i
Page 2/The Battalion/Monday, December 15,1986
Opinion
Christmas brings with it good, bad and ugly
I, Paula Vogrin, as
a new Battalion
columnist, do sol
emnly swear I will
be entertaining,
interesting and
amusing. I swear 1
will not write any
government com
mentaries, politi
cal criticisms or
guidelines for
United States na-
tional policy. Lastly, I will fight for
Paula
Vogrin
truth, justice and an “I love Texas
A&M” column from Karl Pallmeyer.
In comparison to the last task listed,
the rest should be a breeze.
Since the holidays are almost upon
us, I decided to begin my stint as a col
umnist with some observations about
the Christmas season.
Some things I dislike:
• The way shopping malls put up
Christmas decorations at Thanksgiving.
Who wants to deck the halls before De
cember?
The Salvation Army. Those guys
really know how to make you feel like
pond scum. They stand outside the
malls and grocery stores ringing their
bells at you when you walk by. You try
to act like your pockets are empty, but
when you’re walking into a mall or gro
cery store, it’s obvious you have money.
So, if you’re like me, you feel guilty for
having money, sheepishly donate a dol
lar, and go on your way.
• Flocked Christmas trees. Nothing
looks more out-of-place in a 72-degree
living room than a snow-covered
Christmas tree. But I suppose America
should be thankful. At least those pas
tel-colored Christmas trees so popular
during the 1970s have disappeared.
• Theme-decorated Christmas trees.
I’ve always thought Christmas trees
should be a kind of family statement.
My family’s Christmas tree represents
the entire history of the family. There
are ornaments my sisters and I made in
kindergarten and grade school, orna
ments we bought on trips to various
places around the United States and or
naments my parents had before they
were married. A tree decorated entirely
with red bows, gold balls and white
lights just doesn’t mean the same thing
as my family’s tree.
• Shopping-mall and department-
store Santas. It may have been neat to sit
on Santa’s lap when you were a little kid,
but take a look at the Santas today. Very
seldom do you find a rotund, red
nosed, jolly old man. Instead, look for a
young, beady-eyed, deviant who wanted
a cush Christmas job. I wouldn’t sit on
those laps for anything.
• Flashing lights of every color and
size decorating the outside of people’s
houses. I know some of these people
have good intentions, but come on.
There is a family living in my neighbor
hood in Dallas with a Christmas display
you would not believe. To begin with,
an illuminated, life-size, plastic nativity
scene complete with Jesus, Mary and Jo
seph graces their porch. Above the
scene, not quite on the roof of the
house, is a star made of a string of red
lights. The lights flash out of sync, so
the star is never completely lit. The
house is decorated with eight or 10
strings of different-colored, flashing
lights — not the kind that twinkle, but
the kind that flash on and off at once.
Lazy news media and Congress
deserve blame for Iran scandal
In his interview
with Time Mag
azine about the
current scandal in
volving diversion
of cash from Ira
nian arms sales to
the Nicaraguan
contras, the presi
dent put his finger
on something:
“The whole thing
boils down to a
supervised the program. Where was the
press? Asleep, that’s where.
Richard
Cohen
great irresponsibility on the part of the
press.” The president is right.
But not in the way he means. Enough
information is now known about the im
broglio to make Americans wonder
about the sanity of those who chastise
the press for bringing on this crisis. In
fact, given what we know, you, dear
reader, are entitled to fault us for being
asleep on the job.
Take the element of Israeli complic
ity: Twice, in the months before the en
tire arms operation was revealed, high
Israeli officials were asked here in
Washington about rumored Israeli ship
ments of arms to Iran. At breakfasts for
reporters, columnists and bureau chiefs,
the then-Israeli Prime Minister, Shimon
Peres and his defense minister, Yitzhak
Rabin, were asked to comment on those
reports. They coolly characterized them
as lies, although neither they nor any
one else could explain why those reports
persisted. The reason they did, we now
know, is because they were true. Simple
denials from Israeli officials seemed
more than enough to turn off all in
quiry. As with Saudi Arabian complicity
— also denied — the clues were there
for all to see and the press needed only
to connect the dots.
