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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 18, 1985)
Page 2/The Battalion/Tuesday, June 18,1985 Macaw's service not worth price Bryan-College Station has been plagued by poor cable serv ice for years. These troubles were only made worse when McCaw Cablevision took over the system left by the two previous companies. McCaw recently announced it would drop Chicago’s WGN from its programming. After much community protest, McCaw announced that it would keep WGN. They could have saved themselves a lot of hassle if they consulted the records of the old companies, who also suggested dropping WGN and met with similar community opposition. The cable company’s second blunder is the introduction of the new cable packages. Basic cable service will consist of five sta tions for $4.00 per month. This basic package, which will be the minimum service deal offered by the company, conflicts with the College Station cable franchise ordinance which states: “The Company currently furnishes and shall continue to furnish users a minimum of 12 signals or channels . . .” The basic package’s five channels fall short of the minimum. Only by purchasing the eight-channel Broadcast Pac can viewers receive the minimum number of signals specified in the city or dinance. But the basic deal alone, not a basic-Broadcast Pac com bination, is the minimum service furnished. Of course, the Broadcast Pac is only an additional $2.00 a month, assuming you don’t want it installed. Installation costs $250.00. Why so much? Because the cable company is a monopoly. Why is it a monopoly? Because the cities of Bryan and College Station give it special permission to be one. But along with that permission goes the right of the cities to regulate the cable rates. Reporter’s life in ‘real world differs from The Battalion The rate increase put anything and many but local channels beyond Ann Cervenka Guest Columnist the grasp of most students and many other members of the com munity. These random price increases and service changes must stop. It’s time for the city halls to exercise their authority and put some restraint on McCaw’s ever-increasing prices. It’s time for McCaw to listen to the voice of the community. People are tired of being expected to pay more and more money for cable “service.” The Battalion Editorial Board Americans catch ‘Sovietophobia’ Karl Pallmeyer There is a new disease that is af fecting millions of Americans. Every one is susceptible to the disease: government offi cials, movie actors and ordinary peo ple. The disease clouds people’s reasoning abilities and can be fatal to those afflicted and those around them. The disease is Sovi etophobia. Sovietophobia is a form of xenopho bia, a disease that causes a person to have an unnatural fear of someone or something that is different. Xenophobia begins with a misunderstanding that grows into an actual fear. Once the dis ease enters the fear stage a person loses all rational thought, begins to hate and is prone to violence. Throughout his tory there have been many cases of xe nophobia. In one form or another this disease has been the cause of millions of deaths and has caused discomfort for most of the world. Xenophobia has been the cause of hundreds of wars. It has caused many millions of people to be enslaved by their neighbors. It has often caused the world to be kept in the darkness of igno rance. It has often caused people to deny others their rights as humans. Xe nophobia was directly responsible for the execution of a great man from Na zareth who wanted only to tell the world how everyone could live in peace. It has caused the death of many great men. America has often been plagued by xenophobia. Xenophobia caused a group of European immigrants to vir tually exterminate all of the “true” Americans on the continent. It has caused many Americans to try to subju gate some of their own countrymen. We nave fought many wars because some people had become infected by the dis ease. Xenophobia, in the form Sovietopho bia, is now running rampant in Amer ica. A form of Sovietophobia struck America once before. During the 1950’s a senator from Wisconsin named Joseph R. McCarthy had a bad case of Sovieto phobia. While under the influence of the disease, McCarthy did a lot of dam age to several legislators, actors and sci entists. Few people were willing to stop him. Many people were so afraid of him they actually helped him with his “witch hunts.” McCarthy was almost able to in fect the entire nation with the disease until people finally saw how ill he really was. Sovietophobia still has an influence on our government. Often our domestic policies are based not on what we can do for our country but what