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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 22, 1986)
jr s \' f Page 2/The Battalion/Monday, September 22, 1986 Opinion The Battalion (USPS 045 360) Mc*mlx*i <>1 1 t*\as Press Association Southwest Journalism C ionf ci encc The Battalion Editorial Board Cathie Anderson. Editor Kirsten Dietz, Managing Editor Loren Steffy. Opinion Page Editor Frank Smith. City Editor Sue Krenek. News Editor Ken Sury. Sports Editor Editorial Policy I hr liiinulifni i> ;i non-pinlit. sfll-sn|)|>«»» tinjn ueuspapei oper ated a> a (oiniminitN servic e to l esas and Bi \ an-('.olle^e Sta tion. Opinions e\pies>ed in I hr Ihnmlitm are those of the cdilotial boat dot the author, aiul do not neieNsatih represent the opinions ol Texas .WrM administratm >. Iaeult\ oi the Boaid ol Regents. 1 hr liiiliiilhm also sel ves as a laboratory newspaper lot students in repotting, editing and photography classes witliin the Depatt- uieni ol Join natisni. I hr li.nt.ili<ni is published Monday through Friday during Texas A&M regulat setnestet s. except Tot holidav and examination pet iods. Mail subscriptions are SI7.-4-4 net semester. SB-4.B2 pet sc hool veai and pet lull yeai. Aclveitising rates Turnished on le- ciuest. Out address: Ihr Ihiltulion. 2 Hi Reed McDonald Building. Texas A&M L nivei sitv. (iollege Station. 1 \ 7784:1. Second c lass postage paid at (College Station. T\ 7784:1. POS IMAS I KR: Send addtess changes to Ihr Ihiiluliini. ‘2Hi Reed McDonald. Texas A&M L'niversitv. College Station T\ 7784.1. What 'compromise'? 'Texas House and Senate negotiators are calling the decision to hack (i percent of Texas A&M’s 1987 appropriations a “compromi-. se,” but the only thing being compromised by the agreement is higher education and, indirectly, the economic future of the state. The actual ef f ects of the cuts still are uncertain, but the confer ence committee’s decision, combined with the loss of raises for state employees, means A&M and other Texas colleges and universities will have to trim more fat than their lean budgets can spare — at a time when the state needs increased development of alternative in come sources. Cutting the budget by “only” 6 percent instead of the 13 percent called for last spring by Gov. Mark White or the 7.6 percent offered by A&M at the same time is a slight improvement. Instead of using a machete on higher education, state lawmakers have decided to use a meat cleaver. Texas’ financial f uture will continue to look grim unless the state finds sources other than the oil and natural gas industries on which to build its economy. Such development requires extensive help from the state’s institutions of higher learning. But with the reductions in state appropriations, colleges and uni versities will have to deal with the internal ramifications of the pre sent — larger classes, fewer courses, reduced resources — before they can concern themselves with the f uture of the state. In addition to Texas’ floundering economy, the cancellation of promised pay hikes, faculty lured out of state by other schools, in creasing insurance rates and the loss of sick leave for faculty who teach less than 12 months combine to make Texas colleges and uni versities an unpleasant picture not only for residents, but for those outside looking in, too. New faculty is not going to flock to such fal low feeding grounds. Texas has made a solid commitment to education through the Permanent University Fund and the Permanent School Fund, ensur ing that our educational coff ers will never run dry. Now that com mitment must be taken one step f urther. Getting the derailed Texas economy back on track isn’t going to be easy. The solution can be summed up with the maxim, “it takes money to make money.” If higher education isn’t given its share of the “take” now, there may not be anything left to “make” in the fu ture. Commando fashion for all-out drug war As a concerned patriotic citizen of the United States, I fully uphold President Rea gan’s anti-drug program. Drugs are demoralizing American society, and the scum of the earth that pro duce, distribute a n d use these mind-altering substances should face the full wrath of Reagan. Reagan’s goals are a drug-free work place, drug-free schools, treatment for users, expanded international cooper ation, stronger law enforcement and in creased public awareness. These are admirable, but they don’t get to the root of the problem. If Rea gan really wants to get rid of drugs, he must hit where it hurts most — the drug producers. The producers are primarily Central and South American countries. Peasant farmers, abetted by corrupt politicians, cultivate about 800,000 acres of coca in Peru, Bolivia, Colombia and Ecuador. The coca leaves are processed with ether, acetone and hydrochloric acid to refine the coca paste into cocaine. Then it’s shipped to the United States via re fueling and transshipping stops in Mex ico and the Bahamas. After many hours of pondering this perilous situation, I came up with a plan to help Reagan rid the country of this certain chemical destruction. In stead of spending billions of dollars on treatment and research, I propose hir ing a crack team of mercenaries to kill these drug mongers before they ruin the world. This may sound a little drastic, but the country could save billions