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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 2, 1982)
opinion Battalion/Page 2 June 2,11 v du in :oi ‘g or lo le ) c du dr th m] -it) .er ic ir rir :o rn at ati :h JV( "h aa er la< >b g 2 J g E 3 1 VC >f in n; 11 .u ic VI, To ir if ir ii AiJ n rV! di m in Slouch By Jim Earle “Frankly, I would prefer a less personal registration pro cess. ” Rollercoaster only young once by Dick West United Press International WASHINGTON — First, a disclaim er. Anyone experimenting with the ther apeutic technique discussed below does so at his own risk. My advice is to consult a physician before trying it. That said, let me now introduce a woman I shall identify here as Lobelia Ligamento. (Real name supplied upon request.) Miss Ligamento admits to 53 years of age, and when I recently made her ac quaintance she told me she suffers occa sional twinges of arthritis. But only in winter. During other seasons, Miss Ligamento said, she wards off arthritic attacks by taking daily rides on a roller coaster. In evaluating this treatment, it is im portant to know that Miss .Ligamento works for an amusement park whose en tertainments include one of the world’s highest, fastest and longest roller coas ters. Nevertheless, there is nothing in her contract that requires her to expose a somewhat frail-looking frame to daily drops of more than 140 feet at speeds of almost 65 mph. Nor is she is any way behooved to attribute any curative, restorative or im- munitive powers to the mechanism. Scientific curiosity aroused, I asked her to supply me with some literature about the ride. the small society by Brickman n'6 MAf2p OF £UT ^ LAT& r IN THE=l£- UVE€>, IT'S i ALtfoe'T n T<2 £HAN<5^THEIP h V HA£iT£ — ^ b s; ©1981 King Feature* Syndicate Inc World right* reserved Aggie opinions important I was trying to think of a way to fill up a little space the other day, so I decided to put down my thoughts about something that seems to be rampant at Texas A&M these days. Opinion! I feel about opin ions the same way I feel about a hambur ger. They’re pretty good unless they’re overcooked. Then they’re kind of dry and rather useless. But they’re also one of the reasons that I like Texas A&M as much as I do. If there is nothing else that anyone could ever say for Aggies, they could at least say that they’re not afraid to give you an opinion on something. The editorial page of this paper is testimony to that. There have been opinions rendered on this page on everything from homose xuality to photographers at muster. You could walk up to somebody on campus and ask them how they feel about the fire ants invading Mars after they chew up Texas and get some kind of opinion on the matter. It might be that they don’t give a damn or that it’s better the little green men than us. But you would at least get some kind of answer. The only problem is, the answer might be to see somebody pull up in an ambulance with a white jacket, one size fits all, and a nice little comfortable room waiting for you. I always did love white. But seriously, it really is something good about our school. People here are not afraid to speak their mind. It is a freedom that we ought to hold dearly and protect at all cost. Maybe the fact that we have always had it has made us take it for granted. That could be the reason that sometimes we tend to run things into the ground by just continually tossing our opinions back and forth without ever really coming to any solution otnj deem worthy to discuss. Altera# just gets kind of old and boring. I When you open up the weeks in a row and we’re still debait ‘ * rights of little white mice (youb ones who get cancer from rat| you begin to wonder. It’s notthf matter of peoples’ opinions thatl me, but the length of time thattbt) to dwell on one subject. We needu to settle our differences a linl quicker. That might even be the problti our governments today; theysti take forever just to trade secrets# others skiing teams. Not to menu amount of time they take to sol problems like little children stai somebody’s freedom being surpt If they’d get on the stick and getit business, we might be a littlebetteti just remember opinions areag if you don’t leave them on the si long. If they boil over, thentheyjia up the place. But, hey, that’sja opinion. She did, and it cited one roller coaster addict as having lost 70 pounds during a period in which he took 2,450 rides. OK. You don’t have to be a Harvard Medical School graduate to leap to a con clusion that roller coasters have certain weight-reducing and medicamentous potentials. The first is understandable. Purely in the interest of science, I took a ride on the coaster and found that it jolted my giblets, including the digestive tract, with sufficient vigor to curb my appetite for hours. The anti-arthritic aspect is a bit more difficult for a layman to grasp. Nothing I have read suggests that re lief from stiffness and soreness caused by inflammation of the joints would be pro vided by blood alternatively rushing be tween head and feet, eyeballs forced back in their sockets by centrifugal force, gid diness and stark terror. Consequently, I am inclined to suspect Miss Legamento is using her arthritis as an excuse to indulge in what are general ly regarded as youth-oriented thrills. If Miss Ligamento finds herself sur rounded by coasterloads of pre- pubescent and juvenile passengers, all screaming her heads off, as I did on my ride, her age might make her feel as bit conspicious, as mine did. If, however, she is able to explain she is doing it for her health, it all seems per fectly legit. M/tUt 'l£T& 6£T