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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 22, 1984)
Tragedy doesn't end news THc afcow must go on. It's an old ckrhc that m heard but not often re- akzed Today The Battalion was put together by a staff consnting of the new and some of the old. T hat’s what it took, mi the fate of advemty Our editor was not here. Instead, he is mi a coma in a Bryan hospital after a car accident Yesterday he was laughing and working with us. planning this se mester’s goafs for The Battalion Tuesday mght. when it came time to speak of world issues for an editorial, the events of the world were discussed. But the tragedies that face nations seemed small in comparison to the tragedy in our own midst Newspapers are one of those things mi bte that go on. regardless of holidays or personal tragedies Between the tune *ye learned of the accident and you read this editorial, enough newsworthy events oc curred to Fill the pages of this day ’s paper To The Battalion staff every paper is important This one just contains a story that affects us a bn more. Tins editorial is dedicated to our editor. Bill Robinson Our hearts are with him and his family while our minds and bodies produce the first of the Fall semester s Battal ions — The Battalion EditorisJ Board • • * ' Bill, you still owe me a lunch Battalion Edi- tor-in-Chief Bill Robinson is in crit ical condition at a local hospital after an automobile ac cident Monday night on Dowling Road Doctors say there’s not much hope I still hope I don't want to write an obituary for a friend. Monday when tw-w^rociaLH Dorm Friedman 1 saw him in the 1 passed quickly A non chalant. non-committal hi and it was off toother business f6r me. Bill wandered around the news room busily doing the things new edi tors do: preparing, organizing, dreaming Bill has always been a big dreamer and because of that he sometimes re ceived the brum of the abuse that goes with this high-pressure profession He is one of tljose people who always has great ideas — ideas that students working full-time at the newspaper and going full-time to school could never quite live up to. Sometimes his exuberance would make me mad. Very mad And i would lash out at him. During Spring when I was sports editor, Bill worked as assistant Sports fxiitor. and this paper today was to be his first paper of Fall in charge of T he ‘ Battalion. Verbal assault after verbal assault, he would always he there in the news room. his lackadasMal smile lieammg across his face. For a time last semester after he fell and broke his hip in a freak accident, he was stuck on a pair of steel crutches that made character istic clanking sounds wherever he went; sometimes upon hearing his clanking crutches coming down the hall. I would hide But like a slapped puppy. Bill would tuck his head Pushing his body high above his crutches, he would seek me out anyway. Once found, even though I would rather have not been both ered, it always made me feel good that someone would go that far out of his way to ask my opinion or to ask me to go to lunch. No matter that I usually ended up buying; it seemed he endlessly needed to go to the monev-machine. andT was endlessly in a hurry. I’d like^to write on and on about both the good and bad times we had; college days are always so much better in retrospect I d tell you about the tunes at the Southwest Conference Basketball tournament, or the long nights in the newsroom putting out the paper and eating cold pizza, or the night Bill fell asleep on the floor of my apartment -— his head nestled in the woofer of my stereo's speaker. Yet the part of BUI that I’ve gotten to know was just a small piece I wish I could send just one message to Bill, my editor and my friend, as he Fights for his life at St. Joseph Hospi tal. It would say: “You can’t quit me now, you still owe me a lunch ” * (Donn Fnedmmn u a senior journa lism major and a staff columnist for The Battalion.) Learning to fly a plane can be full of surprises Learning to fly. Most people think it is a complex process that in volves draining the old pockei book, and flying endlessly until someone thinks you're good enough to get a h- Eric Evan Lee Well, it’s easier than most people think It is a little coatly. but there isn’t much that doesn’t cost a kit these days. (artting your license involves taking a written test, which m just a kit of common sense mixed with a bunch of federal rules and regulations Most of it is just to make sure you have a safe flight and to help a pdot reduce the number of surprises during has flight Then, a person will find a respect able flight school — and there are a KiM ILufaMMun. LdMcw Strollswr Rom. MaMcm* EcImcn StM-ttrv HortuHra. < *tv Editor Broad Bracfcjnan. Newt Eduto CsBr? Ssaafc New* Idnot Ed • t an Editor* - ...... MHttta Adair. M* hetir ft»we Bonotr Langford. Retire Domrat Pa* roe Ror anek Roton B4at k Staff Writer* Ed Alant*. Shawn Behirn Ikena Brown. Datnah Bollard. Leigh-EReti dark. I on* Cdroeu. Swr* Enk Patti FImm Ran EturnH. Dorm Frwdman. Bet McCfahua. Rarta Marian D Norna, Sarah < kntr* Jan Psrry. Lynn Rat Point. Jame* B Walker Cogs Writer „ Raren Bhoh Gaff MBm» Rath* Breard. Bans fShnarter John Makef* Peter Rot ha, John Ryan. Dean Nano /hr W* InSm* aw mtg Paan ASS* mmUrn aonanw*. rrmpu fe» haan»» aarf aanaSaihn anSaw Mo* nhw nmm m ** #i* ?