The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 84, No. 3, Ed. 1 Friday, September 13, 1996 Page: 3 of 20
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FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 13. 1996 3
Sheffy
Gordon
RICE YOUNG
DEMOCRATS
Let me recap the past two years
of Congress for you. On a Tuesday
in early November 1994 a very bad
thing happened. i don't know
whether the col-
lege parlies that
Monday were
too intense, or
if there was an
orgo exam on
Wednesday.
Whatever
the cause may
have been, lots
of your friends
around the na-
tion simply for-
got to vote that
day. .
As a result of the extremely low
national turnout, particularly among
18-24 year olds, Gingrinch and his
followers stole Congress.
'Hie first year and a half of this
104th Congress was the least pro-
ductive (in terms of number of bills
passed) of any in history. Somehow,
Congress felt that the American
People had authorized this Contract
With America, in which hard-line
social objectives were being dictated
by the Solving radical right and
fiscal policy involved privatizing the
government and reducing,the ser-
vices rendered by the federal gov-
ernment.
If you recall the political circus
last winter, the Republican leader-
ship decided that they could sacri-
fice Medicare, Medicaid, the envi-
ronment and student financial aid to
provide a tax break for the wealthy.
Forturiate]y for the sick, poor,
the elderly, the aquatic, the avian,
the four-legged and the student.
there was a principled president who
said. "Wait a sec, this is not right"
and. at personal political risk, ve-
toed the appropriations.
Hie government shut down mul-
tiple times as the Republican leader-
ship played a high stakes game of
"chicken" with the chief executive.
Well, it's September again and
that means the budget game has
already started. There are KS appro-
priations bills to be passed.
One on agriculture is done, leav
ing 12 to be worked out in the next
two weeks. Otherwise, in order to
avoid another shutdown. Congress
will have to resort to continuing reso-
lutions that let the government op-
erate at, say, 90 percent of the previ-
ous year's budget.
This past week, the l^ibor, HHS
and Education Bill was slated to be
drafted in the Senate subcommit-
tees. At stake are the Perkins Loans,
Pell Grants and Stafford Loans which
were all threatened by House ac-
tion, College students, particularly
Rice students (85 percent of whom
receive some form of financial aid),
are counting on Congress to come
through for them.
Even with the varied political bi-
ases within the Rice community, I
hope most of us agree on the impor-
tance of education and the govern-
ment's responsibility to protect the
ability to get an education. It must
then be recognized how drastically
the demography of Rice graduate
and undergraduate populations
would be altered if many of the stu
dents dependent on aid were priced
out of the market to afford school,
Ten percent of the Rice student body
is dependent on federal aid.
Even Clinton's critics can not
deny his dedication to education
He actively practices the philoso-
phy that education is the most im-
portant investment America can
make, be it in the form of
Americorps, PLUS, GOALS 2000 or
the unilateral tax break for any stu-
dent wanting to go to college.
The education
appropriations bill is
being decided as you
read this, so
immediately call your
congressman before
you lose your aid.
So why are we still on the verge
of losing support? Why is Senator
Phil Gramm (R-Texas), a former
Aggie professor and recipient of fi-
nancial aid, one of the top oppo-
nents? Find out for yourself by call-
ing the toll-free student aid hotline
to talk to relevant congressmen and
senators: 1-800-574-4AID. The edu-
cation appropriations bill is being
decided as you read this, so immedi-
ately call your congressman before
you lose your aid.
The Rice Young Democrats
meets at 9:30 p.m. every Monday in
Kelley Louiige,
Sheffy Gordon is president of the Rice
Young, Democrats and a Jones
College junior
Media violence harms society's morals
To the editor:
A few years ago, 1 learned that
children (under a certain age) do
not have the ability to imagine bow
objects appear from someone else's
perspective. We develop this ability
as we grow up.
However, it is becoming more
and more clear to me that we never
acquire the ability to fully under-
stand what it feels like to be in some-
one else's position.
We think that we kind of know
how a rape victim feels, but we really
have no clue; we are not even close.
The same applies to most other
"drastic" situations iu our lives and.
most importantly, murder.
