Page 2
Viewpoint
The Battalion
Texas A&M University
Friday
November 11, 1977
Coming home
The House Judiciary Committee has approved legislation to get between
500 and 600 American citizens jailed in Mexico home by Christmas.
Rep. Peter Rodino, D-N.J., described it as “a very humane and necessary
piece of action.” No doubt the action was speeded by last week’s riot in the
Jalisco prison in which inmates murdered notorious stool pigeons and fa
vorites” of the guards.
Mexican jails and prisons are unbelievably bad. Bribery is a way of survival.
The choice between buying food sent in from outside or slow starvation is
often clear. Americans have often been subject to special abuse.
In view of all this, the proposal, yet to be approved by both the U.S. and
Mexican congresses, is wise. Mexicans in American jails could choose to be
transferred to Mexico, and Americans vice versa.
But there are some bugs, too. Would the Mexican government quickly
release Mexicans accused only of crimes in the United States? This would
encourage illegal aliens to commit offenses. And will those Americans caught
in Mexico for trying to smuggle drugs northward count on trivial punishment
if they reach the United States?
Let’s not grow too sentimental about our home-grown creeps who were
caught in Mexico before they could make fast bucks by smuggling drugs to
America. The fact that they were victimized by Mexican jailers doesn’t wash
out their guilt. It is well to substitute humane for inhumane punishment, but
let’s not forget the punishment.
The Tulsa Tribune
Slouch by Jim Earle
“SINCE YOU HAVE OFFERED SO MUCH ENCOURAGE
MENT TO US TO WORK ON THE BONFIRE, WE
THOUGHT IT ONLY FITTING THAT YOU GET OUR
FIRST LOG!”
A double standard? Don’t be silly!
By DICK WEST
United Press International
WASHINGTON—The outcome of the
Richard Helms case was largely deter
mined before the former CIA director
ever put foot in court.
Under the arrangement, he would plead
no contest to charges of not testifying fully
and accurately at a Senate hearing. The
prosecutor, in turn, would make no effort
to convict him on more serious charges
and would recommend that he not be re
quired to serve any time in jail.
They call this plea bargaining and I’ve
no doubt the process serves a useful pur
pose in our system of jurisprudence. In
Helm s case, it avoided a public trial that
both sides apparently felt might not be in
the national interest.
However, it started me to wondering
what sorts of plea bargains might have
been struck in some of the famous cases of
the past.
Case No. 1: The People vs. Napolean
Bonaparte.
Vainglory leads the defendant into dis
astrous military adventures. He is brought
The Tighter Side
before a French tribunal facing possible
charges that could result in his being
exiled for life.
But Napoleon still has many followers
and the prosecution fears such harsh
punishment would divide and further
weaken France in its struggles with the
British.
He searches the statutes and finds that it
is against the law for any Frenchman to
conceal his right hand in his tunic while
posing for a formal portrait.
The law is an outgrowth of an old scan
dal in which a general, suspecting that his
wife is having an affair with an artist, sits
for a portrait, then reaches inside his
tunic, withdraws a pistol from a shoulder
holster and plugs the painter right through
the easel.
Napoleon pleads no contest to the
charge and it given a suspended 90-day
exile.
Case No. 2: The People vs. Joan of Arc.
The Maid of Orleans is suspected of sor
cery and heresy after leading French
troops in lifting a British seige. If con
victed, she could he spntpncq.d to be
burned at the stake.
The prosecutor is reluctant to proceed
on that basis. He recognizes that Joan is a
heroine to French soldiers and that the
death penalty would make her a martyr.
After ascertaining that French army
regulations make no provisions for military
commissions as an act of God, he books
Joan on charges of impersonating an offi
cer.
She pleads no contest and is sentenced
to three months of weekend guard duty,
plus six days on k.p.
Case No. 3: The People vs. Aaron Burr.
After Burr’s duel with Alexander Hamil
ton, both sides agree a murder trial might
be damaging to the national interest.
Under a plea bargaining arrangement.
Burr pleads no contest to a charge of un
necessary roughness and is sentenced to
be penalized 15 yards in his next duel.
Tetters to the editor
Getting to the bottom of dating problems...
Editor:
This letter is in reply to the “What’s the
Problem?” letter in yesterday’s Battalion
(Nov. 7). I realize that more people go to
the football games without dates than with
dates. I myself especially have faced this
problem many times before.
