The J-TAC (Stephenville, Tex.), Ed. 1 Thursday, February 25, 1988 Page: 4 of 10
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Page 4/The J-TAC/Thursday, February 25, 1988
AIDS victim's courage inspires student
Don Mathis discovered he had AIDS seven months after he had
given up his life as a bisexual drug dealer on the Houston streets and
accepted Christ as his saviour.
Between 50 and 60 people were present at the BSU sponsored AIDS
conference at the Student Center last week at which Mathis was a
guest speaker. The front row of seats remained conspicuously empty
as 7 p.m. drew near and as all other seats were taken.
"Before I was saved, I was put in jail three times and had attemp-
ted suicide twice. I had an average of 10 different sex partners every
week," he said.
His past life had been a horror, but imagine the courage that it took
for this man, in his early twenties, to stand up before a group of
students and say those words. "When I was diagnosed as having AIDS,
the doctors wanted to know who my sexual contacts had been," he
sa|d. He did not know the answer to that question, nor even how many
partners he had had.
There was no self-pity. He had faced his own mortality and had
found his own answers, and he was trying to get anyone who would
listen to do the same thing.
It has been said that until you face your,own death, you cannot tru-
ly live. The fear of death, the denial of mortality, keeps many people
from ever going against public opinion and standing up for what they
believe is right. Once a person faces death, the extraneous falls away,
and all that remains is truth - not your image in the mirror, not the
rings on your fingers, not the size of your bank account, only a human,
naked before the world. '
This man, and many others in their turn, have faced that truth and
have learned the only possible lesson it could teach - that life is what
you learn from it, what you do with it, and what you can teach others.
I have often wondered if the will to live was not given to man as
the final solution by a power which could find no other way to keep
us all from racing with the lemmings into the sea. Humans are born
and they die and in between they fight. They fight for food and for
water and when they have enough of these essentials they fight for
land, for money, for power.
But humans also fight for love, for ideals, for their children and
their parents - and through it all they experience pain, physical, emo-
tional, and mental pain, no matter which side they fight on.
There is always someone stronger, always someone weaker, always
something owed, and above all there is always fear. Maybe it is not
overpowering fear. If y.ou stay in line, if you follow the leader, maybe
there will be no more than the knowledge that to do otherwise would
cause fear.
Maybe that's the worse fear of all. "I can't do that, I'll lose my
job, I'll lose my friends, I'll lose my life." Wake up, you're going
to lose all those things anyway.
If you accept the rule of others, if you accept, unquestioning, the
god of your parents; if you don't make your own decisions about your
life, you'll still die. And life will have been as nothing, a waste of
time of the power that formed you.
And if there is no power?
Then your ONLY chance is what you do while you're here, and
your only fame in the songs of the bards.
As this man was forced to face his death, force yourself to face
your own. Find out what is really important to you and pursue it.
Do something you've been saving for 'someday.' Call your dad
and say, "I love you." Take a trip to the mountains and see how
beautiful the world can be. Open your heart to someone in need.
Smile at the world and say, "I'm here for a time and I'll find my
own truths." SUSAN STOFFER
Evangelist Olympics
Gold Medal — Jimmy Swaggart
TTWogU-
v Dr. Ruth Westheimer
Ask
Dr. Ruth
Q. I learned some time ago that
many years earlier my wife had
been unfaithful to me. This would
have astonished and hurt me in
any case, but the man happens to
be one I dislike. I disliked this
man long before I ever dreamed
my wife would think of going to
7 bed with him. I like him less now,
of course, having learned she did.
The problem is that I want to
keep the present happy and
peaceful tenor of our marriage. I
love my wife. I forgive her. Or,
rather, I understand how such
things happen, but everything is;
spoiled because when I look at
her or think of sex with her these
visions of her having all kinds of
sex with this nerd rise up before
me. How to overcome this?
A. You can go to a therapist. That
is a good idea, for a few sessions, but
I realize that most people don't go to
a therapist like to a hairdresser or a
dry cleaner. So there are home
remedies. I don't have to talk you
into seeing the value of your mar-
riage or of your wife. You have done
that for vourself, and congratula-
tions. The troublesome thing is
those "visions," or negative fanta-
sies. If they were dreams, dreams
you have while sleeping, I would say
to ignore them. You have no control
over those.
