Page 2/The Battalion/Wednesday, March 5, 1986
Opinion
‘forgofti
A good belt
Preliminary results of the mandatory seat belt law look good.
The first four months show a reduction in traffic fatalities and
insurance premiums. But the determination of pro-belt groups
such as the Texas Coalition for Safety Belts still needs to be di
rected in other areas.
State Sen. Ted Lyon, D-Rockwall, a spohsor of seat belt legis
lation, says the period from September to December of 1985
shows a 14 percent decrease in the number of front-seat fatali
ties over 1984.
Lyon says the law also is responsible for the 5.1 percent re
duction in average statewide auto insurance premiums by the
State Board of Insurance — a $137 million annual saving to in
surance buyers.
Based on these early reports, the seat belt law could be con
sidered a success, especially since most of the findings cover the
grace period from Sept. 1 to Dec. 1 when motorists were not
fined for driving beltless.
If equal vigor were put into adopting an open container law,
perhaps Texas also could reduce the number of alcohol-related
automobile fatalities— 1,049 in 1984.
If an open container law were pursued with the stamina of
the seat belt law, Texas could end its drink-and-drive-just-
buckle-up highway hypocrisy.
If something as unpopular as a mandatory seat belt law can
be so successful early on, imagine the support for something as
socially acceptable as curtailing drinking and driving.
The seat belt law protects drivers from themselves when
they drink and drive, now we need an open container law to
protect the potential victims as well.
The Battalion Editorial Board
STOCKBROKER
By KIR!
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©I9S6 HOUSrofifwl
United FetlureSyniicili |
Grai
Ass
Texas: How it’s changed over the last 150 yeap
■VASHINC
Gramm admi
lobe a house 1
cuts, but
pess Club on
On March 2 ,
1836 delegates to
the Washington-
on-the -Brazos
convention unani
mously adopted a
declaration pro
claiming Texas in
dependent from
Mexico.
On March 2,
1986 Texans cele
brated the 150th
Glenn
Murtha
anniversary of the
birth of the Republic and eventual state
of Texas.
Much has changed in the state over
the past 150 years. Texas has the dis
tinction of being one of the most cultu
rally diverse states in the union. Much
of this diversity has been achieved in the
last two decades.
How is Texas changing? In 1974 the
U.S. Bureau of Census estimated that
Texas had surpassed Pennsylvania to
become the third most populous state in
the nation, with 12 million people. The
1980 census counted 14 million people.
A 1985 census estimate revealed a pop
ulation of approximately 16.5 million
Texans. If the present rate of growth
continues, Texas could become the 2nd
-most populous state by the 1990 census.
Who are these people? The three
predominant ethnic groups in Texas
are Anglos, Mexican-Americans and
blacks. The Anglo group, which in
cludes whites, accounts for 70 percent
of the Texas population. Immigrahts
from Mexico have swelled the Mexican-
American population to 21 percent of
the total. Blacks account for 12 percent
of the population and are heavily con
centrated in urban areas.
Where do they live? At the turn of the
century 80 percent of Texans lived in
rural areas. Today 80 percent of Texans
live in urban areas. Houston and Dallas,
neither of which existed during the
birth of the Republic, are now among
the 10 largest cities in the United States.
Where do they come from? Texas
seems to be overwhelmed by a new in
flux of “Yankees”. But during the 1970s
only three of the top 10 states providing
new residents were located in the north.
These 10 states were California, New
York, Illinois, Ohio, Georgia, Florida,
Louisiana, Oklahoma, New Mexico and
Arkansas. The presence of northerners
tends to be felt disproportionately to
their numbers possibly because of their
odd dialects, outspokenness and liberal
ideas.
What do they believe? The two states
which provided the most new residents,
California and New York, can be con
sidered as two of the most politically lib
eral states in the nation. Texas has tradi
tionally exercised more conservative,
Bible Belt values. These new residents
are bringing new ideas, conflict and
change. California and New York are
diverse states but both lack the large, re
ligiously-oriented conservative faction
of Texas. Texas may maintain its large
religious faction, but traditional reli
gious cultural domination is ending with
the arrival of new residents.
With whom do they worship? South
ern Baptists and Roman Catholics ac
count for two-thirds of the Texas
church-going population. Roman Cath
olics have made tremendous numerical
gains in Texas in recent years. The large
influx of Mexicans and northern immi
grants is prifnarily responsible for the
increase. About 19 percent of Texans
are Southern Baptist and 17 percent
Roman Catholic. The Texas Jewish
community is expanding rapidly. About
90,000 Jews reside in Texas with over
half concentrated in Houston. Houston
XI 1 u . fedia is resp
large Moslem, Hi»- lcit reduc J
also contain.'
Buddhist and Sikh populations.Tenfeiname.
also home to the irreligious. Theaware
tional headquarters of American
ists led by the outspoken Madalyn Vtoilet paper c
ray O’Hair (an ex-Yankee) is locatedl front of
Austin. H- ,lu '":
magic words
four years tl
A great deal has changed in Tfijbe uttered tl
since independence from Mexico i
declared 1 50 years ago with muchofij
change occurring in the past two!
cades. The large influx of new reside!
has added much to the richness;
versity of our state. Let’s hope t
continue to expand upon our diver!
as we begin another 150 years.