> pr* w $39 rt f** «hrW —» W tf rnmmi m number of good ones in the area —to learn how to actuallv fly the plane. The instrtK tor’s rate is set according to aircraft type The least cost I v way of learning to fly is to rent the cheapest atreraf l. so most people will learn to fly on a Ossna 152 airplane. It is the primart trainer lor most pi kas and is instrumental in lormtng lasting memories about learning to fl> The Cessna 152 is a two-seater air plane with very little room for anyone T he small craft looks cute, but my first question was: W’ill it flv? There are a few oddities about the airman's language The number nine is pronounced “niner." because the word nine (neinj means no in (Verman Anothei oddity is that the letters in the alphabet ail have words attached to the ends of them Sp. aircraft are referred to as some numbers and a letter or two, whic h is really a word or two. 1 he airplane I am learning to flv is a Cessna 152, and its identification is Cessna (the type o! airplane gees first) 5526H (prorMHinced 552b Hotel). Cessna 552b H«>tel is a really fun air craft — full of surprises my instructor didn't even know about until I began to fly it. Not many people like 2b Ho tel, hut I think it's kmda fun. Che of my leginning trips in 26 Hotel was really a lesson in safety We were taking off from Lasterwood Field on runway 54 when a voice from the tower said “552b Hotel begin left turn, oncoming traffic fear jet.** I thought hdw neat, we’ll get to see a Lear jet land Well, my instructor told ne that was an order for us to begin turning left, so (he lear jet wouldn't collide with us As we turned left about 400 feet from the surface, okf 2b Hotel's left door flew open. As I lookt-d down, I began last-minute bargaining with my maker ()h C*od, let this ragged old seat belt hold me in ibis airplane, and I’ll never do anything wrong again. It was sort of like a drunk’s promise never to drink a drop again if he could stop being sick now. I made it through the turn, and I'm still flying. I’ve gained quite a few experiences that have raised new meaning to the word scared. Astro world will never be thrilling again After I had learned my basK manuevers to flying the aircraft, my instructor thought I might like a thrill So he suggested we do a spin or two. Being the inquisitive person that I am. I thought, now here’s another op portunity to learn something A spin results when the aircraft al most straight up but the power is no k>nger sufficient to pull the plane. A turn begins, and the plane falls to one side, spinning wildly to the ground. At the instant the spin “kicks in’* — and it does — youf body feels heavier than it has ever felt. I could not move my arms, whn h were forced to my side bv the resultmg dive. My instructor was kindly and calmly telling me how to pull out of the spin as I was thinking about what I had done with my life un til now. 1 even thought about my fune ral Would all the people fbr whom 1 sent graduation invitations also attend my funeral? Well, as the ground rushed toward my face. 1 accepted death, and even remembered to pray. Then my instructor pulled us out of the spin and said we were safe. I just sat there and finished my prayer When I finished praying and found I had not been killed. I then thought how lucky I was. We continued practicing spins, but I will never be thniled at an amusement park again The thrill of a spin was al most too much for my bladder (Eric Evan Lee u a recent journa lism graduate and was a The Battalion phtMoffrapher.) Policy platform debates not empty Economic theory may be tested in ’65 By DAVID BRODER ( ttiumnim tor thr Washingum Am* Wrmtra tiroup Politicai party platforms are widely supposed to be empty platitudes When the platform deflate gets down to a question of punctuation, as hap pened m the Republicans economic- pohev panel last week, the presump tion is that the issues are what you might call epically picayune. That is plausible, but in this case, plain wrong. Make no mistake: the in tellectual