of dol lars. I recently read Soldier of Fortune magazine and found that for $1,000 you can rent a hired killer to do away with anyone you want. For a mere $100,000 the administra tion could have 100 assassins trained to terminate with extreme prejudice. Just imagine what a hit team composed of “Rambo,” “Commando” and “Gung Ho” could do to a cocaine processing lab. A few grenade launchers here, an anti-ballistic missile or two there, and pretty soon you would have nothing to worry about. The hit squad would have to practice for a couple of weeks so that their at tacks could be performed with split-sec ond precision. They probably would start off with a 40-minute run to a ca dence of “Lean, Green, Fighting Machi ne” to get them back in boot camp shape. Of course no boot camp would be complete without matching “I’d Rather Be Killing Drug Pushers” T-shirts. These fine quality shirts would unify the men around the cause, giving them a feeling of self-confidence so high that nothing short of jungle rot would stop them. However, when it comes time to hit the jungles, the T-shirts would be tossed aside for full combat camouflage. This lightweight, rugged and full) re inforced outfit would allow for a quick kill without the risk of being seen. For those nighttime excursions no mercenary would be caught dead with out a pair of see-in-the-dark binoculars or a commando glow-in-the-dark watch. Another must for the chic mercenary is the survival knife complete with small fishing harpoon, can and bottle opener, compass, morse code list, matches and signal mirror. If the patriotic urge to support this armed force strikes you then fear not. Just because you can’t tote a submachine gun or hurl a grenade 50 yards doesn’t mean that you can’t make a tax deduct ible donation to help end this drug men ace. Through the efforts of these brave, valiant men the nation would be saved from this terrible scourge, and federal workers would not have their civil rights violated by taking drug tests because there would be no drugs. The country could return to a period of normality re sembling the 1950s. I wonder if Reagan ever reads Soldier of Fortune. . . . Craig Renfro is a senior journalism major and a columnist for The Battal ion. Craig Renfro gration xas A&N Dallas a i v4:i warne Tliassivt' |> injugration I ih| st il e attit ition off 0i aliens r ^d permai Ilf passec lation \voul( iorearlv ne\ ■Ami'ii” < Huld mnk< etc I H-l it levs a forei Hd attend > ■In ^Billed the in a wide v Bilt the pt Rehnquist not a ‘mensch Maybe the su preme gift of Yid dish to the English language is the word “mensch.” Its literal mean ing, as in German from whence it came, is “person.” But in Yiddish it reaches for the es sence of that per son — his charac ter. A “mensch” is someone to emulate, a person of consequence whose charac ter is both rare and undisputed. The question that faced the U. S. Senate last week can best be stated in Yiddish: Is William Rehnquist a “mensch?” He certainly ought to be. As chief jus tice, he will not only be the leader of the high court but will come to personify justice itself . By his words and actions, he will tell the aggrieved whether Amer ican justice will grant them a fair, impar tial hearing or whether the system will — in some way that thev can sense — be closed to them. There are abundant reasons to ques tion William Rehnquist’s character, and the restrictive covenants barring the sale of two of his homes to blacks or Jews is one of them. T he covenants were legally meaningless, but they remain troubling because they go to the heart of the ques tion about Rehnquist : What sort of man is he? What do the covenants say about his sensitivity — about his willingness to tolerate in his own deeds artifacts of anti-Semitism and racism? Is this the sort of man we want to be the nation’s supreme judicial of ficer? Despite what some senators say, this is not a question having to do with ideol ogy or with a specific school of legal thought, such as strict constructionism. There is no better way to understand that distinction than to compare Rehn quist to the man who nominated him — President Reagan. In Reagan, the American people feel they have a man of fairness, one whose ideology is pro nounced but so, too, is his lack of an imus. Agree or disagree with the presi dent, it’s difficult to argue that he is a petty man, irrevocably anchored in a cold and inhospitable mentality. Ronald Reagan would have been appalled by a restrictive covenant and would not have failed to have it expunged. His charac ter is manifest. Not so Rehnquist. His failure to deal with the odious covenants are not iso lated episodes, but part of a pattern. For instance, he helped challenge the voting qualifications of Arizona blacks and Tlis- panics. He was entitled to do so. But even if he did not personally harass po tential voters, as witnesses allege, what sort of man would become involved in an effort to deny the ballot to any Amer ican citizen? There is an unspoken con tempt in Rehnquist’s activities, an un voiced reproach to those among the poor and the marginally literate who would seek to exercise their f ranchise. The same holds for women. Rehnqu ist’s position on the Equal Rights Amendment, set out in a memo to the Nixon White House, is now as moot as the FRA itself and, besides, a common and — as it turned out — prevailing point of view. But in that same memo, Rehnquist waxed Victorian: Women, by virtue of their sex, are not quite the equal of men and, in marriage, clearly subordinate. Mail Call Rehnquist wrote that if a hy;.