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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 27, 1986)
Page 2/The Battalion/Thursday, March 27, 1986 Opinion Encouraging voter turnout despite personal sacrifice Student Gov ernment elections are in full swing. Big deal. Last year only 4,324 students voted in the elec tions. Only 1,799 voted in the run off for student body president. — That’s a pretty pa thetic turnout from Karl Pallmeyer a university of 35,000 students. There’s just not much interest in the elections. The five candi dates running for student body presi dent this year aren’t very interesting ei ther. That’s why I have decided to start a write-in campaign for student body president. I filed to run for the office but was disqualified because my grades were too low. I think that my grades show I am well qualified for the job — the majority of the student body has low grades too. I would have a lot of time to dedicate to my office since it’s obvious that I don’t waste my time studying. If elected I promise to make a differ ence. Unlike my opponents, I will do something other than make the stereo typical “I-will-increase-student-partici- pation-in-student-government” cam paign promise. Here are 13 promises that I will keep if elected: • I promise not to put maroon and white signs and posters shaped like windmills, thumbs or feet all over cam pus during my campaign. • I promise to fight for coed dorms on campus. • I promise not to wear a tweed jacket. • Since the regulations on Q-drop don’t allow students enough time to Judge whether they can handle a class and since I want out of Stat 303, I prom ise to fight for an extended Q-drop pe riod. • I promise to fight for a bar on cam pus. • I promise to form a committee that will lobby for an amendment to the Texas state constitution that will call for a student to be appointed to the Board of Regents. • I promise to have a parking garage built out of the bell tower. • I promise to refrain from exces sive, overpretentious and unreasonable employment of polysyllabic phrases while engaged in public discourse or correspondence with my constituents in favor of less hyperbolic and more collo quial terminology during my term of of fice, unlike one of my esteemed prede cessors. • I promise to form a committee that will lobby in Austin to prevent unneces sary budgetcuts in education. • I promise to fight for a core curric ulum. • I promise to fight for the divest ment of nearly $3 million that Texas A&M has invested in banks and cor porations that do business in South Af rica. • I promise to form a committee to work with the Association of Former Students to help determine how dona tions from alumni can be used more ef ficiently to benefit the University. • Due to conflicting interests of be ing a journalist and an elected official, I promise to quit my job at The Battalion. On Wednesday, Apr. 2, the day after April Fool’s Day, you will have your choice. You can either write my name in for student body president or you can force the candidate of your choice to take up these or some other issues. The choice is yours —so vote! Karl Pallmeyer is a senior journalism major and a columnist for The Battal- United Feature Syndicate MARGUUES ©I486 HOUSTON fW Safe at home, but out at third The testing of baseba 11 pi ayers for drugs has be gun. “Well, ladies and gentlemen, this is Dan Sun- dergard of WFLY Radio, and we are in Florida at the baseball training camp stadium of Art Buchwald the Doppler Snail Darters. They are playing an exhibition game against the Windemere Dumplings. Leading the lineup for the Snail Darters is Brian Smirk. 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 Editors Travis Tingle, Sports Editor Editorial Policy The Battalion is a non-profit, self-supporting newspa per operated as a community service to Texas A&M and Bryan-College Station. Opinions expressed in The Battalion are those of the Editorial Board or the author, and do not necessarily rep resent the opinions of Texas A&M administrators, faculty or the Board of Regents. The Battalion also serves as a laboratory newspaper for students in reporting, editing and photography classes within the Department of Communications. United Press International is entitled exclusively to the use for reproduction of all news dispatches credited to it. Rights of reproduction of all other matter herein re served. The Battalion is published Monday through Friday during Texas A&M regular semesters, except for holiday and examination periods. Mail subscriptions are $16.75 per semester. $33.25 per school year and $35 per full year. Advertising rates furnished on request. Our address: The Battalion, 216 Reed McDonald Building, Texas A&M University, College Station. TX 77843. Second class postage paid at College Station, TX 77843. