—opinion
4
Did you hug your draft card today?
Monday was the last day of grace for
about 1 million 18-, 19- and 20-year-old
men who had not registered for the
draft. If they choose not to register, they
face two possible penalties: five years in
jail and/ or a $10,000 fine.
Fortunately, because I’m at the dod
dering age of 23, I don’t face the unenvi
able prospect of registering along with
other youngbloods, even though regis
tration is not the draft is not war. Know
ing my name and address were occupy
ing a byte of computer space in Selective
Service System hardware would give me
the willies. More importantly, being com
pelled, by force of law, to tell anyone
anything anytime concerns me. Especial
ly when the products of my information
concern my well being.
Registering for the draft strikes me
right at the core of my libertarian heart.
Of course, the mechanics of registration,
reading and writing, are not problems —
only the possibility of conscription.
As citizens, we (both sexes) owe our
society some service, but I’m not sure we
owe military service.
Which brings us back to the end pro
ducts of registration: the draft and war
making.
It’s curious that, traditionally, the men
who waged war were not the ones who
fought wars. To clarify, older, more
learned men, who supposedly had paid
their dues to society, were not often in the
bang-bang-shoot-’em-up.
The same problem exists today. The
youngest, least organized, least experi
enced and least educated voting mem
bers of our society, some of whom are not
granted full participation in adulthood
(drinking alcohol in Texas, for example)
don’t have much of a voice about regis
tration or what happens to them as a re
sult of registration. Pow. Register or pay
U P' .
Besides the age discrimination,
another confusing area of registration is
its halfway stance. We should either have
nothing or go to a full draft, so that we’re
better able to prevent the Russkies from
enslaving all the free peoples of the
world. Why this namby-pamby?
Pussyfooting has a number of pluses.
First, forced service with no identifiable
threat would likely cause draft card
campfires in one or two cities. Second, it’s
cheaper. Third, you can exempt about 50
percent of your population base, women,
legally. Fourth, registration is a big part
of the battle. Once you’re in the big book,
you get to stay there. Where you can be
found quickly in time of need.
But age and sex injustice aside, the
idea of Ronald Reagan, Caspar Weinber
ger or Gen. A1 Haig rumbling about
countering imbalances, playing brink-
smanship and shining our tarnished im
age with warm bodies causes me heart
burn.
Especially when one of those warm
bodies might be yours. Or mine.
Letter: People too smart to start war
Editor:
I fully agree with what Elizabeth Cren
shaw had to say in The Battalion (a pup
pet of Pravda) on March 1st about the
imminent attack on the U.S. by the Soviet
Union. Not only are the Soviets prepar
ing to attack us this moment, but they are
infiltrating into every part of our society.
The Russians have special agents
placed very high in our government and
big business corporations. How else can
one explain high inflation, unemploy
ment and the sale of sophisticated
machinery and computers? They plan on
destroying our economy and draining
every last drop of useful technology from
us before they come in for the kill. It
doesn't stop there either. Someone you
know (professor, dorm janitor) could sec
retly be going to meetings where they
discuss ways of breaking American
morale. No Nukes and other pacifist de
monstrations are some of the best ways
those sneaky commies bring their ideas
into the open. I’ve even seen them broad
casting their propaganda here on cam
pus. Don’t be fooled by so called fun
damental evangelists. They’re trying to
recruit our youth into their Red army of
followers. They don't want you to be a
born again Christian but a born again
commie.
I bet you didn't know the Russians are
controlling our weather. By weakening
our farming industv we can't use food as
a weapon anymore. Could our own Corp
of Cadets (is nothing sacred?) be blindly-
following a crazed pinko awaiting the sig
nal to invade? That's just a theory, but the
list is endless. You can’t trust anybody!
Before Ronald Reagan and his conser
vative Republican followers (as opposed
to those Satan-worshipping liberal
Democrats) ascend into heaven, I think
he should make even more spending cuts
and use the extra money for buying even
more tanks, planes and guns for defense
(offense).
I have been in the hospital four times
now- for nervous ulcers and have spent
many a night worring about such things.
Not anymore though, I figure the end
will come sometime around Easter. I’m
skipping school and blowing off study
ing. What’s the use of such petty w-orries
and distractions as these? Enjoy your
spring break Ags because it will be your
last.
By the way, I've taken Highway 6 both
ways and found it to be nothing special,
but it is a good escape route.
Greg Budinger ’83
Jan Word ’83
Writer can’t really exist
Editor:
I’ve just read Elizabeth Crenshaw’s
letter on how Russia is going to blow up
America. Surely you can’t expect us to
believe that this person actually exists.
