Opinion
Politics hurting
'84 Olympics
It is happening. The Soviet Union is boycot
ting the Summer Olympic Games.
An eerie sense of deja vu pervades the issue.
Boycotting the Olympics seems to be a trend.
In 1980, many people didn’t believe Presi
dent Carter was serious about the boycott, but
he was. And our athletes stayed home that sum
mer.
Likewise, when the Soviets began threatening
to stay home from the Los Angeles Games,
many believed it was just a publicity gimmick.
But those of us who felt that way were wrong.
The Russians say they are staying home.
The Soviet press release says the boycott is for
safety reasons and an alleged violation of the
Olympic charter by the Americans — President
Reagan in particular.
But the prominent mention of the president
in the Russian statements indicate another rea-
The sole motivation behind a Soviet and So
viet-bloc boycott of the games is the Kremlin’s
desire to discredit Reagan in the eyes of Ameri
cans and the world.
Soviet-American relations are at a low and
Moscow would not be disappointed if a Russian
abscence from Los Angeles could affect Rea
gan’s' re-election hopes.
The use of the Olympics for such political
ploys is abhorrent. But almost more abhorrent
is the lame excuse presented by the Soviets. The
Los Angeles Olympic Committee has worked an
incredible number of hours to secure the safety
of all the Olympic athletes — regardless of na
tionality.
In these days of terrorism, safety and security
can no longer guaranteed. Ask a British consta
ble about that.
The LAOC is doing all it can. If other nations
feel the Olympics are so unsafe that they refuse
to send their athletes, then the purpose of the
Olympic Games has been lost and the event
should be cancelled.
But most other nations — including the ath
letes — are willing to run that risk.
The Soviet argument about safety is a crock.
Perhaps the real worry of the Soviet govern
ment is the danger of its athletes trying to de
fect.
Take politics out of the Games. Let the ath
letes decide if they are in danger. And if nations
that help supply terrorist groups around the
world would discontinue support of such atroci
ties, maybe security at the Olympic Games
would cease to be a problem.
The Battalion Editorial Board
Slouch
by Jim Earle
“When you pack up for next fall, don’t
even think about carpets!”
The Battalion
USPS 045 360
Member of
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Southwest Journalism Conference
The Battalion Editorial Board
Rebeca Zimmermann, Editor
Bill Robinson, Editorial Page Editor
Shelley Hoeksira. City Editor
Kathleen Hart, News Editor
Dave Scott, Sports Editor
The Battalion Staff
Assistant City Editor Bill Robinson
Assistant News Editor Patrice Koranek
Staff Writers Robin Black,
Kari Fluegel, Sarah Oates,
Travis Tingle
Copy Editor Tracie Holub
Photographers Bill Hughes.
Peter Rocha, Dean Saito
Editorial Policy Letters Policy
The Battalion is a non-profit, self-support- Letters to the Editor should not exceed
infi newspaper operated as a community sen-- MM words in length. The editorial staff re
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Page 2/The Battalion/Wednesday, May 9, 1984
6EE, WE'RE F/VALLV GKAPUATWfi
FROM COLLEGE, FRO/A f\ OHtMEf&lT/,
FKOIA AiV INSTITUTE OF HIGHER
LEARA/ING. AH, THIS KEniNPZ
ME EXACTL/ OF WHEW X.
6K.ADUATEP FROM Hl&H SCHOOL..
r
r i
Ceremony
marred by
racial slur
Drinking age discriminates
by Ed Alanis
David Bar
nett is 18 years
old. He is a
high school
graduate, and is
a freshman at a
major univer
sity. He lives
with a friend in
an apartment,
and works part
time to help pay
his bills. He pays a federal income
tax, as well as local property taxes.
He votes in elections. He has regis
tered for the draft. Should he break
the law, he would be tried in an
adult criminal court.
By ordinary standards, David can
be considered a responsible adult.
However, due to state legislation, he
cannot stop by a local bar on his way
home from work and have a beer
with the guys.
