Viewpoint
The Battalion
Texas A&M University
Thursday
October 12, 1978
Chilling problem
William and Emily Harris smiled broadly after they were sentenced to 10
years in prison for the kidnapping of Patricia Hearst. Harris then expressed
his love for “all the folks out there,” as if he were a guest on a talk show.
Maybe they had something to smile about: the sentence will probably be
reduced to 10 years and eight months under a new California sentencing law,
and with good behavior they could be released in 1983.
But the Harrris’ real problem does not lie in their future in prison; it lies in
themselves. There is something chilling about two people who behave as
though they were celebrities after being found guilty of what at least in
terms of notoriety — may rank as the crime of the century.
Equally chilling were the words of their defense attorney, Susan Jordan,
after sentencing. She told reporters the pair are “gentle, serious, consid
erate, well-motivated people. They are committed to social change and they
chose a very spectacular means to communicate that.
The first step in the expiation of a crime is to recognize it. The Harrises do
not recognize it and neither, it seems, does their lawyer. That maybe is their
problem, but it’s also society’s problem. There is something wrong when
kidnapping is a “means to communicate” one’s commitment to social change,
and when a terrorist bombing is something to claim “credit” for. We had
thought we’d passed the worst of this period of contempt for law. Now we
wonder.
Chicago Tribune
Demise of the Political Label
By IRA R. ALLEN
United Press International
WASHINGTON — If you are a typical
citizen, when — or if — you go to the polls
next month you will be voting in a differ
ent way than your parents did a generation
ago.
While you may still have their same
preference for a candidate of your religion
or nationality, the chances are it won’t
make a bit of difference what party he or
she belongs to.
Not as it was in the old days when voters
marked a single X or pulled one lever to
vote for a whole slate whose views on a
wide range of issues could be predicted
simply by noting their party label.
You will likely vote for the candidate
who comes across best on television or
who shares your view on gun control,
abortion. Proposition 13 or union rights.
And by doing so, you will be reinforcing
twin trends just now getting the attention
of political scholars — the decline of par
ties and the decline in voting.
By LeROY POPE
UPI Business Writer
NEW YORK — Despite the confirmed
discovery of big new petroleum reserves
in Mexico, the world is slowly but surely
running out of easily recovered gas and oil,
says Sheldon Lambert, manager for
energy economics for Shell Oil Co. in
Houston.
“The Alaskan Arctic supplies look big
but the South Alaskan areas are a disap
pointment and so far the Baltimore Ca
nyon area of the Atlantic is quite a disap
pointment,” Lambert said.
He said Mexico’s new reserves are
much larger than at first suspected but it is
not yet possible to evaluate them accu
rately. “They probably are at least half as
big as Saudi Arabia’s and could be bigger,”
Lambert said, “but the important thing is
that they are not going to become available
rapidly because the Mexicans don’t want
to make them available.”
Lambert’s assessment was confirmed
The American Enterprise Institute, a
Washington thinktank, has issued the
thoughts of 10 political scientists writing
on the theme of “The New American Polit
ical System.” The Washington Monthly
magazine for October deals with “The
Politics of Selfishness.”
Washington Window
“If one message emerges from the pages
of this book,” says AEI editor Anthony
King, “it is that fewer and fewer cohesive
blocs are to be found in the American pol
ity. ” As a result, he says, the outcome of
any number of political issues is impossi
ble to predict and change is occurring
either too slowly or too rapidly.
The landmarks of the new system are:
lower voter turnout, an increase in presi
dential primaries, the growth of well fi
nanced single-issue blocs and the inde
pendence of members of Congress who
defy their leaders at will and who are get-
when a high official of Pemex, the Mexican
statecontrolled petroleum company, ap
peared recently with several other oil ex
perts on public television. He made it
plain that Mexico would not go into any
crash production program, that it would
produce all the oil and gas itself and would
not readmit to its borders the international
oil companies who were expelled in 1938
by President Lazaro Cardenas.
Business
Others on the televised program said
the Mexican government had concealed
the size of the new petroleum finds for
many months because it did not wish to
excite the Mexican people about the
chances for a big bonanza and create popu
lar pressure for extremely rapid develop-
ting re-elected more easily and with
higher margins than in past years.
Parties used to train candidates,
moderate ideological disputes, fix up
potholes and deliver Christmas turkeys.
