Page 2/The Battalion/Monday, October 7, 1985 Mail Call Letters to the Editor should not exceed SOU words in length. The editorial stall 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 and must include the address and telephone number of the writer. Attitude adjustments for campus police EDITOR: T hursday’s Mail Call was rather inter- esting. Dale Baum’s letter pointed out a situation he perceived as being poten tially dangerous — the riding of motor cycles and mopeds on the sidewalks. In the same issue, Robert E. Wiatt, Direc tor of Security and Traf fic replied. In his letter, Wiatt begins by bragging about the amount of money his depart ment could cost a person caught riding a motorized vehicle on the sidewalks or lawns. The $59 in fines he lists is indeed impressive. Moral: Don’t ride on the sidewalks. He then continues, in a condescening manner befitting his office, to complain about the lack of cooperation on the part of an of fender when a campus offi cer signals them to stop. Darn it, they just aren’t stopping. The sarcasm in this letter is ingenious, with references to “Starsky and Hutch” chase scenes, and catchy phrases, like, . . that blithe spirit goes to jail.” Moral: The Univer sity Police don’t like us, so if you get spotted riding on the sidewalks, just ride away. Wiatt complains that people who wouldn’t act so in a public park become “illegal and. neanderthal” on campus. His solution is simple: “An altitudinal revision on the part of all who of fend.” The attitude problem implied by this statement is the same one which has given the Campus Police names such as “KK” and “Rent-a-pig.” I don’t mean to be cruel, but why is it that the University Police cannot seem to command even a fraction of the re spect extended to municipal police de partments? I suspect that it’s because so many people feel that the Campus Po lice are working against them rather than with them, and this feeling is acute among students. The problem goes be yond registration lines and parking tick ets, and seems to boil down to things like Wiatt’s letter. Are the Campus Police here for us or in spite of us? My solution is this: An altitudinal re vision on the part of the University Po lice Department. I can assure Wiatt that an appeal to the campus would have been more appropriate and effective than a few paragraphs of condescend ing crap. Perhaps a few more crime pre vention and safety programs sponsored by the department would be nice. Maybe officers should be encouraged to be more amiable toward staff and stu dents. It can’t be so hard to do. There are universities that don’t seem to have these altitudinal problems. Brian Massey ’87 . Ag clarification EDITOR: The article by Cynthia Gay in the Sept. 27 issue of The Battalion on en rollments in agriculture places an im portant issue in perspective: The United States faces a serious shortage of people educated in certain areas of the food and agricultural sciences. Two points relative to the situation at Texas A&M, however, need clarification. The fact that the Placement Center recorded one-fourth less job offers for agricultural majors in 1985 than in the preceding year is not due to a decrease in the number of jobs, but is the result of the fact that Placement Center places only a fraction of the graduates in agri culture and does not have an accurate count of job of f ers. The numerous smaller, entrepreneu rial firms and agencies that employ graduates of the College of Agriculture increasingly work more directly with contacts facilitated by departmental net works and such programs as PCPA Day which is jointly sponsored by the Place ment Center. Secondly, the fact that the College sends only about 10-12 percent of its graduates into production agriculture management is a historical characteristic of the College, not just the result of the current economic pressure on crop farming. The bulk of the opportunities has always been in areas other than farming and ranching; they are in agri business, agroindustry, science, educa tion and service. But an increasing de mand is forecast for skilled persons in agricultural production management, as commercial production units grow in creasingly larger and more complex. H.O. Hunkel Dean College of Agriculture Mail can go through more ways than one EDITOR: Contrary to the view expressed in your Sept. 18 editorial, I think privatiza tion of the U.S. Postal Service is a good idea. In arguing your case you state, “In the early 1800s, before the U.S. Mail of fered service to what is now the western United States, independent companies tried unsuccessfully to manage mail dis tribution. Without the government’s or ganization and funding, the mail could not go through.” But that was the early 1800s. This is the latter part of the 20th century. A lot has changed in the meantime. The country is much more urbanized and populated than it was in the 19th century. This makes for a higher vol ume of mail delivered over shorter dis tances relative to the days of the Pony Express. With the partially deregulated jet aircraft and trucking industries (with resulting lower long distance transport costs), and with the omnipresent auto mobile (or “horseless carriage” as the old timers called it), the delivery of mail over great distances is less costly, at least in terms of time, relative to the 1800s. And don’t forget the rapid development of electronic mail services. If we don’t want to privatize the Postal Service, let’s at least make the Postal Service face the same efficiency- producing force that those in the busi ness world face: competition. Why not eliminate any legal barriers that may ex ist which prevent entrepreneurs from delivering first-class mail? After all, DHL, UPS, Emery, and Federal Ex- presss wouldn’t be making