the key to
its revival with his $1.8 trillion tax cut.
Granted, Bush inherited the tail end of a
slightly inflated economic boom, but the
current state of the economy is inexcusable.
According to the Bureau of Labor
Statistics, since Bush took office, unem
ployment has risen 43 percent, 2.7 million
people have become unemployed with 2.4
million coming from the private sector and
the Clinton legacy 4.2 percent unemploy
ment rate has gone up to 5.8 percent. Bush
is actually the only president to post an
average monthly job loss since the Bureau
began keeping statistics in 1939. No
longer can he pin the blame on Clinton.
His tax cuts have been in place for more
than two years, and America is still in an
economic recession.
Since jobs do not wholly represent the
health of the economy, one might look at
the stock market since more than half of
the United States is now invested. The
Wall Street Journal reported that investors
have lost $2.8 trillion since Bush’s inaugu
ration and the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq
have all fallen more than 15 percentage
points. Along with jobs and the stock mar
ket being in the toilet, America’s federal
deficit is in the red for the first time since
1997 while the Bush administration conde
scendingly refers to Rubinomics as base
less and ineffective.
Bush has proven many things since tak
ing office. He has proven that he is not as
inept as many believed. He proved he could
console and lead the country after a
tragedy. He has shown great political skill
and has easily installed many aspects of his
agenda for the United States, all with a
closely divided Congress. Currently, he is
proving that he can proceed down a road of
foreign policy that is divisive and
exploratory at best. He has also proven he
cannot responsibly steer the economy into
growth and progress.
Former President George Bush earned a
superior resume and a longer list of accom
plishments than his son throughout his
career but found out quickly that a failing
economy is the albatross on the neck of a
floundering president. Bush used his pseu
do-mandate of election in 2000 to push his
massive tax cuts, which were overwhelm
ingly tilted to the hyper-rich to avoid a one-
term presidency. Those tax cuts have put
Americans deeper in debt and economic
stimulation is still unseen.
The current White House has proven its
incompetence in maintaining a healthy
economy and has chosen to pursue an
agenda to help its donors and corporations
it is in cohoots with. The talk of short-term
stimulus has obviously not been the practi
cal aim of the administration. The reduc
tion of the burden on the working class has
been overlooked. It has chosen to focus tax
adjustments on the upper brackets of the
U.S. progressive tax system while over
looking the most regressive tax in the
United States, the payroll tax.
The Bush economic plan centers on
corporate welfare, tax rebates to the rich
est 1 percent of Americans and corporate
investor incentives in a blurred quest for
economic stimulation. Bush is still advo
cating what his father referred to as
“voodoo economics.” One could argue
that it succeeded under Reagan, although
the wealth distribution under Reagan was
so skewed it resembled the early 1900s
wealth stratification.
Furthermore, Bush is reigning in a new
era of corporate excesses by allowing the
corporate and industry executives to com
pletely govern themselves. Corporations
are given discretion over their polluting and
pollution controls, labor unions have
stricter financial disclosure rules than cor
porations such as Enron and America’s
energy plan now includes controlling the
oil resources of other countries in “trust.”
U.S. priorities have faded and America’s
direction is ,sketchy. No matter what ideolo
gy one claims, the United States is in dire
need of an economic jump-start that con
fronts corporate crime, workers rights and
the environment. So far this administration
has succeeded in cloaking the issues most
Americans hold paramount in war and a
constant state of fear. It might be time for
the administration to swallow its pride and
start tackling the burgeoning deficit and
disappearing middle class because its tax
cuts have proven they are not the paths to
economic prosperity.
Justin Hill is a junior
management major.
Graphic by Ruben DeLuna.
JUSTIN
HILL
Genocide must be recognized
(U-WIRE) STANFORD,
Calif.— In 1915, 1.5 million
Armenian citizens of Ottoman
Turkey perished.
Mass death in World War I
was no anomaly, of course.
