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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 6, 1980)
THE BATTALION MONDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1980 Page 7 tate/ Nation eminists resolve to thwart Effort to end transit strike fails eagan’s bid for presidency United Press International j||SAN ANTONIO — The Republican Party’s rejection afthe Equal Rights Amendment warrants feminist pick et lines at every future campaign appearance by Ronald Reagan or George Bush, National Organization for Women delegates decided Sunday. I^^BReagan’s stance on feminist issues is “medieval, ” the li,500 delegates declared. Hrhe delegates to NOW’s annual national conference gave a backhanded boost to President Carter’s campaign and a setback to the independent effort of Illinois con gressman John Anderson. ■While NOW made no endorsement of a presidential candidate, delegates voted to withdraw an earlier stance ■posing Carter’s re-election effort. The delegates also IjHicially put NOW’s stamp of approval on the Democra- .tic Party platform plank dealing with women’s rights. ■An effort by Catherine East, the Anderson campaign’s jpnrector of women’s issues, to include endorsement of ®he Anderson platform in the resolution was rejected. «The delegates approved a five-part resolution aimed ai curtailing Reagan’s bid for the presidency. The re solution stated NOW members would: H— “Actively oppose the election of Ronald Reagan as [flresident, and work in every state to ensure tbat he does not receive 270 Electoral College votes. — “Expose to the public Reagan’s medieval stance on women’s issues through national action in the form of pickets wherever Reagan and-or (Republican vice "esidential candidate George) Bush appear anywhere the United States. I—“Launch an unceasing campaign to^urn out votes for our friends in Congress and in the state legislatures. •:— “Endorse the Democratic platform as it pertains to women’s rights. — “Withdraw the National Board Resoluton of December 1979.” Carter ran into serious trouble with NOW 18 months ago when he fired former congresswoman Bella Abzug as leader of the President’s Advisory Commitee on Women. But a conference official said the firing was not the provocation for the NOW board’s original decision to oppose the president’s re-election, insisting the real reason was that Carter’s record on the Equal Rights Amendment has not been “up to standard” and he is opposed to Medicade funding for abortions. The presidential resolution was the first of 26 prop osed resolutions concerning women’s issues to be voted on by the general assembly of the conference, which has been dominated by a push to assure ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. Before voting began Sun day, Polly Baca-Barragan, who is seeking a seat in the U.S. Congress from Colorado, told delegates the ER\ might not be ratified by its deadline for passage. “First and foremost, the Equal Rights Amendment must be ratified, ” Baca-Barragan said during the confer ence’s final day. She is a resident of Thornton, Colo., just outside of Denver. Baca-Barragan, who led the fight against rescinding Colorado’s State Equal Rights Amendment in 1976, sounded a warning note. “Although I do not understand why state legislators in the unratified states have failed to support the rights of women, they have done so repeatedly, and we must face the fact that ratification may not be possible by June 30. 1982,” the deadline for approval by a majority of states. Consternation developed among conference leadings when some delegates charged that too much attention was being focused on the ERA at the expense of other feminist issues. Profits tempt moonshiners Marijuana farming booms ilioto by MW United Press International ■MUSKOGEE, Okla. — Farmers on the remote, hilly farms of eastern Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Ten- af Ru(ldf nessee an d northeast Texas once raised corn to be brewed into moon shine. Today they are growing mari juana and turning it into cash. The contemporary moonshiner is ffliilndt necessarily an updated Snuffy Smith operating a one-man still and bussing the “revenooers.” He more Kcely is a middle-aged farmer who, weary of watching his legitimate pro fits shrivel during the years, uses his heavy equipment to cultivate tons of marijuana and has his sons guard the crop with shotguns, r The tempting profits, as much as Up $400,000 a ton, and the independent u attitude of rural people in general make marijuana a booming business among farmers. J Walter Zablocki of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said, fWe find most (of the marijuana far mers), especially along the Red Riv er, in southeastern Oklahoma, i^kansas, East Texas, have a crimin al background like liquor violations. ^! I- A lot of them are old-timers who Jill were into bootlegging and moon- shining back in Prohibition. | “At $100 to $120 a pound (whole sale), you get a hell of a lot better price than soybeans. We’re finding more large-scale, sophisticated oper ations all across the country. These aren’t people scattering a few seeds and coming back later to harvest them. t Fred Means, chief enforcement officer of the Oklahoma Bureau of !Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, said, “In terms of quantity and quali- 9 ty, the operations have improved in flie last two to three years. These fields are intensely cultivated, fertil- j yyjjii ized, tended almost constantly. There are armed guards posted. It’s Q F(P: lik e trying to sneak up on a moon- shine still.” In addition to the profit, several factors make marijuana farming alluring to old-timers. The locals in places like northeast Texas and “Lit tle Dixie,” the southeast corner of Oklahoma, have reputations as being somewhat ornery and disdainful of the law to begin with. And compared to smuggling pot from Mexico, grow ing it on the south 40 is not that great a risk. Means said the area’s geography also is conducive to pot farming. “It’s remote, hilly,” he said. “The people don’t trust outsiders and don’t like lawmen. The people there almost have a romantic attitude to ward outlaws. That’s where outlaws like the James brothers and Belle Starr and the Dalton gang hid out. State and county authorities raided two farms in mid-September near Muskogee, the town immortal ized in a country song by Merle Hag gard with the line, “We don’t smoke marijuana in Muskogee.” But they do grow it in Muskogee. Officers found evidence a $5 million crop had been recently harvested. Two brothers, both lifetime area re sidents, were arrested. “Instead of planting corn this year, it looks like they decided to plant marijuana,” assistant Muskogee County District Attorney John Wal ton said. “We’re talking about literal ly tons on tons. This was high-grade stuff, a hybrid called sinsemilla. It would sell on the street for $3,000 a pound.” In Tennessee, where summer heat burned the state’s chief crops to a crisp, authorities in September swooped down on several rural pot fields, confiscating $100 million in marijuana. Lawmen said the plots were screened by rows of corn or other crops and were spotted from the air. DO YOU HAVE YOUR ARMADILLO YET? ARMADILLO — a book, illustrated with drawings, for anyone interested in that lively anachronism, the armadillo, a com pendium of odd armadillo facts that really pulls that eccentric animal out of his burrow by the tail! Softcover only, $3.95 + 5% sales tax. — Compiled by The Stevenson Press with Terry Peters. Write to The Stevenson Press, P.O. Box 10021, Austin, TX 78766. iCIAL ENING din^ h iuce ssing -Butte' a 'V of any )le There’s a spirit in the woods! Come shop with the spirit of excitement at Woodstone Commerce Center. Find the un usual ... the extraordinary ... the remarkable. Woodstone Commerce Center has lots of spe cialty stores so you can shop with pizzazz. And Woodstone is a natural meeting place with restaurants, shaded walks and luscious courtyards. Come spend the day with the spirit in the woods. The spirit of good things at Woodstone Commerce Center. M/OODSTONE commerce center Hwy 30 (Harvey Road) in College Station United Press International DALLAS — A federal mediator met with striking Dallas Transit Sys tem workers but the effort failed to end a work stoppage that has crip pled the city’s only mass transit system. Some 700 bus drivers, mechanics and cleaners walked off their jobs Wednesday to protest what they re gard as poor Dallas Transit System management, abusive supervisors, demeaning pay and working condi tions, and new work policies regard ing attendance and emergency ser vice. B.J. Simmons, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1388, said he and a group of striking workers met for two hours Saturday with Vincent Guy, a federal mediator based in Dallas. Guy would not discuss the meet ing in detail, but said he told the workers he could not become offi cially involved because the dispute did not involve federal matters. Cliff Franklin, general manager of the Dallas Transit System, said “We see no reason for the federal media tion. We re always ready to discuss things with the union, but we see no need for federal involvement.” Franklin said weekend bus service was not hurt as severely as it was during the week, because far fewer citizens used the buses. Bus service to the Dallas Cow- boys-New York Giants game Sunday was scaled down considerably, tran sit officials said. Simmons said, however, the Dal las Transit System would be found in violation of federal law if it con ducted the sports service while neg lecting regular routes. The transit system has threatened to fire any employee who misses five consecutive days of work — a policy which could affect all striking work ers by Wednesday. Dallas Transit System spokesman Jerry Johnson said: “We don’t like to call it firing. In effect, it’s job aban donment.” Union leaders have not been impressed with the mass firing threats, saying the strike effort gained strength daily. Transit system figures on the num ber of drivers reporting for work bol stered the union’s contention that the picket lines were being honored by an increasing number of workers. An unprecedentecL-mass meeting of members of the four Dallas muni cipal employee associations — the Dallas Police Association, the Dallas Professional Fire Fighters Associa tion, the Dallas Public Employees Association and the Dallas Amalga mated Transit Union — will be held Tuesday to discuss ways other unio nized city workers can help the bus drivers. International Student Association I.S.A. Elections October 8th Wednesday 5 P.M. Harrington 108 All international students are expected "Unity is our goal"