VIEWPOINTS

Women aren't meant to follow Identical Paths in Life
Konnie Sewell | Opinion Editor

I, like many other human beings, have some bad habits that I'm not exceptionally fond of. And sometimes, said bad habits show up at the most freakin' inopportune times.
One of my worst habits is saying things before I take the time to think about them. Sometimes I'm actually afraid to say anything at all for fear of offending someone — anyone — in the room, so I keep quiet and probably give off some creepy vibes. But other times...
Oh, those other times.
A few nights ago I was talking with a friend who goes to the University of Missouri in Columbia. We were goofing around, and she told me about how she and a friend were planning on getting married if both of them were still single when they turned 40.
I told her I approved, and that they'd have beautiful children together — and then my mind quickly jumped back to a conversation we had when she had just found out she couldn't ever have children. I was the first person she told.
I almost felt sick, I was so ashamed.
She shrugged it off, of course, but then she said something that I found more than a little unsettling: she said she was okay with knowing that she'd never be a real woman.
I guess I'll never be a real woman, either. It's not that I can't have children; it's more that I don't feel I really want to. Maybe I'm just young and selfish, but I'm terrified I'd be a bad mother.
My own mother is fine with this, because she respects my feelings and who I am. (If she's really desperate for grandchildren, I've got two brothers.) My aunt, on the other hand? She's positively convinced that one day I'll change my mind. To her, it's unnatural.
Maybe that in itself is another reason I don't want to be a mother.
Women have all these preconceived notions surrounding them that just don't make sense. The phrase “real woman” interests me because I’ve heard it so often. What exactly is a “real” woman, and why does she have to bear children to consider herself so “real?”
I’ll be the first one to sing the praises of the stay-at-home mother, as they are often the glue that holds the family, community and society together. Some women have that talent, some don’t, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.
But to simply write a woman off because she hasn’t given birth or (gasp!) doesn’t want to? Is having a child supposed to complete or fulfill a woman in some way?
It would be easy to attribute this idea of a “real” woman to a man. They’ll never have to go through nine months of discomfort and hormone changes, after all, so maybe they see this as some great rite of passage. I don’t, however, like the idea of pinning everything on the males of the world.
Contrary to popular feminist thought, men are not the enemy. There’s no need to eradicate them. What I’ve seen too much of — and what angers me the most — is that too many women size each other up with some wonderful ideal in their mind. It’s the trophy wives stuck in spring cleaning mode versus the feministas who refuse to shave their armpits.
I have a rough sketch in my mind of a what a real woman is, and I can tell you for damn certain she isn’t limited by any kind of rigid concept pounded into her head by one side or another from birth.
It’s absurd that when it comes to women, it’s all or nothing. There’s no in between. There shouldn’t be anything wrong or disgraceful with mixing a little femininity with a little independence.
Is it so radical to believe that a real woman is a woman who wants only to be happy? In a world where rules seem written in stone and happiness is easy come, easy go, the least one woman can do for another is realize that breaking away from the norm isn’t always what it seems. There are different degrees of normal, and sometimes breaking away is the norm.


Editorial: Drinkers, beware

We have heard it, almost all of our lives. For those of us who are smart, we’ve even listened to the words of our elders, friends, law enforcement and even our alcohol advertisements.
They are all shouting, “Don’t drink and drive.”
It is true, drinking and driving has been a long-standing problem, among all age groups. It is more than fair for various law enforcement agencies to crack down on this problem. But can there come a point where they have gone to far?
The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC) is a policing agency for alcohol consumption. They support alcohol awareness classes, licensing, programs such as MADD and SADD and different training classes.
As of August the TABC have set out not only to stop drunk driving, but public intoxication as well. In theory it almost makes sense; stop drunk driving before it happens. Well, in theory one could claim Communism almost sounds plausible.
The TABC have not only been arresting more bar/restaurant patrons, but more bar tenders and restaurant managers and wait staff as well.
It does  not matter to the TABC any more if you go to the bar equipped with a designated driver that at one time was a sign of responsibility. It also doesn’t matter if you are aware of your inability to drive and plan on calling a cab at the end of the night. It doesn’t even matter if your bar tender has already taken away your keys and cut you off.
If you are legally intoxicated the TABC now has every right to take you to jail and sentence you with all of the consequent fines, they will also fine the bar tender or restaurant manager and could temporarily close the establishment an uncertain amount of time.
They can take you right off your bar stool.
Why call a cab on New Year’s Eve? Or torture one of your friends with the position of designated driver at this years Halloween party at Toby’s? The law can come and bring you up on charges before you’ve even done anything wrong.
True if you drive drunk, you’re lucky if all you get is a DWI or DUI, when the death of yourself or someone else could be your alternative fate. But is it really fair to arrest a law-abiding patron right off their bar stool, when it’s very likely that their designated driver might be sitting right beside them?