| “decides to move from Boston Ml cage to take a different job. thevl legally obligated to accompany him I In most families, this would Ik air j| for discussion, not fiat, the notioniH that a wife is not chattel buialieei i maybe with a job and preferencesi)‘!i own. The case against Rehnquist is of law or ideologv, but of fairness.™ ception and, ultimately, of chai^K More often than anyone would it ■ account of events have Iteen cocl dieted by others and his legal ethics been challenged bv scholars whose J dentials are unquestioned. HisfaiktB expunge the i >. hisactiw® .ii Arizona poll watcher, his(|iiaiii!iK® of women as furniture — theultel peak a man whose antipathies art as™ vere as the ideologv that juslifiesii 1 The importance of the .Suptflj Court is unquestioned and so, ■ should be the character of its chief™ tice. You could not reasonably« that Rehnquist is a rogue. Bui4 partisan dukes are put down, unit® could you say that he is the sort of it™ evoked by the word “mensch." For many Americans, espenallytlr 1 who need the courts most, Rehmyitt I record and demeanor suggest som# i who, legal issues aside, will beintej* I hie to them and their grievances-" 1 would not be, in a symbolic sense,tl* I chief justice. To them, thecovehanliijl it all. In seeking justice from the Ret I quist court, minorities and womeninl not apply. Copyright Post MVi/crsC^K Keep up the good sports EDITOR: I am writing this letter in response to some Louisiana State University fans my friends and I came upon after we were outscored at the football game last weekend in Baton Rouge. As we were walking out of the stadium to my car, some T iger fans were loudly chanting, “Go to hell Aggies, go to hell. Stupid, stupid Aggies, you should never have come here in the first place.” Try as we might, my friends and I did not have much luck keeping our mouths closed after about five minutes of this verbal abuse. These fans were showing extremely poor sportsmanship. Of all the football games, I can honestly say that Aggies in both victory and in defeat are never that publicly obnoxious. Nearly all of us Ags are guilty of saying rude, distateful things among ourselves about our opponents, whoever they may be. But the worst I have ever heard in public from a bragging Aggie is a hiss or a “whoop.” Hearing those LSU Tigers being so obnoxious made me realize the importance of being part of a university whose fans show good, clean sportsmanship. Ags — let’s keep it that way. Missy Palmer ’89 Excesses and excuses EDITOR: Last night, while stitch ing in the Sterling C. Evans Library, I started to think about the recent budget problems at Texas A&M. I was in one of the arctic regions of the third floor, wondering where I was going to come up with $90 to pav my last utility bill, when I decided to find out how much it costs to keep the library at sub-zero temperatures. 1 couldn’t find a building bv building breakdown of the utility costs at A&M, but I did discover that last year this school paid more than S3G million for utilities alone. T hat’s right, $80,000,()()() — about 1 0,000 dollars per student. I couldn’t believe it. Finally it sunk in. It’s more important to keep the library in a deep freeze than it is to show fiscal restraint, cut maybe $ 10 million or $20 million out of the utilities budget and spend that money on sensible things, sucfil teaching assistants and professors. Let’s face it, my tuition for the spring, summerandfal combined came to $ 1,184. Subtract $ 1,000 dollars for utilities, and that leaves $ 184 for my education. I don’t see any “budget crisis” at t bis school. All 1 see are massive excesses and even bigger excuses. What 1 don see are concerned people working together to cut the budget where it won’t affect the quality of educational A&M. Donald R. Anderson ’87 Wake up EDITOR: Wake up to the beautiful truth that there is a God anil we are not him. Stop considering life to come from yourself, for if that were true, you would have life and ^ would not be trying to find it. Stop living on momentary thrills or the feeling that you can make yourself into somebody, because these things lead to death. God showed his love to the world by sending his son, | Jesus. Jesus, in obedience to God, revealed this love tons While we were going our own way, he died for us so that we would no longer live for ourselves but for the one who loved us. Jesus broke the power that sin has over us. Cling to, trust in and rely on Jesus and you can have eternal lift Remember, Jesus is the lord of lords and the kingof kings, and when you rebel against the king you will be punished. John Austin Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 words in length. Theediu ,l '| staf f reserves the right to edit letters for style and length, hut w'illn ,a j every effort to maintain the author's intent. Each letter must besifPj and must include the address and telephone number of the writer. J Col toe By ( Col leg will hegii tom Dam, hoping r champioi Col leg, dents sp< lion of ( t io n a 1 tournami tions on events, lit tertaimm j “The c (]tii/ shot 0’Roui kt Bowl. Fe reg Sal SCRIP! 43 Post i