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I opinion
It’s plain, Reagan is running
, by Helen Thomas
United Press International
WASHINGTON — President
*i Reagan’s top aides do not know how to
, say it louder or more clearly than they
have: “He’s running.”
But the timing for Reagan’s
. announcement to the world that he wants
a second term in the White House is what
is confusing. He has made all the moves
of a candidate, and yet maintained his
. presidential demeanor.
In a recent interview, pointedly li
mited to how he views the age factor and
■ how he enjoys his job, Reagan made it
. plain he will seek re-election, and feels
that he is physically up to the job.
Much as he seeks the seclusion and
- solace of his mountaintop ranch for re
newal, he feels he would be bored if he
decided to opt for retirement at the age
- of 73.
, When brought into the White House,
Republican leaders have been pacified
with broad hints from Reagan that they
will be happy with his decision.
When the president goes to his Santa
Barbara ranch for a vacation in August,
he is expected to meet with various GOP
state chairman who will fly in for a chat.
He also will huddle with his top political
advisers at that time.
But even then, aides are expecting
Reagan to hold off his formal announce
ment until around Thanksgiving.
Vice President George Bush has been
told by Reagan that he wants him in the
No. 2 spot on the ticket, and Bush seems
to be happy about that.
In recent weeks, the president has
been highly visible on the road and has
picked a topic his aides believe will be a
hot one in the campaign — promoting
excellence in public schools.
There are other signs in the wind. The
administration is suddenly moving in the
direction of more affirmative action in
In a recent interview . . . Reagan
made it plain he will seek re-
election, and feels that he is phy
sically up to the job.
the civil rights field with the school deseg
regation suit against Alabamba. The
proposed amendments to fair housing
laws also create a new aura for the admi
nistration.
With the economy on the upswing,
Reagan feels he has a springboard to seek
re-election. Hence he and other adminis
tration officials are strongly urging that
there be no increase in interest rates,
which they feel could inhibit economic
recovery.
Reagan still has a problem with the
so-called “fairness” issue and the wide
perception that he is a “rich man’s presi
dent.” But he is trying to overcome that
and feels that his personal acquaintance
with the Great Depression make him well
aware of economic hardship.
Reagan also has some fence mending
to do with women voters. The polls show
that women do not feel that he is sym
pathetic to their concerns, and his oppo
sition to the Equal Rights Amendment
has hurt him with women activists.
Although he has appointed two
women in the Cabinet and one on the
Supreme Court, he has a hard time con
vincing women that he has given the
same break as some of his predecessors.
So far, none of Reagan’s political sup
porters feels that he has been hurt politic
ally by the investigation of how President
Carter’s campaign briefing book and
other documents landed in the hands of
the Reagan team in 1980. Reagan has
taken the high ground in demanding a
“full and complete and totaT’investiga-
tion by the Justice Department.
The president has some aces up his
sleeve that could raise his political stock
before November 1984. By that time, he
could achieve an arms reduction treaty
with the Soviet Union and claim that it is
much better than SALT II, the pact that
Jimmy Carter and Leonid Brezhnev
signed in Vienna in 1979.
A summit meeting between Reagan
and Soviet President Yuri Andropov also
could go a long way in enhancing
Reagan’s image as a statesman and a
peacemaker.
Bigwigs indulge in corny jokes, too
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Backstairs at the
White House:
Presidents and the bigwigs in govern
ment indulge in chit chat just like anyone
else — especially if they are trying to keep
occupied when reporters and photo
graphers are permitted into the Oval
Office to record those historic moments.
The meetings are usually important.
But the president, of course, does not
want to be asked any substantive ques
tions. So there is “dead” air time to fill.
This is the way it went when Reagan
met with Max Kampelman, the U.S. rep
resentative to the Madrid Conference on
East-West issues with Secretary of State
George Shultz and Vice President
George Bush chiming in.
As the press was ushered into the
room, Reagan turned to Shultz and said:
“Isn’t it amazing. You might have 50 ties
in your closet but then you only wear a
half a dozen of them.”