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Battal ion, 216 Reed McDonald, Texas A&M University, College Station TX 77843. “Brian steps up to the plate, tips his cap, takes a practice swing and the um pire hands him a specimen bottle. Smirk is shaking his head to indicate that he doesn’t want to be tested, but the um pire vehemently insists. Hold it. Max Fury, the Snail Darter manager, has just jumped out of the dugout and is having -a tantrum. He is cussing and throwing his hat on the ground. The umpire is telling him to get back to the dugout. But Max is too incensed to pay any at tention. Wait a minute — Fury has grabbed the specimen bottle and has thrown it at the Windemere bench. It has broken into a thousand pieces. The umpire is now tossing Max out of the game for interfering with the testing of a baseball player when he is at bat. “Things have settled down. Smirk is back at home plate. The umpire gives him another specimen bottle. This time Brian does not flinch. He jogs behind the backstop where no one can see him and .... Let’s pause now for a commer cial. “Welcome back to Doppler Stadium. Smirk is returning to home plate. He hands the specimen bottle to the umpire who raises it up to the suti. Everyone in the stadium is holding his breath. Now here comes the decision from the um pire. He is spreading out his hands in a sweeping gesture. SMIRK IS SAFE! The test has come up negative! The crowd is going crazy. The Doppler du gout has emptied out and the players are swarming around Smirk, hugging and kissing him. Now he is riding on their shoulders waving to the fans. Just a second, Tap Chewing, the Windemere manager, is arguing with the umpire that Smirk’s specimen was positive and not negative. The umpire has turned his back on Chewing who seems to be threatening to take the test to the base ball commissioner on appeal. “The umpire has told everyone to get off the field so the teams can play ball. “Monarchy throws a fast-breaking ball which Smirk connects with and there it goes over the second baseman’s head . . . back to the wall. Brian has a triple! The third base umpire hands Brian another specimen bottle to make sure he hasn’t used any drugs while run ning from home plate to third. Smirk is going behind a billboard . . . And now it’s time out for another commercial. “Here comes Brian back to third with his specimen. The umpire is taking out his test kit. Hold it! He is looking at Smirk strangely. Now his thumb goes up in the air. Smirk is out. Smirk is out! This is the first time a major league player has ever been tested safe at home and then called out at third. “Smirk is jumping up and down on the umpire’s test kit. The Doppler third base coach is throwing sand into the um pire’s face. But nothing will change the umpire’s mind. In baseball, test tubes don’t lie. “There goes Brian walking toward the dugout. Maybe our man on the field, Simple Semple, can have a word with him.” “What happened, Brian?” “It was a bad call. I was clean for the entire triple.” “What was that white stuff you were sniffing when you slid into third?” “That was lime from the baseline.” “Do you think it was the lime that made your test positive?” “Beats me. I don’t even know what the test for lime is.” “Do you believe the baseball commis sioner has gone too far with testing baseball players?” “Damn right. There is nothing wrong with testing us once. But when they test us at every base they’ve gone too far.” Art Buchwald is a columnist for the Los Angeles Times Syndicate. Mail Call In the interest of the Free World EDITOR: There are people who claim that the United States w-as being provoal* in its maneuvers and exercises in the Culf of Sidra. The Rev. Jesse Jackscij My 7 J calls it Ramboism. The president of Arab-American relations claimsRonJ Reagan is showing off only because of the oppositional vote in the house. (ten Contra aid. Such people say that the U.S. actions are bullish and heavy- || handed. But what Col. Moammar Khadafy did was fire upon aircraft in p D international airspace. This airspace is no different in the Culf of Sidra t» in the Atlantic Ocean. The U.S. Sixth Fleet has sailed into the GulfofSOecurin seven times over the past five years for one reason. This reason isnotto; xaS back at Libya for harboring tc rroi ists. It is to maintain the fac t that the ianilu " United States Navy is willing and able to go anywhere at anytime in orde:| ns protect the interest of the Free World. These exercises are not provoatii s i,j en t all, for the Culf of Sidra, irregardless of what Khadafy thinks, is iniernai jiuni W waters. lirti Cle about Some critics say we should not have entered the gulf at all, in ordert k. ^ prevent terroristic reprisals. Yet it the- United States would be intimidatr: e ff ( , (m from sailing into a free zone by a lOth-rate power, what does the United ‘There States do if given an ultimatum by the U.S.S.R.? If the Soviet Union de< ,000 sti sovereignty over West Germany, with a “line of death” over the Rhine what would NATO do? Follow the