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I
Viewpoint
The Battalion
Texas A&M University
Thursday
December 1, 1977
Those who talk and those who act
Hope for a real peace settlement in the Middle East now seems the highest
ever since the formation of Israel. But whether or not Egyptian President
Anwar Sadat’s peace conference in Cairo is a success, it will separate the
countries really seeking peace from those only paying lip service to it.
Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menahem Begin are gambling with their
own futures. They both stand to win big or lose big, depending on the
conference’s outcome. Sadat, by calling the conference, and Begin, by im
mediately agreeing to attend, are playing for keeps and neither man’s country
will accept any slip-ups.
The United States has agreed to attend, but as Will Rogers once said, the
United States will attend any get-together anywhere in the world, anytime,
and have more delegates than anybody else.
But the no-show list may be longer than attendance sheet. Syria, the
Palestinian Liberation Organization and the Soviet Union have already re
jected invitations from Sadat.
Syria has been highly, violently critical of Sadat’s overtures to Israel from
the time he first mentioned going to visit Israel. The P.L.O. has refused to
have anything to do with Israelis except shoot them. But a conference such as
Sadat has proposed might be the only peaceful opportunity to get Palestinian
and Israeli representatives in the same room. The Soviets are undoubtedly
still miffed with Sadat for being ejected from Egypt in 1972. Although not
directly involved, Russia has tremendous influence with the Arab nations
receiving military aid from the Soviets.
All three of the no-shows have made at least mumbling calls for peace in the
Middle East. It’s a shame they didn’t mean what they said. L.R.L.
Looking for law and order south of Cain Hall
It appears from all the mail we’ve been receiving
that last week’s football game gave more people
more things to react to than all other issues com
bined since the beginning of the semester.
We’ve been advised that orange chickens aren’t
toys to toss and bounce around the field, and that
armadillos aren't really the latest in Brunswick
Bowling Balls.
We’ve also heard the arguments for and against
the more volatile incidents that happened, the
near skirmishes and actual tights on Kyle Field,
But in pointing out these non-sanctioned pre
game activities, a major question comes to mind.
Who’s suppose to be keeping the peace at Kyle
Field?
It is clear to those keeping the play-by-play on
the Cadet-Longhorn Flag Furler contest that
there was definitely a foul-up in the signal-calling.
The 30-some cadets who blocked the fanatic
furlers are an honorary parade whose only job is to
salute the flags during the anthems. The freshmen
on the sidelines are suppose to wildcat, and the
yell leaders are to fire up the crowd. There are no
sheriffs and no posses in that group.
Yes, the police finally cleared the fray.
The fact is, no one really knew who was to take
charge of the situation. It is unfair to expect the
yell leaders to keep the peace since it would be
pitting our representatives of Aggie spirit against
visiting students in a potentially bitter encounter.
For the same reason, there should be no call for
the Corps of Cadets to dig in on the 30-yard line.
This delicate impasse has not gone unnoticed.
Representatives of the administration, athletic
department and campus police are now working to
clearly define the role of peace-keeper at athletic
events.
We hope the solution does take the unspoken
responsibility from the students, yell leaders and
Corps and places it firmly in the hands of those
hired for the job — the peace officers. It would also
behoove the powers-that-be to draw up regu
lations for visiting schools regarding the use of our
stadium.
Then perhaps all the students will find it advisa
ble to stick to the sidelines and off Kyle Field.
J.A.
David Broder
The reality of presidential
power
We have had “gaps” aplenty in our con
temporary history. Missile gaps, genera
tion gaps, credibility gaps. There have
been gaping gaps, creeping gaps, and even
an advertising campaign to make us worry
about “gaposis.
At the risk of adding to wfiat you might
call the “gap glut,” it seems timely to note
the significance of the difference (all right,
the gap) between the presumed power of
the American President and his real ability
to direct the course of events. Expectation
exceeds reality by a factor of three or four to
one, creating unearned benefits for the
holder of that office — and undeserved
problems, as well.
