The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 64, No. 37, Ed. 1 Monday, March 14, 1977 Page: 2 of 8
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Baha'i seeks end
to prejudice
Space, the final frontier.
These are the voyages of the
Starship Enterprise. Its five
year mission: to explore
strange new worlds, to seek
out new life and new
civilizations, to boldly go
where no man has gone before.
These lines are probably
more familiar to the average
Rice person than the Rice
alma mater. They form the
prologue of the Star Trek
series, which has engendered
more interest at Rice than
football, politics, and the MOB
put together.* Why should a
perfectly normal (?) campus
have such a great appetite for
a science fiction series?
Much of the interest can be
explained easily enough.
Interest in sci-fi comes
naturally to a scientifically
oriented campus, and Star
Trek tells a good story. This
might explain trekkies, Star
Trek conventions, and the
large, steadfast core of
followers (non-trekkies) who
nevertheless have seen "The
Trouble with Tribbles" three
times.
But another attraction of
Star Trek is its optomistic
vision for the future. It is a
vision that provides a welcome
relief fnem the cynical and
pessimistic mood of the
present.
Aboard the Enterprise,
harmony is unmarred by
prejudice of race, sex, or
nationality. The stories
revolve around the insensi-
bility of prejudice and conflict
between worlds. Star Trek
embodies the ideal of the unity
of mankind, an ideal which
seems to elude realization in
our world.
And now the crunclfer: how
can society today advance
from where it is now toward
that ideal, the unity of
mankind? We once placed
hope in the power of man's
innate reason: the Enlighten-
ment thinkers believed that
universal education could
abolish prejudice and war. But
the generations which
witnessed World War I, World
War II, and Vietnam; who now
suffer in Northern Ireland,
and the Middle East, or who
face repression in totalitarian
states, show that reason and
science are tools of man, tools
that can be directed toward
exploration of new worlds, or
making bombs. Man's
intelligence can be enlight-
ened with understanding and
guided toward beneficent aims
of it can be darkened with
greed or prejudice. Intelligence
needs direction if we are to
threshing-it-out
To the Rice Community:
On a recent evening at
the Pub, both foosball tables
were reported out of order.
Upon opening the tables, over
100 napkins and a half-dozen
ash trays were found stuffed
into the goals of each game.
Although this may benefit
those who do the stuffing,
permitting some "free games"
until the packing is pushed
down into the table, it is
secure the unity of mankind.
Earlier generations looked
to religion for this direction.
But for many of our
generation, it's difficult to
accept a religion intel-
lectually. "Faith," as Voltaire
put it, "consists of believing
what our reason cannot
believe." If you're familiar
with various religions, you
know that all the major
religions teach essentially the
same thing: that man has a
spiritual nature that he must
purify in order to attain
reunion with God. Each
Messenger taught that He was
the Path to God, Salvation,
Nirvana. But "all religions
have gradually become bound
by tradition and dogma. All
consider themselves,the only
guardians of the truth, and
that every other religion is
composed of errors. They
themselves are right, all
others are wrong! We must
abandon the prejudices of
tradition if we would succeed
in finding the truth at the core
all religions . . . Unless we
make a distinction in our
minds between dogma,
superstition, and prejudice on
the one hand and truth on the
other, we cannot succeed. We
must not allow our love for any
one religion or any one
personality to so blind our eyes
that we become fettered by
superstition. Be free from
prejudice, so will you love the
Sun of Truth from whatsoever
point in the horizon it may
arise! You will realize that if
the Divine Light of Truth
shone in Jesus Christ it also
shone in Moses and in
Buddha."
This is taken from the
Baha'i Writings. In 1863
Bahau'llah announced that
He was the Messenger of
God For this Day. He taught
that Moses, Buddha, Krischna,
Zoroaster, Christ, and
Muhammed were all Prophets
of God, of one spiritual
essence. Like light in a lamp,
the lamp changes but the light
is the same, despite the change
in physical appearance. The
Messenger is like a mirror
reflecting the attributes of
God, Who is an Unknowable
Essence. The conflict between
religions arises not from any
difference in spiritual
teachings, but stems from the
dogma and tradition woven
into the teachings by its
followers. Thus Bahau'llah
forbade both ritual and clergy,
and taught that each person
must investigate truth for
himself. Bahau'llah renewed
(continued on page 7)
grossly unfair to paying
players who justly expect a
good table and sufficient balls
for their quarter. This is
hardly the first time the tables
have been stuffed—it now
occurs almost daily. There-
fore, if the tables are once
again found stuffed, they will
be removed from the Pub
indefinitely.
