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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 17, 1979)
Viewpoint The Battalion Texas A&M University Tuesday • July 17, 1979 Carter made sense — finally You can disagree with the policies of the Carter administration, but you cannot deny he made sense in his speech to the American people Sunday night. Carter was smart. He looked at the problem and put the burden of responsi- blity where it belongs. He left it up to the people of the United States to save energy and make sure Congress supports his plans. It is time we forget our greedy self- interests and start pulling together. The American people have complained about government for the last 20 years and have done nothing about it. It’s about time we start doing something about it. Presi dent Carter has given us the incentive. Of course his plans mean self-sacrifice for everyone. I think we can park our cars a couple of days a week, live with the thermostat at 78 instead of 68 and ride the bus. But if you really think about it, we have no choice. Because of the energy crisis the dollar is on a steady decline against foreign currency, the inflation rate is going out of sight and the public morale has hit an all- time low. He also put the gas companies on the spot. Carter wants to set the oil import quota at 1977 levels. This will cause the oil com panies to squeal and scream, but maybe it will finally make Exxon, Texaco, Gulf and the others get off their duffs and find other \ .F ways to make money. Of course, by de veloping new energy technology to make money, the public will eventually be bene fited. Carter will also ask Congress to set up a Security Energy Corporation to develop new energy sources. The corporation will use the money from a windfall profits tax on oil profits to finance research and de velopment. If run properly, the corpora tion could be an enormous benefit to the United States. It is one step forward in energy self-sufficiency. He also wants to set up an emergency gasoline rationing program in case it is needed and an Energy Mobilization Board to cut through the red tape in energy planning. Of course the implementation of these programs depends on passage by Con gress. Unfortunately, Congress, has been voting the way of special interest with lit tle regard to the future implications ol bills. Also, I cannot imagine Congress vot ing for anything that will cut through red tape. There could be many benefits from the programs Carter outlined. Development of new technology will create new jobs. Energy self-sufficiency itself will stabilize the dollar. Our money will stay here in stead of into the bank accounts and treasuries of Arabian shieks and South American governments. Working for a common goal is something the people of the United States has not done since World War II. It is time we all worked together again. All of the president’s suggestions de pend on the American people. He has of fered the public a way for the United States to regain the respectibilty and power it once had. Of course, no plan is perfect. There will be problems, but Car ter’s plan is all we have now. Carter has made many mistakes in his administration. Maybe this time he did something right. In our present situation our only alterna tive seems to be giving him a chance to see if he is right. —K.A.T Synthetic Congress could solve all By DAVID BRODER WASHINGTON — It was not until the 19th day of President Carter’s domestic summit conference that someone came up with the answer to all of the country’s energy problems. By that time, the President had met with the best minds in the political, academic, religious, business and labor- union worlds. He had consulted with 37 media advisers, 14 pollsters, an Indian mystic, a vegetarian foundation president, the inventor of the automated oar-lock, and representatives of every group cov ered by any affirmative-action program in the country. At his daughter Amy’s suggestion, he fi nally agreed to meet with the brightest children in her grade school. And, while none of his aides would confirm directly that it was one of the children who provided the long-sought answer, it is a fact that it was right after that group left the mountaintop that Jody Powell asked the networks to provide time for the Pres ident to adress the nation. Afterward, people wondered how such an obvious answer could have escaped so many smart people for so long. Forget about the synthetic fuels program, the kids told Carter. There is plenty of natural fuel in the ground, up in the sky, and inside the atom. What America needs is a Synthetic Congress. As soon as he heard that phrase. Carter knew his long quest was ended. The an swer that had eluded Richard Nixon, Jerry Ford and even himself for more than two years had come straight from the tongue of this child. For six years, he and his predecessors had been pleading for action from Con gress on an energy program. And for six years, anything that any President suggested was amended, rejected, or just simply ignored, by Congress. As long as Congress existed, there would be no escape from this pattern, for any energy program which might address the long-term needs of the nation had un acceptable short-term political costs for the members of Congress. Abolishing Congress would have been the easy way out, but Carter had too much respect for the Constitution to consider that. Synthesizing Congress posed no such test to his conscience, and it rather in trigued his engineering mind. A task force on a Synthetic Congress was created, and within 48 hours reported back to the President that the task was even easier than it looked. Congress has only two visible, public aspects, Stuart Eizenstat said in a memo, which was promptly leaked to the press. And neither has to be disturbed. There are 14,000 men and women on the staffs of House and Senate members and their committees. They work five days a week, and frequently on weekends and evenings, arranging hearings, drafting bills, writing