Page 2/The Battalion/Friday, September 9, 1983
opinion
Letters
Complaints answered
Editor:
I am writing this letter in response to the
letters of Frank Reister, eoneerning the
monitor in the MSC main lounge, and
Stephen Weiss, concerning the content of
one of our productions.
In response to Mr. Keister’s letter I felt
the term “obnoxious” regarding the moni
tor was unwarranted. The monitor and its
programming are there for the enjoyment
of the students, staff and faculty of the Uni
versity. Thousands of dollars are spent to
provide these entertaining videos and sur
veys are taken to ensure that the program
ming meets the desires of the viewers. The
volume control is easily accesible for those
who wish to turn down the volume for any
reason. There are, Mr. Reister, a large
number of people who do watch these
monitors and gain enjoyment from them.
To Mr. WeiSs, may I address the follow
ing? The tape to which you refer was a satire
on the film “Raiders of the Lost Ark, and
was certainly not meant to be a racial slur.
The piece was done in fun, and it was hoped
it would be viewed similarly. If the piece
offended anyone, we, the producers, apolo
gize. May I remind you that being able to
laugh at oneself, as well as others’ percep
tions of yon, is the most basic element in the
gift — a sense of humor.
Mike Alderfer
Chairman MSC Video Tape Committee
Call ’em Aggies
Editor:
People who stayed for yell practice after
the California game truly deserve to be cal
led Aggies.
Bob Presley
Oceanography
A new head coach?
Editor:
It’s interesting how everyone likes to be
a post-game coach. It’s so easy to exercise
one’s hindsight and just tear apart the losing
coach s decisions and calls during the game.
One such letter to the editor was printed
in Tuesday’s Battalion. I would really like to
meet the author of that letter, especially
since I have yet to meet a perfect person
who knows how to make every decision as it
comes. A team plays hard and gets out-
scored by two points and the coaeh sudden
ly becomes an “arrogant, self-serving, pub
licity seeking B.S. artist.” Mr. Fosberg,
you certainly have a way with words; why
don’t you put your talent to constructive
use? I will also contact the Board of Regents
and inform them of your coaching expertise
so that you can become head coach next
year.
Philip Massirer ’87
Legett Hall exists
Editor:
In your article regarding dorm life in the
Aug. 29 Battalion, you failed to mention
those rooms available in K.K. Legett Hall,
which is the oldest dorm on campus. We
can understand your oversight, however,
because Legett really can not be catego
rized with the other dorms and is seperated
from the other north side dorms. Neverthe
less, as residents of Legett Hall, we would
like everyone to know that we do exist and
are extremely proud of our dorm. By the
way . . . we are All University Champions.
Tracy Triplett ’85
RHA Delegate Legett Hall
Alien story needs help
Editor:
I was distressed to read your front page
article of Aug. 10 concerning un
documented aliens in Texas public schools.
The headline, “Aliens in area schools cost
Texas thousands,” was misleading and the
article was grossly incomplete. It costs
$2,400 to educate a public school student
for one year, no matter if the student is an
undocumented alien or a citizen.
The article itself failed to point out that
undocumented families pay sales taxes and
property taxes just like citizens. Does not
an undocumented person purchase gaso
line, clothes and other taxable items? Since
the undocumented most undoubtebly live •
on someone’s property, they must also indi
rectly pay property taxes. It is sales and
property taxes that finance public educa
tion in Texas.
I hope that in the future, The Battalion
takes a complete look at the public educa
tion costs and financing.
Bobby Slovak
, ^ II
"wfc Know yoi/R6 /N TH£Re,t<X'ie...pft>P SON AMP Th6N CDMfc OUT WITH YtwR
HANDS up JUST AS SOON AS Th£ PAiSon OuPR-cRoujOimj is sou/fcO / "
Drunk drivers sobered
by ‘KNURD’ road signs?
F
by Dick West
United Press International
WASHINGTON — NotSafe, a California
organization whose stated goal is to “protect
everyone from everything at any cost, has
expanded its field of anxieties to include
subliminal messages.
According to Dale Lowdermilk, the
head paranoid, NotSafe supports legislation
to require that the public be warned when
subliminal messages are used in communi
cations media, such as on bumper stickers.