They would define issues along broad
themes — Democrats for social welfare
and Republicans for fiscal restraint. Parties
would embrace what would otherwise be
sharply antagonistic splinter groups. For
example, both blacks and corporate execu
tives used to be Republicans and women s
rights advocates and anti-abortion
Catholics were exclusively Democratic.
Now, parties serve only to nominate
candidates, and due to low voter turnout
and new rules for participation, the oppos
ing nominees tend to have sharply differ
ent ideological stripes. As a result, issues
are coming to prominence as they never
did before, the business of governing is
getting too uncomfortable for old-time in
cumbents and the pendulum of public
opinion is likely to swing in shorter arcs —
witness the desire of some states to change
their minds after a couple of years on the
ment of the oil reserves that might upset
the nation’s social structure.
Lambert said, however, the current im
passe over importing natural gas from
Mexico is not likely to persist. American
buyers, he said, are quite willing to pay
the price the Mexicans want for the gas
but the U.S. government presently forbids
them to do so for fear that would upset all
gas price regulation.
Lambert also said that, regardless of
their desire to go slow in developing their
big petroleum reserves, the Mexicans do
need to export oil and gas on a steadily
rising basis because they have a very high
unemployment rate and need money to fi
nance development of new labor intensive
industries.
A much more optimistic picture of
world petroleum supplies in years ahead
than Lambert’s is presented in “Window
on Oil” by Bernardo F. Grossling, a Wash
ington geophysicist, who has been a con
sultant to the World Bank, the United Na-
Equal Rights Amendment.
AEI’s Austin Ranney predicts what it
will be like without parties:
“The candidate organizations, the wo
men’s caucuses, the black caucuses, the
right-to-life leagues and the like would be
come the only real players in the game.
The mass communications media would
become the sole agencies for sorting out
the finalists from the original entrants and
for defining the voters’ choices. ”
Curtis Cans, in an adaptation of a
speech for the Washington Monthly, calls
for re-emergence of political parties as
means of increasing voter participation.
But he has no immediate answer, only a
warning:
“Whatever is done needs to be done
soon, for what we have now — a system
where special interests that have come to
represent fewer and fewer of us have in
creasing power, where single issue zealots
have learned to use thier votes to gain a
virtual veto-power over local candidates —
will only perpetuate the non-participation
of the rest of us.”
reserves
tions, the government of Chile And
Standard Oil Co. of California. The study
was published by London’s eminent Fi
nancial .Times and sells for $110 a copy.
Grossling contends that the productive
potential of about half the world’s prospec
tive areas has been much underestimated.
He says the best sources for new petro
leum are in the developing countries of
Latin America, Africa, south and southeast
Asia and the western Pacific regions.
He believes anywhere between 1.35
trillion and 4.8 trillion barrels of oil and
gas remain to be discovered. World oil
consumption in 1976 was only 21.2 billion
barrels.
Grossling said these so far undiscovered
reserves mean we have oil to last at least
76 more years and perhaps 280 years if the
annual increase in the rate of consumption
can be held to 3 percent. On the whole, he
believes Latin America, including Mexico,
has four times as much petroleum as the
Middle East.
Views contrast on oil and gas
Letters to the Editor
Rednecks? chewers
Editor: way and obscene language) was deplora-
This letter is in response to Ms. Sulten- ble, the remarks concerning tobacco
fuss’ observations of October 11. chewers and rednecks were totally un-
While I do agree that the behavior of called for.
the “TURKEY” (failing to yield right of Ms. Sultenfuss seems to have a remark-
aren’t homogenized
able ability for generalizing, and in so do
ing, insulting a large group of respectable
people. On the basis of this one individual,
all tobacco chewers are presented as ob
noxious people who throw food at Sbisa,
start fights at yell practice and slash tires of
t.u. students’ cars. Furthermore, they ex
hibit “redneck performance,” obviously
something repulsive and disgusting.
In the first place, there are many to
bacco chewers who are not rednecks (and
vice versa). More importantly, Ms. Sulten
fuss attacks rednecks by claiming obnoxi
ous behavior is a “redneck performance.”
There are a lot of rednecks and tobacco
chewers who have done, and still do, a lot
of admirable things.
There are good and bad people in every
“group” that can be made, and generaliza
tions should not be made on the basis of a
few individuals (as it seems is often done).
What ever happened to individuality?
—Scott P. Lumpee, ‘82
P.S. The Battalion certainly doesn’t
help the situation with headlines such as
“Plug that spit.”