Next you’re going to tell us that she sees
little green men at night. C’mon guys, if
you have to make up letters, at least make
them believable. Otherwise send them to
the National Enquirer.
Gary Johnson
603 Southwest Parkway-
Blame Russia for everything
Editor:
Reading Elizabeth Crenshaw’s letter
about preparing for a nuclear attack
from Russia was quite humorous. She
mentioned the world conquering deter
mination of Russian leaders and their su
perior war machine they have to back it.
This war machine should peak in 1982
when our militat e effort should be at its
weakest, and the attack could come as
soon as this year.
Well I’m sorry Mrs. Crenshaw, but
you obviously have been reading too
many articles from the authors who
aren’t too realistic about the present
world or the mental state of Russian lead
ers. The fact is that the U.S. has enough
nuclear weapons to kill the Russian
population 35 times over, and the Rus
sians probably have the same type of
capability. Neither our leaders nor the
Russian leadeds are eccentric enough to
try an attack that could mean world des
truction.
Although the Russians have more
actual missies than the U.S (appr. 1400 to
1050 (1980)), the American technology is
far superior to the Russians. Each U.S.
missile has a MIRV warhead which is
actually 10 separate heads that separate
over the target. Our cruise missile is fat-
superior to anything the Russians have
and so too are our Trident submarines. If
the Russians launched offensive missiles
toward the U.S., our satellites would de
tect their launch within 30 seconds. W ith-
in 15 minutes, the president would know
if the missiles w ere aimed at the L .S. and
he would have 15 more minutes to retali
ate or surrender. Since the missiles would
hit us 30 minutes from launch, a nation
wide panic, trying to get* to shelters,
would do more harm than good.
If you are worried about the Russians
and their ideas on dominating the world,
concern yourself w ith their conventional
army, which is twice our own, and their
actions around the world. If you feel
something should be done about that
problem, join the army. Your help is
much more needed there than in The
Battalion. The Russians may take over
the world but thev will never start with
U.S.
A destroyed and contaminated Earth
is of no use to anyone, even Russians.
Tom Reilly
Mclnnis Hall
Slouch
By Jim Earle
“It got to be such a problem cleaning it all the time that I
said, ‘What the heck! Why not get rid of it/* 9
App
ay foi
an
lie up
March
I Stu
yell le
nient
jounci
A^ies
Associ;
Itudei
t ons.
Ap
up m
Office
t ons a
filing
Rui
April 1
Sti
both |
Irndc
I ave b
and rr
at Te
three
I The
c ent v
affaiis
far fit
c ent
c ent v
Governors meetings
lack flair of past years
By David S. Broder
WASHINGTON — Watching the na
tion’s governors at their meeting in
Washington last week, I kept thinking
how much that group has changed in the
20 years I have been covering their ses
sions. This generation is probably more
talented and capable — and certainly
more earnest — than the rather light
hearted fellows who gathered in Her-
shey, Pa. in the summer of 1962 for w-hat
was then a casual mixture of partisan
politics and play.
But whatever the 1982 versioh could
claim in superior seriousness and dili
gence, it lacked the glamour, the energy
and the sheer audacity that was supplied
at the Hershey conference — and at
many others, earlier and later — by Gov.
Nelson A. Rockefeller of New- York.
When he walked into the room, things
started popping. “His arrival was invari
ably heralded by the voice, that unmis
takable, insistent honking,” his former
speechwriter, Joseph E. Persico, w rites in
his newly published memoir, “The Impe
rial Rockefeller.” “He never arrived
alone, but in a flying wedge, Nelson strid
ing ahead with easy purposefulness at the
point of the angle, while aides trotted at
each flank.”
He i^ade exactly that kind of entrance
into the sun-filled dining room at the
Hershey hotel housing that year’s confer
ence. It was Rockefeller’s sport in those
days to throw a strong civil rights resolu
tion on the table and sit back in enjoy
ment while northern and southern
Democratic scrapped with each other ab
out the issue.
It was part playfulness and part parti
sanship, but in Hershey, lame-duck Gov.
(now Sen.) Fritz Hollings of South Caroli
na, who had seen Rockefeller’s trick be
fore, got a bit aggrevated.
If you want to talk about civil rights, he
said, let’s have a real talk. And he laun
ched into a mini-filibuster. Then as now,
the governors had a tight schedule to
keep, so there w-as consternation for sev
eral hours until Pennsylvania’s David
Lawrence was able to to persuade both
men to back off and let the game pro
ceed.
