-opinion
Slouch
By Jim Earle
V (982-/983
‘You might say I have a clean slate
Sweet smell of ERA:
get it cleaned up
by Art Buchwald
I walked past the Environmental Pro
tection Agency in Washington the other
day with another newspaperman, and we
were both nearly overcome by the stench
coming from the building.
“What do you make of that smell?” I
asked my friend.
“1 don’t know. It could be PCB or
dioxin or some other industrial waste. It
does have a familiar odor.”
“I can’t believe they’d be using the EPA
building to store toxic' waste,” I said.
“They may be incompetent, but they’re
not stupid.”
“Let’s go in,” my friend said. “There
could be a story here.”
We w'ent into the building and told the
guard that we’d like to talk to someone
about the EPA hazardous waste prog
ram. He handed me a pass and two gas
masks.
When we went to the office he directed
us to, we found a woman stuffing mate
rial into a paper shredder.
“What are you doing?” I asked her.
“I’m shredding material that the con
gressional committee has subpoenaed in
regard to our superfund cleanup
program.”
“Isn’t that dangerous?” my friend
asked her.
“T his stuff is poison and we have to get
rid of it,” she said.
“What’s poisonous about it?” I wanted
to know.
“It could compromise all the deals
we’ve made with companies w ho are guil
ty of dumping toxic material. If these
papers got into the wrong hands, many
top people in the EPA could get sick.”
“But isn’t it against the law to shred
paper that has to do with toxic waste?” I
asked.
“Absolutely not. These papers are
being shredded under executive pri
vilege.”
“Aren’t you afraid of being held in
contempt of Congress?”
“I’m only doing my job. If you want to
talk to anyone about the legal aspects,
speak to Mr. Sniff, in the next office.”
Mr. Sniff was very nervous when we
walked in. “I’m not allowed to talk to the
press unless I have two witnesses with
me.” He called in two other lawyers, and
turned on his tape recorder. “Now, what
do you want to know?”
“Why are you shredding papers about
your toxic waste program?”
“We don’t want them to get into the
wrong hands. We have several cases
pending against companies that have
been dumping chemicals, and we prefer
their lawyers didn’t see the evidence.”
“But if you shred the papers, how can
you use them in court?”
“We don’t intend to go to court. We
refer to settle with them so they won’t
ave to stand trial.”
“If they violated the law, shouldn’t
they be brought to justice?”
“What would that accomplish? Our job
is to get companies to clean up their acid
pits. If we took a hard line, they’d only get
mad at us and dump more waste.”
My friend said, “What about the peo
ple who have been driven out of their
homes by dioxin and PCB and those who
are being poisoned by the water around
the dumps?”
“We’ve done a study on that problem.”
“Can we see it?”
“No, it’s confidential. If we publish the
results we might be revealing trade sec
rets of the companies who did the
dumping.”
A secretary came in and said, “Mr.
Drum of Titanic Chemical is on the
phone.”
The lawyer picked up his phone.
“Drum, we just got a report from the
whistle blower in our Pittsburgh office
that your company is dumping uranium
waste under the high school football sta
dium. Are you aware that’s a no-no? ...
Oh, you were? Well, be a good fellow and
stop it. Thanks a lot. What Congress
doesn’t know won’t hurt them.” He hung
up and turned to us.
“Now, if you’ll excuse me, we’ve got a
lot of work to do here.”
I left with my newspaper pal. We
handed in our passes and gas masks to
the guard.
Suddenly, my friend said, “I know
what this stench smells like.”
“What?” I asked him.
“Watergate. It stinks like a Watergate.”
I inhaled and said, “I think you’re
right.”