Cheap shots
Editor:
Let me make a few remarks about the
letter from Kjell, Sartor, and Youngblood,
in Wednesday’s (Oct. 11) Batt. Those
three individuals gave Scott Lane’s letter,
which appeared on Monday, several cheap
shots.
First, they equated Scott’s ridicule of
the Corps with disrespect for Dwight
Eisenhower, Jimmy .Carter, and John
Kennedy. I did not read that in Scott’s
letter, nor did I read it “into” Scott’s let
ter.
They continued their “flag-waving”
ramble by implying that the Corps was,
indirectly, all that stood between freedom
and the loss of freedom (God save us).
Next, they dragged John Glenn, Jarvis
Miller, and Roger Staubach into the mess.
Remember that Scott’s letter was directed
toward the Corps at A&M. Glenn, Miller,
and Staubach are not presendy enrolled
here, nor did they all attend Texas A&M.
Maturity? Having lived here on the
quad for two years, having two roommates
that had been in the Corps for several
months, and knowing many more person
ally, I can say that the Corps has more
than its share of immaturity, idiocy, and
crudity.
I have heard cadet upperclassmen say
that, “after all, it’s just a big game.” One
ex-cadet acquaintance of mine, knew a
United States Army NCO, who had joined
the Corps and said that it was “children’s
games” compared to “real” army.
Obscenity? Nearly every outfit’s
“hump-it” has at least one obscenity in it.
Those same hump-its would be much
more vulgar, had not one outfit mistakenly
decided to hump-it in front of distin
guished Trigon personnel and parents on
Parent’s Day several years ago. And at
least one outfit is given to substituting
lewd lyrics into the Christmas carols every
holiday season. Etc.
Lane was attacking the Corps at A&M,
not the United~~States-Armed Forces,
apple pie, hot dogs, or George Washing
ton; there is a difference.
—L. Ashley Phillips, ‘80
Readers’ forum
Guest viewpoints, in addi
tion to Letters to the Editor,
are welcome. All pieces sub
mitted to Readers’ forum
should be:
• Typed triple space
• Limited to 60 characters per
line
• Limited to 100 lines
Top of the News
campus
Election filing opens in MSC
TTilino for the Oct 26 freshman student elections opened today and
will continue daily from 11 a.rm to 3 P-m through next Wednesday,
in Rooms 216 A and B in the Memorial Student Center. Candidates
who file for office must attend a meeting to discuss regulations before
they can begin campaigning. The date of the meeting will be given
during filing procedures. Students can sign up for any of the follow
ing: president, vice president, sectretay-treasurei, social secretary
and seven at large Senate positions. The filing fee is $1.
Genetics clinic planned Thursday
A genetics defect clinic, sponsored by Texas A&M University and
the National Foundation - March of Dimes will be held next Thurs
day at the Memorial Student Center. The clinic will highlight aspects
of diagnosis, treatment and referral. It wi 1 also carry eight hours of
category credit from the American Medical Association for Physicians
Recognition Awards. Speakers at the seminar will come from Texas
A&M’s College of Medicine and Scott and White Memorial Hospital.
LOCAL
Free fries for hook returns
People with overdue books and other materials from the Bryan
Public Library can receive a coupon for free french fries if they return
them before Friday to either of the McDonalds restaurants in
Bryan-College Station. The library has also extended its no-line
period to Oct. 20. Afterwards a collection agent will call at the homes
of people with overdue books to collect them along with fines. In
addition to McDonalds, bookdrops are located at local supermarkets,
Blinn Junior College and the Texas A&M University Library. Of the
more than 2,750 books lost in circulation in 1977, fewer than 100 have
been returned.
STATE
By
Mobil loses bid for injunction
| It was all
11-dressel
A state district judge in Houston Wednesday rejected Mobil Oil
Co. ’s demand for a temporary court order forbidding Superior Oil
Co. from allegedly hiring away Mobil employees to obtain confiden
tial information. State District Judge Arthur Lesher ruled there was
not enough evidence to support a temporary injunction against
Superior, although the lawsuit also sought damages and remains alive
pending final disposition. The ruling came after an 11-day trial in
which Mobil lawyers tried to show they lost an offshore oil tract hid to
Superior because of information supplied b\' some or all of 39 former
Mobil employees.
