Page 2/The Battalion/Thursday, November 3, 1983
World happenings
take toll on Reagan
by Helen Thomas
United Press International
WASHINGTON — President Reagan is
being forced to make good on his policy of
peace through strength by sending combat
troops to many of the world’s troublespots.
Reagan had a relatively peaceful first two
years, but as with his predecessors in recent
times, he is learning that international events
inevitably preoccupy the presidency, and take
their toll.
Since he has drawn a sharp line in the
ideological struggle with the communists, the
United States is forced to take a strong posi
tion against Soviet and Cuban influences
wherever they may seek to prevail. As a result,
the United States is militarily involved in the
Middle East, the Caribbean and Central
America.
A memo drawn up by the National Security
Council more than a year ago called for a “full
court press” against the Kremlin, and that is
what the United States appears to be under
taking.
Reagan is a man of decision, and a man of
action. He does not choose to retreat in the
face of attempts to drive the Marines out of
Beirut with snipers and a terrorist attacks.
And he does not choose to ignore an appeal
from a group of Caribbean island nations to
help depose the leftist revolutionary govern
ment in Grenada.
The Marxist government in Nicaragua is
viewed as another target of opportunity to rid
the region of Soviet-Cuban influences.
Like Harry Truman, Reagan does not
anguish over a decision once it is made parti
cularly when convinced of the righteousness
of his cause.
But Truman did not live in the full glare of
television, and wars that come into the living
room of nearly every home. Combat in Leba
non, an invasion of Grenada are vivid realities
for every American. And the nation is wary of
military involvements they may liken to the
Vietnam debacle.
Nor does Reagan have a malleable Con
gress that can be easily persuaded to support
foreign ventures that will entail loss of life,
even when told they, are for vital strategic
interests.
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Military solutions are becoming less palat-
' ' ' ' ' ibl
able to the lawmakers and less acceptable to
Americans who are more prone to ask why.
Reagan sees the struggle in Lebanon as
more than a civil war. He believes the Middle
East is a vital area to both Europe and the
Western Hemisphere, which must not be lost
to Soviet domination.
The same is true of the Caribbean where
U.S. presidents have refused to do business
with Fidel Castro and at the same time taken
actions to block the spread of his sphere of
influence among dissident factions in that re
gion.
White House and Pentagon officials insist
that the United States is not spreading its
forces too thin in the world’s troublespots.
But the president is being branded as “trig
ger happy” by some of his opponents on Capi
tol Hill. Rep. Paul Simon said the “military
solution seems to be the automatic reflex”
under the president.
Sen. Carl Levin questioned the legitimacy
of the Grenadan invasion and the “credibility”
of Reagan’s explanation for it.
Sen. Patrick Moynihan called it an “act of
war.”
Reagan had powerful defenders, however,
such as Speaker Thomas “Tip” O’Neill, Sen
ate GOP leader Howard Baker, Senate Demo
cratic leader Robert Byrd, and Sen. Charles
Percy who were let in on the best kept secret of
the invasion of Grenada several hours before
it took place.
Usually the leaders are “consulted” after
the fait accompli. But the president realizes as
the days go on and the United States becomes
more involved abroad, he needs all the help
and support he can get from allies in Con
gress.
Throughout the 1980 campaign, Reagan
criticized President Jimmy Carter for not tak
ing a stronger stand against the Soviet Union,
Iran and other hostile forces. Carter’s oppo
nents criticized him as being “wishy washy”
and indecisive in critical times. The hostage
crisis in Iran particularly evoked harsh judg
ments against Carter.
Now Reagan is having his day, and showing
the flag. It remains to be seen whether the
people will decide that this is the right way to
go.
'//-C.-SS
I haven*t seen him since we un
loaded the last batch of logs, have
you
Letters: Get the facts
before writing to the
Reload
the foi
Editor:
This is in response to the irrational
and uninformed Mr. Stephen Weiss who
doubted the truthfulness of my state
ments concerning the right-of-way reg
ulations between motorists and pedes
trians as told to me by a campus police
officer.
Mr. Weiss stated that it was “absolute
nonsense” for motor vehicles to have the
right-of-way, no matter where they are.”
