Viewpoint
The Battalion
Texas A&M University
Thursday
December 11,1980
Dat<
Slouch
By Jim Earle
‘This is my way of keeping the graduating seniors on their toes.
Mourn Lennon, for
we ha ve lost a voice
By RUSTY CAWLEY
He was the illegitimate son of a British mer
chant seaman. His mother died during his
childhood and he was raised by his Aunt Mimi
in working-class Liverpool. He fought his way
into leadership of a five-man skiffle band called
“The Quarrymen. ” Soon they became “Johnny
and the Moondogs,” later “The Silvaer Bea
tles.” They played for 11 hours straight, 7 days
each week, in Hamburg night clubs. They re
turned to England, and became the best-selling
recording act in the history of music.
If Paul McCartney was the heart of the Bea
tles, George Harrison the body, and Bingo
Starr the soul, then John Lennon was the mind.
Without him, the Beatles would have been just
another rock act, and would have faded into
obscurity with Gerry and the Pacemakers. He
provided the drive for their rise to fame, and
the inspiration for their musical experiments.
He virtually conceived and created studio re
cording as an art form.
News programs since his death have eulo
gized Lennon again and again as being as im
portant as Bach, Beethoven, or Brahms. That’s
inaccurate, for Lennon was much more a poet
than a composer. He should be remembered
instead as being in realm of Shelley, Keats and
Rimbaud. His influence on his times, however,
He was the classic figure of a man that was
either loved or hated. Youth loved him for his
honesty and his individualism. The “Establish
ment” hated him for these same qualities,
though they viewed them as rudeness and
eccentricity. Lennon could not understand
how nations could buy arms when their citi
zens were starving. He could not see how one
person could hate another because of the color
of his skin. He could not come to grips with
the violence and misery man perpetuates upon
fellow man. And he screamed. So the dogs
turned on him.
The dogs got their first chance in 1966 when
newspapers across the nation misquoted Len
non as saying that the Beatles “are bigger than
Jesus Christ. ” What Lennon really said was that
their fans treated the Beatles as if they were
greater than Christ. He didn’t say that to boast.
He said it in disgust. People actually brought
cripples for the Beatles to heal. They erected
temples to worship “The Fab Four.” Lennon
never asked to be worshiped, or even adored.
He just asked to be heard.
Reader s forum
Warped
Concert motives questione
Co-sponsoring arrangement opens door for abuse
ec. 15,
-#:• is*
15,
1. 15,
Who is Mary K. Miller and why is she com
ing to Texas A&M University?
She’s a former Las Vegas entertainer and
wife of a wealthy Houston builder and develop
er. She’s coming to our campus to sing tonight
— and I wish she weren’t.
The MSG Town Hall and Opera and Per
forming Arts Society Committees are present
ing the free concert in Rudder Auditorium.
College Station Bank is paying for it.
Two months ago, Miller’s millionaire hus
band, Vincent Kickerillo, proposed the idea to
have the concert at Texas A&M.
He is College Station Bank’s majority stock
holder.
That bank opened here last year and moved
to a new building on Texas Avenue in Novem
ber. Tonight’s concert is the grand finale of
College Station Bank’s grand opening week.
Kickerillo’s bank is giving the Texas A&M
community a free concert — and a trip for two
to Las Vegas for a “lucky” ticketholder — in
exchange for some publicity.
To that businessman, this may be good PR.
To the Town Hall and OPAS committees, this
may be a good deal. But to this Aggie, this is
NOT good bull.
The Town Hall and OPAS committee mem
bers approved the program since it is entertain
ment during Dead Week with no financial risk
involved. Volunteers from those committees
have handled the publicity and will serve as
ushers tonight.
Coffee breaks
16,
By Jane Brust
'ages
The Singing Cadets agreed to open Miller’s
variety act and also do the finale with her.
It seems that the parties involved decided to
present this program based on its entertain
ment merits alone without consideration for the
promotion of College Station Bank.
True, the publicity posters read, “MSC
Town Hall & OPAS Student Committee pre
sents Mary K. Miller” instead of “Town Hall
and OPAS and College Station Bank present
Mary K. Miller,” but the bank still gets the
credit at the bottom of each poster.
The concert has also been advertised in The
Battalion. And, yes, the ads read the same as
the posters.
specific program are legitimate, Bui
get out of hand.
The MSC committees often reo
from commercial organizationsthatm
or partially fund particular programs!
names attached. The committeesdtJ
ram by program which ones to pr&l
Some groups perform exclusivell
commercial groups sponsoring tkf
ample, when the Pepsi-ColaskatetetJ
do a program on skating safety, t
with all the publicity. That groupi
Pepsi-Cola — that’s what they do.
