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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 15, 1983)
w Letters Why follow Falwell? Editor: In reference to Jerry Falwell’s “Morality in Democracy” speech Tuesday: I think Jerry Falwell is a very paranoid man. Why is he one of the 25 most influen tial people in America? Because America trusts his predictable, hypocritical, empty political and religious cliches and his bland clone-like demeanor. If Jerry Falwell really is a holy man on a personal mission from God, then why is he so afraid? Joanna Sklan Graduate Student FRITZ MONtHE DROPS AU, REFERENCES TO REA6AN0MIC&" FROM SPEECHES... RMll VOIXKER BECOMES R3FUAR, i by Brenda 1 Battalion Hc| The Memorial St ;is losing its senior pr Bid many Texas A jre losing a friend. David Mucci is le irsity to become tl jctor of the student ate University. ‘Satire’ questionable My impression is he’d do anything to protect his nuclear family from the “nation al sins” (abortion, homosexuality, pornog raphy). I think Falwell shouts the name of God and of Jesus Christ from every TV set in America to keep his own sizeable chunk of the American Dream safe from the com munists because he says “they are not like Why does he own a gun and why does he support increased defense spending to pro tect America? Editor: I realize that last night’s book burning was intended to be a “satire” statement against Jerry Falwell’s proposed “New Morality,” but it is my understanding that satire is intended to be constructive rather than destructive. Could not these modern revolutionaries found a more suitable, less odious means of demonstrating their beliefs? I don’t think that in this case, one can fight fire with more fire. Janet Whyde ’85 MDUCANY RKAEU WHAT THE INFIATION RATE IS... .AND THE DOW JOBS MWSTOAL Ky iZi BDIKIS TO 1223 I N V0^ ACTIVE-fKAWHS. 1W6 VOUMB W6 41 MILUON SHARK,. Tam leaving A&l d job opportui w. “I received ■ogram training un ctor Jim Reynold' Jy-.M has been a gr working with sti |ut, there is no pla< ice. It s time to gc perienee.” YOUR KlRj KNOW WHW THE COW IS Buying books: a costly, frustrating task at best Big federal dollars awarded to schools with most hustle Mucci’s responsib ite director at 01 inter around opei [rostudent union bi 1,000 students. Mucci’s specific re II include house mce upkeep of the ns, accounting, s cilities and food set ill work with some j pects, but to a 1 an he has at Texas A student’s life is full of expenses: food, beverages (of varying types and content), clothes and school supplies. But even with running a tab up at the Dixie Chicken, tex tbooks are probably the most expensive, but least used, item in a student’s life. One good aspect about textbooks is that they can be used in ways other than for classes. A book makes an excellent insect exterminator and works just as well as a rain shield. I also have an old English book that makes a great door-stop. Just buying books can be a hassle. If my staying at A&M would have depended on how smooth book buying went, I would be enrolled at t.u. now. After fighting my way through the throngs of people to get into the bookstore, I dug through stacks of books searching for any used books in semi-decent condition. I discovered that I was lucky and did have an option. I could either buy a used book with 13 pages missing or a new book costing twice its worth. compared to working the story problems in it. Jane and John went to the store to buy rat poison, string and milk for a school project. Each has $1.50. John departed from their house 15 minutes before Jane and traveled on his bicycle at the rate of three miles per hour. Jane took a longer route to the store but stopped to talk to Bill for five minutes. Bill was on his way to a meeting of Hitler’s Youth four blocks away from the grocery store. How old is Bill’s younger brother Erwin. ? There seems to be an irony in buying books that can be found nowhere else. It seems fitting that an economics book is one of the most expensive books in the store. After buying his books, it is not unusual for a lucky student to find out that he only needed to get one English book instead of the three the bookstore clerk advised him to buy. Sadly, the purchase of books is quite often the least frustrating experience stu dents have with them, because after the books are bought, a student is actually ex pected to read them. Of all the textbooks in the world, the most frustrating to read are math books. With “X“s and “Y“s jumping throughout it’s often hard, if not impossible, to figure out where “Z” came from. However, reading a math book is easy Science books are almost as confusing as math books. My high school chemistry book boasted that it was written for stu dents at the eight grade level. What the book didn’t say was that it also was written to keep students at the eigth grade level. by Maxwell Glen and Cody Shearer WASHINGTON — Last September, Father William Byron looked around his campus at Catholic