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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 10, 1977)
? age 2 THE BATTALION THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1977 Opinion/Commentary/Letters Carter’s actions not meaningless WASHINGTON — The com plaint around Washington these days is that Jimmy Carter is still campaigning for President, rather than being President. “It’s all im age, no substance,’’ one is told re peatedly in the White House press room. The complaint is accurate, but of limited importance. In the time- frame of a presidential term, rather than a daily or weekly journalistic deadline, what Carter is doing makes sense. His tone-poem acceptance speech, his stroll down Pennsyl vania Avenue, his trip to the Pittsburgh snows, his rambling “fireside chat,” his lectures on economy to the Cabinet, his curb ing of “Hail to the Chief,” his first press conference — all these have been exercises in public relations, rather than decision-making. But to label them for what they are is not to condemn them. The President is only doing what is re quired. To understand why such post election “campaigning” is necessary for Carter, one must understand the fundamental weakness of his politi cal position. Last November, he won a nar row, sectional majority, barely avoiding defeat in a contest where he had been strongly favored, and trailing the Democratic ticket al most everywhere. He came to Washington as a stranger, with little knowledge of the city or its government and few natural allies. Three weeks after his own inauguration, he has only a skeleton administration in place. The computerized “Talent In ventory Program” for filling gov ernment jobs proved about as use less as Richard Nixon’s resort to “Who’s Who” as a guide for staffing his administration. What with pol icy conflicts and cumbersome clear ance procedures. Carter has found it hard to get past the first hundred appointments. The rhetoric of the campaign has proved woefully inadequate as a pol icy base for the administration. The David S. Broder “magic solutions” he offered on the stump — zero-base budgeting, rad ical restructuring of the bureau cracy, a slash in the Pentagon’s “fat,” the restoration of “morality” to foreign policy — have proved predictably to be considerably less than magical when measured against the hard realities of the world. So, short of political leverage, short of people and short of policy, President Carter is doing what a good politician will always do in such a situation: He is moving to fill the vacuum with symbolic actions, rather than let the initiative pass from his hands. Happily, he is managing to fill this time in ways that do neither him nor the country any harm. They may, in fact produce some benefits. He has not disguised problems, he has not misrepresented problems and he has not closed off the policy options he may later wish to em ploy. Turning down the White House thermostat and working in a sweater is not a substitute for energy policy, but it’s a useful symbol of the ser iousness of the energy problem. Putting the executive limousines up on blocks does not get at the real waste of bureaucracy, but it’s a re minder that the waste is there. Some of Carter’s critics complain that the publicity and political bene fits from such gestures are being earned on the cheap. They are right, in the sense that each of these symbolic actions has been carefully designed to offend no one and gratify a great many voters. But again, that kind of tactic is necessary for a President in Carter’s position. He can see now — if he could not before election day — that the cost will be high for every one of the projects he has set for himself. Congress is already picking apart his economic stimulus package. Jack Brooks has thrown down the gauntlet on the President’s bid for reorganization powers. Our allies and the Russians and Chinese are all asking whose inter ests will be sacrificed in the coming arms talks. And even Old Man Winter is making it tough for everyone, Carter included. For Carter to have a chance to succeed in any of these struggles, he has to strengthen his public sup port. As of today, he is overmatched against Congress, the bureaucracy and the interest groups, and his clout with foreign governments re mains unproven. The kind of image-building he has been doing is not a substitute for leadership. But, given Carter’s cir cumstances, it’s a necessary prelim inary for leadership. (c) 1977, The Washington Post If* inf; m# tfW natural 6 f\jUm GA5CQ.0 b ! pi Man solving his problem Creating another multiversity Readers’ Forum Guest viewpoints, in addi tion to Letters to the Editor, are welcome. All pieces sub mitted to Readers’ forum should be: • Typed triple space • Limited to 60 characters per line • Limited to 100 lines Submit articles to Reed McDonald 217, College Sta tion, Texas, 77843. Author’s name and phone number must accompany all submissions. Battalion Opinions expressed in The Battalion are those of the . ^dress: The Battalion Boon, 216 Reed editor or of the writer of the article and are not neces- McDontdd Bu.ld.ng, College Station, Texas 77843. sarily those of the University administration or the United Press International is ent.tled exclusively to Board of Regents The Battalion is a non-profit, self- the , use ^reproduction of all news dispatches cred- .. . tti tit »ted to it. Rights ot reproduction ot all other matter .supporting entenmse operated by students as a uni- . . o i ^,1 • 1 * ^ n versify and community newspaper. Editorial policy is erei 11 reserve . econ ass postage paic a o ege determined by the editor. Sta,lon ’ Texas LETTERS POLICY 1V ? > EM ® ER letters to the editor should not exceed 300 words „ ,i, eXaS , ress ssocl ® on . . . . . ■ j . , . r Southwest Journalism Congress and are subject to being, cut to that length or less ij longer. The editoiial staff reserves the right to edit Editor Jerry Needham such letters and does not guarantee to publish any Managing Editor James Aitken letter. Each letter must be signed, show the address of Assignments Editor Rusty Cawley the wiiter and list a telephone number for verification. Features Editor Lisa Junod Address conespondence to Letters to the Editor, News Editor Debby Krenek The Battalion, Room 216, Reed McDonald Building, News Assistant Carol Meyer College Station, Texas 77843. Photography Director Kevin Venner ! Represented nationally by National Educational ^F° rtS JFi^. it0r Advertising Services, Inc., New York City, Chicago f 1 ° r n V. p 6 *! 1 I • A 1 " Reporters Ceorge Maselli, Paul an s . McGrath, Lynn Rossi, John Tynes, Lee Roy Leschper Mail subscriptions are $16.75 per semester; $33.25 Jr., Mary Hesalroad, Jan Bailey per school year; $35.00 per full year. All subscriptions Asst. Photo Editors Tracie Nordheim, subject to 5% sales tax, Advertising rates furnished on Mike Willy . Editor: On Tuesday, Jan. 25, A&M’s Board of Regents appropriated $10,000 to study the costs of three possible alternatives for the future of Legett Hall. Executive Vice Pres ident for Administration W. C. Freeman said the alternatives are conversion to office space, im provements for continued use as a dorm and razing. Freeman said the Space Alloca tions Committee has determined that the school needs more office and classroom space. He said this is true even in light of the conversion of Milner Hall and all other con struction projects such as those across Wellborn Road and the re cently approved free enterprise center. Legett Hall residents presented a petition to the Board of Regents protesting the proposed conversion of their dorm. The petition argues that over 100 students would have to move off campus and thus suffer a great financial burden. It states that there is a great demand for Legett. Witness the fact that 6,000 people are on the waiting list for campus housing. Legett does not need much money in order to be re paired. Dorm rent can pay for some of the repairs, even after R.A., janitorial and utility fees have been paid. From the writers’ view, the most important point is that as campus living decreases, campus spirit will also decrease. Milner Hall has al ready been changed to offices. In view of the report by the Space Al locations Committee, Legett Hall may be the next dorm to go. When will the administration stop convert ing dorms? Which dorm will be next? We don’t know how much space A&M needs, but in our opinion, it appears that there will be enough by the time present construction is completed. We were under the im pression that A&M enrollment would level off around 30,000 people. However, the conversion of much needed dorm space into offices and classrooms forces us to believe that A&M is going to keep growing until it is larger than our neighbor in Aus tin. —Steve Mayer, ’78 —Scott Gregson, ’78 By MARK SWIRSKY I read with interest the debate on capital punishment in the February 8 issue of The Battalion. In the debate some crucial ques tions have been neglected. Why does man murder, steal, cheat, and rape? What is it that causes man to hold so little regard for his fellow man? Why do we even regard such things as murder and theft immoral and wrong and thus subject to punishment? What is there outside of our own beliefs and feelings that gives us the right to dictate that some acts are wrong and that per petrators of those acts should be made to measure up to our standards and beliefs? But perhaps these questions have already been answered. Can we look to modern thinking to provide the answers to what man’s nature is and where he is headed? claims absurdly that the problems we see today such as theft, murder, adultery, and deceit actually arise from man’s own heart. It is a shame that men of old held such ideas; but in our sophisticated age, this idea has no place. Haven’t many of our social scientists said so? The Bible further implies that all men have flawed characters. Doesn’t this go directly against the commonly- accepted beliefs about man? Cer tainly the belief that man is basically good and improving and can solve his problems is the true description of the reality we see arom it? I’m sure that suchdekl one on capital punishment be rendered obsolete evolves into a more mon and the committing of cj comes a thing of the past, history of this century, w ception of a few minora like the world wars, hass man is, indeed, solving lems. After all, ifmancan problems, is there anyone can? r Dorm policy was needed We should not be concerned with the rising crime rates, should we? After all, since the enlightened thinking of secular humanism has shown us that man is inherently good and that he is getting better, we should realize that the increase in crime statistics is no doubt due to better reporting of crimes coupled with the natural population growth. headhunter/! 