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Viewpoint
The Battalion Monday
Texas A&M University September 5, 1977
Speaking of rights . . .
Bare-headed motorcyclists reappeared on Texas’ streets and highways this
last week under a decision by the last State Legislature to no longer require
motorcycle operators to wear helmets.
Libertarians call it another blow for every man’s right “to do what he damn
well pleases. ” The weak at heart “wouldn’t be caught dead on one of those
things anyway,” wearing helmet or complete suit of armor.
And the cyclists themselves are divided. Some couldn’t wait to “feel the
wind in their hair” so to speak, immediately casting off their headgear.
Others will continue to wear the helmets, not wanting to give up what
protection they provide.
Who’s right? They all are, in part. Both state and federal safety regulations
have expanded more and more in recent years to the point that there are
many everyday decisions that John Q. Public can not make for himself —
like whether or not to wear a motorcycle helmet.
Many people will argue that John Q. Public shouldn’t have the right to
decide whether his head will be smashed into mush along with the rest of his
body if he wrecks his motorcycle. “Protect that fool from himself— he can’t
be trusted to decide for himself,” they scream. But face it folks. If somebody
decides they’re going to drive a motorcycle, for whatever reason, they’re
aware of the increased risk of serious injury they face in a collision.
In a serious wreck, a helmet can and often does mean the difference
between the cyclist living and dying. He’s the one who should decide. It’s
his responsibility and his right.
. . . and responsibilities
On the subject of responsibility, the two-legged side of traffic could use
some lessons on “Walking defensively.” Particularly on the Texas A&M
campus, pedestrians seem to show a disregard for their own safety that
would do justice to a kamikaze pilot.
Technically, they’re in the right. University traffic regulations specify that
drivers and bicyclists must yield right-of-way to pederstrians. However, that
does little to remove tire tread from one’s backside.
But the real problems start when the those pedestrians conditioned to
“yielding” drivers, try-to cross University Dr. to reach the University Square
Shopping Center. At lunch time, pedestrians crossing University and driv
ers driving down that street cross paths in swarms. There’s no traffic control
device there to help pedestrians cross — there are traffic lights less than
a hundred yards in either direction — so driver and walker more or less
bluff each other out trying to avoid a violent meeting.
So pedestrians, remember that you’ve got the same responsibilities those
drivers do. Look out for the other guy. Walk defensively. L. R. L.
Making a buck
Alexander Esau was a victim of the Son of Sam killer. He died last April
17. His corneas and kidneys were removed with his mother’s permission
because she “thought it would help another.”
Then came the attempted robbery.
Esau’s family received a $1,000 hospital bill for the cost of removing the
organs. Mrs. Esau’s kindness had become an opportunity for the hospital to
turn a quick buck.
The hospital offered an incredible explanation: it apparently routinely bills
the survivors of organ donors under the assumption that Medicaid or Blue
Cross would pick up the cost.
Grave robbery is considered proper if the cost can be spread around.
Philadelphia Daily News
Reforming the reforms
Democrats reaching turning point
By DAVID S. BRODER
WASHINGTON — After an eight-year
fling with participatory politics. Demo
cratic party officials are beginning to turn
to the neglected problem of strengthening
political leadership in their party and the
country. No dramatic changes are likely in
the 1980 presidential selection process.
But a turning point has been reached
which is important in the long-term strug
gle to preserve an effective two-party sys
tem.
The first test of this still tentative
counter-revolution will come this month.
The party’s Winograd Commision (named
for its head, Michigan Democratic Party
Chairman Morley Winograd) meets in De
troit to frame its recommendations for
changes in the 1980 delegate-selection
rules.
Since the debacle of the 1968 conven
tion, the Democrats have been constantly
tinkering with their party rules. The re
form committee led, successively, by Sen.
George McGovern (D-S.D), Rep. Donald
Fraser (D-Minn.) and Rep. Barbara
Mikulski (D-Md.), enacted a series of rule
changes “opening the doors” to women,
youths and minorities, and shifting control
of the presidential nominating process
from party leaders, interest group leaders
and elected officials to activist citizens.
