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The Battalion
Texas A&M University
Wednesday
June 13, 1979
The Duke’s memory will not wane
By BRIAN BARNETTE
John Wayne is dead.
The words are hollow, unreal. John
Wayne dead? The Duke? It’s inconceiva
ble. We’ve seen him take a hundred bul
lets, a thousand punches, and still get up
and finish the fight. Like Old Man River,
he just kept on rolling on.
He was born Marion Michael Morrison.
Johnny Carson once asked him if anyone
had ever called him Marion when he was a
kid. “Just once,” was the reply. That was
the Duke — the quintessential tough guy,
but with a sense of humor.
As an actor, he personified the strong,
forthright hero, a man of action willing to
fight for his beliefs, for his country and for
his fellow man. Through his films, he took
part in every war our country has fought,
including Viet Nam. He always embodied
the simple virtues of courage, honor, and
patriotism. In his private life, he was the
same. He was a man who lived by his con
victions, who spoke his mind clearly and
without apology to those whose opinions
differed from his. Over the years, the
character and the man merged and be
came one.
He had acted out his death a half-dozen
times during his career of 200-plus films.
We saw him felled in battle by sniper fire
in “The Sands of Iwo Jima” and “Fighting
Seabees;” drowned in mortal combat with
a giant squid in “Reap the Wild Wind;”
Header s Forum
skewered by a Mexican lancer in “The
Alamo;” gunned down by the psychotic
rustler in “The Cowboys;” shot in the back
after winning a suicidal gunfight in “The
Shootist;” wherein he played, ironically,
an aging gunfighter dying of cancer.
And yet, in real life, he seemed im
mortal. He had a cancerous lung removed
in the mid-60s, and was back before the
cameras in a matter of weeks. He had
licked the “Big C.” He not only returned
to work, he made over a dozen more mov
ies and won an Academy Award. Last
spring, he underwent major heart surgery
and was on his feet in no time talking
about a new script. Last January, his
stomach was removed, but he seemed to
be on the road to recovery.
Then came his appearance as a pres
enter at the Academy Awards. Suddenly
we realized what his latest illness had done
to him. The gaunt figure at the podium
was uncomfortably reminiscent of Hubert
Humphrey in his final months. The once
robust, ageless giant now looked every bit
of his seventy-one years. But still we had
faith. We believed that, like the naval
commander he portrayed in “Wings of
Eagles,” he could and would overcome his
physical problems through sheer will
power.
But soon there followed the announce
ment of the discovery of more cancer.
Courageously, selflessly, he volunteered
for experimental treatment, so that others
might benefit from his illness. He spent
his seventy-second birthday in the hospi
tal, surrounded by his family.
Now, two weeks later, John Wayne is
dead.
And yet he lives in the hearts and minds
and memories of millions. He lives.
One of my earliest memories is of John
Wayne as Davy Crockett in “The Alamo.”
Over the years, innumerable characters
and scenes have become indelibly etched
in mind: the brash young gunman in
“Stagecoach;” the uncompromising cat
tleman in “Red River;” the vengeful In
dian fighter in “The Searchers;” Davy
Crockett pushing over the horse in “The
Alamo;” the brawling, bawdy rancher in
“McLintock;” the remorseful father in
“Cahill.” Above all, the climatic battle be
tween the “one-eyed fat man” and the out
law gang in “True Grit,” a piece of pure
cinema with mythical overtones. Through
his films, he gave us countless hours of joy.
As long as his films endure, he will.
John Wayne dead? Hardly.
Communist
admit false
Chinese
elections
aly in late June, it
the
le country’s 900
By PAUL LOONG
United Press International
HONG KONG — When China’s legislature meets again, probabl;
is likely to look hard at how its members were chosen to represent
million people.
The National People’s Congress — theoretically the highest organ of state power
but in fact subordinate to the Chinese Communist Party — currently has 3,497
deputies from 30 provinces and regions and from the armed forces.
They are supposed to be elected by the people. But it hasn’t worked out that way.
China now admits that officials arbitrarily assign candidates to local assemblies,
which in turn pick the deputies to parliament.
Sometimes voters get only one candidate. And the practice of voting by a show of
hands effectively deters voting for opposing candidates put forward by the local
authorities.
In a frank admission, the People’s Daily, published by the Communist Party, said,
“The People’s Congresses turned out to be more formalities. Some were not even
that.”
The newspaper said candidates were “nominated in the name of‘democratic con
sultation.’ As a matter of feet, they were selected and decided by a few individuals. ”
“Because delegates to People’s Congresses had no relations with the electorate,
the people were in no position to exercise their rights to supervise, dismiss and elect
them,” it said.
The country’s legal system has “failed to lay down specific laws and procedures for
exercising superision and dismissal.”
All this has to change, the Communist Party paper said.
The People’s Daily said elections should “fully express the will and wishes of the
masses,” and secret balloting would eliminate the “corrupted practices” of voting by
show of hands.
