.
Tktay, March 7,1986
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budget 7 peixrcnt is a good
The regents’ decision to cut the
compromise in a no-win situation
The cuts came in response to an executive order^issued by
White requesting state institutions slash revenue spending by 13
percent to avoid a $1.3 billion shortfall in state spending this
year.
5 The reouested reduction meant a $67 million chop for
Texas A&M — a devastating blow to the University, which al
ready cut its budget to the quick at the beginning of this fiscal
yeafT'
Being an arm of the state, A&M is subject to budget cuts just
like any other state institution. But as an institution of higher
learning, A&M also has a responsibility to its students to provide
the best education possible.
The regents’ decision to trim $30 million less than White re
quested in system spending over the next 18 months effectively
appeases both sides of this delicate balance.
The Battalion Editorial Board
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Basement arsenals don’t defend traditional values
Soldier of For
tune Magazine is
no longer running
personal classified
ads that offer serv-
ices for hire —
services such as
murder and
breaking convicts
out of jail.
Mich+lto
Rowe
Earlier, the
magazine
dropped ads “blatandy racist in nature,”
“advertising that might glorify the
Third Reich” and ads for automatic
weapon conversion kits, according to
the magazine’s associate editor, Jim Pate
— even though these last ads are still le
gal.
What a great bunch of humanitari
ans. They certainly wouldn't want to be
accused of running ads which solicit
people to act illegally or immorally.
Of course anyone still can buy guns
— guns of any kind — in these merce
nary magazines. You can buy bullets
that pierce bullet-proof vests. You can
buy a tank if you so desire. You have the
right to buy anything you need to kill
that special someone in your life.
And that's what really matters — that
the rights of Americans not be infringed
Upon. Of course my right not to be mur
dered by some maniac with a gun isn't as
important as others’ rights to bear arms.
After all, as members of the National Ri
fle Association and other gun advocates
say: “Guns don't kill people, people kill
people.”
fell that to the loved ones of Sandra
Black, w hose husband was convicted last
week in connection with her murder at
their Bryan home. He hired another
man — through an ad in Soldier of For
tune — to kill her.
The fact is that people do kill people,
and with alarming ease. It is easier to
buy a gun in this country than it is to
buy a car or to get married. It is much
easier to buy a gun than to get divorced.
Anyone can walk into a gun shop or
pick up a mercenary magazine and
choose from a frighteningly large array
of killing devices.
What is the purpose of bullets that
pierce bullet-proof vests, except to kill
people such as police officers? What is
the purpose of automatic weapons, ex
cept to kill people? I’ve never known
anyone to go deer hunting with an M-
16.
Those opposed to a national gun con
trol law typically argue that people need
guns for protection. Anyone who needs
an M-16 or a tank for protection has se
rious troubles indeed.
This country has gone mercenary-
happy. Everywhere there are mag
azines, movies, cartoons perpetuating
false macho images of mercenaries as
the good guys. Mercenaries’ purpose
isn’t to defend our nation but to make
monev. They are professional killers,
professional fighters. They will fight
anyone’s war — for a price.
But Americans have romanticized
these assassins-for-hire. And by allow
ing people to buy such handy household
items as semi-automatic weapons and
hand grenades, the government is con
doning the actions of people who over
step the law and engage in their own
private little wars.
How can Americans talk about re
turning to traditional values in a coun
try where anyone’s next door neighbor
could have an arsenal in his basement?
This soldier-of-fortune mentality
doesn’t encourage Americans to love
thy neighbor, but rather to blow away
their neighbor if he steps in their "yard
or if the price is right
Michelle Powe is a senior journalism
major and the editor for The Battalion.
Safety first? Not if there’s a buck to
made
Richard
Cohn
Aside from an
inexplicable urge
to apply for the
Journalist in Space
Program (I. sat
down until the
feeling passed),
there was never
tht slightest
chance I would
ever rocket out of
this Earth to be
come weightless and babble Spacespeak
— that clipped non-language in which
the death of seven persons is being
called an “anomaly.” Given enough
anomalies, you could have World War
III.
But 1 do fly quite a bit. I used to do it
mostly for fun, now do it almost entirely
for business. And worry a lot that I will
descend in a flaming anomaly. So, 1 see
the investigation into the explosion of
the space shuttle Challenger as some
thing that applies not only to the space
HH .Hx i
program, but to all air transportation.
The witnesses keep saying NASA, but 1
keep hearing TWA.
1 choose TWA totally at random. I
coukl have chosen Eastern or American,
United or Pan Am. In fact, I could have
chosen any of the airlines which, since
deregulation, have been cutting fares,
hammering their employees, offering
bonus miles. All this suggests in the
process that safety is not job one. Mak
ing a buck is.
Just recently, for instance, leaders of
the airline pilots union said that United
Airlines, the nation's largest, was cutting
costs by observing only minimal safety
standards. Maybe. Union leaders, for
bargaining purposes, sometimes say
things they can not substantiate. United
responded by. citing its safety record;
not a single serious incident In 1985.
Similar charges were leveled at Conti
nental, Western and Eastern Airlines.
And American Airlines paid a $1.5 mil
lion fine to the Federal Aviation Admin
istration in settlement of charges that its
maintenance program was not up to
snuff. It denied any violations.