University, a 7,000- student institution here, for a project worthy of federal government support. Byron eventually set his sights on Catho lic’s Vitreous State Laboratory. Scattered among three buildings, the lab is home to 50 scientists whose work on fiber optics and other “materials research’ has been widely recognized. Hoping to house the lab in a single new building constructed at government ex pense, Byron said, he began to package (the lab’s) strengths and match them with na tional policy. A year — and many trips to Capitol Hill — later, Byron’s dream has come true. Late in July, Catholic received a congressional promise for $5 million, payable on or after Oct. 1, the beginning of a new fiscal year. An additional $8.9 million will probably follow next year. Already, Byron has begun to select a site and talk with architects. Yet many of Byron’s colleagues, impress ed with his enterprise, take exception to his methods. There is widespread agreement in academia and in government that, by hiring lobbyists and ignoring traditional channels for research projects, Byron has set an unprecedented — and questionable — example for other schools to follow. In time, many worry, lawmakers could dish out cash to colleges just as they roll the pork barrel for other interest groups. Adding to such fears is New York’s Col umbia University, which also received $5 million during the summer for a $20 million chemistry center — again, with aid from lobbyists and some unorthodox shortcuts. According to Dr. Jim Kane, deputy dire ctor of the Energy Department’s research office, a university hoping to garner federal support for a research project traditionally makes a formal proposal to the appropriate federal agency. Federal officials, in turn, seek the advice of experts in the field, asking questions ab out each proposal’s efficacy, potential and merit. While “peer review” methods vary and are rarely part of an agency’s official policy, they routinely determine whether a school’s proposal is included in budgets sent to Congress. Officials at Catholic and Columbia, however, preferred a more direct approach. With an assist from the Washing ton lobbying form of Scholssberg and Cas- sady, they convinced the full House to di vert from other Energy Department pro jects two $5 million parcels. As a spokesman for the American Physic al Society told our reporter, Michael Duffy: “They sold their projects on the floor of the House. Some big shots said, ‘Hey! Let’s just As the MSC set Iviser, Mucci’s w wking with studt an adviser to th nd Performing A iggie Cinema and I afore Series. Mary Polinard, lan, savs Mucci has transfer some money.’ ” Catholic President Byron defendal Capitol Hill Hustle, contendingthatli adership to OPAS tics feign innocence. Most colleges employ outside consultants, he says, many retain Washington lobbyists. He justifies his own actions t to a Reagan administration initial spring that would have granted lion outright to the University of Call Berkeley without benefit of peerrn (Congress eventually scrapped Other schools, he adds, have exec similar runarounds in the past. At issue, of course, is not the merito research at either Catholic or (though peer review would have tic those issues). BOB BR UNIVER COMPLEX AND WOR Airline Travel The chief concern, instead, isthal schools will try to solve their financial[ lems by appealing directly to Conj Such a prospect is almost inevitable: as state and federal appropriations tolii education decline. Uncle Samisexpe to continue to shoulder 80 percenti university research costs. Bob Brown 410 S. Tex It may only seem increasingly nit that every institution deserves as pie. In fact, many Energy Department cials are already preparing for Byrot maneuvers next year. Not all textbooks were written to send students screaming to a rubber room. In fact, there have been a few books that I have actually enjoyed . . . very few. There seems to be a textbook for every class any administrator could possibly think of, and some for classes I did not think could have textbooks. Life teaches appreciation M C I wonder what sex education classes use for textbooks: Playboy, Playgirl, “The Joy of Sex?” Forget books, I wonder what sex educa tion classes do in lab. The Battalion USPS 045 360 Member ot Texas Press Association Southwest Journalism Conference Editor Hope E. Paasch Managing Editor Elaine Engstrom City Editor Beverly Hamilton Assistant City Editor' Kelley Smith Sports Editor , John Lopez Assistant Sports Editor JoeTindel Entertainment Editor .... Rebeca Zimmermann Assistant Entertainment Editor Shelley Hoekstra News Editors Brian Boyer, Kathy Breard, Tracey Taylor, Kelly Miller Photo Editor Eric Evan Lee Staff Writers Brigid Brockman, Ronnie Crocker, Scott Griffin, Christine Mallon, Michelle Powe, Ann Ramsbottom, Stephanie Ross, Karen Schrimsher, Carol Smith, Angel Stokes, John Wagner, Kathy Wiesepape, Wanda Winkler Cartoonist Paul Dirmeyer, Scott McCullar Photographers Brenda Davidson, Michael Davis, Guy Hood, John Makely, Dean Saito 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 telephone number of the writer. Columns and guest editorials also are 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 (409) 845- 2611. Editorial Policy The Battalion is published Monday through Friday during Texas A&M regular semesters, except for holi day and examination periods. 