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2 THE BATTALION
|, ' THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 1976
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Silver Taps — shared experience
i By DONNIE SCOTT
It began at 10 o clock. The
: feather was warm but comfortable,
i! \ bright September moon shone
j' Jown on the campus to create a sol-
)i smn and serene atmosphere. As I sat
!] an the front steps of Hart Hall I won-
, ?, dered how many Good Ags would
H find the time to honor those that
i' were no longer with us.
i At first just a few began to arrive
1 ! but as the moon rose higher, more
1 and more people began to show.
| Slowlyandsilently they came, just as
1 many Ags before them had followed
! this old and hallowed tradition.
Meanwhile at the Peanut Gallery
things were really swinging. The
regular Tuesday Night Special had
attracted a large crowd of Good Ags.
Yes they are true Aggies. They wear
their Aggie T-shirts and they display
the Aggie stickers boldly on their
cars. On any Saturday during the fall
you can find them cheering their
team on to victory. Yes these are true
Readers" forum
Aggies but where were they during
Silver Taps.?
As the people gathered around old
Sully Ross, the MSG chimes echoed
their lamenting tones across the
campus. At first the sound was faint
but slowly it grew louder as the Ross
Vol. stepped out their eerie ca
dence. As I looked around I saw the
shaven heads of those honorable
C.T.’s. Yes the Corps was there.
God Bless the Corps.
I saw several large groups of non-
regs moving together. The dorms
around campus had found the time
to organize themselves and make
their appearance. I even saw a mar
ried couple with a young child. I
know how hard it is to stand there
and we all get tired. It really must he
hard with a baby in your arms. To
you I extend my heart for you signify
Watermelon
Bust
after the stomp
Baptist Student
Union
(behind Loupots)
8 p.m. — Saturday
the true Aggie Spirit.
As the R.V.s marched into place a
silent mood fell over the already
hushed crowd. Three times- they
fired and three times the shots
echoed across the campus like many
times before when the Aggies paid
tribute to their former classmates
and friends.
Meanwhile at the Sports Club
things were really rocking. The
disco-music had everybody in a
boogie mood. The bartenders and
waitresses just couldn’t serve the
drinks fast enough. This was a com
mon scene at Aggieland and these
were good Aggies. You know they
are Aggies because you see them in
your classes and around campus.
At a nearby location members of
an elite fraternity were enjoying one
of their finest pledge parties yet. The
actives were teaching the pledges
the finer aspects of college socializ
ing. After all what is a social frater
nity for besides socializing. They feel
they should be allowed on campus
because they’re good Ags too! But
where were they during Silver Taps?
As the Taps began to sound I felt
the true meaning of being an Aggie.
These people had found the time be
cause they cared.
Care, the work that symbolizes
the true Aggie spirit. Aggieland is
where people care about people and
traditions are honored and upheld.
This is Aggieland and these are the
true Aggies. The Corps, the non-
regs and the people who care. They
would probably have enjoyed being
on a dance floor or enjoyed a drink at
a local club but they found in their
hearts a stronger call than that of a
drink or a dance. They heard and
answered the call of Aggieland.
To you that made it, I extend my
friendship and admiration. To you
that found the local bars and clubs
more appealing than the honored
tradition of Silver Taps I strongly
recommend that you re-evaluate
your priorities. If you desire to be a
true Aggie and love A&M and all that
it stands for you must go a little
farther than T-shirts and bumper
stickers.
I know many could not make it
due to legitimate reasons but I know
more could have made it with a little
effort. I hope in the future more can
find the time to be a true Aggie.
GRAND RAPIDS — Worse
things could happen to Gerald Ford
than to be retired to his old home
town. Grand Rapids is a city of
enormous vitality, with a knack for
recycling experienced men into use
ful careers of public service.
A year ago, on a visit here, this
reporter was captivated by Harold S.
Sawyer, then 55, who had just given
up his position as the senior partner
in the city’s most eminent law firm to
become the Kent County prosecut
ing attorney. After 30 years of law
suits, Sawyer had built his firm to the
largest in Michigan outside Detroit,
achieved a degree of financial inde
pendence and realized I was start
ing to get bored.”
