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Page 2/The Battalion/Thursday, December 22, 1987
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The Battalion
(USPS 045 360)
Member of
Texas Press Association
Southwest Journalism Conference
The Battalion Editorial Board
Loren Steffy, Editor.
Marybeth Rohsner, Managing Editor
Mike Sullivan, Opinion Page Editor
Jens Koepke, City Editor
Jeanne Isenberg, Sue Krenek, News Editors
Homer Jacobs, Sports Editor
Tom Ownbey, Photo Editor
Editorial Policy
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ated as a community service to T exas A&M and Bryan-College Sta
tion.
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of Texas A&M administrators, faculty or the Board of Regents.
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in reporting, editing and photography classes within the Depart
ment of Journalism.
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A real drag
Some people enjoy bringing their work home with them. But like
it or not, Chicago-based USG Acoustical Products is now requiring its
employees to abide by company policy even in the privacy of their
own homes.
About 2,000 USG employees at nine plants, including one in
Corsicana, have been told by the company that if they don’t surren
der their right to smoke in the privacy of their own homes, they will
have to give up their privilege to work for the company.
Not only does USG’s no-smoking policy ignore employee’s right
to privacy, if it goes unchallenged it could set a dangerous precedent
of employer control outside the workplace.
USG says its new “quit-smoking-or-quit” policy, which won’t ap
ply at the corporate headquarters in Chicago, has been adopted in
hopes of cutting down on health problems of its employees and
health-related absences from work. It’s unclear, however, whether
the company’s concern is for the health of its employees or the effi
ciency of its operations.
The company obviously hasn’t considered the impact on the
physical and mental health of the employees who are fired as a result
of the new policy. It’s given employees who smoke one week to quit.
But if the company’s concern for the health of its employees is
genuine, its tactics are genuinely stupid.
By dictating personal values, the company is infringing on the
basic rights of its employees — telling them what they can and can’t
do with their lives on their own time. The company’s desire to in
crease its productivity should not override employees’ basic rights.
Employees, though they may be a valuable resource, are not
commodities over which the company has absolute control. No
smoking ordinances in the work place are one thing, but extending
them to the home is quite another.
While we don’t condone smoking, people do have a right to their
bad habits, as long as they are legal. USG’s new policy does more
than force workers to take care of themselves, it could unleash
stricter employer controls in the future.
If USG successfully implements its new smoking policy, a threat
ening precedent will be set. The very people who favor this sort of
“health” policy may themselves be haunted by it in the future when
companies begin dictating policy concerning other personal rights as
religion, sexual relations, political affiliation and a host of other
areas that are now — and we hope always will be — left to individual
preference.
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KARZ- SPENCE
THE U/TTTftUON
Not everyone likes King
non ii ni
ting, sn
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the ow
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for tin
school
ending
Monday was the
day set aside to
honor Dr. Martin
Luther K i n g J r.
Although King’s
real birthday was
Friday, an official
holiday was held
Monday in King’s
name. It seems to
be the mark of a
great man to have
his birthday cele-
Some people were not too happy about
being asked to honor King’s memory.
On several occasions, I heard people say
they refused to take a holiday on King’s
birthday. I never realized racism was so
strong that people don’t want to miss a
day of work because the day honors a
black man who tried to make things bet
ter for blacks and whites as well.
Karl
Pallmeyer
Despite all King tried to do, racism is
alive and well in America.
out am
i < > end a| >.i 111 ick 1 m South \i: I or ‘ l 1
f rom racism. The governmentv M
we si t< uih 1 m >t impcisc run A
lions "ii Sin 1111 \ t in ,i Itci ,um #»#
make the country t ipe foraconJH
takeover. Large corporationstniH
ings in South Africa claim wesh H
impose economic sanctions oi
Africa because our country nc
goods South Africa supulies.01
Tin
tion C
memo
said usualh .m .in .il in tin 1 .. Si X
brated on a day other than the one he
was born.
Monday also was Robert E. Lee’s ac
tual birthday. It’s ironic that the holiday
to honor a man who fought for equal
rights for blacks falls on the birthdate of
a man who fought for the right to keep
blacks enslaved. But when you consider
recent developments across the country,
it’s not surprising that the two events
have clashed.
Banks, government offices and public
schools were allowed to close Monday.
Some things aren’t worth
getting hysterical about
mm
mM
The only reso
lution I’ve made
for 1987 is to stop
worrying about all
the little things
that drive me
crazy.
I can handle the
big stuff. So what
if the president
has no idea what
the people in
charge of our na-
Lewis
Grizzard
tional security are doing. He’d probably
just get in the way if he did.
College athletes taking steroids? If
the Boz wants to turn green and look
like the Incredible Hulk, fine.
I can even deal with second-hand
smoke, as long as it’s not coming from
the roof of my house.
But that annoying, nagging everyday
stuff, that’s what boils me.
You know what I hate? I hate those
little plastic strings that hold tags on new
clothes — the ones with the t-shaped
ends to keep the tags fastened.
Ever try to get one of those things out
of a pair of tennis socks? It can’t be done
without an acetylene torch, which I
never have with me when I’m about to
play tennis.
But I have resolved to endure them
in 1987. I hate cute messages on tele
phone reorders, too. Why do people
think they have to be funny?
“Hi, this is Arnold. Heard the one
about the guy who walks up to a man
standing by a dog?
