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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (May 6, 1986)
Page 2/The Battalion/Tuesday, May 6, 1986 MmmmaEmBBBmatmmnmBmmmmmnmmmmBaamKsnBmmmuMMmmsmmsmmmmmmmm Opinion 'Decency' group's efforts misguided but not wasted I frequently go to 7-Eleven stores to satisfy an irre pressible urge — for Cornnuts. I can’t help myself. Cornnuts always have been a bigger attraction for me than the not-for- sale-to-anyone-un- Lor©n St@ffy der-18-years- of- age magazines carefully hidden behind the counter. Occasionally I might catch a glimpse of the Playboy nameplate and wonder how Christie Hefner, an avowed femi nist, can be in charge of such a publica tion and not suffer a severe personality split. Other than this reason for pondering ideological hypocrisy, it doesn’t matter to me that 7-Eleven will no longer be selling Playboy and its staples-in-the-na- vel competitor, Penthouse. What does matter is (he reason the convenience stores’ parent company, Southland Corp., arrived at its no-smut decison. Southland has been under increasing pressure from the National Federation for Decency, an anti-pornography group the magazines compare to Nazis. Southland denies its decision was in fluenced by the NED, but Don Wild- mon, the group’s representative before the Attorney General’s Commission on Pornography, claims otherwise. With more than 300,000 members, the NED is not the small group of radi cal fundamentalists that critics have been writing it off as. Its demonstrations are organized and the demonstrators are informed and prepared to deal with opposing arguments. Last year the NED launched a massive protest in Dallas with more than 10,000 people marching to the steps of Southland’s headquar ters. Although the opposition can argue the relevancy of the term “decency,” few can say these people don’t have strong convictions. So why Playboy} Why Penthouse? This group proved itself to be a formi dable foe of pornography, so why attack the most socially accepted of all the “gir lie” magazines? Why not go after the real threats that other, less organized groups can’t? Playboy’s pages frequently are graced with excerpts from best-selling novels by such respectable authors as Arthur C. Clarke and William F. Buckley. Presi dent Reagan’s son is on its payroll, and it’s one of the 10 largest-circulating magazines in the country. Penthouse’s circulation can’t quite compare with Playboy’s (it’s only in the top 20), but it, too, is frequented by famous names, in cluding Jerry Falwell, who heads a sizea ble anti-pornography campaign him self. The 7-Eleven ban barely will put a dent in smut distribution — 3 percent of Playboy’s sales at most. Is NFD’s effort wasted? Misguided is a better word. NED targeted the “largest purveyor of pornography.” But the magazine’s obscenity is, legally, questionable at best. NED merely lashed out at the largest and most visible manifestation of a more latent illness. They attacked the symp toms but not the cause. It has not been determined yet if such magazines as Playboy and Penthouse are linked to sexual crimes, violence and child abuse. It probably never will. But there are areas of the pornogra phy industry — however it is defined — that clearly are prohibited by law. Yet many vile publications — especially child pornography —continue to circu late despite laws against it. They pose a far greater threat to society — espeically children — than a few bare breasts nestled between ads for whiskey and cigarettes. Some forms are so explicit that they serve as instruction manuals for child molesters, explaining how to pick up children in a park and sexually assault them or how to perform incest — com plete with illustrations — on a nine- year-old girl. Here is where our society needs the NED to concentrate its efforts. Here is the real threat the NED sees the poten tial for behind the 7-Eleven counters. I’m not belittling NFD’s efforts with ludicrous cries of censorship. NED is en joying the spoils of effective activism. But the battle it chose to fight was the least productive and easiest to win. If pornographic material is responsible for sexual crime, NED has gone after the misdemeanors and left the capital of fenses undisturbed. Loren Steffy is a junior journalism ma jor and the Opinion Page editor for The Battalion. Waldheim an innocent victim Art Buchwald Unless I am presented with convincing evi dence to the con trary, I have to go along with Kurt Waldheim’s story that although he was lieutenant on the staff of a Nazi general, he had no idea that any atro- 1 cities were committed in Greece and Yu goslavia during 1942 to 1945. There is no reason at this point in time to question the fact that the former Secretary General of the U.N. was any thing more than a translator for Ger man Gen. Alexander Lohr, who unfor- tunate 1 y cannot be with us today because he was hanged as a war crimi nal. Despite unfounded accusations, it is my humble opinion that Waldheim was a victim, as were most German officers of World War II. I cannot verify it, but this is probably what happened. Waldheim, then a bright young offi