Page 2/The Battalion/Wednesday, March 26, 1986
Opinion
Band ignores non-reg talent for sake of traditio
OK, we made
one giant leap for
ward by allowing
women to partici
pate in the Aggie
Band. Now, how
about making an
other giant leap
forward by allow
ing non-regs to
participate in the
band?
Glenn
Murtha
in the band, claiming that women would
destroy unity by requiring different uni
forms, hairstyles, living arrangements
and physical standards. They claimed
the band should remain all-male for the
sake of tradition. As a last-ditch effort
they claimed it would weaken the na
tion’s defenses. The same arguments
could be used against non-regs. Just
how convincing are they?
Back in 1979, Melanie Zentgraf, a fe
male cadet, filed a lawsuit against Texas
A&M after being denied the right to
participate in the band solely on account
of her sex. The University eventually
lost the case and was required to encour
age women to partake of band and
other Corps activities under an
agreement reached last year.
A lot of alumni and band members
made a big deal about allowing women
What about non-regs? They could
wear the standard military band uni
form like everyone else. Males could
wear their hair short but not shaved. No
One day not enough
for welcoming spring
It’s too bad that
there’s only one
day designated to
herald the arrival
of spring. We
Tony
Cornett
Guest Columnist
passed it last week while everybody
was on spring break. I know that
technically it marks the vernal equi
nox or something, but come on, that’s
for the convenience of calendar mak
ers. It just doesn’t do justice to the
season of capriciousness.
Especially this year, when the arri
val of spring was so drawn out be
cause she was playing freeze tag with
the seasonal clock.
When we should have been sport
ing sweaters, we sported our winter-
white legs in shorts instead. And then
during the week of her official arri
val, she dropped the temperatures
just so she could chuckle at us. We
stood at the beach and shivered in
our shorts.
Spring’s part of the continuum of
the seasons. Like watching the min
ute hand of a clock, we know she
moves but we can’t really tell until a
little time has passed.
Spring creeps up on us like a mis
chievous kid and just by her nature,
changes us emotionally enough to
cause us to just slightly lose our
minds.
Late one night night you might
stroll down your street and notice
that porch light bulbs are changing
from white to anti-bug yellow. That’s
because people are getting tired of
being buzzed by the crane flies that
congregate about the white ones. You
know, those insects that look like be
hemoth mosquitoes. Where’d those
dang bugs come from?
You walk a little more and notice
that for the first time in a while, the
asphalt street is giving up heat that it
absorbed earlier that day. The tem
perature during the day has inched
up a bit.
You might notice that dew settles
in and enhances the smells of fertile,
anticipating soil.
For some reason, the train that
sounded one way all winter takes on a
new sound as it chugs its way through
town. It’s nothing really specific. It
just sounds different.
On one of her showiest nights
spring causes the jasmine and the
honeysuckle to bloom. It’s one of her
surest ways to intoxicate the mortals.
The fragrance hangs so thick it’s al
most visible. Mere man can’t be held
accountable for his subsequent foo
lishness.
Of all the seasons, spring is the
most magical. There’s an indescriba
ble mystique about spring that, to this
southern boy anyway, doesn’t per
meate any other season. Fall gets
close but I can’t say it ever made me
want to go skinny-dipping.
The key to detecting the subtle
movement of spring is moving
around at night. Walks in the wee
hours of morning are a great way to
observe spring’s signs. Spring does
her best work at night. She’s sneaky
that way. She makes seeds sprout
overnight and trees bud. In her ear
liest stages she embraces all living
things only at night.
A night when her signs are every
where reads like a Knut Hamsun
novel. The vocabulary is not compli
cated, but there’s an overwhelming
evocation of emotion.
When spring gets impatient, she’ll
cause a cool breeze on a humid, over
cast night. Not a chilling breeze but
one that moves fleeting low clouds
that spell out her frustration.
She’s through teasing. It’s time for
a full-fledged spring happy hour
when all of a sudden the signs are ev
erywhere — day and night.
Stands of trees take on a tender
green watercolored appearance that
will soon yield to the hard green of
summer.
People, too, begin to show signs.
The surest outward indicator is the
ponytail. When girls start wearing
ponytails again, it’s spring. Guys, in
general, begin to pull out their loud
est shorts.
Ah, spring. It’s as if your whole be
ing has been waiting for months for
the first signs. You just didn’t realize
it.
And before you know it — be
tween ponytails and plaid shorts, T-
shirts and shades, and tank tops and
flip-flops — she’s here. Spring.
,Let the games begin.
Tony Cornett is a senior journalism
major.
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77843.
one would see the difference. Unity
would be preserved.
Only one of the original three women
band members is still in the band and in
the Corps. Apparently, two dropped
out because of the rigorous physical re
quirements.
I didn’t notice any difference in the
band from last year to this. I searched
through the band a countless number of
times looking for the three female mem
bers. I never spotted one. The women
in the band wear long pants like the
men and keep their hair tucked under
their hats. So much for harming unity
through appearance.
As far as I’m concerned, the band
should be a separate entity from the
Corps. Why are such strenuous physical
requirements necessary for mem
bership? Marching precision may neces
sitate being in good shape but the stan
dard Corps requirements are primarily
meant for instilling a sense of discipline
solely for the sake of discipline. Maybe
the two women and others who have
dropped out recognized the sheer futil
ity of enduring such strenuous physical
exertion just for the right to participate
in the band.
non-reg band members, drop all physi
cal requirements not necessary for
maintaining marching precision.
