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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 23, 1976)
h R 5® t Th E BATTALION THUWSDA^ SEPTEMBER 23, 1976 4 modest proposal As Texas A&M approaches its Centennial Celebration, an oppor tunity for the University to take a firm step forward presents itself. This coming January, three positions on the Board of Regents must be filled. What better way could A&M fulfill its goal of being “planned for the future” than to take the progressive step of seating a student on the Board? c u This act by itself would reveal the true spirit of change tor the better and erase the image held by some that A&M is just a cow college.” The idea, at first thought, seems to be radical, not because it transgresses any deep-seated American principles, but only because it is untried. . The idea is actually of a conservative nature in that it reaffirms basic American democratic principles. While it would be a first in the history of Texas’ state universities, the primary motivation behind such a move would be representation for those who currently have none. This idea of being fairly repre sented is the same one that motivated a cluster of colonies to take on a world power 200 years ago in their quest for a voice in their own affairs. From this struggle was formed the basis of representation of the citizenry on which our nation stands. In recent years many students have felt that the Board of Regents was beyond their influence. By substituting one of the positions on the Board with that of an elected student representative, a vitally- needed line of communication would be opened. When one takes into account that the decisions of the Board affect every student, the logic of a student voice on the Board, even if it is in the minority, is obvious. . The election of the student member of the Board could take place in the spring preceding the year he or she would take office. Obvi ously, for a student to be elected to this one-year term, he or she would have to be responsible, experienced, and concerned with stu dent problems or there would be no hope of receiving a majority of the votes. , Even though the ultimate decision rests with Governor Dolph Briscoe, he can be strongly influenced by the recommendations of the Board of Regents. The young people of today must be drawn into the mechanics of our political system through the efforts of today s leaders or else our system will fall by the wayside in time. D.F.,J.N. Readers’ Forum Guest viewpoints, in addition to • Limited to 100 lines Listen Up letters, are welcome. „ , All pieces submitted to Aggie s u b mit articles to Reed Forum should be: McDonald 21 7 , College Stat.on, . Typed triple space Texa u s - 77843 ‘ Author s P hoi ? e • Limited to 60 characters per number must accompany all sub line missions. Slouch by Jim Earle 1 i “What scares me most about dressing like this is th feai that my mother will hear about it! Queen Elizabeth not the second * — . . „.little intorocf Inf Editor: I am a Scots Aggie, and I’d like to point our your mistake in labeling Queen Elizabeth of Great Britain with “II. (Bath, 21 Sept.) This is a popular misconception, mainly disseminated by the En glish, and exhibiting their arrogance in regarding their country as being all there is to the United Kingdoms (sic). The present monarch is Queen Elizabeth I of Great Britain. How come? Well, the first Queen Elizabeth lived and reigned before the union of Scotland and England in 1707—and with her successor in 1603, James VI, England was brought under Scottish rule to begin with. Thus the present queen is Elizabeth I of Scotland, as the whole country should properly be called. (We Scots can be almost as bad as the English.) Colin Crombie ’79 Showing respect Editor: This past weekend I found still another in the long list of reasons for being proud to be an Aggie. During the Texas A&M-Kansas State foot ball game I watched two Kansas students do what an Aggie would never do, they embarrassed their school with their bad manners. During the half-time period sev eral Texas A&M alumni were in ducted into the Lettermen’s Hall of Fame. They were introduced and presented with plaques in the cen ter of the field. On the east side of the field two of the Kansas football trainers played a private game of toss with the football. I can understand that the cere 'll- • • ■ / ~ro thaw's bv^GosstoM OELr-i T"ELONl TH-e H-lf ft e_ s> V S> O© v/e fl-i/ Of o o No-r -THE- FUe-S-T To bis <_oV/e. K- OfiASS* — K IC-K kvle.R_EL O mony was of little interest 1 but out of respect for the men! honored, I feel that they couldlw refrained from their game. IU distracting to the people sitting hind them who were trying to the ceremony. La Donna Young, (I to hat is it ? ing a ‘Bi livery l fAE-AM WHAT ETSt IS- THE R-E. -TO DO wt+E-M You're, out odll THE. tMUHl THE- DOCrtEi AT K\Tt _ 'll [Fetr MA I claim 1 K.IC»-KT ■ ON Carter handled tax reform issue sloppil; WASHINGTON — What Jimmy Carter didn’t need before the first debate was what he got — a rip roaring controversy stemming from his own sloppy discussion of the sensitive subject of taxes. The whole strategy of the past two weeks in the Carter campaign had been essentially defensive — to avoid giving President Ford any £lt&e StosieA. DOWNTOWN BRYAN COVER GIRL Shoes Under your Jeans, put 12 ozs. of total comfort. Cover Girl's soft leather casual is made of real, natural leather that soothes your tootsies and looks terrific, too. Sizes 6 to 10 Narrow and 5 to 10 Medium. 