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Viewpoint
The Battalion Thursday
Texas A&M University Novemrer 9, 1978
Soviets on the move
The president is still reserving judgment about deploying the neutron
bomb, but at least he has decided to get started on building it. For which
small favor, we ought to be grateful.
The neutron bomb is not really a bomb; it is a warhead for short-range
missiles and artillery shells. It is a nuclear weapon, but it has far less explos
ive effect — blast and heat — than conventional nukes. So it does less
damage to the area in which it detonates.
This new warhead is made to order to deter — and to stop, if need be —
the sort of massive armored blitz the Soviet Red Army has always favored for
its offensives.
Therefore, quite understandably, the Soviet propaganda industry
launched a worldwide campaign to portray this as an unthinkable weapon,
too terrible to contemplate, let alone build.
Not so understandable, but at least predictable, was the next step: Left
wing spokesmen around the world trooped right along with this Soviet lead,
wagging their tails behind them. Not at all understandable — indeed, dow
nright incredible — was the earlier decision of our own commander in chief
to bow to this self-serving, Soviet-led propaganda move and put off a buildup
of the new and effective antitank defense for western Europe.
With 40,000 tanks and armored infantry carriers to match, the Soviets now
have the armored might to overrun Europe with one quick thrust. The
neutron warhead gives the West a way to stop such a blitz. And when that
warhead is built and deployed, it will give the Soviet brass pause, should
they be tempted to launch such an attack.
As they say in Georgia, and Texas, time’s a-wasting.
The Dallas Morning Netvs
Campaign ’78 — a modernized bore
By DAVID S. BRODER
WASHINGTON — It was not until a
Saturday night in late October in
Waterbury, Conn., that I realized what
the campaign of 1978 was missing — the
drama, the fun, the passion of real politics.
For reporters of a certain age,
Waterbury has one indelible association.
On the last Saturday night of the 1960
presidential campaign — or really Sunday
morning, for it was past 2 a.m. when he
finally got there — John F. Kennedy
found the Waterbury square filled with
thousands of cheering Democrats who had
been waiting for five hours in the chill to
see and hail their favorite. They were so
fired up with enthusiasm that even after
he had spoken, they did not want to let
him go — or break the spell by leaving
themselves.
Well, Waterbury was not quite like that
on this Saturday night in 1978. But when
Gov. Ella Grasso (D) drove into the same
square for a labor rally, there was a brass
band out to meet her, and the sidewalk
was jammed with union families who
formed a kind of procession into the
church basement, where the rally was
held.
And, for an hour, while the hot dogs
steamed and the beer chilled in the back,
Letters to the Editor
the air was filled with the old-fashioned
Democratic oratory of Grasso and former
Gov. John Dempsey (D). They remember
that night in 1960 very well. Their words
brought cheers from the working families
who still believe in the dreams that
Franklin Roosevelt and John Kennedy es
poused.
But this was a rare moment in a cam
paign year that even the candidates found
desultory and dispiriting. Most of those
running felt they were preaching to
stones, and the dearth of eloquence made
it a signal event when an occasional orator
— like a Ted Kennedy or an Ed Brooke —
could lift a crowd by the power of his
words.
Most candidates this year found them
selves cruelly whipsawed by the need to
satisfy conflicting imperatives. One was to
convince their constituents they were
“real people,” not just another of the de
spised breed called politicians. And the
second was to raise enough money to satu
rate the airwaves with their ads during the
final two weeks before election.
For the congressional incumbents, the
first imperative meant hundreds of hours
in mobile vans, district offices and town
meetings, listening to the voters and help
ing them with individual problems. For
the challengers, it meant “working” for a
day or two at a time beside their con
stituents at filling stations, factories or
supermarkets, walking the roads of their
state or district, or otherwise putting
themselves in touch with the daily lives of
the voters.
For everyone, fund-raising was a time-
consuming burden and distasteful negotia
tion with hard-eyed guys who were nailing
down your position on their issue and who
were less concerned with your leadership
potential than your standing in the polls.
The technological advances of modern
campaign communications — television
ads, computerized mail, telephone banks
and the rest — have not only driven up the
cost of elections, they have depersonalized
the election process.
