Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 21, 1984)
Opinion Page 2/The Battalion/Thursclay, June 21, 1984 America aging rapidly For years Americans have waged a youth crusade. Dishwashing liquid for younger looking hands, dyes to get rid of gray hair and facelifts every three years are part of the crusade. Americans seem to be afraid of growing old. Turning 30 is a ma jor tragedy for some people, al though for others the crisis comes at 50. Fortunately, the attitude that young is always better seems to be lessening. People are realizing that turning 30 or turning 40 doesn’t mean the end of youthful activ ities. That’s fortunate because the lat est Census Bureau predictions show rapid increases on the aver age age of Americans. By the year 2000, according to the bureau’s report, the average American will be 36 years old. The median age of the U.S. population will increase rapidly after that. “The report shows the nation is about to start aging rapidly,” the Census Bureau said. “In 1982, the median age of the U.S. population was at an all-time high of 30.6 years. In none of our projection series would the median age ever again be so young.” It’s a good thing turning 30, 40 or 50 isn’t a crisis anymore. If you’re a 21-year-old college stu dent now, guess what? You’ll be 37 in the year 2000. But at least you won’t be alone. —The Battalion Editorial Board The Battalion CJSPS 045 360 Member of Texas Press Association Southwest journalism Conference The Battalion Editorial Board Rcl>cta Zimmermann, Editor Bill Robinson. Editorial Page Editor Shelley Hockstra, City Editor Kathleen Hart, News Editor Dave Scott, S|Mirts Editor The Battalion Staff Assistant City Editor .. Assistant News Editor Staff Writers Copy Editor Photographers Robin Black Dena Brown Kari Fluegel Sarah Oates, Travis Tingle Trade Holub Peter Rocha, Dean Saito Editorial Policy The Hjduliitn is a non- Itroiit, sell-stitifM/i iing newspa per operated us a. community service to Texas AXM and ll ryun-CoUege Station. Opinions expressed in The llattalinn are those ot the Edi torial Board or the author, ami do not necessarily represent the ttpinions ot Texas AX:\t administrators, t'acuhy or the Boa r</ ol Regents. The Battalion also serves as a lulxtrutury ttewspufter lor students in reporting, editing and photography classes within the Department of Communications. United Press International is entitled exclusively to the use tor reprotluction of all news dispatches credited to it. Rights of reprotluction of all other matter herein reserved. Lettcra Policy I art lets to the Etlitor should not exceed 300 words in length. The editorial staff re serves the right to edit letters for style anti length but will make every effort to maintain the author’s intent. Each letter must Iht signetl and must in clude the at It I ress anti tele- plume number of the writer. The Battalion is published Monday through Fritlay dur ing Texas A&M regular semes ters. except for holiday anti ex amination periods. Mail subscriptions are S'W.75 /ter semester, $33.25 per schttol year and $35 per full year. Ad vertising rates furnished on re quest. Our address: The Battalion, 2l(i Reed McDonald Building. Texas A JbM University, Col lege Station, TX 773-13. Second i lass fiosiuge paid at Cbllege Station, TX 773-13. Business value changes spell 21st century turnnoil By RENE ZENTNER Columnist for United Press International As society’s values change, the oper ation of U.S. business organizations come to reflect the new standards. This is a slow process; the pace is rar ely sufficient to keep an organization’s values current with those of the society in which it operates. Will this slow pace be adequate for the rapid social change expected in the 21st century? In the past, when social change was slow, the disparity between social and business values was not especially im portant. The 21st century, though, promises rapid change in social values, spurred by affluence, rapid commu nications, increasing levels of educa tion and high individual mobility. The U.S. of the 21st century will be as different from that of the 20th as we are today from the U.S. of the 19th century. It is likely that the next cen tury will find the U.S. playing the role of research and development center for the world. Instead of manufactur ing and exporting capital and con sumer goods, it may be that our na tional mission will be the provision of services: Education, technology, devel opment, scientific research. Our ex ports will be information: new proc esses, ways to do old things better, consultants, software. The growing disparity will cause challenges to corporate legitimacy. It therefore is appropriate to ask what the values of business enterprises will be, and how they will be formed. The imposition of values from the top of the organization has been the traditional way in which the values of the American business enterprise were formed. The values of the founders — the John D. Rockefellers, Andrew Carnegies and Henry Fords — were followed and accepted by their subor dinates and, later, by their successors. Not all senior executives, though, have altered their personal values as social values have changed around them. Does this mean that their own organi zational values will be impervious to change? That is doubtful, because, like it or not, change will come. Every year, graduating men and women, fresh from debates over va lues in classrooms and dormitories, bring into their new organizations the current values of their society. Once into the