Well, guess what, Mr. Weiss. YOU’RE
WROOOOOONGH! If Mr. Weiss had
taken the time to at least check out some
facts before tossing out his uninformed
opinions on the matter, he would have
found out that pedestrians DO NOT
HAVE THE RIGHT-OF-WAY UN
LESS they are crossing at “controlled in
tersections or crosswalks.”
Quoting from the Texas Motor Vehi
cle Laws, in Section 78 (A) it states: every
pedestrian crossing a roadway at any
point other than within a marked cross
walk or within an unmarked crosswalk at
an intersection, shall yield the right of
way to all vehicles upon the highway.”
Sgt. R. Flores of the campus police de
partment explained the word “highway”
to mean all roads.
through the streets, technically the fault
would belong to the runners, not the
driver (sorry, Aggies).
Greek letters so people wouldi
BUT, because it is common know
ledge that the corps has these runs, driv
ers (and pedestrians) allow these cadets to
run along uninterrupted.
Furthermore, Mr. Weiss’ ridiculous
suggestions to close off the heart of cam
pus to all but pedestrians OR to set strictly
enforced 5 mph speed limits would only
defeat the purposes of those who purch
ased bicycles, mopeds or cars in hopes of
utilizing these vehicles to arrive to class
on time.
Greeks do cut Bonfire, just liktil^ r
else. We had to put up withm®-
than it was worth. Most of tk •
there were considerate and * j
cut wood, not antagonize a graJ
pie who are doing their du
However, this letter is directet
degrading group known as D(
else?) The constant remarks lift
(not yells) you people madei
)lac
by
Although not all pedestrians are to be
blamed for the thoughtless behavior of a
few, it would be nice if more Aggies
would look before darting into a street.
Perhaps some of you could take the time
to walk the extra 15 feet to the designated
crosswalks. They are there for your pro
tection.
saved for someplace besides Bor Compu.ei
Sbisa where you keep vour
making more noise than anyot )me yexas
and interfering with people j n eerinj
trying to eat. Evidently yoursoa;mester.
is spreading, because about 10pe; Control
Northgate nas your same attitupur oompi
are ya’ll going to grow up and is t j aniiar >
bitch’n.” You give yourselvesalx re ^ n S inct
I excis A
Sgt. Flores also said that although
jaywalking is not considered an unlawfiil
offense in Texas, it is still a safety hazard
and a pedestrian can be cited for crossing
a street at any point along the street ex
cept when crossing at a corner, intersec
tion. or marked crosswalk.
Mr. Weiss, in his weird version of traf
fic solutions is simply trying to regulate
the issue to accomodate his own comforts
and oversights. It seems he would rather
have motorists forget the laws and just
look out for him and his type--ill-
mannered lunkheads who insist on in
festing the “highways” rather than the
sidewalks where they belong.
ni vers it
We chopped several trees delected na
day, one too big for us to get 'ata to pari
thanks go to the men of Crocker: ve en gi ne '
percent) who helped usgetour: p^ rou g
on the road and to everyone ° Data (
something constructive WO)
Greeks and Bonfire. Gig ’Em. .uter-base
Mike Warner 84 quipment
ices to th
olleges.
Texas J
s-x. i x -i i »torece
Students need tow th.
elected be
ecided to
ir prograi
Toiessort
Of course, pedestrians have rights too.
In Section 77 of the TMV laws, Sgt.
Flores paraphrased the lengthy passage
for me and said: “If there’s no traffic
signal and someone is in a crosswalk on
your side of the street or if someone is so
close to your side of the street that you
would endanger him by proceeding
through the street, you must yield to
him.”
By the way, Mr. Weiss, with all your
ESP abilities (only you seem to believe it
was my fault for the accident between my
moped and the two pedestrians some
time ago) could you possibly work on
finding out the identity of the bashful
young woman who scooted off without
leaving her name with the police for caus
ing an accident? Your clairvoyant help
would be extremely useful, Swami Weiss.
Catherine Campbell
Sgt. Flores added that a pedestrian
should at least give a driver time to react
to a situation and “not just jump out into
the road at any time, expecting you to
stop. That’s just common courtesy.”
Not to mention pretty intelligent too.
Editor:
$ 1.5 million down the drain! 1 g>| said,
dents don’t realize $51.50 ofife Last spi
(about 5 to 10 percent) goesthre/f re usc<
dent Government - and if
ize this, it doesn’t show in thetun i0u t u 9
student elections. Last spring, ^ on
percent of the student body turK-
vote in the general election anc
percent voted in the runoff. Ic;
too late to cry about or undo the:
I encourage all freshmen to vod
upcoming election and 1 chalk!
entire student body to help chi
starving statistic.