Picking up the ball, Shultz said it re
minded him of a time when there was a
move for a new library at the University
of Chicago where he was the dean of the
school of business. He said a librarian
friend told him a study showed 55 per
cent of the books in the library are not
read.
Shultz said he suggested these unused
books be stored some place safe and be
replaced in a smaller building with books
that are read more often. “Well, that
went over like a lead balloon,” he told the
president.
On that cue, Reagan said he was
“trying to remember about a time when
one of the schools in California had a
problem in moving its library. And all of
a sudden I learned that the kids had set
up a bucket brigade and literally moved
the books, passed them all and got it
done.”
When a reporter then interjected with
a question about the Madrid conference,
Bush ran to the rescue, saying this busi
ness about asking questions reminded
him of the “old question and answer
story.”
“The question is, I mean the answer is
Eddy Nelson,” Bush said. “Well,” he then
asked the president, “do you know what
the question is.”
Reagan said, “No,” to which Bush smil
ingly informed him: “How does Nelson
Eddy put his name in the phone book.”
At that point, reporters and camera
men were ushered out amid the loud
laughter of the nation’s statesmen.
\
The Battalion
USPS 045 360
Member ot
Texas Press Association
Southwest Journalism Conference
Editor Hope E. Paasch
City Editor Kelley Smith
Sports Editor . John Wagner
News Editors Daran Bishop, Brian Boyer,
Beverly Hamilton, Tammy Jones
Staff Writers Jennifer Carr, Scott Griffin,
Robert McGlohon, Angel
Stokes, Joe Tindel
Copyeditors . Kathleen Hart, Beverly Hamilton
Cartoonist Scott McCullar
Photographers
Brenda Davidson, Eric Evan Lee,
Barry Papke
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77843.
Letters: Pedestria
bike traffic conflici
Editor:
An open letter to Robert E. Wiatt, dire
ctor of University Police Department:
There is a serious safety problem de
veloping on the Texas A&M University
campus. The use of the sidewalks by
motorcycles, mopeds, and bicycles is con
flicting with pedestrian traffic for which
they are designed. The operators of
these vehicles travel too fast and are in
considerate of the people on foot. It is
only a matter of time before someone is
hurt.
If my interpretation of the Motor
Vehicle Regulations is correct, it is unlaw
ful to operate a motor vehicle on any
sidewalk, mall, or lawn; this also includes
mopeds. Why is this not enforced? Lack
of manpower cannot be the reason — a
casual look to any parking lot answers
that. It would be reassuring to see an
officer patrolling heavily used areas and
stopping this dangerous and unlawful
practice, making the sidewalks safer for
pedestrians.
The next move would be to remove
the bicycles from all but selected side
walks. The updating of the bicycle lanes,
which is near completion, provides am
ple facilitation for bicycle use; however, I
realize that neglegent bicycle use is diffi
cult to enforce.
Wheeled traffic and foot traffic are
clearly incompatable, and at other recog
nized universities they have been segre
gated. This is a move worth taking for the
safe and efficient movement of people
across campus. If you, as Director of the
University Police Department, choose to
ignore this problem some innocent
pedestrian is likely to be hit from behind
resulting in serious injuries and legal
conflicts. Also, past ietxers and opinions
in The Battalion display some latent hos
tility, which if allowed to develop any
further may creafe violent conflicts be
tween pedestrians and vehicle operators
over the right to use the sidewalks.
Please respond to this letter*
tion. You have plenty of time to pli«
strategies for the fall and finsii!
the increased safety, not to mentii
revenues from citations, willju
effort.
Steven E. Nr-
Critical of letti
Mjt' - ’. v -In-•**.-•^••*4
I''"’
Editor:
I like reading letters from peojife
Stephen Weiss because it doesii.
long to detect the type of mentaliijj
hind them. Mr. Weiss immediatel)«
ches into a defense of affirmative a
and disparages prejudice andthek
the audacity to castigate others foip
ing right vs. wrong judgments. I
Mr. Weiss, are you the hypocrite^
century or don’t you have them
faculties to know you’re makingri|
wrong judgments yourself?