: Memor
1 guys stl
j to figuiT
ming ffoij
ere we
ley gathe
NATION
Carter s mom compliments Ted
Mrs. Lillian Carter, mother of President Carter, said in Boston
Tuesday that if her son does not seek re-election in 198() she would
like to see Sen. Edward Kennedy, D. Mass., enter the race. “I love
Ted Kennedy, Mrs. Lillian Carter said. “I won’t say a word against
him. Mrs. Carter also said, however, that she knew of no reason why
her son would not run. “I don’t know any of his plans. He always tells
me not to mess things up.”
Carter denies pardon to Estes
Convicted Texas swindler Billy Sol Estes’ application for a pardon
from President Carter was denied, a U.S. Justice Department
spokesman said Tuesday. Spokesman Bob Stevenson said in
Washington that Estes’ request for a pardon, filed in February by his
son-in-law, Morris Lindsey III, was turned down on Sept. 27. Estes,
52, of Abilene, was convicted of fraud in 1963 for his part in a
multimillion-dollar scheme involving nonexistent fertilizer tanks. He
was sentenced to 15 years in prison. If the pardon had been granted,
it would have restored certain civil rights to Estes such as his right to
vote.
WASH
I Israeli pe
[eonductec
After a
[Minister 1
I ell said th
[to resolve
Carter
| Egyptian
The tal
|enue fror
The co
I to press <
I Departm
Althou
lend of tl
[ ducted ii
I supplied
Carter
WORLD
Mystery HI kills 40 Filipinos
agreeme
[the Wes
“Althc
! understr
j Minister
Carte
! Israeli-E
The I
! vitally li
sider th
dent.
fish° US ^ aS ,k^ e< ^ 40 Filipinos in 24 hours in a remote
1 ./ g y ,llage ’ heal th authorities in Manila said Wednesday. The
ahout e 840 WaS r 3 ePO r rte r d m TueS , day in p angil-Agan, a tiny island with
n,.™l 840 f res,dents 440 m 'les south of Manila. An undetermined
f rh 60 t 6 W f re re F°, rted stricken by the disease, prompting
Sam Sls r" fl° n r P t0 -ff k help from Mmnla. A five-man medical
those affeef- A n ‘ lI ^ g !.ii Agan today to ^ ook into ibe disease and treat
health Ss?' v. ^ lbert V Fernan do, a regional director of the
sitrmtfim m rh aid the , medical tea m will look into the sanitation
investigation intoThe ^ Wil1 3 se P arate
WEATHER
It will be cloudy to partly cloudy today with a 20% chance of
ram. The high will be in the upper 80s and the low in the
middle 60s. Winds will be S.E. 10-15 mph decreasing W
5-10 tonight.
The Battalion
LETTERS POLICY iukvirur
Lt-ffers to the editor should not exceed 300 icords and are Texas Press Association
Southwest journalism Congress
Editor . . Kim 21
number for vertf,cation. Managing Editor LtZ New J
Bnttni reSS R 0rresp o°, n / e 2 ce , to Letters to the Editor, The Assistant Managing Editor . .Karen Rog efi
tSSnSTm^ •*“«• C °"“' Spw, Editor g ...... David .
Represented b , Nelinn,] Ednentlend Adv.,. £ I,Y Ed ' t °' 1 dT'wtiil
Using Services, Inc., New York City, Chicago and Los Campus Editor Andy WllH 31
Angeles. ^ News Editors Debbie ParsoiA [
The Battalion is published Monday through Friday from Beth Calhoun
September through May except during exam and holiday
through & Thursday ,rnmewhe " “ " pi,blished on Tu<:sda > Editorial Director . . Lee Roy Leschper,
Mail subscriptions are $16.75 per semester; $33.25 per Wnter * ’ ’ ’ • Mark
school year; $35.00 per full year. Advertising rates fur Pendleton, Sean ^
n ,a ddress: The Ba “ali°n, Room 216, Michelle Scudder, Man
Reed McDonald Building, College Station, Texas 77843. Faulkenberrv Diane Blake
United Press International is entitled exclusively to the P aulkenberry, L>ia
use for reproduction of all news dispatches credited to it Cartoonist Doug Gran
Rights ofreproduction of all other matter herein reserved. I Photoeranfipr F.d CuM
Second-Class postage paid at College Station, TX 77843 EV, P 'l ^
focus section editor Gary
Opinions expressed in The Battalion are n ,
those of the editor or of the writer of tl ■ Agents. The Battalion is a non-profit,
article and are not necessarily those of thl ! SMpporff ”S enterprise operated by !itudl
University administration or the Board nf i uni f ersiu J and community newspa'
^ * 'Editorial policy is determined by the edt