.v
Page 2n"he Battalion/Wednesday, May 21,1986
Time to cast ‘phony’
equal access votes
In the next two
months you will be
partcipating in the
greatest election
of your life. You
will be voting for
the long-distance
telephone com
pany of your
choice.
This may be the
most magnificent P"
ballot you ever cast.
Art Buchwald
People in the
United States tend to take their right to
choose a long-distance service for
granted. They don’t appreciate that in
communist and socialist nations the
phone service is run by the state. Sovi
ets, Chinese, Cubans and Afghans have
never heard the words, “Thank you for
using AT&T.” Faceless bureaucrats dic
tate what kinds of phones they will have.
If they are overcharged or get a wrong
number they are turned over to a conv
munications commissar. If they com
plain, he comes into their home and
yanks the phone line out of the wall.
In the United States the right to vote
for your telephone company is the most
precious gift you have. And to preserve
this right, every citizen over the age of
18 must stand up and be counted. A
large vote will send a message to our
enemies around the globe that we in this
country support our long-distance serv
ices whether they are right or wrong.
This year there are many long-dis
tance services on the ballot. Some are
spending millions of dollars to be
elected. The incumbent, AT&T, is fa
vored mainly because the company is
running on Ma Bell’s coattails. Cliff
Robertson, TV spokesman for AT&T,
is promising faster station-to-station
calls, clearer reception and the reform
of the telephone tax.
Burt Lancaster is spokesman for
MCI. He is a firm, no-nonsense type
who has challenged Cliff to a debate on
who has the lowest long-distance prices.
Lancaster has been pledging cheaper
There are many other long-distance
services to vote for. A few are: Western
Union, ITT, ALLNET and U.S. Tele
com.
The important thing to know is that
everyone has to have a long-distance
line whether or not he or she wants it.
Some of you may be saying, “Why
should I vote? I have no control over my
long-distance destiny.”
The reason is that if you don’t send in
your ballot, YOUR LOCAL PHONE
COMPANY WILL CHOOSE A LONG
DISTANCE CARRIER FOR YOU.
Can you imagine someone coming up
the walk, knocking on the door and say
ing, “I’m from MCI and I have been as
signed to make ALL your long-distance
calls — whether you like it or not.” Or
how would you feel about receiving a
phone call at 2 a.m. from a Western
Union man who says, “If you don’t call
California immediately you will never
see your Princess phone again.”
Copyright 1986, Los Angeles Times Syndicate
WTf YOU WANT
A BIRTH CONTROL
REVICE p
/
ARE YOU TWINS
WANTON SIX
WITH SOMEONE,
MISS?
ARENTYOIMUTUE
WTJNS FOR THAT,
YOU HUSSY?
TWOIPAREYOU.YOU
fERVERTS, SIXTEEN?
MYOOR WRENT5 KNOW
AOTTTHISTWHATS THEIR
RHONE NUMBER?
I ENJOY
COUNSELING
TEENAGERS
/
The Battalion
(USPS 045 360)
Member of
Texas 1’ress Association
Southwest journalism Confe.renci
The Battalion Editorial Board
1 ‘J""' t.iliioi
Opinion i •'.•A
( in Ed
Yen s Editoi
Sports Editor
Michelle Powe
Loren Steffi
.Scott Sutherland
Ka\ Mallett
Ken Sun
I lu- It.itiali 1 ’" I' •'
Editorial Policy
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Opinion
BUILP A BETTER
MOUSETRAP AMP THE
WORLD WILL BEAT A
PATH TO YOUR POOR
night rates, friendlier operators and no
frill calls to Alaska.
Burt should get the older vote, as
most of the senior citizens remember
seeing his movies. They perceive him as
someone who can be trusted to tell them
to do the right thing when selecting a
telephone company.
T hen there is Joan Rivers, whose
campaign for GTE Sprint consists of
making fun of other phone companies.
Joan’s appeal is to those who don’t take
their long-distance calls too seriously.