U.S. lead and risk provoking the fejpl e ^ Bloc by sending in reinforcements? Or do we maintain that we cannots«Bf lst " aggression by being a bully or heavy-handed, and respect the U.S.S.R.s prL rc claim? Or better yet, take the matter to the World Court? | E )an One wonders whether it will take another downing of a KAL-007to hpnci change the opinions. Unless, of course, there are 264 CIA agents on b&T^ W * 1: unjustly provoking any missiles nearby. /| Mark Ude j: Ejg a Geography Major His i I gOod ion thi Mike ‘ ucatioi Dorm checkout blues nti Go aid wil EDITOR: I am writing because 1 have a few complaints which I would liketo express conerning the new residence hall checkout time. The time in the Jf t h e has been set at 5 p.m., but now it has been moved to an earlier time,Spin id sere Dead week is a period of time with the purpose of preparing the studenij were their final exams. Hgh' If Student Affairs forces students to disassemble lofts, pack andreniif e ^‘ Ul all personal belongings, arrange transportation and clean tbe roonisbefK| and during finals, they are defeating that purpose. Ron Sasse of Student Affairs says, “If we extended the time limit or changed it to Saturday,ve;j just be postponing our problems or moving Friday’s problems to Saturtfo What about the students problems? They cannot be changed to another Example: Our final examination schedule. Cyndi Lauda Class of ’88 No overnight change EDITOR: In response to Carl Krieger’s “Blacks should wait their turn,” thanksti people like Krieger, hundreds of people have been killed in South Afrittl Why should they wait? They have been waiting since 1948 with the elect* the National Party. It’s OK for good ole’ boys to exploit South Africa and its people,iftl don’t, then how will they fulfill the American dream? So what if blacksait| being killed. So what if they have no voting rights. Can you comparede police brutality, economic exploitation and white supremacy to thecivi™ of taxpaying U.S. citizens who want maximum profit? Either Krieger can’t read or he is blatantly ignoring the real situation | Yes, there are high standards of living and low hunger rates among the" South Africans, but what do the blacks have? They have apartheid. How would he feel if I took his home, his valuables, made him earn* | “pass,” beat him and asked him to graciously accept the situation. Maybe Krieger never heard of George Washington Carver, Jupiter Hammon and James Durham. These are a few noteworthy black men. He probably thinks blacks in the United States should have waitedl for the abolition of slavery and the right to vote. When did he experience] oppression, false imprisonment and prejudice? Maybe if he experienced some of these things he could sympathize with the black South Africans. They know a change will not come overnight, but if they don’t makesoniej noise who’s going to do it for them? Cynthia Green Suggestions for improvement EDITOR: Here are two simple questions to improve the quality of our newsp Primarily, as a STUDENT paper, there should be room for all studei<| activities which are presented for publication by recognized student organizations. I have been informed that you allot 14 inches for “WhaJ! and that much is deleted for room’s sake. I believe that a student paper should publish all such information. Personally, I would prefer to read* the law society, the vet society or (God forbid) the gay society rather thani | j meaningless or anti-A&M opinions of Pallmeyer and company. Secondly, there are certain projects and events occurring on campus^ have been attended by your reporters which have not appeared in The Battalion. A good example is is the photo contest offered by the student veterinary association which was displayed through spring break at the Forestry Building (west campus). Part of the reason for displaying thee there was to get people to see their atrium, which is beautiful. Winners" formally announced March 7. An article Monday or Tuesday of the folio* week would have really helped meet that goal. For most of the year, the8 art collection fills that space. Your attention to these matters would benefit the Aggies. Bryan Turner ’88 Return the pliers EDITOR: This is to the girl who borrowed a pair of electrician’s pliers at the Ad Night Fair. I would appreciate if you found the time to return the long overdue pliers. As a reminder, they have blue insulated handles and ivtffj made in Mexico. As an electrical engineering student I need those pliers, and good0^1 don’t come cheap. I appeal to your Aggie honesty. In the event you decide to returnm) pliers, please call me at 696-5526. You’re welcome! Charles M. Humphries Letters to the Editor should not exceed 300 words in length. The editorial staff reserves it to edit letters for style and length but will make every effort to maintain the author’s inte* 11 ! letter must be signed and must include the address and telephone number of the writer.