we can do to keep them from doing anything to our country. Our foreign policies are often acts of fear instead of acts of compas sion. Sovietophobia has now infected seve ral moviemakers in Hollywood. Last summer’s “Red Dawn” was a prime ex ample of how horrible the disease can be. Sylvester Stallone has a bad case of the disease. In “Rambo, First Blood II,” Stallone returns to Vietnam to find the g lace swarming with Russians. It is as if tallone is blaming the Soviets for all of our problems in Vietnam. Stallone’s next movie is being advertised with the slogan “World War III is about to be gin.” In “Rocky IV,” which is supposed to be released in the fall, Stallone nas to fight a Russian boxer. Maybe Stallone has a good idea: it would be better for two boxers to meet in a ring than for two million soldiers to meet in some third-world country. Sovietophobia has also infected many ordinary people. The popularity of movies like “Red Dawn” and “Rambo” show how many people actually believe that the Soviet Union is the root of all evil. These people try to rationalize their fears by recalling many counts of Soviet aggression throughout the world. These same people probably have trou ble recalling any counts of American ag ression throughout the world. To an outsider it would seem as if the U.S.A. and the LI.S.S.R were involved in a giant game of chess using the rest of the world as the board. For almost 40 years now man has had the capability to utterly destroy the world. For almost 40 years now the United States and the Soviet Union have been involved in a series of thaws in the cold war. This can not continue much longer. Something has got to change or mankind will not oe able to last another 40 years. Fear and hate and violence are going to have to be replaced with under standing and love ana cooperation. Unlike the old line from all the old western movies, this “town” is big enough for the both of us. Karl Pallmeyer is a senior journalism major and a columnist for the Battal- As a staff writer for The Battalion last se mester, I got a kick out of seeing my name in the paper and occasionally hearing someone say, “Haven’t I heard your name before?” or “Do you work for The Batt?” Well, now that I write for the Waco Tribune-Herald, I still get a kick out of seeing my name in the paper, but no one else seems to really care. Welcome to the real world, or at least something close to it. It’s different writing for a city paper, even if the city is just Waco. Although I think The Battalion does a good job at informing students at A&M about events that concern them, I realize it is not quite the New York Times. Some of you may knock The Batt. I’m not. Keep in mind that The Batt is com pletely student run, and these students do have class, extracurricular activities and personal lives. Not to mention the fact that The Bat talion is free. I’m just saying that there are bigger and better things in this world. The Bat talion is not quite “the real thing.” For all I know, the “Trib” isn’t either, but it’s a step closer. My first day, I walked into the news room and my editor already had five I story assignments for me! I expected to be held by the hand for about a week until I got used to my new surround ings. Not so. I became a full-fledged re porter on day one. In fact, my first by line came the next day and I probably wrote about 10 stories that week. At A&M, I averaged two a week. In fact, the Trib had me driving all around Central Texas. I believe my first out-of-town story was in Reisel. Who’s ever heard of Rei- sel? At A&M, I usually just had to walk over to the MSC or some other building on campus. Not here. Another difference is the type of work I do here. Real things happen in a city such as shootings and fires. Not just Board of Regents meetings and pro grams by MSC committees. My first story in Waco was about a suspect who shot a police officer in the head. Never a dull moment. Well, that’s not exactly true. I have taken my share of obituaries — not too exciting. But normally, the newsroom is buz zing with reporters and photographers, heading every which way to make their deadline, kind of like “Lou Grant.” Speaking of deadlines, I have defi nitely learned to work under pressure, the newsroom is not a fun place at 11 p.m. on Saturday night before the Sun day edition is due. In fact, it’s awful. Editors are screaming at reporteim who are frantically trying to addksH minute touches to their work. And that brings me to anotherpokl Although I spent many nights in Ret® McDonald past midnight, I never did® five days in a row for nine hours straij® each day. At the “Trib,” my normal shift® from 2 p.m. to 1 1 p.m. Not real god® for the social life. But that’s what you expect being® the