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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 23, 1984)
Opinion Page 2/The Battalion/Friday, March 23, 1984 The Editorial Board to make its choice Yes, the rumor you heard is true. Jjin Monday The Battalion Editorial /Board, continuing its semester-long •tradition of taking a stand on issues, .'will endorse a candidate for student 'body president. The decision to support one of the Candidates came after serious dis cussion and some dissension among Editorial Board members. Endorsing a campus candidate is not a new idea. It has been done at Texas A&M in the past and is done at many pother universities. Our endorsement reflects our belief that we have a responsibility to re search issues and present an opinion on them. Student body president is one such issue. Many people believe that it makes po difference who is elected; Student Government and Texas A&M will go bn as before. Although past experience seems to support that conclusion, we feel differently. The student body president can make a difference. It happened at Texas A&M in the past and it is happening at other schools now. That’s why we took the time this week to visit with the candidates. The time each candidate spent in the “hot seat” — as one potential president called it — included a presentation of his or her perceptions of the issues and questions from board members on sub jects ranging from relations with the Faculty Senate to the state referendum on the Permanent University Fund. Therefore, we will endorse a candi date for student body president. We are not attempting to control the opin ion of the student body; we are merely expressing ours. The choice won’t be easy. After our conversations with the candidates, we feel that the slate this year offers five good choices. We hope you will put as much thought into your decision as we are putting into ours. The Battalion Editorial Board Elections, Soviet-style By ART BUCHWALD Columnist for The Los Angeles Times Syndicate Have you ever wondered how the So viet elections would go if American po litical methods were applied? “This is Dan Ratevich reporting to you from the Soviet Broadcasting Sys tem with a special edition on the elec tions. With only .01 precincts counted SBS has declared Konstantin Cher nenko the winner in a surprising land slide election. “For one thing it was a very large turnout, which is always a good sign for the Communist party. Chernenko’s popularity crossed all age groups, from the young hooligans to the old-time Sta linists. Labor strongly supported him and so did the army. But I believe the deciding factor was the unexpected big turnout of the KCB at the polls.” “To vote?” “No, they just turned up there, they stood next to the ballot boxes to watch %he people vote. As soon as the unde- irideds saw them they weren’t so unde cided anymore.” “So you believe that Chernenko owes Tjis victory to the KCB?” -'Z “Dan, no Soviet leader has ever been ^elected without the support of the i&GB.” “Thank you, Vladimir. Now let’s go Jo an exit polling station and talk to Al exander Novisty who is standing by in Riev with a voter who has just cast his ballot for Chernenko.” ■ “Dan, I’m here with Comrade Mikial Tjobrinsky, a steelworker from the Le- tien Foundry. Comrade, what was it about Chernenko that made you decide to vote for him?” - “He’s young, and he has some new ideas. I was sick and tired of hearing the same promises from the same old Soviet politicians every election year. I decided to vote for someone who could get the Country moving again.” > “Thank you, comrade. Dan, I will now talk to someone who didn’t vote for jEhernenko. He’s in a police van over Sere and although our cameras can’t see him, I’ll put the microphone up to the grill. Comrade, can you tell us why you didn’t vote for Chernenko?” “I left my ballot blank. I put it in the box stepped outside to light a cigarette and the next thing I knew I was inside a police van.” “How many people are in the van with you?” “Three dissidents, four enemies of the state and two counterrevolutionaries who keep yelling, ‘What’s the beef?”’ “Alexander, this is Dan. I have to in terrupt. We’re going to switch live to Chernenko’s headquarters in the ball room of Hotel Moskva where Roger Muddnikov is standing by. Roger, there sems to be a lot of celebrating going on.” “It’s a madhouse, Dan. The Cher nenko supporters have been screaming and shouting ever since you declared the candidate a winner. I hope to speak to the new secretary of the party when he comes down, which should be any minute. He must be arriving now be cause the orchestra is playing the theme song ‘Rocky.’ Here he is. Comrade Chernenko, would you say this was the biggest night of your life?” “It’s been a long hard battle from the first primaries in the cold steppes of Si beria in February to our squeak-through by the Caspian Sea in November. The turning point for me was the debates.” “We didn’t see any debates.” “They all took place in the Kremlin. You don’t think we’d show them on tele vision, do you?” “Comrade Chernenko, forgive me for asking the tough questions, but that’s the Soviet media’s job. Why do the peo ple believe so many Soviet politicians are phonies?” “What is your name?” “All right, if you won’t answer that one, how about doing your imitation of Yuri Andropov?” “Comrades, this is Dan Ratevich. Be cause of technical difficulties we seem to have lost Roger Muddnikov. We’ll re turn to him as soon as possible — but then again, who knows?” Houch by Jim Earle ‘Anybody who’s opposed to prayer in the classroom hasn’t taken a test like this one!” By I ...OUR CONGRESS, WHO ART... WASHINGTON, HOUOW Be W, AIP; IKY FEPERAL CUTS, THOU must ee nuts; > in the siaik AS IT IS IN P.C. i GIVE US IS AIP. OUR PNPV 6REAP, ANDl« US INTO APPROPRIATIONS Ag) DRUVER. US FROM dCKlvim FOR THINE IS THE KINGRDM1% THE POWER OF THE PURSE* FOREVER ANP EVER, AMBV. Harley ! irdinary c Senate ant idmit it. “1 tend ind stir ichlanger. dial politr Schlang )emocrati' ollows the United [VASHINC irge Midv ,as asked [egulatoiy tajor pipe al gas to fi auch as $ amers. The Mi( on, coin hat use la al gas, ( ervice Chi low called ral Pipelii ally agree Running the race shows farce of A&M campaigns Bus United lUBBOCl essmen It bw days e lie buckin Is, amonf |es, at the The dt he Ameri There are plenty of worthwhile sub jects to write a column about. Texas A&M’s Student Government isn’t one of them. But since the people involved with Student Government here waste their time with it, I might as well waste mine writing an column about it. There is a basic difference, however. At least I realize I’m wasting my time. I came to this realization last year about this time. I wasted time running for the office of Student Vice-President of Academic Affairs — a position for which I was to tally unqualified. I still received more than 1000 votes. And if I had won, those 1000 votes would have been unearned. The story of my decision to run and how I just possibly could have won pre sents scathing proof of how ridiculous our system is. A friend of mine decided to run for student body president for the very same reasons I am writing. When I ac companied him to the Memorial Stu dent Center to register for the election, I found that, with just one more day left to register, no one had signed up to run for the Vice President of Academic Af fairs. I nobly took it upon myself to run, hoping to win uncontested. The first thing I had to do was pay a $3 registration fee and get 100 signa tures so I could get my name on the bal- . • Bmducted When election day rolled around,■ n cc 1943 or three of my friends and I weiMree boys vote. We were given our ballots ■°re than went to a nearby table to cast our |° natec * .* ( in the utmost privacy and secrecy. ® )nslrucll<) dave scott Letters A look at the issues Editor: Another election year is upon us and it is time to re-evaluate our government and our nation’s objectives. Our government is currently protect ing American jobs and industry. What are the results? The nation’s steel industry has to compete with government-subsidized steel from other countries, so tariffs were levied on imported steel. The re sult: Americans pay more for steel. We could be buying that subsidized steel, forcing foreign governments to subsidize our industries that use steel. American products would then be more competitive in the world market. A by-product of tariffs is inefficiency. Since our steel industry is protected, it can afford to run old inefficient plants in an inefficient manner, raising prices even more. Our government also seeks to keep products safe — another noble idea. What happens? An example is cur rent regulations on lawnmowers. Every lawnmower made is now required to have an automatic shut-off system. As soon as the operator takes his hands from the handle, the lawnmower stops. lot. I don’t know what purpose the $3 serves, but I suppose the signatures are designed to keep just anybody from get ting on the ballot. In my case, it didn’t work. This “any body” just walked outside and got his signatures from a crowd that had gath ered to harass one of our Rudder Foun tain preachers. It took only 20 minutes to guarantee that my name would be on the official ballot. The next day I was devastated to find that I had a challenger for my position. Now I would have to campaign. Here is what my campaign for the of fice of Vice-President for Academic Af fairs consisted of: • some handwritten flyers of white paper. I think about 10 