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The Battalion
Texas A&M University
Wednesday
October 22, 1980
to
Slouch
By Jim Earle
“Maybe somebody up there likes Baylor better than us.
By DAVID S. BRODER
HARTFORD — When the calendar of Amer
ican elections was established, it probably
made sense to pick a President in November. It
no longer does.
In a rural society, the rationale was that the
early November date came after the harvests
had been gathered and before the snows and
chills of winter made travel difficult. Harvest
dates and weather patterns have not changed,
but unforeseen factors have made this an in
opportune season for politics.
America has too many other things on its
mind in October to pay attention to the ramb
ling remarks of the presidential candidates. To
be specific, it has four too many things on its
mind: baseball, football, basketball and hockey.
The Founding Fathers did not know that this
would be World Series time, or the seventh
week of the National Football League schedule,
or the time when everyone’s favorite high
school and college football teams would be get
ting into serious games with conference rivals.
Still less did they foresee that the builders of all
the great indoor arenas would schedule three
nights of hockey and basketball a week — and
even some Sunday basketball-hockey double-
headers — in order to recoup their invest
ments.
But we who are the beneficiaries of all this
progress understand that it does not come with
out a price. Presidential politics is one sport
that has been crowded off the fall calendar.
It is my suspicion — and I leave it to any
graduate student seeking a dissertation topic to
provide the appropriate statistics — that the
decline in voting turnout in the last 20 years is
inversely proportional to the increase in gate
receipts for the four fall sports. For every cam
paign button that is not worn, an extra pen
nant is being waved. The cheers echo just as
loud as they ever did — but they go to men in
pads and jerseys, not in three-piece suits.
America is not turned off by politics; it is just
exhausted by the four-sport orgy.
Let us do nothing to disturb anything as fun
damental to the Constitution as the dates of the
baseball playoffs or the Michigan-Michigan
State game. Let us, instead move the election.
An improved primary election calendar
course.
Warped
‘Mad as hell’ former student
suggests changing fight song
“I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to put up
with it anymore!”
I came home from the Baylor game mad as
hell — not at our men on the field but at the
Aggies in the stands.
We old Ags sat huddled together nursing our
aching arthritic pains and cold wet uncirculat
ing feet until we couldn’t stand it any longer and
we left. Why? Because there wasn’t any spirit to
warm us up.
You see, old Ags aren’t warmed up bv “The
Green Beret” marching-type tunes. We aren’t
stirred by “Goodbye to Texas University.” Af
ter thirty years of sawing Varsity’s horns off you
realize how dumb it is to be singing “Goodbye to
Texas University” when what you really want to
do is shove those Baylor Bears into that wet
sloshy turf.
I was thinking about that when I watched the
game over again on KAMU-TV last night. I
noticed that it wasn’t until the last quarter that
the band began to really play and that wasn’t to
lift the spirits of the Aggies, it was to drown out
the sound of the taunting Baylor fans’ “Poor
Aggies.” Still, it looked like it worked. The
players on the field were making a game of it —
7 to 7 is a lot better than the other three quar
ters.
I hadn’t been there to see it. I had gone home
discouraged and mad.
Mad, because I had wanted to sing and yell a
real fight song for A&M. I wanted to sing “The
Twelfth Man” like we used to do. I wanted to
Reader’s Forum
Rally around our team’s Maroon and
Good luck to dear old Texas Aggies,
They are the ones who show the real oil
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sing the marches that were fast, inspiring,
cheerful, like the old Army Air Corps song, the
Caisson Songs, the Marine’s Hymn, Anchors
Aweigh, all the fighting songs. But now we only
hear marchings songs with no words for me to
sing. It makes me mad. Mad, because I know
that besides all those songs we have a real fight
song but it is only sung as a Eulogy.
I WANT TO SING “THE TWELFTH
MAN” AS A FIGHT SONG!!!!!
I also want to sing a new version of “The
Aggie War Hymn.” Everytime we pay tribute
to the University of Texas by singing “Good
bye” to them it makes me sick. Why should we
give them the privilege of being singled out as
our only foe? We are saying that they are the
best, that’s why we want to beat them.
I say, ignore them. Treat them like any other
team in the Southwest Conference. So, I wrote
some new words to “The Aggie War Hymn.”
Words that are meant for Aggies to sing no
matter who the opponent is.
So, let’s hear it loud for Texas AMU.
Let’s yell and yell and yell like hell!
(Yell like hell!)
So, let’s fight for dear old Texas Aggif
We’re going to beat you all to —
Chig-gar-roo-gar-rem!
Chig-gar-roo-gar-rem!
Rough! Tough!
Real Stuff! Texas A&M.
Fight! Fight on Texas Aggies,
Fight! Fight on Aggies true.
Fight! Fight on Aggies.
Fight! — for TAMU!
Texas Aggies will fight on.
Texas Aggies will fight on.
We will fight on, and on.
