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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 15, 1979)
Slouch by Jim Earle f A* Vv'7'/ :> -'7' 5 “Did you say that somebody sold you a ticket to listen to the game on your own radio in your own room?“ Opinion A&M ‘factory’ doors don’t slam shut The factory doors cracked open a little last week. Texas A&M University, over the years, has put more and more requirements in students’ curricula to successfully produce a money-making graduate. In the process, the ef ficient factory has also squeezed out the “air that rounds out a person’s view of the world and opens his mind. A proposal to give students nine free elective hours — to be selected outside their major department — was ex pected to go down in flames before the Academic Council last week. Observers figured opposition, mainly from engineering and hard science quarters, would sfnPther the attempt to liberate some hours for students. But the proposal did not die. Instead, it was sent to a special committee established to study it. That’s good. At least now the proposal has a chance. If a final vote had been taken, it probably would have been defeated. We hope the special committee will agree that students need opportunities in college to learn something besides how to make money. Maybe the factory doors will let in some fresh air. A fine statement, but... Encouraging Aggies to speak up with a firm “Howdy” sounds like a great idea, especially when a yell leader says it at Midnight Yell Practice. What’s not so great is following the statement with a really “grody” fable, or stoiy. Most stories are encouraging, demeaning of the other school, or downright funny. The second fable at Friday’s Yell Practice was funny, but good humor has its bounds — and that particular one crossed the bounds of good taste. It’s downright embarrassing to be with a date when a grody fable is told. But more than that, it’s downright embarrassing to admit to an old Ag that that kind of story typifies Yell Practices today. Jokes don’t have to be embarassing to be funny; we can knock another team or encourage our own without being gross. And we can laugh then, too. The reason for saying “Howdy” to old Aggies — and everyone else — is to impress them with Aggie spirit, friendliness and traditions. How impressed are they at our traditionally — sometimes exceptionally — off-color stories? The Battalion US PS 045 360 LETTERS POLICY Letters to the editor should not exceed 3(X) 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 he 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 seriods and the summer, when it is published on Tuesday hrough 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 Liz Newlin Managing Editor Andy Williams Asst. Managing Editor Dillard Stone News Editors Karen Cornelison and Michelle Burrowes Sports Editor Sean Petty City Editor Roy Bragg Campus Editor Keith Taylor Focus Editors Beth Calhoun and Doug Graham Staff Writers Meril Edwards, Nancy Andersen, Louie Arthur, Richard Oliver, Mark Patterson, Carolyn Blosser, Kurt Allen, Debbie Nelson Photo Editor Lee Roy Leschper Jr. Photographers Lynn Blanco, Sam Stroder, Ken Herrera Cartoonist Doug Graham 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, self- supporting enterprise operated by students as a university and community newspaper. Editorial policy is determined by the editor. ca The Battalion Texas A&M University Monday October 15, 1979 Staff notebook R.I.P. Dutch Osborne By ANDY WILLIAMS Battalion Staff A good cowboy and a good cowman died last week. He was my grandfather. His name was Dutch Osborne. Though the name on his birth certificate was David W., the nickname he picked up as a tow headed boy hung on long after his hair had turned black and even when it was speck led with gray. The phrase “a good cowboy and a good cowman” was his. It was the highest com pliment I ever heard Granddad pay any one. He said it in reference to a ranch foreman named Clint whom I remember chiefly for the barbed-wire cuts on his hands. I liked the phrase because it brought up two qualities that were, in Granddad’s eyes, important for a man to have, and drew a distinction between them. A cow boy is one who works directly with stock. A cowman is one who is in the cattle busi- not by my own citified, judgment, but by his financial success and the respect that other good cowboys and cowmen paid him. He was solitary but not lonesome. There were few people whose standards he worried about conforming to, and I think that is what allowed him to be inde pendent. When he was born in the Panhandle in 1908, about 75 percent of the people in Texas lived on farms and ranches. By 1970, the Texas Almanac says, only about 3.5 percent did. Probably because of that change, there are fewer and fewer men like him now. He lived in a thoroughly different world than the one that has developed. I know Granddad fit his own description Granddad froze his feet when he and his dad, on horseback, drove a herd of mules about 45 miles from the family farm south east of Pampa to Clarendon one day. He survived the Dust Bowl and the De pression farming near the town of Panhan dle. In general, he hated the government, feeling it took his money needlessly and spent it foolishly. This was probably partly responsible for causing his last fistfight, which he had when he was in his forties. It was with a county employee who was working near Granddad’s land. I heard the story second-hand and don’t know what the fight was about (specifically) or who won, but I was told it gave Granddad consider able pleasure. He was ungodly tough. He was not much more than 5-foot-7, but he wore a 17-inch shirt collar. One winter day when my folks and I were visiting him and my grandmother, several of his cows began to calve. My dad, his son-in-law, went with him to help out. Dad said later the cold had been terrible — the temperature was zero and the wind was more than 40 miles an hour — but Granddad had stayed out in it all the time, refusing to get ii even the few times he had a He must have been bored after working on his farm. When lie 68, he and I watched his son sta Granddad picked up the last b weighed about 65 pounds).off.theu threw it into the ham. “Just wo] could still do that, he said with of-faet expression. Like most Texas men of his he rarely exhibited tenderness which made it memorable when lie saw it happen once. A little girl cousin of mine crawledi his lap one day when she wasaix there are angels, they are like her sister. She sat and looked at him, then him and said, “I love you. It toe almost no time to decide to forii composure. “I love you, too,’’hesaii kissed her. They sat there foralo her blond hair against his dark That’s a picture of him I intendtok / .».