Page 2/The Battalion/Wednesday, October 8, 1986
v
The Battalion
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Ken Sury, Sports Editor
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Contra-dictions
The upper echelon of Nicaragua’s Contra rebels — President
Reagan’s so-called “freedom fighters” — is arguing over whether the
military or civilian factions should have control of the movement’s
leadership. Congress should investigate the infighting further be
fore it releases $ 100 million in aid to bickering incompetents.
The Contras’ organizational problems stem from the formation
in July of the Council of Nicaraguan Commanders by the Nicara
guan Democratic Front (FDN), the largest of the rebel armies. Mili
tary officials claim the council is designed to improve the Contras’
military capability and not deter civilian leadership.
But civilian leaders claim the FDN is out to set up its own political
party to carry out military interests if and when the Sandinistas are
overthrown. Several civilian leaders have suggested leaving the
movement.
Civilians fear that the military arm of the Contras is unwilling to
share control of the anti-Sandinista movement. Alfonso Robelo, one
of the three members of the ruling directorate, says that the lead
ership rift is serious but not “a crisis.”
But the United States should not take Robelo’s — or any of the
rebels’ — word for it.
The Reagan administration, flaunting the “freedom fighter” eu
phemism, has poured money into the Nicaraguan resistance in the
name of its “better-dead-than-red” foreign policy.
Now Congress is on the verge of sending $100 million in aid to
the Contras. But until the disputes between Contra factions are re
solved, the United States cannot be certain its funds will go toward
routing communists instead of financing internal strife.
The Contras’ infantile squawking match destroys the group’s
purpose. Both factions are supposed to be working for a common
goal. If the Contras spend their time undermining their own leaders
instead of the government, Reagan should consider making some
other group his freedom fighters. -• ■
How can the rebels hope to toss out a government, let alone es
tablish a democracy, if they can’t decide who their leaders are? We
shouldn’t invest our money until we’re certain of the return.
Funeral bells don’t toll
for right-wing America
There have
been accusations
t hat I am a radical
conservative who
does nothing but
follow Lvndon La-
Rouche's hard po
litical line in at
tacking liberals,
women's t ights,
gavs and am other
minority groups
within range.
Mark Ude
I have been told that I believe democ-
racy comes out of the barrel of a gun
(not quite true) and women should be
kept barefoot and impregnated in the
kitchen. I also am perceived as living in
a “Leave it to Beaver” episode and was
compared to Adolf Hitler.
While I disclaim much of the above, I
would like to think I am fairly moderate
conservative. For many, that question is
moot. A conservative is automatically in
cluded in the ranks of the opposition,
the extremists who think that anyone
who isn't a John Birch Society member
should be shot.
I don’t hate gays personally, I proba
bly wouldn’t know one if I saw one.
That doesn’t mean I think the gay life
style is morally right, though. And while
I’m sure Daniel Ortega is a swell guy, I
dislike dictator’s, whether they be left or
right, and any undue suffering that they
cause.
I do not consider myself prejudiced
or racist, yet I still think it’s wrong for
minority groups to have their ethnic
identity in an organization’s title, when
they would scream bloody murder if
whites did the same.
While I am not a Ku Klux Klan mem
ber training Boy Scouts in secluded sur-
vivalist camps, I am definitely not a lib
eral.
I do take certain stands on various is
sues, but I do not always take far-right
views. I consider hunger and poverty a
important issue in today’s world, and I
have never taken a let-them-eat-cake at
titude toward the despondent. Nor have
I based my foreign policy attitudes only
on Soviet expansion or the “Domino
Theory.”
Believe it or not, I do have feelings
that are left of the political center.
There are times when I wonder just
who is right on certain issues. Unfortu
nately, truth is subjective, and facts are
not always truth.
But bottom truth is, not everybody
can win, no matter what the Marxists tell
you. The world has both winners and
losers, and you can’t have one without
the other. The matter of the fact is that
the strong are usually the winners and
the weak, the losers.
