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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 3, 1979)
Viewpoint The Battalion # Texas A&M University • Tuesday • July 3, 1979 Gas lines long, tempers short Gasoline has become more an integral part of American life than ever before. But instead of hopping into the RV and cruising down to Galveston for a day of fun in the sun, people are packing a picnic lunch and preparing to spend the better part of their day waiting in their favorite neighborhood gas line. Instead of the usual small talk, your friends are asking you if you are odd or even. And years from now, when you are telling your children and grandchildren about the hardships you suffered, you can add how you sat in a gas line for three hours one day just so you could drive 30 miles to school. The lines have arrived in College Station. Friday, a few stations ran out of some brands while others manuevered a steady stream of traffic through the self-serve lanes. Although the supply situation is far from critical, it could get much worse if more gas in not available by the time more than 30,000 A&M students arrive in August. Odd-even rationing may arrive with them, although it seems to have done little to decrease long lines and spot shortages in Houston. Cars begin queuing up at 4 a.m. in front of stations that do not begin pumping until 6:30. Daily gas allotments dry up quickly, leaving angry drivers cussing everything from the greedy oil companies to the even greedier OPEC nations. Local newspapers claim that most Houstonians are ready for some sort of rationing program. This would seem to be a viable short-term answer to the shortage. Drivers would be assured of a specific number of gallons each day and certainly it would reduce the “running on empty” syndrome felt by many Texas drivers. However, it is still only a short-term alternative. OPEC has proven it cannot be depended upon either for consistent oil exports or for stable prices. Government must encourage the development and use of other energy sources or we can all stay home and freeze in the dark. —K.L.R. Independence Day celebration ironic By DAVID BRODER WASHINGTON — There are times in the history of this great Republic when the alterations of mood and circumstance seem almost too swift for comprehension. Was it only three years ago that we celebrated our Bicentennial in the near-euphoria of “the tall ships” coming? This Independence Day finds us in a very different frame of mind. The holiday’s very name seems to mock us. What we sense is not our independence, but our growing dependence on those distant foreign powers from whom we thought we had severed our fate 203 years ago. The very oceans on which we relied to protect our freedom, as an infant nation, we now scan anxiously for the arrival of the oil tan kers on which our economic survival de pends. The personal disquiet that is bred by the spot shortages of gasoline is but a symptom of a larger disturbance to the national psyche: a growing frustration with the seeming impotence of our government and our society to respond to what has been, after all, one of the best advertised and most widely predicted problems of the con temporary era. If one cannot drive, one can read. I have found myself rereading a small book whose contents are as timeless as its title: “The Public and Its Problems,” by John Dewey. If it does not fill the tank, it at least focuses the mind on the direction we need to go. Adapted from lectures the educator- philosopher gave at Kenyon College in 1926, three years before the onset of the Great Depression, it has a strikingly con temporary tone. “Political parties may rule, but they do not govern,” Dewey said. “The public is so confused and eclipsed that it cannot even use the organs (of govern ment) through which it is supposed to mediate political action and policy.” Dewey found the basic cause for the frus tration of public policy in his time in the profound alteration of the social setting of American democracy. The American Con stitution, he noted, was a product, not only of abstract ideas, but of a country with “genuine community life, that is, associa tion in local ans small centers, where indus try was mainly agricultural and where pro duction was carried on maily with hand tools. It took form when English political habits and legal institutions worked under pioneer conditions ... (that) put a high premium on prsonal work ... and neighborly socialbility. ” “We have inherited,” Dewey said, “local town-meeting practices and ideas. But we live and have our being in a continental state ... The local face-to-face community has been invaded by foreces so vast, so remote in initiation, so far-reaching in scope and so complexly indirect in opera tion, that they are, from the standpoint of the members of local social units, un known.” If that was true of his America, flushed by the false prosperity of the Twenties, how much more true it is of our American, beset by the vagaries of an international economy in which we are only one of many players. Dewey described, and perhaps under stated, the perplexity of today’s Anericans