601 sulphur springs road 822-222S “A Hairstyle For Your Lifestyle” 4: si 317 Lei Fi£ Sa "I i Fe The i Love Story’ ■* m MANOR EAST 3 THEATRI L J MANOR EAST MALL 1^ 'INCL: TAX AUSTIN TO LONDON/PARIS TO AUSTIN I\o Restrictions • Open to Public •Anyone Can Go ! SAVE $508 ON REGULAR FARE/SAVE DFW/JFK HASSLE SAVE 1-WAY CHANNEL CROSSING & LUXEMBOURG RAIL SPACE LIMITED,Book TODAY! ^Executivd^Lravel 846 1748 Editor: Much controversy has arisen be cause of the new housing policy which will give dorm space to in coming freshmen. It has been ar gued that upperclassmen should be given the dorm space because of their seniority and because they have been waiting longer for the dorm space. I agree that it would be nice for everyone who wanted to be on campus to be able to get a dorm space, however, at this time that appears to be an impossibility. What I do not agree with are the arguments concerning the im plementation of the housing plan. I feel that this plan would have had to have been put into effect at some point in Texas A&M’s growth and the gradual introduction of it would not have made it any more accept able. I do sympathize with the students who have been on the dorm waiting list, but before they conclude that the lack of space is the fault of the new housing policy and the incom ing freshmen they should re evaluate the situation. People who are already in dorms have top priority in the selection of dorm space. They may choose whether they are going to stay on campus or move off campus. These current residents will be the decid ing factor as to how much dorm space is available to anyone. —Carolyn Kemmerer, ’80 All those scenes of alleged brutal ity we see on television aren’t really a true picture of what is happening in America because we know how the media has to spend long hours searching for news items containing violence. All those violence-filled movies being shown today really don’t cater to our violent natures as some would suggest. Rather, they show us what we once were and how far we have truly progressed. We can see in our own day-to-day experiences the truth that man is getting better. Look around and see how many locks you can see. It used to be that people locked everything to prevent theft, but we have obvi ously progressed beyond that point. Expectations are humiliating 707 TEXAS AVE., SOUTH COLLEGE STATION Editor: Must students be treated as po tential criminals in the Texas A&M Bookstore in the MSC? I have gone in there several times and come out feeling disgusted be cause I was watched over and fol lowed around as if I were a shoplif ter. On one incident, a friend and I went in the clothing department to buy warm-up suits for P.E. After SPRING CUSTOM PORTRAIT SALE trying them on, my friend went to put them back on the rack while I was looking at clothes. When one of the salesladies did not see me with my friend, she told another saleslady that someone was still in the dressing room. The sales lady then hurried over to the dres sing room to find out where I was. When she came out, she saw me and went back behind the counter. This incident may seem harmless, however, the way that I was treated as a customer was quite humiliating to me. I am not alone in my com plaint. I have heard similar com plaints expressed by several other students. I realize that shoplifting is a prob lem which is hard for merchants to deal with, but I do not believe that it should be dealt with at the pense of the innocent customer. Merchants should know that pub lic relations is also a valuable asset to business. Martha Maniord, ’80 We shouldn’t be concerned with punishing people. After all, haven’t we been told that we are all prod ucts of our environment? Men like Gary Gilmore who committed a few indiscretions are no different than the rest of us except that he proba bly grew up in a bad environment. We shouldn’t hold him accountable for what was obviously just an at tempt to find himself. Rather, doesn’t society owe him something for not providing him with a good environment? Can we hypocritically condemn Gary Gilmore for acts we would have committed if we had been brought up in his environ ment? To do so would imply that he was responsible for his own actions, wouldn’t it? CUNT EASTWOOD IS DIRTY HARRY THE ENFORCER PANAVISION® Color bv DELUXF® IKInhnled hv WARNFR RR0S©A WARNFRCOMMUNUHONSW* 1 6:00-7:45-9:30 5:55-7:35-1:11 A UNIVERSAL PICTURE TECHNICOLOR 0!l(|m<)l SIUIIKI ll fl( I ( luMvrlv I..I MCA He riv.nhible mis & Tapes Further, we should be grateful to Mr. Robinson and Mr. Mueller for not using the Bible in their discus sion. That book has done more to confuse the real issues of today than any other, hasn’t it? The Bible An AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL teMX BEN JOHNS! jwofionpfiiHt MWimrtiJ Skyway Twin 822-3300 ‘BEYOND THE GRAVEr • (HI ‘KILLER SNAKES’ < UNIVERSITY SQUARE SHOPPING CENTER ^ Get into some great pants! TOP DRAWER The Entire Month Of February BUY THE FIRST PRINT AT THE REGULAR PRICE AND GET A SECOND PRINT THE SAME SIZE FREE Must Be Photographed in February & Ordered by March 15 APPOINTMENTS NECESSARY 846-8019