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. 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. 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. t by Red Earl Scheart “To hear one long note of his,” our philo sophy prof told us, “is to hear the feeling and experience of melancholy years. You should go buy a record of his and play it tonight!” So like a good Ag I went and bought a Pablo Casals album and listened to his cello music. The notes were oddly disturbing; there were no words, no rhythmic drum beating, and certainly nothing resembling a singing electric guitar. It was melody, and it swirled around my mind and tried to touch something. It was interesting, but of no great interest. I could not really grasp what the prof had meant, and if you can’t understand it, why bother with it. Still, he must of known something, they do not give away Ph.D’s for fun. I puzzled over this very little until I read | my newspaper the next day. It reported the ^ deaths of two Marines in Lebanon and I I wondered why they were dead. Reagan | sent them there to be part of an internation al peacekeeping force. Other men from other countries had died or been wounded, but I wondered if maybe this was not a method for Reagan to arouse the wrath of the American people and then find backing for a military confron tation in Lebanon. A terrible purpose, if true, but we have already learned that the moral integrity of a president is no absoulte. I am uncertain as o what the truth could be, yet I am still jDothered by it. | It was in a class that same day, when I talked with a lovely girl I had met in a class over summer, that I remembered some thing. During the summer, her infant nephew had died. She missed class for three days, and when she returned, her eyes were still red and swollen. Remembering her eyes, I thought of Casals. Thinking on the all too clear mystery of death, I knew I would play Casals that night. friends were boys. I was always wary of that sort of girl, yet she somehow managed to latch onto me. I took her home one night from a party and stopped in front of her house. She did not heed my not too subtle hints to get out of the car, but instead started to tell me about her father. He had died the year before. She told me that he had gone jogging and when he came back to the house, he collapsed onto the kitchen floor suffering from a heart attack. She came into the living room and watched TV for several minutes so that by the time she went into the kitchen, her father was dead. The doctor told the re maining family that if they could have got ten to him a few minutes sooner, he might sadness, and finally learned howtopii feelings into music. Yet even so, life has beauty andw experience happiness. Perhaps by lid one another, we can grow strong!)) giving of strength to others. Then we may come to know thatfe and meaning are both in the eye beholder, and that it is up to us I them. Slouch By Jim Ear Readers’ Forum have lived. When she finished telling me this, she leaned over, grasping me in her arms and crying into my shoulder, and told me she felt so guilty that she had not gone into the kitchen just a few minutes sooner and perhaps saved her father. What could I say, I knew nothing of such guilt, knew little enough about her, so I just let her cry. It was later that I came to under stand why all her friends were men, she needed the strength, the security that a man supposedly offers a woman. That night, I could provide neither. Lis tening to Casals, I remembered all this and more, at last coming to understand what the professor had meant, what Casals must have known all along. To go through life is to see failure, to feel sadness, to come to know tragedy all too intimately. As we grow older, we will learn the sorrowful stories of others and live some ourselves. This time, as I listened, the melody touched me, a memory was pulled free, and I began to understand. In high school there had been a girl I knew. She was short and overweight with weak knees. She used to say that all her It is the true reality of life that we are not guaranteed happiness, that we have to search and fight for it. There is no living without sadness. This is what Casals knew, he who had gone through so much of life, seen so much ‘‘How about let’s holding up that until Christmas is a 0 closer. ” □ Don’t 3oz. (serving) Protein 12g Fat tOg □ 4oz. (serving) Protein 15.1g Fat 14g Domino’s Pizza choice. Just 2 r more nutritious, fat and higher ii than either a tat cheeseburger.' So give us a cal us to the test. r |30 mi iGuara I I $ \ Hours: 11:00 11:00-2:1