Sublimination, as all of us Nervous Nel
lies know, occurs below the level of con
scious perception. When a message pro
duces a psychological change so slight as not
to effect the consciousness, it is said to be
subliminal.
Some years ago, there was concern that
television advertisers would flash sublimin
al commercials on the tiny screen. I haven’t
heard any of that kind of talk lately, which
probably is just as well.
My guess is that televiewers continued
to buy consciously advertised products,
even when they subliminally preferred
Brand X.
One of the focal points of Lowdermilk s
new crusade are the “STOP” signs seen at
traffic intersections and at numerous other
locations along our busy thoroughfares.
Because “STOP spelled backwards is
“POTS,” Lowdermilk argues that these
signs subliminally promote drug abuse.
And he may be right. Certainly something
is responsible for increased marijuana con
sumption.
It could be, as Lowdermilk suggests,
that the highway department is unwittingly
promoting “erratic behavior” through
“hypnotic programming. ”
But I’m not sure what the replacement
for “STOP” should be.
“YIELD” obviously won’t do.
Although “YIELD” spelled backwards is
pure gibberish, the word is veritably crawl
ing with subliminal messages.
Would you want your children borrow
ing your car for dates if you knew they were
going to be incessantly confronted by signs
urging them to “YIELD?” I sure wouldn’t.
I’d rather take a chance on them reading
“STOP” backwards.
D Li
tions’ contain many diabolical, ambip
subversive and X-rated communical
that must be strictly regulated
they should. I’m wondering, howei
whether sublimination couldn’t also
force for good.
Specifically, it occurred to me that!
liminal messages on street signs mighti
the current national campaign
drunk driving.
Suppose, for example, an intoxiol
motorist weaving his way down the
came to a sign that said “KNURD.
sciously, the sign makes no sense
would it not give a pause to a tipsy dri«
Would not the blotter-tongue
the wheel try to clear away his a
haze long enough to figure would wl
sign meant, perhaps even hacking
make sure he had read it right?
I think so. I’m convinced thateneoun
ing such a sign would be a sober
enee.
ring exp!
Meanwhile, the word “DRUNK
Loudermilk says “subliminal abstrac-
be implanted in the driver’s brain,...
him subliminally aware that he had
sciously downed a few too many
Tliis is I
by Marv E.
Battalion Hi
Texas AficM stuc
ipportunity to wor
oils ranging from '
forking with com]
. Fink, assistant
Office of Student 1
nils offered, nm
I wirk as go-ters,
book slickers or t
sikl. They also ea
lers, secretaries o
intramural progra
Departments
ings leave notices
aid office on the sc
Pavilion. The m
posted on elipboi
dents can look tl
a job that ini
‘We provide
but then it's up t
visit the departi
is offered, fil
Jion and schedul
ie said.
Most of the jo
interview, Fink s
ly are two to fo
most of the jobs
are filled within
Most of the it
belt ji)l) j
alcoln
bat! in
mala
Reagan’s foreign policy
challenged by events
by Helen Thomas
United Dress International
WASHINGTON — President Reagan’s
skills in foreign policy are undergoing a se
vere test.
He has a major superpower confronta
tion on his hands with the Soviet Union.
And he is in danger of getting the United
States hogged down in the quicksand of
Lebanon where religion and power polities
are exploding at gunpoint.
In the ease of battle with the Soviets,
Reagan clearly has the upper hand and the
world with him in his scathing condemna
tion of Moscow for the shooting down of a
commercial Korean airliner.
The president has been long on rhetoric
and short on action, a fact which displeases
his conservative constituency, hut wins
points among the moderates and the liber
als who might have thought he was trig-
gerhappy.
Reagan s denunciation of the Kremlin
comes easy. He has had years of practice
and earlier this year called the communist
state the “focus of evil” in the world. Since
the downing of the jetliner, the president
has let loose a barrage of adjectives that
rarely, if ever, are used in polite diplomacy.
He has called the Soviets “barbar
ic .. . uncivilized” and condemned them
for their “horrifying . . . terrible . . . c-
rimes against Tnimanity.”
But at the same time, he has not lowered
the boom against the Soviets and has not
been half as tough as President Jimmy Car
ter, who, after the invasion of Afghanistan,
ordered an embargo on grain sales to the
Soviets, stopped the flowof U.S. technolo
gy and barred U.S. participation in the
Olympics in Moscow.
