by Jim Earle
“We probably ought to put the kerosene in something be
sides a coffee pot, but I guess it doesn’t matter now.”
Opinion
U.S. should be
"mad as heir
In the movie “Network,” the TV anchorman urges his
viewers to stand up and tell authorities they were “mad as
hell” and “not going to take it anymore.”
It’s time for the American people — and the American
president — to stand up and tell the Ayatollah Ruhollah
Khomeini they are mad as hell and not going to take it
anymore.
Iranian students are presently holding 60 to 65 hostages in
the American embassy in Tehran. The Iranians have
threatened to murder the hostages and cut off oil to the
United States if their demands for extradition of the shah are
not met.
The ayatollah has given the students his blessing and his
support.
The United States should not be blackmailed in this
r i
fashion.
True, the Iranians can cut off their oil exports to the U.S.
Let them. WeTl walk.
We’d rather walk than put up with being used as a patsy
by a religous radical.
We’d rather walk than live under the threat of having
Americans used as hostages and poker chips in some sick
game of blackmail and intimidation.
We’d rather walk than bow to a third-rate dictatorship
afraid to show itself to its own people.
The United States should not settle merely for the safe
release of the hostages nor for a diplomatic apology.
The United States, most notably James Earl Carter Jr.,
should inform the ayatollah and his followers further epi
sodes of this nature will not be tolerated.
Period.
In other words, “We’re mad as hell and we re not going to
take it anymore.”
the small society by Brickman
To
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The Battalion
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Editor Liz Newlin
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Staff Writers Meril Edwards, Nancy
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Opinions expressed in The Battalion are
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Editorial policy is determined by the editor.
VIEWPOINT
The Battalion
Texas A&M University
Thursday
November 8, 1979
Broder
Spokane s prosperous population
views presidential candidates dimly
By DAVID S. BRODER
BELLINGHAM, Wash. — In Spokane,
they are expanding the airport and reveling
in a record wheat crop. In Seattle, they
brag about Boeing’s $16 billion backlog of
civilian airplane orders. And here, a visitor
is taken to a hilltop to see the tanker from
Alaska making one of its regular deliveries
of crude oil to the new Arco refinery.
If the country is in a recession, it is hard
to find evidence in the Northwest. The
economy is booming, population is grow
ing, and most of the people here enjoy the
good life. The weather has been warm
enough to encourage weekend use of the
cottages on the San Juan Islands, and the
start of the skiing season in the Olympics is
only a few weeks away.
This distant corner of the United States
(“as far from Washington, D.C., as you can
get inside the continental boundaries,”
Dean James Davis of Western Washington
University points out) gives a view of the
nation through the opposite end of the tele
scope.
But with the national election now exact
ly a year away, the panorama provided by
the clear air of the Puget Sound may not be
the worst perspective from which to view
what lies ahead.
Up here, where local television stations
serve a larger audience of Canadians than
of Americans, there is a sense of impending
political change. Those who live on the
American side if the border watched their
neighbors in British Columbia last spring
turn out first the provincial government of
David Barrett and then federal govern
ment of Pierre Elliott Trudeau.
The prospect of losing Jimmy Carter as
their President does not trouble their spir
its any more than one of the brief rain
showers that move down from the Cas
cades. What does concern them are the
options available to replace him.
They have seen a good many of the can
didates come jetting through, collecting
cash for their coffers and names for their
campaign committees. They are braced for
an assault from Ted Kennedy and Ronald
Reagan, the clear favorites today to win the
Democratic and Republican precinct cau
cuses that will be held next March.
But they wonder if these panting, striv
ing, revved-up would-be Carter replace
ments really understand what the country
is seeking.
Former three-term Gov. Dan Evans (R),
now president of Evergreen College in
Olympia, says that Kennedy and his high-
powered staff members strike him as ex
treme examples of Rep. Joel Pritchard’s
(R-Wash.) description of the eager-beaver
habituees of Capitol Hill: people who
“have bigger propellers than rudders.”
“I think the country’s looking for a rud
der,” says Evans, who suggests that the
latent leadership hunger may not so much
be a yearning for a rebirth of the New
Frontier as a desire to return to the calm
and confidence of Dwight D. Eisenhower’s
years.
The candidate who is closest to
Eisenhower, at least in vintage, is Reagan.
But the doubts expressed about him as a
potential President are at least as deep as
those troubling people about Kennedy.
It is not “the age issue,” in its simple
form. Washington state does not discrimin
ate against senior citizen-politicians. Sen.
Henry M. Jackson (D) is 67, and Sen. War
ren G. Magnuson (D), 74. Mag
for re-election in 1980, and
opposition of an estimable
moderate, Slade Gorton, is a :
rite for another term.
But Jackson and Magnusonaren
tinually engaged in the issues:
lenges of government, while Re
content to go for years at a tim
more substantive involvement in
of the country than as a providenj
one-liners about the follies of Wa:
Thoughtful people here—one
in newspaper offices and corpon
quarters — ask if Reagan has beenij
for President so long now thatitisll
rather than the responsibility, I
ly craves.