You may ask: Why did the mythologi
cal guard dog called the American press
not know, until the story broke in Leb
anon, that American arms were being
shipped to Iran? And why did we also
know nothing about the funding of the
Contras which entailed the cast of hun
dreds — everyone from the Sultan of
Brunei to American right-wingerswith
deep-pockets and fertile imaginations?
Consider this: Ship after ship arrived
in Iran. Planes took off from Israel. Nu
merous Americans were in on the se
cret. Arms dealers in the United States,
Iran and Israel were involved. So, too,
were Swiss bankers. Israeli and U.S. of
ficials knew and talked to one another.
The National Security Agency, which
monitors most of the world’s telephone
calls, must have known, too. People in
the White House not only knew, they
Or take the secret and possibly illegal
funding of the Contras: At a time when
the United States had suspended lethal
aid, the Contras were mysteriously in
posession of both arms and the means to
get them. Airplanes ferried supplies to
Honduras. Pilots were on the payroll.
Arms were being bought and ways in
vented to get them to the Contras. Who
was paying for all this? Where was the
money coming from? We now know.
But at the time, no one seemed to doubt
that some Americans — presumably
very rich people — were by themselves
funding a war. If true, it may have been
the first time in history.
When I say different colors, I mean
each string is a different color. They
have several trees in their front yard
garnished with the same diverse selec
tion of flashing lights. But only the
lower two or three branches are deco
rated. The grand finale to this extrava
ganza is a loudspeaker on the roof
which booms out Christmas carols. The
final result is something akin to a circus.
I always expect a bunch of clowns to
come running out the front door and
start juggling on the lawn.
On that note, it’s time for some things
I like about Christmas:
• Family gatherings. Families,
whether spread out over the country or
living under the same roof, experience a
special closeness at Christmas. There’s
less squabbling and more camraderie
within families and it seems easier to get
along with everyone.
• The holiday spirit. Everywhere you
go, people seem friendlier, kinder and
more concerned about other human be-
What’s true for the press is doubly
true for Congress. It seemed terminally
naive. Its suspicions never were
aroused. It, too, seemed not to wonder
where the Contra funds were coming
from. It, too, did not pause to consider
• Snow. Christmas in Hawaii or
Bahamas might be nice, but tom
white Christmas is still the idti|
Christmas. Waking up on Chrisfc
morning and looking out my window
find a blanket of snow over everythintij
one of my fondest Christmas memom
• Christmas carols. Most peopleoi
honestly say there isn’t a Christmas®K®y ^ an
they don’t like. Unlike Top 40, Ik
songs are perpetual favorites and ijl,
never go out ol fashion. films j
• Christmas dinner. On ChrisumlL,, Mike
day, houses are filled with the sawloLet up a
odor of turkey, goose or ham, potato^bdiscover
stuffing, cranberries and all thediikBlays he
you ate just a month ago atThanhf S* problem
ing. Usually, these dishes are as good F r! ! ' I "“'
l>etter the second time around. f 5 asl ""
• Midnight Mass. Since fmCathol)L UOIum \ s
I attend every year. Lots of otltln’t have i
churches offer midnight services,andfasour low
you ever get the chance to go, don’t
it up. Af terwards, you’ll feel likematii
it does make a difference that
fact is t
edicat<
iw attenc
ings.
Real Christmas trees. They might
be a fire hazard and a mess to clean up,
but real trees make the whole house
smell like Christmas.
2,000 years ago, a little boy wasbonn:
Ards show
| student
d, Sim
manger.
Paula Vogrin is a senior jourmlisl
major and a columnist for The Bara don’t exj
ion. He used t
Irhaul.
whether its own legislation was being vi
olated or, at least contravened. It sat
smug and beguiled as administration of
ficials briefed it on its latest version of
the truth, never suspecting for a mo
ment that it was being snookered. Even
when Eugene Hasenfus went down in
Nicaragua in October, there were few in
Congress who expected what Hasenfus
himself admitted — that he was, in some
way, part of the United States govern
ment operation. The snores from Con
gress drowned out this declaration of
truth.