and poktical stakes in the Re publicans’ tax debate are very large in deed There are two basic views of the economic future One holds that the current strong growth is threatened by historically unprecedented budget cuts and tax increases starting in 1985 if economic rum is to be averted The other view is that the recovery will con tMiur and deficits will automaticallv decrease, unless the government is foolish enough to raise taxes. file Democrats as a party, most economists, many big businessmen and several strong figures in the Rea gan admimstraticMi and the Republi can Senate are of the first view. Aftei the platform debate, the Republican Party is offically committed to the sec ond proposition T he CiOP platform says: “Our most important economic goal is to expand and continue the economic recovery. We therefore oppose any attempts to UK i rase taxes, which would harm thr recovery ... We favor reduc ing defic its by continuing and expanding the strong economic recovery... and by eliminating wasteful and unnecessary government spenduig Whatever your view on the merits, that is a clear-cut. unequivocal policy statement. It says economic expansion — not deficit reduction — is the high est priority, and that tax increases are out. “We categorically reject proposals to increase taxes in a misguided effort to balance the budget,” another palt- form section dec lares. The platform is more plain than President Reagan himself has been. When Democratic nominee Walter F. Mondale accused Reagan of harboring a “secret plan” to raise taxes in 1985, as Mondale openlv said he would do. the President floundered around, fi nally declaring that for him, a tax hike would be “a last resort ' * Reagan’s agents here fought to keep some wiggle room" in the platform, hut lost to a group of congressional conservatives —- backed by most of the grassroots delegates — who wanted to sharpen the issue with Mondale, not blur it Now the White House men arc put ting out the Itnr that Reagan will do what he feels necessary to do, what ever the platform says. But the plat form language so much reflects Rea gan's own anti-tax sentiments that I think the prospects of Reagan en dorsing any form of deficit-cutting tax fall m 1985 have been made signifi cantly more remote. T hat is what makes this past week's events so important. Oiven the odds on Reagan's re-election, 1985 may well bring an intellectual and political test of economic theory of truly historic consequence. The young conservatives who f rained the economic plank of the GOP platform are true believers in the proposition tha^ the 1981 lax bill was the start of a new era. Rep. Jack Kemp (R-N.Y.), one of the major propone- ncts of the policy, told the platform committee that the "noninflationary economic expansion" triggered by those across-the-board tax cuts defied conventional wisdom and started the nation down a new road. To continue on that mad, he and his colleagues ar gue. there must be f urther rate cuts— not tax hikes— in a 1985 tax bill, which they would lake to ace eliminate progressive tax rates entirely. T hat is more than the administra tion can swallow, and M is heresy to the Democrats. Most conventional econo mists are sceptical of the notion that we have entered a new economic era. f hey believe the 1981 tax cuts, fully implemented just last year, applied a c lassic Kevnesian stimulus to the reces sion-wracked economy and —* along with easier Federal Reserve policies produced the current boom. But in their view, that boom cannot last un less deficits are cut and interest rates reduced, and that will require a tax boost next year. For now, Reagan can sidestep this debate, and revel in the current happy state of the economy. He has the lux ury of a man who is running his last election campaign under ideal nonruc circumstances. ec«> But for his party, and for the Deaocv cratic opposition, the gamble is very large indeed. Someone is right in this debate, and someone is wrong—said by 1988, it will be very clear who it is. If the 4(rpublicans resist a 1985 tax hike and economic growth goes on. without severe inflation, for another few yeara, thereby bringing down the deficit, there will be vast and perhaps enduring political benefit tor the GOP T hat is what Kemp meant when he said here that the 1984 GOP plat form “will make our party the re alignment party.” But if the skeptics are right, then Republicans as a party will be in deep trouble by 1988. An economic slump that starts with the budget already $160 btlkon or $170 billion in the red could leave this nation mi the worst trouble since the Depression All that — and more — is at issue, after last week’s platform decisions.