Clean it up
For seven years toxic wastes have been an increasing prob
lem at the Brayton Fire Training School. The time has come for
everyone involved to accept their share of the blame and start
doing something about it.
Rather than quibble over whether the fire school qualifies as
a Superfund site, fire school and Texas Water Commission offi
cials should cooperate and determine the safest and surest way
to dispose of the waste.
Getting the school’s name off the Superfund list won’t help
cleanup efforts. Toxic wastes can’t be swept under the bu
reaucratic rug. If the school had not been named to the list, the
severity of the situation might have been underestimated.
The fire school risks making a bad situation catastrophic by
trying to remedy the waste problems with words rather than ac
tions. A vital water source, the Yegua aquifer, lies below the
school and, should it be contaminated, the damage may be irre
parable.
Texas A&M officials have been battered with both ends of
the stick from the water commission which can’t seem to decide
what it wants done with the toxic wastes at the school. First it says
bury them, now it says move them. One begins to wonder what it
wants done.
A&M deserves part of the blame for accepting what appears
to be a Trojan horse in the contaminated oil it received from va
rious Gulf Coast refineries. Further proof that there’s no such
thing as a free lunch.
The water commission is not blameless either. It has repeat
edly changed its instructions for proper disposal. But the time
for indecision is past.
It’s unfortunate that A&M was left holding the toxic oil
drum, but now the concern should be solving the problem, not
assessing blame. Water commission officals need to work with
the fire school in determining the most viable solution for waste
disposal — one that meets a/7 environmental standards.
The Battalion Editorial Board
Two-term limit repeal
effort means nothing
The television
news in particular
has taken to invit-
ing people se
riously to weigh
the possibility that,
in deference to the
popularity of Ron
ald Reagan, a con
stitutional amend-
m e n t will be William F.
passed repealing Buckley Jr.
the amendment iaBaaaaiHHa ^^^ HBaBaBaB
that limits a president to two terms.
Concerning all of which, a few obser
vations:
1. The 22nd Amendment was a reac
tion to Franklin Delano Roosevelt in
three parts. There was to begin with the
sentiment to continue the tradition of a
president’s retiring after two terms.
Then there was the reaction that fol
lowed the news that gradually leaked
out about the semi-invalid we elected
for a fourth term.
The show put on by FDR and his doc
tors during the 1944 was one of the
great deceptions in American history. It
transpired that well before he accepted
renomination, FDR had been told by his
doctors that he should limit his work
load to two or three hours a day. There
are those who wish he had limited his
workload to zero hours per day going
back to 1933, and that is the third el
ement that contributed to the passage of
the 22nd Amendment: the anti-Roose
velt sentiment.
The amendment passed a Democratic
Congress in March 1947 and was rati
fied by the 32nd state in February 1951,
the speed a little grudging, but suggest
ing a reflective resolution, by the peo
ple, that the unwritten code of two
terms should be explicitly reinstated.
2. The ironv lies in the partisan shift
in sentiment. Although the call to repeal
lie 22nd Amendment is anything but a
national issue, it is obvious that were it
to become one, the sentiment in favor
would be predominantly Republican,
the sentiment opposed predominantly
Democratic. This is in sharp contrast to
sentiment at the time of the amend
ment’s passage.
Elmer Davis, the populist intellectual
who ran several of FDR’s wartime pro
grams, denounced it as “an act of retro
active vindictiveness.” They couldn’t
beat him while he was alive, he said (or
words to the same effect), so kick him
around when he's dead. So, although
the issue is not national, in fact Rep.
Guy Vander Jagt, R-Mich., who was the
keynoter at the Republican National
Convention in Kansas Citv in 1976 that
turned Reagan down in favor of Gerald
Ford, has introduced legislation calling
for repeal.
3. Reagan, speaking in Texas two
weeks ago, clearly was being kittenish
with the crowd when he said, “One
more try?” The crowd roared for
Roosevelt at the convention in July 1944
that nominated him for a fourth term.
Now, if the repeal of the 22nd
Amendment were to become a serious
proposal, almost certainly the wording
of it would be as direct as that proposed
by Vander Jagt. It doesn’t take a lot of
language to repeal an amendment.
When the 22nd was passed, Congress
needed a sentence the effect of which
would he not to affront Harry Truman.
The 22ncl says that any president who
has served for more than two years in a
yerm to which another person was
elected, and has served a full term be
sides, can’t serve again. Truman became
president a few months after the re-
election of Roosevelt and would have
been prevented from the running again
in 1952 save for the phrase, “But this
Article shall not apply to any person
holding the office of President when
this Article was proposed by the Con
gress . . . .”
4. Reagan has indeed come out seve
ral times in favor of the proposition that
if the people want to elect a president
for three or more terms, that ought to
be their business. But he always has
been careful to say that this excludes
him.
Almost certainly he is sincere in say
ing so, but one step might be taken to
remove the proposed debate from parti
san contention, namely to write into the
legislation the reverse clause used for
Truman; i.e., a clause that would ex
clude any president in office at the time
the amendment was passed from run
ning for a third term. There will not be
a clean debate on the issue at all if it is
viewed as animated by a desire to draft
Reagan for a third term.
5. What would be best of all, in the
judgment of some, is a defeat of the
proposed repeal, whatever its language.
Against the proposition that a demo
cratic people should have the right to
continue whomsoever is in power for
whatever period they want is the repub
lican tradition of the citizen leader, the
Cincinnatus who lays down his plow to
serve and picks up his plow again, hav
ing served. If we do get into the business
of amending terms, we should go in the
direction of a single term (six years), a
reform an endless list of political think
ers, left and right, have endorsed, but
which has never taken flight.