There are many reasons for this problem:
1) We do not know you. 2) The girls we
already know have dates before we get a
chance to ask them. 3) We do know you and
that is why we do not take you to a
ballgame. This is not to say in any way that
you are dogs or something like that. What
I’m saying is that we just might not want to
take you to one of the ball games.
But after looking at the girls on this cam
pus that only applies to a very few of you
girls out there. I am a CT myself and am
damn proud of it but as alot of you out there
know the Corps takes up alot of my
freetime so that I or many others cannot go
out girl-hunting.
One possible solution would be for you
girls (or the guys) to start a billboard some
where, in the MSC or in the dorms, that
gave your name, classification, and phone
number. This would not only solve the
problem of getting dates, but also it would
enable us to meet many more people than
we are able to meet on our own.
So get out there and let yourselves be
known of wanting dates and I’m sure you
would get results. I would also like to add
that A&M has the prettiest girls on campus
of any place in the world.
—Robert Hardin ‘80
Parking equality
Editor:
I wish to write concerning what in my
mind, and in those of others I’ve talked to,
is the misuse of available facilities.
Effective Monday, Oct. 24, the Traffic
division of the University Police Depart
ment set forth new rules on parking in Lots
24 and 40 (south of the Commons). What
these new rules did was extend by one row
girls parking in Lot 24 and granted junior-
senior males three rows (159 spaces) in Lot
40, forcing out freshmen-sophomore guys
who would, as a result, have to park in Lot
61 (across the tracks).
While I do feel that the junior-senior
guys deserve the privilege of parking closer
to their dorms, there is consistently a large
number of empty spaces in the newly
granted rows of parking. Although these
empty spaces exist, freshmen and sopho
mores are still required to park across the
tracks.
I suggest that this problem can be cor
rected by opening up Lot 40 to ALL guys
(red and green permits). This action would
make better use of available space.
—Tony Hooten, ‘81
The trouble with pigs
Editor’s note: The following letter is in
response to Arkansas graduate Vic Dubis-
son’s letter in. the Battalion, Nov. 20.
To Mr. Dubisson:
You I am sure are patting yourself on the
back because you know very well you have
achieved your goal in upsetting many Ag-
Editor’s note: A letter from George
Rooney in the Battalion Monday, Nov. 7,
on the Bakke reverse discrimination case
now before the Supreme Court, has re
ceived a number of replies. That letter
defended a minimum quota of black stu
dents admitted to the University of
California at Davis medical school. The
following are typical replies.
Editor:
After reading George Rooney’s letter on
the Bakke case, I was awed by the distorted
view of civil rights that has evolved during
the last few years due to the continual clat
ter for minority rights, for the most part
deviod of intelligent reasoning or Constitu
tional backing.
Granted, minorities have been discrimi
nated against for far too long, but this injus
tice cannot be repaired by initiating an
equal injustice on another individual sim
ply because he happens to fall in the major
ity. Two wrongs do not make a right—I
believe that’s the way it goes.
I was of the opinion that the Constitution
guaranteed to Americans civil rights, (i.e.
rights of the individual, not racial rights).
Mr. Rooney is saying that the rights of a
race as a whole are superior to the rights of
an individual, therefore an individual can
be discriminated against if it is for the good
of the whole of society. Perhaps this view
has been more clearly stated by a familiar
ideology that holds that the individual
exists in order to serve the “State”.
The only way society can progress is by
the increase of the productivity of its indi
vidual components. I fail to see how train
ing people who are not the most qualified
can maximize our productivity.
gies. To anger the Aggies you resort to the
childish game of mudslinging and name
calling. I am not one to get riled over such
trivia (in your case B.S.) because The Texas
Aggies play their game on the football field,
not in newspaper print. But allow me to
stand on my soap box for a moment.
I can’t thank you enough for submitting
your letter because it has motivated me to
write this short note which allows me to
convey this message to you and all other
Arkansas fans: I dislike Arkansas more than
any other school in the SWC (yes, even
more than t.u.). Why? (Forgive me for
coming down to your level of childish
games, but I’ve been looking for the chance
to say this for 3 years). It is because you and
the other hog fans embarrass us and the
other 7 conference schools nationwide by
being the most arrogant bastards in the
Southwest Conference.
