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Three demonstrators shield their candles from the wind during a
celebration of the United Nations International Day of Peace. About
Photo by Tom Ownbey
35 people turned out at Rudder Tower Tuesday night for the dem
onstration, which was sponsored by the Texas A&M Baha’i Club.
Baha'i Club holds candlelight gathering
Vigil commemorates Peace Day
i Call
60-6295
1 Roses
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dozen
ifore Friday
By Lisa Maduro
Reporter
E About 35 people formed a human
jichain around Rudder Fountain
Tuesday night, culminating a cand
lelight vigil conducted by the Texas
A&M Baha’i Club in observance of
the United Nations International
J D. / )f Peace.
■ Roozbeh Taeed, a junior biology
Imajor and member of the Baha’i
Bub, said the event was intended to
| bring attention to the U.N.’s declara-
rtions of 1986 as the International
i Year of Peace and Sept. 16 as the In-
iternational Day of Peace.
■ Taeed added that the group
pvanted to draw attention to the idea
if that without world peace, civilization
| cannot endure.
The event is conducted annually
Iby the Baha’i Club. It included the
reading of religious and secular pas
sages, and the playing of both taped
and live music supporting the peace
movement.
Three participants read quota
tions from a variety of sources, in
cluding Martin Luther King Jr., Ma
hatma Gandhi, Erasmus, Dwight D.
Eisenhower, Albert Einstein, Victor
Hugo and Pope Paul VI.
Corrie Bergeson, a graduate stu
dent in educational technology, and
David Rhodes, a musician originally
from Houston, provided the live
music.
Bergeson said he wanted to par
ticipate in the vigil because he is a
strong believer in world peace.
A similar event held last year at
the Memorial Student Center was
co-sponsored by the League of
Women Voters and the Brazos Val
ley Peace Action. Some members of
the latter group also were present
Tuesday night.
Nan El Sayet, a member of Brazos
Valley Peace Action, said the Baha’i
Club wanted to organize the event
this year by itself.
The United Nations International
Day of Peace and Year of Peace were
established to increase world aware
ness of the need for peace.
The governing body for the Ba
ha’i faith, called Universal House of
Justice, is headquartered in Haifa,
Israel. Last year it issued a peace
statement to 200 heads of state, in
cluding President Reagan and U.N.
Secretary-General Javier Perez de
Cuellar.
The A&M Baha’i Club consists of
seven student and faculty members.
Saman Ahmadi, a junior electrical
p from 2:001
of Sbissa
engineering major, is the chairman
of the club.
Saman attended the Baha’i Inter
national Peace Conference held in
San Francisco in August. Ahmadi,
who was born in Iran but moved to
the United States eight years ago,
said that the intention of the vigil
was to promote the teachings of the
Baha’i faith and to discuss peace-re
lated issues.
Mary Greenblatt, a member of the
Baha’i governing assembly, said
there are about 40 Baha’i followers
in the College Station area.
The governing body of the Baha’i
faith, the National Spiritual Assem
bly of Baha’i, is elected annually by
representatives of each area with a
Baha’i community.
AUSTIN (AP) — House Speaker
Gib Lewis, the longtime key oppo
nent to a tax bill, conceded Tuesday
that it will take a tax increase during
the current special session to keep
the state from writing hot checks.
Lewis, D-Fort Worth, said he
would push for a temporary increase
in the sales tax. He predicted a tax
bill would win House approval, al
though opponents say they have the
votes to kill it.
“It’s not a question of whether we
will have one,” Lewis said. “I think
it’s a question of how much.”
The House Ways and Means
Committee will begin hearings on
taxes today. Chairman Stan
Schlueter has said the committee
would consider tax “concepts,” not
specific bills.
“I still say the vote in Ways and
Means is still 10-3 (against a tax
bill),” Schlueter, D-Killeen, said.
“The speaker is going to have to be
very persuasive . . .” he said. “I think
it’s going to be an uphill battle.”
Schlueter said if a tax bill proves
necessary, he would favor removing
exemptions to the sales tax, rather
than increasing the rate.
Lewis said the amount of increase
depends on the spending cuts being
negotiated by a House-Senate con
ference committee. Gov. Mark
White wants the state sales tax raised
from the current 4 1 /s percent to 5'A
percent, with the increase expiring
next September.
The Senate has been ready to ap
prove a tax hike for several weeks,
but Lewis has pushed a plan he said
could solve the state cash-flow prob
lem without higher taxes.
But the speaker acknowledged
Tuesday that not enough of his plan
will win legislative approval to avoid
a tax hike.
