Page 2
THE BATTALION
College Station, Texas Wednesday, January 24, 1973
Listen Up—
Clark Talks Tradition
Editor:
There has been a lot of talk
lately concerning many traditions
of A&M. I guess the main issue
that always comes up concerns
the Aggie Bonfire. Each year the
rumors grow louder that there
will be no Bonfire next year. As
a member of the Corps and a deep
believer in the traditions that
made this school great, I am
deeply grieved. However, looking
from the other side, maybe, just
maybe, the bonfire is an environ
mental hazard. Maybe the huge
amount of trees we chop down is
too expensive a price to pay for
the sake of beating the hell out
of t.u. The Bonfire might be re
placed by an alternative project
Viewpoint
Fulbright Speaks Out
By MARK BREWER
(Alternative Feature Service)
Straight talk from Senators is
as rare as winter flowers. No
matter what’s coming down, they
always seem to be telling us that
everything will be all right,
thanks to our superior system—
a system that sends them off to
plush, paneled offices and sleek
Washington suburbs.
Veteran Arkansas Democrat
William Fulbright, however, has
been unusually frank about the
impotence of a tractable Con
gress, and the steady drift to
ward an authoritarian state.
The Senator’s observations on
growing presidential power and
the fragile nature of democracy
are often tinged with resignation
these days—a resignation born of
25 liberal years on the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee,
MSC Week
(Continued from page 1)
Human Sexual Relations and
English style debating will take
place Wednesday from 7:30 to 9.
On the same night in the MSC
Ballroom will be the Collegium
Musicum. The group is students
from the Universtiy of Texas
who play modern tunes on ancient
instruments. Their performance
is free and will begin at 8:00.
The Contemporary Arts Com
mittee will present the film,
“Pierrot le Fou” in the MSC Ball
room at 8 p.m. Thursday. Ad
mission is $1 for students and
$1.50 for non-students. Season
activity tickets will be respected.
The Houston Ballet, a Town
Hall special attraction, will also
appear in the Bryan Civic Audi
torium Thursday at 8:00.
struggling with the inexorable
rise of militarism through the era
of the Cold War and Vietnam.
“The Senate has deteriorated
to where nobody listens to any
debate,” said Fulbright in a re
cent interview with the Pacifica
Radio network. “It’s dominated
at the moment by the administra
tion and the military. They win
all the votes. It is the rarest
thing to have a dialogue or a de
bate on the floor of the Senate,
as we did in the old days. You
see, they have a new system of
setting down the vote under unan
imous consent; and when the vote
is set then everybody clears out
and you can’t find ’em, can’t get
’em on the floor.
“This has developed into a sys
tem which, in my opinion, has
undermined any real significance
of the Senate ... I think it used
to play an important part in our
government, but I think its part
now is simply as an echo of the
Pentagon and the White House.
“This has been a trend for the
last 25 years, since World War
II ... in wartime or in crises,
when you’re concerned with war,
you tend to delegate your power
to the President. This has always
happened in past wars . . . When
the President was ... in the Sen
ate, nobody thought he was in
fallible. He was just another Sen
ator. He moves 16 blocks and
then you treat him as if he has
this private pipeline to God . . .
Of course, that’s the way it used
to be in medieval times. We’re
just not very far from the Divine
Right of Kings of Charles the
First. After all, that’s in our
history. There’s just a very slight
patina of civilization between
then and now, and it’s very easy
to revert to it.”
“Many of the press,” he noted,
“have acquired television stations
which makes them subject to the
FCC which is subject to the Pres
ident, and therefore, they are in
the position to be intimidated
through that. I mean, some of
these big papers, they don’t want
to lose a station that’s worth 50
million dollars. So they tend to
say, ‘Well maybe we better not
go too far, and maybe we won’t
give over-exposure to any criti
cism of the White House.’
“. . . It reminds me a little of
Louis the Fourteenth—the defer
ence that everybody gives to the
leader in the White House, and
I think this is almost inevitable
in a big country. Small countries,
where there’s a sense of commun
ity and people know one another,
have succeeded in preserving a
high degree of democracy; I mean
people like Norway and Sweden
and Denmark and Holland . . .
But when you get above that,
you look at China, Russia, our
selves . . .
The Senator’s resonant voice
trails off, mumbling other com
parisons, thinking perhaps of
Oceania, Eurasia. He seems like
a tired, old dove in a hawk’s sky,
willing to accept what his experi
ence tells him is probably inevi
table.
“Whether we can pull it out and
preserve some degree of democra
cy remains to be seen. I hope we
can, but if we can’t we’ll be no
worse off than other people. We’ll
simply develop a different sys
tem, and maybe in a hundred
years we’ll quit pretending we’re
a democracy and admit that we’re
an oligarchy or plutocracy, which
it seems to be . . .
Concluding the week will be an
after-the-game dance Saturday
featuring “Circus” from Houston.
The free dance will be from 10
p.m. to 1 a.m. in the Ballroom.
For all its occasional huffing
and puffing, Fulbright doesn’t see
the press establishment as a par
ticularly dependable ally against
the authoritarian trend either.
“It’ll be a long time after the
change has taken place that any
body will admit it,” the Senator
concluded. “We always pretend
that it’s something else; as we do
today.”
Cbe Battalion
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*
♦
Barbara Taylor
wmmmw
What:
TEXAS A&M
BSD RETREAT
Date:
JANUARY
26-27, 1973
Place
HIGHLAN D LAKES
BAPTIST ENCAMPMENT
"IT'S GETTIN
BETTER"
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and drop by the wayside as an
outmoded tradition.
I laid out of school last semes
ter in order to work in a Co-op
program. When I returned I found
an entirely new school. New build
ings have sprung up everywhere.
Girls were, of course, the most
prominent addition to our cam
pus. I was gratified to see the
completion of the new dorm be
cause forcing the co-eds to live
off campus can only be described
as unfair.
has happened. We’re not asking
him to cut his hair, just to re
spect the traditions that made this
school what it is.
In attending the Baylor game
the other night, I was sorry to
witness the fact that progress
had gone to our heads. I have al
ways been particularly proud of
the unique yells and wildcatting
that has set us apart from the
other schools. At the Baylor game
I watched six Corps fish in front
of me clap their way through the
whole game. This new attitude
seems to have gone to everyone.
Sure we need to readjust our
thinking once in while, as with
Bonfire and the girls dorm. But
let’s not forsake those traditions
which do have a place, and set us
apart from those overgrown high
schools teasips and bears call uni
versities. Wildcatting is a privi
lege for any Aggie, especially a
fish in the Corps, so let’s use it.
Humping it with each yell is an
other tradition that distinguishes
us. I can’t understand why a non-
reg would stand defiantly by
while all his fellow Ags were
humping it for their team, yet it
And another thing Ags, many
a fight has started in Waco or
Austin because someone started
chanting “Poor Aggies” when
they had us outscored. It always
burned me the way that they were
such poor winners. Now I see
we’re doing the same thing to
them. Wake up man, good sports
manship and just plain good man
ners are not outdated. I’ve always
prided myself in the way Ags
have taken wins and not hounded
the losing team. Let’s keep set
ting this example and not dis
grace a reputation that took 100
years to build.
Bill Clark ’74
Listen Up welcomes any letters
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do not in any way express the
opinions of those working on the
Battalion staff. When no letters
appear it is usually because none
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