Page 2
THE BATTALION
FRIDAY, APR. 2, 1976
School board endorsements
Of the eleven persons seeking three seats on
the A&M Consolidated School Board in tomor
row’s election, none are incumbents for the pos
ition.
In Place 1, ELLIOTT BRAY is the best
choice. A manager of data systems at A&M,
Bray would be a valuable asset to the board in
coordinating the sale of bonds and other ad
ministrative duties. He is well-informed on the
issues and has served the past year as president
of the College Hills Parent-Teacher Organiza
tion. He was on the Citizens’ Advisory Commit
tee which prepared the bond issue in a thorough
manner. His concerns about the district’s needs
are genuine. Lambert Wilkes has served on the
board for five years and also seemingly under
stands the district’s urgent needs. Yet, he is the
only board member who is not supporting the
bond issue.
In Place 2 we support the candidacies of two
candidates, ELIZABETH NAUGLE and HOY
RICHARDS. Both are well-informed of the dis
trict’s needs, and the voters would be well-
represented by either one. Naugle is a former
elementary schoolteacher and is well ac
quainted with the school eurriculums. She has
attended board meetings for four years and her
involvement indicates that she’s a candidate
who is genuinely concerned about the school
system. Richards is a transportation economist
at A&M and his expertise would be invaluable in
the area of fiscal responsibility. His experience
on the Board of Equalization and as a former
board member gives him knowledge of the re
venue needs of the district. His non-support of
the bond issue must be questioned however.
Roger Feldman is also concerned, but while
he supports the bond issue he is a lackluster
candidate and offers few specific programs for
improvement. George Boyett opposes the bond
issue on the grounds that its figures are inflated
and some of its provisions are unnecessary. As a
member of the city planning and zoning com
mission he displayed an indifference to careful
zoning measures. We believe careful planning is
needed on the school board also.
HELEN WILBORN in Place 4 appears to be
the best candidate for Place 4. She is a lifelong
resident of the city and was educated in the
school district. Her young age, 23, gives her a
close familiarity with the present situation in the
schools, and a better understanding of the stu
dent’s needs. As a black woman, she would give
able representation to a large segment of the
population. A drug abuse counselor, she stres
ses the need for counseling in the schools, and
increased community awareness of board ac
tions.
Bruce Upham, Fred Bouse and William Was
son are also competent alternatives. Upham is
an A&M student and has only been out of the
Consolidated school system a couple years.
Again, his young, responsible voice would be
helpful in evaluating school programs and
needs. Bouse supports stronger community re
lations. In his support of the bond issue he em
phasizes the importance of a strong vocational
program. Wasson is a systems audit manager for
A&M and his experience would help in the area
of financing and administration work.
William Fitch has been spending a lot of
money during the campaign, stressing the al
leged extravagance of the bond issue. He is a
local land developer, so we must wonder where
his experience and expertise were when those
construction estimates were first made. His
criticisms of enrichment and special education
programs and “spendthrift” ways are examples
of knee-jerk obstructionism.
Vote yes on bond issue
While many students may regard the $6.4
million school bond issue on tomorrow’s ballot
as unimportant, it will affect them directly.
If the issue is approved, property taxes would
be raised to support the bonds. Although very
few students own property locally, two-thirds
live off-campus, and you can be sure that land
lords will pass the increased taxes on to their
tenants.
The proposed bond issue was unanimously
recommended by a Citizens Advisory Commit
tee and also unanimously approved by the
school board. Eight of the 11 school board can
didates support the issue. All admit there are
serious needs in the school district.
A new vocational facility is drastically needed,
especially considering that nearly 50 per cent of
the Consolidated students are not going on to
college. Classrooms alone can’t prepare some
one for a job.
If anyone doubts the overcrowding and
maintenance needs covered in the bond issue,
walk through any of the district’s four schools.
Erosion is eating away at foundations and coun
selors have offices in janitor closets.
A similar bond issue last November was nar
rowly defeated. Some are urging that this one be
similarly tabled. If some think the present cost
estimates are too inflated, they should check
them again in a few months when inflation has
increased some more.
We support the bond issue and urge its ap
proval. To delay a solution any longer would be
an insult to the educational process.