when he wrote of his own contemporaries: “At present, many consequences are felt rather than perceived; they are suffered, but they cannot be said to be known, for they are not, by those who experience them, referred to their origins.” If that analysis is relevant, then the in ference is clear. No task is more important than bringing home to the communities of this country a knowledge and understand ing of the complex forces in which our pre sent problems are rooted. Whatever understandings the President has reached with foreign leaders in Tokyo will be rendered ineffectual — unless he devotes himself, with equal industry, to improving the understanding of ordinary citizens in Tacoma, and Texarkana and Tow son. But it is not his responsibility alone. The members of Congress who are now on another of their “district work periods” (a.k.a. recesses) really do have their work cut out for them in their districts, in bring ing to their constituents a realistic under standing of the constraints the world economy places on us. We in the press have largely botched the job of public education on these questions. And so have those who make their livings in Dewey’s own profession as educators. It is time for town-meetings and teach- ins again. The message I take from John Dewey this Independence Day is that we have to learn from each other and teach other, if we are going to celebrate future Fourth of Julys in less perplexity and frus tration than we feel this year. (c) 1979, The Washington Post Company More hull sessions being scheduled ‘Cattle shows’ new campaign technique By ARNOLD SAWISLAK United Press International WASHINGTON — There is a new phenomenom in political campaigning: the candidate cattle show. It really began in 1976 when the Demo crats had as many as a dozen recognizable candidates for their presidential nomina tion. Now the Republicans have nine hope fuls announced or expected to do so for the 1980 nomination. The cattle show, of course, has more po lite names that are used by the people who sponsor them. They are called “joint ap pearances,” “candidate forums” and “meet the candidate” nights. Cattle shows generally are sponsored by two kinds of groups. The first is civics-minded organizations — the League of Women Voters, for exam ple — that believe bringing all the candi dates together would be a service to voters. The second kind of sponsorship often is political — a local, state or even national party organization that wants to jazz up its own convention or meeting with an ex travaganza that will get on television and into the papers. The motives for both of these are com pletely legitimate, and in many cases the groups have achieved remarkable results with cattle shows. But candidates often see these appear ances differently. Their interest is in what the catde show might do for them, not how it would inform voters or liven up a state party convention. So some candidates don’t take part in cattle shows and some partici pate in every one that is held. It should be no surprise that the candi dates who like the shows usually are those whose poll ratings are low. For them, a cattle show is a marvelous way to let some one else gather a crowd. But for the candidates who already are established, cattle shows may be regarded as a waste of time. So it was recently in Minneapolis, where Ronald Reagan, John Connally, Howard Baker, Robert Dole and Philip Crane did not show up for a Republi can National Committee candidate forum. All of the above save Crane sent rep resentatives to the meeting and one of them explained why the candidate was not there: “There are no votes here for him. It would be like preaching to the saved. What he wants is audiences where the votes still are undecided and where he can persuade some people to come over to him.” However, that does not mean the cattle shows are a dying institution. As the primaries approach, even if the field gets larger, most candidates will find it in their best interests to start showing up for cattle shows. For one thing, the shows in primary states usually get statewide tv coverage and bring together most of the national press following the campaigns. And cattle shows do help unknown can didates get recognition. In 1976, Sen. Henry Jackson, apparently thought he was well enough known to be able to skip many of the shows. Jimmy Carter had no such illusions — he was ready to go anywhere enough Democrats were gathered to kill the echo in an auditorium. And, of course, Jackson was right there in the audience when Carter accepted the v Democratic presidential nomination. Top of the News CAMPUS Calender to be ready by fall The All-University Calender for the Fall Semester will be available for all students during the first week of classes in September. Organiza tions wanting information included on the calender may come to Room 221 in the Memorial Student Center no later than noon Wednesday, July 25. STATE Power failure hits San Antonio A power failure Monday blacked out Trinity University in San Antonio for most of the morning. The pre-dawn electrical blackout struck a 100-block area adjacent to the university for 15 