So when a vacancy occurred in the
prosecutor’s job and a circuit judge
asked Sawyer to take the appoint
ment, he agreed to take a two-thirds
pay cut and accept the $31,700-a-
year position. When I saw him, just a
few months after he’d started, he
said, “I feel ten years younger,” and
talked enthusiastically of his plans
for prosecuting consumer fraud and
other projects.
That was not Sawyer’s first break
out. A year earlier, the lifelong Re
publican and close friend of Mr.
Ford had broken publicly with his
party to support Democrat Richard
Vanderveen for the House seat Mr.
Ford vacated to become Vice Presi
dent.
The reason: He was “really upset”
with Richard Nixon over the
Vietnam war, his Supreme Court
appointments and, of course,
Watergate. Electing Vanderveen,
he figured, would send a message to
the Republicans in Washington.
This year, he is one of four Repub
licans seeking the nomination to op
pose Vanderveen. His complaint
with Vanderveen is that he has
been voting the UAW (United Auto
Workers) laundry list.” But his han
kering to go to Congress has deeper
roots.
In his time as prosecutor, Sawyer
has come face to face with some of
the federal bureaucracy. And he is as
enraged as he was with Nixon.
“I had a couple guys in here last
month from LEAA (the Law En
forcement Assistance Administra
tion),” Sawyer said, “offering me
$80,000 a year if I would set up a
’Rape Crisis Center.’ I told them we
J§
David S.
Broder
were having considerable success
handling our rape prosecutions, but
we could use about three more
lawyers if they could finance it. They
said they were sorry but their direc
tives only allowed them to finance
Rape Crisis Centers. Well, I’d like to
go down to Congress for a few
years—especially if I had some
leverage with the White House—
not with the idea of making friends,
but raising hell about that kind of
nonsense.”
That’s one story. The other, even
more remarkable in some ways, con
cerns Grand Rapids new mayor,
Abe Drasin, who is 67.
As gentle a spirit as Sawyer is
combative, Drasin spent his life
building a successful business trad
ing in hides. It was not a boring job;
it involved frequent trips to Europe
and the Far East and contacts
throughout the United States.
But eight years ago, when he was
59, Drasin says he realized he was
“not getting the intellectual stimulus
I needed. So he sold his business
an d _ of all things — became a high
school civics teacher. He had played
an important role, as a private citi
zen, in the desegregation of Grand
Rapids’ schools, and the problems of
discipline did not disturb him. It s
just like labor negotiating,” he said.
“You don’t put the union guy in an
impossible position, and^you don t
do that to your students.’
But while Drasin found the teach
ing stimulating, confinement to a
classroom eight hours a day proved
too much of a shift for an executive
who had controlled his own
schedule. “It became like a prison,
he said.
In 1971, Drasin had allowed some
friends to put up his name for the city
council and he became the first Jew
elected to public office in Grand
Rapids in 103 years. Last year, he
was elected mayor, defeating a
Dutch Reform minister with 61 per
cent of the votes.
Now, he finds himself working 70
hours a week at what is supposed to
be a part-time job. His concerns, like
Sawyer’s, center on Washington,
but they are of a different nature. He
faces a $4.5 million budget deficit,
with no way to raise the city income
tax and stiff resistance to any other
tax boost in a city still suffering more
than 10 percent unemployment.
So Drasin is agonizing over the
prospects for the extension of
revenue-sharing and the possible
passage of a “counter-cyclical” assis
tance measure for areas of high un
employment. Otherwise, there will
be cutbacks in pay and hours or
layoffs of city employees and further
reductions in city services.
“Our fate is in the hands of Wash
ington,” the mayor says. But hisom I
heart and hopes are right here
Walking a visitor back to his offict
he detours to show him a small mini
ature of the giant Calder sculptuit
that dominates VandenbergPlazainl
the city’s center.
“We just dedicated the miniatnie,
last week,” the mayor says, “soou
blind citizens could feel what tit |
rest of us see.”
A city that finds such productive
use for people like Harold Sawys
and Abe Drasin, and that can pause
in its fiscal crisis to think aboutsb
ing its community’s artistic treasure j
with the blind, cannot be a bad place
even for a President to contemplate 1
retiring.