What brought this to mind was a set of
developments on three different fronts
with a common message for president-
watchers about the inherent limitations of
that office. From Capitol Hill to Cairo to
Salisbury, the tom-toms are telling us to
think again about the mass media magnifi
cation of the powers of the presidency.
One cannot say that Jimmy Carter has
been a bystander in the 1977 battle over
energy policy, or the search for peace in the
Middle East, or the struggle for nonviolent
transition to majority rule in Rhodesia.
Letters to the editor
Those issues have engaged as much of the
President’s energy and intellect as any on
his agenda.
But, the past two weeks have shown that
when critical action-points were reached in
all three of those areas, Jimmy Carter was
not much more than a spectator. His con
tribution to the decision-making was con
fined to expressions of good will and good
luck.
“If that’s what you fellows want to do, ” he
found himself saying to Anwar Sadat, to Ian
Smith and to assorted energy-conferees,
“then more power to you. Sitting up in the
fog at Camp David, he had about as much
control over those games as any of us did
over the holiday football games we were
watching on our television screens.
The notion of the president as spectator,
not prime mover, is so foreign to our think
ing that the inclination is to reject it as
outlandish. Despite Vietnam, despite
Watergate, despite warnings about the
“imperial presidency, somthing deep in
the American soul finds reassurance in
thinking that the man in the White House
need only choose wise policies and able
associates, to make things come out right.
It is the durable character of that myth
that causes such problems for the all-too-
mortal men who inhabit the White House.
Sometimes they swallow the intoxicating
myth straight, as Lyndon Johnson and
Richard Nixon did, throw out their chests
and intone, “I am the President of the
United States, I am the Commander in
Chief, I am the leader of the free world. ”
When opponents and critics fail to fall pros
trate at their feet, they react in strange —
or dangerous — ways.
Other times, as with Jerry Ford and
Jimmy Carter, they make a point of
downplaying the majesty of their office and
find themselves criticized for allegedly fail
ing to meet their leadership respon
sibilities.
What is lacking in both the self-
aggrandizing and the self-consciously
modest approaches to the presidency is a
public understanding that it is, in fact, but
one of many power centers. And, at least in
this period of history, the presidency is not
the greatest of these.
In Washington, the president is chal
lenged and sometimes overshadowed by an
aggressive, assertive Congress — few of
whose members feel they owe him any
political favors and all of whom have their
own constituencies, commitments and
careers uppermost in their minds. Carter
had enough leverage to put the energy bill
on Congress’ agenda and keep it there; but
he does not have the power to dictate its
substance.
Having invested so much of his own pres
tige in the passage of an energy bill this
year, he now finds himself in a situation
where he must sign just about any energy
bill Congress sends him.
In the Middle East and Rhodesia, Carter
has gone further than any previous presi
dent in publicly suggesting the terms of an
overall settlement. But local leaders have
slipped but of his enveloping embrace and
taken the initiative away from Washington.
The Carter administration can well claim
that its efforts helped produce the climate
in which Smith and Sadat are doing their
work. That is the case.
But it’s also the case that the leaders of
two of the world’s shakier regimes — Egypt
and Rhodesia — had no difficulty wresting
that initiative from the hands of the Ameri
can president.
That’s a measure of the reality of presi
dential power today.
(c) 1977, The Washington Post Company
Can Aggies dish it out but not take it?
Editor:
In response to L.R. L. (Battalion Nov. 28)
about the almost riot that you said the C.T.s
and Yell Leaders stopped before the t.u.
game last Saturday. Giving credit to the
Corps for stopping the fight is like making a
thief a hero because he turns himself in
after robbing a bank. It was the fish C.T.s
that came off the track to complicate the
matter. Two people have a fight, when you
send in the army you get a riot.
A few years ago, the Rice M. O. B. scoffed
at many of A&M’s traditions during a half
time show and we had a near riot at that
time. Yet the C.T.s can throw orange and
white chickens and armadillos on the field
and let the head Yell Leader keep control of
the situation by putting the armadillo at the
t.u. band’s feet and throwing the chicken
into the seating area. And that’s “good bull?
