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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
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boat dot the author, aiul do not neieNsatih represent the opinions
ol Texas .WrM administratm >. Iaeult\ oi the Boaid ol Regents.
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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
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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.
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43
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