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The Battalion Thursday
Texas A&M University July 13, 1978
A birthday to remember
Jerry was 17. He and a friend were on a camp
ing vacation in the Arizona high desert.
Poli ce said a drunk driver, barreling down the
wrong side of the freeway, slammed head-on into
Jerry’s car at 90 miles an hour.
Jerry and his friend were not killed instantly.
But at the funeral the coffins were closed. The
morticians said it would be better that way.
Clinton was also 17. He was bright and hand
some, one of those people who had everything
going for him.
The drunk driver who smashed into Clinton
didn t kill him. But Clinton’s damaged brain
struggled for two years to relearn basic skills such
as holding a spoon and speaking coherently.
Four other high school friends were killed by a
drunk driver on a canyon curve at night.
Another friend’s new bride was disabled for a
year by a drunk driver who ran a red light.
Seven friends in all. Seven people who shared
their dreams in intimate conversations over cups
of coffee after late-night movies. Not casual ac
quaintances, but seven friends, and all killed or
injured by drunk drivers before the age of 21.
That in itself is horrifying.
But more horrifying are the statements by
State Comptroller Bob Bullock, who was arrested
Tuesday morning for driving while intoxicated.
Bullock, who had been celebrating his 49th
birthday Monday night, did not seem too con
cerned about his arrest.
Calling it the finest birthday he had ever had.
Bullock said he was disappointed that not
everyone had enjoyed it as much as he had.
Released 30 minutes after he was booked on a
$500 recognizance bond, Bullock added that he
would go to trial if his attorney decides it’s worth
the “time and effort.”
Bullock’s insolent and ignorant attitude toward
his DWI arrest, and the attitudes of others like
him, killed and maimed those seven friends.
Texans should not have to suffer such irrespon
sibility in anyone, but least of all in a state official.
Bob Bullock may have laughed off his arrest for
drunken driving. Let’s hope he doesn’t laugh one
of us into the grave.
F. K.
Carter’s
ship sinking fast
By DAVID S. BRODER
WASHINGTON—President Carter is
going to Europe this week under almost
the worst circumstances imaginable. Not
since Richard Nixon made his pre
resignation visits to Moscow and the Mid
dle East has an American chief executive
conferred with his counterparts at a mo
ment when there were more reasons for
skepticism about his own capacity for
leadership.
The Soviet Union has dramatized its
disdain for Carter’s vaunted “human
rights” policy by staging showcase trials of
two prominent dissidents and by tighten
ing the screws on American corre
spondents in Moscow.
AT HOME, the sendoff to the economic
summit was the concession by Carter’s
own top economic advisers that inflation in
this country will be worse and economic
growth slower than they had expected.
As if that were not enough, Carter must
face his fellow heads of government with
out the national energy plan that all of
them regard as the single most important
evidence that this nation has the will and
the skill to address the fundamental prob
lems facing the international economy.
If there is a single silver lining to this
dark cloud of doubt, it is that there appear
to be few people inside the Carter admin
istration who are kidding themselves
about the seriousness of the situation.
In the past week, one could hear grimly
realisitc appraisals of the problems in
U.S.-Soviet relations, in the economy and
the energy picture’ from the men who ad
vise the President in each of these
areas. What is not clear, however, is
whether these men—or the President they
serve—understand the extent to which the
present problems have been nurtured by
Carter’s tendency to moralize rather than
manage his way throught the morass of
conflicting interests and powers in the
world.
TO UNDERSTAND WHAT is happen
ing now, it is helpful to look back slightly
more than a year to the time in 1977 when
the characteristic approaches of the Carter
1 CM feel iTL
GROINS
up immu
administration were being defined.
What one sees time and again is the
President confusing the expression of good
intentions with the devising of a sensible
strategy for achieving his goals. His naiv
ete of concept was matched by the naivete
of risk-measurement. Carter was as reluc
tant to give weight to serious opposition as
he was to hold his own idealism up to
skeptical self-examination.
At the press conference of March 24,
1977, for example, he discussed both
U.S.-Soviet relations and inflation in
terms that are almost ludicr6us when read
in the light of subsequent events.
