Viewpoint
L
The Battalion
Texas A&M University
Tuesday
March 10, 1981
(
Slouch By Jim Earle] Taxpayers cheat and clamor
cu
wa
ch
ck
Tour idea of giving an exam on Friday before recess is a
good one, but I should warn you that student hostility may
manifest itself in the form of a pie in the face, a cow in the
office or the air out of your tires. ”
Affirmative action
produces ‘rage’
By DAVID S. BRODER
WASHINGTON — For weeks now, I
have been carrying around a clipping from
the Boston Globe about Patrick Ewing, a
Cambridge high school senior who was
admitted to Georgetown University in
Washington for next fall, despite an ack
nowledged “reading deficiency” and “slow
ness in writing.”
An official of his high school wrote the
colleges he was considering a letter outlin
ing Patrick’s special requirements. Among
them were “daily tutoring ... (which) must
include covering material with Patrick,
some level of explanation of new material,
proofreading of papers and help with con
struction of papers.” The letter also speci
fied that he must have “untimed testing,”
because “Pat’s slowness in writing does not
give him ample opportunity to express him
self. ”
If these stipulations seem remarkable, let
me add that the letter was written by the
high school basketball coach and that Pat
rick Ewing is a 7-foot center described by
the Globe as “one of the most coveted play
ers in the country.”
I kept looking at this story and thinking
that something was sure to be said about its
implications. We all remember the furor
over the Bakke case, and the wave of indig
nation over the fact that Allan Bakke, a
white applicant to a California medical
school, had lost his place because, it was
alleged, an affirmative-action program gave
preference to a black applicant with a lower
entrance score. That one was so important it
wound up in the Supreme Court.
Well, here was young Patrick, whose
college admission score was “relatively low”
according to his coach, taking someone’s
slot at the highly selective Georgetown
University. Where was the protest?
Strangely enough, none appeared.
And then last Wednesday in the
Washington Post, Patrick’s fellow-
townsman, Harvard political science pro
fessor James Q. Wilson, weighed in with a
powerful essay attacking affirmative action
programs. He expressed the “rage” he said
most people feel at policies that aim not at
“equality of opportunity” but at “an in
crease in the number of blacks, Hispanics,
women and minorities” in a school or office
or plant.
Reading along, I felt sure that my friend
Professor Wilson was going to cite the Ew
ing case as an example of the invidious re
verse discrimination implicit in such prog
rams. I could not have been more wrong.
“A college,” he declared — perhaps with
the Ewing case in mind — “may decide that
its purpose is not simply to find the bright-
Warped
April 15 is still weeks away, I know.
But the horrors of filing the annual certi
ficate of debt arrive before the last day.
I reserve the first weekend following
Valentine’s Day to do my taxes, better to
claim more business deductions, my dear.
I once thought that filling out the 1040
would be a simple matter, and for many
years it was. I watched as dad did the re
ferencing across tables, looking for depen
dents and write-offs.
But right-off, when I looked at my first
tax form, the Grim Revenuer looked
amusedly on.
I couldn’t file the short form, that time
preserver of the non-self employed. I had
my own business, and the records were just
incomplete enough that H&R couldn’t
help. I learned that I was not a chip off the
old block.
I had my long 1040 and various other
attachments necessary for completing it,
most notably the “C” schedule, a form for
declaring specific profits and losses in a
business.
I had to compute a self employment tax,
then add all my phone bills, entertainment,
car costs and a variety of other deductions to
arrive at my profit for the year, which then
went on the 1040 form.
Total time? Eight hours.
The work didn’t bother me too much. I
knew that by simply declaring income with
out the work, I would lose a substantial
chunk of money, having only myself as a
dependent and not being over 65 or blind.
So on that count I had no gripes.
But I was bothered by who paid the most
Leftovers
By Todd Woodard
anyway, guess who’s left. The middled r A6
The system has the single income tins ( wa
maker by the ball point pen. Hecan’tts
much, because the W-2 says in
white just exactly what money went (I j ^
the pike. He can’t afford to invest mo® i
shelters because the pressures of ini:
eat his buying power from beneathhkl | b e
can’t tie up money for six to 12 — "
fim
declare capital gains. He can’t hidema ; cle
because he doesn’t have it, and if lit
pul
tax. Supposedly, the graduated income tax,
which Americans could not stomach in per
manent form for more than 100 years,
drained people according to their ability to
pay. I determined that to be a lie.
There are, overgeneralizing here, four
groups of taxpayers: the poor, the middle
class, the rich and the illegals.
While the poor have many problems,
taxation is not one of them. Incomes at low
levels, if you’ll look at your tax tables, don’t
carry high percentage brackets.
The rich, who are supposedly taxed at
fantastic percentages, 70 percent for incom
es of $200,000 or more, often pay conquer
able percentages to the poor, because of
loopholes their influence has won for them.
They’ll be damned if they let fewer
loopholes cut into their yachting money.
The illegals, like prostitutes, can never
file a return and be relatively safe, consider
ing the 70,000-person Internal Revenue
Service doesn’t have a statistical chance to
catch illegals. So, if the rich control taxes by
weight of money, and the illegals are incon
spicuous, and the poor don’t pay many taxes
have it, it wouldn’t be worth hiding,; i the
the
it
sau
sai<
de:
cut
ate
possible audit.
About the only choices Mr. }
has is to moonlight or cheat. Ifheirj
lights, or his spouse or children worlj
cash basis, they can bypass paying tai
small sums. Or he can cheat.