20.99 opening that would allow him to take the offensive against his chal lenger. The Carter camp liked the first debate just as it was — on domestic issues and the economy, with Ford defending the record of the past two years and the status quo, and Carter promising he could do better. The speech Carter gave to the Michigan AFL-CIO last week showed he was loaded for bear on the economic issues. It was tough, specific and effective — all the things worried Democrats have been saying he must be in his con frontation with the President. And then in a weekend interview with the Associated Press, Carter incautiously opened the door to counterattack by a discussion of tax reform that can be charitably de scribed as confused. After telling the AP — as he had many other interviewers — that his idea of tax reform “means people who have a higher income would pay more taxes at a certain level,’ he was asked what constituted “higher” in his mind. “I don’t know,” he said. “I would take the mean or median level of income and anything above that would be higher and anything below that would be lower.” Well, a “median level of income’ is a specific measure. In 1974, it was $12,836 for the median American family, and it’s gone up slightly since then. If Carter meant what he said, then Republican vice-presidential candidate Bob Dole was justified in declaring that the Democrat planned to raise taxes for half the American families — including those in that $12,000-to-$15,000 bracket who are not normally con sidered affluent. But that interpretation was unac ceptable politically, whatever its economics. Stuart Eizenstat, Car ter’s issues director, undertook to redefine the middle-income family up to the $25,000 level. Whatever a median means to other people, Eizenstat said, for Jimmy Carter it means the bottom, the middle and all but the top 10 percent. Not to be outdone, Ford in an interview with Reader s Digest said he wanted to cut taxes for a “mid dle” group of families from the David S. Broder $8,000 to the $30,000 level, which bends the meaning of words even further. There is more than semantics to this problem, for the real roadblocks to effective tax reform come from the politicians’ worries about that very “middle-income” group. Car ter discovered that fact earlier this year when he incautiously hinted that he might tamper with the mortgage interest deduction — a mistake he has been trying to recant ever since. But the fact of the matter is that we cannot forever avoid the conflict between tax reform and the tax privileges of middle-income families. There is no way to balance the books without boosting income taxes for many who do not consider themselves rich. Until this year, when it achieved modest reform without an overall tax reduction, Congress has been avoiding this dilemma by sugarcoat ing its “reforms” with tax cuts for everyone. That is a delightful system — with only two drawbacks: higher budget deficits and an overall tax system that is increasingly inequitable. As the individual income tax rates have been reduced, we have moved further and further from the point where even prosperous times can produce a balanced budget. And we have shifted the burden of financing government to other, more inequit able taxes — flat-rate federal payroll taxes and the regressive state and local sales and property taxes. The income tax provides a stead ily smaller share of federal revenu es, while Social Security taxes pro vide an ever larger share. Between 1974 and 1976, it is estimated that Treasury revenues from flat-rate payroll taxes grew $16 billion, while the receipts from the so-called pro gressive income tax grew only $11 billion. Real tax reform in this must begin by restoring the fed income tax as the prime instnim for financing government, andt in turn requires realistic, upn adjustment of the rates for th middle-income families. Fordi Carter are equally guilty of avoid™ this reality, but Carter compoiM it by the pretense of promising! form without the political couram describe honestly what it woulde tail. His comments to theAP' politically dangerous; but his hast! in disowning them was even r disingenuous. (c) 1976, The Washington Post Mttfe,'-*- An STALKlSo ns §0O AFRICAN ZEBRA. Cbe Battalion Tltar. automatic TX LENSES FOR RENT! lens 135 mm. f2.5 200 mm. f3.5 300 mm. f5.6 90-230 mm. f4.5 rent per day $6 35 $6 60 $■720 $8 15 For Most Popular Camera Mounts Check With Us For Rates On Longer Rentals CAMPUS PUCTC CENTER, INC. |401 University Dr. • College Station,Texas 77840 • 713/846-5418 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 Battalion is a non-profit, self-supporting enterprise operated by students as a university and community newspaper. Editorial policy is determined by the editor. 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. Represented nationally by National Educational Advertising Servic es, Inc., New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles. Mail subscriptions are $16.75 per semester; $33.25 per school year; $35.00 per full year. All subscriptions subject to 5% sales tax. Advertis ing rates furnished on request. Address; The Battalion, Room 217, Services Building, College Station, Texas 77843. l lu- Associated Press is entitled exclusively to the use lor rrprntklioiA news dispatched credited to it or not otherwise credited in the news of spontaneous origin published herein. Rights ol rrpmducItonnlM matter herein are also reserved. Second-Class postage paid at College Station, Texas. MEMBER The Associated Press, Southwestern Journalism Congress Editor Jerry Se*! Managing Editor Richard Chambt# Campus Editor ^l®* City Editor J amieA ®’ Sports Editor Photography Director Kevin Iw* News Editor Lloyds Asst. News Editor DebbyWJ Features Editor TammyW Assistant to the Editor Dan Fonts* Reporters Carolyn Blosser, Lee Roy User# Paul McGrath, Martha Mugg, Le Ann Roby, LynnRossll>« Sullins Photographers Carl Key, Cathy Rueanj* Members of the Student Publications Board are: Bob C fo- Chairman, Joe Arredondo, Tom Dawsey, Dr. Gary Halter, Dr Hanna, Roger Miller, Dr. Clinton A. Phillips, Jerri Ward. Director of Student Publications: Gael L. Cooper 0 yT •«3SALIj> Dairy Queen THIS THURSDAY THRU SUNDAY ONLY SEPTEMBER 23,24,25, & 26 WE NOW HAVE 3 NEW STORES TO SERVE YOU! #1 2323 S. Texas Ave. (Between K-Mart & Gibsons) 693-4299 #3 312 Villa Maria (At Texas Ave.) 822-2914 #5 3507 E. 29th (Next to Bryan High) 779-1876 80 Inter Varsity Christian Fellowship We are striving to be a student W> denominational Christian commuifi committed to developing matured# pies of Jesus Christ, meaningfully cot' municating the truth of historic Ch# tianity to the university, and enett' aging involvement in God’s world-it^ purpose. Weekly Friday Night Fellowship 7:30 p.m.-9:45 p.m. 607 Rudder Tower Starts September 3 Small Group Bible Studies Weekly meetings — various times s'- locations (with a great text!) Prayer Monday through Friday, 7:20 am 7:50 a.m. and 5 p.m. - 5:30p.m.at^ Faith’s Chapel Lounge For more information call: Mike Lindig 8454757 Lynn Lassiter 693-3433 Vernon Achgill 845-2892 Bill Ashbaugh 845-5466 Terry Aycock 845-4479