On the eve of Secretary of State Vance’s
first visit to Moscow, Carter said the
agenda would include actual reductions in
nuclear arms,mutual force reductions in
the NATO area, and eliminations of all nu
clear tests.
“We are going to express our concern
about the future of Africa and ask the
Soviet Union to join with us in removing
from that troubled continent outside inter
ferences which might contribute to war
fare in the countries involved,” the Presi
dent said. "And we will start laying the
groundwork for cooperation with the
Soviet Union at the Geneva Conference
which we hope will take place concerning
the Middle East.
“These matters are extremely complex, ”
he conceded. "We don’t know whether or
not we will be successful at all, but we go
in good faith with high hopes. The Soviets
have been very cooperative up to this
point, and we are pleased with their at
titude.
There is not a hint in the press confer
ence of any suspicion that the Soviets
would, within a week, coldly reject Car
ter’s agenda and send Vance home from
Moscow empty-handed. Much less was
Carter thinking that his grandiose plans for
Africa, the Middle East and Europe might
be exploded.
YET THE WARNING SIGNS were
there. At this same news conference, re
porters noted that Leonid Brezhnev had
reacted angrily to Carter’s heavily pub
licized human rights campaign and had
said that normal relations would be “un
thinkable” if it continued.
No problem, said the President. The
Brezhnev speech, he said, was “very con
structive," and if the Soviet president mis
takenly thought the human rights cam
paign was an “intrusion into the internal
affairs of the Soviet Union,” he, Jimmy
Carter, would be happy to assure him that
“I don’t agree with his assessment.
As if that settled everything.
What about inflation?, another ques
tioner asked, noting that even then, 15
months ago, the two basic price indexes
were in the double-digit range.
No problem, said the President. “I in
tend to cut dow n the expenditure of gov
ernment programs well enough to bring
about a balanced budget by 1981. I am
deeply committed to this goal. And I be
lieve that we will have unveiled, for the
nation to assess, a comprehensive package
against inflation within the next two
weeks.'
THERE WAS, of course, no such pack
age, and the goal of a balanced budget has
now been officially postponed at least until
1982.
A month after this press conference.
Carter was back on the airwaves with an
energy plan he proclaimed "the moral
equivalent of w^r.”
The failure of his government to gain
congressional approval of that plan re
sulted, like other failures, from both the
substantive short-comings of Carter’s pro
posals and his massive underestimation of
the oppposition. Now the energy failure,
along with inflation fears and the dete
riorating international climate, spread
gloom over his trip to Europe.
One can only hope that the lesson has
not been lost.
(c) 1978, The Washington Post Com
pany
Wine-sipping success
Calculating age
By LeROY POPE
UPI Business Writer
NEW YORK — Sitting at home and
tasting up to 20 wines a day is a nice way to
earn a living, even for an MBA from Har
vard.
Harvard didn’t teach Bob Finigan any
thing about wines. It just taught him how
to turn his interest in wines into a paying
business, one he likes a lot better than his
last job as a financial consultant for the
Penn Central Railroad in Philadelphia.
Business
He now runs a firm called Walnuts and
Wine, Inc., near San Francisco, which
puts out a news letter on how to buy and
serve wines for which 10,000 subscribers
pay him $24 a year each. It’s virtually a
one-man shop.
Finigan doesn t taste or recommend
walnuts. The firm name was taken from a
line in one of Tennyson’s poems he hap
pened to like.
Raised in Boston, Finigan set up the
business near San Francisco because that’s
the heart of the major American wine in
dustry and he recommends good Ameri
can wines along with the best the Old
World can offer.
Speaking of vintage wines, Finigan said
he has no mystique or collectors syndrome
about them.
“Anyone who pays huge prices — sev
eral hundred dollars a bottle — for very
old wines from famous vineyards runs the
risk of finding the bottle contains nothing
but vinegar when he opens it. Of course,
most people never do open such wines;
they just keep them as status symbols.”
Nevertheless, Finigan said he tasted a
century-old Chateau Latour in London
last year that was the finest red Bordeaux
he ever had encountered.
“I gladly would have paid up to $300 for
a bottle of it to drink on some special occa
sion,’’ he said.
Finigan said the key to the success of his
business was a decision to make integrity
its cornerstone.
