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
Too little, too late?
Following the lead of Great Britain, the Reagan administration
recalled the U.S. ambassador to Syria in protest of that country’s sup
port of terrorism. The recall is the kind of international cooperation
needed to combat terrorism effectively, but it’s a move we should
have initiated months ago, not executed on the coattails of an ally.
Syria’s involvement in terrorism has been painfully evident for
years. A 1981 assassination attempt on the pope, the bombing of the
U.S. Embassy in Beirut in 1983, the bombing of the La Belle discothe
que in West Berlin April 5, and an April 17 attempt to blow up an El
A1 jetliner by planting a bomb on a pregnant woman all have been
linked to Syria in some way.
The Reagan administration bombed Libya in response to the La
Belle incident — even before all the intelligence reports were in —
but allowed Syria to go unscathed.
The administration’s reluctance to get tough with Syria is under
standable — the Mideast country presents a diplomatic dilemma for
the United States. While Syria is one of the driving forces behind
anti-American terrorism, it is also one of the few stable channels for
negotiating the release of the American hostages in Beirut.
Withdrawing our ambassador is the next best thing to cutting off
diplomatic relations, which can’t be done without damaging the hos
tages’ release. The coordinated withdrawal of diplomatic emissaries
by Great Britain, Canada and the United States will send Syria a long-
overdue message.
But the administration’s actions may be perceived as too little, too
late. Syria, instead of getting a message that the United States will
support a country that fans the flames of terrorism, will see the U.S.
action as mimicking Great Britain’s.
The action is an encouraging show of international coordination
in dealing with terrorism. But the United States shouldn’t have taken
so long in retaliating against Syria for the La Belle bombing. True,
Syria is a sometime-friend in the Mideast, but with friends like
these. . . .
Myths about yesteryear twist
facts about teen-age births
Ask the average
American if there
is an epidemic of
births to teen-ag
ers in this country
and the answer
probably will be
yes. Ask if things
are getting worse,
and the answer
again will be yes.
Ask if things were
once better and
Richard Cohen
the answer still will be yes, and if you ask
w r hen that was, you will be told “in the
past.” Kids then had values.
Learning to survive
without an I.D. card
So, to paraphrase the introduction to
the old “Lone Ranger” show, return
with me to those not-so-thrilling days of
yesteryear, say 1957. That was smack in
the middle of the Eisenhower era, when
every good boy delivered papers and no
good girl delivered babies. There was
prayer in the schools, patriotism in the
community and fins on cars. Those
were the days.
Darrell called
me on the phone.
Our group had
somehow been
chosen as the to
ken seniors for 50-
yard line, second
deck seats at the
Rice game. These
would be the best
seats this year, if
not for my entire
four years here.
Mark Ude
But it was not meant to be that easy.
Thursday night my I.D. vanished,
which really put me in a bind. I hadn’t
picked up my 1985-86 Aggieland or
looked at my meaningless midterm
grades, and I still needed to cash some
checks at the Memorial Student Center
main desk before the weekend.
Of course, it could have been worse. I
could have been on meal plan, which
means I would have starved over the
weekend since I had spent a good por
tion of my checking account and owed a
good bit more to my credit cards.
Luckily, being Mr. Resourceful, I had
hoarded my I.D.s from years past. I
cashed my checks and picked up my Ag
gieland and midterms. Everything was
hunky-dory until a sudden realization
hit — how was I to get into Kyle Field
Saturday?
I had heard the horror stories. The
place was guarded more closely than the
Berlin Wall. Lord forbid that you
should be caught passing an I.D.
through the fence or trying to get by
with a buddy’s. The powers-that-be
would lock you away in a room and
throw away the room.
But I had to get in — I had choice
seats. After 12-yard-line seats for the
Baylor game, and the bit of bloody luck
having Baylor fans in the seats immedi
ately in front of and behind me, the mi
nor inconvenience of an expired I.D.
was not going to prevent my enjoying a
good game. And most importantly,
there was THE MOB. That alone was
reason enough for my determination.
But on the chance that some good Ag
would return my student I.D., I was hes
itant about paying $8 for another one,
especially since I didn’t have any money.
