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Viewpoint The Battalion Monday Texas A&M University , April 9, 1979 Unappreciated President meeting with out-of-town editors and who his politicial constituents would be in 1980 - “I am not a candidate,” Carter said. “I won’t make a decision on that or an an nouncement until later on.” Then he added: “I think the general public opinion poll results show that people think I am doing the best I can, that I am honest and well motivated. There have been some notable successes recognized at the time, but then forgotten. In a campaign, the achieve ments of the Democratic Party would be better publicized.” Carter argues that he is doing better than his Republican predecessors in deal ing with inflation and it should not be blamed on any one person. “The three years before I became presi dent the inflation rate was 8 percent, and there was talk again of restoring manda tory wage and price controls or having a deliberate recession to put people out of work again to hold down the inflation rate. “We are doing much better than that.” he told a Democratic audience in Wausau, Wis. “You have to remember that all over the world at this point there are inflationary pressures that neither I nor anyone else can control,” he told a town meeting at Elk City, Okla. Carter summed up his feelings in his Jefferson-Jackson Day speech in Mil waukee. “I think the American press, the Ameri can people, are inclined, as a matter of character, to emphasize the differences which divide us, the reasons for dispute and debate, to emphasize the problems we have not yet solved, the questions we have not yet answered. “Often, Americans fail to remember the vast reservoir of common purpose, com mon belief, the superb achievements and the basic strength of our country.” News on H-bomb not for publication For the first time in the history of this country, a federal judge has exercised prior censorship against a publisher. In the now famous case of the Progressive magazine vs. the U.S. gov ernment, District Court Judge Robert W. Warren in Madison, Wis., issued a preliminary injunction forbidding the magazine from printing an article that has been described as a how-to-do-it recipe for concocting a hydrogen bomb. We are as troubled by the First Amendment implications of this prece dent, especially if it is sustained on appeal, as we are glad the judge made the decision that he did. The Progressive argued that there is nothing in the article that is not already in the public domain, that no information was used that is not available to any intelligent researcher. We are not sure this is entirely true. But even if it is, why put it all together in one handy package and make it possible for some non-nuclear nation to build its own hydrogen bomb sooner than it otherwise might? Equally as murky to us is the rationale advanced by the article’s author, Howard Morland. He stated that the purpose of his article was “to dramatically illustrate that the ultimate secret is no secret at all.” And to show that “as long as secrecy is employed, the people of the United States will have no oppor tunity to discuss the vital issues involved” in nuclear weapons. He has abundantly accomplished his first objective, thanks to all the publicity surrounding the government’s suit. But we fail to see how a detailed knowledge of the workings of an H-bomb is necessary for informed public discussion of nuclear arms policy — any more than a detailed knowledge of automobile mechanics is neces sary for informed discussion of traffic laws. We agree Morland and the Progressive should negotiate a settlement with the government whereby they publish a revised version of the arti cle, leaving out the technical information the government objects to. Scripps-Hotvard Newspapers By WESLEY G. PIPPERT United Press International WASHINGTON — President Carter feels that his achievements are too soon forgotten, and that if he is a candidate for re-election he will try to remind people of them. It also became apparent during Carter’s grass-roots appearances during recent weekends that he will try to spread the responsibility for one of his biggest prob lems — inflation. These were persistent themes that emerged in Carter’s trips to Oklahoma, Texas and Wisconsin, where, despite dis- C ommentary claimers, he sounded more and more like a candidate. Carter ticked off again and again what he apparently believes are his forgotten achievements: —The nation is at peace, has tried to be a peacemaker in the Middle East and Af rica. —Lack of involvement of the United States in foreign disputes, so that “in the last 26 months we have not had a young man’s life endangered on the field of battle anywhere on earth.” —Restoration of trust in a post- Watergate era through openness of gov ernment, passage of strict ethics legisla tion. —Unemployment has dropped from 8 percent to about 6 percent, with the crea tion of 7.6 million