- The NASA investigation is. of course,
about the shuttle — the one that goes
into space, not the steerage-class one
that scurries between Boston, New York
and Washington for Eastern Airlines.
But even on the nonprofit space shuttle
there were pressures. The program was
behind schedule. There had been crit
icism. The president was going to refer
to the shuttle in his State of the Union
message. Morton ThiokolMnc., the
maker of the rocket, was negotiating a
$1-billion NASA contract. A pluckv and
winning schoolteacher was l>eing kept
waiting. And of course space scientists
like anyone el$e, like to get on with it.
It’s the reason, storm or no storm, we
drive to grandma’s for Christmas A
schedule has almost moral weight.
But even so, a moment of national
revelation — the instance when a light
bulb of comprehension went on in our
heads — occurred when we learned that
an engineer who had been arguing
against launch because of cold was given
some haberdashery advice: “Take off
your engineering hat and put on your
management hat,” Robert K. Lund, a
Morton Thiokol vice president for engi
neering, was told. All of a sudden, the
world looked dif ferent.
No enterprise, no company, can ever
be totally shielded from financial pres
sures — nor, probably, should it be. But
deregulation has put enormous pres
sure on U S. airlines. Eastern, a
wounded bird, fled into the wings of
Texas Air to avoid bankruptcy. Conti
nental went bust in one life, reorganized
and returned sans its old unions. TWA
is buying Ozark and mighty Pan Am.
for decades an American presence in
the Pacific and Manhattan, had to sell
both its office building and its once-sto-
ried routes to the. Orient. The curse of
Mail
A ‘Warped’ viewpoint
EDITOR:
Thanks to* Scott McCullar for pointing out the re
grettably true ranking of the Sterling C. Evans Li
brary. We of the Library Development Council are
working hard to improve the research facilities for
Aggie students and professors. We have made great
progress. However, continued awareness and support
on the part of Aggie students agd former students are
vital to our efforts. Promoting our library is one of the
most important ways to promote Texas A&M.
Helen L. Miller
Sterling C. Evans Library Development Council
.
More reason to celebrate
EDITOR:
As Texas A&M student organizations
Texas’ Sesquicehtenial (All Night Fair, Saturday),
those of us concerned with human rights have even
more reason to celebrate. 1986 is one of the brightest
years for human rights and American foreign rela
tions.
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Although the American public has always been al-
trutsitc in their world concern, the translating medium
of political machinery and major American interna
tional corporations has often delivered a message that
seemed to conflict with the best interests of other in
digenous nations, hence, resulting in anti-American
sentiments.
I _ \ • fT
'The Duvalier, Marcos and Botha tragedies have a
common pattern. They are all repressive dictatorships
without democratic or popular support. They recog
nize that they are doomed in the long run and start
making excuses such as “We need more lime to solve
our problems and should not be expected to change
overnight” (or in 300 years for South Africa). Then
the police brutality and daily death tolls reach the
threshhold of revolution, magnified bloodshed and
nationwide destruction. Fortunately, through interna
tional moral support (or U.S. transport planes), a
peaceful transfer to democracy and a restoration of
human rights occurs.
rica (like the holdings A&M has). A total of 7 1 univer
sities, four counties, 36 cities and 11 states have di
vested their holdings in the apartheid state.
Furthermore, a total of $14 billion in loans to South
Africa have been, called in.
Recent events have put Americans in the role of
heroes and liberators in the Americas, Asia and soon
(hopefully), in Africa. ,
This is a pleasant contrast to previous long, bloody
and controversial interventions in Vietnam, Central
America, Angola, etc. It is high time that we send a
military transport plane to fly Botha out of South Af
rica.
Norman Mu ray a
President ^
Students Against Apartheid
Tremendous international economic pressure “ be
ing applied by organizations (like Students Against
Apartheid) for divestment by institutions of their
holdings in companies that do business in South Af-
Darwin is upon the airline industry;
only the fittest are surviving.
There are many lessons to be drawn
from the NASA tragedy. Pick what you
want. But tor me, the explosion of the
shuttle proves once again that safety it
always an orphan. When it comes to the
airline industry, unless Cither profits are
once again guaranteed or the govern
ment once again lakes regulation Se
riously, the constant scratching for a
buck is going to push aside safety con
cerns.
It is ttM> much to ask that an airline in
dustry scraping for every dollar — pe
nalized financially for every plane in the
shop and demoralized in the work force
by union-busting tactics and the specter
of bankruptcies — is not going to tell
some pilot what Lund was told at
NASA: Put on your management hat.
When that happens, not even a helmet
will help us.
Richard Cohen is a columnist for
Washington Post Writers Croup.
Letter* to the Editor should not exceed 300 word* in length. The
editorial staff reserve* the right to edit letter* for style and length
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The Battalion
(USPS 045 560)
Member of
Texa* Pres* Association
Sotnh west journalism Conference
The Battalion Editorial Board
Michelle Powe, Editor
Kav Mallett. Managing Editor
Loren Steffy, Opinion Page Editor
i errv Oslin. City Editor
ie Anderson, News Editor
Travis Tingle, Sports Editor
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