“I decided early on that I couldn’t ac
cept and pass on wines submitted free by
the wineries,” he explained. “I made it an
iron-clad rule that I must pick out and pay
cash at the liquor store for every wine I
tasted and recommended. This costs me
over $15,000 a year before the business
even begins to break even. I will continue
this policy absolutely.”
Bob Finigan’s interest in wine did begin
at Harvard although not in the classroom.
He met two Radcliffe girls there who were
enthusiastic gourmet cooks. They asked
him to find out about wines to go with
their culinary triumphs.
He expanded his knowledge of wine
while he was working for Penn Central
and he went to France in 1969, a year in
which the wine crop was hailed as fabul
ous. Finigan decided the 1969 French
wines were not really remarkable and that
made him think about becoming a wine
consultant and publishing a wine newslet
ter.
He started by purchasing Jack Shelton’s
restaurant guide to the San Francisco Bay
area and then added the wine letter. It
took six months to reach a break-even
point of 2,000 subscribers.
Finigan did not marry one of those
Radcliffe girls. Early on he wrote a para
graph in his wine letter recommending the
wines of the Torres vineyard in Spain. He
received a letter from Senorita Marimar
Torres, thanking him on behalf of her
father and inviting him to visit their
vineyard. He did visit the vineyard in 1973
and brought Senorita Torres back to
California as his bride.
By ROLAND LINDSEY
United Press International
Like sex and automobiles, pocket cal
culators are here to stay, but they can
cause problems to people who start using
them too young, the head of the mathe
matics department at Texas A&M Univer
sity says.
Dr. George R. Blakley says grade school
teachers must take precautions to assure
students are learning to do basic math with
pencil and paper rather than . elying on
the electronic calculators to do homework.
“For certain kids, calculators can be the
best thing in the world because they use
them to discover things and be stimu
lated,” Blakley said.
“But let’s face it, grammar school math
is pretty dull and if you can avoid it by
using a calculator you’re going to do it.”
Blakley says the pocket calculators have
not been easily available long enough for
colleges to feel any impact, but he said,
“Maybe by 1984 we’re going to have some
calculator-induced trouble with math at
the college level.”
College level math instructors differ on
whether students should be allowed to use
the calculators, and some instructors at
A&M have banned them from the class
rooms, Blakley said.
In the academic profession, the cal
culators are fine, said Blakley, who had
two calculators on his desk. But he said
students should not be permitted to use
the calculators before the junior year of
high school.
“I like the idea of exploiting them at the
university level, but you have to control
the rate at which young kids learn to use
these new tools,” he said.
“It’s like giving a kid a power saw too
soon. A power saw is a great tool, but if
you give it to him too soon you have to
supervise very carefully.
“Like sex and automobiles, they’re here
to stay, but if you get involved with them
too early you might get hurt. ”
Blakley said grade school curricula must
be adjusted to assure that students learn
basic skills of doing math with pencil and
paper, even if those drills often are dull.
“I think if we don’t regulate their use
they’re going to cause some harm in
grammar school. We can’t use the present
curriculum and get good results if a kid can
do all his drill problems at home with a
calculator,” Blakley said.
“We can disagree and can test the ways
of teaching with and without them, but
sooner or later everyone is going to have
one and their very bulk is going to force
their way into the classroom. I say let
them use them, and see to it that they use
them well. ”
Readers
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State
Jury indicts Jar capital murder
A grand jury meeting in special session in Beaumont W<di LA
returned a five-count capital murder indictment against a k A t
mental patient accused in the i<-\ enge sl.o mgs ,,l Ins iurmerin-lR E t
The Jefferson County grand jury meeting m senet with umal I_ t
tight security, returned the indictment at mid-affernooii ic S t
Ovide Joseph Dugas, 32, of Port Arthur. JKI
Witnesses clean Dome
The Houston Astrodome has received a thorough — andfm
cleaning from the Jehovah’s Witnesses. The Witnesses, whoW
that "cleanliness is next to g«>dlinesx, insisted the Dome be■
cleaner for their annual meeting. W’itut*^ Paul Stevens saidtk
trodome was clean when they airived but tin s wanted t,, u. GI
cleaner for their meeting which runs through Sunday and is ripe
to attract 55,000 of their sect. On Tuesday all the Astrodome'll
w’ere mopped and the seats scrubbed.