“I think at this point you’ll see us
fall short,” Lewis said.
Despite strong opposition now in
place, the House will approve a tax
hike, Lewis predicted.
“I don’t think anyone on this
House floor wants to see Texas write
a hot check,” he said. “We’re not
going to do that. We will pass some
budget enhancement proposals that
we feel will get us through the cur
rent biennium and prohibit any
checks to be written that will not be
good.”
Comptroller Bob Bullock, who
has projected a $2.8 billion state def
icit, said Tuesday that he is prepar
ing steps to avoid hot checks that
could be issued if lawmakers don’t
resolve the budget crunch.
oMPMii shjjtes urge U.S.
to increase effort
to free hostages
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BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) — Is-
amic Jihad urged the United
tales Tuesday to negotiate for
he release of three American
ostages in Lebanon as it did with
he Soviet Union for American
ewsman Nicholas Daniloff.
The Shiite Moslem group also
See related story, page 10
released a letter bearing the name
of hostage David Jacobsen, which
made a similar plea and warned
that the kidnappers might kill
their captives.
White House spokesman Larry
Speakes said in Washington that
idministration officials believe
acobsen apparently wrote the
etter but “there is good reason to
juestion whether it was freely
vritten and represents anything
Bore than the views of Mr. jacob-
en’s captors.”
The three-page letter was writ
er! in poor and often stilted En-
[lish, raising doubts that its origi-
lal author was the 55-year-old
acobsen, who was the adminis-
rator of the American University
ospital when he was kidnapped
st year.
Misspellings in the letter in
cluded the name of the Rev. Law-
jrence Martin Jenco, a hostage
ho was freed in July after being
field with Jacobsen and the oth-
J acobsen is one of six Ameri
cans now missing in Lebanon. Is
lamic Jihad says it holds three
American hostages and killed a
fourth. It is uncertain who car
ried out the kidnappings last
week of two other Americans.
Islamic Jihad’s latest commu
nique and the handwritten letter
were in a packet left outside a
Western news agency in Moslem
west Beirut. The packet also con
tained a Polaroid photograph of
Jacobsen in pajamas, almost iden
tical to one of him released with
an Islamic Jihad statement in Bei
rut last week.
“Why was Reagan interested
minute by minute with spy jour
nalist Daneloff but he is not inter
ested one minute in our story?”
asked the letter said to have been
handwritten by Jacobsen. Dani-
loffs name was misspelled.
In a separate, typewritten, Ar-
abic-language statement, Islamic
Jihad, or Islamic Holy War, said
the Reagan administration had
made “concessions in the Daniloff
case which provoked many ques
tion marks in the hostages’
minds.”
The three captives were “com
paring what the (U.S.) govern
ment did in the ‘Daniloff case
with what it is doing for them,”
the statement said.
Judge rejects proposal
to transfer 300 inmates
TYLER (AP) — A federal judge
Tuesday rejected a move by state
prison officials to transfer 300 low-
risk inmates to a National Guard ar
mory at Mineral Wells in order to
avoid early paroles.
Following a two-day hearing, U.S.
District Judge William Wayne Jus
tice extended for 10 days a tempo
rary order barring the Texas De
partment of Corrections from
transferring the inmates to Fort
Wolters.
After Justice issued his decision,
TDC Director Lane McCotter said
prison officials had no other choice
than to pursue the transfer and that
their chief concern was public safety.
“The options we came up with we
thought were outstanding options,”
McCotter said. “Fort Wolters houses
soldiers in Texas every weekend,
400 as a matter of fact. The facilities
are very adequate. It’s amazing to
me that they are not adequate for
prisoners, but they are plenty ad
equate for our soldiers.”
Last week, Gov. Mark White an
nounced the transfer in order to
keep the prison population within
95 percent of capacity.. According to
the Prison Management Act of 1983,
prisoners must be released when the
Texas prison system reaches 95 per
cent capacity — 38,825 inmates.
On Tuesday, the Texas prison
population stood at 38,259 inmates,
putting the system at 93.6 percent of
capacity, counting beds at Fort Wolt
ers and a Galveston prison hospital
and some planned beds at TDC’s
Wynne Unit.
“I think the judge is send
ing a message ... they are
going to have to provide
for permanent housing
for all these prisoners. ”
— Attorney General Jim
Mattox.
The latest figure represents the
first time the TDC system has been
below 94 percent capacity since
April 8, said prison spokesman
Charles Brown.
Carl Jeffries, TDC assistant direc
tor of classification, said Tuesday
that if the law had been imple
mented Monday, 244 inmates would
have been released.