cer of Austrian birth, was assigned to General Lohr’s staff. Lohr’s job was to kill as many Yugoslavs and Greeks as he possibly could and solve the Jewish Bal kan question once and for all. sion Gen. Lohr’s mission was to keep the Yugoslav and Greek partisans from looting stores. When Waldheim first arrived and presented himself to Gen. Lohr, the general told him, “I need a translator.” “Jawohl,” said Waldheim. “What would you like me to translate?” “Shakespeare. I love to read Shake speare in the original. It relaxes me af ter a long day on the battlefield.” Lohr handed Waldheim a German copy of Shakespeare and said, “I want a new play on my desk every night.” “What about my fighting, sir?” “Don’t . orry about fighting. Leave that for our boys in the field.” So Waldheim moved into an office three doors down from the general and started to translate Shakespeare. Every so often someone would rush in and say, “We have 5,000 Greek men, women and children in trucks outside. What should we do with them?” -Waldheim would yell, “That’s not my department. Can’t you see I’m translat ing ‘Hamlet’?” Or an SS sergeant would crash in and say, “Where are the freight trains for the Jews of Salonika?” But Lt. Waldheim never knew about any of this. He was under the impres- Waldheim would put his hands over his ears so he couldn’t hear what the man was saying and run out of his of fice. For three years Waldheim kept his hands over his ears and eyes, never once hearing or seeing anything that the Ger mans were doing in the Balkans. As long as he completed his Shakespeare translations no one ever asked him to do anything for Hitler’s war effort. Probably one of Waldheim’s great tri umphs was translating “All’s Well That Ends Well” while Lohr and his troops wiped out 15,000 Yugoslav partisans in the infamous “Operation Black.” The fact that Waldheim appears in a photograph at a Montenegro airport in full uniform with other officers a few days before the pperation in no way means that he was involved in it. He was just saying hello to old friends before he went off to his tent with his German-En- glish dictionary. Some people maintain that it is aw fully difficult to serve on a Nazi gener al’s staff in the Balkans from 1942 to 1945 and not know’ what went on. Kurt Waldheim was the kind of guy who could do it. If he made a mistake it was not men tioning in his autobiography that he served in the Balkans as a translator of Shakespeare for Gen. Lohr. The only reason I can guess for the omission is he was ashamed to admit he had no idea what happened in World War II. Copyright 1986, the Los Angeles Times Syndi cate Mail Call Costs outweigh the benefits EDITOR: As students at Texas A&M hear about the recent disaster in the Soviet Union, we all wonder how it happened and what effects the meltdowns w have on everything from people to politics. As a zoology major, I am of [](|nu-astii course interested in environmental impact of such an event; and although in N‘1 State: time answers may be revealed, an underlying question in my mind drives me J F n ^ 1 to ask why we employ nuclear power at all. The (quite literally) immeasurable^J on damage of the stations simply fascinates me. ^3 ■ in k t()I1 The practice is unsafe. No matter how “perfected” it is, the entire proce ^ will never be 100 percent fail-safe. Given, the level of an accident is variable ai ( .j but how can any accident (at any level) be justified to those effected, to ;nt w | m i (possibly) deformed offspring or to the environment. To any supporter of > Ivlemori nuclear energy —justify this “cheap, reliable energy source” to the untold litlcal Fort number of people who are effected by the meltdowns at Chernobyl. And it fh< Rev. 1 will happen again, as long as nuclear energy is used, the threat is always there 0 1 was tl Her at tl ■pic f\c< ording ■s not gi r. Each sc ■ by killi ■dating ■ said a for an accident. It will never be safe. Even if “perfect” procedures were possible, such an energy would and will produce incredible amounts of radioactive wastewater and highly radioactive products, and as the quantities of these highly hazardous wastes increase, so does the need for effective containment metnods and disposal sites, which clearly do not exist. Nuclear power is a very selfish practice. It produces a cancer in our world, and now it’s killing people. It doesn’t think of the future. Does anvonelen it acts really think that the Nukes are considering the cost of paying someone to h ei than o warn people for thousands of years to stay away from their aumpsites? I believe the solution to the problem is too complex to solve today, but new policies must be made to curb this practice, like “No dumpsites — you make it, you keep it.” The environmental impacts of events sucn as Chernobyl are immense, and I honestly wonder why anyone could support anything so dangerous to everything and everyone. Pete Walton ’87 orniei rism is Absolutely no absolutes to The Battalion's “guest self-righteous 3 P < rte( l b lible-thumping letter appeared in ■best* pt Palostiniar A& dir lies becau: Kig Israt Bmsn at ■ people ■wasmi s ople who ■on't kn