V
Page 2/The Battalion/Tuesday, March 19, 1985
■ ■■ —
IF MX DOESNt
FLY, Tuff’S GOOD
FOR YOU...
Violence won't solve
abortion problem
Co
I paid a visit to
Tulsa, Okla., dur
ing spring break
and I noticed
some anti-abor
tion demonstra
tors marching on
the sidewalk. I felt
some admiration
for these people
who believe so
strongly in their
Kinc
in Rl
murder of a defenseless child is non
issue. These bomb-toting anti L "“ :
ists have twisted their admirable effoc The King’s
of organized protest into a senseless4 group from G
Loren Steffy
cause that they are willing to speak out.
But my conscience soon chimed in and
reminded me that some people also
demonstrate in favor of abortion and
feel just as strongly about their side of
this controversial issue. They, too, war
rant admiration. Then I picked up the
paper Monday morning and encoun
tered a side of the abortion controversy
which deserves no admiration.
By REBB
Sta
will perform
tions from Rei
An abortion clinic in San Diego was
fire-bombed for the second time in
seven months, bringing the grand total
of attacks on abortion clinics nationwide
to 33 since 1982. Whether abortion is an
freedom of choice or the
play of domestic terrorism
i How ironic that a group of
concerned with the preservation ofliB to contem P or<
' would resort to violence and destrucfc
to achieve their goal. If abortion is a*
cial blemish which is to be loathed!
the plague, wiping out abortion
will not provide a solution. Complex*
cial problems can’t be blown awayn
the explosion of a bomb.
Only through peaceful negotiatii
can a solution to the abortion situai
be reached. Relying on terrorist tai
will not only turn away public sup|
for these individuals, it will harm
overall image of anti-abortion protesiJ
nationwide.
Differences may appear tobesoliti
by violence in some instances, but™
w ith words or a handshake can theresti
lutions be Finalized.
concert here t<
The five-sec
without music
— consists of
tery Tour,” “I
torian collectic
close harmon
gious pieces.
The King’s
name from
Loren Steffy
exercise in
is a sophomore join
I ism major and a weekly columnist
The Battalion.
Associ
Western films perpetuate myths about Texas
| ABILENE —
fStenholm said a
mg among mem
riculture subcon
idon’t need mor
“La Casa Diver-
tad de Tejas.”
Translated liter
ally, it’s “the most
fun house in Tex
as.” Translated
freely, it’s “The
Best Little Whore
house in T exas.”
It was a cinema- rz * . ri
tic blockbuster Katherine .Hurt
when I saw the
Spanish-dubbed version in Madrid in
the summer of 1983.
There they were, clear across the At
lantic Ocean: Dolly Parton, Burt Rey
nolds and a host of lascivious Aggies
perpetuating aTFthe favorite Texas
myths — the ones about booted, Stet
son-topped, drawling cowboys and end
less plains enhanced with cattle, oil wells
and tumbleweed. The Spaniards loved
it. Even worse, they believed it!
“Whorehouse” has evolved from gen
erations of Western films since 1908
that have created and sustained dozens
of similar myths about Texas and Tex
ans, misinforming non-Texans every
where.
Texas history supplies scores of sto
ries that filmmakers have recreated in as
many different ways. There’s the San
Jacinto or Sam Houston story (“Man of
Conquest,” “The First Texan”), the an
nexation story (“Lone Star”), the
Ranger story and the Reconstruction
story (both in hundreds of Westerns).
And, ultimately, there’s the Alamo
story.
Texas history movies have always re
membered the Alamo. Moviemakers
have been making Alamo movies for 70
years (1911-1981) and they still haven’t
gotten it right, says Don Graham, Uni
versity of Texas professor and author of
“Cowboys and Cadillacs: How Holly
wood Looks at Texas.”
Why the factual deviations? Strug
gling to deal with history’s facts, contra
dictions and legends presents a formi
dable challenge to narrative logic — it’s
easy to make careless errors and omis
sions or, paramount to the myths, crea
tive innovations.
One Lone Star legend, the Texas oil
man, has endured since his movie debut
in 1922. In “Mr. Potter of Texas,” the
mythic oil man appeared in quintessen
tial Texas garb: black broadcloth suit
cut in Southwestern fashion, two large
diamonds on his shirt and one on his
finger, a “California quartz abomination
of a watch chain” with a gold coin dan
gling from it, an “old-fashioned turn
down collar,” and cowboy boots with the
trousers tucked in.
Potter was a rancher and an oil man,
rich from a combination of luck, natural
bounty and rugged individualism that
often seems to bless the Texan fron
tiersman and empire builder.
He began with a small spread —
10,000 acres and 2,000 cattle — but “jist
a month ago today, I squinted around
me and surveyed 500,000 acres of land,
and 50,000 head of cattle and half a
bank and half a hopera-houseand half a
railroad, all for my darter, the honora
ble Miss Hilda Potter, of the metropolis
of Pottersville, Comanche County, State
of Texas!”
“Giant” (1956) is probably the arche
typical Texas movie, Graham says; it
contains every significant element in the
stereotype: cowboys, wildcatters, cattle
empire, wealth, crassness of manners,
garish taste, and barbecue.
