Viewpoint
The Battalion
Texas A&M University
Thursday
February 23, 1978
City Hall’s lost some history
Luckenbach, Texas, has its return of the Mud Daubers. Capistrano awaits
the arrival of the swallows, and each year the whole country anticipates the
groundhog’s forecast. College Station has for years celebrated its own annual
waiting game, however lacking in national coverage. It’s been christened
“The Filing of City Council Candidates.”
As you may have guessed. College Station’s historic time of tense anticipa
tion is a little unlike the others. It has felt the stab of governmental intrusion
(the government always seems to want to regulate fun) and instead of Filing
being an all-out one-day affair, it’s stretched out over a couple of weeks.
In the past, a few candidates would take advantage of the government-
imposed required Filing period and mosey in to put themselves on the ballot
early. But, for the most part, instinct governed Filing, and that’s why people
gathered religiously at 4:45 p.m. on the last day to watch the candidates
come to City Hall.
It was quite a sight. Potential candidates wandered in and nervously
checked to see who had filed and what places were presently unopposed.
They roamed the halls, watching any and every movement around the clerk’s
office. You could cut the tension with a knife as the minutes ticked by. Then,
seconds before five, candidates-to-be raced the clock in a flurry of excite
ment to file for the most advantageous places on the ballot. It was a stirring
rendition of historic political strategy.
It’s sad to think that those days may be gone. March 2 may go unnoticed
this year. The ward system has taken much of the excitement out of Filing,
since a candidate may only run for his ward’s position or the mayor’s seat. No
chance of jockeying af the last minute for the easiest race. And, along with
the mayor’s office, only half of the council’s positions are up for election.
City Hall, we may assume, will close quietly next Thursday, for Filing just
ain’t what it used to be. j a.
Nuclear power cheaper than you think
By ROBERT PATLOVANY
From the recent SCON A discussions, it
appears that there are a lot of very shabln
arguments being used to fight the de
velopment of nuclear power in this coun
try. It is time to review the popular ideas
about nuclear energy and put them in
their proper perspective.
First of all, many people think a nuclear
power plant can explode like the "Little
Boy or “Fat Man bombs dropped on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively,
during World War II. That simph is not
true. A power reactor has neither the
shape nor the material to produce a
bomb-like explosion. Both shape and ma
terial must be perfect to build a bomb.
Yet Gov. Edmund Brown of California
told a Japanese journalist that he could not
understand how Japan could feel so totalb
used to the idea of nuclear powered elec
tricity after Nagasaki and Hiroshima. If
you feel bad about what the U.S.A. did to
Japan, consider the following points about
those devastating explosions.
. -From the losses of men required to eap-
ture I wo" Jima and Okinawa soTn£ CSTb 4
mates by the Pacific Command were that
1.5 million American soldiers woidd be
killed in the invasion of the Japanese
homeland. Needless to say, the number of
Japanese men, women and children de
stined to die in that attack would have
been a si miliar number.
Each nuclear explosion over Japan
killed about 8,()()() people outright, with
Readers’ forum
many dying later of burns, radiation sick
ness and cancer. However, Tokyo was
fire-bombed more than once with napalm.
In one of those raids alone, 12,()()() people
died quickly, with many dying later from
the complications of serious burns.
Fire-bombing was something men un
derstood, but the pure terror of the un
knowns of the nuclear bomb capabilities
scared Japan quickly into surrender. Shall
we say that the use of nuclear explosiv es in
''World" War II saved about 3 bullion lives
totak-from both sides? It is a verv reason
able hypothesis
Another thing that people have lost
touch with is the fact that nuclear power is
cheaper than any other power generation
method foreseen for the next 20 years. In
the first half of 1975, oil, coal and nuclear
power costs were 3.36, 1.75, and 1.23
cents per kilowatt-hour, respectiv elv.
( Nuclear 43.6% Below Fossil Generating
Costs in the First Half," INFO, Atomic
Industrial Forum, Sept. 1975). Brown
comes down hard against nuclear power,
citing the high costs of Waste reprocessing.
He, too, is being unreasonable, since the
waste reprocessing methods proposed will
be less than 1 percent of the cost of nuclear
power electricity. (AS. Km bo and D.J.