Had foreign attackers massa
cred these Armenians as part of
the wider war, historians might
show thrift in spilling ink to
describe near-extinction of a
lesser-known race of farmers
and merchants. Had plague or
famine broken out, 1.5 million
Armenians lost would be as
inconsequential to humanity’s
collective consciousness as
apparently are the million
Eritreans who died between
1984 and 1985 from war-relat
ed famine. But for the 1.5 mil
lion fallen Armenians, invaders
and pestilence cannot be
blamed. Thursday, April 24, is
Armenian Genocide
Remembrance Day, so named
because Armenians’ own
Turkish brethren were the
butchers.
Among forms of mass
death, systematic genocide
evoke exceptional sympathet
ic remembrance. The
Holocaust, the Khmer
Rouge’s Cambodian killing
fields, the 1992 Bosnian
atrocities, the 1994 Rwandan
Genocide and the Kurds in
modern-day Turkey, all evi
dence this general principle.
But this axiom of global rec
ollection does not hold for the
forgotten Armenians.
That we lack recollection
of the Armenians is not an
accidental by-product of his
tory’s unkind whirlwind.
Rather it stems from active
suppression by Turkey. Even
now, 88 years later, Turkey
disputes that “genocide” -—
systematic, widespread, ethni
cally motivated killings —
occurred. It debates scores of
eyewitness and survivor
accounts of horrors that spat
tered the Anatolian plateau in
tears, misery and blood. It
denigrates the extensive docu
mentation of organized tor
tures, murders, rapes, beatings
and property seizure. It denies
Armenians were crucified
alive on the doors of village
churches. It dismisses as
mirages the countless
columns of Armenians shep
herded at fixed bayonet point
without food or water to their
collapse into the searing
Syrian Desert.
Instead, I want to tell you
about my great-grandparents,
Mike and Dorothy Gibilian.
Mike, to avoid certain death,
was hidden by sympathetic
neighbors and bribed his way
out of the country on a trans
port ship. The same day,
Turkish gendarmes bayoneted
Dorothy’s two infant boys
before her eyes, then captured
and forced her extended fami
ly on a death march for hun
dreds of miles into Syria.
Only she survived. Mike and
Dorothy reunited after six
years apart. For Armenians,
their tale is among the happi
est from 1915.
Friday some of my
Stanford University Turkish
friends will respond unfavor
ably to this essay, as they
have in past years. They will
explain that an Armenian
archimage and his fabricating
wand are at it once more,
waving up a fairy tale por
trayal. The response pre
dictably will brim with
annoyance and exasperation
at my words. But what we
will not read in this response
is a direct rebuttal of my fam
ily’s suffering, for no one can
deny that truth. And if you
ask any other Armenian
whose family lived in Turkey
in 1915, each will offer a sim
ilar truth. Collectively,
humanity rightfully calls
these truths “genocide.”
So, my Turkish friends,
before you rush to set enraged
ink to page, please realize that
an 88th year of general
recriminations is not the
appropriate response to my
family’s tale. Please under
stand another year of
unfounded general denials
helps only to send the
Gibilian’s truth to history’s
backwaters, something any
student at a university so
renowned as this one could
possibly tolerate in our mutu
al pledge of objectivity.
Please consider that our joint
failure to come to proper
common understanding about
the Gibilians is akin to declar
ing their lives irrelevant, to
metaphorically stomping upon
their tragic graves, to a willful
closure of our eyes to truth,
however unpleasant it may be.
This year, the Armenian
Genocide reaches its 88th
mark without Turkish affirma
tion. The perpetrators have
perished, the victims van
ished, the memories faded.
Truth will not live if only the
powerless have the strength to
shoulder it. Turkey has the
power to change all this, to
set things right for all time.
Acknowledgment of now-dis
tant wrongs is not weakness
— it is the magnificent evolu
tion of Turkish society.
It is the strength to over
come ancestors’ fallibility and
heralds a day when we
Armenians and Turks —
brothers and sisters of the
same ancient mother Anatolia
— live, laugh and embrace
harmoniously again. I look
forward to that day on this
Remembrance Day.
Chris Guzelian is a columnist
at Stanford University.