Hoi mid,i ortg militi -b and win , P t >ncl one vv; S-FV ■llas EDITOR: I would like to address this letter moralist,” Mike Foarde, whose last Bible Tuesday’s issue. I have been tempted for some time to write in rebuttal to many of his “divinely inspired” letters but refrained, thinking “He has a rig to express his opinion.” Well, Foarde had finally pushed me over my threshold. First of all, Foarde’s assumption of the “absolute truth” of the Bible is absurd. The fact is that the Bible originated from the oral tradition before there was writing. Secondly, he seems to be entirely ignorant of the fact that the Bible has been translated into many languages before English, f here is | not always an exact translation for each word. Lastly, based on these two e improp facts, interpretation of the scriptures is indeed left to the individual. ts at the 1) Although the message of the Bible is clear, it could not logically be taken as ‘°nal Aiq: “absolute truth.” ■tandth Next, Foarde decided to address the issue of morality and attempted to * lstr; ition s argue how the rest of the world should believe in his values. If he would seek ‘Tiding the definition of this word, he would discover that morality is the “quality of || ri ^ cto or relating to principles of right and wrong in behavior.” Note that this says f nothing of the Bible or Christianity. It seems apparent to me that principles are largely individualistic. Therefore, morality is the individual’s idea olright and wrong. Although I do not choose this style of life, I also do not condemn it. Homosexuals are humans and have rights as humans. I just hope for Foarde’s sake that God does not judge him as he has judged others. Jon A. Thomas Vet school o sure bet EDITOR: The Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine has once again gained e S t , the honor of being one of the top institutions in the field. This was evidenced recently by the acceptance of all fourth-year students who applied for veterinary internships at other veterinary schools around the United States. This in part can be attributed to a faculty compsed of staff members from all over the world as well as A&M graduates, dedicated to academic excellence. This has given the veterinary students an extremely broad background and a high degree of exposure to many different concepts of veterinary medicine. Congratualtions to all fourth-year students who have accomplished this goal. Also, congratulations to the college for maintaining a high standard of academic development which has gained them the recognition and respect of the nation’s veterinary colleges. Karol B inford Unauthorized use of Reveille EDITOR: On Thursday, a political advertisement was featured on page three of The Battalion showing Kent Hance posing with Reveille V. Not only was the picture unauthorized, but it was taken after we had specifically told the Hance organization that under no circumstances was Reveille to be used for political promotions. Her appearance Wednesday at the Kent Hance rally was done only to give equal time to all candidates. (She made a similar appearance at the Loeffler rally without incident). Reveille represents Texas A&M University and all of its diversified student body. She does not support any political candidate. We always have and always will maintain an open door policy of trying to grant all requests for Reveille’s appearance. It is unfortunate that some people would take advantage of this policy to satisfy their own ends. In light of the events of the last week we are not at all displeased with the results of the Republican primary on Saturday. Darryl Jamail ’86 Commanding Officer Company E-2 Tette^^^tK^^TIxorTftoufcniotejtceecr^^^o^tTnnengtTi^nii^e^itonarstaT^^servestfKr^ to edit letters for style and length but will make every effort to maintain the author's intent. El letter must be signed and must include the address and telephone number of the writer. The Battalion (USPS 045 360) Member of Texas Press Association Southwest Journalism Conference If ar fo S C Tl Ou ear yot yoi The Battalion Editorial Board Editor Cathie AndersoJ Managing Editor Kirsten Ditf Opinion Page Editor LorenSteil'l City Editor Frank SmiJ News Editor Sue Krend Sports Editor KenSut 1 ! Editorial Policy The Battalion is a non-profit, self-supporting newspaper operated as a community service to Texas A&M anil Bryin-Cothf Station. Opinions expressed in The Battalion are those of the Editorial Board or the author and do not necessarily represem - 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 iiit/iinl* 1 Department of Journalism. 't he Battalion is published Monday through Friday during Texas A&M'regular semesters, except for holiday and c.u: tion periods. Mail subscriptions are SI6.75 per semester, $33.25 per school year and $35 per full year. Advertising rates t nished on request. Our address: The Battalion, 216 Reed McDonald Building, Texas A&M University, College Station, 7 X 77643. Second class postage paid at College Station, TX 77843. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Battalion, 216 Reed McDonald, Texas A&M University, College Station 77843.