While attracting a tremendous follow
ing with her commercials, there is now a
big question of whether she can keep
her supporters after leaving the Johnny
Carson show.
A telephone election analyst with the
brokerage firm of Dial, Buzzer & Hold
said, “Johnny Carson has a loyal constit
uency,. and if people switch their votes
because of Rivers’ breakup with Johnny,
you’re going to see one helluva horse ra
ce.”
United FeiturtS/Dint;
Soviet schools teach peace
with lack of understanding
TBILISI,
U.S.S.R. — Sa
mantha Smith,
dead in a New En
gland plane crash,
lives on here in So
viet Georgia.
There is a drawing
of her, yellow hair
and bright smile,
on the wall of the
where En-
Richard
Cohen
room
glish is taught in the first school, the
city’s oldest. Samantha holds an Ameri
can flag and says, “We want peace and
friendship.” She is answered by the Rus
sian girl who went to America, Katerina
Lycheva. She wants peace and
friendship, too.
But down the block from the school,
there are different drawings. They
show a wooden and mean-looking Un
cle Sam holding blacks in chains. Other
Uncle Sams are kicking people, Third
World peoples, for whom the Russians
have a much declared and superficial
sympathy. From the looks Africans and
Asians get on the street, it’s clear many
Soviets would much prefer the liberated
peoples to stay precisely where they
have been liberated.
In the school, though, the message is
only of peace. In the English class, the
teacher begins by saying, “Now chil
dren, the most important problem of
the world is peace.” With that, a young
man, dressed like all the others in a blue
uniform, pops to his feet. He has mem
orized a poem. It begins, “1 want to live
and not die.”
On a table are albums sent from the
United States. From my chair in the
classroom, I can see the color photos of
American children who smile from
Georgia. It is a bit corny, this affinity of
one Georgia for the other, but it seems
to work. The school is the Galloway in
Atlanta and the album is called “Favo
rite Topics of the Galloway School."
The teacher hands it to me. “It shows
well that we want to be friendly with
America,” she says.
On a wall is a dove of peace. There
are others in the halllway. The word
peace in English can be seen time and
again, although it is two languages re
moved for these kids. Their native
tongue is Georgian, in which they are
largely taught, but they have to know
their Russian, too. One by one they rise
to show their stuff.
1 am serendaded with Americana.
The first song is “Row, Row, Row Your
Boat,” originally taught, I am told, by
yet another visiting American journalist.
Then comes “John Brown’s Body” and
then “T his Land Is Your Land.” 1 he
room pulses with the lyrical words of
Woody Guthrie (no surprise to Guth
rie’s political enemies, I’m sure) and the
words carry just a slight accent. Still,
here in the exotic Gaucasus, we are in
Galifornia and the New York island, the
redwood forest and the gulf-stream wa
ters . . . “this land was made for you and
me.”
What is to be made of this? Probably
not much. Other rooms of the school
are mini-museums — to the war, to ear
lier history, to the revolution. It is not
possible for even a Georgian not to
know that the Soviet Union, Russia es
pecially, has time and time again been
attacked by enemies. The display down
the street shows that the United States
could be one of those enemies. Vigi
lance is required.
Still, kids are kids and they are learn
ing something — more about my coun
try than I ever knew of theirs at age 14.
It is impossible to know what the conse
quences are, though. When a boy recites
a short description of how Bri
governed, does he understandJ
role of the political partieshejJ
tioned? Does he know thatPii
really governs and, if so, whau]
think of his own country?
In the kindergarten, they cuts*
color paper butterflies, allthetiit
ing along to phonograph recur
teacher plays, one is a Georgia;
tune. T his kids stop and doafoll^l
Then the teacher puts on anott
cord. It is 1970s style rock. A dor
viet tots do the monkey. Later
the butterflies is chosen as tkii
disagree and, with a lot of gigP'lf
presented with all of them.
