? 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
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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.
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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
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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
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