t
0
0»
4
Page 2/The Battalion/Thursday, June 19,1966
Opinion
Faculty speaks out
The professors who signed Texas A&M’s anti-Strategic De
fense Initiative petition deserve to be commended for speaking
out against the Reagan administration’s attempt to tie up vital
research resources.
The petition cites a list of political, technical and academic
concerns as reasons for opposing SD1. Those who signed
pledged not to solicit or accept funds for Star Wars research,
stating that it would be “unethical to accept research money for
a project that has no reasonable likelihood of success.”
It does not, however, mean the participants have to deny
funding completely, but it is nonetheless a oold step from our
usually passive faculty.
The petition warns that there is “a great risk of infringement
on academic freedom by undertaking research which may later
become classified, and such potentially classified research is not
in consonance with the stated mission of Texas A&M, a public
land-grant University responsible to the citizens of the state of
Texas”
By signing the petition, the faculty members have joined the
more than 6,S()0 scientists on college campuses nationwide who
refuse to participate in the Reagan administration’s largest mili
tary money pit.
Our faculty members deserve commendation for joining the
national effort to alert the general public to this frivolous distri
bution of research funding. The Reagan administration has
turned its back on the first priority of research — making life
easier for the common citizen. Instead, it wants to pump billions
of research dollars into a military program that many scientists
and top researchers — including 15 Nobel laureates — feel is
doomed for the scrap heap.
The Battalion Editorial Board
Summer films bode well for
box office, bad for stomach
Revamped Superman
threat to self-esteem
When 1 was a
kid, about six or
seven, I fie w
across the room I
stood on the end
of my parent's
bed (the one with
posters that I
later broke and
blamed on the
cleaning lady), ex
tended my bathrobe behind me and
pushed oft. 1 sailed through the air,
(lea red part of the room and came to a
remarkably soft landing by skidding to a
stop under my father’s chest of drawers.
“Like Superman!," my sister exclaimed
That, I informed her, was the whole
Richard
Cohan
idea.
That was the only flight for which
there were witnesses Like the times I
was both the cowboy and his horse (1
could run at a gallop), my career as Su
perman went largely unnoticed by the
world around me. No one knew that I
could fly (faster than a speeding bullet),
or that my strength was superhuman, or
that once I stood perched on the porch
roof and considered duplicating mv
bedroom feat until, seized by panic, 1
E rudentlv transformed myself into
lark Kent and took the stairs instead.
I tell you these true tales (one of
them, remember, witnessed) because
wor^ has reached these precincts that
Superman, the one of the comic books,
is going to be changed
After 48 years, die people at DC
Comics say they are going to make the
Man of Steel “more vulnerable " He will
retain his super powers, but they won’t
be. well, so super As for Clark Kent, al
ways a contradiction in terms (there is
no such thing as a mild-mannered re
porter). he will become more assertive
and “upwardlv mobile"*— in fact, either
a columnist or a feature writer. (Maybe
he’ll appear on “The McLaughlin
Group” and send Robert Novak to the
moon.) ,
The Battalion
>. Editor
Mtcfcrtte Povm
Loren S*eff>, Optn*
Vou Sutherland
ku» MaUcu. Vi
Ken Sury. Sports Editor
4AM L rm
“It’s very important for him to be ac
cepted as a human being, to be accepted
as he really is," said John Byrne, the
writer and artist for the new Superman.
“He (Kent) doesn’t have to be the outra
geous wimp ht has been in the past. He
is going to be more self-assured as
Clark
As an upwardly mobile and assertive
columnist myself, I would like to tell this
Eat Krypto-
Archie and
with Plastic-
man or that rich snob. Batman; make
Spider-man into Butterfly Man and
convert Scrooge McDuck into an invest
ment banker who got rich on inside tra
ding, but keep your pen off Superman.
(Where’s Lex Luther when you need
him?)
DC Comics, attempting to keep what
a professor of popular culture (that’s a
different column) called its “market
position,” thinks it is doing the smart
thing bv turning the boy from Smallvillc
into Ouicheman. (Look in the sky: It’s a
bird! It’s a plane! It’s a fern!) But they
are making a serious mistake The at
traction of Superman was that he perso
nified that bundle of inadequacies and
insecurities that we call “a boy."
A kid could look at the nonassertive,
meek and desperately-in-need-of-the-
rapy Kent and see that he was also Su
perman. Kent was the boy. the reader,
and Superman was who the boy could
someday be — the promise, the future.
Kent was lost in the world, over
whelmed by its demands, awkward and
often adrift in a sea of dreams. Boys are
that way. They can look at Kent and
identify He is who they are and Super
man is who they can become Superman
needs only a phone booth and a change
of clothes. A boy needs only some years.
We have yet to see the new, more as
sertive Kent. But he is bound to be a
mistake Like countless heroes of count
less movies, Kent is the guy who does
not wear his machoism on his sleeve. He
does not fight, even when provoked, al
though of course he could. He knows
that true manliness has nothing to do
with aggression or belligerence out, in
stead, with the wav you conduct yourself
— that and an aaherence to principles
In the movies, the principle might be
nonviolence (the fignter who killed an
opponent in the ring) or some silly
pledge you have made to a woman
(Gary Cooper to Grace Kelly in “High
Noon"). For Superman it is tne conceal
ment of his true identity. In any case,
the message is a worthy one: Being a
man takes discipline and self-control.