bottom of the totem pole. Evena® lowly intern, I do have my own de® typewriter and phone (with my o® number, of course). At The Batt, lo® had a temporary spot at a long shared by every journalism student ami staff member around. But the “Trib” does have its dra* backs: working weekends, nights,® name it. News doesn’t only happen ftp tween 8 and 5. But I always try to remember \diti my journalism professors say: “greates perience.” And they are right. I have learnd more at the Waco Tribune-Herald in two weeks than I learned at The a semester. I actually think this crat' lifestyle is for me. But come next fall, 1 think 1 willbf content as a staff writer for The Battal ion at good old Texas A&M. Ami Cervenka is a senior journalism major who is spending her summern an intern at the Waco Tribune-Herald Mail Call Letters Policy Letters to the Editor should not exceed 300 words in length. The editorial staff reserves the right to edit letters for style and length but will make every effort to maintain the author’s intent. Each letter must be signed ind must include the address and telephone number of the writer. Police station lines inspire Aggie Jokes EDITOR: I had a rather unfortunate incident this morning involving the campus po lice. I went over to their office to get a duplicate parking sticker for my daugh ter’s car since she rides with me to work and we may wish occasionally to drive her car. By the way, her car is registered in my name so it is technically my sec ond car. The young ladies who were on duty were courteous but so entrenched in bu reaucratic double talk that they insisted that I spent some 30 minutes or more in each of several lines to just get cleared so I could purchase a duplicate sticker. I assured them that there was no way that I intended to stand in line for that length of time to pay them $ 12 for park ing a car that may be on the campus 3 or 4 times this summer. As you may surmise, I’m a little upset — I do not want special treatment — I am not in Russia and I do not intend to let a bureaucratic service function of this university intimidate me or hand me this kind of flack. As a faculty member of this university for 28 years, a graduate of this univer sity, a recipient of the Faculty Distin guished Achievement Award in tea ching and a Century Club member I am ashamed of what I observed this morning. When I got back to the office seve ral of my fellow faculty members, in cluding one faculty senator, adde;d horror stories of how they were so ru dely and indifferently treated that I thought they were referringto the KGB. This is pitiful — the Campus Police are virtually despised —not for doing their job, but in their manner and be havior. It appears to me that they (the campus police organization) have for gotten that without the students and faculty, their would not be much need for their “servic^.” This is a classic example of the University perpetuating “Aggie Jok es.” James H. Marsh ’51 Professor of Construction Science The Battalion USPS 045 360 Member of Texas Press Association Southwest Journalism Conference The Battalion Editorial Board Kellie Dworaczyk, Editor Kay Mallett, John Hallett, News Editors Loren Steffy, Editorial Page Editor Sarah Oates, City Editor Travis Tingle, Sports Editor The Battalion Staff Assistant City Editor Katherine Hurl Assistant News Editor Cathie Anderson Entertainment Editors Cathy Riely, Walter Smith Staff Writers Karen Blech, Ed Cassavoy, Jerry Oslin, Brian Pearson Copy Editor Trent Leopold Make-up Editors Ed Cassavoy Karla Martin Columnists Cheryl Clark, Karl Pallmeyer Photographers Greg Bailey, Anthony Casper Editorial Policy The Battalion is a non-profit, self-supporting newspaper operated as a community service to Texas A&M and Bryan-College Station. Opinions expressed in The Battalion are those of the Ed itorial Board or the author, and do not necessarily rep resent the opinions of Texas AScM administrators, faculty or the Board of Regents. j'he Battalion also serves as a laboratory newspaper for students in reporting, editing and photography classes within the Department of Communications. The Battalion is published Tuesday through Friday during Texas A&M regular semesters, except for holiday and ex amination periods. Mail subscriptions are $16.75 per se mester, $33.25 per school year and $35 per full year. Ad vertising rates furnished on request. Our address: The Battalion, 21 b Reed McDonald Build ing, I'cxas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843. Editorial staff phone number: (4 09) 845-2630. Advertis ing: (409) 845-2611. Second class postage paid at College Station, TX 77843. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Battalion, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843