What urged me to write this let
ter is a film review I read in "Rice
Cinema," It is about the movie FUN,
which is about "two teenage girls
| who| kill a nice old granny for the
heck of it."
The excerpt that really shook me
was: 'The expression on Witt's tare
as Bonnie stabs the old lady the first
time is hard to forget. It's a look that
says 'Oh. How fun. How easy. How
interesting ..."' (quoted from the
San Francisco Chronicle).
How could anyone have written,
this if he actually had the ability to
understand how it feels to be stabbed
to death? What would the author ol
the above excerpt think if it were
he/she who was being stabbed?
Would the words "fun" and "inter-
esting" come to his/her mind?
Our inability to fully feel other
people's feelings is due in large part
to the "movie-fication" of life in the
U.S. Through movies we have "ex-
perienced" nearly every situation,
and feeling there is to experience.
Or so we think. Herein lies the real
danger.
We have seen so many people
die in movies that when we see it fpi
real (e.g.. as part of a news report),
we don't even flinch; we can't see
that the |>er$on we are watching is
an actual person just like you and
me aud that he/she must have gone
through unimaginable pain.
I have actually heard someone
from Rice say with a straight face
that he was disappointed after we
watched a report on CNN about
Chechnya and we didn't see any
mutilated bodies.
The tragedy is that it is not just
him; I've heard or read similar things
too many times.
Maybe, just maybe, movies like
FUN have a message. But, whether
a movie shows amoral behavior for a
purpose or not, the main point re-
maining in people's minds is the
amoral behavjor itself and not the
message (if any)
Fo r example, the cartoon-within-
a-cartoon Called "Itchy and Scratchy'*
from "The Simpsons" was, as 1 un-
derstand it, initially meant to exag-
gerate and make fun.of other car-
•toons.
However, what 1 saw was people
(at Rice) enjoying and cheering
"Itchy and Scratchy" fo*" its ex-
tremely graphic violence, i.e. for
what it was showing, and not for its
parody of other cartoons.
Also, a movie like Pulp Fiction
shows amoral behavior in the most
dangerous way. To a certain degree,
the (intended or unintended^ mes-
sage it was sending to people,
through its protagonists, was some-
thing like, "Look, 1 am a normal
person just like you, with deep
thoughts, feelings, etc. However,
instead of being a teacher or a gro-
cer, I am a hired murderer It's just
a job, just like teaching or selling
produce. The only difference is that
I kill people. Other than that, I am
normal, ju^st like yon."
Tin's is dangerous. If this mes-
sage-becomes pervasivg and part of*
the culture, the future of this society
is at risk. Killing or stealing becomes
"normal," and the only problem with
committing these acts is the chance
of being caught
No moral hesitations. No guilt.
There are signs that society is al-
ready hea^hng in that direction.
For example, a few years ago, I
was having a discussion about crime
in the U.S. wltll some Rice students,
and it was mentioned that there are
some countries in .which you can
leave your car out in the street over-
night, unlocked and with the win-
dows down, and no one will steal it.
To this statement, someone
(from the U.S.) responded "Why?
Are people in that country stupid?"
(Remember, this was a Rice stu-
dent: relatively wealthy, educated.)
Societies have the responsibility
to make their members believe that
there is such a thing as good or bad,
and that such things as stealing,
killing, etc., are considered bad.
The reason is not religious, su-
lier natural or anything other-
worldly, but simply the self-preser-
vation of the society, because of the
chaos that would ensue otherwise.
We are already beginning to see
the signs tfrt'haos.
In one Newsweek article, an 8
SEE VIOLENCE PAGE 4
Hunter
RICE
REPUBLICANS
ever wondered a
f ate of politics in
! mean, regardless of
side you favor/vote/shout
inane slo-
gans for,
sometimes it
just seem*
like the
whole thing
is a mess.
Notiting,
perhaps, has
engendered
that feeling
(for me, any-
way) more
than the
sight of
goofy, lovable old Ross Perot up
on the Butly Pulpit raving about
something or other Clemme
show you some charts
Let me tell you a story. This
summer I spent some time in
Paris working for a computer
firm. (It was a good experience; I
highly recommend it. They told
me only three things in Paris
were cheap — bread, wine and
sex. I got to experience two of
the three. You guess which two.)
