>
<
Viewpoint
The Battalion Monday
Texas A&M. University . April 2, 1979
Top of the News
CAMPUS
Women: Iran’s
new unveiled threat
The Iranian revolution is almost “hors de comment” at its present stage.
Eventually it will run its chaotic course, of course, and a new order will
emerge. The real shaping of the new Iran will begin when the revolution
has exhausted itself.
Nevertheless, the demonstrations in Tehran of women alarmed by the
Ayatollah Khomeini’s comments on the proper dress for revolutionary
womanhood are of more than usual interest and, just possibly, significance.
One wonders where these women were, or what was their reaction,
when the avatollah, remote-controlling the revolution from his French
exile, was declaring to Iran and the world his goal of an Islamic republic
where the word of the Koran would literally be law.
Now that he is back home, there is surprise that he means it to apply to all
Iranians.
The stirring of opposition manifested by the Tehran demonstration
suggests the ayatollah’s Islamic revolution could be entering a very trying
period.
The shah’s over-equipped army may have caved into it without a real
fight, but never underestimate the determination of even the semi-
liberated woman aroused on an issue that really matters.
Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
The Washington Answer Man goes global
By ARNOLD SAWISLAK
United Press International
WASHINGTON — The Washington
Answer Man is with us again today after
spending some time at the State Depart
ment. He says he now is prepared to
enlighten us on the intricacies of foreign
policy.
Question! We’re delighted to have you
here, sir. Now, can you answer a question
I have had for weeks: just what is
hegemony?
Answer Man: Of course. Hegemony is a
type of Russian fruit preserve or jam, usu
ally served with strong tea and unsalted
biscuits.
Question: But sir, we were told all dur
ing the visit of Chinese Vice Premier
Deng that hegemony was a code word
used by the Soviet Union to mean domi
nance over other countries.
Answer Man: Yes, the average Chinese
cannot remain in a room where hegemony
has been consumed within the last hour.
The Chinese believe that hegemony is
addictive and causes an insatiable urge to
build intercontinental.balhstjc missiles.
Question: While we are discussing
China, what is the State Department’s ex
planation of the Chinese decision to with
draw from Vietnam? Was it the Soviet
warning that halted their advance or
Vietnamese resistance?
Answer Man: Neither. The credit for
the Chinese pullback goes entirely to the
United States. Secretary Blumenthal told
the vice premier that if the Chinese forces
advanced just a few more miles into
Vietnam they surely would be able to see
the light at the end of the tunnel.
Question: When the vice premier was
visiting, he made clear his distaste for the
Soviet Union and the proposed SALT
treaty. Did that put the State Department
in an uncomfortable position?
Answer Man: Not at all. But the de
partment understands it definitely upset a
number of anti-SALT senators to be joined
by the leader of the world’s largest com
munist nation.
Question: If we may turn to another
area, can you tell us if it is true that the
United States was taken completely un
aware by the overthrow of the shah of Iran
by the Ayatollah Khomeini?
Answer Man: I can state categorically
that contrary to what you may have heard,
the State Department was never under
the impression that the ayatollah was the
father of a female Romanian gymnast. You
may be interested to know that our intelli
gence on Khomeini’s activities in France
came from the fabled Inspector Clouseau
himself.
Question: We have been told that under
the new republic, the torture methods
used by the shah’s government will be
ended. Is that a fact?
Answer Man: Yes. From now on anyone
Got a school policy beef? Well, your
prime choice is The Battalion’s “Talk with
Dr. Miller” section. It allow students to get
a new slice of information from the “Man”
himself.
The section is a forum for readers to ad
dress questions to the administration about
University policies and procedures.
Questions should be addressed to The
who attempts to use torture in Iran will
have his hands chopped off.
Question: We also were wondering
about U.S. relations with Mexico. Did
President Carter’s visit to Mexico assure
the United States of a reliable source of
reasonably priced oil?
Answer Man: Not exactly. But we have
been told that as a result of the president’s
arrival remarks Mexico will offer to keep
the White House well supplied with
paregoric.
Question: We wondered. . .
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 ques
tion or request others on the staff or faculty
to answer it.
Questions and answers will be published
on the editorial page.
A slice from the top
Positions still open for election
Students may still file to run for positions in the student senate and
graduate student council. Bill Jentsch, election commissioner, said
Sunday night that filing will be extended in those races until 4 p.m.
