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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 4, 1982)
opinion August 4,1 I Who will supervise Con gress by Art Buchwald The latest publicity concerning rumors of congressional shenanigans with Capi tol Hill pages and drugs has caused some serious soul searching in Washington. There has been ah outcry for greater su pervision of young pages in their off hours. Right now these 15- and 16-year- olds are more or less off on their own, when they are not working, and nobody seems responsible for them. They live where they want to and do what they want, which can get them in all kinds of trouble. While Congress is prepared to change the rules concerning supervision of the pages, no one has gotten to the real root of the problem — and that is who will supervise the legislators? It’s quite clear that if you transplant 535 middle-aged congressmen and women to a big city like Washington, and give $60,000 a year to spend, and don’t oversee their leisure time, some of them are bound to get into trouble. There are several solutions to the problem that will guarantee that these people will not be left to their own devices after work hours. Ons suggestion is that Congress build male and female dormitories on the mall where they would have to live while they are in session. The dormitories would provide television, game rooms, lectures and other recreational activities to keep the congressmen’s and -women’s minds busy during their off hours. Hduse- mothers would be hired to run the dorms and make sure they made their beds and did their homework. Dating would be permitted, but only in the public rooms downstairs. On weekdays all legislators would have to be in bed by 10 o’clock with lights out by 10:30, except during filibusters and special occasions such as the State of the Union Address by the President. Those missing a bed check would have to appear in front of the House Ethics Committee, who would have the author ity to hand out punishment which could be anything from forbidding them to go on “Meet the Press” for a month, to not allowing them to fly home on weekends to campaign for reelection. Anyone caught having alcohol in the dorms would lose his fret privileges for a month. If the oft repeated, he would be suspendei Congress, until he brought a his constituents saying he wouldna it again. So life will not get boring in If] ton, chaperoned dances in the Hi ning room will be held on Saturdaii ings with dates from the National nization of Women’s Rights bui from the Maryland and Virginia ters. If we are to have congressmi congresswomen (and there is somti tion whether they could provide that others couldn’t do much cheaply), we have to see thatwhfc from home, they live in a healthy, vised environment. They may squawk at the rest! the beginning. But in the longrun, be grateful that we kept themallfi temptations Washington danglesir: of those who make the lawsoftht IWSH THOSE WRN SECURITY TORCES WOOID HE TIMER WHEH THEV TORTURE PRISONERS! I'LL NEVER GET THESE BLOODSTAINS OUT/ HEX IT'S THE CHEER mmm, TAKE CA£E OF THIS TAESS! The perfect page fixing the program by Steve Gerstel United Press International WASHINGTON — The perfect con gressional page is a swift, silent runner, hustling everything from important documents to candy bars for sweet toothed senators. He, or in more recent times she, is also a youngster between 14 and 18, free and loose in one of the nation’s not-so-very- wicked cities. Most of the time these teenage gofers, identically dressed in white shirts and deep blue trousers, escape notice — a state accepted by the congressmen and senators and almost certainly preferred by the pages. From time to time, concerns have been raised about the living habits and academic pursuits of the pages, but very little has changed since the system began in 1814. That is certain to change now — under unfortunate circumstances. Allegations have been made that some members of Congress and some pages! are into cocaine and homosexual sex. The FBI, a grand jury and the House ethics committee are all investigating the allegations. Even if accurate, the allegations seem to involve no more than a handful of congressmen and even fewer pages. Given the large population of Capitol Hill, the percentages may not even be unusual in relation to society as a whole. In the process, however, a lot of con gressmen and pages have been put under suspicion and, if no indictments are re turned and no charges pressed by the ethics committee, no one probably will ever know. If nothing else the scandal — if there is a scandal — has given new life to the page reform movement. The focus seems to center on super vised housing for the pages that would end a lifestyle that many other teenagers might envy. Girl pages live under one roof but boy pages have to fend for themselves, some times getting together to share an apart ment. The Senate Management Board, which began a study “some months ago” is in with its recommendations. One of them is that Senate should pro vide a single supervised housing unit for its 30 pages until Congress approves money for a page dormitory. But the board, as have others before, indicated concern that the pages are not getting the academic education they need. The