Officials said Attorney General
Jim Mattox will have to decide
whether early releases will be nec
essary following Justice’s order.
“We are hopeful we can avoid
triggering early release,” Mattox
said. “He’s not letting us take the
easiest road to resolving this partic
ular problem. There are ways to re
solve it other than letting these peo
ple out early.
“I think the judge is sending a
message to the Legislature they are
going to have to provide for perma
nent housing for all these prison
ers.”
William Bennett Turner, an attor
ney for the inmates, had contended
Fort Wolters is unsuitable for use as
a prison because prisoners would be
denied educational and vocational
opportunities mandated by the
prison reform order, which was is
sued by justice in 1981.
Turner challenged state officials’
contentions that the crowding prob
lem constitutes an emergency.
“The only emergency is a political
emergency relating to Mark White’s
campaign,” Turner said. “There’s
no evidence that anybody will be
hurt by those releases.”
Justice’s decision also was greeted
warmly by a representative of Min
eral Wells. L.J. Barnell, an attorney
for the Wolters Industry Associa
tion, said area residents were gener
ally opposed to the idea of using the
armory for a prison.
“That is a chance that may have to
come, but the Legislature created
that, not the people of Mineral
Wells,” Barnell said. “And if they
were going to be dangers, I don’t
want them transported to Mineral
Wells.”
McCotter also said Tuesday that
an electronics plant located about a
mile from the camp had expressed
concern about security, especially
for women employees who leave
work at midnight.
Prison officials had agreed to send
a roving guard at the end of the
firm’s evening shift for additional se
curity, McCotter said.
Fort Wolters, about 50 miles west
of Fort Worth, was a training site for
U.S. Army helicopter crews during
the Vietnam War.
“I’m not talking about ‘no pay,’
but I am talking about ‘slow pay’ to
make sure the state has enough
money to pay its bills,” Bullock said.
The “slow-pay policy” could delay
city and MTA tax rebates, payments
to state retirement funds and local
school districts, he said.
A&M may
lose 4.6%
of funding
Agreement near
on state cuts
AUSTIN (AP) — House and
Senate negotiators said Tuesday
after a surprisingly amicable ses
sion they were near agreement on
1987 spending cuts of “some
thing over” $505 million that
would include a 9 percent cut in
higher education funding.
“I think we are almost there,”
said Sen. Grant Jones, D-Temple,
chief Senate negotiator on the 10
member conference committee.
Rep. James Rudd, D-Brown-
field, House chairman, said the 9
percent average cut in higher ed
ucation would mean only a 3.6
percent reduction in total operat
ing funds for the University of
Texas at Austin and 4.2 percent
overall for Texas A&M. Both
schools have additional sources of
income besides the state’s general
revenue spending.
Rudd agreed that House and
Senate differences over 1987
spending were the only major
roadblock remaining.
He estimated it would take
about two more days of dis
cussion on the higher education
cuts.
Rudd said that House and Sen
ate differences over 1987 spend
ing were the only major roadb
lock remaining.
Both Jones and Rudd agreed
that $505 million in cuts from
1987 appropriations was the
“middleground” for a possible
compromise.
Originally the House made
$739 million in cuts and the Sen
ate $413 million.
The House conferees made a
compromise proposal Tuesday
morning that Rudd said was 9
percent lower than the money
originally appropriated for state
colleges and universities.
Originally the House proposed
1987 budget cuts of 13 percent
for higher education.
The Senate made 2.5 percent
cuts in higher education funds.
Jones said, “We are looking at
that (the House compromise of
fer) and at the next meeting will
probably make our proposal,
something more than $505 mil
lion.”
Commenting bn the new
House offer, Rudd said,‘These
cuts average 4 percent (down)
from our original positions and
we think this is a fair and reasona
ble cut to take over the bien
nium.”
Overall spending reductions
for other schools would be simi
lar.
The House compromise offer
would make a $123 million re
duction in general revenue funds
in 1987 appropriations for gen
eral academic purposes, com
pared to $168.3 million in the
original House bill and $J03.8 in
the Senate bill.
A special $15 million fund
would be set up to cover expected
shortages resulting from in
creased tuition rates.
University of Texas System
medical schools would be re
duced $88.3 million. The Senate
wanted a $33.7 million reduction.
The House offer also would
make a $35.7 million or 8 percent
reduction in funds for public ju
nior colleges, compared to the
Senate’s 6 percent or $26.8 mil
lion.
The House offer was the first
time the 10-member conference
committee has discussed their dif
ferences on higher education
since this special session began
Sept. 8.