Carter’s hold on this burge
beautiful corner of the country!
than shaky. Often, his presidency!)
be discussed in the past tense.
But the doubts about his twon
able replacements run deep as i
that is what clouds the picture, <
clear day. ( c ) X h e Wash
Post Company
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Letters
Rice band members say 2 Aggies
went too far with school rivalry
Editor:
Colonel Woodall, ROTC Commandant:
It is most definitely not our desire to
cause any enmity between the students of
Rice University and the students of Texas
A&M University. However, an unfortun
ate incident has occurred concerning the
conduct of some of the Corps members
under your direction, and we feel it must
deserve your attention.
After the Texas A&M football game with
Rice, in the late afternoon of Oct. 27, two
members of the Marching Owl Band were
walking to dinner down a side-street in the
Village, an area of shops adjacent to Rice
University. As the game had ended only an
hour before, we were still in our uniforms.
At this point, several Corps members in
a pick-up truck began following us down
the partially-deserted street. After perhaps
a minute of this, two members suddenly
approach us, running from behind; and
upon reaching us, they forcibly removed
our band hats. In the process. Miss Pearson
received a blow to the head and Mr. Wicks
was shoved hard to the side by a blow to the
shoulder. Our assailants then jumped into
the back of the pick-up.
impossible, reimbursement of the same.
Due to great efforts, not only on the part
of ourselves but of every MOB member, to
conduct ourselves in a friendly and accom-
madating manner, we feel we must express
our personal disappointment in the way
these efforts were apparently received, and
hope that the conduct demonstrated by
these few members of the Corps is not
representative of the conduct and senti
ments of the later majority.
Thank you for your consideration and
prompt action on this matter.
— Pamela Pearson
— David Wicks, Jr.
Editor’s note: This letter was sent original
ly to Colonel Woodall. Copies were sent to
President Miller; Dr. Norman Hacker-
man, president of Rice University; Dr.
Samuel M. Carrington, proctor of Rice;
The Rice Thresher and the Houston Post.
Strong stand needed
We realize that, school rivalries being
what they are, occasional pranks will occur.
However, the theft of these items, which
was totally unprovoked, and the rough
manner in which it was carried out, to us
seems going too far with that rivalry.
As Corps and ROTC members, surely
these students are required to conduct
themselves like officers, “as honorable and
chivalrous gentlemen.” The members in
volved in the theft removed their Khaki
shirts and trousers while still in the pick-up
truck and so were in nothing but their
underwear at the time of the assault. Surely
this act of simply removing their outer clo
thing did not nullify, legally or in spirit, the
high code of honor by which cadets live.
Once more, we want to emphasize the
fact that we do not wish to cause any trou
ble between Rice and Texas A&M; nor do
we have any desire for punishment of the
Corps members involved. All we request is
the return of our hats, or if this proves
Editor:
After the current developments in Iran,
I feel it is time that someone condemns the
Iranian students that have ruthlessly taken
our American Embassy in Tehran. America
has been called “Evil” and “The Satanic
America” by Iranian students.
When the Ayatollah Khomeini came into
power in Iran, he was called a “great reli
gious leader.” Now this pseudo-saint has
come out with statements such as “In the
name of God the merciful, America —
death to your plot ... The U.S. is Enemy
no.l of Humanity and the Iranian People.”
I fail to see the correllation between hu
manity and a nation whose government
fails to protect American citizens living in
the land. Khomeini has condoned the hold
ing of American hostages in Tehran. There
is no excuse for this action. The Iranian
government has an undeniable duty to pro
tect all people in their country from ruth
less barbaric actions. If the Iranian govern
ment refuses to take action in the Amer-
cian’s behalf, drastic action of some sort
should be called for.
If American is indeed a “satanic” place, I
fail to see how any Iranians in their right
mind could stand to live here. If we are
lawless, our only line of action to follow is
simply to force every Iranian living in the
U.S. to leave — immediately. We could of
course hold every Iranian in the U.S. hos
tage until the Americans in Tehran are re
leased. This will not happen because the
U.S. government would never condone
this action. And they shouldn’t. The U.S.
has a responsibility, and we fulfill it.
This action by the Iranians simply
the world that Iran wants venj
against the Shah — and they w
innocent people if they must to
their goal.
I’m sorry, but the Iranians have
ways to go before they can call thei
“Humanitarians.” I seriously hope
hear no more accusations against tk
by Iranians living in America for a
After all, at least we do not go arou:
ing Iranian Embassies.
— Mike M
preening t
fadergoes.
The band
ers each in 1
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|lected fi
umpeters,
ummers.
Ring lost, found
Editor:
I would like to thank Kim Hammei
found and returned my A&M seniot
when I lost it in the library. Sherespo
to my ad in last week’s Battalion, a»
she would not accept the reward o§' :
would like to publicly express myapf
tation of her honesty.
Not only is it great to have myrin|
it is nice to know that one can count01
fellow Aggies!
— Mary Dodd f
Thotz
by Doug Grak
(TORK, HOW LDYTIL OF YOU T0 N
^ —^STAY WITH ME.
& Lj