page school now has to accommo date 100 pages, ranging in age from 14 to 18, grades 9 through 12. The classes have to be crammed into a tight schedule — 6:15 a.m. until an hour before the Senate or House convenes. It is not unusual for the Senate to meet as early as 9 a.m. There is no gym. There are no labor atories and the library is considered poor although the school is located in the Lib rary of Congress. To ease the situation, the board has recommended the appointment of only 11th graders who would take an “innova tive academic program.” This would retain the “essential” 11th grade courses but add others emphasiz ing Congress and the legislative process, social and policy sciences, budgeting and management, writing and the media. To cope with that load in the limited time available every day, the board also recommended that senators appoint only students with “outstanding academic credentials” as pages. But tradition dies hard on Capitol Hill. For instance, only in recent times have girls and blacks been named as pages. And once the furor over the drugs-sex allegations fade away, the page program may well continue as it always has. mm. |D. i as p during of F K/WXE HASH SO CLEAH, > WN'T EVEN REfiOGNBE IT/ YOU BET, colonel/ there's NO HL»AM*IGHTS RECORD TOO WRIYFOR 1 ^ -r G, Tv odav 1216th . . „ . - ■ollow, IF yoU VE GOT AERUR I;'”' CTATORSWR GET ttSANf WSil'P" ^ w Jy, Ma: host er th <7 k n (Snftaea.- *«<• Scottii Rider v I On th jlln 17: plishei fspapi jl char In of t 1 In H ' OidW That of balanced budget feeling Uniti Newt The Battalion Letters Policy USPS 045 360 Member of Texas Press Association Southwest Journalism Conference Editor Diana Sultenfuss City Editor Bernie Fette Sports Editor Frank L. Christlieb News Editors Tracey Buchanan, Daniel Puckett Diane Yount Staff Writers Cyndy Davis, Susan Dittman, Terry Duran, Colette Hutchings, Hope E. Paasch, Joe Tindel Jr., Rebeca Zimmermann Copy Editors Gary Barker, Carol Templin Cartoonist Scott McCullar Photographers .... David Fisher, Octavio Garcia John Ryan, 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 subscriptions 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. 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. 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Second class postage paid at College Station, TX 77843. by Dick West United Press International WASHINGTON — Basically, there are two ways to go about getting things done in this town. One way is to create a commission to study a problem. The other way is to introduce a Constitutional amendment. Look back over the 26 amendments that have been ratified to date and you will find that the bulk of them dealt with emotional issues — visceral rather than cerebral. Freedom of speech, the right to bear arms, slavery, the income tax, prohibi tion, repeal of prohibition ... all con troversies that aroused intense feelings. And still do for that matter. Study commissions, on the other hand, have mainly delved into subjects more challenging to the intellect than the heart. Right now, rising phoenix-like from the ashes of the Equal Rights Amend ment (ERA), is the Balanced Budget Amendment (BBA). If approved by two-thirds of both houses of Congress and ratified by three- fourths of the states, BBA would prevent lawgivers from approving spending de ficits except by a three-fifths vote. Or some such percentage. It is difficult to quarrel with the osten sible objectives of either amendment. No fairminded person endorses sexual dis crimination and fiscal prudence belongs right up there on the all-time list of All- American virtues. The big question is whether BBA can avoid the fate of ERA, which failed to win enought support to become part of the Constitution. The principles embodied in ERA essentially stimulate thinking. Nearly everyone approaches the problem of sex ism in our society with reason and logical. This may explain why the amendment was rejected. Creation of a commission to study sex ual discrimination might have been a more effective method of dealing with that problem. By contrast, the procedure being fol lowing in the case of mandatory balanced budgets seems entirely fitting. Fiscal policy always stirs our primitive emotions. We can, of course, apply reason in deciding whether certain spending reductions and tax cuts are in the public interest. But mostly we go with our gut reactions. You could sense the emotional pull at this week’s BBA rally on the Capitol steps where not long ago the intellectual back ers of ERA were rallying. The thousands of BBA ralliers who gathered to hear President Reagan extol the amendment were there primarily be cause deficit spending makes red. But just as ERA was done in byfe: would lead to unisex restrooms, so BBA appear vulnerable to tangei arguments. [e runa’ ead i g, as toterp ‘ surv ie of Kes ex ys no fom disi pd of Si Already there is talk that uni budgets benefit wellheeled citizensto I detriment of those out at the heels. If that view prevails, it may bewi# switch to a thinking man’s approi appointment of a commission to the feasability of maintaining sepal budgets, one for poor people andone i the rich. Berry s World “Whatever happened to the good old-fash ioned heterosexual-type scandals they used to have in London and Washington?”