Another proposal was for “a greater number of candidates than elected delegates”
so voters can have a choice.
All levels of the country’s assemblies should also have more delegates to reflect the
growth in China’s population, it said.
The National People’s Congress, which is expected to meet soon although no date
has yet been announced, is likely to accept the party suggestions. A queston is how
thoroughly the recommendations can be carried out at the local levels, where petty
officials sometimes only pay lip service to central directives.
Despite the recommendations for wide representation in the national legislature, a
full-fledged Western-style democracy will not emerge in communist China.
The democracy China is talking about is “socialist democracy” in which the Com
munist Party, as the guardian of the proliteriat, has absolute power over all other
bodies.
Will President Carter find
Garden of Eden or Park
of oppression in Korea?
By DAVID E. ANDERSON
United Press Internationa]
WASHINGTON — When President
Jimmy Carter took the oath of office in
1977, he placed his hand on a Bible
opened to chapter six of the Old Testa
ment prophet Micah.
A year later in South Korea, a conserva
tive Presbyterian minister was indicted by
the government for preaching a sermon
based on the words of that same prophet.
In the gulf between those two events
lies the delicate dilemma facing Carter as
he prepares to visit South Korea following
the Asian economic summit meeting in
late June.
Increasingly, U.S. church leaders are
seeing the visit as not only test of Carter’s
commitment to religious and human rights
but as a unique opportunity for the presi
dent to put his owfi religious faith into
practice.
“You are a Baptist, Mr. Carter, and the
Baptists wrote a proud chapter in the his
tory of political and religious liberty in the
United States,” Dr. Donald W. Shriver,
president of Union Theological Seminary,
wrote in an open letter in the current issue
of Christianity and Crisis.
“What are you going to do, as an Ameri
can President, to enable the Korean
people to write such a chapter in their own
history?” he asked.
At issue is South Korea’s dissident move
ment, protesting the lack of democracy
and what many see as the increasingly
harsh repressive actions of Korean Presi
dent Park Chung Hee.
South Korean government officials have
maintained that political and religious
rights must be curtailed in the interest of
national security and an alleged threat to
Letters to the Editor
The Aggie concept works
Editor:
Many times we hear reference to “the
A&M family” and I understood this to
mean the body of students, faculty and
sxkat Texas A&M University. During a re
cent serious accident, which happened out
of town and involved one of our sons, we
discovered that there is much more to that
concept.
While at the intensive care unit at the
Brackenridge hospital in Austin, we re
ceived telephone calls from College Sta
tion, telegrams, offers of prayers,
encouragement and real support in dif
ficult circumstances. Several people
traveled four hours just to show they
wanted to help and let us know that they
were available for whatever assistance we
needed.
The local Aggie club in Austin, repre
sented by resident B.M. “Honk” Irwin
and its past president, K.E. “Dutch” Voe-
Ikel, visited us in the hospital and offered
any help we might need for transportation
or anything else. All the blood we needed
was provided through the blood donations
from our own A&M students.
It is a great family, our A&M family, and
knowing that this family is ready to help
you when the need arises gives one a real
warm feeling. It is great to be part of this
family.
—Pieter Groot
Asst. Vice President
Academic Budgets
the government by the forces of North
Korea.
The movement is generally led by
Christians, many of them educated and
trained by U.S. missionaries, and U.S.
church officials estimate there may be as
many as 400 Christian political dissidents
in South Korean jails.
Some 12 to 15 percent of South Korea’s
35 million people are Christian.
The current drive for religious and
human rights in Korea was sparked by a
March 1, 1976 demonstration at the Seoul
Cathedral in which 12 dissidents issued a
Declaration for Democracy and National
Salvation.
Since then a number of Christian lead
ers, seminary professors and lay people
have been either indicted or jailed by the
government for protesting the lack of
human and religious rights in Korea.
Most recently, the Rev. Cho Wha Soon,
a Methodist woman minister, was sen
tenced to five years in prison stemming
from her leadership of the Urban Indus
trial Mission and for protesting the firing
of 126 women workers who were seeking
to improve the working conditions in
Inchon City’s textile plants.
She was arrested in 1978 after police
broke up a prayer meeting at the Urban
Industrial Mission in downtown Seoul.
In late April, a group of 37 Roman
Catholic and Protestant missionaries work
ing in South Korea sent a message to Car
ter urging him not to even come to Korea,
arguing that “any potential advantage to
the United States would be greatly out
weighed by embarrassments, concessions
and exploitation of the prestige of the
American presidency.”
According to the missionaries, Park’s
regime is “now in a situation of declining
domestic political support and is faced
with widespread economic discontent.”
They said he “badly needs and desires
the enormous boost he would receive from
a meeting with the U.S. President.”
Shriver, however, said that “a lot of Ko
reans want you to come — but on certain
conditions.” Those conditions, the semi
nary president said, included meeting
with jailed and released critics of the re
gime.