Is it that we can dish it out and not take it?
After the game a C.T. tried to steal a t.u.
band members hat, in running away he ran
over an elderly man whose head literally
bounced off the pavement. More “good
bull?
A lot of C.T.s will be upset at this but
these are the facts. A few (quite a few) of
you acted like fools last weekend putting a
smear on the name of A&M as far as
Springfield, Ill. (via the wire services). You
good C.T.s should take care of this in the
future and the rest of you should think be
fore you act once in a while.
—J.B., ’79
B.R., ’79
A disappointment
Editor:
We would like to express our disap-
pointment with not only the yell leaders
but with the A&M student body as a whole.
In a game such as the Texas A&M-Texas
game, friendly rivalry is to be expected, but
it got out of hand last Saturday.
The members of Alpha Phi Omega, a
National Service Fraternity, from U.T. had
received permission from our athletic de
partment to carry the Texas flag onto the
field prior to the game. This has been a
tradition at Texas for several years and they
have taken the flag to all of their away
games, including those in Kyle Field. How
can we expect anyone to respect our tra
ditions when we have no repect for theirs?
The yell leaders and the Corps of Cadets
had no right to attempt to stop them.
As a result of the yell leaders’ and Corps’
actions several members of A.P.O. were
knocked down and the Texas flag was torn
in several places. This flag cost the U.T.
Alumni Association and A.P.O. over $5000
to make and we should have been a lot
more careful. The student body acted just
as childishly by chanting “off our field. . . ”
Well it is not our field, it belongs to the
people of the state ofTexas and the flag that
one yell leader referred to as “a piece of
crap was the Texas state flag. This was the
worst display of sportsmanship that we
have seen since we have been at Texas
A&M. The front page coverage in the
Houston Chronicle and stories in other pa
pers across the state did not help A&M’s
image one bit.
Immediately following the incident sev
eral of us went down to the field to
apologize for the actions of our school’s
“representatives, but we feel that the yell
leaders and the student body owe Alpha
Phi Omega and the University ofTexas a
big apology.
—Richard Scruggs ’77
P. Elliot Lowe, Jr. ’78
Michelle Marti ’79
Steven Yeary ’77
Andy Udden ’80
Russell Kirk ’77
Mark A. Edmund ’77
Ray Miles ’80
Editor’s note: Associate Athletic Director
Marvin Tate said he doesn’t know whether
the athletic department did in fact grant
the UT group permission to carry the flag
onto Kyle Field. However, that group car 1 -
ried the flag onto Kyle Field two years ago
without any great uproar or violence. It
seems certain the students who tried to
stop them this time would have done so
whether or not the group had official ap
proval.
Let’s be thankful
Editor:
Many members of our student body
were so concerned about preserving our
traditions at Saturday’s A&M-t.u. game
they forgot the most important Aggie tradi
tion of all...good sportsmanship.
I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw
several cadets hassling members of the
Texas band after the game. At least two
women in the Texas band were knocked or
pulled down by Aggies trying to swipe a
hat. The “confrontation” before the game
should have been avoided instead of egged
on by our student body representatives.
Bad show Ags. Let’s be thankful that na
tional TV didn’t see us beat in more ways
than one.
Tommy Williams, ‘78
Top of the News
State
Rapist prosecuted for burglaries
Business executive Guy Marble, Jr. has been ordered to prison for
the next 60 years, but will never be tried for the crimes that made him
the city’s notorious “friendly rapist. Tuesday Marble accepted an
agreement by which he pleaded guilty to seven burglaries. In the
exchange, the state agreed not to prosecute him for his admitted rape
of six young, single womenT'He also was suspected of committing at
least 30 more rapes in the North Dallas area in the past several years.