Unkowningly, the reformers also
triggered a dramatic increase in the
number of presidential primaries in the
past eight years. This further eroded the
power of organization leaders and elected
officials in the nominating process.
As a result, the last two times out, the
Democrats have nominated “outisders”
with few links to the traditional party
leadership — McGovern and Jimmy Car
ter.
Now, in much the same way that Dem
ocrats in the House of Representatives
have turned from the game of dispersing
power and undercutting chairmen to wel
come the leadership of Speaker Thomas P.
(Tip) O’Neill (D-Mass.), party officials are
turning from participatory politics to a
search for structure and cohesion. They
are searching for ways to limit the
primaries and to assure the presence in
Letter to the editor
WMGY
PROG
convention hall of the elected officials who
were the main targets of the old reforms.
That shift was evident at the Winograd
Commission’s meeting here in August —
and nowhere more so than in the views of
Don Fraser, who helped frame the re
forms that made the 1972 convention so
different from that of 1968.
When a commission staff member re
marked that “the whole thrust of (past)
rules changes has been for representative
ness,” Fraser said he agreed. “But,” he
added, “to reduce all questions to an issue
of representativeness is to degrade the
political party. There is also a role for
leadership. ”
Several factors explain the shift in em
phasis. For one thing, the Winograd
Commission includes a large number of
professional political scientists. They tend
to be skeptical of the claims of participa
tory democracy and protective of the
traditional role of the political party.
But they are not the only ones disil
lusioned with the spread of presidential
primaries to 30 states. Not one member of
the commission appears to favor taking the
trend further by legislating a national pri
mary or even a set of regional primaries.
Rather, the desire is to limit and if possi
ble reduce the role of primaries in the
delegate-selection process.
Interestingly, nervousness both about
and by Carter are contributing to the de
sire to tighten up the delegate-selection
rules. Many party leaders now see how
easy it is for a President who is nominated
Slouch
under these rules to ignore the party in
charting his path in office.
No one seriously disputed South
Carolina Democratic Chairman Donald
Fowler’s assertion that “the primary pro
cess as such is destructive of party cohe
sion. When candidates get elected be
cause they’re on the (television) tube,
they’re responsible to everybody. And
therefore, they’re responsible to nobody. ”
As for Carter, it appears that he is at
least somewhat nervous about a new “out
sider” — perhaps a Gov. Jerry Brown or a
Sen. Pat Moynihan — using the primaries
and the proportional representation rules
to demonstrate an embarrassing degree of
opposition to Carter’s policies in 1980.
There was no effort at subtlety by Rick
Hutcheson, a deputy to Hamilton Jordan
and the White House spokesman on the
commission. He proposed that the cutoff
point for receiving delegates in a primary
or a state convention be raised from its
1976 level of 15 per cent of the votes, to 25
per cent in 1980.
Hutcheson called this a “cohesion
building mechanism.” But it is also an ef
fective device for discouraging campaigns
by anti-establishment outsiders.
In the wisdom of 1977 hindsight, Jimmy
Carter — like a lot of other Democratic
leaders — can see the virtues of a slightly
more closed and structured process.
(c) 1977, The Washington Post Company
by Jim Earle
Utility rumors false
Editor:
There seems to ! iber of mors
being spread in our community about how
Bryan Utility System customers are pay
ing their bills, such as; (1) certain custom
ers pay only the basic energy charge and
do not pay the fuel cost adjustment por
tion of their bill, and (2) certain customers
pay their utility bills with two checks, one
for the basic energy charge and another for
the fuel cost
tendered in payment ioi iuci nujustmeiit
charges.
Rumors such as these only cause incon
venience for our customers and Bryan
Utilities. We wish to assure all customers
that everyone is expected to pay their full
utility bill. We prefer to be paid with one
> ' i , ; r
with two checks that is tine
The majority of customers consistently
pay their bills in full and on a timely basis.