But with the spectre of audits looi > Wl
informers being paid a 10 percentfo Iran
information, computers looking over
rious filings for oddities, cheatingisM
good.
So how do taxes and school and
relate? Someday, you may be facedwitli
cheating dilemma. I have. I didn’t!; ^
possible effects of getting caught,
stayed honest.
Most college grads do make highersl *By ]
ies than non-college workers. Well* ,
the higher brackets, just high enoughto; (^ j
big percentages, but without the do: L s
protect our interests. ibnts
So you have a clear choice. ClamsK-oni
reduced rates and equitable distribuc keet
taxation, or wonder whether the Grin: of th
venuer will visit you tovuotTO'N. Ov'Gente
iater. i"''
est students and make them still brighter
but also to have a competitive athletic prog
ram, retain the support of generous alumni
and offer to students an opportunity to
mingle among young persons of different
backgrounds, talents and interests” — pre
sumably including individuals of exception
al height, coordination and agility.
But, he said, that principle does not
apply to institutions where access “is
judged solely, or principally, by the merit of
its members and the excellence of its prac
tices.” Specifically, it does not, according to
Professor Wilson, apply to the faculty of arts
and sciences at his own Harvard University,
whose dabbling with affirmative action hir
ing apparently had triggered his denuncia
tion.
When I read that, I knew what I wanted
to say about the Patrick Ewing story. First,
I am glad he is getting a chance at a George
town education and I hope he makes it. One
of the many virtues of that great university
is that it has recognized its special obliga
tion to the city in which it is located by
running an effective program to identify
promising minority students and giving
them the financial and academic help they
need to reach their potential. Few of them,
incidentally, are 7-foot centers.
But I felt a lot less comfortable about
what the Ewing case said about the value-
system that most of us whites, Harvard pro
fessors or not, accept. Most of us were nev
er outraged about busing, so long as black
kids were being bused past white schools to
their own segregated classrooms. It was
only when white kids were put on buses to
go to previously black schools that the prac
tice became controversial.
It s your turn
Assistantships are opportunities
Just so with affirmative action. There will
be no squawks from Professor Wilson or
anyone else so long as affirmative action is
confined to 7-foot centers who want only an
undergraduate education and are no threat
for a faculty job or any other position a
better-educated white might want.
After all, “a competitive athletic prog
ram” does “retain the support of generous
alumni,” to say nothing of adding to the
enjoyment of the millions of us who have
been watching the tournament games on
TV this week.
But don’t mess around with the Harvard
faculty in order to bring in more minorities
or women. And don’t give a black kid of
average height a medical school slot that
“belongs” to a white, just because the black
kid might open an office in the ghetto, in
stead of the suburbs.
That, to quote Professor Wilson, is
guaranteed to produce “rage.”
Editor:
An open letter to teaching assistants at
the University of Houston who are calling in
“sick” in a dispute for more pay:
My colleagues and I will be the first to
admit that graduate assistants are not paid
well. However, assistantships to graduate
students should be viewed as an “opportun
ity” rather than an “occupation”. The assis-
tantship offers the convenience of working
at a place on campus and an environment
which will provide experience for the fu
ture. For these reasons, there is usually a
much larger number of students wanting
assistantships than positions available.
It amazes me that you feel calling in sick
is the only way you can get the attention of
the administration at the University of
Houston. Students in your classes and re
search projects in which you are involved
should not have to suffer because of your
perceived inequities. May I suggest you
take a higher paying job off campus and let
those more concerned with academics and
less with economies take your place.
W.R. Pasewark
Thieves aren 9 t Aggies
Editor:
The Aggie Code of Honor states: “Aggies
do not lie, cheat, or steal nor do they toler
ate those who do. ” The recent rash of burg
laries exemplifies that some students on this
campus no longer live by this code and in
our opinion do not deserve to be called
Aggies. It seems sad that at a University
which prides itself on honesty we must live
in fear of having our valuables stolen from
our own rooms. Furthermore, the lack of
effective support and sincere concern on
the part of the campus police illustrates the
ajor i
Inf
chwai
tom V
fact that they too have become
tolerate the behavior of those who
upon the rights of fellow students. ^ rt
campus police fail to even make an apf* L e p or j
ance at the scene of a burglary totaling®^
than $300, it is difficult to believe
adequate attempt to solve the crime
being made.
The theft of personal property is as?
loss in itself, but must Aggies also toll
having their whole lifestyles altered,*
the long-standing integrity of
jeopardized by the actions of a few, ant
inaction of others?
Eileen Corrigai
Cindy Page!
By Scott McCullar
The Battalion
MEMBER
l S P s
Texas Press Association
Southwest Journalism Congress
Editor Dillard Stone
Managing Editor Angelique Copeland
Asst. Managing Editor Todd Woodard
City Editor Debbie Nelson
Asst. City Editor Marcy Boyce
News Editors Venita McCellon,
Scot K. Meyer
Sports Editor. Richard Oliver
Focus Editor .. Cathy Saathoff
Asst. Focus Editor Susan Hopkins
Staff Writers Carolyn Barnes,
Jane G. Brust, Terry Duran, Bemie Fette,
Cindy Gee, Kathleen McElroy, Belinda McCoy,
Marjorie McLaughlin, Kathy O’Connell,
Ritchie Priddy, Rick Stolle
Cartoonist Scott McCullar
Photo Editor Greg Gammon
Photographers Chuck Chapman
Brian Tate
045 .160
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