David lives in Texas, where the le
gal drinking age is 19. However, his
problem is shared by young adults
living in the many other states that
separate the legal drinking age from
the magical age of 18, when we all
become official members of that il
lustrious social group known as
adults.
Rather than official members, I
should say quasi-members. 18-year-
olds are old enough to register for a
draft, but they are not considered
old enough to have a beer in many
states. Sometimes this privilege to
drink alcoholic beverages comes
with just one more year of “growing
up.” In some states, however, three
more years of growing up is re
quired.
A legal drinking age of 19 is in di
rect conflict with a legal adult age of
18. A legal drinking age of 21 is ar
chaic and nothing short of ludi
crous.
Although I disagree with it, a le
gal drinking age of 19 or 21 is not al
together bad, in and of itself. What
is ridiculous is the separation of a
drinking age and an adult age.
To say that a person is adult and
can do this, this and this, but not this
is in effect saying that they are not
really adult. A more practical move
would be to raise the adult legal age
to 19 or 21, so that it matches the le
gal drinking age.
However, the best solution to this
problem of incongruency would be
to lower the legal drinking age to 18,
nationwide, to match the current le
gal adult age.
But legislators could never con
sider this as a possible solution to the
problem. If their owrt personal con
victions did not stop them, then the
political clout of various special in
terest groups surely would. This
leads to another interesting point.
Granted, drunk driving and the
resulting deaths and injuries is a se
rious problem, nationwide. But is
raising the drinking age by one to
three years a viable solution? No. In
fact, it is a narrow-minded solution
that is at best ineffective. To punish
one group for a problem common
to all social groups is a simple avoi
dance of the issue.
A more direct solution to the
problem would be to simply create
stiffer penalties for drunk driving.
Special interest groups should con
centrate their efforts on the passing
of such legislation and the strict en
forcement of it, l ather than on pun
ishing teenagers. Teenagers cannot
be the scapegoat for a problem that
knows no age or social barriers.
vSome might think that legal
drinking ages of 19 or 21 help by
eliminating alcohol related prob
lems altogether among a group with
a high average of these problems.
But do higher drinking ages really
eliminate these problems, or even
make a dent in them? I don’t think
so. Again, more progress could he
made if efforts were concentrated in
a different area.
Teenagers who are irresponsible
enough to drive while they are
drunk, with no regard for the safety
of others, are also ones who will not
think twice about violating a legal
drinking age. Possibly they might be
denied a purchase on some occas-
sions when their IDs might he
checked, hut alcohol is easily ob
tained in today’s society, by virtually
anyone.
There is also a hidden problem
with the higher legal drinking ages,
one that people as old as our legis
lators often overlook.
In today’s society, many young
people leave home somewhere
around the age of 18. Some leave
for college, while others move on to
start their careers and to begin fami
lies of their own. They are out on
their own, but because they are not
old enough to drink, they cannot get
into bars and nightclubs. They can’t
even enjoy a glass of wine with a
meal in a restaraunt. This barrier to
social activity is the price young peo
ple pay, for the shortcomings of ev
eryone.
A government that perceives a
person to be old enough to vote and
be responsible for his actions in a
court of law, but does not perceive
that same person to be old enough
to drink, is in need of reform.
Drunk driving and other alcohol
related problems have reached epi
demic proportions. It is time we
took a serious and practical ap
proach to the problem and stopped
placing so much of the blame on
young adults.
Editor:
I am writing to express my
ings concerning the commencei
exercises Saturday in which lai
last received a degree in M.E
ceremony gave me a chance to sit
hands and joke around, perhap!
the last time, with someofmyfi
classmates.