Tuesday in Room 216 LM, Memorial Student Center. No one has
filed for some positions in those groups, he said. Campus elections
will still be next Monday and Tuesday.
STATE
Trucks, buses may set own rates
The Texas House of Representatives today will consider a bill au
thorizing motor carriers and motor bus companies to recommend
rates their industries charge to the Railroad Commission. The bill, by
Rep. Lynn Nabers, D-Brownwood, won tentative approval last
Thursday and is up for a final vote. Two freshmen legislators — Reps.
Ted Lyon, D-Mesquite, and Tom DeLay, R-Simonton —argued that
the measure would make the rate bureaus of the trucking and bus
industries immune from federal antitrust laws. Lyon and DeLay also
argued that a similar law passed in Georgia recently had been suc
cessfully challenged by tbe U.S. Department of Justice. Lyon said
the bill would eliminate competition and a create monopolistic sys
tem in Texas at the expense of consumers.
Austin nuke vote called doomed
Pro- and anti-nuclear forces agree the radiation leaks at Three Mile
Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania will significantly diminish the
probability that the city will retain its share in the controversial South
Texas Nuclear Project. Voters are to decide Saturday whether to
retain Austin’s 16 percent share in the South Texas plant. A strong
anti-nuclear movement forced the city council to offer voters the
option of selling the city’s share of the controversial project well
before the radiation leak in Harrisburg, Pa. Now, nuclear supporters
concede, the chances of voters deciding at next Saturday’s election to
retain Austin’s 16 percent share in the South Texas plant are signifi
cantly diminished. “It’ll take a miracle to pull this one out,” one
official of the pro-nuclear campaign said.
NATION
New disaster agency created
President Carter has signed an executive order establishing a new
agency to deal with nuclear and natural disasters and to help out in
case of terrorist attacks, the White House announced Saturday. Gor
don Vickery, 58, administrator of the U.S. Fire Administration, was
named to be acting director of the Federal Emergency Management
Agency, the new facility that became effective Sunday. Vickery is a
former Seattle fire chief. Functions from other departments covering
fire prevention and control, emergency broadcasts and floods were
transferred to FEMA. The agency was created to deal with natural
and nuclear disasters and to handje certain functions in the event ofa
terrorist attack.
Let Him be the final judge on gays
By J. SCHADT
Well folks. I’ve sat here for the past
three years and read an awful lot of this
student body’s Bible-based opinions con
cerning the homosexual issue. Now as
graduation nears, I figured I’d better get
my enlightened Christian-heterosexual
two cents in and be summarily criticized in
return by those who put themselves above
reproach.
Of all the issues covered in the Bible
that are relevant today, homosexuality
Reader’s Forum
seems to be the only issue that gets con
demned with chapter and verse quotes
from that Holy Book.
Why not attack our population of adul
terers, who by Playboy’s latest survey
(March ’79) constitute a little over half of
the (married) men in this country (sorry
ladies, no figures for you all) versus 10
percent of American males who are gay.
This leaves 40 percent of us “Good Joes”
to lead the other 60 percent to salvation.
Certainly if the Christians of today had it
in their hearts to do the most good in
God’s name they should start on the adul
terers first. Or reform the thief who
helped himself to that poor guy’s expen
sive French-made bike last weekend in
the northside dorm area — you know, do
something constructive. Certainly there
are lots of appropriate verses to reference
for condemning such a dastardly deed as
that in our Bible.
My point being made, let me establish
that a lot of our “straight” behavior is no
better than our gay friends’ actions. The
trouble with too many of us is that we re
fuse to see that gay persons make substan
tial contributions to society just as
straights do. Examples of gays who have
mad life a bit more enjoyable include (for
the women): Sappho, a Greek poet of
around 600 B.C.; Kate Millet, a U.S. au
thor, and Janis Joplin a singer everybody
knows.
The men are represented by the likes of
Socrates, Aristotle, Julius Caesar,
Leonardo da Vinci and from more recent
times, playwrite Tennessee Williams, poet
Allan Ginsberg and of course, musicians
David Bowie and Elton John.
By DICK WEST
WASHINGTON — The Washington
Post added up federal anti-discrimination
laws the other day and found that
minorities now outnumber the majority.
All told, it turned up eight different
classifications of minorities variously based
on sex, race, ancestry, military service,
physical handicaps, age, religion and
ethnicity.
