Page 2/The Battalion/Friday, October 17, 1986 Opinion The Battalion (USPS 045 360) Member of Texas Press Association Southwest Journalism Conference 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 The Battalion is a non-profit, self-supporting newspaper oper ated as a community service to Texas A&rM and Bryan-College Sta tion. Opinions expressed in The Battalion are those of the editorial hoard or the author, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Texas A&rM administrators, faculty or the Board of Regents. The Battalion also serves as a laboratory newspaper for students in reporting, editing and photography classes within the Depart ment of Journalism. The Battalion is published Monday through Friday during Texas A&:M regular semesters, except for holiday and examination periods. Mail subscriptions are $17.44 per semester, $34.62 per school year and $36.44 per full year. Advertising rates furnished on re quest. Our address: The Battalion, 216 Reed McDonald Building, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843. Second class postage paid at College Station, TX 77843. POSTMASTTR: bend address cnanges to The Battalion, 216 Reed McDonald, Texas A&rM University, College Station TX 77843. You still can go home again — well, sort of -S' Cathie Anderson The slow, steady kiss of the s u n cl r y i n g the laundry on the clothesline. Long walks to the gro cery store to get food so Momma could make her ma g i c on the kitchen stove. Sleepy days filled with nothing more than lounging in the shade of the two oaks and one mulberry tree that Daddy had cleverly thought to plant close to gether. Long, slow, sleepy days in the country — my memory is filled with these. How is it that days and scenes gone by always seem so glorious?After half a semester at school, all I can think about is back roads and river bayous. Henry David Thoreau, in 1845, built a cabin in the peace and tranquility of Walden Pond where he remained for two years, “living deep and sucking out all the marrow of life.” And though I’m no Thoreau, I can imagine why he would seek such a sim ple life. I ache for the country. Funny how I once hated it, and it couldn’t be too soon before I shook the dust of Sealy, Texas, off my boots. But now I’d gladly give up my Associated Press-Stylui«mniinr jinni'l ! ?»«n r mu f ,o MAR<&aies hgUjTpn R?»r l sch<> load uton tOM What do we say about Syria?, Richard Cohen The queen says Syria supplied the explosive with which a Jordanian attempted to blow an El A1 jumbo jet, not to metion his pregnant fiance, to kingdom come. The queen also says that Syria gave Nezar Hin- dawi $12,000, a ■— passport and trained him in the use of explosives. The queen says all this. Her first minister, though, says nothing. The queen, of course, is represented by the prosecutor in the trial of Hindawi in London. Her first (or prime) minister is Margaret Thatcher, the so-called Iron Lady who gave the Argentines a proper bashing over the •FnHdat.td* ■ and;- fights,, trade unions with equal fury. OtlTer than Ronald Reagan and the Israelis, no one is a more militant foe of terrorism — state-sponsored or.otherwise — than she. And yet the charges of Syria’s role in the attempted bombing of the El A1 jet have produced not a peep out of Thatcher. The government that was willing to lend its NATO airfields to the U.S. bombing of Libya continues to maintain diplomatic relations with Syria and accords it the same landing rights revoked from the Libyans because of their terrorist activities. Maybe this in consistency is yet another clever attempt to drive Moammar Gadhafi over the edge. The allegations concerning Syria came from Hindawi himself and con ceivably could be fabricated. But various Mail Call intelligence services, doing their own appraisals and investigations, have rea son to believe him and, besides, they come as no surprise to the experts Along with Iran and Libya, Svria is one of the countries mentioned when the term “state-sponsored terrorism" is used. That being the case, what stops the Thatcher government from treating Syria as it does Libya? In fact, what stops the United States from doing the same? The El A1 flight originated in New York and, had the bomb not been detected, the number of Americans killed would have far exceeded the ones lost in the bombing of West Berlin’s La Belle disco theque — the incident that triggered the April 16 bombing of Libya. For some time now, as Thatcher and Reagan have been yelling “Libya, Li- byiy; v - -the - Tmeiligencu' roiTmumitvhas- been whispering “Syria,* Syria. ,r By no means does this signify that Libya is in nocent of terrorist activity. But even at the time of the La Belle bombing, there were suggestions that Syria played a role — maybe just a supporting one, but a role nonetheless. To this day, some within the intelligence community con sider the La Belle bombing a joint Lv- bian-Syrian operation. Only one coun try was bombed, though. For the West, Syria represents put up or shut up time. Syria is no Libya, an oil- rich but-everything-else-poor sandbox of a nation that can be bombed with im punity. And Hafez Assad, the Syrian leader, is no mercurial megalomaniac, but a twinkly-eyed mass murderer in his own country. Syria is a formidable Mid dle East power, an ally of the Soviet Union, which supplies it with all sorts of u< ‘apons, including SS-21 missies I’It* of reaching Israeli population cei 'ms. i t j s h os t to terroristtrainingcani[ * n »t, j us t to complicate matters, itli ^ ‘con occasionally helpf ul to the Una States. If there is any chance ofgettiii |he American hostages out of Lebano 11 'vould have to be with ihecooperats °f Assad. But il terrorism is going to bede Ns 'th. then Syria has to be dealt with it 1 his does not necessarily mean a bon "'g since, to say the least, the Russc •Bight not approve and Assad might s P<>nd not by sulking in the desert, bv unleashing more terrorism. ltd mean, though, that elemental steps be taken — at the least expressionsoi dignation and, say, the revocation landing rights. Instead Britain does nothing.! W-esi j<-nxiUifc.iuostly..lupin and-uJ pei verselv, ocrnsinriallv praisesoVraj being a middle man with Arab exit ists, including those holding Amelia] hostages in Lebanon. As whenajuvei delinquent is made a hall monitor school, this is the cynical rewarding thuggery. The El A1 incident was an attempt mass murder and while the target! an airliner of a Syrian enemy,|n that is a mere technicality. The pa.