Up
Homosexuality not crime or sin
Editor:
In response to Ms. Fisher’s letter
(March 25), I would like to point out
a couple of misleading statements
she made.
First, homosexuality is not illegal.
In Texas, homosexual sex acts are
illegal. Thus, in order for someone to
be arrested under that law, a gay
couple would have tc5 be caught in
the act of having sex. Considering
that most sex acts (gay and straight)
take place in private homes, the law
is virtually useless.
Secondly, one can find a quote in
the Bible to condemn virtually any
thing one does not like. Over the
centuries, the Bible has been
through many translations, altera
tions and adulterations. I know of
few Christians who pay much atten
tion to the books of Numbers,
Leviticus and others.
If Ms. Fisher thinks homosexual
ity is immoral, then she has an obli
gation to uphold her belief. Her ob
ligation ends when she begins to dic
tate her morality to others.
Michael J. Garrett
Good coverage
Editor:
Three cheers for the Battalion’s
extensive coverage of the upcoming
local elections! This campus has a
reputation for being apathetic in
politics, and I think it’s great that the
Opinions expressed in The Battalion are those of the editor or
of the writer of the article and are not necessarily those of the
university administration or the Board of Regents. The Battal
ion is a non-profit, self-supporting enterprise operated by stu
dents as a university and community newspaper. Editorial
policy is determined by the editor.
Add
Texas
LETTERS POLICY
Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 words and are
subject to being cut to that length or less if longer. The editorial
staff reserves the right to edit such letters and does not guaran
tee to publish any letter. Each letter must be signed, show the
address of the writer and list a telephone number for verifica
tion.
Address correspondence to Listen Up, The Battalion, Room
217, Services Building, College Station, Texas 77843.
ELECT
FRED BOUSE
A&M Consolidated School Board Trustee
Position 4
• Scout leader - 8 years • Pack 802 and Troop 380.
• Little League Baseball - 5 years - Director, President 8 Trustee.
• College Hills PTA (Playground Renovation Project).
• College Station Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee.
David S. Broder
Carter omits some of the fact
am
Battalion is doing its best to generate
student interest. It also gives those
interested a good look at the candi
dates on some important issues.
I hope every student who votes
has considered the candidates and
the issues seriously. Given the past
record of voter participation, there
are three students who don’t vote for
every student who does. That
means, of course, that each vote is
four times more powerful than it
would be with full participation.
With statistics like those, the choices
suddenly become very important.
So if a student is going to vote, I
hope to goodness that he reads up on
the issues.
Susie Turner
MILWAUKEE — An incident at
the Vel Phillips YWCA here one af
ternoon last week may shed some
light on the paradox of the Jimmy
Carter campaign. It also shows why
some who have been watching him
have trouble deciding whether they
are covering the most promising
political figure to emerge in the
1970’s or the most skillful de
magogue.
As is often the case when he has a
black audience. Carter spoke with an
eloquence, a simplicity, a directness
that moved listeners of both races.
He spoke of the fundamentals that
unite this country — of restoring
“those precious things we’ve lost,”
like love of country and trust and
pride in its government — “the
things that made us all proud in the
past and have kind of slipped out of
our hands.”
He reminded us that peasants in
Latin America and villagers in Africa
“felt when John Kennedy was in the
White House that our country, big
and powerful as it is, cared about
them.” He suggested that “those
small countries, new and struggling
and poor, want a friend. They could
respect us if we respected them.
They would trust us if we were
trustworthy.”
And then, having intimated his
empathy for the nations on the other
side of the great North-South divi
sion in the globe, this son of the
American South reached out across
the great barrier between the races
in this land, and said:
“If I’ve got one solid base of sup
port in this election, it’s been among
the black people of this na
tion . . . and I cherish it as much as
anything I’ve had in my life — that
confidence — and I would never do
anything to betray that confidence. 1
woidd rather die first. ”
He said, as he has done before to
white audiences and black, that Mar
tin Luther King, Jr., had liberated
the whites in the South as much as he
had the blacks, by freeing them from
the burden of guilt and segregation.
And he said that his candidacy for the
presidency would be quite literally
impossible had Dr. King not “re
moved from the South the stigma of
being preoccupied with the race is
sue.”