of them actually made it to a bulletin board. • about 30 more flyers that were ac tually typeset and had letters that were the same size and everything. About 25 of these made it to displays — for how long is anybody’s guess. • one 3-foot sign made from an old wooden pallet. Since we didn’t put the sign up until less than a week before the election, all we could do was stick it be hind all the other signs already out. • an extremely sarcastic description of my background and goals printed in the voters’ guide of The Battalion. That was it. Seriously, that was all I did. h This is We promptly told the few other 0I jqq e| pie there to vote for me. They saidiMjd assist; would if we would vote for theira Buddy Rej date in another office. We willinglyJp u sented to the fair agreement. ■ Gasolim Being dutiful Aggies, we wantdll liec ’,^ 3 ’ 1S ci on i ,Members v> vote for every office, but were Ilk t |ie first bergasted to find that for the ofkB “Thai ti pus senator positions there weilld fairgr enough candidates from each ward ■The mem I quickly volunteered to be a aiB 0Wri ^ ll date for Ward II and my fellow volt j e the table supported me by writinfBLj^ij. •- name in. Now I figured I was a sh(M The 11 to become a part of student govftion now h ment; I had doubled my chanceBmember running for two offices. a nole ^ I anxiously awaited the results, the returns were repeatedly delaye® Miu cause of a computer malfunctionirpjns^rou lying the votes. After a new program was written! by one of the candidates for stui body president — the results cameir I lost both races. I was soundly defeated for VicePi dent of Academic Affairs; myoppoi received twice as many votes as I dit [wee in th< must say that I wasn’t really surprisei! ianner ads The scary part is that if I hadsff t one or two more hours campaigninf ! ' 0111 ‘ the right places, such as on the Quad ^ around the MSC, I could have won' total campaign expenses amounted $10. There’s no telling what wouldbi happened if I had used my full limit Although my defeat in the dential race was not unexpected, truly crushed to find that I had mis winning the off-campus senator one vote. T here were nine positions openim ward. The ninth candidate had eif votes while I had seven. If just one more person had writ my name in, it would have forcedati off election between a couple of can dates that were looking for an easy* into student government. Oh, well — easy come, easy go. Dave Scott is a seniorjournalismt jor and stuff writer for The Battalion “We ha\ le," Inec deo sane jonal Rod n. ABC m. e reveni businesses s I’m a senior at Texas A&M — tell me that I don’t have enough brains not to stick my hand underneath a lawn- mower! I have to pay more for my lawn- mower because some dolt wants to wres tle with a lawnmower blade. The point is this: government has its hands in our personal lives and our economy. Does anybody think that elec ting a Democrat to a federal office is going to remedy the situation? Currently one out of every four dol lars that my wife and I earn goes to sup port this mess, and I cannot tolerate this waste of my money anymore. Malcolm L. Franklin The Battalion CISPS 045 360 Member of Texas Press Association Southwest Journalism Conference Editor Rebeca Zimmermann Managing Editor John Wagner City Editor Patrice Koranek Assistant City Editors Kathleen Hart, Stephanie Ross News Editor Tracey Taylor Assistant News Editors Susan Talbot, Brigid Brockman, Michelle Powe, Kelley Smith Editorial Page Editor Kathy Wiesepape Sports Editor Bonn Friedman Assistant Sports Editor Bill Robinson Entertainment Editor Shelley Hoekstra Assistant Entertainment Editor Angel Stokes Photo Editor John Makely Letters Policy Letters to the Editor should not exceed) 1 ' words in length. 1 he editorial stall reserves right to edit letters for style and length but' make every effort to maintain the author’s^ tent. Each letter must be signed and must if elude the address and telephone numberold ! . writer. Reader’s Forum columns and guest editors also are welcome. Address all inquiries to thtti itorial Page Editor. Editorial Policy The Battalion is a non-profit, self-support ing newspaper operated as a community service to Texas A&M and Bryan-College Station. Opinions expressed in The Battalion are those of the Editorial Board or the author, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Texas A&M administrators, faculty or the Board of Re gents. Our address: The Battalion, 216 Reed)! 1 ’ Donald Building, Texas A&M University, Cd lege Station, TX 77843. United Press International is entitled exclt sively to the use for reproduction ol allnewsfa patches credited to it. Rights of reproduction^ all other matter herein reserved. Second class postage paid at College Stalin TX 77843.