I’d like to think that in supporting
one option, the majority of participants
are winners, but that’s not always so. In
deciding between left or right, I con
sider myself more of a realist, and a cyn
ical one at that. There are too many bad
people out there for a nation to blindly
accept good intentions. Perhaps former
President Jimmy Carter’s worst fault
was his naivete.
In a letter to the editor this past sum
mer, I was addressed with a quote by
Henry Ward Beecher: “A conservative
young man has wound tip his life before
it was unreeled. We expect old men to
be conservative, but when a nation’s
young men are so, its funeral bell is al
ready rung.”
Are funeral bells ringing? I don’t
think so. In my beliefs and understand
ing, loosely stereotyped as conservative,
I would like to think of myself as practi
cal, instead of entering an age of early
senility.
Mark Ude is a senior geography major
and a columnist for The Battalion.
Opinion
m.i
IVi
PUBLIC
OPINION.
Tax reform offers little change
I
Richard Cohen
The American
revolution was
fought to the tune
of “Yankee Doo
dle Dandy.” The
revolutionaries of
France marched
on Paris f r o m
Marseilles singing
a song later known
as “The Marseillai
se.” The Russian
revolution
adopted “The Internationale,” but the
Tax Revolution of 1986, proclaimed
thus by Sen. Robert Packwood, R-Ore.,
and touted as a radical document,
should take as its anthem the old Peggy
Lee song “Is That All There Is?”
The answer. I'm afraid, is yes. For the
average taxpayer, the Great Reform
Measure of Maybe All Time, will mean a
savings of anywhere from $2.50 to $8 a
week — not enough to call home about,
although a letter might be affordable.
As a revolution, this one will benefit cer
tified public accountants and lobbyists:
The poor will remain poor, the rich will
become richer and the rest of us will pay
about what we did before.
The problem with the bill is not that it
is bad legislation, but that it has been
oversold. One way this was done was to
keep the projected savings in percent
age terms. Finis the poor, who will be
lopped off the rolls altogether, are said
to be the bill's major beneficiaries —
taxes reduced by as much as 22.3 per
cent. But unless their grocery store
takes percentages at the counter, the tax
bill will be no bonanza. The poor al
ready pay next to nothing in taxes and
even people earning between $10,000
and $20,000 a year will net a savings of
only $ 180.
As for the rich, they benefit from
bookkeeping by percentages. Their
windfall seems modest enough when
stated like that — 2.3 percent — but in
dollars, the story is different. On a
$200,000 income, someone who has not
availed himself of tax shelters could save
$2,856. No need to call collect.
Many of the changes in the tax bill are
worthwhile. For instance, it is both wise
and fair to eliminate most tax shelters
since they produced little that’s worth
while and nonproductively interfered in
the workings of the economy. It was also
a good idea to get the working poor off
the tax roles. Being poor is burden
enough. And it was about time that cor-
porations were made to pay their fail
“ share of taxes. Over the years, their con
tribution to the Treasury diminished to
the point where it was negligible.
But really, now, by what stretch of the
imagination can the bill be proclaimed
either radical or reformist? It is a well-
deserved purging of the tax code, but it
does nothing to ameliorate poverty or to
make the rich pay more in taxes than
they now do. It only deprives them of
some goodies (mostly tax shelters) —
and makes it up to them in reduced tax
rates. The affluent, it turns out, are the
deserving orphans of our society. In ex
change for tax shelters they did not de
serve, they get reduced tax rates that
they also do not deserve. We simply
can’t say no to them.
Someday people will ask how it was
possible that Congress and the presi
dent huffed and puffed over taxes for
so long and did not put a dent in the
federal deficit? How could they k
produced a tax bill that did notaddi
the most urgent fiscal problem fac
the country: the underfunding of
federal government and the$2tri!
debt? Of course, we know the answ
Ronald Reagan would not permittai
to be raised and ballooned
spending, and Congress lacked thegts
to buck him. If there were a urine its
for common sense, most of Congrts
would fail.