You may argue that non-regs can
participate in the Symphonic Band.
This is true, but the Symphonic Band is
just not as visible as the Aggie Band. I’ve
only seen the Symphonic Band a few
times, each time because I was in the
right place at the right time. The Sym
phonic Band is not the Aggie Band and
does not have the recognition or the vis
ibility. And even if it did, it is not an ex
cuse for denying women or non-regs
the right to participate in the Aggie
Band.
Is the price of participation too high?'
Keep the standards high for cadets. For
The Aggie Band may eventually be
forced to allow non-regs to participate.
The Corps of Cadets continues to de
cline in membership. To maintain its
numbers, the band admits candidates
who have had little or no musical expe
rience. The Aggie Band has members
who have never played aninsti
marched in a band before joining!
rollment in the Corps continues!
cline, the musical ability of the!
evitably will suffer. Allowing
to participate would stop i
tion.
The Aggie Band should rep:
the A&M of today, not the A&Mc
gone era. Representing A&M
representing nil students, notjmtE
hers of the Corps of Cadets.
Tradition is great, but notwheol
eludes students from partakingof|
versity activities. If studentshavee
tional musical ability, they sho
permitted to join the Aggie
gardless of whether they are
Corps. No one should have to j
Corps to be able to participate inthi
gie Band.
A propagandist at his best,
but a president at his worst
During Ronald
Reagan’s first
presidential cam
paign, I used to
read with dismay
of his reputed
ability to polarize.
Often these re
ports came from
California and,
while Californians
obviously knew
Richard
Cohen
the future president best, what they said
lacked credence. Ronald Reagan, say
what you will about him, seemed to be a
sweetheart of a guy.
wonder what in the world the president
was referring to when he said their “ra
dicals” were receiving training in Nica
ragua. Never mind. It made for a good
story. Another good story is the sugges
tion that Nicaragua under the Sandinis-
tas is an anti-Semitic state. That charge
has been investigated by Jewish organi
zations, journalists, even the State De
partment, and found to be baseless. The
Sandinista regime — anti-Israel for sure
and not much enamored of religion of
any kind — has never been linked to
state-sponsored anti-Semitism.
are you on — ours or theirs? Bn*!
Patrick Buchanan, taking Joe
thy’s old tar brush out of retiref
draws the line and Ronald M
smugly satisfied, praises Buchanan
getting everyone’s attention — 1^
ling fire in a crowded theater. This
the fire is a cancer that’s heading
way; only the Contras can stop it
Not any more. The secret held by
some Californians is now shared by the
rest of us. There is a touch of the dema
gogue to Ronald Reagan, a willingness
to brush past the truth and go straight
for the gut. He can be careless with
facts, sly in the way he misuses words,
willing to repeat over and over again a
falsehood or at least an unknown fact
until it is buffed into a rhetorical fool’s
gold. This is the propagandist at his
best. It is a president at his worst.
Reagan charges that “top Nicaraguan
officials are deeply involved in drug tra
fficking.” But earlier this year a spokes
man for the Drug Enforcement Admin-
stration said there was no evidence to
substantiate that claim. Reagan charac
terizes the Sandinistas as beasts, abusers
of human rights — thugs and druggies.
Nicaragua is not exactly Switzerland,
but when it comes to human-rights vio
lations and the willingness to smuggle
drugs, it’s the Contras who are the
champs of the region.
But what if the Contras fail —
most likely will? What then? Will
next test of Americanism be the
ingness to send more aid andthei^
aid? Will it matter then that some'J
raguans — but not the governmet
desecrated a synagogue? Will Buctj
roar yet again on the pages of the H
ington Post, defining loyalty as the!
ingness to send troops. And tfii|
president produce another picturtj
Nicaraguan official taking a cratelf
a plane? For one crate, we aid thel
tras; for two we go to war. TodJ'j
Contras. Manana Managua.
Nicaragua is the issue where it has all
come out. Here we have Ronald Reagan
on communism which, along with lower
taxes and smaller government, is one of
his core issues. Of course, communism
is an important issue and Reagan is enti
tled to feel strongly about it. But he is
also obligated to stick to the facts, to
what he knows and to command the net
works and the front pages of newspa
pers, if he must, but to do so with dig
nity. Nothing cheapens the presidency
as much as cheap rhetoric.
All these allegations are beside the
point anyway. If drug smuggling is the
issue, we should invade Columbia to
morrow. If state-sponsored anti-Semi
tism is the issue, then we should have at
tacked Argentina under the generals. If
human rights is our concern, we ought
to instantly put the cuffs on Ferdinand
Marcos and not have anything more to
do with South Africa. Would you care to
compare Managaua’s human-rights re
cord with Pretoria’s?
With his words, Reagan hasobsj
the issues. What should havebeefld
eign-policy debate has degenerate 1 !
a brawl about communism and I 0 ’
— not about what happens if, aftet
lions of dollars are spent on theCof
nothing is gained.
The leaders of Brazil, for instance.
Reagan does not pause to consider
such matters. He’ll do the analysis; what
he wants from us is emotion. Which side
Questions about the future goil 1
the passions of the present. Somei
may look back from a quagmire of,
ragua and wonder, as we have
how we got bogged down. The a 1 !
will be simple. The president said j
tory would be the judge — and 1 !
framed the issue so it was hardfotl
do the same.
Richard Cohen is a columnist f
Washington Post Writers Group.