—Bill R. Hill, ‘78
And as far as the comments on Mr. Bak-
ke’s inability to secure one of the 84 pos
itions designated for white applicants—I
say 85th out of several thousand ain’t bad,
and were does Mr. Rooney get the right to
criticize his performance. Judging from the
content of his letter, I seriously doubt that
Mr. Rooney could equal it.
—R.C. Jones, ‘80
Hindering freedom
Editor:
So far I have kept silent publicly on the
Bakke case but after reading Mr. Rooney’s
letter in the Battalion Monday I feel I
need to speak my mind.
He points out that minorities have been
discriminated in the past. To this I have no
argument. But when he says that Mr.
Bakke should suffer just because of past
injustices to blacks that is too much.
Mr. Bakke cannot help he was born with
white skin, just the same as many of my
friends cannot help they were born with
black skin. The same can be said of past
discrimination because Mr. Bakke had no
control over what happened in the past.
Since we can’t judge applications to
schools on criteria which an individual has
no control over, (i.e. color of skin and past
injustices) then other qualifications must
be taken into account.
Furthermore if this is the land of the
free then reverse discrimination hinders
freedom just the same as the original
brand did, and for the same reason, color
of skin.
—Allen Vajdos, ‘80
Back seat editor
Editor:
If I didn’t know better, I could swear
the Battalion was the student newspaper
for t.u.
It seems that every time I open to the
sports page there’s a big spread about the
longhorns (downcase intended) and how
good they are. They sometimes even have
more space than the Ags. Take for instance
today’s (Nov. 7) Battalion. On the first
page of the sports section reads the head
line “Longhorns just keep rolling along.”
I have had enough, and I’m sure all
staunch Aggies are with me. Heck, if I ran
an A&M student paper, I’d cancel my con
tract with U.P.I. if all they sent me was
B.S. on t.u. Id sure hate for some t-sips to
get ahold of a few of those issues. Beat the
hell outta t.u.!
—Don Jones, ‘81
Slap in the face
Editor:
In response to the letter written by
George Rooney (Battalion, Nov. 7), I
would like to say how stupid I think it is to
admit a person to professional school
merely because of the color of his skin and
not because of his ability.
I think its a slap in the face to any stu
dent who has worked his tail off three or
four years to get into the school only to be
told that the remaining positions are being
saved for minorities. I wouldn’t care if 84%
of those admitted were minorities if they
had shown that they had the abilities and
grades to be selected off the top instead of
being chosen cheaply by pointing to the
color of his skin.
Secondly, what is all this about compen
sation for years of wrong doing? I have
never seriously discriminated against any-
" one on the basis of race and I know for a
fact that most of my friends haven’t
either—why should we have to compen
sate?
Mr. Rooney also speaks of “the land of
the free.” What he forgets is that in this
country we are all minorities because in
essence we are all immigrants. Maybe I
should apply to medical school and point
out my German heritage so that I can call
myself a member of a minority in order to
be admitted to the school via quota.
In conclusion, I would like to say that I
believe that we are all Americans, not
minorities, and should have the same op
portunities as the other man. In this case I
can only say that I believe the quality of
the student should be taken into account
instead of minority quotas.
—Michael A. Paulus
...and reverse discrimination
Top of the Nemg
Campus
Football parking explained
By JOB
Aggie U
lion in d°
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people
00. Di
As a reminder, Tom Parsons, director of traffic and security, ^
designated areas that may or may not used for public parking duriiw
the football game. Parking lots 49 and 61 are open to the public
contrary to the handbook. In addition to these areas, about 1,50()
spaces will be available in the bonfire area. According to reports, there
are large numbers of spaces available in lots 50 and 7. Students are also
reminded that areas 60, 48, 62 and 56 must be vacated by 10 a.m. or
cars will be ticketed.
6 .presidenl
j recently-
donating $■
[the Twelftl
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State
Many susceptible to rubella 8
State health officials said Thursday a survey shows almost 20percent
of the women of prime childbearing age in Texas are susceptible to
rubella. The Texas Department of Health tested a group of women in
the 16 to 30 age bracket as part of a rubella screening pilot study
conducted through the offices of private physicians and public health
clinics. Dr. Charles R. Webb Jr., chief of the bureau of communicable
disease services, said the disease can kill or cripple unborn children,
causing brain damage, deafness, heart defects, or blindness. Webb
said reported cases of rubella in 1977 are running about three times
greater than for the same period last year.