Fight! — TAMU — TAMU
those goi
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AGGIE WAY HYMN, VERSE IU
All Hail to dear ole Texas AMU.
If you like my version, cut it out and tali
the game Saturday. Sing it with
can write a better version, I issue
to do so.
I also challenge you to write a bettei
song than “The Twelfth Man. In the
time, let’s sing it as a fight song!
Put the spirit back in Aggieland!!!
Ina Rhea Copus is a 1975 graduate oil
A&M University.
Changing election date
makes a lot of sense
would begin in New Hampsire, not in the
snows of February but four months earlier — in
October, just late enough in the month to come
after the last game of the Series. That would
allow that large field of candidates and the even
larger press corps to enjoy the autumn foliage at
its height, and help fill the motels in the slow
weeks before the skiing begins. There would be
no harm in the fact that most of America paid no
attention to the campaigning in New Hamp
shire because of the Series. Quite the contrary,
it would help keep that primary in perspective.
The remainder of the early-round primaries
would fit comfortably into the schedule before
Thanksgiving. The Tuesday night network elec
tion specials would not interfere with Monday
night football or the weekend games.
When the campaigning resumed in January,
the action would shift to the Sun Belt states and
would climax in sunny California in early Feb
ruary.
The political conventions would then fall
logically in March and April, when baseball is
just beginning and the hockey and basketball
playoffs are still in their prliminary rounds. The
NBA and the NHL could crown their cham
pions while the nominees organized their cam
paigns.
The running of the Kentucky Derby would
be the signal for the start of the general elec
tion, which would go on through June — pro
viding an ample supply of commencement
speeches by the vice-presidential candidates.
Election Day, appropriately, would fall on the
Tuesday following the Independence Day holi
day weekend.
With the patriotic fervor of the holiday help
ing swell the turnout of voters, Americans could
discharge their duty as citizens and then turn
with a clear conscience to picnics, summer
vacations — and the baseball season. The new
President would be inaugurated on the day af
ter Labor Day, which is, psychologically, the
start of the new work year for all the rest of us.
Diligent political reporters could figure they
were safe for at least another month, when the
first candidate for the subsequent presidential
election would make his first trip to New
Hampshire — just to enjoy the foliage, of
West steps perfect for inauguration
By DICK WEST
United Press International
WASHINGTON — What may be the most
sensible action Congress has taken in the mem
ory of the oldest, living taxpayer is beginning to
manifest itself on the west steps of the Capitol.
Upon this noble terrace is rising the platform
that will be used for next January’s presidential
inauguration.
I don’t know for sure who made the decision
to switch the ceremony from the East Front,
the traditional site, to the West Front. But
whoever it was, I would like to shake his hand.
Sen. Claiborne Pell, D-R.L, chairman of the
joint House-Senate Inauguration Committee,
apparently deserves much of the credit.
According to William Cochrane, the staff
director. Pell “thought highly” of the idea and
early this year directed the Architect of the
Capitol to draw up alternative plans for a West
Front inauguration.
The committee then voted last June to go
ahead with the historic change.
For the benefit of anyone who may not be
acquainted with the peculiarities of the Capitol,
I should explain that the building has two fronts
and no rear. The reason for this is rather in
volved.
Suffice to say that when construction of the
Capitol started, the District of Columbia was
expected to urbanize eastward. So the East en
trance was called the “front.”
Then, contrary to predictions, Washington
began developing westward! Whereupon the
back also became a front.
All straight? Very well. Let us proceed.
The West Front is a marvelous spot for an
inauguration. Its elevated terraces provide a'
ready-made platform for the swearing-in.
Down below, the foot of Capitol Hill forms a
natural amphitheater with space for thousands
of spectators. The entire prominence com
mands a spectacular view of the Mall, the
Washington Monument and other scenic
points.
The East Front, by contrast, overlooks what
is essentially a parking lot.
When I first came to Washington, I used to
ask why Congress every four years went to all
the trouble and expanse of covering a parking
lot with elaborate platforms and stands when a
West Front inauguration would be so much
more convenient.
The best answer I got was: “Well, we’vt
ways done it this way.”
“Always,” in this instance, datesbacktol
and Andy Jackson’s inauguration.
Since then, some ceremonies havebeenk
in the House and Senate chambers
(FDR’s fourth in 1945) was held at the Wl
House. But no president has heretofore til
the oath of office on the West Front.
As Pell has noted, the new location is“apl>
of great beauty, ” can accommodate morepf
pie and will save money. (The current appfl
nation is $463,000 compared to $821
aside for the 1977 ceremony.)
Why was common sense so long coming
Cochrane said the idea “just sort of grew
noted that “it took a certain amount of nerve
buck tradition.
Sic transit parking lot gloria.
By Scott McCullar
The Battalion
USES 045 360
MEMBER
Texas Press Association
Southwest Journalism Congress
Questions or comments concerning any editorial
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Editor Dillard Stone
Managing Editor Rhonda Watters
Asst. Managing Editor Scott Haring
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LETTERS POLICY
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