For Congress, the tax-reform bille
typical performance. The nationallegt
lature has become the functionaleqi
lent of an overindulged child. Mods
accomplishments are praised as
umphs; a hesitant first step is cheered
if it were a 100-yard dash. Ordinary Iff
islatton gets touted as revolutionary
intention is all that seems to matttr
Let’s make the Army close the bord
and stop all drugs from coming in,
in favor say “aye,” those opposed
“nay”: The ayes have it. The bordei
sealed and drugs are no more. Next
time machine.
By and large the tax-reform
good legislation. Its foremost achitt
ment is an attempt to restore a measti
of fairness, and thus confidence, ii
tax code by abolishing most taxsheta
But it says something both aboutO
gress and us that a bill that basically it
tains the status cpio is described as rtti
lutionary. Maybe only for the ride
that. • f ■
Abbe Emmanuel Joseph Sieves,de
asked what he did during the Freud
revolution, said, “ I survived. "Therid
looking at the tax bill, could give
ferent answer: They prospered.
Copyright 1986. Washington Post WritersCi®
Mail Call
Whole greater than parts
EDITOR:
Once upon a time the Aggie ring was a symbol of great
accomplishment. It was the final step before graduation
when a student became fully recognized as a part of the
“family” that Texas A&M students and alumni are a part
of. The Spirit of Aggieland has not diminished, but the
ring has.
I’ll never forget the feeling when I put my senior ring
on for the first time 13 months ago. I’ve worn my ring
every day since then, until the Southern Mississippi
football game, that is.
I was attending the game with my friends and getting
crazy because the Ags were doing so well. In the fourth
quarter I was shocked to discover that the A&M crest had
fallen off my ring and was nowhere in sight. The anger I
felt was incredible, to say the least.
Soon after receiving my ring I discovered that the
Aggie ring had originally been one solid piece, but several
years ago it was changed to a two-piece model. I’m sure
this was done to save the students’ money, and I applaud
the intention. Meanwhile, I paid $200-plus for a ring that
fell apart after one year. I hope my ring is the exception
and not the rule. Women need not worry because their
ring remains one piece.
Thanks to a good Ag, I did find my Aggie crest and
will have it fixed by a worthy jeweler soon.
Robert D. Wolter ’86
Where was Barton?
EDITOR:
We’ve read too much about the loopholes in the tax
reform bill for private jets, reindeer, Chicago and St. Louis
sports teams and Louisiana State University and the
University of Texas athletic programs to believe that the
goal of fairness in tax reform has been achieved by the new
bill. Perhaps we should be surprised, but we’re not.
What does surprise us is that the UT athletic program
got special tax breaks and Texas A&M didn’t. Wherewas
Joe Barton? Why didn’t our congressman demand the
same tax breaks for A&M that Austin’s congressman got
for UT ?
John Slaughter ’88
Dan Kaiser '88
Thanks to the yell leader
EDITOR:
We would like to take a minute to say thanks to Marty
Holmes, our head yell leader, for the outstantlingjobhe
has done so far this season.
There has been criticism among some students who
think he is being too harsh on the T welfth Man fornotfuil'
supporting the Aggie traditions. We think he isdoingjusi
the opposite. He has taken the initiative to uphold and
inform people of important Aggie traditions.
Being fifth-year seniors, we have witnessed how the
Howdy tradition has diminished in the past couple of
years, and Marty is trying to do something about it. Heis
not trying to get on a soapbox about Aggie traditions,he’s
simply trying to uphold these sacred ways, which many
people are thankful for. If he doesn’t remind us, noone
will, and the traditions could diminish year after year.
Being in the position of head yell leader, he will never
please everybody, but he is trying to make very positive
improvements, and we know his efforts and initiative will
pay off.
Keep up the good work and we’ll be followingyouall
the way to the Cotton Bowl!
Cliff Dugosh’86
Ann Cervenka ’86
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