Ironically, for all their efficiency, they
are failing the ultimate test of engaging the
voters’ interest. The public is turning away
from this kind of synthetic politics.
Made-up candidates with made-up TV
spots and mass-produced “personal” let
ters are contributing to the cynicism of a
public increasingly “turned off”'from poli-^
jfics
.rtC;-' -*»-»A'*!*"*'N - "! • -> .A»,»'■< - vt
There is no credible linkage between
the posturings of the campaigns and the
realities of the decisions that change
people’s lives. In the final week of this
campaign, the American dollar and the
world’s confidence in the American eco
nomic system were being subjected to se
vere stress tests. And almost nothing or
relevance that might help the voters
understand their stake in that struggle was
being said in the campaign. When the
Carter administration suddenly reversed
its economcy at midweek, it was not as the
result of a public debate but of highly se
cret discussions.
Nor was this unique. Even the triumph
for American diplomacy that was repre
sented by the Camp David summit was
treated by the President who accom
plished it as unsuitable material for cam
paign speeches.
So the pride and energy that might have
been infused into politics by discussing
that accomplishment was withheld —
even as the economic debate was being
conducted in secret in the final days of the
campaign.
A politics that is as devoid of content as
it is empty of tradition, ritual an eloquence
is Anything but a healthy politics. And
,thgt„ unfortunately, is what we saw most
days and nights in the campaign of 1978.
So one is grateful for small favors — like
Waterbury.
(c) 1978, The Washington Post
Company
Lebanese crisis multi-sided issue
Editor:
In response to Diane Blake’s article
“Lebanese, Arab students disagree on
war,” printed Friday, Nov. 3, I am writing
most importantly to help Battalion readers
to become better informed and more
aware of the situation now existing in
Lebanon.
Ms. Blake seems to have interviewed
only two Lebanese students who both
happen to be of the Maronite sect, which
contrary to her report’s indication, repre
sents the minority of the Lebanese popula
tion, known in our homeland as right-wing
radicals and isolationists.
True, the death and destruction in
Lebanon has magnified, but let me try to
explain from the point of view of the
majority why this has occurred. As known,
our country was extremely prosperous for
many years but our government was never
based on democracy.
How democratic can it be when a coun
try’s own president and all high officials
must be of one particular sect or religion?
Can you imagine a country’s president
brutally shooting to death 40 civilians
while they were in their church?!!
This president, Suleiman Franjeih, of
the Maronite sect, was in office at the
breakout of the civil war. Had the majority
of the people been in support of this
Maronite style of government, the army
would not have dismantled and divided.
This division allowed the Palestinians,
who had been forced from their own
homeland, to gain strength in Lebanon by
providing their people with heavy arms.
At the Maronite cry for help, the Sy
rians intervened to prevent them from de
feat. After the Syrians intervened as a
peace keeping force, as referenced in the
article, they tried to remain neutral until
they realized the unjust intention of the
Maronite’s militia; being that the Syrian’s
peace keeping troops were permitted in
areas of other sects yet banned from
Maronite territories.
At this time a new president and gov
ernment officials were elected. This gov
ernment, being supported by the majority
of the Lebanese people, sees the need of
the peace keeping Syrian forces to remain
in order to provide safety and protection
for all until our own existing government
can strengthen and renew its armed
forces.
Historically, Lebanon is an Arabic coun
try. Our native language is Arabic. The
Arab nations must work together to find a
solution to the Lebanese crisis.
—Mohamad Abilmona, ’79
Choice letter crop
Editor:
Congratulations on a beautiful job. Al
though The Battalion can be justifiably
proud of every inch of its erudite print,
your Letters to the Editor column rates a
Pulitzer! It’s superb! Many of them beat
Erma Bombeck any day of the week.
How do you ferret out such unfortunate
souls as the one who rallied to the defense
of a poor dead armadillo that some
thoughtless clod slothfully sloshed with
paint? That armadillo should have held out
for beautification or nothing!