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LBJ estate owes $2.5 million
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An Internal Revenue Service audit of the estate of President Lyndon
B. Johnson showed his heirs owe about $2.5 million in inheritance
taxes, the Houston Post reported in a copyrighted story Thursday,
That total is about $1.3 million higher than the amount the Johnson
heirs initially reported owing. The Post story said the IRS audit in
creased the taxable value of Johnson’s share of the community property
from the $2.9 million originally claimed by the family to about $5.2
million.
Nation
Derailment looses ammonia gas
Student Bo
jram. Jay Bel
[ Aggie Play«
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A railroad tank car overturned at about 6 p.m. Wednesday in Pen
sacola, Fla., sending ammonia gas fogging through a wealthy residen
tial area. One man was killed and 16 others people were hospitalized,
four in critical condition.
Emergency crews still were working early Thursday to dissipate,
with fire hoses, the anhydrous ammonia liquid leaking from the rup
tured, 33,000-gallon tanker, one of 35 derailed cars from a Louisville
and Nashville freight train. The derailment was the 19th in the area in
the past 18 months and the second serious derailment involving
ammonia-carrying tank cars in less than a month.
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Aggie
Round-the-world pilots return
Two Colorado pilots who set a record for an around-the-world flight
in a piston-driven airplane took part in a welcoming parade but ducked
out of a celebration barbecue featuring roast goat to get some sleep.
Harold Benham and Jack Rodd, both of Cortez, Colo., touched down
in their Beechcraft Bonanza at 2:33 p.m. Wednesday, exactly 11 days
and 23 minutes after they left in pursuit of the record Oct. 29. The
previous record, held by a California dentist, was 12 days, three hours,
29 minutes. Benham said he would “never” attempt such a flight again,
but Rodd said his companion probably would change his mind after he
got some sleep.
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Heroin smugglers arrested
Seventeen people have been arrested in an international smuggling
ring that brought an estimated $200 million worth of heroin into the
United States, the government said Thursday. John E. Van Diver,
regional director of the Drug Enforcement Administration in Miami,
said four other people were being sought. A federal grand jury re
turned secret indictments against the 21 persons Tuesday. Van Diver
said the ring had smuggled in more than 800 pounds of heroin from
Mexico since 1971. Arrests were made in Oklahoma, North Carolina,
South Carolina, New Mexico, Texas, and Utah.
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South African leaders have denounced Andrew Young as a racialist
and accused President Carter of using double standards. Two govern
ment ministers, in separate speeches Wednesday also defended the
government s Oct. 19 crackdown on black dissent and denied any
police involvement in the death of black leader Steve Biko, who died in
police custody. Foreign minister Roelof Botha, told a cheering cam
paign rally Young hated white Americans for what they had done o
his forefathers as slaves. Botha and Vorster have become increasing y
enraged by the mandatory U.N. arms embargo imposed last wee
against the white-ruled republic.
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Queen s pay raise angers labor
Labor reacted with anger to Queen Elizabeth’s $522,000 pay raise,
one union leader warning it made “us all a bit more bloody minded.
Despite the government’s adamant defense of its 10 percent ^ a ?. e
ceiling. Chancellor of the Exchequer Denis Healey announced Wed-
nesday the 18 percent raise in the queen s pay from $2.9 million o
$3.42 million, citing rising costs. But Willie Hamilton, a member o
Parliament from the ruling Labor Party, attacked the action, saying 01
pay raise is thumbing a nose at working-class people who are being
asked to tighten their belts.”
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Weather
Fair skies with a warming trend for today through Sunday with
variable winds 5-8 mph. High today mid 60s. Low tonight mia
30s. High tomorrow near 70. No rain.
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The Battalion
LUl
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 Re
gents. The Battalion is a non-profit, self-supporting
enterprise operated hy students as a university and com
munity newspaper. Editorial policy is determined by the
request.
Address: The Battalion.
LETTERS POLICY
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number for verification. wpnone
Address correspondence to Letters to the Editor The
s::;t on T*:r 7 %% Reed McDonM ^
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Managing Editor ’ Roy Us^J
Editorial Director . pa»'J
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Campus Editor
Copy Editor Gl^ nna ' ,
R W „ ..
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Cht
Student Publications Board: Bob & W I' l
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