The movie has earned more than $12
million (pre-inflation figures) and its
popularity has affected the entire state.
Baton-twirlers added its theme song to
their half-time repertoires. John Con-
nally proclaimed “Giant” his favorite
movie and used its theme song for his
1961 gubernatorial campaign.
Money motivates the legendary
Texas oil game. A character in “Wildcat
ter,” a 1981 nonfiction book that cele
brates the pioneer spirit, explains, “It’s
the money that makes you do it, money
is always the motivation.” Money in
“The Wheeler Dealers” (1963) is style, a
gauche expression of exuberance and
boundless optimism, recognizable as
fexas style.
All the Texas oil movies culminate in
the TV drama, “Dallas,” launched in
1978, coincidentally the year of the first
Tuition hikes could decide some’s education
Surviving col
lege.
For some stu
dents at A&M, the
battle to stay in
college is going to
intensify begin
ning in Fall 1985.
This time the fi
nancial pressure
comes in the form
of higher resident
and non-resident tuition charges.
The Senate Finance Committee has
approved a plan that would triple tu
ition over the next two years for Texans.
Tuition would rise from $4 per se
mester hour to $8 this fall and to $12 in
Fall 1986. This is probably the best plan
set forward to date.
Most people agree that the dirt cheap
tuition here at A&M does not accurately
reflect the cost to the state of providing
students with an education. More
money is necessary.
Tuition fees are an obvious and valid
choice.
Theoretically everyone nods their
head in agreement. It sounds like a logi
cal solution to the state’s budgetary
woes. Nod, nod.
But then you have to look at the ef
fect it will have on students here at
A&M. On real people struggling to get
an education.
Sure most students will whine and
complain about the higher costs, but
they will pay it. Or daddy will. But many
students don’t have that luxurious op
tion.
I happened to read a letter sent to
The Battalion from one such student.
She came to school each semester with
barely enough money to pay the bills.
School came first, it had to.
What is she suppose to do? Get more
money from the government? Forget it,
the ceiling on federal and state student
aid has been pegged at $4,000. Relief
from that source will be tough.
But the problem goes beyond certain
isolated cases.
One can only wonderwhat how these
higher costs will affect thegraduate pro
gram at A&M.
One reason grad students are at
tracted to A&M is the low tuition costs.
Most grad students are from other parts
of the United States or are foreign stu
dents. Both groups pay non-resident tu
ition.
The Senate Finance Committee ap
proved in the same plan an increase in
tuition for non-students and foreign
students from $40 per semester hour to
$80 in Fall 1985.
That would go up to $100 in Fall
1986, with $20 increases per semester
hour per year until tuition covered 100
percent of the cost of an education.
That is a staggering financial surprise
to most of these students.
Then you hear the usual mumbled
complaints that it is about time residents
of Texas don’t pay for the educations of
non-residents.
Nod, nod.
But what kind of damage will this do
to the brain bank the University has to
draw from?
Non-Texans have changed A&M per
ceptibly. Depending on who you talk to,
options go either way on how “good”
the change is.
But I don’t think the University com
munity can deny that maybe, just
maybe, these non-Texans were the cat
alyst needed to improve the intellectual
foundation of A&M.
New ideas are an important and nec
essary element for the future devel
opment of A&M and that flow may be
seriously damaged by increased tuition.
What is more important? Or a better
question is how can the University mini
mize the effect.
Some sort of dialogue between the
parties involved is necessary. Solutions
can be found that can benefit both the
University,and the students.
There has to be a way.
The alternatives are not enjoyable to
contemplate.
I want A&M to become a better insti
tution of learning through the absorp
tion of as many different ideas as possi
ble.
Money should not decide the future
of anyone’s mind or intellectual future.
Ed Cassavoy is a senior journalism ma
jor and the city editor the The Battal
ion.
election of a Texas governor whoraal
his fortune in the wildcat oil business I
Still popular seven years later it
countries and the United States (Ti
included!), Dallas is the most mod(t|
perpetrator of the Texas myth. Its
failure has been Japan, where f<
concepts are at odds with the varied
Ing hijinks, betrayals and unpredictii
realignments.
Unbelievable? Maybe. But nonTcj
ans frequently misperceive the outkf
south of Oklahoma and north of the li
Grande, east of El Paso and west of !W
cogdoches, as a rich expanse ofoilait
cattle, teeming with cowboys. Ask Ik
Spaniards, if you can catch one lhi|
not fighting bulls.
Stenholm, D4
vey by the cotton
committee of th
ral Committee
are anxious to
don’t want to \
commitments.
The “thin thr
lat “farmers
redit,” Stenhol
to make money
the loans they hi
< Stenholm sai
forming among
committee as tn<
country listening
■ He said he t
)sed legislatioi
[arming in the
irofitable. Con
)ill would im
And it’s no wonder. By the way,
ya’ hear Miz F.llie, Bobby and J.R. m
have to divide the Ewing Oil fortuM
with Cliff Barnes and Ray, Jock’s b
tard son? Oh, horrors!
SPRIh
March 19
For NON-
Katherine Hurt is a senior journalist
major and the photo editor for Thek
talion.
The Battalion
USPS 045 360
Member of
Texas Press Assotialion
Southwest Journalism Conference
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