Blue law challenged FI
PI
The Texas Supreme Court in Austii, Wednesday upheld tk
stitutionality of the state’s Sunday eh,sing l.m saying it FI
exercise of the state’s police power. Cjjbson Distributing CS|§
had filed suit against Downtown De\ ch||’H"'nt Association of dll
Inc., challenging the constitutionality ,,| the so tailed "hliu>|ivj w
contending it violated the due process mid equal protection d»r W
the U.S. Constitution.
Jogger escapes jail S p
James Jackson, a forgery defendant it, step with the times (tra
his jail uniform down to boxer shorts aqd I shirts and joggedH
i" freedom Houston sheriffs offu.,. IN s .ii<! W,||,,. M [ U
looking for the health-consciom county jail trusty who trutteft
from a work gang in the criminal courts building luisernent Tm
He was last seen heading west — a direction that would tokelto
downtown running path.
Gl
Nation
Veteran honored
Dewey LaRosa proudly accepted the Army’s Bronze >u
heroism even though it came a little late — 34 years l a te Then
w hich got lost in mounds of paperwork and bureaucratic shufe
presented to LaRosa. an Upper Providence, Pa. district jutil
ceremonies in Media, Pa., Tuesday . 'Tin very proud to Iff
ceived this medal today, he said. "\ Jittle late, but I’ll
LaRosa. 53, confined to a wheelchair because of injuries suffnii
6. 1944. in World War II. was honored for his part at Nornffl
June 8. 1944.
Striking postal workers raUtj
Offduty postal workers carrying warnings of a possible Mr*!
verged Wednesday on post offices across the nation and on!
Service headquarters in Washington to protest what thr\ i a Ibu
in labor contract negotiations. Vincent Soinbmtto, presidentuid
York City local of the National Association of Letter ( .urim,*
chartered busloads of workers from his area would join thuuai
others for the Washington demonstration The unions hao-prt*
an $1,100 raise the lirst year of a new contract and $865 fort hr«
year, plus provisions for cost-of-li\ ing increases.
PC
G]
G
B1
D
G
FAA to pay damages
The Federal Aviation Administration in L>s Angeles was«9
to pay nearly $1. 4 million and was held responsible for >
airplane crash in which a student pilot and his teacher were!#
U.S. District Judge Peirson Hall ruled that the FAA ait traft
troller, who was not identified and was not named in thedaafi
failed to warn flying instructor Zoitan Szilard and Im student =
Clement, of turbulence from the wake of a plane larger tk®
single-engine Piper Cherokee during landing on the night ofI>
1974.
f
Minor oil spill clean-up start
A 2,000-gallon oil spill, possibly from a barge, stainf*
Mississippi River downstream from the French Ouarter, thf Ui
Guard said in New Orleans Wednesday. The spill was classis^-vj,^-
minor and an oil clean-up company installed booms to coiit» , n ^
pockets. A Coast Guard spokesman said investigators traced tin ,
and suspected it came from a barge. He said the oil aboard the o jj
would he analyzed to determine if it matched with that in tfajj-i
The spill extended from Esplanade Avenue to St. Matirisi U
Booms were erected at the Esplanade Avenue wh. irf. ChahiK^gy
and near the Industrial Canal. they
gs ai
Tor
World p
ling
y_pff
Boy killed in graveyard
A 16-year-old boy, disobeying his father by returning to Iooilfl|
arms cache he found in a graveyard, w as shot to death by soldifij^B
mistook him for a terrorist, an army statement in Belfast,
Ireland, said. John Boyle, three weeks short of his 17th birf
found a package in a graveyard Monday night and reported it 1
father, a Roman Catholic farmer. The hoy returned to theci'fl 1
Tuesday, picked up an Armelite rifle and was immediately si®
Weather
Clear to partly cloudy today, tonight and tomorrow withco’
tinued hot temperatures. High today near 100, low toniS
mid 70s. High tomorrow near 100. Winds from the southed
at 10-14 mph diminishing tonight.
The Battalion
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MEMBER pu0|
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Southwest Journalism Congrr'Of©SJ
Editor 4 HO
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