organization, they find they are part of an organization in flux, one in which the new entrants of the last few years have brought values which are different from those of their man agers and seniors. As the inevitable compromises are reached, the values of the overall orga nization change. This process is far slower than one in which values dif fuse from above, but it is inexorable. Will society, with its rapidly emerg ing values, tolerate business organiza tions whose value systems stem from the past, even if the fairly recent past? The question of whether business will be permitted to exist in its present form, now being debated in this coun try and abroad, will continue to be ar gued. Already a substantial and con vincing literature exists suggesting that capitalism is incompatible with de mocracy. Americans, as observers from Ben jamin Franklin through de Tocque- ville have noted, are pragmatic peo ple; we value results more than means. We are at home with compromise and we’re convinced that for every prob lem a solution can be found. Applying this pragmatism to the business enter prise of the future, we can anticipate how the issue will be resolved. We value the business enterprise, and the enterprise of business, too much to sacrifice them in the name of social conformity. Though we may continue to criticize business values and the values of businessmen, busi ness is too much a part of the Ameri can character to forego. Although its products and services will change, as they have changed for the last century, business will continue to be the principal institution of Amer ican society in the next century, as it has been in this. As it has done in this century, the 21st century business will reflect many of the best aspects of the American character, and, very likely, many of the worst. What then, is the challenge posed by American business to American so ciety? It is the challenge of confronta tion. The values of American business are the values of American society, magnified a thousand-fold. We may not like them when we see them on so large a scale, but they are nevertheless our own. In the future, business may serve to embody values no longer current in the greater society. It may not be as compassionate as society might wish, as parochial or as international as so ciety migh wish, or as generous as so ciety might wish. On the other hand, business is the engine that has pro duced this society, the vehicle that has given us access to the heavens and the bottom of the sea, that has enabled us to communicate instantaneously with each other and with others at the ends of the earth. Americans know the value of com promise, and they will come to terms with the business of the future as we have come to terms with business in the past. As Winston Churchill said of democracy, it’s not very good but no one has come up with anything better. Towers to greet U.S. air travellers By ART BUCHWALD Columnist for The Los Angeles Times Syndicate The new trend in commercial real estate is to construct tall buildings as close to airports as one possibly can. Washington’s National Airport is a perfect example to this imaginative way of using what were once vast wast elands of air space. Just across the Potomac River, in the small town of Rosslyn, is a silver tower reaching up to the sky; a beacon of welcome to all pilots attempting to land and take off from one of the busi est terminals in the country. A twin building is now going up next to it, so that soon there will be two towers in stead of one to greet passengers arriv ing in Washington. The father of airport skyscrapers is Alf Klagstrom, a developer who started out with $50 and a dream. I sat with Alf in his Cloud Suite on the 30th floor of the Klagstrom Tower, and he told me how he came up with the idea for his unique real es tate development plan. “I was selling mobile homes door to door in the early ’60s, ” he said, “and did a lot of flying. I noticed most ma jor airports were out in the sticks, sur rounded by farmland and ugly one- story buildings. There was no decent architecture within miles of the termi nals, and no one seemed to care that all this good land was going to waste. ‘Why,’ I said, ‘can’t I develop a city close to air terminals so business peo ple would not have to buck the traffic to catch thir flights?”’ “There was no godly reason for air ports to be so isolated from passengers they served. So I took an option on all the land at the end of the National Airport runway and hired an architect to develop a plan to make use of the air space. I told him I wanted some thing that would not only be utilitar ian, but also beautiful to the eye, so that people flying in and out of Na tional would be awestruck by what they saw.” “It’s amazing you were the first to think of it,” I said, “very few people would have the imagination to build a skyscraper in the flight path of a com mercial airport.” Alf said modestly, “I’m, sure other people thought of it before I did, but no one had the persistence to follow through. Everyone was against me at the start. The banks laughed at rat and said no one would want fo rein space in a building at the endofanin way. When I told them all the footagt had already been spoken for beforel even brokeground, they were flabbet gasted. “Then I had to deal with thebn reaucratifc airport officials who coir, plained that the skyscrapers couldpre sent a safety hazard to their flights,! told them people once said the samt thing about the Empre State Building when it was proposed. I also argued the