Slouch
by Jim Earle
“I thought Vd leave a little room for the reader to exercise his
imagination/’
Opinion
It s t.u. at the game,
UT when it counts
There are small indentations on the band of the Aggie
ring.
Tradition says they represent the assholes of the Universi
ty of Texas.
And Saturday our football team will play their football
team — but that’s about the only place the two institutions
are in conflict.
Off the playing fields, the two generally join forces.
In the Texas Legislature last spring they worked together
to keep other universities’ hands off the $1.2 billion endow
ment they share, which is second only to Harvard Universi
ty’s in size.
The Permanent University Fund, they say, enables UT
and A&M to be “universities of the first class. ” The argu
ment makes sense: A lot of money split between two places
makes more of a difference than a lot of money split among
33 places.
And in the halls of the State Capitol, the spirit was one of
cooperation between the two schools, the flagships of the
largest university systems in the state.
UT and A&M also share a graduate program or two. And
faculty from the schools may use each other’s library system.
But this weekend the Longhorns will be here, and we
naturally want to beat them.
There’s more about the ring tradition: About the time the
indentations wear down, Aggies realize the “teasips” aren’t
such assholes after all.
the small society
by Brickman
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The Battalion
U S P S 045 360
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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 Editor Beth Calhoun
Staff Writers Meril Edwards, Nancy
Andersen, Louie Arthur, Richard Oliver,
Mark Patterson, Carolyn Blosser, Kurt
Allen, Debbie Nelson, Rhonda Watters
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 ivriter of the
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Editorial policy is determined by the editor.
Viewpoint
urn
The Battalion
Friday
Texas A&M University
November 30, 1979
WASHINGTON
Emotional Iran problem hampi
Kennedy’s slow-starting campaiA
By DEAN REYNOLDS
United Press International
WASHINGTON — As Sen. Edward M.
Kennedy’s presidential bid enters its
fourth week, the Massachusetts Democrat
has yet to shake two problems that con
tinue to dog his campaign.
The first is Iran. Three days before Ken
nedy officially entered the race against
President Carter, Iranian students seized
the U.S. embassy in Tehran and took 49
Americans hostage. The emotional issue
has overshadowed Kennedy’s campaign
and forced him to issue daily declarations of
support for the man whose job he covets.
As politics, Iran is a fat zero for Kennedy.
Straying from support for Carter would
open Kennedy up to charges of reckless
demogoguery and willful threatening of the
lives of innocent people. By standing
squarely behind Carter, however, Ken
nedy does little to show America why he
thinks Carter is not providing leadership.
The second problem is the senator’s con
tinuing inability to articulate his reasons for
challenging Carter. His latest appearances
on television interview programs have
shown a marked improvement in his per
formance, but before campaign audiences,
he still fumbles for an explanation.
It is not as if Kennedy is caught off guard.
Usually the questions come from high
schoolers or factory workers in a set forum.
Here, in part, is Kennedy’s vague, ramb
ling, civics-book response to a student in
Milford, N.H., who asked him last
Wednesday why he is running.
“I believe in public service, and I also
believe that a public life and elected public
responsibility is a noble profession and I
think individuals who hold responsibilities
in public life make a difference in the quali
ty of life for the people that we represent
whether it is at the local level, the state
level or in the Congress or the Senate of the
United States.
“Secondly, I think that individuals can
make a difference and that each individual
should try.
“I think the presidency can make a very
major difference in the lives of the people
here at home and in the lives of people
throughout the world.
“I’ve had the opportunity to see the pres
idency from a close proximity during the
period of the 1960s, and believe I have
some understanding of both the opportuni
ties as well as the responsibilities of that
office and what it can mean to changing the
condition of people in the United States
and around the world.
“I run because I am distressed that we as
a people and as a society are not coming to
grips with the central problems that are of
constant concern to the American people:
in the areas of inflation, in the areas of
energy, in health care and in a variety of
other areas of public policy.
“And I personally believe, and believe
very deeply, that a president of the United
States has to he an active president and an
effective president and be totally involved
in these issues and with these problems if
we re going to correct them.
“And I believe that it will only be when
we have a president who is totally involved
that we really begin to come to grips with
these issues over the period of the 1980s.
“... I do run because I feel tint!
getting established for this i
sense of vision. We re not gettinj
established for this country. Wei
seen in this nation the inarshallij
that can implement those goi
galvanizing of the resourceso
— young people, old people;bis!
pie, workers — into the kind J
effort which this country has sees J
of times in its proud history,
“And 1 want to make somecoj
in that area to galvanize that ten
the American people face up to it
sibilities as we have in the histj
nation and I believe that wee
difference on these problems j
gig
|k ip;-'
why I
States.
run for president off
Kennedy can probably lines!?
and workers with such rhetoric,
the campaign heats up and thep
himself, starts asking thatsamef
Roberl
Cadets,
earnest, the Massachusetts Don vocal me
have to cut the verbiage and spe 7:30 p.m
(Pm ycmimMz-
Americans
are Etenls!
[A?
By J
Bai
he Texas
partment
ace to war
at their c<
’he Singi
ntury Sin
ed Wome
Moscow broadcasts in Iran violate detenU
The threat to put the Americans still held
hostage in Teheran on trial for spying is a
grave new development in the crisis. Once
trials begin in the revolutionary courts with
a mob outside crying for vengeance, the
process itself may impose its own irrevoc
able course.