Rose, "Disposal of Nuclear Wastes, Sci
ence, 182. p. 1205. Dec. 21, 1975.'
Something that few people realize is
that the big cost of nuclear power is the
interest payments on the capital that is
tied up in equipment. The cost of uranium
could double or triple and few people
would notice the difference in their light
bill. The increased costs from security.
. enrichment., decommissioning, waste dis-
pqsal and private insurance will be less
than 10 percent of the costs.
While capital costs are practically con
stant tor nuclear power, the fuel costs of
coal represent from 50 percent to 60 per
cent of the total cost of its electricity.
(L.F.C. Rcicke, "The Economics of Nu
clear Power, presented to the New York
Society of Securitv Analysts, Aug. 27,
1975.) If the strip mining and other
environmental air protection laws keep
getting tougher, the doubling or tripling of
coal prices will therefore be all too appar
ent in a comparable increase in light bills.
Add those price increases to the increased
cost of unionized coal about to be decided
any dav now. It is still hard to believe that
main people like Congressman Udall be
lieve nuclear power is more expensive
than coal. It just isn t so.
Isn t it about time to be a little more
realistic about the risks of nuclear power?
No one has ever been killed bv am thing to
do with nuclear powered commercial elec
trical power. Aren t we maybe spending
too much monev ahead} for safeguards?
Don t ask me. Ask the children and grand
children conceiv ed of the 1.5 million GI s
who would now be resting peaceful (dead)
on Japanese soil if it weren't for E = mc2.
RobcrfiPatlovai^is a senior nxijorinfi in
nuclear e.n^ineerin^ and mechanical engi
neering. ()pinions rkltrcssiuF'nJ'fftis'column
are the authors onh/ and not necessarily
those of this pa pen
California escapes the national scene
By David S. Broder
SAN FRANCISCO — The hills of
California are green again, and the reser
voirs of Marin .County are full. Bumper
stickers still proclaim, "Shower with a
Friend, but now it s a gag, not a neces
sity. The great drought that threatened ag
riculture in this state and cause real con
cessions in the liv ing habits of its sybaritic
citizens is a thing of the past.
Now, it is the rain that is the worn
here. Flash floods caused serious damage
in parts of southern California and there is
concern about erosion of the land that w as
burned ov er in last year s dev astating
drought-fires. But last week, at least, as
this city sparkled in the sun and the warm
winds dried the Los Angeles basin,
weather was once again a problem for
those poor dev ils back East who had not
joined the westward migration as vet.
Indiana and Ohio — already victimized
by the worst winter weather in a genera
tion — faced a new crisis of disappearing
coal supplies. Jimmy Carter went off to
frozen New England for the weekend,
then came back to face again the impasse
of the coal talks. A President with de
pleted power, a union with broken leader
ship, an industry with antiquated equip
ment and management and a countrv
buried under snow: That was the W ash
ington scene.
Commentary
But all this seemed a long wav from the
people of the Pacific coast, whose most
pressing problem is how to divide the
surplus in their state budgets. Much has
been said and written about the Sunbelt
v s. the Snowbelt div isions in American so
ciety. But words do not adequately convey
the psychological distance that separates
those who have flourished in these happy
climes from those who are struggling in
less happy circumstances.
The tug of the West is felt by almost all
Americans, including the politicians who
attempt to govern this land. Walter
Mondale of Minnesota went skiing last
week in \ ail, Colo. That is where Gerald
Ford of Michigan vacationed before he
found there was ev en better weather in
Palm Springs.
It is only a Jimmy Carter, with his rigid
self-discipline, who satisfies himself with
an occasional dip into the southern clime
but stav s, mainly, in the chilly precinct he
worked so hard to make his official home.
They do not understand that out here.
They find so much else about Carter
equally puzzling. To judge by the conver
sation one hears in California, Carter
might as well be the ruler of Ruritania as
the President of the United States.
There is no sense that he speaks of, for
or to the people of this part of the land.
His broadcast press conferences and
speeches are played at odd, inconvenient
hours out here: his personal visits are so
infrequent that he comes each time, it
seems, as a stranger.