Back in the English room, dies,
has turned to poetry. A boy walk
f ront of the room. From niemon
cites Longfellow’s “Hiawatha,
words like “prairie” uttered with ■
cent, but also without intonatit ^
turn next to English literature,
boy stands to tell of Byron am
speare, Marlow and Dickens, b
others, he recites from memon
have the uneasy feeling that 1 ha
the cause of much awful homen
by myself, I may have given these
good reason to hate America.
BEA
who o]
busines
state !
pleadec
motion
deliver
State
Daniel
sentenc
to 10 >
totaling
Park
ocrat, v
ent gra
promot
bution
perjui
later
jury fa
Par
I Arthu
i a real
i he sol
j April
Jeffer
[ney’s i
Poli
[rated
Happ;
[said.
Toi
Samantha Smith, deadinahe
gland plane crash, lives on here,I
less, some will say she is beingt
death as she was in life—yetaii
prop of Soviet propaganda. Cet
that is the case. But she is
looking Uncle Sam and that ij
thing. Any girl in the first schft
look at her and see just anodic
I hat, Samantha might say, of
whole idea.
Th
nsm \
T hex
jaheac
[tluit
pear.
To
live i
jieprt
|mem
Tli
■cord
Iwho ,
IS 10 I:
IT
Imam
land
lu ilI g
mark
Copyright 1986, Washington Post Wriler
Diploma wanted
Call
EDITOR.
Last December when I graduated I received my
diploma. However my name was spelled incorrectly. A
note w ith my diploma assured me I would receive a new
one in about six weeks.
Unforeseen events since December have resulted in
three address changes. I did notify the post master of each
change of address and have received most of my mail.
About two weeks ago I called admissions and records at
Heaton Hall to find out what happened to my diploma and
was told it had been mailed out “on the 22nd.”
Up until the point when it was determined that my new
diploma had been mailed out, the people I spoke with had
been courteous and helpful, but that quickly changed. I
had to question the person I was speaking with to find out
it had been mailed out in February.
Because the employee was seemingly unwilling to
volunteer other information, I was forced to ask how I
would go about getting another diploma. She cooly replied
that the University would order another diploma but that I
would have to pick it up in person. I calmly responded that
that presented a problem as I now live in Indiana. In an
even cooler tone the employee repeated I would have to
pick up my diploma in person because the University
would not mail it a second time.
Perhaps I should be more upset with the U.S. Postal
Service, but the cool indifference I met with in the quest
for my diploma made it much easier and more convenient
to be angry with Texas A&M.
Perhaps part of the fault is mine for not letting
admissions and records know of my new address each time
I moved and for putting too much faith in the postal
service to forward my mail correctly. On the other hand,
maybe someone with a little understanding might realize
how easy it was for me to be more concerned anhetitf
with finding a job, transportation and a place to live,
I can’t help but think of the millions of timesl
heard people say A&M is different from anywhereelif
about all the traditions and supposedly how the Uni-
cares about its students.
I guess bureaucracy is bureaucracy no matterwtT
you go. So I’ll state my plea in terms best understood
those who work in Heaton Hall. 7812934 (141486891
would like his diploma!
John Hallett, Jr.
Happy campers
EDITOR:
I would personally like to thank all the peoplewtd
made the 1986 Exec-n-Rec Retreat what it was—mo
the most fun-filled days that I’ve had in a while.
We had a variety of people at Camp Olympia,
had one goal in common — to learn from eachotheri
apply what we learned to become better student bod'
leaders. 1 see a desire in Off-Campus Aggies, hallofft 1
area coordinators and advisers to make a 1986-87aW
Place
(3
Che,
All
(I
Sea
2
year
Last, but not least, thank you Nyla Ptomey, David
McDowell and the rest of the RHA officers for your
support.
Look out ’86-’87 — here we come!
Arthur W. John
RHA Chaplain
Letters to the Editor should not exceed 300 words in length. The
staff reserves the right to edit letters for style and length but will0
en effort to maintain the author's intent. Each letter must besif
must include the address and telephone number of the writer.
0
F