Glenn Murtha is a senior political §
ence major and a columnist for
Battalion.
Don’t play cards with a man named Ron
“Never eat at a
place called
‘Mom’s, never play
cards with a man
called ‘Doc’ and
never make love to
women crazier
than you are.” So
goes an old Amer-
i c a n adage on
some of the eter
nal verities. One
of those verities is
Richard
Cohen
about to be changed, though. I, for one,
would never play cards with a man
named Ron.
Doc Ron has done it again. After fig
uratively putting an arm around the
shoulder of Ferdinand Marcos, dis
patching his vice president to slobber a
toast to the nonexistent Filipino democ
racy, suggesting the opposition and the
government were equally to blame for
fraud and violence and then — tick,
tick, how the clock doth tick — waiting
until he and Marcos shared the same vi
sion of the future, things turned out
splendidly. When the president turned
over his cards, there was Cory Aquino,
mellow in yellow, smiling up at him. He
had won again.
In a recent issue of “Foreign Affairs,”
Michael Mandelbaum writes about “The
Luck of the President.” Mandelbaum
counts the ways. Soviet leaders kept dy
ing, making it hard — or harder — for
America’s chief adversary to be crea
tively adversarial. The president came
into office campaigning against the
SALT II treaty and then, lo and behold,
realized that it was a good thing after all.
It is a lucky thing to discover the uses of
something you were once willing to
throw out.
In the Middle East, the president’s
peace initiatives have been spectacular
failures, but it hardly matters. The Is
raelis and the Arabs make no war any
way. The price of oil, once sky-high, fell
during Reagan’s tenure and, more re
cently, has plummeted. For Reagan,
there is effect but no cause. He had
nothing to do with it. Even the adminis
tration’s recent attempt to cheat on the
Israelis by flirting with the PLO created
nothing like the fire-storm produced
when Andrew Young attempted some
thing similar. The Israelis are bitter, but
they hqve decided to hold their tongue.
The Philippines, though, shows Rea
gan at his sheer luckiest. In the truest
sense, he personally had no policy, un
less it was the wish that Marcos some
how pull through. Despite the kudos he
is now receiving for a job well done, the
fact is that for too long he did next to
nothing. The bloodshed that accompa
nied the elections might have been
avoided had Reagan and the United
States not suggested to Marcos over the
years that he could, literally, get away
with murder. He took the United States
at its word.
The Philippines crisis did produce
some genuine heroes — if that is the
right word. One of them is Sen. Richard
Lugar (R.-Ind.), who had to tell the
president the facts of life. Another, sort
of, was the Pentagon, which warned that
there would be no comfy California
exile for Filipino army officers who
caused bloodshed. But the truest heroes
were the Filippinos themselves — the
people, the Catholic church, its prelate
and, of course, all those people for
whom democracy is not a slogan, but a
conviction. It is doubtful today that they
would give our president the sort of 1 he
ro’s welcome he got in Grenada.
In the Reagan imagination, the foe is
a wishy-washy figure, a kind of latter-
day Ghandi, whose dreamy but mis
guided efforts are always doomed to
failure in the cruel world beyond Bev
erly Hills. If you had to draw such a per
son, she would look like Cory Aquino, a
breeze of a figure who makes St. Joan
seem like an apostle of realpolitik. Nev
ertheless, she sits today in the presi
dent’s chair, a repudiation of Reagan’s
world view, an asterisk to the writings of
Jeane Kirkpatrick. Reagan was wrong,
Aquino was right, but he wins anyway.
Unlike Marcos, the president of the
United States is a realist. In the end, he
did what he had to do, and Marcos went
(
the way of loyalty to Taiwan andccj
structive engagement for South Afrt
I suppose others might have lasht
themselves to the mast with their idd
ogy and gone down with the ship.Wlif(l |%|
the United States finally did move.fej | |C
moved deftly, showing the world
the term “great power” means. Ant
bow from Uncle Sam was about;
took.
One thesis of the Mandelbaum artii
is that Reagan’s luck, while formidaM
does not fully account for his foreijjj
policy success. His luck could be 1
fruit of wise policies or, at the least, "' 1
dicate (his) view of the world.” May!
But in the Philippines, he initial
played all the wrong cards, won any"f
and now his critics and Marcos eat atu
same place. It’s called “Mom’s.”
Richard Cohen is a columnist for I
Washington Post Writers Group.
The Battalion
(USPS 045 360)
Member of
Texas Press Association
Southwest Journalism Conference
The Battalion Editorial Board
Michelle Powe, Editor
Kay Mallett, Managing Editor
Loren Steffy, Opinion Page Editor
Jerry Oslin, City Editor
Cathie Anderson, News Editor
Travis Tingle, Sports Editor
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