It is simply amazing how one
vidual can ruin such a pleasant
for an entire family. As 1 left
Rollie White immediately after
ceremony, I found my girlfriij
and then she and I walked b;
the van where we were supposed]
meet my f amilv. When we arrived!
the van, my sister told me that
had just been a skirmish between
uncle and some supposedly tin
guy. From what 1 was told this
son first stuck his head inside
open van door in which mymotlil
sisters and brother were sitting
the time. Of course, they asked
stranger to get his head out of
van and then they shut the dr
This man then began to walkai
and called my mother ‘nigj
which of course upset her
than his getting in the van door,
that particular time everyone ve]
for my uncle, who had not yet
rived. My mother was hystei
When my uncle arrived, the
mish broke out.
The reason that I am most u|
is that no one passing by seemedl
give a damn. From what I can
one offered to help control this
and no one tried to stop the
1
Britt
New
dent:
|y KARL
/■
reader’s forum
he renov
idemic B
pleled ii
rths late
ned, Phy
Thursda
i * project lx
drat l.fmt have sl<
mish which partly took place in^
street, blocking oncoming trafjl he origin
Some individual as I was told®' 1 .* 16 P 1 '°j e
kind enough to inform them * ina •l un
the guy was drunk and
should pay him no attention. Bie renova
Anyway, as this was related to i^leorge D
I began to utter some offensive
guage for which I would like
apologize. 1 sincerely hope thal
one, white, black, brown, yellow,
red will ever have to experien
what I did on Saturday night. RacJ
slurs are quite offensive and oftrj
lead to bloody noses, scratdij
knees and elbows, puffy faces aj
who knows what else.
As I leave here I urge — nolfcl
you all to see that nothing like i|
happens again. 1 detest the ideal
my eight-year-old sister had toi
this happen and is now anythingl*
burning with desire to attendTesl
A&M someday.
I thank the campus police fori
help generosity, understandingai
concern that they showed for!
family. Your efforts have not go]
unnoticed.
Ed Alanis is a senior journalism
major.
Kevin Johnson is a 1984 gr»
in mechanical engineering.
Letters:
Paper applauded
Editor:
I would like to give The Battalion
staff a “pat-on-the-back.”
I think you have done an excel
lent job publishing a well-written,
provocative paper with good cam
pus coverage and a wide range of
national, state and local news.
And since students often take the
time to write in and express differ
ing opinions and negative views of
the paper, I decided I should take a
moment to thank you for your ef
forts and to tell you how much I
have enjoyed reading The Battalion
this year.
Keep up the good work.
Dana Adams
Class of ‘87
Faith in Iran during the month of
April.
According to Gerald Knight,
spokesman for the Baha’i Interna
tional Community’s United Nations
office, over 700 Baha’is are cur
rently being held in Iranian prisons
without charges, 111 of these having
been arrested in the past three
months. Reliable information has
been received describing torture of
several Baha’i prisoners. All Baha’i
holy places have been confiscated
and in some cases destroyed. Thou
sands of Baha’is have been dis
missed from their jobs, cienied edu
cation, and driven from their
homes.
The fact that many Baha’is have
been promised that their lives would
he spared if they xenounce their
faith amply testifies that these perse
cutions are religiously motivated.
cal offense or crime. They only wish
to live according to the dictates of
their own consciences. I strongly
urge other world leaders to join me
in an appeal to the Ayatollah Kho
meini not to implement the sen
tences that have been pronounced
on these innocent people.”
The only means we have to lessen
the degree of these shameless ac
tions is the dissemination of the
shocking facts so that public a]
world opinion might he grought
hear on Iran’s leaders. May o]
combined voices lead to the cess]
tion of these persecutions.
John Wend
Secretary, TAMU Baha’i CM
1
...MONDALE IS A PAWN OF
BIG LABOR, IS RESPONSIHf
FOR IRAN, IS WEAK, INEPT.
Baha’i atrocities
Editor:
I would like to call to the attention
of Battalion readers the execution
of four more members of the Baha’i
President Reagan, in a statement
whereby he agrees with a joint con
gressional resolution, evaluated the
situation thusly:
“America and the world are in
creasingly alarmed and dismayed at
the persecution and severe repres
sion of the Baha’is in Iran ... thesein-
dividuals are not guilty of any politi-