Wttgm ■ Texas A&M
The
talion
Serving the University community
ol 78 No. 54 USPS 0453110 14 pages
College Station, Texas
Tuesday, November 15,1983
Ready, aim....
Greg Noel, a sophomore frojn Midland riflery class last week. Noel is a mechanical
practices the standing position during his engineering major.
tome bus drivers cross
sickets, return to work
United Press International
I PHOENIX — Chanting “Hell no,
P won’t go,” striking Greyhound
rkers burned company letters and
ged “walk aways” from bus termin-
Monday, but some drivers crossed
ket lines to return to work.
“I've got 19 years with Greyhound
11 just can’t see throwing it down
: drain,” said Boyd Dillon, one of
ee drivers who crossed picket lines
id entered the side door of the Sac
ramento, Calif, terminal.
The company has announced
plans to resume limited service on
Thursday and said it would hire re
placements f jr drivers who did not
return Monday.
Greyhound spokeswoman Leslie
White said drivers all over the country
were crossing the picket lines but she
declined to give any estimate of how
many were back.
“Greyhound’s been good to me and
my family for 19 years and I don’t
think they’re going to change,” Dillon
said.
Sacramento striker Kathy Gilbert
was one of those not returning.
“We decided not to take the con
tract and we’re not going back to work
and we’ll stay out ‘til hell freezes over
if necessary,” she said.
Elsewhere, strikers held rallies at
Greyhound facilities across the
country.
Ix-prof may get appointment
by Ronnie Crocker
Battalion Staff
)r. Helmut Merklein, former pet
roleum engineering professor at
xas A&M, has moved a step closer
rard his appointment as assistant
retary of international affairs for
: Department of Energy.
The Senate Committee on Energy
d Natural Resources unanimously
jroved Merklein’s nomination on
fpnday. The nomination was
announced by President Reagan on
Oct. 11.
Now that the committee has
approved the nomination, the full
senate must vote on the proposal be
fore Merklein can be sworn in to the
position.
A senate rule forces measures
approved by committees to rest for
three days before the full body can
take action on it.
However, in a telephone interview
from Washington, D.C., Monday,
Merklein said there is a chance that
the rule will be waived by the senators
so that they can make a decision be
fore their scheduled recess on Friday.
Merklein left Texas A&M Oct. 24
and now is working as a consultant for
the international affairs office of the
DOE until he is sworn in as assistant
secretary, provided he is approved.
Presnal will not
run for re-election
inside
Iround town., 9
llassified 10
xxal 3
htional 4
)pinions 2
Sports 11
[tate 8
IVhat’s up. 5
forecast
pighs in the mid 80s with lows
caching 54
Texas State Rep. Bill Presnal, D-
Bryan, announced Monday that he
would not seek another term in the
House during next year’s elections.
Presnal made the announcement
at Texas A&M University during a
hearing for the House Joint Study
Committee on Child Abuse and Por
nography of which he is a member.
“I reached a point where I could
evaluate my period of public service,”
Presnal said during a break in the
hearings.
“My decision was based on many
considerations and I couldn’t begin to
single out any one reason. At the pre
sent time, I feel very comfortable with
the stability in the House and that has
always been a major concern for me. I
feel it is headed in a positive direction
and I am glad to have been a part of
that.”
Presnal, who has served 15 years in
the Texas House, said he has no im
mediate plans but hopes to continue
living in the Bryan-College Station
area.
The Democrat’s name had been
linked to a possible campaign for a
Congressional seat but Presnal denied
the prospect stating that he “would
rather live in Bryan than in
Washington.”
Presnal has served as chairman of
the House Appropriations Commit
tee for 8 years.
Oilman positive
about nomination
by Brigid Brockman
Battalion Staff
Houston oilman Rob Mosbacher
told Texas A&M students Monday
that he feels he has a good chance of
winning the Republican nomination
for the U.S. Senate because he has the
capacity to reach voters who are hesi
tant to vote Republican.
Mosbacher said he feels there are
many people who support a conserva
tive economic policy but will not call
themselves Republicans because of
social issues. He said he will try to get
those people into the party by estab
lishing a “common ground.”
He said he does not want to cut
back the budget so much that many
social programs are cut.
“This isn’t a main part of my cam
paign, but I am not opposed to many
of the social issues,” Mosbacher said.
“I support Right to Life and the Equal
Rights Amendment.”
One issue that is a main part of his
campaign is that of expanding the pri
vate sector. Mosbacher, who served
on President Reagan’s Task Force on
Private Sector Initiatives, said he
wants to continue the shift of respon
sibility from the federal government
to local communities.
“We will never reduce the size and
cost of government unless state and
local governments, businesses and in
dividuals help to solve community
problems,” he said. “This program
does not spend any of the tax payers
money.”
A Gallup Poll conducted in Novem
ber showed that for the GOP nomina
tion, 43 percent of the Republicans
and Independents were undecided.