new jobs. —The federal deficit has decreased from $66 billion a year to less than $30 billion. —Farm income has risen 30 percent a year. Carter was asked about criticism of his administration at his most recent biweekly Letters to the Editor Civil Liberties Union ad right on track Editor: In response to Mr. Sullivan’s letter in the April 3 Battalion: I think that the Civil Liberties Union’s statement in the March 28 Battalion was sorely needed to open people’s eyes to the way things are here at Texas A&M. I have never visited any university where the people were sometimes afraid to voice their opinions, but that seems to be the case here at Aggieland. Universities are supposed to be places where students, faculty and visitors can be free to express their views without the fear of being “punished” by certain bigoted groups of people. Views like those of Mr. Sullivan repre sent the kind of thinking that we do not need here at Texas A&M. I agree that we should preserve certain traditions such as the Corps of Cadets that make Texas A&M unique. But, at the same time, we should realize that change does not have to be a disease; it can make Texas A&M a better place. Mr. Sullivan represents an ultra conservative way of thinking that is a dangerous and unneeded part of today’s world. Giving women the right to vote was a change. Freeing black people from slavery was a change. Freedom for the American colonists from British tyranny was a change. Are these changes you would not have wanted, Mr. Sullivan? —Peter Atherton, ’82 Help an Aggie Editor: An Aggie student needs your help. Col lect the flip tops from beer and soda cans. For every 1,000 collected, one free hour on the kidney dialysis machine will be provided. Bring your flip tops to Willowick 614 or to Southwest Village 509. Your help will be much appreciated. — Sharyl Wolter, ’80 Editor’s note: This letter was accom panied by seven other signatures. Ad misunderstood Editor: Chuck Sullivan’s letter to the editor of April 3, 1979, requires a response so that no one will be misled by his views of what the Brazos or A&M chapters of the Ameri can Civil Liberties Union want A&M to become. I do not know how he arrived at his views of what the Civil Liberties Union wants. I can find nothing in the statement, “To Dispel a Myth,” that support his suggestions of Civil Liberties Union posi tions. The statement was more about an exchange of ideas than it was about changes in circumstances at A&M. While I cannot speak for either local Civil Liberties Union chapter, I can say that the ideas he imputes to the two chap ters have, with one exception, little to do with civil liberties. The idea that the Civil Liberties Union chapters might support “female yell leaders” is partially accurate. If women are not permitted to be fairly considered for yell leader positions, then there is a clear civil liberties problem presented. However, I do not see where there is a civil liberties question presented in Mr. Editor: This letter is concerned with the rec ommendation of Brad Smith for vice pres ident of student services. In the first para graph, The Battalion gave Brad Smith credit for ideas that came out of my com mittee. If you will read the final reports submit ted to Student Government of Wednes day, April 4, you will see that Brad Smith dealt primarily with the internal shuttle bus committee. If you will read my final report, you’ll see that my committee was the one that dealt with ideas concerning food, housing, and automobile co-ops. We also worked on a bicycle route on campus in connection with the bicycle loc kers and racks. We worked with RHA on the feasibility of having ice machines in dorms. We considered the upcoming stu dent magazine (un-named) which, hope fully, will be published next spring. Two projects also investigated but not com pleted are 1) a high school student pro gram which will help seniors plan for col lege and careers, and 2) a look at long range parking. All these projects can be found in my report. On the issue of experience. Brad Smith was in charge of Special Projects (the shut tle bus) while I was in charge of Special and New Projects which dealth with all of the projects, mentioned above. I also was in charge of Aggie Blood Drive which is a separate committee in Student Govern ment which is not in connection with the Student Services Committee. With regards to Brad’s two years of ex perience, I am a transfer student who came to A&M in my sophomore year. While I was at Galveston Junior College, I Sullivan’s other examples: having a Corps of Cadets does not violate any constitu tionally protected right; no group, includ ing “fags” is entitled to “special rights” under our Constitution; no where in the Constitution is the question of “hump(ing) it” squarely presented; I cannot imagine that a civil liberties union chapter would support a situation where a “campus or ganization” would make decsions about traditions for