In retrospect, the sorry record of the
press and Congress is startling. Presid-
net Reagan, after all, is a known com
modity. His anti-communism is not
some dark secret that he keeps in the
closet, but a resplendent article of his
ideological faith. His language gave
away his intentions. His characterization
of the Contras as “Freedom Fighters”
and his likening them to our founding
fathers bespoke a man who would not, if
hecould, let their cause go down the
drain. Just as Richard Nixon’s entire ca
reer foreshadowed the paranoia and
abuse of power that came to be called
Watergate, Reagan’s career pointed to
self-defined historical mandate to roll
back communism — no matter what.
In an opinion-editorial article in the
Washington Post this week, White
House communications director Patrick
Buchanan referred critically to the “ar
tillery of an adversary press” — a refer
ence to a phrase once used by James
Reston in a book title. Buchanan has a
point. The White House is under seige
and well it should be. But as for the
vaunted artillery of the press, it took its
time getting to this fight. For too long
our guns were spiked and our gunners
asleep.
Copyright 1986, Washington Post Writers
Group
Mail Call
Esjjays the |
|neu for [
-fcntf Govern!
8specified [
Aggie turned jerk
EDITOR:
As an off-campus Aggie late for class a few days ago, I opted to parkina
visitor lot. After driving through the crowded lot for about 15 minutes,!
spied an empty space.
Seeing no other cars near me, I put on my turn signal to claim myoasisiD
the parking-lot “desert.” Suddenly, a fellow Aggie sped around the comer
and stole the spot 1 had so clearly claimed just an instant before. After
expressing my displeasure to my fellow Aggie, it took me 10 more minutesto
park my car, making me hopelessly late for class.
If the fellow Aggie who so maliciously misappropriated my parkingspact
is reading this article, 1 hope he remembers the wise words of Joe Bob who
said, “It’s not good bull to take another Aggie’s parking space.”
Thomas Burton ’89
H m fssion
out if Stud
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hate speakc
K dian man
commission
deni Matt S
Hrman, Si
fl&ther sic
fipon will
H of the set
Common-sense solution?
EDITOR.
I read a couple of interesting articles in The Battalion Dec. lOaboutsex
education for teens. It appears some of our more noble experts in the field
got together and concocted a new “strategy” for stemming our nationwide
epidemic of teen-age pregnancies (Oops, did 1 say “epidemic?” I’m sorry,
apparently there is no epidemic, we are just a “different society”). Their
solution? Relax, Mom and Dad — Big Daddy’s got lots of money tobuyall
kinds of good toys for your kids to keep them from making a mistake.
I certainly don’t claim to be an expert on the sexual problems of
American teenagers, but I do claim to be fairly long on common sense.
Therefore, I dare to make a bold move and suggest the following solutiontc
the problem of teenage pregnancies in America: abstinence. Ifscheap,
requires no government intervention, lets children be children, preventsjji
and anxiety and makes sex in marriage a whole lot more fulfilling and
exciting. But then again, it would require parents to intervene in the persona!
affairs of their children.
Oh well — it was just an idea.
Mark Garrett ’84
Call him a politician
EDITOR:
Q: What would you call a politician who blames his opponent for
problems with the economy that weren’t his fault, breaks campaign promisti
and uses a seven-year-old photo for his campaign posters?
a. dishonest c. Bill Clements
b. conniving d. all of the above
Be sure to study this question carefully, because it will be on a quizeverv
day for the next four years.
Robert Dowdy
Rope $25
Come clean
EDITOR:
On Sept. 10, I was stopped for speeding on Anderson Road whiledriwni
a black Ford Escort EXP.
There was a car behind me — a yellow Monte Carlo. I got that car’s tickfl
The officer said I was going 46 mph; however, I was traveling nowhereneat
that speed and I believe he clocked the Monte Carlo.
I’ve been to municipal court, where the judge didn’t even listen tome,
and now I’ve got an appeal for Dec. 17.
I really need to talk to the driver of the Monte Carlo. Don’t worry,you’!
be in no jeopardy, but I think you owe me a little help. Please call meat 7W
3063.
40'
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Beinj
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Douglas McCord
Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 words in length. The editorial staff reserves the right lot®-"
for style and length, but will make every effort to maintain the author’s intent. Each letter must he.
must include the classification, tuhlress and telephone number of the writer.
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Homer Jacobs, Sports Editor
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