« gets were noncombatants, innocent- most of them not Israelis anyway.In ligence services, not to mention the fendant himself, implicate Syria inbl aborted operation. They say ititaw the accused terrorist, supplied the* plosives, provided his funds andi® him a bogus passport. So saystheijtw What — for crying out loud —save Copyright 1986, Washington Post Wrilersfoy Reason for 'running' EDITOR: As participants in the Oct. 3 yell practice incident, we would like to clarify a few issues. Alex Mabry calls into doubt both the motivation and shrewdness of our actions. He depicts the motivation to get beaten with helmets and fists as selfish, the actual running on Kyle Field as disruptive and questions the necessity of the incidents. As for disrupting a University f unction. I hope people will consider the underlying reason w/ty stepping onto the field did cause such a conflict. The junior cadets would have contentedly continued their push-ups for the benefit of the spectators, had they not felt the desire to attack the group moving onto the field. The animosity and violence with which we were met was unmistakable to anyone present. This tradition of “enforcement,” not the validity of keeping people off t he field was the object of our demonstration. Mabry also questions our motive for running. He asks if we had the objective of ensuring that “future violators will be removed from the field more gently” or just to attract attention. Our response is: attract attention. Past “runners” had failed to do so, yet the Corps had (and has) shown their inability to enforce the tradition in a “gentle,” responsible manner. Without bringing attention to the fact, no changes in policy would ever occur. Regardless of the motives of anyone who “ran,” the actions of the Corps speak for themselves. Perhaps if the Corps is restrained and individuals ignored, the need or the will to enter the field will diminish. Personally, we hope it is not necessary for any individuals to sustain “civilian-cadet friction” in future yell prac tices. David Kohel Andy Vann Jeff Newberry Boycott RHAolloween EDITOR: I believe the Resident Hall Association’s decision not to sponsor trick-or-treating among the dorms this year is a big mistake. The dorms should have Halloween exactly the way they did last year — with or without the off icial blessings of the RH A. RHA’s alternative program at the Grove can never be argued as an equal substitution for the trick-or-treating, only a weak replacement which will have a far smaller turnout and will not be nearly as much fun. In response to the problem of cleaning up debris and trash around campus, I believe that RH A could partially fund the additional money (in cooperation with all the dorms to contribute also) to pay the University personnel for the extra clean up. RHA receives a sizeable amount of money each year, (in the neighborhood of $8,000), raised by RHA Casino Night through the hard work of more than 500 residents of dorms. This money is used for the support of RHA programs. The chief purpose of RHA programs should be to enhance dorm life for the residents and coordinate interaction among dorms. In reponse to the “alcohol problem,” it is clear that only a small percentage of the residents on campus are of legal age, therefore the ability for underclassmen to get liquor is much more difficult. How, then, could the residents who do get the alcohol be expected to be serving it so freely when it is so hard to get? I was a member of RHA for three years, was president of a dorm and co-chairman of Casino Night. I always thought that RH Alloween was one of the best programs going and all the residents of our dorm really looked f orward to it every year. This decision is a major mistake for RHA, but the people who stand to lose the most will be the residents — the very people RHA should be serving! More importantly — where will these people go when they can’t find anything fun to do on campus? The dorms should have Halloween (without the RHA in it) and boycott the Grove to show their disgust! James Gehan ’85 Graduate student RHAlloween not banned EDITOR: On Oct. 7 a letter was printed chastising the Residence Hall Association for altering the format of RHAlloween. It is important to know why we changed the program and why the Oct. 7 letter was inaccurate. The RHA modified RHAlloween for one reason — safety. In the past two years at RHAlloween, there were people arrested for assault and battery, numerous fights, one individual attempted to scale down Hart Hall, starting on the third floor. The damage and cleanup costs were enormous, and the time-honored traditionof handing out shots of alcohol instead of candy during trick-or- treating was well revered. RHA felt it would be highly unprofessional if we stuck with tit same format that caused so many problems two years in a row. Events over the past two I lalloweens made us aware that we were fostering an environment conducive to tragedy, and themerefact that one has yet to occurr does not guarantee one will not occur Also obvious is that all of our difficulties stem from alcohol. The program we are sponsoring this year will not only be safe j but more enjoyable. RHAlloween kicks off at the Grove on Oct! at 7 p.m. with yell practice for the SMU game. The Residence Hall Association has not banned trick-or- treating as the Oct. 7 letter stated, we simply are not sponsoringa massive one as we have done in previous years. T he author of the Oct. 7 letter also mistakenly noted thatoiii decision was made “without representation” of the residents.Firsi all on-campus residents are members of RHA; the author apparently has never exercised his membership. Second,eachlial has a president and delegates that serve directly on RHA’s genera I assembly who are kept informed. Furthermore, each hall president was specifically asked for input on the subject.Third, the author decided to go to The Battalion with his concerns,riot RHA. In the final analysis, we are extremely excited about this year! program, and are confident that all those who attend willhavelM best Halloween ever. David McDowell, RHA President Carla Carey, RHA Vice President So little EDITOR: In response to all the comments about our running on Kyle Field at midnight yell practice Oct. 3, I will simply paraphraseih man who said: Nevef have so few received so much attentionf# so many for so little. Chahriar Assad ’87 Letters to the editor should not exceed 3,00 words in length. J lie serves the right to edit letters for style'and length, but will make even ffc maintain the author’s intent. Each letter must be signed and must includeik (kation, address and telephone number of the writer. ,