the entire student body un less that was the organizations’ proper re- sponsiblity; and, “university — recognized fraternities and sororities” is not mandated by any constituional guarantee I am famil iar with. It appears to me that Mr. Sullivan was president of the Arts Committee and was actively involved with Student Gov ernment. So I feel that the reasons The Battalion endorsed Brad rather than me are some what unfounded and misleading. Hope fully you will take this letter into consid eration. Thank you. —John T. Groce, ’80 Ignore endorsers Editor: In campus elections, I would hope that the students would be trusted to judge each candidate on his own merits rather than on the names and titles of supporters listed in advertisements. Important deci sions concerning the candidate should be based on his accomplishments and plat forms, not on those of people he lists. Also, this inappropriate use of campus offices for political campaign tactics is questionable. I encourage all students to vote — and vote in a responsible manner by choosing each candidate according to his qualifications and philosophies -— not by a listing of big-name supporters. —Beth Scott, ’79 Exercise your vote Editor: Here it is, that voting time of the year. Each year elections take place, but there is never a majority of the students to turn out to vote. School elections are important. missed the point of “To Dispel a Myth.” For this I am sorry. I hope we will do better in communicating with him next time. If he or anyone else wants to lean more about what the American Civil Liberties Union stands for, they are cor dially invited to our up-coming meetings and functions: A&M ACLU chapter meet ing on April 19 at Room 604 A&B, Rudder Tower, 7:30 p.m.; Brazos Civil Libeties Union Fund Raising Sale, Auction, and Dance on Friday, May 4, 1979, at the Un itarian Fellowship Hall at 305 Wellborn Road, at 7 p.m., featuring John Henry Faulk. —Lamar W. Hankins Cooperating Attorney Brazos Civil Liberties Union The people we pick can make a difference on such rules as resident hall regulations, money appropriations for various events and all type of topics that should concern us. When the campaigners came around, did you ask them any questions? You should have. If they spent the time to come by you should have used this privilege. What is upsetting is the low voter turn out. Off-campus people are even a lower percentage of no votes. There are booths set up all over campus and we should take the time to vote. When choosing your candidate look at him or her and predict whether they will be good in the future. We can’t afford to lose anyone because of cheating on test or so forth. What really disappoints me is the school has approximately 30,000 students, 2,200 of them in the Corps. They have a power to elect anyone because they vote is a block more or less. They are not necessar ily told who to vote for but usually agree on the same candidates. When the 2,200 vote (they have an excellent percentage of voter turnout) together on one candidate this usually makes a majority because the other students’ votes are more diversified between the other candidates. I would like to see a couple of non-reg yell leaders. I don’t think having Corps yell leaders is an A&M tradition, anyway it shouldn’t be if you think it is. Having both Corps yell leaders and non-Corps yell leaders will really show a true representation of this school, a fine university of both civilians and Corps!! Good luck, candidates. —Joe H. Hickman, ’79 Credit for SG work, due elsewhere Top of the News CAMPUS Prof s son in critical condition T gai David Parker, 16-year-old son of a Texas A&M electrical engineer' ing professor, Sunday night remained in critical but stable condition after having his badly burned arm amputated in Galveston’s Job Sealy Hospital. He was found on top of a 7,200-volt transformer Wednesday about 9 p.m. Parker was transferred to Galveston from St. Joseph Hospital at 1 a. m. Thursday. He is the son of Dr. Donal L. Parker, an associate professor of electrical engineering. ‘Name that off-campus group There is only one thing missing from the almost completed merger of Hassle-Free and the Off-Campus Students Association —a name. The organizations are asking the help of Texas A&M students by sponsoring a contest with $27 worth of winner-take-all prizes. Name suggestions must be submitted by 5 p.m. Thursday to either the Memorial Student Center or the Off-Campus center in Puryear lounge. Prizes include a $12 gift certificate to Pelican’s Wharf anil three $5 gift certificates. One is to T-Shirt Plus, one to Carols Wicker and Basket and the other one has not been named. The winner of the contest will be announced April 20. NATION Execution stay only ‘small victorij Delay of the execution of John Louis Evans III brought a roar of approval from 41 fellow inmates on Alabama’s death row, but capital punishment foes said Saturday it represented only a “small victory." With the end in sight of a national 12-year moratorium on executions, it appears unlikely that Evans and other condemned prisoners ca escape execution. Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist granted a stay in the Evans case Thursday evening, just six hours before the 29-year-old Evans was to be put to death in Alabama’s bright yellow electric chair. When the full court rules on the case, Evans, who shot and killed a pawnbroker in Mobile two years ago, very likely could again find himself face-to-face with death. To date, Evans has insisted he would rather die than spend his life behind bars and has stead fastly refused to join in the appeals, which have been filed by his mother and an attorney. But his religious confidant, Rev. Kevi Duig- nan, has said he believes Evans may now begin fighting for his life. Not one, hut two barrel rolls The TWA pilot who safely landed his disabled 727 jet after a super sonic 5-mile nosedive said Saturday the aircraft actually made two complete rollovers in the sky. In a telephone interview with the Detroit Free Press from his Las Vegas home, Harvey Gibson, 44, said the 74 passengers on the New York-to-Minneapolis flight were never aware of the barrel rolls. “I was talking to one of the cabin attendants last (Thursday) night and he said he was strapped in the forward jumpseat looking eye to eye at a passenger with a drink when the airplane rolled twice and then we lost about 29,000 or 30,000 feet,” Gibson said. “But in this whole thing it was smooth, it was very smooth. I was aware that the passengers were probably walking around or something so I kept positive G (gravitational) forces so that the people, even though we were bottom-side up, didn’t know we were bottomside up. When the thing was all over and done with, the guy and his wife both had their two glasses of wine sitting in front of them and they both had a drink.” Earlier, it was reported the aircraft completed a single barrel roll Wednesday night. The Federal Avi ation Administration said it was a “miracle” the airliner did not disin tegrate. he W Largest nuclear sub launched wl The United States Saturday launched the world’s largest sub marine at Groton, Conn. It is the most powerful nuclear fortress ever built and the first equipped with Trident missiles. Three thousand anti-nuclear protesters demonstrated outside the plant. About 230 of the demonstrators were arrested and charged with disorderly con duct for allegedly blocking entrances to the Electric Boat Division of 61 General Dynamics plant where First Lady Rosalynn Carter and ® 12,000 spectators watched the christening of the first $1.2 billion Trident nuclear-attack submarine. Police had to use a large wire cutter to break heavy chains used to connect some demonstrators to the plant’s gates and each other. The demonstrators protested the ® nuclear capabilities of the Trident, which is capable of leveling 408 targets with a nuclear blast five times as great as the atomic bomb which was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, at the end of World War II. WORLD U.S. cancels most aid to Pakistan After learning Pakistan was building a plant that could turn out weapons-grade uranium, the United States cut off most U.S. eco nomic assistance to the current regime. The State Department in voked the Symington amendment to the Foreign Assistance Act, which requires all economic and military assistance be cut off to any country which receives nuclear re-processing equipment, and does not place them under international controls. The president could have continued the aid program, despite the Pakistani fuel- enrichment plant, if he could certify that “he has received reliable assurances that the country in question will not acquire or develop nuclear weapons.” In 1976, the Ford administration chose to ignore evidence that Pakistan was about to procure the enrichment process ing equipment and waived the required cut-off in aid. 4 4 4 4 WEATHER Partly cloudy with 20% chance of rain today and a 60°/o chance tonight. High in the low 70’s and a low of 50 will be westerly at 10-15 mph. 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 any 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. • ■ ^ E Scott Pei^ ) 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. MEMBER Texas Press Association Southwest Journalism Congress Editor Kifllj Managing Editor Liz' 11 ' I Assistant Managing Editor .Andy"^ | Sports Editor City Editor Campus Editor Ste'* News Editors Debbie Beth Calhoun Staff Writers Karen Rogers-^ I Patterson, Sean Petty, ^ | Blake, Dillard Stone, Roy! Lyle Lovett, Keith Taylor Cartoonist DougC’ 1 ’ | Photo Editor Lee Roy LesctTj Photographer Lynn Focus section editor Gar)"’ 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 Regents. The Battalion is a non- profli supporting enterprise operated by ^ as a university and community ne#J Editorial policy is determined by the