“Does your dog bite?” he asked the
man, who replies ‘No.’ So the guy
reaches down to pet the dog and the
dog takes two of his fingers clean off.
“‘I thought you said your dog doesn’t
bite,’ the first guy said. And the other
guy answers, ‘That’s not my dog.’
“Thought you’d like that one. Now at
the tone, please leave your, etc. etc.”
I don’t have time for silly jokes when
I try to reach somebody on the phone,
but I’m going to try to handle them in
1987 and stop leaving messages that say:
‘This is Carl Megenfuss at the IRS. Call
me immediately, or else.”
I’m not going to get mad anymore
when television newscasters joke with
one another and make “happy talk.”
I’m going to learn to handle it when I
switch through the channels with my re
mote control device and discover “The
Newlywed Game” is still on the air and
nobody has shot Bob Eubanks.
I’m not going to have a stroke when I
expressly tell the pizza place, “No an
chovies,” and 30 minutes later the pizza
arrives covered with those god-awful
little hairy things, whatever they are.
I’m not going to become livid with
rage anymore when I’m playing behind
a woman on the golf course and she
continues to attempt to hit the ball after
a dozen would-be strokes.
I am going to handle it when I drive
through a McDonald’s and order a ham-
burger and some 14-year-old asks,
“Would you like french fries with that?”
I simply will say, “No,” not “If I’d
wanted the bleeping fries I would have
asked for them, pimple-face.”
I’m not going to pull my phone out of
the wall anymore when I get compute
rized calls, lose control when somebody
steals my Sunday paper, or sulk and go
into the fetal postion when the water
pressure in the shower is lousy in the
hotel room for which I am paying $150
a day.
That’s me in 1987. Mr. Calm.
Women. Why don’t they have their
own damn golf courses.
Copyright 1986, Cowles Syndicate
Recently, the news has been filled
with several violent incidents traceable
to racism. In Howard Beach, New York,
a black man was killed when he was
chased out onto a highway by a group of
white men armed with baseball bats.
There have been other such incidents in
Howard Beach during the last few
years. At the University of Massachu
setts at Amherst there
was a race riot after the
last game of the World
Series.
Just last week, a
“Walk for Brother
hood” was met with ha
tred and violence as the
marchers — both black
and white — passed
through Forsyth
County, Georgia.
There are no blacks liv
ing in Forsyth County
because most of the
whites in that county
belong to the Ku Klux
Klan. Another march
through the county is
planned this weekend.
The marchers, a black
division of the Guard
ian Angels, the Ameri
can Civil Liberties
Union, state police and the Georgia Bu
reau of Investigation are preparing for
the reception the Klan has promised.
Racism is on the rise in the United
States. There have been other incidents
like the ones in Howard Beach, Am
herst and Forsyth County reported in
the papers and on television. And there
probably have been a lot of other inci
dents that haven’t received so much at
tention. Aside from incidents of vio
lence, racism rears its ugly head in other
ways.
Our country’s failure to do anything
d i
tliv I il.u ks in Sin 1111 \ 11 it ,t jiN, trui k
ad) i" govern 11 irmsi lxcv Siui.jiflonu
attitude doesn t make lot i'uo - s,t y ^ 1
polit v. ^. lu
gam/e
( >t ic "I tin t i mm uis i ,K ism ■
, , it is sc I
,n g so popul It .tiTim is iIkm • v An
current economic situation ami } orC( |
of unemployment. WhenitcomeH
astronomical amount of the n
debt, some pil
would prefer to 1
minot ities on*
than the goverc
lust to spend mol |
non-profitablep
like Star Wan
a : *3cji
fmaiF
wMmmm
over-inflated d
budget. When it
to the loss ofjobtl
people would ptl
blame minorities!
f i rmative actiorl
grams than their f
c o m petence I
workplace.
Racist attitiicl
damaging tostl
When a person f
see through colt'I
viewing a pro"
cause of that
will remain hiddl
problem can bes|
the true cause is ignored in fa' i j
readily available scapegoat.
King said he had a dream—J
of a time when all men would!
gether as brothers — a dream
when a man would be judgedonj
ter and not color. Many people 1
in King’s dream, but many more-l
The world needs to wake up
to make King’s dream a reality J
only way the world can survive.
Karl Pallmeyer is a journalist
uate and a col uni n ist for The Bar
Mail Call
Thanks to all
EDITOR:
I would like to thank the student body for attending Campus Crusadk
Christ’s lecture series featuring Josh McDowell.
I would like to personally thank Jay Muller for emceeing, Marty Holo
for leading yells, and Hans Meinardus, Steve Peck, Brent Boyd, MarkMq
and Paul Williams of the Ross Volunteers for escorting Josh. Thanks also
David Funk, the corps chaplain and Clay Pennington, a wing chaplain for!
being Josh’s drivers.
Lastly, thanks to the cadets who made up the saber arch that greeted)
at the airport: Steve Thomson, Mark Clark, David Preston, John Blasingq
Nathan Watson and Alan Talbert.
Josh really felt welcomed to our University and because of that, he has
grown to appreciate the spirit and unity we have in Aggieland.
Michael Cooper 87
Lecture Series Coordinator
Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 words in length. The editorial staff reserves the right totli
for style and length, but will make every effort to maintain the author’s intent. Each letter must be sip 1 1
micst include the classification, address and telephone nu mber of the writer.
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