In the Democratic nomination, 45
percent of the Democrats and Inde
pendents were undecided.
Mosbacher said he knows he isn’t as
well-known as the other five candi
dates, but he said he feels he still has a
good chance of winning the Republi
can nomination because of the large
number of voters who are undecided.
In the GOP nomination, Phil
Gramm from College Station is lead-.
ing the battle showing 46 percent
among Republicans, Ron Paul of
Lake Jackson shows 16 percent, 34
ercent are undecided and Mos-
acher trails with 4 percent.
Mosbacher said he is campaigning
heavily to overcome the fact that he is
little known outside of Houston and
has never run for office before.
United Way drive
coming to a close
by Michelle Powe
Battalion Staff
With one week left in its official
Brazos County United Way cam
paign, Texas A&M has raised 72 per
cent of its $110,000 goal.
Texas A&M’s drive is divided into
three parts: the University units, the
System units and the students.
By the end of last week, the Uni
versity had raised more than $45,000
— 81 percent of its $56,000 goal. The
System had raised more than $32,000
— 72 percent of its $45,000 goal.
The students are bringing up the
rear with 15 percent of their $10,000
oal. So far students have raised
1,547 for the United Way drive.
John Mark Stephenson, coordina
tor of the student drive, says as much
as $3,000 to $5,000 may have been
lost when three student-organized
fund-raisers were rained out Satur
day, Nov. 5. But another one is plan
ned for tonight.
Schuhmacher Hall’s first annual
golf tournament and the Off-Campus
Aggies’ planned street dance in Cul
pepper Plaza were both rained out
Nov. 5.
OCA has rescheduled the street
dance for March 3, 1984.
Aggie Alliance, a health and phy
sical education majors club, planned
an Aggie Alliance Run to raise money
for the drive. The run also was rained
out, and has not been rescheduled
yet.
But the fundraiser tonight is still
planned. Underwood Hall is sponsor
ing a turtle race put on by Coors
tonight at Graham Central Station
Underwood Hall President Michel
le Hlavinka says teams bid for a turtle,
the minimum bid being $30, and the
top fifteen bidders were given a
turtle.
Trophies will be given to the fastest
turtle, the best-dressed turtle, the
best-dressed turtle trainer and the
best-supported turtle.
Hlavinka said 50 percent of the
money raised at the turtle race will go _
to the United Way drive.
Concentration camp
survivor speaks out
by Steve Thomas
Battalion Staff
A survivor of World War II Ger
man concentration camps said Mon
day that mankind is both noble and
cruel, and that cruelty must not be
assisted by the silence of the noble.
“We cannot remain silent when
we witness the suffering of another
person,” said Dr. William Samelson
in a program sponsored by the MSG
Great Issues Committee in Rudder
Theater.
Referring to his own past situa
tion, Samelson said the Jews were
being extinguished while other na
tions watched in horror — watched
and could not believe the horror was
true.
The San Antonio College foreign
language professor said the world
knew Germans were exterminating
Jews in 1942, but free nations could
not accept the truth.
Samelson called this non-
acceptance of the truth, and the re
sulting lack of action on the part of
the free world, the “sin of silence.”
World leaders, he said, could not
believe such atrocities could actually
happen, and were hesitant to act be
cause they remembered receiving
exaggerated reports of German hu
man rights violations during World
War I.
Samelson said even his own peo
ple could not accept it at first,
though they watched as their loved
ones were dragged away or killed.
This kind of silence, he said, cou
pled with the hatred, prejudice and
bigotry that still pervade mankind,
could be the cause of another holo
caust.
But Samelson said what redeems
the human in the end is standing for
what one believes and loves in the
face of adversity, what he calls “no
bility of character.”
Choices and decisions are two dif
ferent concepts, he said. Choices are
often forced by situation, whereas
decisions are made by strength of
character.
The Jews were forced to make
decisions about life and death, and
about beliefs and non-beliefs,
Samelson said, but added that the
world must decide to stand behind
those who suffer wrongly.
“The nobility of a human being is
a universal nobility, and the cruelty
of a human being is also universal,”
he said, adding that he thinks no
group is either perfectly evil or per
fectly just.
It is the substance of the indi
vidual, he said, that counts in the
end.
He said he no longer could hate
all Nazis for the savagery only a
handful perpetrated.
“Man is capable of the worst, as
he is capable of the best,” said Samel
son, adding that his survival in the
German camps was aided by people
from all nations, Germans and Rus
sians included.
Samelson said he wanted to sur
vive the camps though dying would
have been easy. He wanted to sur
vive to tell his story and to live his
life.
“Each day I live is a day of grace,”
he said. “After all, I could have
perished before 1945.”
Samelson said the people in the
camps who were founded in their
religious beliefs were much better
off than he was. He said his religious
background was “flimsy.”
But he said the experience did not
increase his faith.
“What I saw around me did not
point to the presence of an almighty
being,” he said.