District Attorney, Henry Wade said the bargain was struck because it
was easier to prove the burglaries than the rapes. Another reason was
because with the guilty burglary pleas the rape victims would not have
to go through the anguish of an open trail. Marble, 30, a married public
relations vice president with one child, was tackled by a policeman the
night of Feb. 4, as he ran from a North Dallas apartment complex. The
news media dubbed him the “friendly rapist” because his victims said
he was polite throughout his attacks, smiled and never hurt them,
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Bail reset for San Antonio man
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Wednesday reduced the
bail, by $80,000, of a San Antonio man indicted for capital murder. The
227th District Court in Bexar County had set bail at $100,000 for
Glibert Vasquez.
Vasquez and Magdaloino Rodriquez were indicted this year in the
shooting death of Maris Guejardo during the robbery of a grocery
store. Vasquez testified he was indigent and unable to make the bond.
The Criminal Appeals Court said Vasquez’ poverty should have been
considered when bond was set. The court also said the “meager”
evidence showed Vasquez did not have a criminal record or past
history of failing to appear while on bond. “The primary objective of an
appearance bond is to secure the presence of the defendant in court
upon the trial of the accusation against him, the appeals court said.
Uvalde youth curfew successful
Officials are praising the results of a month-old curfew in Uvalde
they say has kept youngsters in their homes late at night instead of
hot-rodding up and down the streets or gathering in parking lots. City
officials report fewer police problems because of the curfew. The
ordinance requires children up to 12 years of age to be oil the street by
9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and by 10:30 p.m. on Fridays and
Saturdays. Children ages 12 through 17 must be home by 10:30 p.m.
nights prior to school days and 1 a.m. on the weekends.
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Regional primary suggested
A regional presidential primary involving Texas, Oklahoma and
perhaps other Southwestern states could increase the region's political
clout. An Oklahoma legislative committee contacted Rep. Herman
Adams, D-Silsbee, about the prospect of a regional primary in 1980,
and voted Tuesday to attempt to coordinate primary dates.
Welfare plan to increase taxes
A preliminary congressional budget analysis released Tuesday said
President Carter’s welfare reform plan will cost taxpayers in J982
nearly $10 billion more than continuation ofexisting welfare programs.
The figure is nearly three times higher than the administration esti
mates. The plan would mean a $2.8 billion increase in welfare spend
ing. The special House welfare reform subcommittee estimates that
the new plan would cost $9.8 billion more than the current program.
Congress is considering Carter’s plan to create a $31.1 billion package
of jobs and supplemental income for poor persons to replace the
present system of family welfare payments, food stamps and aid to the
disabled. He is aiming for enactment by 1981.
National economy rising steadily
The government index intended to predict the direction of f/ie
national economy rose 0.7 percent in October for its fourth consecutive
monthly gain, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday. It
was a solid rise in the Index of Leading Economic Indicators, indicat
ing current job and production conditions probably will improve in the
months ahead. The department said the two chief factors for the
October rise in the index were building permits and the money supply.
The housing industry is building new homes and apartments at the
fastest rate in four years. The Federal Reserve Board has also adopted a
moderate policy on money. This has had the effect of holding down
interest rates by allowing enough money for business, mortgage and
consumer loans. The index has risen every month with the exception of
minor declines in May and June.
Carter s ability doubtful
A majority of the Americans who responded to a new Harris survey
are beginning to worry about President Carter’s lack of experience and
wonder whether he has the competence to do the job, though they still
believe he is a man of high integrity. The survey, released this week,
showed that the majority of those who responded to the poll feel that
“in some of the mistakes he has made, his lack of experience is clear,
and that “although he is well-intentioned, at times you begin to won
der if he has the basic competence to do the job. ” Many people also
said they believe he is “a man of high integrity, who feels deeply about
less privileged people and is genuinely trying to help them as presi
dent.”
Weather
Fair and mild Thursday and Friday with a high in the upper 60s
both days. Tonight in the upper 30s. Northwesterly winds
10-15 mph. becoming light and variable tonight.
The Battalion
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