Lumped together, these categories en
compass well more than half the popula
tion. Which perhaps explains the rapid
growth of the caucus system in Congress.
Some congressmen organize themselves
along racial or ethnic lines (the Black
Caucus, the Hispanic Caucus, the Irish
Caucus, etc.).
Others are regional clusters, most nota
bly the Sunbelt Caucus and the Frost Belt
Caucus.
Still others are oriented by mutual politi
cal philosophy, demographical consid
erations and even product affinity.
You might think these groupings pretty
well cover the spectrum of special interests
in America, but that would be a misconcep
tion on your part. The diversity of Ameri
can society is such that a variety of other
caucuses are needed. They include:
The Sinistral Caucus — Open to all left-
handed lawgivers, its main purpose is to
insure equal opportunity for individuals
who instinctively operate from the port
side.
Discrimination against southpaws al
ready has dropped markedly. They now
have separate but equal golf clubs, scissors,
catcher’s mitts and such.
Nevertheless, left-handers still are ob
liged to use many facilities designed for the
convenience of the right-handed majority.
The Ringlet Caucus — Formed to look
after the interest of the minority of Ameri
cans who have naturally curly hair.
No other group is more in danger of los
ing its identity. With the steady improve
ment of permanent wave potions, even
people with hair so straight it looks ironed
on can be given a natural looking friz.
The caucus is expected to press for legis-
Granted, none of these folks are
scientist-engineering types nor do they
qualify as A&M Former Students, but let
us recognize that their contributions have
been at least as great. Since God put us
here to serve His purposes, why don’t we
let Him do the judging? We’ll probably all
be surprised.
/. Schadt is a senior at Texas A<LrM.
lation requiring that artificial curls be
clearly labeled as such.
The Mung Bean Caucus — Created to
protect the rights of people who subsist
entirely on mung beans but have trouble
finding such dishes in restaurants.
The caucus has thrown its support be
hind a move to require that all public eat
ing places that serve federally inspected
meat must have at least one mung bean
dish on their menus.
The Quicksand Caucus — An informal
coalition of House members who represent
districts whose land areas are 25 percent or
more quicksand.
Caucus meets once a month for di-
cussions of mutual problems and to explore
ways of helping constituents obtain federal
grants for developing quicksand as a natural
resource.
Writing the editor
The Battalion welcomes letters to
the editor on any subject. However,
to be acceptable for publication these
letters must meet certain criteria.
They should:
yj Not exceed 300 words or 1800
characters in length,
j V Be neatly typed whenever
possible. Hand-written letters are
acceptable.
, V Include the author’s name, ad-,
dress and telephone number for
i verification.
Letters to the editor are printed as
a service to our readers. Publication
of a letter is never guaranteed. The
editorial staff reserves the right to
edit letters to remove grammatical er
rors and to avoid litigation.
Address letters to the editor to:
Letters to the Editor
The Battalion
Room 216
Reed McDonald Building
College Station, Texas 77843
Talk with Dr. Miller
Civilian military classes?
Dr. Miller:
As a freshman student up here, I was wondering why the courses of Air, Naval,
and Military science are not open to people not in the Corps of Cadets. Surely
military history and battle strategy are of interest to people who are not or do not
want to be in the Corps. Can anything be done to open this to the whole univer
sity, aside from the reason that it is “policy”?
— David W. Heiligmann
Dear David:
Your recent letter regarding opening ROTC courses to all students regardless
of Corps affiliation is welcomed because it gives me the opportunity to explain a
situation which perhaps is misunderstood by other students.
The purpose of the ROTC program is to produce commissioned officers for
the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps. This is the mission of the active
duty personnel assigned to the ROTC program on our campus. The number of
instructors assigned is based on the number of cadets actively striving to earn a
commission.
The Corps of Cadets and the ROTC are not the same, but closely related. In a
very real sense, they are mutually supporting; some students join ROTC in order
to be in the Corps, others join the Corps in order to take ROTC. The ROTC
provides tremendous support to the Corps in form of military advisers and
provides the funds with which we buy all the Corps uniforms (except senior
boots). The Corps of Cadets is a great asset to Texas A&M and deserves our full
support.
You indicated that you were not interested in being in the Corps, but that you
might be interested in taking some selected ROTC courses such as military
history. For one not interested in Corps or the ROTC as such, I think you can
probably find what you are looking for in other academic departments. If you
will refer to page 360 of the 1979-80 catalog, you will find four courses (442-445)
offered by the Department of History on the subject of military history.
