m
Slouch
by Jim Earle
EAB-L.C
Pfa 3-
“I just came in to assure you, now that football season
is over, that I’d have full time to devote to my studies for
the entire remainder of the semester. Could you refresh
me on the assignment that was due before the S.M.U.
game:
Opinion
Thanks, Dr. Miller
Our readership will not be as large today as it usually is.
But that’s all right.
The reason for the holiday from classes makes us — and
Aggies across the world — quite happy. It ends a disappoint
ing season on a good note and secures Coach Tom Wilson’s
job for a few more years.
But there’s another reason this holiday is popular with
students. An informal survey showed most students need
this day. A lot of tests were scheduled, and a lot of projects
were due.
So while there will be a little celebrating, we suspect
there will also be a lot of studying.
Isn’t that what college is all about?
Visa harassment unfair
President Carter’s implicit threat of U.S. military action in Iran underscores
the need for scrupulous attention to international law on the part of the Amer
ican government. The Carter administration should strive to avoid all semblance
of arbitrariness.
That principle applies with special force to the current review of the visas of
Iranians living and studying in this country. In some places, this has already
provided a pretext for official harassment. The Justice Department should make
it clear to Immigration and Naturalization Service agents that they are not to
inject politcal criteria into the visa review.
All Iranians in this country are guaranteed protection of their human rights
under the UN charter as well as the U.S. Constitution. That rules out any
attempts by the U.S. government to discover the political allegiance of indi
vidual Iranians.
The overreaction that has taken place so far represents a kind of creeping
McCarthyism. The government should order it to stop.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
the small society
by Brickman
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The Battalion
U S P S 045 360
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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
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Opinions expressed in The Battalion are
those of the editor or of the writer of the
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as a university and community newspaper.
Editorial policy is determined by the editor.
Viewpoint
cai
The Battalion
Texas A&M University
Monday
Decembers, 1979
tu
Broder
The most important questionl
Can he revitalize government!
I Late in tl:
nd grade t!
By DAVID S. BRODER
WASHINGTON — At breakfast the
other morning, two of the wise men of
American political journalism, Roscoe
Drummond and Theodore H. White, were
enlightening a group of lesser intellects ab
out the practice of their trade. White quote
an aphorism of Drummond’s which he sug
gested ought to be stenciled on our brains
as the 1980 campaign begins: “You can’t get
the right answers unless you know the
questions to ask. ”
What are the questions that need to be
asked of the men and women running for
office in the coming campaign? Dozens of
possibilities suggest themselves: “What
will you do about inflation? About our ener
gy vulnerability? About the growing
doubts about America’s capacity and will to
protect our vital interests in the world?”
There are scores of personal questions;
ranging from Chappaquiddick to the
source of campaign contributions. And
there are the hundreds of questions relect-
ing an individual’s or group’s particular
concern, be it abortions or busing, chirop
ractic or consumer protection, nuclear
power or nutrition programs.
But in the time that has elapsed since I
sat at the feet of Drummond and White,
the question that has come back to the top
of my own list for the 1980 candidates is of a
different character.
What is critical to know of people run
ning for office at every level from president
down to state legislature, I think, is this:
“What are you prepared and equipped to
do to contribute to the reconstitution of
effective government in this country?”
That is the operative translation of that
“search for leadership” which has become
the cliche theme of 1980 politics.
It suggests an understanding that what
has been most conspicuously lacking at the
federal level and in most of the states, as
well, during the past decade has not been
conscientious and capable performance by
individual officeholders, but rather a gov
ernment capable of delivering on its threats
and promises.
By putting the question in that particular
form it cuts off candidates from their most
cnvenient and least convincing answer —
the pledge that, by their personal skills,
they will mobilize public opinion to prod
the government to do what is needed.
That is a favorite answer of charismatic
presidential candidates, who would have
us believe that because of their personal
integrity, sincertiy or artistry with words,
they would charm the birds from the trees
and will good policies into existence. His
tory — expensive history — says other-
To go on electing people on the promise
that each of them will create his or her own
majority for his or her own program by his
or her own communion with the people is
to guarantee a continuation of the babel
and confusion that has served unsatisfactor
ily as a substitute for government these
past 10 years.
What we need, instead, are people in the
presidency and Congress, in state and local
government who understand the need for
coalition-building. We need people who
have demonstrated the skills of negotiation
and compromise, the insights, the articu
lateness and the boldness to overcome the
centrifugal forces tugging at government in
this hyper-pluralistic age.
Because these are rare skills, the best
proof of their existence in any individual
obviously lies in his or her demostration of
those skills in previous public offece.
Amateurs and outsiders, however well-
motivated, are not likely to possess these
qualities or to have honed them to any
degrees.
Because the political parties are weak
reeds on which to rest one’s hopes for
building a coalition capable of governing,
posing this question does not automatically
favor the election of Republicans or Deom-
crats. But it does imply, for Republicans,
that they be people with a capacity for
reaching beyond the onfmesfo4
party and its consitituent gruj
working with and mobilizing
ments in the society
For Democrats, it impliesthati rms, desi
be people who are at ease with 4
of their party’s historic eonstte esentedt
who serve to unite those const
rather than align them against eji cture
Most of all, it implies that the
who deserve support are menaiti
who are political in the fullest sm
word — who are fully engaged,
the resources at their command,:: isults to tl
Student
ie course.
>ol
ing great questions that concernifc
munities, their states and thenati jssible po
They need to be people who dm
ment, moral sustenance and enei
the political process itself,
their essential contribution as Ion
that process, rather than achievin
cular place in history for then*
enacting every paragraph of i
program without amendment
If we can find enough such peci
coming election, we can have rani
hope of solving the substantivep
that confront this country. Fgr
then have a government — soma
have lacked for far too long.