Perhaps it is not all that important that
there be some sense of linkage between
the political capital in the East and the
commercial-cultural population centers of
the W est. But this is the growth section of
America, and one would think a President
who hopes to last almost sev en more years
in the job would hav e his arms open to
embrace it. Especially since the last tw(
gov ernors of this state, Ronald Reagan and
Edmund G. (Jerrv ) Brown Jr., are two of
his more formidable potential challengers.
But viewed from this end of the conti
nent, Carter is a small figure grappling
with large problems whose immediaev is
not felt here. He is something that hap
pened to the government of the United
States while Californians were looking
elsewhere. Thev had no part in his crea
tion and thev feel little involvement in his
fate — or in the struggles in which he is
engaged.
He is — and most of W ashington with
him — as remote from their thoughts as
last year s drought.
(c) 1978, The Washington Post
Letters to the editor
Slouch
‘Student’ under fire
by Jim Earle
Editor: /
In the interest of accurate journalism,
could you please find out if Ron Blatchlev
and the Concessions Committee in an in
vestigative hearing did really judge that
the complaints against the distribution on
campus of “Today s Student were per
sonal expressions against God? There are
15,000 copies of that publication (Vol. 1
No. 19) on campus that says he did.
If he did, I am sorry I missed the hear
ing. This country hasn t had anything like
that since the Salem witch trials. I would
have addressed this inquirv to “Today s
Student, only they do not have any type
of feedback section.
Oh, by the way, I am a Christian and a
proponent of a free and accurate press.
— Tom Steckel
Graduate student, chemistry
Editor s note: The paragraph referred
to in “Today’s Student reads, “A loosely
organized coalition of student atheists
sharply protested the first few editions of
“Today’s Student. However, in an inves
tigative hearing before the Concessions
Committee headed by Ron Blatchley,
their protests were judged to be personal
exnressions affainsf Cod. not oontn»nintr
any iegai substance.
Blatchley said Wednesday that he. had
just received a copy of the article and was
“personally offended by the story.
“We did not have an investigative hear
ing. It’s just a committee hearing,”..
Blatchley said. “Anybody coming before
that committee has the opportunity to
present their request. We did not, nor
would we ever, judge anybody.”
Blatchley expressed surprise at the ar-
distribution of “Today’s Student,” and
said he would take the matter up with the
newspaper's campus representatives.
Sorry, no film
Editor:
I want to apologize to the people who
showed up for the Arts Committee film
“The Mystery of Kasper Hauser last
Monday night. The film, through no fault
of the Arts Committee, did not come in
until Tuesday. The film company simply
did not mail it in time. We are sorry if this
inconvenienced anyone.
— Susie Turner
Arts Committee Chairman
Taken again
Editor:
One last letter on the unarmed bandits
called cigarette machines. I lost a $1.50 in
the machine in Reed McDonald. I was in
the throes of a nicotine fit and did not have
any other change. I was told that I would
have to co to the library to get mv monev
I trotted over to the library and lo and
behold, they didn t have any change. They
asked ME if I had change. By this time I
was shaking all over and barely making any
.sense. So J had to go .over to the MSC and
cash a check for $5. THEN, I couldn t get
change for that and the concession was
closed.
I know I should quit, but I D RATHER
DO IT MYSELF!!!
frankfTTdon^ttcnow what it means either, but it
1 lvrv ’ . .. -r , T-. TVZ-VCTWTZVTVrt”
Campus
Scholarship deadline nears
The application deadline for Spring Awards Scholarships is5p.m,
Wednesday. Application forms may be obtained from the Studenl
Financial Aid Office, room 310, YMCA Building. Applicationsmnsl
befiled with the Student Financial Aid Office. Late applications«il
not be accepted.
State
Bullock labels Hill fatcat’
State Comptroller Bob Bullock called Attorney General John Hill a
“fatcat on Wednesday and accused I lill of trying to mislead voters In
claiming he has widespread support in his campaign for governor. In
a news release from his Austin campaign headquarters, Bullock ac
cused Hill of being a “a fatcat in poor man s clothing. He said Hill
has tried to deceive voters into thinking he has massive support from
“the little people hy criticizing Briscoe for having $40,000 in con
tributions of $1,000 or more. “The truth is that John Hills list of
financial supporters looks more like a Cadillac salesman s route list
than an army of typical Texans, Bullock said. “Nearly 70 percent of
all contributions John Hill has received came in chunks of $500or
more. What s more, better than 90 percent of all his contributions
have been for $100 or more, he added. "I guarantee you tlmtflic
average Texan doesn’t have $100 to give to a politician the likes#
John Hill.”