Reagan’s retaliation has been restrained:
stopping some cultural and diplomatic
negotiations, and hoping to block landing
rights for Aeroflot, the Russian airline,
around the world.
Otherwise it’s business as usual, except
for a new climate that has been created that
adds to world tensions.
The president has sought to galvanize
world’s outrage against the Soviets and he
has been successful. “It is not the United
States against the Soviet Union; but the
world against the Soviet Union.”
He may he effective in isolating the
Soviets, hut also may add to their paranoia
in dealing with the West.
There is no question that Reagan is win
ning the battle of world opinion and he has
put the Soviets on the defensive. Some
aides see pluses in the fallout, including the
possibility that the reaction of the world will
help Reagan in his hid for MX missile fund
ing and other controversial defense prog
rams.
They also see an easier road for the Un
ited States when it begins to deploy Per
shing-2 and cruise missiles in Europe start
ing in December to offset Russia’s powerful
SS-20 rockets.
In the Middle East, the picture is more
complicated with the United States in the
middle. With Marines suffering casualties
in Beirut firelights, questions are bound to
arise when Congress returns next week on
whether there should be American involve
ment if a civil war erupts in Lebanon.
If there is much more bloodshed, there
is bound to be a clamor to pull out the
American forces. Some congressional lead
ers, however, believe the United States
must remain in Lebanon to provide the
diplomatic and military muscle for Lebanon
to become an independent soverign nation
again.
But that will take some doing, and it will
involve Reagan’s total talents as stateman
and commander in chief.
College cost-of-living rising
by Maxwell Glen
and Cody Shearer
Washington — American colleges may
have found the way to avoid a revival of
1960’s style campus activism, and also shoot
themselves in the foot.
Such are the unfortunate implications of
this month’s College Board summary of tui
tion costs across the country. On the aver
age, the Board says, students will have to
pay $4,700 to attend public universities and
colleges and $8,500 at private institutions
— 12 percent and 11 percent more, respec
tively, than they did last year.
Meanwhile, in the real world, the Con
sumer Price Index rose only 2.6 percent for
the year ending last June 30.
Slouch
by Jim Earle
"What do you mean. There’s no
game?’ There ’s got to be a game! I
just bought a huge block of Kyle
Field tickets at half price on the
fifty-yard line!’
Higher-edflation has not gone without
its defense by administrators, who readily
declare that since the mid-1970 s college
costs increased slower than inflation and are
only now catching up.
Yet it has burdened today’s students
with weighty financial considerations. A re
cent UCLA study found that 66 percent of
all seniors at four-year institutions held at
least a part-time job during school last year,
compared to 36 percent in 1971.
Financial obligation, one hopes, mil
ages responsible behavior, but excessit
doses of it can foster the narrow-ininilt
focus — money, money, money—conuMI
on campus today. In excessive quantities,
makes law, medical and business schoolsj
perfunctorily popular, and activism anill
beral arts out of vogue.
When the price of knowledge takes sit)
a toll, academia’s recent concerns about!
direction of higher education and eolltj
students seem rather amusing.
The Battalion
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USPS
Mei
IVxas I’ll
Soutlnvi's! Jinn
Editor 1 lope E. I’aasi h
Managing Editor Elaine Engsu om
City Editor Beverly I lamilton
Assistant City Editor Kellev Smith
Sports Editor I (> l' n Eopez
Assistant Sports Editor Joe Tindel
Entertainment Editor .... Rebeca Zimmermann
Assistant Entertainment Editor Shelley
I loeksira
News Editors Brian Boyer, Katin Breard,
Traeev Eavlor, Kelly Miller
Photo Editor Erie Evan l.ee
StallWriters Brigid Brockman, Ronnie
(!roi ker. Scott Cril f iii.
Christine Million, Michelle
Rowe, Ann Ramshottom.
Stephanie Ross, Karen
Schrimshcr. Carol Smith.
Angel Stokes, John Wagner.
Kathv Wiesepapc, Wanda
Winkler
Cartoonist Paul Dirmever.
Scott Mi Collar
Photographers Brenda Davidson.
Michael Davis, City Hood.
John Makely. Dean Saito
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