THE BATTALION
Page 2 College Station, Texas Friday, November 5, 1971
CADET SLOUCH by Jim Earle
Listen up
Bonfire editorial gets criticized
Editor:
This is a comment on the arti
cle “Bonfire” found in the No
vember 3 Battalion. My extreme
gratitude goes to its writer. You
have possibly destroyed the class
of TS’s eagerness to work on the
upcoming Bonfire. You talk of
spirit, yet you degenerate the
value of our favorite and best
known tradition. If the two fresh
men said “So what” to last year’s
bonfire, it’s the fault of their
C.O. No one gets “instant spirit”
by burning a stack of logs. The
sweat, blood and exhaustion that
was put out by them for the fire
may have been wasted. Or per
haps their sweat, blood, and ex
haustion was found lounging un-t
der a tree away from their out
fit (not uncommon nowadays).
Perhaps we must recognize the
“two percenters” oh excuse me—
I forgot you. Make that three
solid two percenters.
As to the ravaged environment,
will you please inform me of the
whereabout of the desert sur
rounding A&M. I’d love to go
out on my dune buggy! As a
Wildlife Science major I know
you are mistaken. The areas that
are cleared are cleared of climax
vegetation. This allows more
room for the middle stages of
vegetational succession — which,
as I’m sure you’re aware of —
supports more numerous and
varied species of animals, espe
cially game.
I’m proud of my fish year,
yes I’m a Corps member, and I
want the same thing — if not
better, for my freshmen. I’ll be
damned if I’ll let a two percenter
take an ounce of spirit from
them.
Dave Gawthorpe
There is no ravaged environ
ment around A&M. If you had
read the editorial, and not just
looked at it, you would realize
that I said nothing about the
Bonfire’s damage to the environ
ment in it. If you feel you must
attack the editorial, then attack
it on truthful grounds — not
those that have been made up
to please yourself.
If I have “degenerated” Bon
fire by asking that it be made
smaller then I apologize. It is
just that during the two years
I’ve worked on the Bonfire, I
always believed it was the
thought behind it that counted,
not its size. If it is the other way
around, that spirit is in direct
relation to its size, then perhaps
nobody should work on Bonfire—-
we should have professional lum
bermen do it, that way everybody
would have lots of spirit. —Ed.
★ ★ ★
Editor:
I am a member of the Corps of
Cadets and am proud of it. With
all due respect, I would like to
ask some favors of the civilian
population on campus. Please
understand, I do not intend to
place myself or my opinions on a
pedestal, I am simply stating a
few facts that, if acknowledged
by civilians, would make for a
more meaningful and friendly
campus atmosphere at A&M.
Why don’t you, as a whole,
take more of an interest in school
activities such as the Aggie Blood
Drive? In all sincerity, if I were
a civilian student, I would have
been ashamed and embarrassed by
the percentage breakdown on the
blood donations. Even the coeds,
who all live off campus, gave bet
ter than four times the amount
donated by civilians. Surely, there
are more than forty “gung-ho”
civilian students.
For years, it has been tradition,
not a regulation, in the Corps to
wear a decent pair of pants and
a collared shirt to Silver Taps.
More often than not, it is a
civilian student for whom this
ceremony is held, because of the
simple fact that there are just
more of them on this campus.
Why doesn’t the civilian popula
tion take more pride in their
appearance, especially at such
gatherings as Silver Taps. I am
aware of personal freedoms and
personal, liberal, dress codes, but
I just can’t understand how any
student can attend the final tribut
to a fellow Aggie in a teeshirt,
cutoffs, and barefeet.
I realize that I will probably
be cursed, cut down, and anything
but favorably acknowledged as a
result of this presentation, but,
please, let’s all: Corps members,
civilians, coeds, faculty, and form
er students, pull together for a
new and better A&M that we will
all be proud to be a part of.
David H. Crook '74
See bear
Good flicks are everywhere
“I wanted to use terminology everyone would under
stand!”
Bulletin Board
Tonight
Preregistration for first year
Veterinary students will be held
at 3 in room 201 of the veterinary
Medical Science building.
Monday
Cepheid Variable Science Fic
tion Club meets in the Memorial
Student Center Ballroom at 7:30
to see movies.
Tuesday
Ag Economics Club meets at
7:30 in the Plant Sciences build
ing, room 112.
Wednesday
Alpha Phi Omega will meet in
their office in the Memorial Stu
dent Center at 8 for an officers
meeting.
Only the boring will be bored
this weekend. Everyone else will
have plenty to do when nothing
else is up. Besides the Kris Krist-
offerson Town Hall and a home
game, there will be at least three
audience pleasing flicks playing
in B-CS. Playing at the Palace
will be See No Evil. Tonight and
tomorrow, Friends will be at the
Campus. Sunday The Last Ride
will begin its run at the Campus.
Mia Farrow turns in a fine
performance as a blind little rich
girl in See No Evil—which is one
hell of a good chiller. Grab this
scene: a young (rich) girl is blind
ed in a horse fall. She readjusts
to her blindness and returns home
from the hospital. OK ?