■ A wsr, • • Melody J( Broder The triumph of the unfashiombh we are seeing victory over By DAVID S. BRODER WASHINGTON — It is dangerous to draw too much meaning from historical coincidence, but the temptation is strong today. When teams from Pittsburgh and Baltimore are playing a World Series, right after the pope from Poland has met with the President from Plains, a message is being delivered which cannot be ig nored. What we are witnessing these days is a triumph of the unfashionable, a victory over elitism and a vindication of the victims of social snobbery. A President who eats grits, a pope who likes Polish sausage, and two cities of beer-drinking steelworkers occupy the spotlight — to the envy of those with fancier tastes. It is not clear what effect this cultural inversion will ultimately have on this soci ety. But for the moment, it has focused attention on some of the neglected sources of America’s strength, particularly in its blue-collar, ethnic neighborhoods. The men who planned the pope’s triumphant American tour were more sen sitive to these sources of our strength than are many of the leaders of our own coun try. The pope s trip was, in many respects, a neighborhood tour. Yes, he visited the United Nations and the White House, the symbols of secular power. But the most affecting scenes of his journey came in the neighborhoods, from Boston’s North End to Harlem and the South Bronx to Chicago’s Milwaukee Avenue and Pilsen. Switching easily from Polish to Italian to Spanish to English, the pope emphasized and endorsed the ethnic diversity that is one of America’s unique qualities. By visiting the neighborhood churches as well as the great cathedrals of his faith, he underscored the role of those churches as the cornerstones, not only of Catholi cism, but of the secular communities they serve. As it happens, Baltimore and Pittsburgh, rivals in baseball s autumn classic, are preeminently cities of neighborhoods. Their triumph in the regu lar season and the playoffs created a World Series match-up far different in character from the Los Angeles-New York rivalry a year ago. The Dodgers, with the claque of Hol lywood fans, were emblematic of show biz glitter and promotional hype. The Yankees were “the best team money could buy, ” an expression of aggressive corporate power in a city that operates all too much on the premise that wealth is the ultimate weapon in any struggle. By contrast, the Pirates and the Orioles are, if one can say so, the pope’s kind of ballclubs: athletic, outgoing, dedicated — and very good at their work. Their skills are the fundamental skills of strength and speed and stamina. They mirror the diver sity of America — from Stargell to Stanhouse to Parker to DeCinces to Flanagan to Candelaria to Lowenstein to Tekulve to Garcia. It is not accidental, I think, that Pittsburgh and Baltimore are cities that are making it more than baseball. They are examples of the older, indus trial centers that have looked ruin in the not an eai versity’s high scho of the sea tend an ^ face — and fought their way back fa Pittsburgh has cleaned its air, rebul downtown and revived its spirit. When the U.S. Conference of met there earlier this year, visitif executives found themselves in the# of an arts festival that was a marvelois pression of both the culinary and erf^ richness of the city’s many cultures As Pittsburgh has exploited its t rivers as the focus of its revival, sol- more has begun to do with its harbor fice and apartment buildings share? along the waterfront, and, onceagair arts have been given a prominent pb the mixture. There is nothing fashionable about® cities, or their teams, anymore t is in having a Krakow pope oraCrJ> President. But it is a joy to sec fashionable ones reduced to spectf roles for a change. (c) 1979, The Washington Post Company Letters Did you notice which coach’s team ranked 20th in the nation by UPI? Editor: Did anyone happen to notice who was ranked as the number 20 team in the na tion in the UPI poll for Wednesday, Oc tober 10? In case you didn’t — it was Mississippi State. And just who is head coach at Mississippi State? Why, none other than Emory Bellard. A rather interesting bit of trivia relative to us down here among the unranked. — D. Kerr, ’81 loans for college students, for deregulation of the trucking industry, and favors anti trust laws. And Kennedy is for job pro grams in which the poor can earn money instead of having it given to them free. You also stated that our present Presi dent is the worst “President since LBJ and FDR. Sir, LBJ had one of the best domestic policies of any President since the beginning of the United States of America. In his administration he passed major reform and civil rights bills that have benefited ALL people. As for FDR, his administration helped to pull the U.S. out of the Depression. That can hardly be deemed as bad. In the fifth paragraph you stated that the “real downtrodden in this country are the whole American people who are barely coping with government caused inflation and energy shortages.” You should have inserted “poor” for “whole” for the rich are not downtrodden. They are doing f well — especially big business. You are asking us to elect a man would not give a cent to the poor, but- thing and everything to the people are retarding the growth of tbe k ,f classes. True, Ted Kennedy is nota« servative Republican who wishes onl) big business to dilapidate the poor, f then neither are most Democrats. Bill Wool sc'. Kennedy no socialist Thotz by Doug Grahan Editor: Dear Mr. Leonardon, Concerning your letter relating Senator Edward Kennedy and socialism: Socialism is a theory concerning a political state in which collective or governmental owner ship of the means of production and distri bution of goods is advocated. Sir, Sen. Kennedy does not advocate socialism. No man/woman running on a major party ticket could expect to win the nomination with socialism as his/her platform. You mentioned some of Kennedy’s policies — big spending, welfare pro grams, etc. However, you left out that he is pro-E.R.A., pro-busing, for government i