You may also want to consider Political Science 422 (p. 417), and 446 and 447
(p. 418). These courses are taught by authorities in their fields, and I am sure
that one or more will be responsive to your interests.
— Dr. Jarvis E. Miller
President, Texas A&M
By Dick West
The minority (majority) rules
Strike closes United Airlines
More than 18,500 mechanics and ground crew workers struck the
nation’s largest air carrier Saturday, sending non-striking workers
scurrying to reschedule 10 days of canceled United Airlines’ flights
onto other airlines. The strike was called at midnight Friday after
members of the International Association of Machinists and Aero
space Workers, representing 18,611 of the airline’s 54,000 em
ployees, announced they had rejected a second tentative contract
agreement. Union spokesmen in Chicago said the tentative agree
ment was “overwhelming rejected” and that money was the union’s
main gripe — particularly the cost of living package. United, which
operates about 1,600 daily flights carrying about 130,000 passengers,
promptly canceled all scheduled flights through April 9, and no new
negotiations were scheduled.
Kennedy-for-president rally held
A coalition of labor leaders and liberal activists Saturday in Des
Moines, Iowa, formed the nucleus of a movement aimed at drafting
Sen. Edward Kennedy to run for the presidency. But the question
remained whether the coalition, prompted by dissatisfaction with
Jimmy Carter, would snowball into a nationwide political alliance of
labor and liberal Democrats. The meeting, attended by nearly 150
people, was called by Bill Fenton, international representative of the
state s 18,000-member machinists union. Fenton’s goal was creation
of an organization to spread the draft-Kennedy message before lowas
precinct caucuses in January 1980. The caucuses mark the first presi
dential preference test of the primary-convention season.
WORLD
Iran votes to end monarchy
More than 15 million Iranians have voted overwhelmingly to end
2,500 years of monarchy and begin an Islamic republic as proposed by
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, early returns of a national referendum
showed Saturday. Ahmad Noorbakhsh, chief of the referendum au
thority, said 98 percent of Iran’s electorate — an estimated 16 million
people — voted Friday, the first part of the two-day referendum. 01
those, “97 percent voted for the Islamic republic, which is impressive
indeed, ” Noorbakhsh said. He said the final turnout when the voting
ended Saturday night would be 99 percent of the nation’s voters.
The Battalion:
LETTERS POLICY
( Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 words and are
subject to being cut to that length or less if longer. The
editorial staff reserves the right to edit such letters and does
not guarantee to publish ant/ letter. Each letter must be
signed, show the address of the writer and list a telephone
number for verification.
Address correspondence to Letters to the Editor, The
Battalion, Room 216, Reed McDonald Building, College
Station, Texas 77843.
Represented nationally by National Educational Adver
tising Services, Inc., New York City, Chicago and Los
Angeles.
The Battalion is published Monday through Friday from
September through May except during exam and holiday
periods and the summer, when it is published on Tuesday
through Thursday.
Mail subscriptions are $16.75 per semester; $33.25 per
school year; $35.00 per full year. Advertising rates furnished
on request. Address: The Battalion, Room 216, Reed
McDonald Building, College Station, Texas 77843.
United Press International is entitled exclusively to the
use for reproduction of all news dispatches credited to it.
Rights of reproduction of all other matter herein reserved.
Second-Class postage paid at College Station, TX 77843.
Opinions expressed in The Battalion are
those of the editor or of the writer of the
article and are not necessarily those of the
University administration or the Board of
MEMBER
Texas Press Association
Southwest Journalism Congress j
Editor Kim ft
Managing Editor UzNjj
Assistant Managing Editor .Andy'Vi®
Sports Editor David M
City Editor Scott Pew®
Campus Editor Slew'
News Editors Debbie
Beth Calhoun
Staff Writers Karen Rogefi,^
Patterson, Sean Petty, ^
Blake, Dillard Stone.
Bragg, Lyle Lovett, »j
Taylor
' Cartoonist DougCi )(
' Photo Editor Lee Roy Lesck^
j Photographer Lynni®
I Focus section editor Gary " 1
. - ■ ■ —
Regents. The Battalion is a non-profi-.
1 supporting enterprise operated by ^
j as a university and community nemf
j Editorial policy is determined by the d 1