reports and press-releases, all designed to impress the public with the effort Congress is Imaking to solve the na tion’s problems. Their work can go forward as usual. There are also 535 senators and repre sentatives who spend most of their time hearing testimony, meeting with con stituents and lobbyists, giving speeches, visiting their districts, appearing on radio and televison — all to show that they really care. No need to disturb their work, either. The only part of the real Congress’ routine that would have to be turned over to the Synthetic Congress was the part that everyone forgets: voting on bills. And, fortunately, neither the members nor the staff of Congress nor the public cares that much about voting. Patrick Caddell surveyed the members of the House and Senate and found that 87 percent said they would be relieved if they did not have to leave their offices, televi sion interviews or district meetings to vote on legislation. A separate survey of 1,500 voters found that only three knew how their representative or senator had voted on any issue related to energy in the last five years. As for the 14,000 staff members, they assured the interviewers that whether a bill was passed or defeated made no differ ence to them. They would show up the next day in either case, to plan new hear ings, draft new bills, write new reports and issue new press-releases. The only question remaining was how to synthesize the vote casting members of Congress. The President was given three options. The first was to have the CIA electronically jam the voting-machines in the House to produce majorities for ad ministration bills, no matter what the acutal vote. The President said that smacked too much of “dirty tricks. The second was to have Joe Califano in struct the National Institutes of Health to “clone” all 535 members of Congress with people who would accept as gospel all White House briefings. Carter turned that down on the ground that it might be too easy to reprogram them to accept instruc tions from Ted Kennedy. Option three came from Amy, and the President liked it immensely. It is still se cret. But if you are one of the handful of people who look closely at Congress vot ing, you might notice that on energy is sues, those who rush onto the floor seem a little shorter that adults, and answer their names in high pitched voices. Since the Synthetic Congress program began, the energy shortages have started to disappear, and OPEC is getting wor ried. There is hope that by the time Amy’s class graduates to high school and acquires other interests, the real Congress may be able to resume its duties. Letters to the Editor th e small society by Brickman ®<3>-N0REL WBE NEXT YEAR cQ - LOSl l N <£> ^-SUMMER School snaaSTUN '77 Other ‘whoopers’ Editor: I resent the declarations by Roy Bragg in his recent article (Battalion, July 10) on movies shown at A&M. He accuses CTs of being the ones who cause all the distur bances during films. I agree with him that any vocalized re sponse to what’s on the screen should be stopped. But I say he’s absolutely wrong to say only CTs make the noise. I’ve sat through many, many more Aggie events and movies at the Grove and elsewhere than he’ll ever see, and a lot of the “who- opers” and whistlers were civilian and female students as well as CTs. I’ve even see lots of little kids dropped off by their parents and allowed to run wild and raise Cain at Aggie shows. Yes, the noise is distracting. It’s child ish, disgusting and deprives everyone else of having a good time. But to always drop blame on the Corps of Cadets at A&M every time something goes wrong or causes problems is pure ignorance. After all, many of the traditions Bragg applauds were orginated and sustained by Corps members. Yes, I was in the Corps from 1970-74. But I’m not a redneck — John Birch — KKK — ultra-conservative square. I be lieve in truth in journalism. Bragg obvi ously doesn’t. —H.O. “Hank” Wahrmund IH, ’74 Suit dreaded Editor: I am a female graduate of Texas A&M University, Class of 1970. Today I re ceived a newsletter from Mark Satter- white, class of’70 agent, and in it was news that I had long expected and dreaded ... that a sex discrimination suit had been filed by female students against Texas A&M- This news upset and angered me, and I would like to make my opinion known through this letter. I spent SVz years at Texas A&M and I’ll admit there were a few times that I felt discriminated against by some profs and some fellow students. But I was there be fore Texas A&M was fully coeducational and girls were a definite miniority. But I received an excellent education and many, many happy memories. Most of those memories are of that “Aggie spirit” that is so very real yet impossible to explain in words, and of the traditions of Texas A&M such as the Aggie Band, Silver Taps, etc. These “traditions” are what set our Uni versity apart from other good schools of higher learning. And, you may not have realized it yet if you haven’t been at Texas A&M very long, but we are set apart! So, to these girls who feel discriminated against, I urge you to stop and think long and hard about what you are doing. A de gree from Texas A&M will open many doors for you — doors that before had been closed. These doors will open for several reasons ... partly, your hard work; but also partly because of the University from which you graduated. So, please do not do anything to tear down the reputa tion of Texas A&M through a court order or adverse publicity. It would be a great harm to school so many of us love! —Lois Johnette Jarvis, ’70 Editor’s note: Melanie Zentgraf, a junior in the Corps of Cadets, filed a dis crimination suit May 4 against Texas A&M charging that the Corps prevents woman members from joining traditional male organizations such as the Texas Aggie Band, Ross Volunteers and Parsons Mounted Cavalry. 