AW/AY FROM IT Alt’, VOO SAIP,„'A CRUISE OMTH£0ff you 5WP„. Black caucus budget unpublicized by David S. Broder The Battalion USPS 045 360 Letters Policy Member of Texas Press Association Southwest Journalism Conference Editor Diana Sultenfuss City Editor BernieFette Sports Editor Frank L. Christlieb News Editors... Tracey Buchanan, Dan Puckett Diane Yount Staff Writers Cyndy Davis, Susan Dittman, Terry Duran, Colette Hutchings, Hope E. Paasch, Joe Tindel Jr., Rebeca Zimmermann Cartoonist Scott McCullar Photographers David Fisher, Peter Rocha, John Ryan, 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 (713) 845- 2611. Editorial Policy The Battalion is a non-profit, self-supporting news paper operated as a community service to Texas A&M University and Bryan-College Station. Opinions ex pressed in The Battalion are 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 mat ter should be directed to the editor. The Battalion is published three times a week — Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday — during Texas A&M’s summer semesters, except for holiday and ex amination periods, when it is published only on Wednes days. Mail subscripuons are $16.75 per semester, $33.25 per school year and $35 per full year. Advertising 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. WASHINGTON — A budget offered to the Congress and the country last week would have pleased the advocates of a nuclear-weapons freeze and those who want to balance the budget faster than President Ronald Reagan. It would have restored last year’s cuts in education and Medicaid and provided an extra 13 weeks of unemployment in surance for those who have lost their jobs. It had other interesting features, in cluding a nickel-a-gallon gasoline tax to repair our deteriorating highways and improve mass transit systems. That is an idea Secretary of Transportation Drew Lewis has been trying, without success, to sell the President. Despite the appeal of most of these proposals to various constituencies — and the controversy at least some of them stir in other quarters — chances are, you heard nothing about this proposal. It was offered by the Congressional Black Caucus, and it was trounced. There is a perfectly good case to be made that it deserved to be defeated. A lot of people — myself included — would have gagged on the elimination of all new strategic-weapons systems that it prop osed. But this budget was not just defeated by the House of Representatives. It was ignored. And that is what gripes the 18 men and women who make up the caucus and who worked hard at putting the budget proposal together. The black caucus got into the budget drafting business in 1981, when Presi dent Reagan challenged them at a meet ing to “come up with something better” if they didn’t like his way of reducing de ficits. Last year, and again this year, they drafted a counter-budget designed, in the words of Rep. Parren J. Mitchell (D- Md.), to “give people one reasonable ray of hope” against a “hopelessness ... that simply cannot be measured.” They were working within the system, as people are supposed to do. Although no blacks are currently assigned to the And then, at the proper time, they brought their proposal to the floor. And they were ignored. Well, not totally ignored. Some white liberal Democrats told them that what they were doing was wonderful, and they were with them, heart and soul. House Budget Committee, they mounted a staff effort from their indi vidual offices, drawing on the expertise of their varying committee roles, and put together the pieces of the budget. Then, as serious people are supposed to do, they set out to build coalition support. They talked to some 100 labor, environ mental, disarmament and other issue groups, and lined up 15 of them as co sponsors when they introduced their budget at an April press conference. Inside the House, they played by the rules, as you are supposed to do. They met with the party leadership (all of them being Democrats) and they took their numbers to the Congressional Budget Office for official authentication. And then, at the proper time, they brought their proposal to the floor. And they were ignored. Well, not I ignored. Some white liberal told them that what they were doii wonderful, and they were with heart and soul. Two Republicans — Reps. Jama tin of North Carolina and John H selot of California — cared eno#; challenge them briefly on their $ defense proposals. The exchange those two points did not take more five minutes. For the rest, the House ignored as the caucus members went th their prepared statements. Thef was, “Let them talk. Then wecangei to the serious business.” That patronizing, barely conff' impatience, got to the members o caucus. Rep. Shirley Chisholm ol York, who once ran for nominah 01 President and is quitting politic* year, exploded at one point. “Here we come again today,” she “and everybody wants to get ridofa* us off the floor, because we are their time. Well, we’re going to tal 1 the time because it is important tort 11 | nize that 18 members of the HP Representatives have been respond terms of accepting certain challenge it beyond the individuals who happ^ be black to come up with ... a docui# to dal with the issues ... and notU 0 with numbers? Still, no one rose to debate thebi^ seriously — as other budget prop 0 had been debated and would bedefe Rep. John Conyers Jr. of Mid" 1 turned his fire on the leaders of te party, who, he said, choose “to toa ignore this work product. They do criticize it. Leaders of the party praise it. They just do not see thati 1 ^ ists. It is the invisible document. • B to w CLASS