One day, I was sitting with my
co-workers at lunch when jthe
subject Of politics came up.
French politics, by the way, make
guerilla warfare .look clean.
One of them asked me which
party I held sway with, but before
I could make up a noncommittal
rasponse, another guy leaned
across and said, "All, American
politics — zey are all alike —
Republicans" in the same tone of
voice he might have said, "Ah,
zees bakery, it has but one type
of bread. I spit on it — ptoeee."
Several things struck me
about this comment.
First, would that it were true;
that man would be head of the
Republican National Conven-
tion.
Second, to them, our politics
must seem really, really bland! I
mean, they have over 20 main-
stream parties that form coali-
tions, factions, etc., with names
like French Socialist Front and
other things straight out of a Van
Damme movie. We have national
conventions just to nominate a
predetermined candidate.
Whoop-de-do. It's perfecdy un-
derstandable that the Frenchman
might be tempted to lump the
two parties together.
"Third, really, it's kind of sad
that the American public has only
this little, sad third party to get
excited about. Some people may
not realize this, but America has
had perioda in its history when
there were more than two people
with a serious chance to win the
presidency!
Realty! Amazing, no? Demo-
cratic Republicans and Whigs and
Tories and Republican Demo-
crats and Federalists and all sorts
of other exciting things.^
Kinda makesyou wonder what
happened to them all. Perhaps
people even voted back then!
(White, male, land-owning Anglo-
Saxon people over the age of 21.)
In fact, if you look at most
countries tjiat are "new democra-
cies,'' like the former Soviet re-
publics, you find that they have
many, many parties.
A coalition effort, for example,
elected current Israeli prime min-
ister Benjamin Netanyahu — not
any one party.
And I, for one, hope that some
day America gets back to that
ideal—the ideal of George Wash-
ington, who didn't even believe
in political parties because they
stifled creative political effort
(among other, more mundane
reasons).
Some people, upon hearing
this, say, "But you're a Republi-
can, crazy! You stupid or what? It
should be clear to everybody by
now that all Perot does is suck
votes from Bush and Dole!" Not
so and especially not this year.
What Perot and his party do (and
excel at) is get ideas into the
minds of American people.
As far as I'm concerned, the
more press ideas like balancing
the budget (which the Republi-
cans are very good at and the
Democrats are just wannabes)
get, the better off all Republicans
are.
Even if that were true, I would
still support it. Even if the Repub-
licans lost in the short term, I
cannot help but believe that in
the long run. everyone will ben-
efit from the increased debate,
increased coverage and varied
options available, not to mention
increased voter turnout (turnout
for the '92 election,was signifi-
cantly higher than usual).
And anyone who believes in
their own ideology (as I do) must
believe that by exposing people
to the true messages behind an
election, as opposed to the char-
acter assassinations and TV ads,
their party can only benefit.
So I say, "Welcome Reform
Party, infomercials and all."
Adam Hunter is vice president of
the Rice Republicans and a Will
Rice College junior.
Pa<%y Saunders
Managing Editor
Marty Board, Vivek Rao
Editors in Chief
(•race Ho
Business Manager
Make Comtnagere
Advertising Manager
NEWS
Angeltquc Siy, Editor
Fdtsa Vang, Editor
OPINION
James Ling, Editm
Nick Wetter. Asst Editor
FEATURES
Vikki Otero, Editor
Shav Gilmore, Asst Editor
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
David Gaskey, Editor
Noetic Berryman. Asst. Editor
Summer Durham. Ass,' Editor
SPORTS
Alex Chapman. Editor
Jeff Mercer, Editor
David Gordon, Asst Editor
CALENDAR
Summer Durham, Editor
.1
BACKPAGE \
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PHOTOGRAPHY
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GRAPHICS
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COPY
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ONLINE
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t'aeky Saunders, AtiproducUon Manager
... ..i David [jyontij /ii'i/
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Beard, Marty & Rao, Vivek. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 84, No. 3, Ed. 1 Friday, September 13, 1996, newspaper, September 13, 1996; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth246545/m1/3/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.