(c) 1979, The ’WashingtonPosli fos. ’ educa
equality of
The Colli
quires ev
A teachii
iberal Art
The ques
grade pa
Results c
ons and n
iember of
quired to
ec
By
Baft;
Rfore its rc
—?
clack
not what your
country can. dolor you.,
bui ask what yoa can do
for your country."
Bob
Some men set
things as they arc.
and. ask why; but
I dream of things
that never were,
and ask why not/
Dick West
Will lifting lead-filled rattles
he an event in Baby Olympid
But today,
iters indical
■nent dro
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■cular, is fi
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Since the er
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But despit
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irted a‘drop
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United Press International
WASHINGTON — The world’s first
Baby Olympics will be staged next summer
in the Pikes Peak region of Colorado.
The event, which will be open to athletic
infants of both sexes, is being organized by
Edwin Paget, 78, a retired speech profes
sor and creator of a baby exercise program.
Paget said the idea came to him as be was
watching a Russian therapist demonstrate
on television how 6-month-old tots could
be taught “vigorous swimming both in and
under water.”
Although the concept is not yet entirely
clear in his mind, the Baby Olympics pre
sumably will feature aquatic competition
for miniature Mark Spitzes.
Paget, who is serious about his idea, said
in an interview he also will offer “Awards
for Superior Babyhood. ” The honors sound
something like the cradle equivalent of the
gold metal Bruce Jenner won in the 1976
Olympic decathlon.
Additionally, there will be some “com
bined baby and great-grandfather swim
ming and running events,” Paget said.
The self-appointed commissioner of
amateur nursery athletics sent word of his
plans from his winter home in Raleigh,
N.C., where he is working out the details.
The Pikes Peak region was chosen as the
locale because Paget spends his summers
there running up and down that 14,000-
foot mountain.
Last summer, a routine vacation for
Paget, he made 41 ascensions, for a career
total of 866. And next July 1, he intends to
be at the summit when he announces the
list of those qualifying for the Baby Olym
pics.
Since his retirement from the faculty of
North Carolina State University, Paget has
devoted much of his time to a one-man
crusade to force U.S. presidents to under
go periodic “brain scans.”
His underlying thesis is that many chief
executives don’t think clearly because their
brains have been damaged by lack of ox
ygen.
Earlier this year, finding himself ignored
at the White House level, he began advo
cating more vigorous exercise for children
under 1-year-old.
They, too, suffer brain deterioration due
to inactivity, Paget believes. The Baby
Olympics is an offshoot of that
as is the “circular perpetual-mol
he hopes to develop.
In a television commercialcu
ting a lot of house, an American f
boasts its suds as “the official beei
1980 Winter Olympics.’ As yet, lb
no product tie-ins with the 1981
Olympics, but Paget agrees the ]»
ties are virtually unlimited.
An “official teething ring," and
diaper pail” and an “official car stl
among the myriad designations hr
consider. ■
Paget also promises to consi
proposals for expanding the Bah
pics, such as a weight-lifting evetl
lead-filled rattles.
Sh
Letters
Former band member says won
will be hurt if Zentgraf wins su
Editor:
The best thing for those who oppose
women in the Corps of Cadets at Texas
A&M and its organizations is for the Justice
Department and Melanie Zentgraf to win
their sex descrimination suit.
After examining the aftermath that
would follow, the results would tend to
favor the anti-women movement instead of
benefiting the women in the Corps.
First, when the women are integrated
into the band they would also be integrat
ing into all male outfits of the Corps. Since
four outfits would be integrated, the rest of
the Corps would have to follow and there
would not be a need to have either W-l or
Squadron-14. The women would be placed
exactly where the anti-women people want
them, where they could personally see to
the women’s training and indoctrination
into the Corps.
With the present Corps attitude it’s very
doubtful that a woman would ever be an
outfit commander again.
If the dorms were not integrated the
women would have a difficult time-adjust
ing to the outfits and getting to know their
classmates and upperclassmen, which is
one of the ways that positions are decided.
Even if the Trigon ruled there had to be a
woman CO of an outfit, she would have a
hard time getting cooperation from the rest
of the outfit, which would lead to a downfall
of the outfit — that is, if she could take the
mental harrassment she would receive
from day one of the Corps and survive the
years of leadership position time.
If the outfits were to be integrated the
ruling could also apply to the housing of all
cadets and the dorms may have the inte
grated. Suppose there exists an extra
female and an extra male in an outfit, would
we have the “Harrad Experiment *? Surely
the dorms can be converted to meet the
sanitary and privacy required ofboth sexes.
but her mother’s thoughts of her daughter
bathing, eating and sleeping with 40-60
men might not exactly meet with her
approval and the women’s enrollment
might be less than what it is today, mainly
because of parents’ disapproval.
With the integration of the rest of the
Corps, its organizations would follow;
there would not be the need for a women’s
drill team, which a lot of heartache and
sweat went into forming and maintaining.
The women would be just as equal and
•Smallest
pro-syster
ever
•LED expev
•GPD meti
•Over 40 P
available
•Motor Dri
der MX
and man
tem octet
10
have all the rights as men to com;
Corps game by law, but the cards# oble
stacked against them in reality.
It is the duty of every leader K
about those who follow him or her
pave the way to make their lives*
Individuals who do not show the ffl<|
excellent leaders, but when indi''
strive for self gain and hurt those tfl f
low, they stop being a leader. iU/L.
If Zentgraf wins, the women ofthd J W H 0
in the long run will lose.
— Kim Thomas
* 1
som«
THOTZ
By Doug Grahf
men
COACH, THIS IS "S
ONE OL' AG WHO
IS OARkJ PROUT3.
IT WAS A GtREAT GAME;
A GREAT SEASOM/