Steve’s support for a govert
which espouses “f reedom and eif
for all” yet “has to ensure...lit
minorities are treated fairly” d
shows the duplicity common amom
pie of his ilk. You cannot ensun
things he advocates without using
form of governmental coercion,tlif
taking away someone’s freedom.
Basically Mr. Weiss doesn’t care
anyone’s freedom; he only wantsto
his oppressive social philosophy ft
on the public by some level of g(«
ment while telling lies about how
lieves in freedom.
What Mr. Weiss really wants
type of freedom and equality they!
Russia; the freedom to do what the
tells you and the right of all j
treated equally, like dogs.
Richard H. Fosl
A ton
necklac
Obnoxious music tlirc
to our national defens
Cc
SC(
by James O. Clifford
United Press International
SAN FRANCISCO — There’s real
danger that nuclear weapons will become
America’s Maginot Line, giving us a false
sense of security while the enemy per
fects a weapon that will render us power
less.
Believe me, I am committed to a
strong national defense and would nev
er, never do anything to aid the U.S.S.R.
or undermine our moral fiber, if there’s
any left.
However, my sources, which I can’t
name, tell me Soviet scientists are well on
the way to perfecting a device that will
render our youth incapable of move
ment, freezing them in place like so many
statues.
The weapon is devilishly simple: a
beam that silences any radio playing loud
music.
Just open your ears the next time you
walk down any busy street and you’ll
know how the Russians got the idea.
Teen-agers carrying radios as heavy as
a machine gun plow through crowds
blaring songs that drown out police
sirens. Cars roar by with windows down
and horrible sounds flowing out in all
directions — driven by future tank driv
ers who one day could become as im
mobile as Hitler’s Panzers stuck in Rus
sian mud.
One is not even immune on buses that
here have signs reading: “No smoking,
eating or radios.” Smokers are thrown
off but I’ve yet to see anyone tell some
body to “turn that &?!$& 1 /2? thing off.”
by
I catch my bus at 5 a.m., the same
a young man opens a gas station nei'
depot. The first thing he does isswitf
a radio that wakes the neighborhooc
fore the roosters crow. It’s as reguli
the flag raising at Fort McHenry. Council i
I have teen-age sons who can'll; ilacemem
shower without a radio on. 1 asked wilding t
oldest how he could hear it withthe* jfnental Pr
running and he answered: “I don't: ^ge regul
it. I feel it.” | te< ^ ma te
When they mow the lawn, so
portable radios are placed at strai 0 seelc '
spots so no matter where they are ? S t oni „ c ^
won’t miss a beat. irgument
And study without a radio 011?% Ihe propt
got to be kidding. | Residi
Remember the scene in “GuadalfifSubdivisit
Diary” where Marine William Bendej proposed
comes frustrated because the radio
lugged ashore breaks down just whei#^
announcer’s about to broadcast the® e
oad off
oncernet
rea.
storaj
score of the World Series?
wanted to know something, not
Contrast that with the radios blai
from helicopters as they attack in
Vietnam War movie “ApocalypseN(
If the enemy had the weapon the”
sians are working on, they wouldn't®ems and
have had to fire a shot.
wund, o
“PCB
We may just have to end upfigl* ^ ens e wo
the next big one with people over
They’ll have enough sense to g
and pull crabgrass — and where
tional defense be then?
On the other hand, maybe the!
sians have the same problem
Perhaps someday SALT will stand
Strategic Audio Limitation Talks
Area r
aid he I
3 CB, a
hem ligj
these tl
fareas.”
He sai
: °ntamin
Slouch By Jim Earli
j>:
k9
Mil 1
STUDY
w
1
7^*0 RfcO*!
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“I’ve learned one thing in political science already — class
participation will be risky this year! 9 ’