So armed with last year’s student I.D.,
fee slip and ticket book in hand, I went
forth to the gate. I assumed that the fee
slip would prove that I am enrolled this
semester — and that I had paid all my
tuition and fees. And I assumed my
I.D., which had a picture that matched
my face and a Social Security number
that matched my ticket book, would
prove the tickets were mine. No prob
lem.
But also being Mr. Naive, I assumed
that would do it. When they asked for
my “current” I.D., I innocently at
tempted to explain that I had lost my
I.D. and it had not been found yet.
I would have gotten more response
from a brick wall. A supervisor, ob
viously numbed to students’ pleas an
d/or problems handed me a printed
sheet of pink paper, informing me of
the applicable rules and regulations
while suggesting that for only $7.50
more I could purchase a guest pass.
I couldn’t afford a new student I.D.,
so how was I to find enough spare
change to buy a guest pass?
I looked enviously at the numerous
ticket scalpers trying to attract custom
ers. Perhaps they would trade a student
50-yard liner for one with a guest pass.
But I decided against it. I mean, how of
ten does one get such seats, especially
for an important game?
Attempts to discover why the system
was so uncooperative had limited suc
cess. The Athletic Department passed
the buck and told me that the Southwest
Conference requires it for “reduced”
(hah!) ticket rates and that the Student
Senate ordained it and that one could
get another I.D. in minutes, so there. To
commit one line at the gate to those stu
dents with similar problems would be
too inconvenient and take too long for
both parties.
Come on, people! Inconvenient or
not, one still would get inside to enjoy
the game instead of harboring thoughts
of scaling the fence. If time is a prob
lem, the people who actually lost their
I.D.s could show up early, while the
one’s who forgot would at least have an
option to wait in line rather than trudge
all the way back home to find it.
In spite of these obstacles, I got inside
to see the game. And although I missed
our first field goal, THE MOB perfor
mance made up for it.
Now, if I told everybody how this am
azing miracle was achieved, then it
would be like mentioning that the men’s
senior ring is in two parts and that cop
ies of The Advocate are available in the
Sterling C. Evans Library. I would spoil
it for everyone. Besides, I still need to
get in for the TCU game.
Sorry. The Census Bureau says that
1957 was the peak year for teen-age
motherhood. Girls aged 15 to 19 had a
birth rate of 96 per 1,000. Broken down
by race, that amounted to 85 for white
women and 173 for women categorized
as “non-whites.” Every year since, the
rate has dropped. By 1985, the most re
cent year for which data are available,
the average for all women aged 15 to 19
was 51 per 1,000 — 42.5 for whites and
95.7 for blacks.
So then what accounts for the wide
spread perception that teen-agers have
gone from the Girl Scouts to Plato’s Re
treat? Well, for one thing, the rate of
births to single women is up. The figure
for 1957 was 15.8 per 1,000; in 1984 it
was 30.2. A fair assumption is that teen
agers who once got married because
they were pregnant now do not. Gone is
the desperate dash to a marriage mill
and nuptials witnessed by a shotgun. In
stead, more teen-agers are having ba
bies and remaining single, producing a
host of social problems that, through
welfare, become our expense. That
helps account for our concern.
But what about the widely held per
ception that the teen-agers of today are
sexually active and need a dose of 1950-
era vaues? That’s a harder question.
Clearly, the figures prove that a lot of
today’s conerned parents have become
retroactive teen-age virgins. Those 15-
to 19-year-olds who set a record back in
’57 are, it says here, having sex. That
hardly means, though, that today’s kids
are not and there is every indication
they are. The birth rate can Ik* held
down by a variety of factors, including
abortion, birth control, sex education or
postponing marriage.
If that’s the case, then more power to
birth control, sex education and — de
pending on your views — abortion.
Nevertheless, the effectiveness of these
programs often is denigrated by those
who say they encourage promiscuity. It
was precisely on those grounds that the
New York City school board recently
killed programs at nine high schools
where contracpetive devices or prescrip
tions for them were made available. “We
cannot . . . support clinics in any school
that provide abortion counseling and
the distribution of contraceptives that
may encourage sexual activity and
promiscuity among teen-agers,” said Dr.
Irene
ber.
[inpeluzzen, a
school-board r.