Shriver said there was a chance that the
government may release some political
prisoners as a gesture of goodwill in ad
vance of Carter’s visit, including two
graduates of Union Theological Seminary
— Dr. Timothy Moon and the Rev.
Hyung Kyu Park.
Moon, is a professor of the Bible, a poet
and the Korean translator of Dietrich
Bonhoeffer’s “Letters and Papers from
Prison.” Carter has sometimes used
Bonhoeffer, executed by the Nazis for his
opposition to the Hitler regime, in his
Sunday school class teaching.
“At this moment he sits in a Seoul
prison in an unseated cell, deprived of
writing material, decent food, books and a
light bulb as bright as 60 watts,” Shriver
said of Moon.
“Even as window-dressing, that would
be a gesture of justice,” Shriver said of the
possible release of Moon and Park. “But in
or out of jail, will you ask to see them?”
Shriver asked.
Writing the editor
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Letters to the Editor
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Top of the News
CAMPUS
Defensive Driving course offered
The National Safety Council’s Defensive Driving course will be
offered in Room 401, Rudder Tower on June 15 at 5:45 to 10 p.m. and
June 16 from 8 a.m. until noon. The course is free and open to the
public. Anyone interested in the course may call 845-1515 to prereg
ister.
STATE
Alan Erwin resigns utility post
NATION
Billy's house to be auctioned off
GM recalls 19,500 more autos
Kissinger arranged visit for Shah
The Battalion
Al
The man regarded as consumers’ advocate on the Public Utility
Commission, Alan R. Erwin, announced in Austin Tuesday he will
resign the $44,200-a-year job at the end of June. Erwin, 33, said he
does not want to be reappointed to the three-man commission when
his four-year term expires Sept. 1 and decided to quit a few months
early to promote a fictional book he has written about a 1980 power
blackout. A former Beaumont newspaperman, Erwin was picked by
then Gov. Dolph Briscoe in 1975 to serve on the new state agency
created to regulate statewide telephone rates and electricity rates for
areas not subject to city council control. Tin afraid familiarity breeds
contempt and I don’t think I'd have a ghost of a chance if I wanted it,”
Erwin said when asked why he did not seek reappointment to the
Utility Commission.
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A year ago Billy Carter seemingly had it all — a brand of beer
names after him, organizations willing to pay him well for speaking
stints and a brother in the White House. However, the beer turned
out to be a bust, and anti-Semitic remarks he made brought a sharp
decline in his personal appearances, plus he landed for a month’s stay
in a Navy hospital for alcoholics. Now, in what seems the last straw,
his new six-bedroom, six-bath brick home in Buena Vista, Ga. is
going to be sold at auction next month because he reportedly de
faulted on an unsecured loan. Carter has claimed, because virtually
all of his personal and business financial records have been sub
poenaed by a grand jury investigating loans to the Carter peanut
warehouse, he has had to delay some of his personal business —
including the payment of taxes.
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General Motors Corp. in Detroit has announced two separate re
calls involving 19,500 passenger cars and trucks assembled by its
Buick, Chevrolet, Oldsmobile, Pontiac and CMC Truck & Coach
divisions. GM said the largest recall involves 15,300 1979 model
full-size, mid-size and small passenger cars and light duty trucks
equipped with cruise control. The vehicles were assembled during
January 1979. On some of the recalled vehicles, the brake stoplight
and cruise control switch which is operated by the brake pedal may
have been assembled with an incorrect lubricant on the actuating
plunger, the company said. GM said the defect could result in prema
ture wear on some of the switch contacts, causing the rear brake
stoplights to stop working. In addition, it said, the cruise control, if
activitated, would go back to its set speed when the brake pedal is
released unless the car had been brought to a complete halt. The
second recall involves some 4,200 1979-model Chevrolet Monzas,
Pontiac Sunbirds, Oldsmobile Starfires and Buick Skyhawks assem
bled in February 1979 and equipped with the 231-cubic-inch, V-6
engine. GM said the engine oil pressure switch on the vehicles may
have a random internal electrical short which could result in the
engine starting by itself when the ignition switch is turned to the “on”
position. If the transmission selector lever is in drive or reserve when
the engine starts, the vehicle may move unexpectedly, GM said.
Persons
and Sou
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Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said Monday in Cuer
navaca, Mexico he personally arranged Shah Mohammad Reza
Pahlavi’s visit to Mexico “to show that some of us don’t forget those
who have stood by the United States. But the exiled shah was last
seen Monday in a fortress-like compound of four mansions in the
swankiest suburbs of Cuernavaca, where he was driven upon arrival
from Nassau and there has been no official word on his whereabouts
since then. The shah, Empress Farah, one of their sons and six other
people spent the night in the compound, a source said. The shah told
reporters at the airport he planned to spend “a few months” in
Mexico but did not say exactly where. One federal security agent told
reporters outside the compound the shah had left early Monday
morning, but he did not know for where, nor whether the ousted
monarch planned to return.
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UN
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