skyscrapers would make pilot! more alert when they were landingai National. To calm their fears I offered to put a red light on top of all tlte buildings at my own expense.” “That was a very decent thing to do,” I said. “Did you have any trouble with the Arlington County officials in getting a permit?” “They were the only people onnty side from the start. Fhey saw theenor mous tax revenues that commerdal buildings would bring to the county not to mention the jobs it would pro vide for people in the community Compared top the federal govern ment officials, who tried to stop meat every turn, the supervisors gave nit encouragement during some of mt darkest hours. Their faith in me hai been rewarded. Arlington, which was formerly a bedroom community, no* has one of the most beautiful skyline in the country.” “It must be a great feeling to set what you have accomplished insueba short period of time.” Alf said, “It’s only the beginning I’ve heard from counties all overtbt United States who want me to build skyscrapers next to their airports. I can see the day when every runway will be surrounded by glass and con crete towers, and high-rise hotels and apartment houses, creating an envi ronment that will enrich the life ofev- ery American.” As we were talking, a DC-8 flewb) AIFs window, its wing almost touching a large Azalea plant out on the bal cony. Alf waved at the passengers who could clearly be seen through the win dows. He said, “I’m making money on the deal, but the real thrill formeisto see the delighted expressions on the travelers’ faces every time they flyby my building.” POSSIBLE MONDALE RUNNING MATES... ★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★ JIMMY CARTER WHAT THE HECK? SINCE MONDALE’S PROBABLY GOING TO LOSE ANYWAY, THEDEMOCIUti CAN BLAME IT ON CARTER, ACAI\ AND START WITH A CLEAN SLATE IN 1988. HE CERTAINLY COULDN'T HURT ANYTHING BY SERVING AS VICE PRESIDENT IN CASE FRITZ WINS. MICHAEL JACKSON THIS CHOICE PUTS A JACKSON ON THE TICKET. COVERS SEVERAL KEY CONSTITUENCIES WITHIN THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY AND CONTRASTS NICELY WITH MONDALE’S “FULL NORWEGIAN” LOOK... PAUL NEWMAN FOR COSH SAKES, IFWFU COTTOHAVt AN ACTOR IS THE WHITE HOUSE LETS GET A GOOD Housekeeping worse than ifs cracked up to be By ART BUCHWALD Columnist for The Los Angeles Times Syndicate Due to an illness, my wife has been out of ac tion and I have found myself in the role of home manager. I must admit, I never paid too much at tention to what a wife did to maintain a house, and assumed it was a snap compared to solving the Iraq-Iran war. I am now realizing there is more to housekeep ing than the TV commercials would have us be- live. Here are some of the things I discovered in my new consciousness-raising position: A laundry hamper only holds dirty clothes. It does not wash them. There is no such thing as an empty dish washer. Garbage disposal units do not grind up steak bones, or forks and spoons. Appliance repairmen all have answering serv ices but never call them for their messages. You cannot grow food in a refrigerator. You have to go to a supermarket and buy it. No mat ter what you buy for dinner your bill always comes to $49.50. Many varieties of food have to be cooked. This requires pots and pans. Fresh fish and meat to not come with instructions. Neither do fresh veg etables. Frozen meals taste just as good as frozen meals. A person can overdose on hamburgers and scrambled eggs in less than five days. Garbage has to be put on the street once a week, or no one will take it away. Grass has to be watered or it will turn brown. After making up beds two days in a row, the thrill is gone. A neighbor never congratulates you on your waxed floors. Polyester-blend suits start to smt * if you don’t take them to the dry cleaner. When a fuse blows in the house it has to be re placed or the lights won’t go back on. United Parcel only rings your bell when they have a package for the person next door who isn’t home. The telephone only rings when you’re in the bathroom, or outside watering plants. You never have enough cord when you’re vac uuming a rug. But you always have too much when you’re trying to put it back in the closet. People who live in glass houses have to wash their windows all the time. The one item you need to complete a chore is downstairs when you are upstairs, and upstairs when you are downstairs. Dogs and cats have to be fed or they’ll turn on you. The best way to clean up a son’s room is to close the door and pretend it is not part of the house. Taking a headache remedy does not nesessar ily mean there will be less dust in the living room No one gives you a bonus for getting a stain out of the sofa. Illegal alien housekeepers are better than no aliens at all. It’s amazing how little comfort you getoutol gearing sympathetic friends tell you they kno" exactly what you’re going through. I discovered, admittedly late in the game there is no such thing as upward mobility in home management, no chance for advancement and no opportunity for a wage increase. I no" understand for the first time why wives need soap operas and “The National Enquirer” to gel them through the day. It’s their only link witlt reality. Somebody else’s infidelity sure beats the hell out of getting grease off the stove with the perfect paper towel. W IT- (cor “Pull y and pusl legs, pull said. “Preve to swim a Nix said. Certifn only peoy person, can be us< ting in tin “Don’t too,” Nix If you i to somet keep the you. Pani as much ( even if tl their resc Assists the reach