minutes, but City Public Service workers restored power to most customers at 4:30 a. m. However, at mid-morning the university still had no electricity. A CPS dispatcher said the exact nature of the failure had not been determined, but a campus security guard said he heard a loud noise and saw a flash of light near a transformer which recently had been replaced. NATION Firefighters harassed in Toledo Firefighters in Toledo, Ohio were harassed throughout Sunday night and early Monday morning with trucks blocking routes to fires and a fire hose being cut after municipal employees, including police and fire workers, went on strike. The unions called the strike after rejecting the city’s offer of a 4.5 percent salary increase over three years. Several noneconomic issues also were in dispute, including one that would have police officers submit to lie detector tests. Mayor Doug DeGood, 32, collapsed at 7:30 a.m. Monday after all-night negotiations. He was taken to St. Vincent Hospital and Medical Center by ambulance where a hospital spokeswoman said he is in good condi tion and in the cardiac care unit for observation. Old and feeble stopping evil Two gunmen who tried to rob a senior citizens’ dance in Denver Friday night soon discovered their elderly victims had other ideas. Police said the masked men entered the Steele Community Center waving guns and yelling, “This is a stickup. Most of the dancers thought it was a joke until the robbers started collecting purses and wallets. At that point, one of the dancers hit a bandit, who fired a shot into the floor. The gunman then was chased to a stairway by another dancer, who wrestled him to the floor. Several participants took the man’s gun away and tossed it to another senior citizen. The second gunman then fired a shot over the dancers heads and was grabbed by Fay H. Ferree, 78, who was shot in the leg and hospitalized. Inves tigators said while Ferree and the second gunman were fighting, the first robber confronted the dancers with a large board and demanded his gun back. When the dancers returned the weapon, the robbers left. Navy recovers body from wreck MOV! P .i FOUl of MOV] Th sum: “C for dei bo; MSC Ru SAIL! MOV! tofl MIDP wil TEXA "N wo sioi plo tun TEC* dej sioi liv< wil SUM! “Ci bui dei bo> the ph< The U.S. Navy has recovered th& lastJb9fiuil$k>diee of American crewmen from an anti-submarine aircraft that crashed in Philippines waiters, the Navy Said Sunday. Navy divers retrieved the body out the U.S. Navy P-3B Orion aircraft at the bottom of Subic Bay where the four-engined turbo-prop plane plunged Wednesday shortly after tak ing off'from the Cubi Point Naval air station. A base spokesman said names of the crewmen will be released in Hawaii where they were based. WORLD Dayan to be released today Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan, recuperating from an operation last week to remove a cancerous growth from his large intestine, is feeling fine and will be released from his Tel Aviv hospital Tuesday, hospital officials said Monday. Dayan underwent surgery June 24 to remove a “localized malignant growth in the large intestine. All nearby organs, including the liver and stomach were examined and “clean,” Goldman said. Wright to visit German mines House Majority Leader James C. Wright, D-Texas, arrives in Bonn, West Germany Monday for talks on energy research and development with Volker Hauff, Minister of Research and Development, and on security with Hans Apel, minister of Defense. Wright heads a delega tion of congressmen who also will visit lignite strip mining operations between Cologne and Aachen, and a hydro gassification plant near Bonn. Mexican party leader confident Mexico’s ruling political party has claimed victory in the first con gressional elections to include the Communist Party in more than three decades. Local election authorities reported long lines at the polls and a turnout as high as 80 percent in the states of Guanajuato, San Luis Potosi and Puebla. Ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party president Gustavo Carvajal Moreno said preliminary counts in 206 of 300 congressional districts indicated an “indisputable triumph” for his party. The final results are expected by midweek. The PRI currently controls 196 out of 237 seats in the Chamber of Deputies, the Con gress’ lower house, with the rightist National Action Party a distant second with 20 seats. 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 Editin', The Battalion, Room 216, Reed McDonald Building, College Station, Texas 77843. 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Address: The Battalion, Room 216, Reed MEMBER Texas Press Association Southwest Journalism Congress Editor Karen Rogei* News Editor Debbie Para# Sports Editor Sean Pell; City Editor Roy Brag Campus Editor Keith Ta)l« Staff Writers Robin Thomps* Louie Arthur, Carolyn Blosser, Davil Boggan Photo Editor Clay Cocltril Photographer Lynn Blantf B 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-profit, supporting enterprise operated by studit® as a university and community newspapt Editorial policy is determined by the edit* 91