We have every right to look to our
friends in Britain, France, West Germany
and Japan — all major oil clients of Iran —
for powerful intervention. But so tar we
hear only silence.
From the Soviet Union, on the other
hand, which surely has vested interest in
the immunity of its diplomats and embas
sies, there has been continuing, provoca
tive intervention by Moscow radio.
It is just a year to the day since President
Brezhnev warned President Carter against
interfering in the Iranian revolution. Car
ter, anxious not to upset SALT II negotia
tions, lamely responded that the United
States had no such intention and “we note
that the Soviet Union has said it will not
interfere.”
How naive can we be? Despite Russia’s
vote supporting the U.N. Security Coun
cil’s call for release of the hostages, Moscow
radio has whipped up anti-American frenzy
in Iran in Persian-language broadcasts by
Soviet commentators before and after the
seizure of our embassy. Sending National
Security Adviser Zbigniew Brazil
tell Soviet Ambassador Dobryninpi
that the broadcasts are bad formwiSj
results. The President should puli
nounee Moscow for this provocativfl
vention — a clear violation of detef
the accepted standards of intern
affairs, and of the trust which theij
ask Americans to put in the ne«[
treaty.
The New York Post
Letters
RV commander says Taps cartoon
extended beyond acceptable humor
Editor:
On behalf of the Ross Volunteer Com
pany, I would like to express my sincere
regret for the student body to have been
subjected to such poor taste in journalism
as was displayed by Doug Graham’s car
toon regarding Silver Taps on page 2 of
Monday’s Battalion. To refer to deceased
people as “inconsiderate slobs” is not only
in poor taste, but reflects poorly on the
judgment of the journalists on our news
paper staff. We do realize that cartoons are
written to portray a particular situation in a
humorous way, but this particular piece of
work extends beyond the scope of accept
able humor.
The comments regarding the R. V. Com
pany are totally out of context with the
article on the same subject and inconsistent
with the comments made by myself. It is a
complete travesty of justice to the R.V.
Company to have such misinformation
printed in the cartoon. The R.V. Company
is not only proud to take part in Silver Taps,
but each member of the Firing Squad holds
the ceremony as a cherished tradition in
which he is honored to be able to partici
pate. Members of the Firing Squad and
Bugle team feel an added responsibility to
each member of the student body for serv
ing fellow students in such a sacred tradi
tion.
Conflicts of schedules do arise, as they
always will, but members of the Firing
Squad and Bugle Team place Silver Taps
participation as one of their highest priori
ties. We as everyone, must be mentally
prepared and look on the ceremony as a
time to reflect on our own lives, an impor
tant thought in our busy days.
It must be firmly stated that the R.V.
Company did not initiate the Senate bill,
but do endorse it solely as means to further
enhance the tradition and retain, to the
utmost, its meaning to all Aggies.
Ignorance is very costly; lets not let it
cost us the degradation of a sacred and
cherished Aggie tradition.
— Terrell Pruett, ’80
Ross Volunteer Commander
and destroy their ruggedness. Get people’s
minds off their government hy focusing
their attention on sex, plays, and immoral
movies. Divide the people into hostile
groups, destroy the people’s faith in their
natural leaders by holding the latter up to
contempt and ridicule, preach true demo
cracy but seize power as fast and as ruth
lessly as possible, encourage them in extra
vagance, produce fear of inflation with ris
ing prices and general discontent. Incite
unnecessary strikes in vital industries, en
courage civil disorders, and force a lenient
and soft attitude on the part of government
towards disorders. Cause a breakdown of
the overall virtues of honest, sobriety, self-
respect, faith in the pledged word and rug
gedness.”
We live in a time of internationaltj
which has recently begun to aro»>|
anger. Yet, while 49 American livesrf
at stake and 3,000 Soviet combat]
dwell 90 miles from our shores,
threaten our peace of mind, ourfref
falling prey to that most silent pret
cancerous philosophy drawn up 0
ago.
I would like to quote Vince Loai
Freedom falling prey
Editor:
“Corrupt the young people. Get them
interested in sex, make them superficial
Ags, that didn’t come out of yesterday’s
Wall Street Journal, Houston Post, or New
York Times, but was printed in 1919 at
Dusseldorf, Germany, in the Communist
Rules of Revolution!
from his last speech in which he exp#
on freedom: “... we confuse it (free
with license ... before we can e®'
freedom we first have to embrace!
things which underline freedom,!
are duty, respect for authority, and
velopment of mental discipline.”
Americans, how we conduct ours
each moment and the thoughts weal
come into our minds determine theft
ation upon which the United State!
ultimate stand, or fall. The outcome
with each individual’s daily decision)
— Donald N, Strode
THOTZ
By Doug Grah
Clarification
Due to a typesetting error, a phrase
was left out of a sentence in a letter to
the editor in Thursday’s Battalion.
The letter was written by Pat Fierro,
assistant director of Intramurals.
The sentence should have read,
“Only University-recognized organi
zations and related University groups
are permitted use and reservation of
the recreational sports facilities (gym
nasiums, soccer fields, etc.).”
The Battalion regrets the error.
AT LAST!
I CAM ^TUr>V
WITHOUT
INTERRUPTION,