(c) 1976, The Washington Post
Slouch
by Jim Earle
FT
7C
“It’s just a dummy name tag that they gave me to wear until
mine came in, but I’ve sorta gotten attached to this name.
Carter campaign pace continues
Associated Press
While Jimmy Carter trekked
through a Polish neighborhood in
Pittsburgh, in the White House,
President Ford also was seeking the
ethnic vote, and former Sen.
Eugene J. McCarthy was appealing
to Supreme Court Justice Lewis F.
Powell Jr.to order his name placed
on the ballot in Texas as an indepen
dent candidate for President.
McCarthy said he plans to appeal
to the full court from a ruling of a
three-judge federal panel in Austin
last Thursday.
The three judge court ruled that a
Texas law barring independent can
didates for President and vice presi
dent from the ballot was unconstitu
tional. But it also said that McCarthy
had filed his suit too late to permit
the court to put his name on the
CATFISH
$095
Including: Homemade Potato Soup,
Freshly Prepared Hushpuppies
French Fries e _
& Cole Slaw.
’■vim
3-C CORRAL
1808 BARAK LANE
(Across from Bryan High School)
^<9
Texas ballot “without substantially
disrupting the entire Texas election
scheme.”
McCarthy filed suit July 30 chal
lenging the Texas law, which was
enacted after he announced his can
didacy.
In Pittsburgh, Carter donned a
T-shirt emblazoned with Polish
Hill” and toured the heavily Polish
neighborhood of the same name.
The Democratic presidential candi
date was greeted by enthusiastic
crowds as he posed with parochial
school children on the steps of a
Catholic church and received a
ceremonial kiss from a priest.
Later, in a speech in Washington
to the national convention of the
Jewish congregation B’nai B’rith,
Carter said the Ford administration
often has “ignored basic American
values and a proper concern for
human rights.”
Carter said the United States has
“responded inadequately to human
suffering” in Bangladesh and other
undeveloped nations.
As Carter continued his hectic
campaign pace. Ford generally fol
lowed his campaign strategy of re
maining at the White House.
But before unveiling Casimir
Pulaski memorial day, Ford called a
hasty outdoor news conference to
accuse Carter of a lack of compassion
for FBI director Clarence Kelley.
Carter said Tuesday that if he
were president he would have fired
Kelley for receiving gifts and favors
from FBI subordinates. But Carter
declined to say if he will fire Kelley if
the Democrats win the White House
in November.
The memorial day celebration was
in honor of Casimir Pulaski, a polish
general who served the colonists in
the Revolutionary War. Ford
praised the general for his “heroic
sacrifices.”
At present, Kelley has repaid $355
to the FBI for material and labor
used to make improvements at his
home. Kelley said he had not known
FBI money was used to make the
improvements.
Carter’s press secretary, Jody
Powell, said, “Ford’s comments are
a cynical distortion of Gov. Carter’s
remarks and an apparent attempt to'
skirt the real issue involved.’’
In other developments this morn
ing, Claude Wild Jr., Gulf Oil
Corp.’s former chief lobbyist, re
pudiated his claim that he had given
$2,000 in 1970 to Sen. Bob Dole, the
Republican vice-presidential candi
date.
“I have been in error and con
sequently have done a serious dis
service to Sen. Dole, ” Wild saidina
statement. j
Dole immediately accepted
Wild’d apology, calling the matter
“an unfortunate incident. Tire
senator added: Were moving
ahead with the campaign.”
At issue was Wild’s claim to re
porters earlier this week that he had
given $2,000 to Dole in 1970topass
on to other Republican Senate can
didates in that year.
Dole earlier had acknowledged
that he had testified before a federal
grand jury last March on the ques
tion of Gulf contributions, but that
he had received no such funds from
Wild either in 1970 or 1973.
Cbe Battalion
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t-j.,. Jerry Needham
Managing Editor' Richard Chamberlam
Sports Editor „ Paul Arne
Photography Director S
News Editor t ', Uoyd ^
Reporters . Paul McGrath, Lee Roy Leschper, LeAnnBob)
Members of the Student Publications Board are: Bob G. Rogers
Chairman, Dr. Gary Halter, Dr. John P. Hanna, Dr. ClintonA. Phillips.
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VI
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