But you can control what goes
into your conscious head. The
knowledge that your wife and that
man were, together that way years
ago will not disappear, but those
noxious images can be swept out.
When they show up, right away tell
them ''Get out!" and turn to some-
thing more helpful, like cleaning off
your desk.
And this is useful — think of
happy images of your wife. The way
she would look when you first went
out together and she would gieet
you, coming towards you smiling, or
some more intimate moment that is
especially pleasing. Think of that
instead of those other images,
because, you can think of any picture
you want to think of. Another thing:
It bugs you that she saw something
attractive in a guy you don't like, but
that can work for you. Think of this
nerd, think you are saying to him,
"Who has this woman — you or me?
I do." There is a heart-warming
triumph for you!
IMPROVING YOUR SEX LIFE
If you feel your sexual relation-
ship is in the doldrums and needs
some spicing up, I have written a
pamphlet just for you! It's called
How to Improve Your Sex Life. To
obtain a copy, send $1 and a
stamped, self-addressed, legal-sized
envelope to Dr. Ruth/How to
Improve Your Sex Life, P.O. Box
19709, Irvine, Calif. 92713-9709.
Opinion
Does TSU need more cheerleaders?
By TIM LASHOMBE
1
Michelle Musgrave-freshman
major-Business
hometown-Throckmorton
Baer Beau-sophomore
major-Business/Finance
hometown-Dumas
"Sure, the more the merrier. I feel "Yes, because the more people
the more cheeleaders we have, the y°u 8et involved in a spirit group
more spirit we have." ''^e 'he cheerleaders, the better
chance you will have to motivate the
student body because there are more
people working for that purpose."
Dana Johnson-sophonjore
major-Pre-Vet
hometown-Irving
Becky Fleischer-freshman
major-Elementary Ed.
hometown-Hurst
Lori Walker-freshman
major-Elementary Ed.
hometown-Kermit
Yes. because our school is growing and we have done so well in athletics. GO TEXANS!
Jana Hopson-sophomore
major-Elementary Ed.
hometown-Richland Springs
"They should have 10
cheerleaders if part of them are guys,
but if they are all girls, they should
just keep eight."
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Can you find the hidden sculptors?
BERNINI
BRANCUSI
CELLINI
DAVID
DA VINCI
DONATELLO
EL GRECO
GHIBERTI
GIOVANNI
GIOTTO
H0UD0N
LAURENT
MICHELANGELO
PHIDIAS
PICASSO
PISANQ
P0USSIN
PRAXITELES
PUGET
RODIN
J-TAC Staff
c- •
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Marsha Sides
Ad Sales
Cindy Prestridge
Ad Design
Heather Tidwell
Circulation
Manager
Beep Baxter
Editor
Susan Staffer
Assistant Editor
Tiffany P. Hall
A & E Editor
Mike Bolton
Advisor
Mark Grear
Production
Susan Pessolano,
Typesetting
Sherry Pilkington ,
Liz Dawes
Sports Editor
Russell Huffman
Photography
Wayne Briggs
Mary Ann Foreman
Editor, 968-9057; Newsroom/Advertising 968-9056; Faculty Advisor 968-9058
The J-TAC is published each Thursday during the regular semesters, with the excep-
tion of university holidays and exam periods. Printer is the Stephenville Empire-Tribune.
The J-TAC is a non-profit organization. U.S. postage is paid permit number 133. Stephen-
ville, Texas 76402. ,
Deadlines are noon Monday, for advertising and noon Tuesday for articles.
Opinions expressed on the editorial page are not necessarily those of the university'or
the J-TAC. ■
Letters-to-the-Editor may be sent to the J-TAC, P.O. Box T-98, Tarleton Station, Texas
76402. Letters must be signed and addressed, but the information will be withheld if the
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The J-TAC (Stephenville, Tex.), Ed. 1 Thursday, February 25, 1988, newspaper, February 25, 1988; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth141672/m1/4/: accessed July 11, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Tarleton State University.