I thought about those days, reading
Th
shed
4 arc I
eld I
Persico’s lively book last week, when ta
of federalism filled the Washington ai
Nelson Rockefeller was out front on tli
issue — as he was on so many others. 1
organized the bipartisan politii
machine that bulldozed the first big f«
eralist initiative, general revenuj
sharing, through Congress. And in tha
casual days, when the governors’ confe*:
ence had no substantial staff resources
its own, his staff put together almost all
what remains, even today, the organii
tion’s federalist platform.
Yet Rockefeller was never chairman
the group. He was blocked by the lai
Democratic national chairman, John Jl
Bailey, working through Abe Ribicoffcl
Connecticut and other Democratic goj
ernors to deny Rockefeller a nation;
platform that might have served his pre
idential ambitions.
In Persico’s telling, it is not a sad stor
— and certainly not a tragic one. It is, a
Rockefeller’s entourage always was,
lively affair, full of graceful touches fo
those within his circle, and scorn fo
those on the outside.
He had not much use for Richard Ni.\
on, so he could — as Persico tells it-
make a nasty crack even about the Nix
on’s Christmas card. He had so litti
esteem for Ronald Reagan that he carril
paigned enthusiastically against Reaga:
in 1976 even after Jerry Ford hail
dumped him from the ticket as Vice Prej
idem
Rockefeller and Reagan were alwaysa
odds at the governors’ conference
where they shared center stage — am fill
particularly at one held aboard the U.Si n th
Independence (“The Ship of Fools") it
1967, the year that Time magazineincau
tiously pictured them on its cover as tin
Republicans’ 1968 “dream ticket.”
Rockefeller always bested Reagan in
side the governors’ meetings, and
Th
d j<
ill be
udit
.os F
erfo
W
lion
ers
as ir
e h
an-/
|onn<
ana
The
he liked to point out — ran ahead o
Reagan in the challenge to Nixon’s norm
ave
now
M
orm
ive-\
our.
)faS
nation in 1968.
Recalling him, through Persico’s book
I had to think it was probably just as wel
that Rockefeller did not live to s«
Reagan President. Nixon was enough
But, Lord, he would have made the gov
ernors’ meeting more lively last week.
The Battalion
USPS 045 360
Member of
Texas Press Association
Southwest Journalism Conference
Editor Angelique Copeland
Managing Editor janeG. Brust
City Editor Denise Richter
Assistant City Editor Diana Sultenfuss
Sports Editor Frank L. Christlieb
Focus Editor Cathy Saathoff
Assistant Focus Editor Nancy Floeck
News Editors Gary Barker,
Phyllis Henderson, Mary Jo Rummel,
Nancy Weatherley
Staff Writers Jennifer Carr,
Cyndy Davis, Gave Denley,
Sandra Gary, Colette Hutchings,
Johna Jo Maurer, Hope E. Paasch
Daniel Puckett, Bill Robinson,
Denise Sechelski, John Wagner,
Laura Williams, Rebeca Zimmermann
Cartoonist Scott McCullar
Graphic Artist Richard DeLeon Jr.
Photographers Sumanesh Agrawal,
David Fisher, Eileen Manton,
Eric Mitchell, Peter Rocha,
John Ryan, Colin Valentine
Editorial Policy
The Battalion is a non-profit, self-supporting news
paper operated as a community service to Texas .\&\f
University and Brvan-CoUegc Station. Opinions ex-
pressrd in I hc Battalion arc those of the editor or the
author, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of
Texas A&M University administrators or faculty mem
bers, or of the Board of Regents.
The Battalion also serves as a laboratory newspaper
for students in reporting, editing and photography clas
ses within the Department of Communications.
Questions or comments concerning any editorial
matter should be directed to the editor.
Letters Policy
Letters to the Editor should not exceed 300 words in
length, and are subject to being cut if they are longer.
The editorial staff reserves the right to edit letters for
style and length, but will make every effort to maintain
the author's intent. Each letter must also be signed, show
the address and phone number of the writer.
Columns and guest editorials are also welcome, and
are not subject to the same length constraints as letters.
Address all inquiries and correspondence to: Editor,
The Battalion, 216 Reed McDonald, Texas A&M Uni
versity, College Station, TX 77843, or phone (7 1 3)845-
2611.
The Battalion is published daily during Texas A&M's
fall and spring semesters, except for holiday and exami
nation periods. Mail subscriptions are $ 16.75 per semes
ter. $33.25 per school year and $35 per full year. Adver
tising rates furnished on request.
Our address: The Battalion, 216 Reed McDonald
Building, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX
77843.
United Press International is entitled exclusively to
the use for reproduction of all news dispatches credited
to it. Rights of reproduction of all other matter herein
reserved.
Second class postage paid at College Station TX
77843.