Not all Student opinions represented in Senate
Christian McPhate | Staff Reporter

 I was walking through the halls of the liberal arts building, watching people bundle up for autumn’s death kiss.
A personal crisis’s dominated my thoughts. I was trying to figure out a financially sensitive way for me and my girls to move up to the big city of Wichita Falls?
I walked around the corner of the liberal arts building and the answer slapped me in the face; the University Housing Office.
I thought that they might be able to help me out with my dilemma. However, I was not prepared for the mind wrenching reality that was about to set in.
Upon entering the office, I noticed a slight coldness filtering in and out of the environment. I tried to ignore this odd feeling, but to no avail. The gnawing feeling blossomed in the pit of my stomach.
I looked around the office, trying to figure out who would be the best person to asset me with my questions.
After an agonizing amount of time, one of the employees looked up from her desk and smiled.
“Can I help you?” She said.
I asked her if I could have an application for the student family housing.
The “deer in headlight look” crossed her features. She stammered for a minute or two and replied, “There is an eighteen month waiting list for the housing.”
This statement shocked me and I was assaulted by feelings of euphoria. 
This was an astounding amount of time. Just think, more students with families trying to break the chains of society. Excitement, relief and gratitude filtered throughout my mind.
The employee asked if I still wanted an application. I told her yes (one never knows what will happen).
She looked perplexed and walked over to the director’s office. She talked in semi-hushed tones, glancing in my direction as she explained the situation.
The director said to tell me that the family housing had a two-year waiting list. The employee’s eyes shifted toward the door where I was standing.
The director leaned up and looked directly at me. There was a smile on her face as she slowly opened her mouth to explain the situation; the noxious fumes of incompetence spewed over my senses.
I staggered back shaking my head back and forth like a man possessed. Vomit welled-up in the back of my throat.  I was unable to breath. I tried to flip the light switch on in my head, but the noxious fumes smothered my inner-vision.
Sounds echoed inside my head; an influx of incoming freshmen…had to use family housing…two-year waiting list.
The voice of incompetence reverberated off the walls of my mind like a pinball trying to break down my intellectual barriers.
I stumbled out of the office and staggered into the fresh cold autumn air. Hell, I hadn’t felt this way since the drugged induced nights of Woodstock ‘99.
I fumbled around for a cigarette, trying to find some way to cleanse the fumes from my mind. I fell back against the building, lighting the cigarette and blowing the noxious fumes out into the cold autumn morning.
I could not believe it. The disease of incompetence showed its ugly head and infiltrated the university.

The incompetence began showing its toxic fumes with the university‘s answer to student housing and student parking; a new business building and recreation center. 
I’ve got an idea. Why not trash the idea for a new Recreation facility?
The university could take some of the money and build a new dorm, or God help us, build more parking.  
Let us silence the calls of our frat brothers and sorority sisters and trash the idea of implementing a New Greek row.
Let's for once focus on a problem that encompasses all students and not just the athletic department. 
Of course, there are those who say, “We put it to a vote and the student’s voice was heard!”
But was it really?
It’s been said in numerous political science classes that the poor and the young do not vote.
When your main concern in life is how fast you can text message a friend before your professor catches you.
Hell! How are we supposed to rely on someone like that to vote for a major multi-million dollar recreational center?
Come on students, wake the @#&$ (substituted for censored language) up! Take the eyes off the cell phone. There is a whole world around you that is in desperate need of your attention.
Let’s clean the toxicity  festering in the walls of the student senate.
We need to elect officers that actually represent all students opinions and not just certain groups before the walls of incompetence snuff us out…