But the Mary K. Miller concertiitj
She is a professional entertainei ® ere was
thing is not singing for College Stat»Hk ere v ,
that’s just what she’s doing tonight,iMut the
doing it on this campus, as partoliwica Lot
week’s worth of promotion. Sheo leSouthwe
come to this campus without Cnlk iThe walk
Bank.
It’s exploitation. This programisa
the Town Hall and OPAS committee:!
Kickerillo is paying for the show through
donations to the University’s Enrichment
Fund. Those donations will completely pay for
the Town Hall and OPAS presentation; those
committees will pay nothing.
The Enrichment Fund Committee approves
specific expenditures for programs approved by
MSC committees, and donations made for a
ed GT1
100 worke
Krs we i
who are promoting it, the Singing0:L"’ issuew
are participating in it and the UniveiJk new (
putting up with it. Kandb
Mary K. Miller might be good iThe effeci
ment, and College Station Bank iB in te
good one. But no one should havei,«d in the
present tonight’s concert. IfsabigriW cra ^ t ' v
Let’s hope this program does noise®™ 111 ’
dent for other programs to come to!®^
in other promotional schemes. p
»ay. have you guys e\tr
given any thought to being
represented by* union? 6
He warned us about Nixon’s police-state long
before Watergate. He vehemently opposed the
Vietnam War when such a position was still
dangerous stand for a celebrity to take. He
spoke of the dangers of bureaucratic govern
ment years ahead of the Libertarian Party.
So the dogs attacked again, viciously.
The courts ruled him unfit to serve as a step
father for Yoko Ono Lennon’s daughter from
her first marriage. The U.S. Immigration Ser
vice sought to deport him to England based on
his misdemeanor conviction on possesion of
marijuana. The conviction was later proved to
be a frame. Lennon’s immigration case was
dropped suddenly in 1976, just before the Nix-
on-Ford Administration left office.
After almost 12 years of this, Lennon finally
declared his retirement in 1975. He and Yoko
went to Japan, had a son, and became a family.
For five years, Lennon didn’t touch his guitar.
Then, earlier this year, he decided to record
again. He’d found his peace, within himself. He
had a family and an identity separate from that
of the other Beatles.
He was about to let us all into what he had
found. But Monday night, Mark David Chap
man and his scrambled-egg of a brain ended
John Lennon’s life.
For anyone who has decided to treat Len
non’s death lightly, I ask only that you pull out
your history book. Look at Western culture
before 1964 and after 1964. That’s the year the
Beatles first arrived in America. Sample the
music, examine the fashions, analyze the entire
sociological trends of that era. If you look close
ly, you will see Lennon’s influence in all of it.
He was not a savior, nor a prophet, but simply
a voice. An original. A fountain of ideas that
was far from dry.
Now he is dead, and there is no one to re
place him. No one. Mourn his death, and your
loss as well.
Rusty Cawley is a senior journalism major
from Bryan. He has served as a staff reporter,
city editor and news editor for The Battalion.
One area
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It’s your turn
Traditions criticism belongs elsewhen
Editor:
To all those, past and present, who have
written The Battalion complaining about our
traditions here at A&M; hear me out! I am
growing weary of picking up the Batt and hav
ing to read your selfish remarks criticizing most
of the traditions that make A&M unique. The
Batt is the University paper, we (I speak for
many) don't want to hear from those of you who
don’t care for some special part of A&M. The
list of complaints is almost endless, but the one
that gets to me the most is the criticism of
bonfire. Why do I have to read letters from
those of you who claim it’s a waste or a fire
hazard, or the one who thought we should use
the resources to feed the starving; these are
quite sympathetic guys, but who cares what you
think. If you don’t like our blazing fire, then
don’t go; we won’t miss you. Bonfire is a great
part of spirit at A&M and it’s here to stay. One
last appeal, don’t cry on the shoulders of those
who probably outnumber you 100 to 1. If you
want to get something off your mind, there are
more appropriate places to write. How long has
it been since you wrote to mom? The Batt is an
above average University newspaper with one
exception, change the name of “It’s Your Turn ”
to “Negative Feedback. ” Come on Ags, if you
want to write in, take a few cheap shots at t. u. or
your professors, but I see no need for you to
stab yourself in the back.
Gerry Albanese ’83
most members of the Corps, withtheil
dent exception of Mr. Paul Stanislav.
Although most Corps members feelid
Stanislav receives praise
is directly related to brawn, muscle,]
a biting tongue, it’s nice to knows®
the Corps has real courage.
So Mr. Stanislav, you receive my
and pride for speaking your mind wfc
evident the walls may tumble downt'|
head.
Editor:
Courage, in true form seems to have escaped
Let’s just hope the Trigon and
upstanding Corps members won’t let[
be a response to truth.
Jean T. Longs
The Battalion
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