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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 3, 1981)
Viewpoint The Battalion Texas A&M University Friday April 3, 1981 By Slouch By Jim Earle AGGIE RODEO “I’ve decided to drop from the rodeo team It ? s time to fish or cut budget By DICK WEST United Press International WASHINGTON — If former Rep. Michael Kirwan, D-Ohio, were alive today, he probably would be turning over in his grave. Kirwan talked a lot like the above sent ence reads. His syntax frequently convo luted into Casey Stengel-like metaphor mixtures. But being chairman of a House approp riations subcommittee, he had no trouble making himself understood. One point that came across loud and clear was his affinity for fish. Fish swimming around in glass tanks effect people in diverse ways. Basically, you either dig them or you don’t. The Reagan Administration apparently doesn’t. It was revealed last week that the presi dent’s budget-cutters had drained off $250,000 needed to keep the National Aquarium open in the coming fiscal year. In consequence, it now appears that the 108-year-old aquatic life exhibit will be closed by the end of September. This is the sort of economizing up with which Mike Kirwan would not have put. Not for nothing was he known as the fish’s best friend in Congress. It was his quixotic dream to adorn the capital with a new $20 million National Fisheries Center that he envisioned as the Taj Mahal of oceanar- Had it ever gotten off the drawingboard, this many-splendored, three-story complex would have made the existing 60-tank facil ity seem like a guppy bowl by comparison. Its, ah, high-water mark was reached in 1962. Congress authorized $10 million for fish edifice work that year. But President Kennedy’s desk — he signed the legislation within 10 days of its passage — was as far as the project got. After a period of backing and filling, hem ming and hawing and second thoughts ab out actually appropriating the money, the aquarium finally fell victim to President Nixon’s Vietnam War moratorium on con struction in the capital. Kirwan having died in the interim, the seas Ai condi 5 mont I Ron Sa fldent ai •s from I plans were never revived. But whiled nth are were sloshing around in Congress, theyi rm in t gendered some of the 20th Century’ss rticipati giest debate. ^ r ; J 0 ' nt for si This was before Sen. William Proxir,: cent m D-Wis., began handing out “Gold gas anc Fleece Awards” for what he regards asm iristian able specimens of federal extravagance ringhas Proxmire merely dubbed Kirwan s pista! ,re c0 ” ! rial proposal the “fish folly of 1962.” ^ a ' The redoubtable Rep. H.R. Gross, Sid," Koli Iowa, suggested that “members of the fit ng we’s tribe might be offered an opportunit) nething share the swimming pool in the new!) i vea h° million House office building.” ”,. 6 With sti Some lawgivers ridiculed Kirwan spei crease, 5 a “gold-plated fish hotel” and theen cessary vigilant Sen. Frank Lausche, D-d ming s; noted that it had “no relationship toi e Schur national defense.” f centra But Kirwan resisted all efforts to pull plug. S 1 ™ ationsfr The family that fishes together sti ealarm together,” he philosophized in his ini® 6(lied ’ h able manner. Honeymoon balloon popped by gunfire By DAVID S. BRODER was the first to kid his own supposed short- WASHINGTON — The Honeymoon comings — his age, his hearing, his has ended and a new legend has been born. eyesight, even his grasp of issues — in a way . The gunfire ; t]h.at shattered th.e.sffiffiesiof ; .uA\tiflgpci:^y ,any, sympa^^^p^g.,^- ^ ; rainy Washington Monday aftefnddh pity. When he displayed that same wit and broke, not just four bodies, but the mood of euphoria that has buoyed the capital since the inauguration of a new president and the return of the hostages from Iran. But it also created a new hero in Ronald Reagan, the chipper gipper who took a .22- caliber slug in his chest but walked into the emergency room on his own power and joked with anxious doctors on his way into surgery. But the politicians no sodner learned that the president was out of danger than they started sorting out the political impli cations of the day’s drama. That is a process that will take some time, but one fact is so obvious it cannot be mis sed even in a capital that sometimes under stands everything but the most important thing. What happened to Reagan on Mon day is the stuff of which legends are made. From primitive days, heroic tales have been fashioned from incidents in which brave men escape danger. That tradition has been carried intact into the presidency — from Andy Jackson, the hero of New Orleans, to Teddy Roosevelt, the hero of San Juan Hill, and Jack Kennedy on PT- 109. In these and other cases, the survival of the hero in conditions of imminent danger is taken as a sign of divine favor — a token that he has been saved for a reason. So much more so when the threat strikes at the president in office, from a seemingly de ranged assasin, and he survives what the entire television-watching world sees could easily have been a calamity. Ten weeks earlier, Reagan struck an un usual theme in his inaugural address, when he turned from a recital of the nation’s prob lems to say, “We have every right to dream heroic dreams. Those who say we’re in a time when there are no heroes, they just don’t know where to look. ” In his first weeks in office, Reagan de monstrated repeatedly a kind of personal ease and charm which not only delighted his