megabucks delivering packages (which are essen tially big letters) if the Postal Service gave consumers a significantly better deal. The Postal Service is running adver tisements on TV fbr its package delivery service. The advertisement’s theme is “We deliver excellence for less.” To the ' Postal Service I say, let the free market work, and prove it! Richard Braastad The Baft falls in line EDITOR: With reference to your editorial of Sepf. 27, it is absurd to compare the SDI with the Sgt. York Gun. The Sgt. York was not doomed by a flawed concept but by the quality of the contracting and the quality of the military overview of the project. (I could be specific but the pros pect of a civil suit would ruin my already slim chance of appearing in print.) I am not qualified to offer an assess ment of SDI’s technical merits but I re spect many of the voices on the affirma tive side and I respect Soviet opposition. (I also have a variety of partly economic arguments for SDI but they also are be yond the scope of this letter.) What im presses me the most is that every strate gic proposal by the United States in the last 20 years has met opposition often liberally spiced with deliberate misinfor mation. Having worked in the military aero space industry for six years I have seen the incompetence and corruption. Why is it that so many put such faith in the study by the Of fice of Technology As sessment which is itself just another (politicized) government organ? It is disappointing that despite being in such a knee-jerk conservative area, The Bat talion fell into line like just another little duck in the KGB-nourished bandwagon of anti-defense lobbyists. Jim Cargal Corps not alone EDITOR: “At the Core of A&M,” which ap- Opinion Junk instead of junk mai KL FA: 125 ille the bon £ (Whilst Art Buchwuld is on va cation we reprint some column s from the past.) A lot of people are being shaken up these days by receiving unsoli cited plastic credit cards. In the past Art Buchwald the consumer had theoption whether to ask for credit. But now, in the great bat tle for the hearts and dollars of the American customer, the banks, oil com panies and hotel chains are shoving their credit cards at you whether you want them or not. It isn’t just the specter of a spouse or teen-ager receiving a credit card and going berserk that bothers most Ameri can breadwinners. It’s the principle of the thing, and where will it all end? What is to prevent a company that sends unsolicited credit cards to your home from sending merchandise instead? I don’t believe it is too far-fetched to see this happening in a few years. You come home, and there on your front lawn is a complete dining room set with table, 12 chairs and cabinet. At tached to a leg of the table is a note: Greetings: We are happy to inform you that we consider you an excellent credit risk, and, to show our faith in you \*e are leaving this dining room set on your lawn. Our credit reports on you in dicate that you favor Colonial f urniture, and we have chosen (his particular ma hogany wood which we know will go well with the rest of your furnishings. If for some reason this particular dining room set does not meet your require ments, you may return it to our ware house within 10 days, and you will not be charged for it. If it is not returned, we will assume that we made the right choice, and we shall start billing you monthly. Or you could wake up in the morning and find parked outside your door a new “Fire Eater,” with the following let ter taped to the windshield: Congratulations: You are now the owner of a new "Fire Eater,” the fastest, most comfortable, economical automobile on the road. Be cause of your high credit rating, we have taken the liberty of registering this car in your name with the State Vehicle Bureau. If for any reason you change your mind and decide you don’t want to be one of the with-it people, please call this number and we will have the car taken away, at no cost to you, except for the towing charges. Mail Call peared in At Ease Sept. 27, was an inter esting review of Texas A&M’s re nowned Corps of Cadets. However, the article comparing A&M with the service academics incorrectly describes A&M’s Corps as “the only other seven-day mili tary institution in the nation.” traditions, remained exclusively military and produced a distinguished roll of ca reer officers and citizen-soldiers. The VMI Corps was committed as a unit during one of the most critical battles in the Civil War; one of VMI’s most fa mous graduates is Army Gen. George C. Marshall. In your next article on the Corps at A&M please give honorable mention to two outstanding military colleges, Vir ginia Military Institute (VMI) of Lexing ton, Va., and The Citadel of Charleston, S.C. These institutions are state-sup ported, full-time, all-male military col leges with proud traditions established long before the War Between the States. As a member of the Texas A&M Corps (Class of ’49) and a father of a member of the Corps (Class of’89), I am proud of the Corps, which always has been and will continue to be an essential part of Texas A&M. However, regional myopia should not prevent us from ac knowledging our brothers in arms. William R. Thomas called “P ico, feder \U<>. it \mu do not .Kcepl | 1{ lional buv, \<>u must go dowttlft^w Jose] Stale V ehicle Bureau and infofil.l^Hy spec: • it ibis dec ision Otherwise weif d er Pam (h.tigmg \ou interest beginmni caught 1’ i lie final indignit\ vwuild be tu:s.U.S. illei>, ceive a registered letter from a deu tion. ther opment compam which read: convuiioi smuiiehn! Dear Sir: ^P*rhe P We’re happ\ to inform vou tiuljfl, show are mm die proud < amici of a bB i J iisi a i am li house in Pni.idm Urey IfmT , desnuuc traoi dinar \ home (the deed isen