One would have to be made of
stone to be unmoved by the surge of
emotion — the communion — bet
ween those black listeners and that
white speaker who hopes to be their
President. And one would have to be
blind not to see what a boon it would
be for this country to have a Presi
dent who inspired that trust in blacks
as in whites.
And that irresistible surge of hope
and belief is what made it all the
harder to accept what happened in
the next few moments, because if
Carter did not “betray that confi
dence” he had built in his audience,
he did little to merit it.
He had been asked, he said, his
views on “school integra
tion . . . and I’ll give you the same
answer I gave in Jackson, Miss., and
Biloxi, Miss., and Montgomery,
Ala., and Asheville, N.C., and in
New Hampshire.”
But the truth is he did not give the
same answer he had given in those.
He did not even give the same ans
wer he had given three hours earlier
to a predominantly white audience at
Marquette University, or would give
an hour later, to another white audi
ence at a fund-raiser at the Red Car
pet Inn.
He gave the blacks at the YWCA
about one-third of his standard re
sponse, then turned to another to
pic. And when a reporter, who had
been caught up in the emotion of the
gathering and had begun to believe
that this man was all that his admir
ers say he is, realized what had hap
pened, the sense of betrayal was as
sharp and painful as if someone had
punched him in his stomach and
knocked the air out of his lungs.
Carter began by saying, as he al
ways does, that the passage of the
civil rights acts had been “the best
thing that has happened in the South
in my lifetime.” He told how his
daughter goes to “a typical south
Georgia school” and how “last year in
the second grade, she had 13 white
classmates, 16 black classmates, a
black teacher. She’s getting a good
education. She goes there because
she wants to, because her
momma
and daddy want her to. And
typical and it’s good and I’m prou
it. So school integration, I’m for
hasn’t hurt us; it’s helped us.
He stopped his answer therea
YWCA, turning to a discussio
welfare reform, and leaving un
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March 30 - April 4
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Located on
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Between K-Mart
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citing h
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Acting Editor Roxie Hearn
News Editor T. C. Gallucci
City Editor Jim Peters
Contributing Editors Sandy Russo, Steve Gray
Sports Editor Paul McGrath
Photo Director Douglas Winship
Staff Writers
Carolyn Blosser, Ray Daniels, Pat Edmondson, Tony Gallucci, Lee Roy Les-
chper, jerry Needham.
WHAT ARE YOU DOING THIS
SUMMER?
NOTHING?
Well why don’t you do something and spend your
summer with us at Camp Stewart — the south
west’s oldest continually operated private summer
camp for boys.
Our representative will be interviewing prospec
tive staff members on Tuesday, April 6 in the
Placement office in the Rudder Tower.
Contact the placement office for an appointment or just come
on by.
MSC CAMERA
COMMITTEE
in effe<
'you’vi
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nt of the
what I j
hat as Pr
ourt ord
'l with tl
rt an anti
Iment, b
Presents:
A Black and White Short Course
on development, printing, and theory.
I is a per
ant if am
A unders
iew, the)
>fdivinati(
he had ss
At 2:00 p.m. 301 Rudder Towe
Sunday, April 4
Free! - Everyone Welcome
s it accidi
omissior
standard
integrat
: a, when
ace in ano
ith that v,
sitadelih
fortuitous
left his ]
'at the se
'for s seco
Fred Bouse
for
Exploring all reasonable alternatives to assure maximum
return for our tax dollar.
A strong preventive maintenance program for all school
facilities.
Professional planning of building site for all new facilities.
Adequate, well-planned and efficient facilities using only
durable construction materials and methods.
Renovation and repair of existing usable facilities.
Planned development to realize our community's educa
tional goals.
Community involvement in determining the needs and
goals of our school system.
COMMITTED TO QUALITY EDUCATION
VOTE SATURDAY, APRIL 3
Paid for by Frad Bousa Committee, Fred Klatt. Chairman. 1014 Madera Circle
MSC ARTS
COMMITTEE
presents
“Fellini’s Roma
Monday, April 5
J 5
at
8:00 p.m. Rudder
Theater
Dr. Paul
Christense
informal discussion afterward led by Dr.
Dennis Berthold
MSC ARTS
COMMITTEE
presents
POETRY
READING
by
Dr. Jack
Hardie
"I
s >4