Greeks cut for bonfire
Editor:
In his ludicrous example, Mr. Weiss
used the corps runs as an illustration for
his views. However, according to Section
78, if an accident were to occur between a
motor vehicle and pedestrians running
Last Sunday, our fraternity went to cut
on the Aggie Bonfire. We got up at 5:30
a.m. just like all other “good Ags” and got
to the cutting site at 7:00 a.m. There were
ten of us that went and we all wore our
How can elected of ficials reprf
effectivly and properly when the'?
jority of students can’t find the
interest to vote. Get involved ew
know where your money goes to
ing the person who represents)
most of all—vote! Vote!! VOTE!:
Mark D.
P.S. Freshmen runoffs are todaj
Airline crisis makes big lines think
free air competition is for the birds
by Art Buchwald
I have this hot line to a “crisis center.”
Every Monday morning I call up a guy
and ask him, “What’s the crisis of the
week?” and for $25 he tells me.
This week I called him and he said,
“The ‘big G’ is the airline crisis. It could be
a Mt. St. Helens.”
“What happened?” I asked him.
“The thing that started it all was the
big boys in aviation wanted the airlines
deregulated because they claimed they
weren’t making enough money. So the
administration deregulated the friendly
skies of America and opened them to the
marketplace.”
“Free competition is what this country
thrives on,” I said.
“The only problem was that after they
got deregulated, all the big boys wanted
to fly the same routes. A company that
used to fly to Charlotte, North Carolina,
decided to fly to London, England, in
stead. Every major company put on
flights to Hawaii and cancelled flights to
middle America. Instead of going to Mis
soula, Montana, one airline started a dai
ly service to Tokyo. Pretty soon you could
fly to Maimi every 15 minutes, but you
could only go to Buffalo once a week.
“With all the competition for the major
cities, the airlines got into a price war.
First they cut their fares—then they
offered you a free seat for your wife.
Then they advertised you could take all
your children with you. And finally, dur
ing the recession, they let you take all the
people that you had met in a bar. There
wasn’t an empty seat on the plane, but
there was only one paying passenger.
“To make things worse, the little guys
started taking on the big boys and price-
cut the hell out of them. The little guys
were nonunion, no-frill companies who
offered you nothing but a seat. But for
$39 you could fly from New York to Los
Angeles with a layover in Newfound
land.”
“I guess the free market was really
working.”
“It was for the little guys, but the big
boys were going nuts. They came up with
new sales gimmicks. If you flew a certain
number of miles on their airline, they
would upgrade you from tourist to first
class. If you flew 15,000 miles they let you
sit in the co-pilot’s seat. If you flew
100,000 miles they made you president
of the company. Most of the people now
running a losing airline came up through
the ranks from the frequent flyer plan.”
“To make things worse, the big boys
guessed wrong on what planes they
would need for their companies. Some
ordered planes that were too big— others
ordered planes that were too small.
When they had too many planes in moth
balls, they had to sell a lot of them to the
little guys who were putting them out of
business. Of course it wasn’t their fault.
One of the major airline executives was
walking through his terminal at Kennedy
Airport and it was jammed with people.
He immediately ordered six new 747s.
What he didn’t realize, until later, was
that all the people there were from Cen
tral America, waiting for their grand
mothers to get off the plane.”
“That was an honest mistake,” I said.
“To make things worse, the big boys, to
protect themselves from theirsn
ders, invested their cash flowi
businesses, such as hotels, fast-fo*
chises and natural gas. Since tltf
making money in the businf
stockholders started demanding^
noff the airline part of their
“Everyone make mistake®
Airlines thought it could get he*
having Frank Borman do theirT
mercials. He was very credible
didn’t sell any tickets.”
“Why didn’t they scrub thead'i
campaign?”
“What advertising executive is)
tell the chairman of the board of
Airlines he can no longer do tl
pany’s commercials?”
“What a mess,” I said. “1 guess 1
boys are sorry they ever asked fd!
ulation for the airlines. Are they?
go back and lobby for airline
again?”
“That’s their only chance.''
them have decided free air comptf
for the birds.”
Not-