Especially choice was the letter written
by a fellow who is cultivating a nasty crop
of worry wrinkles by contemplating the
possibility of his pitifully peripatetic,
cancer-prone epidermis eventually desert
ing him in the blistering face of that big,
bad dehydrating Texas fall sun! Maybe
he’s an albino who hasn’t heard of sun
screen. What’s he wear to the beach, a
revival tent? Apparently we gals aren’t the
only ones to worry about red noses.
Letters directed against that terrible,
patriotic, push-up pumping Corps are the
best. Who needs men who have a discon
certing habit of building muscles and bon
fires with equal ease, who shine their
shoes, who wear clean clothes, who stand
up straight, who don’t talk to the ground
through their belly buttons, and who know
how to give a girl their arm and refuse to
compete with her in the red nose depart
ment?
If more of these men were around, we
gals wouldn’t have time to support ERA,
bum bras, or even want to run for presi
dent! We wouldn’t have to.
Keep up your good work. Keep printing
all of those anti-Corps, anti-tradition let
ters, too. If a stray from UT wanders up
here, we would certainly want the little
dear to feel at home. Wouldn’t we?
—Sally Dennis, ’82
Priorities skewed
Editor:
On Oct. 16 I was walking along Bizzell
Street, and happened to notice this note
lying alongside the golf course:
Dear Sir:
Please do not ticket my car. I would
have pqrked across the tracks and walked
back since there were no spaces in the girls
lot, but 1 heard a girl got raped last Tues
day in Kyle Field. She was walking from
the tracks also. I promise to have my car
moved early in the morning! Thank you.
It is written in obviously feminine
handwriting and had evidently been at
tached to a parked car. I think that it be
speaks a condition that exists not only in
this community, but throughout Amerika
(sic).
I would like to know how the local au
thorities can justify the expenditure of tax
payers’ money to initiate, process, and
serve 27 sealed indictments for
marijuana-related offenses when decent,
tax-paying citizens are afraid to walk from
their vehicles to their place of residence.
This is not to mention the additional ex
pense to the taxpayer that will arise from
housing these “criminals” and prosecuting
them. It is especially infuriating when the
authorities themselves admit that the
people arrested are “small-time” and “in
significant.”
Unfortunately, the expense of enforcing
America’s outdated and draconian prhibi-
tion statues does not end with the loss of
money and valuable police time spent dur
ing this process. It takes a far deeper toll in
human suffering and lost lives that result
from incarcerating otherwise law-abiding
citizens for an “offense” identical to that
committed by any retail liquor store
owner.
The bitterness, loss of faith in the
American government, and mistrust of
your fellow man that is generated by this
situation cannot be underestimated.
I believe that this society is making a
terrible, self-destructive, and possibly
fatal mistake in continuing to spend liter
ally billions in tax dollars every year to
enforce prohibition — federal, state, and
local authorities should not be forced to
spend their time enforcing statutes against
victimless crimes as long as rapists, mur
derers, and thieves are roaming the
streets.
— W.T. Decker Jr., ’79
Talk with
Dr. Miller
The Battalion is offering a new reader’s
letter section to give students more access
to the newspaper and to the University.
“Talk with Dr. Miller” is a forum for
readers to address questions to the admin
istration about University policies and
procedures.
Questions should be addressed to The
Battalion, 216 Reed McDonald, and
should specify that they are to be used for
this column. Names and phone numbers
will be required on all questions and Dr.
Miller has the option to decline to answer
a question or request others on the staff or
faculty to answer it.
Questions and answers will be pub
lished on the editorial page.
Top of the News
NATION
Two Pershing missiles launched
Members of the West German Air Force successfully fired two
Pershing ground-to-ground missiles Tuesday at the White Sands
Missile Range in New Mexico. Range officials said the launches were
the third and fourth of the current series of Pershing tests. The next
firings are scheduled Nov. 20. Roadblocks were placed on U.S. 54at
Orogrande, N.M., and Newman, Texas, and on U.S. 380 between
Carrizozo, N.M., and Socorro, N.M., during the launch period, offi
cials said.