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Jogging causes stress injuries
The current preoccupation with jogging and distance running is
resulting in stress injuries from overuse of the feet, an orthopedic
surgeon said Wednesday in Dallas. Dr. Lowell Lutter of St. Paul,
Minn., addressing the annual meeting of the American Orthopedic
Foot Society, said such injuries should be treated and will he cured
with a flexible shoe insert. Lutter said an estimated 10 million Ameri
cans run five or more miles daily. "More than 60 percent of themare
injured in any given year and a majority of these injuries are sprains
and strains of the foot, which receives the greatest stress in running,
he said. Lutter, an associate prof essor at the University of Minnesota
who competes in marathons, said foot problems account for 50
percent of the injuries, while knee problems account for 29 percent
Nation
Cays win fight for recognition
The leader of Missouri s gay activists said Wednesday (fie fig/if fin
recognition In the Universits of Missouri was won in practice long
before a legal victor} finalk came by w a} of the U S. Supreme Court.
Lawrence Eggleston, a homosexual on the* staff of the University!)!
Missouri's medical center in Columbia, Mo., said the seven-year
struggle has changed attitudes to such an extent that formal recogni
tion of Gay Lib on campus would come as no shock. Discussion ol
homosexual problems before university groups is commonplace, lie
said. The Supreme Court Tuesday rejected the university' s appeal ol
a lower court order that requires recognition of Gay Lib as a student
group on the four University of Missouri campuses. The Annve\;Hilw|
had argued that the presence of Gay Lib would be harmful Jcj.stu-
dents coping with sex problems and would encourage violation of the
state law against sodomy .
World
Israel wants to resume talks
Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin has proposed an im
mediate resumption of Israeli-Egy ptian peace talks and U.S. envoy
Alfred Atherton is taking the proposal to Egypt. Atherton met with
Bogin Tuesday in Jerusalem. Begin proposed in the meeting that
Israel and Egypt resume the military and political talks that have
been stalled since January. I made a suggestion to Assistant Secre
tary Atherton that both the committees — the military and the politi
cal — renew their deliberations, the military in Cairo and the politi
cal in Jerusalem, Begin said. Although Begin is proposing im
mediate resumption of the. talks, diplomatic sources in Jerusalem
cited a recent statement by Egy ptian President Anwar Sadat preclud
ing such a development as long as a declaration (if principles for a
comprehensive Middle East settlement is not worked out.
e
Rhodesians discuss black rule
Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith said a blunt warning from
former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger 17 months ago ended his
hopes of keeping power in the hands of Rhodesia s white minority.
Smith told the* British Broadcasting Corporation Tuesday that a meet
ing with Kissinger in September 1976 left him with no doubts he
would have to accept black majority rule or lose the support “of our
friends in the free world. The Rhodesian prime minister is negotiat
ing with three moderate black leaders for an "internal majority-rule;
settlement, even though he once vowed he would never turn over
power to blacks in his lifetime. Smith said his current negotiations
with the three black leaders could produce an agreement leading to a
transitional gov ernment "within a couple of days or a Couple of
weeks. He warned this would he followed by the "long.proccss ol
drafting a constitution to reach a final settlement.
Weather
Fair and mild days, cold nights today through Sunday. Partly
cloudy and warmer on Monday. High today low 70s. Low
tonight low 40’s. High tomorrow upper 70s. Winds from the
northwest at 10-15 mph.
The Battalion
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editor.
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not guarantee to publish any letter. Each letter mast he
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numher for verification
Address correspondence to Letters to the Editor. The
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Station. Texas 77643.
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MEMBER
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Southwest Jon
Kditoi
Managing Eelitor
Sports Editor
News Editors
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Cilv Eelitor
Campus Editor .
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Weleh.
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Student Enidieations Board Boh ('. Ro£tTx Cliw
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