% Now, alas, all of that will be gone and
the outcome is certain. Superman will
fer shoor, he’s super, he’s not reSl\
happy — and boys perched on beds ev
erywhere will think that the future will
be like the present Maybe in the next
movie Superman will be played by
Woody Alton
Up. upandoy vey!
Cmpfrigki 191$, Wmakimg*m Po« Syrndicme
Summertime
brings a variety
of wonderful
things: heat,
mosquitoes,
sweat, sunburns
and summer
movies.
Each summer
the theaters are
flooded with
films fabricated for fast financial gain.
This summer we are plagued with such
cinematic masterpieces as “Police Aca
demy 3,” “Poltergeist II," “Demons,"
“Invaders from Mars,” “Top Gun" “My
Little Pony — the Movie,” “Short Circ
uit," “W’ise Guys," “Never Too Young to
Die," “Back to School," “No Retreat/No
Surrender,” “Space Camp,” “Raw Deal"
and “Cobra."
These movies are garbage in its
purest form. Most of them can be
thrown into one of fivetatagories.
• Sequels — Everyone, except those
living in Hollvwcxxi, has heard the old
saying: “leave well enough alone." Any
movie with a number m the title, except
ing “2001: A Space Odyssey” and
“Catch-22,” is doomed to failure. Se
quels, by their very nature, are usually
cheesy but when they’re numbered it’s a
sign of new highs in mediocrity. “Polter
geist II" doesn’t have a ghost of a
chance. When sequels are numbered
with Arabic instead of Roman numerals,
like “Police Academy 3,” it’s a sign of ex
treme cheapness. “Police Academy”
never deserved to be made in the first
place so why have there been three of
them?
Before long we’ll be exposed to other
great sequels like “Karate Kid II" and
“Aliens” (notice the “s”).
• Gore Flicks — Each summer there
is a rash of movies about kids being
killed by monsters, aliens, psychopaths
and other mean, nastv things. This sum
mer is no exception. We have “Aliens"
about people being slaughtered by ex
traterrestrials and “Invaders from
Mars,” also about people being slaugh
tered bv extraterrestrials. We have “De
mons" and “Poltergeist II” about people
being slaughtered by monsters. Before
long there’s bound to be a few slasher
movies, like “Nightmare on Elm Street
3” and “Friday the 13th Part 4.5731 x
KP* 4 .
Head Horror Hac k Stephen King will
have another movie out this summer.
King’s fans, and even King himself,
have been disappointed by the quality of
the movies made ffom his work. The
good news about “Maximum Overdri
ve” is that King himself is directing so
that no outside influences will screw up
his story. The bad news is that it stars a
group of cars and trucks that kill people
to the “music" of AC/DC.
• Kiddie Movies — Since the kids are
out of school for the summer. Holly
wood does their best to get the kids into
the theater. Although all of the movies
out today are aimed for those with the
mentality of a 13-year-old, there are
some made for teen-agers in particular.
We have the above-mentioned gore
flicks and sequels plus “Ferris Bueller’s
Day Off,” “Space Camp” and “The
Manhattan Project.” 1 was in high school
once, and I don’t remember having that
much sex. drugs and rock ’n’ roll at my
disposal.
For the more mature kids we have
“My Little Pony — the Movie” and Walt
Disney’s “The Great Mouse Detective."
• Long Commercials — For some
reason Hollywood wants to help sell the
Air Force and the space program to
American youth, so they have made two
long commercials. “Space Camp” has a
group of kids trapped aboard the space
shuttle during an accidential launch.
Considering the NASA’s recent prob
lems, they need all the help they can get.
“Top Gun,” a movie about the glam
ourous life of an Air Force pilot,
should have rec ruiting officers in the
lobby instead of popcorn salesmen.
• Stallone/Schwarzenegger —
Each summer moviegoers are ex
posed to a disease more frightful
than a mumps epidemic in a giraffe
herd. Each summer two big guys
with lots of muscles and guns decide
to release two hours of film showing
them shooting, chopping, hacking,
whacking, slashing, hashing, crush
ing, cracking, crunching and break
ing members of the Screen Actors
Guild who don’t have anything better
to do. I can deal with the violence in
these movies. But when Sly Stallone
and Arnold Schwarzenegger start
talking, my stomach churns and I
have to run from the theater. How
two illiterate slobs make so much
money is beyond me. Since Schwar
zenegger is from Austria he has an
excuse for his mumblings. Stallone
must have been hit in the head too
many times while making the
“Rocky” movies.
For those of you who haven’t
heard of these movies, “Cobra” has
Stallone killing people, while “Raw
Deal” has Schwarzenegger killing
people. It is rumored that next sum
mer Stallone and Schwarzenegger
plan to expand their acting abilities
by making a movie together. “Cobra
2 — Raw Deal 0” should be in the
theaters sometime next May.
There is one good thing about this
summer’s movies: they may cause
some people to start reading again.
KmtI Pallmeyer is a senior Journa
lism major and a columnist for The
Battalion.
TEXAS CRUDE REACHES A NEW LOW