’76-77 Chevettes to be recalled
General Motors is recalling all 1976-77 Chevette subcompacts to
correct what federal safety officials say are potentially explosive fuel
tanks similar to those in the ill-fated Ford Pinto. The company said
Tuesday it is voluntarily calling back 320,000 of its hot-selling
minicars because the fuel systems flunked National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration crash tests. However, a GM spokesman said
the firm “has found no reports of fires due to impacts involving
Chevette gas tanks,” and does not consider the fuel tanks defective.
An NHTSA spokesman in Washington said the agency’s findings were
“not based on known crashes on the highway, but on compliance
tests. We found this one (Chevette) did not comply.”
Ferryboat captain investigated
Capt. Irving Satler, scheduled to retire in two weeks, had piloted
the Staten Island Ferry hundreds of times through a fogshrouded
New York Harbor without ever having an accident. But now he faces
city and federal investigations for missing the ferry slip by 700 feet
Tuesday and slamming the vessel into a concrete wall, injuring 253of
the estimated 2,000 morning rush-hour commuters on board the
American Legion. “We misjudged,” Satler was quoted as saying. The
city opened an investigation Wednesday to determine what went
wrong during what should have been a regular crossing. The Coast
Guard has scheduled another for today. At least five people were
hospitalized, authorities said, and more than 100 others received
emergency-room treatment. The ferry slammed into the concrete
seawall where the Statue of Lilierty sight-seeing Ixxits normally tie
up.
Merit selection guidelines issued
President Carter Wednesday issued guidelines for the merit selec
tion of federal district judges, including a renewed effort to find
qualified women and minority persons. Of the 525 currently active
judges, only 29 are black or Hispanic and nine are women. Carter
campaigned for the merit selection of all judges, and soon after his
inauguration he set up commissions to choose appellate judges. But
he delayed similar action for district judges because of the political
difficulties. Traditionally, senators have exercised almost complete
control over who was nominated and confirmed for judgeships in
their states.
WORLD
Rock star remains in hospital
Rock star Elton John, stricken by chest pains and rushed to a
private clinic in Londan Tuesday, spent a “good night" and sleptwell,
a spokesman said Wednesday. The singer’s doctor ordered new tests
before deciding whether to release him. John, 31, collapsed Tuesday
at his Buckinghamshire home, northwest of London, and was rushed
to the Harley Street Clinic. According to the spokesmn, the doctor
said John’s condition was good but refused to disclose details of the
latest medical tests. A clinic spokesman said Tuesday that John, who
has made several appearances promoting his new record recently, was
suffering from exhaustion and overwork. He denied the singer had a
heart attack. John missed a Tuesday appointment in Paris with doctors
who performed his recent hair transplant operation.
Sadat seeks quick negotiations
Egyptian President Anwar Sadat is bluntly warning he will not sign
a peace treaty with Israel unless it requires that negotiations with the
Palestinians begin within a month after the accord is sealed. Foreign
Minister Butros Ghali and Egypt’s ambassador to the United States,
Ossama El-Baz, left Cairo for Washington Wednesday with strict
instructions from Sadat to stress self-rule for the Palestians when the
peace talk resume. Israeli Defense Minister Ezer Weizman, who
returned to Washington Tuesday, planned to talk with Secretary of
State Cyrus Vance Wednesday in an attempt to resolve serious differ
ences with U.S. officials over U.S. aid to the Jewish state.
Gunmen kill magistrate in Italy
Gunmen firing submachine guns in Patrica, Italy, Wednesday killed
a magistrate, his bodyguard and driver in the bloodiest terrorist attack
since the kidnapping of former Premier Aldo Moro. Police said one of
the terrorists was killed in the attack. Police said the ambush was a
carbon copy of the Red Brigades’s abduction of Moro on March 16,
when the leftist terrorists blocked the path of Moro’s limousine before
opening fire and killing his five bodyguards. No group has claimed
responsibility for Wednesday’s ambush. Police identified the dead
men as Fedele Clvosa, 59, magistriate from the southern town of
Frosinone, hi bodyguard Giuseppe Pag, 29, and driver Lciano Rossi,
29. Calvosa was the third magistrate killed this year and the seventh
since 1971.
WEATHER
Fair to partly cloudy with mild temperatures. High today 74
and low tonight in the low 50’s. Winds light and variable at
5-10 mph.
The Battalion
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