In effect. New York had passed>
amounts to the Teen-age MotkrJi
ervation Act. Unlike many govern
programs, this one will work.Seu
ac live teen-agers will not becomei
thev will become pregnant. Ne*!
like a lot of jurisdictions, niadr
choice. It hopes, maybe, that rets
sexuality itself will goawav-a<i
mvthical recollection of the
obscure government statistics >
otherwise.
The point, of course, is thattec
sexuality is not something that e
wished away. In the 1950s, it u
died in one way — prematurei
riages, shotgun or otherwise-am!
ten, premature divorcesas'
Married or not, teen-age girls*®
only having sex, they weregmujl
as well. Now, different econontkffi
cial circumstances have produced!'
ferent problem — single mi
and its awful consequences.Tilt
slant, though, is the cause of theft
lem — teen-age sexuality.
As
did our parents before
would prefer if teen-agers refi
f rom sex. It’s hard enoughforadit
handle, tougher for kids. Toootit
produces confusion, anxiety and,i
tably, pregnancy. But the waytoi)
with the problem is not just top
values, hut also to teach sexedm
and make birth control easilyaiai
1 he Gensus Bureaus statistics
that when we had the fornieiatill
the hitter we also had somethin?S|
awf ul lot of teen-age mothers.
Copyright 1986, Washington PoslWnB- 1 !
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They don’t taste bad but
For lunch to
day, I drank some
mannitol, ate
some propylene
oxides and then
Anthony S.
Casper
Guest Columnist
would just be a gooey mess. Pork sau
sage, without the processing, grinding
and texturing, would he just a mess of
pig guts and bones.
freshened my breath with some guar
and sorbitol before going to class. And
tonight, after my meal of sorbates, so
dium chlorides and nitrates, I plan to go
to the Dixie Ghicken to imbibe some sul
fites.
Look at the front of a can of beans or
a box of cereal. Notice all the nutritious
goodies in there? Now look at the back
— where the ingredients are listed. No
tice anything in the list that sounds ap
petizing enough to eat?
Sound interesting? Well, what I actu
ally had for lunch was a soda, an apple
and a stick of chewing gum and will
have some bread, cured meat and veg
gies for dinner. The Chicken, by the
way, will be serving me gallons of beer (I
hope). These are just some of the ingre
dients colliding in my intestinal tract.
Those lovely little additives are al
lowed to be there in various concentra-
Haven’t you ever wondered why the
green beans your mom served you dur
ing those wonderful holiday dinners
could last forever in a metal can on the
shelf — without being refrigerated or
frozen? How about those succulent
steaks we all know and love? Why are
they so tender and juicy? Do you really
want to know?
Every single bit of food we eat has
some sort of chemical or additive in it
that can, if you eat enough of it, have a
detrimental effect on your day, week,
month or possibly your whole life.
tions and are regulated by the Food and
Drug Administration. Most of the
checks made on our food are conducted
by the manufacturers themselves, only
occasionally does the over-burdened
FDA ever get to perform comprehen
sive checks of their own.
act wasn’t even considered nffil
until Upton Sinclair’s book “Tit
gle” caused such an uproar ovfl
people were actually eating dial i/
resentatives in Washington final 1
heed.
But even with these laws®
(Tood Manufacturing Practices I®
by responsible manufacturers, t'
control the amount of rodentw 1
sect fragments, worms and otto
allowed in food, were still necesf-
didn’t come into effect untiltl^
1972 Filth Guidelines werepassttl
These regulations, while wf
pletely comprehensive, arespec®
• Peanut butter can have in :
than two rodent hairs and? 1
fragments in S'/a ounces.
• Chocolate can have non#'
150 insect fragments inei
• F'ruit juices can have non#'
10 fly eggs per 8/2 ounces
But take heart -
unless you have ar
saf e for just about anyone to®
only ones who should watcW
elderly, infants under four#
and those on restricted diets.
By the way, the insec
Mark Ude is a senior geography major
and a columnist for The Battalion.
For example, processed cheese, with
out added emulsifiers and thickeners,
Our food laws, as important as they
are, didn’t come into existence until the
Food and Drug Act of 1906 and the
Meat Inspection Act of 1906. The meat
have any effect on you - f'
chologically.
Anthony S. Casper is a seniC
/ism major and photo editor ■■
Battalion.