audiences but disarmed his critics. He grace in the hours after his own life was threatened, he elevated those appealing human qualities to the level of legend. As long as people remember the hospitalized president joshing his doctors and nurses — and they will remember — no critic will be able to protray Reagan as a cruel or callous or heartless man. Criticism of his policies will be — prob ably forever — separated from criticism of the man. Reagan now enjoys an aura of good will and a presumption of good motive which no president since war hero Dwight D. Eisenhower has had as a shield in the polictical arena. Tragically, that arena is now a far bloodier place than it was in the innocent Eisenhower era. The fragility of our gov ernmental structure to the assassin’s bullet has been demonstrated again. Last Saturday night, at the Gridiron din ner, where Washington correspondents en tertain the politicians with satirical songs and skits, Reagan and his press secretary Jim Brady laughed uproariously when a Tip O’Neill character, dressed incongruously as a bulky bride, sang, “Honeymoon, it could last until June.” It lated less than 48 hours more. Then Reagan was on his way to the hospital and Brady was lying on the sidewalk in his own blood, a bullet in his brain. The sense that was so strong in January, when the hostages came home and the new administration took ofice, that perhaps the frustations and agonies of the ’60s and ’70s had been put behind us — that dream was over. “Then one noon, ” the Tip O’Neill charac ter sang, “I will pop the balloon. And I’ll reveal that Tip O’Neill calls the Capitol tune. ” But in reality, the balloon was pop ped by the all-too-well-remembered sound of gunfire, and one man came within inches of erasing the voters’ mandate. This society, which stubbornly resists even the most modest effort to discipline its own appetite for handguns, had once again paid the price for its folly. It’s your turn Don't renovate; fix what's wrong Editor: As a resident of Hotard Hall, I know you might think this is just another letter com plaining about the rent increase for next year. But it has generally been accepted as an eventuality that all the talking, letter writing and sign making in the world cannot change. I would like to bring up a different aspect that most everyone (including the regents) has seemed to overlook. Right now on my floor, five out of 10 sinks are leaking or broken and have been for at least three months. It seems the only way our often- sent work orders could do any good would be to wad them up and stuff them up the faucet to stop the drip-drip of the pseudo- Chinese water tortures. One shower head continued to spray scalding hot water to the tune of a gallon every two minutes. Over the months, despite the many work orders sent in, thousands and thousands of gallons continued to go down the drain. Not until one of our own residents turned the water off was the flow stopped, and still there has been no one sent to make repairs. The point I am trying to make is that if the Physical Plant personnel can’t find time to do a simple job like change washers, how can they be expected to handle the comple xities of an air-conditioning system. With the addition of the two new modular dorma- tories and the pay raise for state employees (read: less hiring of State employees). I’m afraid Hotard will be lost in the shuffle. With regret, we’ve accepted the 120% ren hike for “improvements” that nobod) wants. But, when the much hassled overai conditioning breaks down in May (the on!; month when we could use it) and we have# wait ’til December for repairs, that beyond tolerance. Thank you for your consideration! Christopher H. Meakin f PS I feel an interview with someone froi the Maintenance Department to see ho' they are going to handle the new probleit would be of interest to your readers. Christopher H. Meakin ! Tom George Warped By Scott McCullar THIS REPORT JUST IN; A GANG OF PEPPERS', AFTER EACH HAVING HAD SEVERAL PR. PEPPERS TO PRINK, EXPLODED IN THE STREETS todav, soon after THEY HAD BEGUN FRANTIC _ DANCING AS A GROUP. WHY SURE I CAN TELL THE DIFFERENCE, YOU DAWN FOOL? COKE COWES IN THE RED BOTTLE AND PEPSI COWES IN THE BLUE BOTTLE. IDIOT? OW! OUCH? ALL THAT BOXING AND PLAYING BASKET FALL NNJTH A STOMACH FULL OF SODA POP, J300HH ... I THINK 'W FEELIN / 7-Up. THIS COKE AND A SWILE STUFF IS A LOT OF BULL? IT LEAKS OUT THROUGH YOUR TEETH? The Battalion ISPS MEMBER 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 Photo Editor Greg Gammon Sports Editor Ritchie Priddy Focus Editor Cathy Saathoff Asst. Focus Editor Susan Hopkins News Editors Venita McCellon, Scot K. Meyer Staff Writers Carolyn Barnes, Jane G. Brust, Terry Duran, Bernie Fette, Cindy Gee, Phyllis Henderson, Kathleen McElroy, Belinda McCoy, Kathy O’Connell, Richard Oliver, Denise Richter, Rick Stolle Cartoonist Scott McCullar Photographers Chuck Chapman Brian Tate EDITORIAL POLICY The Battalion is a non-profit, self-supporting newspaper operated as a community service to Texas A&M University and Bryan-College Station. Opinions expressed in The Bat talion are those of the editor or the author, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Texas A&M Universi ty administrators or faculty members, or of the Board of 045 36(1 Regents. The Battalion also serves as a laboratory newspaper^ students in reporting, editing and photography c\i& within the Department of Communications. 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