Tina Garfield
Pub Manager
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A MAM OF PRIORITIES
Ji/AM1
threshing-it-out
Lack of understanding decried
To the editor:
How many years does it
require for understanding of
each other? Here we all are
vying for our rights, but
cutting each other's throats at
the same time. Why can't
people just ask themselves a
very simple damn question—
how do I know what I am
talking about? Anita Bryant is
down in Florida trying to have
the homosexuals (gays) all
shipped to Mars. She believes
they are trash! She must not
remember when it used to be
that women could not vote or
smoke in public or think about
a profession other than a daily
exercise with their honorable
master She must not
remember when we used to
Tempest at TGIF
Contract negotiations have
finally produced an agree-
ment. Tlie up and coming
Texas band, Tempest, is
coming to the Rice campus for
the SA-WRC OC Committees
TGIF this Friday, March 18, in
front of Lovett Hall from 3-
6pm.
Ever since her short stint
with Texas folk legend Bill
"Checkered Flag" Moss, lead
singer Barbara Wells has been
the promising new voice to
many rock critics, especially
those in Lubbock. (Jon P.
Blandaux calls her "the next
Ronnie Spector.") Texas may
be home, but Tempest feels no
affinity for trendish region-
alism. "Cosmic, schmosmic,"
quips Jeff Wells, Tempest's
lead guitarist. "I hate
armadillos, okra, and the
Astroworld Hotel." Barbara
had more extreme ideas for
ridding the band of Texas
pretensions.
"I wanted to call Tempest
the 'Church of England' and
tour with stained glass
windows and a minister, but
our drummer had a falling out
with God and almost quit the
group." Gods aside, Tempest
can boast the talent of lead
guitarist Wells, a veteran of
the Texas blues scene. In and
out of such half-baked bands
as Beowulf, the Neil Ford
Band, and Avocado, Wells
found himself gravitating
towards rock and soul music
which was then being
popularized by Mitch Ryder
and the Detroit Wheels. One
winter night in '75, Wells ran
into drummer Fred "the Bird"
Drake in line for a Jimi
Hendrix movie. Strangely
enough, later that night,
bassist Nick Harris attempted
to collect an old debt from Jeff
at a late night coffee shop.
Before they resolved their
differences and parted, all
three had quit their bands and
decided to form Tempest.
Friday looks to be the
inception of a party-filled
weekend on campus. Jeff
seemed interested in the grand
opening of Rusty's on
Saturday night. "If it's
anything like the one down in
Moosenee, I'm already sold."
have slaves, selling them like
meat!
How can anyone say what
right and wrong is? You can
see that the gays will take
their rights, as did everyone
else. Aren't there any other
important a questions that we
should be working on other
than who should sleep with
whom?
You know it wasn't very
long ago that the government
had laws against what a man
a woman could and could not
do in bed, even married
couples!
Just stop and think before
you go yelling "queer." I'm not
a man, I'm nt>t a republican or
democrat, I'm not black or
white. First and formost I'm
an individual, no more, no
less. No constitution, no great
bible, no person or person will
direct my life for me. I know
absolutely nothing, so I will
not form any opinions on
anything.
I, like all of you other
individuals, will probably die.
Tony DiMauro
Philip Parker
CARLA McFARLAND
Editor
CATHERINE M. EGAN
Business Manager
Steven M. Setser
Advertising Manager
. Managing Editor *
Kim D. Brown Assistant Editor
Steve Sullivan Allthework Editor
Tom Brown Associate Editor
Walter Underwod Photography Editor
Jay Shilstone Pine Arts Editor
Lynn Laverty Sports Editor
Jim Fowler Columnist/Editor
Bill Barron Circulation Manager
Mark ?. Iinimon Back Phage Editor
Art Staff Dale Charletta, Randy Furlong, Jeff Kerr
Copy Editor Cindy Childress
Editorial Staff Jeanmarie Amend, Jim Beall, Barry Jones,
Juli Jones, Karen Morose, Matt Muller
Sports Staff
Photography Staff.
Production Staff ...
Asuka Nakahara, Larry Nettles,
Philip Parker, Marc Siegel
Mark Catlett, Bob Dougherty, Paul Fong,
Rich Jensen, Ann Shaw, Beth Stickney
Steve Glaser, Lee Holder, Marty Hood,
Robert Miller, Belle Sheppard, Mark Stoll,
Bill Studabaker, Mark Linimon, and GruNgY
The Rice Thresher, official student newspaper at Rice University since 1916, is
published semi-weekly on Mondays and Thursdays during the school year, except
during holidays and inquisition periods, by the students of Rice University,
527-4801. Advertising information available on request, 527-4802. Editorial and
business offices are established high atop One Rice Memorial Plaza, P. O. Box 1892,
Houston, Texas 77001. Mail subscription rate: $15p4r year. Theopinions expressed
herein are not necessarily those of anyone except the writers.
Obviously.
^Copyright 1977, The Rice Thresher. All rights reserved.
K.I.L.L. is going to make me rich.
the rice thresher, march 14, 1977—page 2
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McFarland, Carla. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 64, No. 37, Ed. 1 Monday, March 14, 1977, newspaper, March 14, 1977; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245328/m1/2/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.