Now, while she is out, a maniac-
killer slaughters her entire fam
ily. The blind girl returns to the
family’s country estate which has
been freshly redecorated in red
and wanders around the house
for a day before she discovers
that she is in imminent danger of
the killer’s return. Wild? You
bet! There are plenty of thrills
to please anyone although the
rest of the film’s situation begins
to take on a stretched and im
probable aspect somewhere there
in the middle. While it is doubt
ful that See No Evil would ever
rate as a classic this is still a
very fine suspense flick and de
serves a Film G.P.R. equals 3.2.
Friends, at the Campus, is a
charming and disarming little
story of young love. Have a date
Steve Hayes
vanJ A :
The need for a statesman-scientist
As the backlash to the environ
mental movement is beginning to
take form there are two very
obvious observations to be made.
One is that just about everyone’s
definition of an expert is basically
the same, despite the fact that
so little agreement has developed
on the solution to environment
problems. The second observation
is that America has no counter
part to the British Statesman-
scientist.
A universal definition of an
expert seems to be any person
who agrees with and can articu
late your own personal position;
of course, the more initials that
follow the name of the expert,
the stronger the case for you and
your expert. Any person can
drum up an expert to “validate”
his or her beliefs and findings.
President Nixon, for instance, re
lies heavily upon the National
Academy of Sciences to validate
his desires. The SST is an excel
lent example.
According to Daniel S. Green
berg, former news editor of Sci
ence magazine;
“The National Academy of Sci
ences has become the tool of
vested interests. It is no secret
that among government adminis
trators a simple ploy for pushing
a goal is to ask the Academy to
study the matter, then ask it in
a fashion that will assure the
right answer, and even stack the
study committee so that no mav
erick will spoil the results.”
On the other hand, Philip
Handler, president of the Acad
emy, has implied that scientists
who speak out on environmental
degradation are “unscientific up
starts.” He said, “. . . the nations
of the world may yet pay a
dreadful price for the public be
havior of scientists who depart
from the established fact to in
dulge in hyperbole.”
The paradox of this argumen
tation is that men such as Green
berg and Handler are accusing
one another of playing politics.
The difference is that Greenberg
believes that science should not
be the tools by which to imple
ment political desires, and Hand
ler believes that science should
maintain a very traditional ap
proach, absolving itself of the
results of its acts. Those persons
who speak out are simply being
unscientific because they are
voicing a personal opinion.
Yet Handler’s approach strikes
me as an T wash my hands of
the matter approach’ which was
made famous some years ago.
It seems strange that scientists
who express deep-seated fears
about the future, would be con
sidered as unscientic. (It was
such “unscientific upstarts” as
Commoner and Ehrlich, who on
their own initiative brought the
dangers of fallout and overpopu
lation, respectively, to the public
attention.)
In reply to Handler, Stewart
Udall stated: “Are we not already
paying a ‘dreadful price’ for our
past misuse of science and tech
nology? When the survival of
the species—or at least the qual
ity of human existence—is at
stake, is it ‘unscientific’ for sci
entists to enter the lists? ... I
would rather see scientists err
on the side of activism and oc
casional ‘hyperbole’ than to see
our nation’s leaders adopt abort
ive plans based on inadequate
information.
“. . . Of necessity, the scientific
method is a discipline that re
quires the master of minutiae.
But does this imply that its prac
titioners must be robots indiffer
ent to the human consequences
of their work?”
While such discussions are ben
eficial, the problems of pollution
remain with us, as experts for
industry and for conservation
groups counter one another. Prog
ress is slow. What is needed is
a new breed of American scien
tist—a scientist-statesman. Brit
ain has produced the Bertrand
Russells, the Huxleys, the Wad-
dingtons, and the Medawars, but
where are the American counter
parts? The scientists of tomor
row must have the usual out
standing attributes such as in
ventiveness, discipline, and re
sourcefulness, but he must also
be able to distinguish himself by
daring to expound his own views
on those vaues and human prior
ities that will lead us out of the
present social malaise.
For too long the American sci
entific community has sought a
special status for itself, and has
restricted its sense of responsi
bility. Scientists have seemed to
feel that their profession merits
public support without public
accountability. Science, lacking
any ethics or farsight, can be a
menace as well as a benefit. It
is time for the new scientist.
Udall said, “Scientists alone, of
Che Battalion
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EDITOR HAYDEN WHITSETT
Managing Editor Doug Dilley
News Editor Sue Davis
Sports Editor John Curylo
Assistant Sports Editor Bill Henry
course, cannot forge new public
policies or change basic institu
tions. But they can have a vast
influence if they will only speak
out.”
“If the more aggressive envi
ronmental scientists are ‘rebels
and troublemakers,’ perhaps we
need the fresh air of their dissent
to help quicken the pace of
change.”
this weekend? Stick this movie
in your evening’s strategy and
you’ll be miles ahead. It’s the
kind of a love story that would
only be possible or probable in
France—which is where the story
is located. (Where else could or
would a 14% year old orphan girl
and a 15% year old rich boy with
a habit of stealing automobiles
run off together and set up house
hold, make it work, make it, mar
ry themselves in church, natural
birth to deliver their own child,
and baptise the babe themselves ?)
And the scenery! I guarantee,
you haven’t seen such pure beau
ty in landscapes since Elvira Mad-
igan. Friends, R-rated, will help
you get your date’s head on
straight and rates a Film G.P.R.
equals 3.2.
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