In order to be fair to these valued custom
ers the Bryan Utilities could not under any
circumstances permit any of the practices
which are mentioned in the rumors which
are being spread in our community at this
time.
Any customer who does not pay Bryan
T ' is s their full utility bill in accordance
ifi. the Bryan City Ordinances will cer
tainly be put on the customer cut-off list in
accordance with established procedures
and will have their utilities disconnected.
We regret any confusion or inconve
nience these rumors may have caused our
customers, and we hope the above state
ment will help lay these to rest.
—J. Bruce Odle
City Manager
“ARE YOU SURE WE DIDN’T PLAY KANSAS LAST WEEKEND?
WE CELEBRATED TH’ VICTORY ALL NIGHT!”
Silver Taps ceremonies are planned tomorrow night for eig/itTesj
A&M University students who have died since the end of lastsei%
ter. Douglas Martin Bums, Howard Allen Fiebrich, Ronald Josep[
Goertz, Michael Grima, Howard Allen Johnston, Carl WayneLoit
Richard Frank Miller and Dr. Darrell Shefstad will l)e honoredk
the ceremony.
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State
Highway death toll low
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The number of deaths on Texas highways grew steadily yesterday,
but the list was running considerably behind the pace set a year ay; I
and below the predicted rate of 44. As of 8 p. m. Sunday, the statehac
recorded 20 traffic deaths, five of them motorcycle accidents. Hie
Texas Department of Public Safety had predicted as many as fl
persons might be killed in traffic accidents in the state during tlie
three-day Labor Day weekend. Last year 50 persons died. Officialsol |
the Parks and Wildlife Department have predicted another I0p«
sons may die in drownings as Texans flock to lakes and benches for tht
last major outing of the summer.
I
Nation
[il
Gov. Thomson favors canal suit
New Hampshire Gov. Meldrim Thomson says if the U.S. Supreme
Court fails to act on a suit brought by four attorneys general to force
full disclosure of the proposed Panama Canal treaty, it will be another
“day of infamy” for America. Thomson said this weekend he sif
ported the action of the attorneys general of Louisiana, Idaho, In
diana and Iowa. The state officials filed papers with the U.S.
Indians may get land
I Go!
thing
Former Watergate prosecutor Archibald Cox says that if the Maine
Indian land claims dispute turns into a constitutional battle, he feels
the Indians eventually will win. In an interview with the Maine
Sunday Telegram, Cox said any attempt to wipe out the claims made
by the Penobscot and Passamaquoddy tribes to some 12 million acres
in Maine, without providing adequate compensation, would violale
the U.S. Constitution and be a moral outrage.
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Gov. Longley blasts rhetoric
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Gov. James B. Longley says Maine and Canada’s eastern provinces
shoidd form a regional energy compact to assure adequate supplies
for the next 100 years. “Our State Department should be ashamedol
themselves, and so should the foreign service in Canada. Theres
been too much political rhetoric,” Longley said during the weekend,
World
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Presley still No. 1
The late Elvis Presley has an unprecedented 14 hits in the top
record charts, according to the current issue of Britain’s Music Week
An Elvis single tops the single charts, eight others made the top 50,
singles, and five of his albums placed among the top 50 albums.
Brezhnev back after vacation
Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev returned to Moscow yesterday
from his vacation in the Crimea, the official news agency Tass said.
Although Tass gave no reason for Brezhnev’s return, he apparently
came back to Moscow because U. N. Secretary General Kurt Wald
heim is in town for an official four-day visit.
Pope preaches
Pope Paul VI celebrated an outdoor mass yesterday at Albano,
Italy, south of Rome and said following Christ’s gospel is not easy
The pontiff, who turns 80 Sept. 26 and who suffers from painliil
arthritis, celebrated the Mass alone for 90 minutes under a hot late
summer sun. About 5,000 persons, including Albano’s Communist
mayor, attended the services.
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Weather
Partly cloudy and hot today and tomorrow. No rain. High both days
upper 90s; low tonight low 70s. Variable winds 5-10 m.p.h.
The Battalion
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tLcmor r,,
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