The Battalion
USPS 045 360
Member ol
Texas Press Association ,
Southwest Journalism Conference
Editor Diana Sultenfuss
Managing Editor Gary Barker
Associate Editor Denise Richter
City Editor Hope E. Paasch
Assistant City Editor Beverly Hamilton
Sports Editor John Wagner
Entertainment Editor Colette Hutchings
Assistant Entertainment Editor . . . . Diane Yount
News Editors Daran Bishop, Brian Boyer,
Jennifer Carr, Elaine Engstrom,
Johna Jo Maurer, Jan Werner,
Rebeca Zimmermann
Staff Writers
Melissa Adair, Maureen Carmody,
Frank Christlieb, Connie Edelmon,
Patrice Koranek, John Lopez, Robert
McClohon, Ann Ramsbottom, Kim
Schmidt, Patti Schwierzke, Kelley
Smith, Angel Stokes, Tracey Taylor,
Joe Tindel, Kathy Wiesepape
Copyeditors .... Shelley Hoekstra, Jan Swaner,
Chris Thayer
Cartoonist Scott McCullar
Graphic Artists Pam Starasinic
Sergio Galvez Thompson
Photographers
David Fisher, Dena Brown, Jorge Casari,
Ronald W. Emerson, Eric Lee, Irene Mees, John
Makely, William Schulz
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
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 and
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.
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.
Battalion/Page 21
February 23,
Trend to visual rock ‘n’ roll
by Maxwell Glen
and Cody Shearer
WASHINGTON — Mick Jagger and
his Rolling Stones have probably been
doing the usual at a theater near you
recently in their latest concert film, “Let’s
Spend the Night Together.”
The film’s title is no accidental come-
on. As the Stones surely know, their pro
fession’s future rests on video. Cable
hook-ups and Betamaxes have become
the new wave in pop music and are slowly
merging the two biggest chunks of Amer
ican culture.
We bring up this subject because of a
visual barrage of rock and celluloid that’s
intensified over the last 18 months.
Videotapes of rock performers seem to
be rolling everywhere — particularly on
television. Rock groups and singers, who
once avoided publicity to the point of re
clusion, are now as visible as Gary Cole
man and, unfortunately, as childishly
theatrical.
A video-rock sampler: Billy Joel dres
ses in work clothes and hard hat and
strums his guitar to the background of
his latest hit, “Allentown.” To the dub of
“Love’s Been a Little Bit Hard on Me,”
directors run country-rock singer Juice
Newton through a sadistic routine that
eventually puts her in a body cast. The
Go-Go’s, those pixie-faced idols of mil
lions, are transformed into clay figures
and transported into space. Wheee!
Why are they doing it? That’s easy: to
sell records. Anyone who’s taken the tem
perature of the recording industry re
cently knows that rock stars and their
backers are hard-up for business. More
than older standbys of nationwide tours
and fan clubs, videotapes are the newest
way to lure a mass market.
Produced at a cost of anywhere from
$15,000 to $150,000, tapes are distri
buted to record stores, night clubs and
television systems — f ree of charge. Of
course, of these outlets, cable TV pro
vides the biggest splash. A number of
cable firms (Home Box Office, for exam
ple) offer regularly-scheduled programs
built around industry-produced video
tapes.
One in particular, however, Warner
Amex’s “MTV” (that means Music TV),
seems to be setting the standard. Around
the clock, seven days per week, the New
York-based service broadcasts at least
250 different tapes, of groups ranging
from Eleetwood Mac to Squeeze.
For M TV’s 9.5 million viewers, who
on the average are about 23 years old,
nonstop rock is a dream come true. For
depressed record companies, it's a life
saver — at least temporarily. Since Au
gust 1981, according to a Billboard
magazine survey last Fall, there’s been a
15-20 percent boost in sales of albums by
acts featured on MTV.
Whether video can spawn a lasting
turnaround is unclear. For its part, MTV
has its eye on another 5 million subscri
bers by year’s end, but such projections
are hard to verify. At 29.3 million sub
scribers, the nation’s cable systems have
already linked 35 percent of America’s
television-owning households kl
undergone a slump. Meanwl
Michael Greene, who runs ik
Music Ghannel in Atlanta, the
production and broadcastingh
interested parties on thesidelii
But for now, the most in
ment of the rock videoexph
its effect on the direction of mi
Traditionally, company
policies and big-city tastes have
what’s available to the restofthei
Distance and local radio
were other factors: Cody, Vivo,
seemed five years behind the Net
or Los Angeles markets in
particularly its music.