What then is likeliest to happen?
Nothing.
Copyright 1986, Universal Press Syndicate
GLAb
/S CRACIOAJ4 VOOJH ON T>RUC,s/ IT'S
TlM£/ X MG’AN, A/QlSofry &JANTS
To Live in a couM-rfey foi-c or
i i 1
Wanted: U.S. ambassador,
no sentiment necessary
Jam
Texas
Sept. 1
sponsi
held v
half ye
Bor
chanc<
nounc
kisson
Ear;
Moble
chana
financ
appoii
matioi
gents.
S Adi
trate '
emph;
munit
relalic
Help wanted:
Black person (pre
ferably male) to
serve as U.S. am
bassador to South
Africa. Applicant
should be U.S. citi
zen, above the age
of 35. Republican
preferred. He (if
need be, she) must
support adminis
tration policy to
wards South Africa which always is
evolving yet, cleverly, always remaining
the same. Applicant must oppose any
punitive actions against the Pretoria re
gime on the stated, but never proven,
grounds that conditions for blacks in
South Africa are improving. We are
seeking someone special!
Person applying must not have crimi
nal record. He or she also should not
have had it business association with cor
rupt foreign political figures or be ac
cused of anti-union activities in the
South. It is preferred that applicant also
not be accused of having fronted for
whites in applications for Small Business
Administration loans.
Applicant should be familiar with ad
ministration policy regarding South Af
rica. Simply stated, it is that certain pre
cious minerals — diamonds, platinum
— take precedence over human rights.
If applicant is unfamiliar with such
thinking, he should consult the recent
remarks of Donald Regan, chief of staff
to the president of the United States,
who clarified this policy in a recent
background briefing for the press.
Applicant should also be familiar with
the statements of the above-mentioned
president, who while always articulating
his repugnance towards South Africa’s
racial policies nevertheless praises the
regime there for its “progress,” and who
in December 1984 said he had to dis
agree with Bishop Desmond Tutu “that
the situation has worsened.” Another
time the president told Walter Cronkite
Richard
Cohen
(1981) that South Africa had been a
World War II ally and asked if we could
“abandon a country that has stood be
side us in every war we've ever fought, a
country that is essential to the Free
World in its production of minerals we
all must have and so forth.”
Applicant should disregard the end
of that statement — the “and so forth”
— and the beginning, because much of
the pro-apartheid leadership was pro-
Nazi — and concentrate on the middle.
Applicant should note that the presi
dent thinks that abandoning the coun
try and abandoning the white regime
amounts to the same thing — even
though South Africa is overwhelmingly
black. Person applying also should be
aware that there is not the slightest rea
son to believe that a black-majority gov
ernment would refuse to sell precious
minerals to the West since that is pre
cisely what Angola does — and it is a
communist government.
Applicant should understand that he
or she would be enunciating a policy
that is vociferously opposed by most of
black Africa, not to mention the blacks
in the United States. Although he or she
should be free of charges that he (or
she) ever fronted for whites in a loan ap
plication, that is precisely the backround
the government is looking for. Appli
cant also should disregard administra
tion statements about affirmative action.
In other words, we are seeking a profes
sional.
Applicant should further understand
that the question of sanctions is no
longer one of pure economics. He
should appreciate that the blacks of
South Africa seek a moral statement
from the United States — one the appli
cant as ambassador should be unwilling
to provide. Applicant should, instead,
articulate fears that South Africa will
turn communist, that blacks may be in
capable of self-government and — most
important for the moment — that blacks
share responsibility with the govern
ment for the unrest and violence.
The person applying always should
reject a one-sided assessment of thti
alien: "1 think to put it that wav-
they were simply killed and thank
lence was coming simply from the
and-order side — ignores the facr
there was rioting going on in bef
others there.” (The president. )li
25, 1985.) Applicant should unders
that this is the definitive stateiM
the issue.
T©
sa:
I Royei
I try to
: H state \
m USA i
Ro;
: Monc:
Finally, applicant should be ajtte
of looking Bishop Tutu in theeveT-
out blinking. In the interest of nattB
security, applicant’s heart shouldB
closed to sentiment.
Please address application to
Donald Regan, the White House.&!
non-negotiable, but benefitsind
health care, a residence, (bullet-prol
car, huge staf f and a lawn statueof
coated houseboy holding a lantern !
U.S. government is an equal opp:
nity employer.
Copyright 1986. Washington Post Writers^
The Battalion
(USPS 045 360)
Member of
Texas Press Association
Sout Invest Journalism Conference
The Battalion Editorial Board
Michelle Powe, Editor
Kay Mallett, A fa tinging Editor
Loren Stef f y, Opinion Page Editor
Scott Sutherland, City Editor
Ken Sury, Sports Editor
Editorial Policy
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pet operated as a comnmnit) set vice to Texas.Wh
lit \ an-Collcffc Station.
Opinions expressed in The Battalion are f/wsfolc
Fditoi ial Board ot the author, and do not necessaiihie
t eseni the opinions ot Texas A&M administrators,tm
or the Board of Regents.
Hie Battalion also sel ves as a laborator\ ncuspapttl'iM
students in reporting, editing and photograph} dw b
within the Department of Join iiatistn.
I Ik* Battalion is published Tuesday throughhiAi
doting the Texas A&M summer semester, except forhdi
(tax and examination periods. Mail subscriptions v
Sib. 75 per semester. $55.25 pet school year andft
full yeat. Adx ertising t ales furnished on request.
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PC)S 1 MASI ER. Send address changes to The Bjiii
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