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: V Not exceed 300 words or 1800 characters in length. V Be neatly typed whenever possible. Hand-written letters are acceptable. V Include the author’s name, ad dress and telephone number for verification. '• Guest viewpoints, in addition to Letters to the Editor, are welcome. All pieces submitted to Readers’ forum should be: • Typed triple space • Limited to 60 characters per line • Limited to 100 lines Top of the News STATE Doctor pleads not guilty' A Knoxville, Tenn., physician Tuesday waived arraignment in fed eral court in San Antonio and entered a plea of innocent to a charge he mailed a bomb to his ex-wife, who is a nurse at a Kerrville, Texas, hospital. Dr. M. Dean Loftis, 28, was scheduled for arraignment before U.S. Magistrate Joseph Leonard, but instead signed the waiver which automatically entered the ‘not guilty plea. A Court spokesman said Loftis was arrested in Knoxville on June 27, the day after the San Antonio federal grand jury indicted him on charges ol violating U.S. postal law by mailing a stick of dynamite, wires to explode, to Francisca Loftis at Sid Peters Hospital in Kerrville, lo cated 60 miles northwest of San Antonio. The woman, who divorced Loftis last Nov. 13, telephoned police on June 13 when the mysteri ous package arrived and she saw wires protruding from it. Authorities said Loftis was ordered by a Roane County, Tenn., court last January to pay his ex-wife $3,600 in child support payments on which he had fallen behind. NATION \ Well being readied for cap Workers used cutting torches Tuesday to remove broken valves and pipes at a natural gas wellhead in Port Hudson, La., in prepara tion for attempts to cap the raging well that has been burning for a week. Spokesmen for the Amoco Production Co. said workmen cleared debris under a spray of water that kept flames away during the operation at the well one mile north of Baton Rouge."We are now involved in a critical phase of debris removal, said Amoco spokes man Dave Tayrien. “We plan to cut a small portion of the wellhead off and remove what remains of the drilling rig s substructure from around the well. ” He said most of the debris should be removed by Wednesday when well firefighter Asgar “Boots’ Hansen of Boots and Coots Inc. will decide how he will attempt to control and extinguish the fire. Police wont be there — Aloha! Hawaii residents have heen advised to stay at home to protect their : property and cut down traffic congestion because of a sickout by Honolulu policemen demanding a 10.5 percent pay boost. An official of the State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers said, Now they’re going to feel it.” The Hawaii Public Employment Relations) Board Sunday declared the sickout illegal and filed petitions in the county courts seeking injunctions that would return the officers to their jobs. The board said the sickout represented a "danger to the public.” The 1,800-member police officers association said 90percent of its members were off the job. Assistant Honolulu Chief Edwin Ross asked for public cooperation “in these trying times.” The police union, besides demanding the pay boost, sought higher car allow ances and a written guarantee there would be no retaliation against the union leadership because of the sickout. . ( Reynolds heir on trial for fraud Federal prosecutors in Richmond, Va., will attempt to prove that Smith Bagley, the heir to the Reynolds Tobacco Co. fortune and a friend of President Carter, was guilty of fraud in his handling of a conglomerate he headed. The trial of Bagley and four co-defendants, which begins Tuesday, concerns Bagley’s handling of The Washing ton Group, an ice cream and textile company. The company filed for reorganization and protection in federal bankruptcy court in June 1977. The trial, which observers have said could last four weeks, is expected to deal with the company’s complex financial maneuvers. Bagley and the four codefendants are accused of conspiring to manip ulate the stock of the Winston-Salem, N.C., based conglomerate. Bagey also is charged with fraud and the misapplication of bank funds. Pennsylvania gas strike over Striking independent gasoline dealers in Pennsylvania and Dela ware have reached a tentative agreement on their allocation demands and called an end to their brief shutdown. The end of the shutdown, which began Friday at some 4,000 gasoline stations in the two states, came before its full effect could be felt. Generally there were no long gas lines and no panic buying during the weekend. Details of the strike-ending agreement were to be worked out at a meeting Tuesday with energy officials at the White House, said Thomas Anderson, executive director of the Pennsylvania-Delaware Service Station Dealers Association in Pittsburgh. WORLD Two more die from hotel fire Two more persons died today of injuries suffered in a fire in the Hotel Corona de Aragon in Sargossa, Spain, raising the death toll to 71, the civil government said. Eight more victims remained hos pitalized in critical condition. The civil government had reported 72 people were killed and three more missing and presumed dead but lowered the figure during the weekend. The latest fatalities, both Spaniards, were identified as Pilar Gonzalez Fuertes and Begona Alvarez de Velasco. The Battalion USPS 045 360 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. 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 TIM' United Press International is entitled exclusivelyW use for reproduction of all news dispatches credited Rights of reproduction of all other matter herein Second-Class postage paid at College Station, TX MEMBER Texas Press Association Southwest Journalism Congress Editor Karen Hof* 1 News Editor Debbie PaR s Sports Editor SeanP* 1 City Editor RoyBfl Campus Editor Keith Ta)l Staff Writers Robin ThompS 1 ^ Louie Arthur, Carolyn Blosser, Da" Boggan Photo Editor Clay Cock! Photographer LynnBl#* 1 Cartoonist GregSprosl |, 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, 4 supporting enterprise operated by si as a university and community newt Editorial policy is determined by the eiM