While New York’s downti
and EM programmers willob
tinue to be leading tastearbitei
suburban base could meant
fluence for a traditonally
ence. If they can put the cash
and producers go along —ne»
and singers will be able to
le interests of big-city types and
come national success stories
Cats, a punk band that oncecouhl
get a nod from American dk
credit MTV for their newfoi
larity.)
Obviously, the videoizationoi'
roll will only make for moresf!
Groups will have tocomeupwt!
compliment melody. Thatalra
most dramatic development in cl
ness since the greatest act of
and Co., came along more than:
ago.
iiiSf
:
IP*
Sm
m
i
Vice
the I
Is
Ic
HEiS FROM THE EPAHE SAYS HE QIVE5 A HOOT
AMP HE WANTS TO SQUEAL QM ANHEGORSUQL
Letters: Theater program praised
cam pn
Y>m t]
Cross i
blood i
A&M
need
Cross
PE
tor of
Editor:
The Battalion of Feb. 15 carried an
article concerning the OPAS co
sponsorship of the “Run for the Arts.”
While we agree with promoting an
awareness of the arts at A&M and realize
The Battalion has consistently supported
us, the article contained a quotation to
which I and several other Theatre Arts
majors took offense.
The quotation read as follows:“Since
Texas A&M does not have a school of
fine arts, OPAS is one of the few ways
people can get a taste of the arts, which
we think is important.”
While it is true that A&M does not
have a school of fine arts, our theater arts
section does an outstanding job of filling
in that gap. This year the theater arts
section is producing six major shows; this
is an enormous undertaking considering
there are only 40 theater arts majors at
this University.
The quality of the program is excel
lent and is a tribute to the faculty mem
bers. In addition to this, two of the stu
dent designers for our show (“Getting
Out") placed first at the regional festival
in the categories of scene design and
lighting design, winning over numerous
graduate student designers that had en
tered. Also, at the University Resident
Theater Association preliminary audi
tions in Austin, three A&M theater arts
majors were advanced to the finals in
acting, scene design and stage manage
ment. It is considered rare for even one
student from a University to advance to
the finals.
We strive in our productions to bring
variety and excellence in theater to A&M.
We, the students, feel that we deserve
some just recognition of our eff orts.
Doug Golenski ’85
Editor’s Note: This letter w:is accompa
nied by 36 other signatures.
Big Event thanks
Editor:
A letter to Joe Nussbaum and the
Student Services Committee:
The members of Ghi Omega Fraternity
sincerely congratulate you for your ex
ceptional organization and execution of
the Big Event. We were proud to play a
part in an activity that served as a uni
fying agent between the students of
Texas A&M and the communities of
Bryan/College Station. It was refreshing
to see so many Aggies band together to
work toward a common goal. We look
forward to participating in our new
Aggie tradition in the years to come.
Amanda Pike ’86
Angela Dodd ’85
Lost necklace
Editor:
Hey Ags! I lost a blue and gold add-a-
bead necklace between the Evans Library
and the parking lot behind the Olin E.
Teague Building on Sunday, Feb. 6 at
i
about 7:30 p.m.
If you or someone else)®
found that necklace, pleased :
at 764-9111 of 764-9109. It is"®
timental value and a cash reu'^
given.
P.S. Laurie, I hope you find' 0 '
Andrea
Ring lost
Editor:
Help!
I lost a man’s silver and turf
last Wednesday, Feb. 16, possif
Halbouty Geosciences Buildif
one found it, please contactMa r f
0224. It has sentimental vale f
you.
Ser
Mark ScY
Lost wallet
Editor:
A3
Oi