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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 27, 1987)
Page 2/The Battalion/Tuesday, January 27, 1987 ■I Opinion ‘Take no prisoners’ motto is better left for battlefield^ For years, Texas taxpayers have treated their prison system like the black sheep of state agencies. When police crackdown on crime, their ef forts are lauded. Loren Steffy When criminals get stiff prison ■■■ sentences, justice has been served. But once those two steel doors slam behind the newly con victed inmate, society’s attention turns to other matters. Now, however, the Texas Depart ment of Corrections has had to close its front doors and release some inmates early to ease overcrowding conditions in the prisons. The solution to the TDC’s lack of space is far too simple to be polit ically feasible — more tax dollars need to be alloted for the building of more prison facilities. But spending tax dollars on the prison system is not a way to win votes. Back when Bill Clements was governor the first time, he advocated housing prisoners in tents rather than allocating more money to the TDC. Later, after the stupidity behind the decision faded from voters’ memories, Clements used this canvas cellblock to his political ad vantage by claiming that it showed he didn’t believe in early releases. When it comes to the TDC, Texans adopt a Paul Masson morality — they don’t want to release any prisoner be fore it’s time. But we also don’t like pay ing to support the prisoners we already have. Unfortunately, the taxpayer ne glect of the prison system will end one way or another. If overcrowding condi tions aren’t remedied by March 31, Texas taxpayers will be shelling out $800,500 a day in contempt of court fines. They've got rocks in their heads I drove around Forsyth County the other morn ing, looking. I’m not sure for what, but all of a sudden, Forsyth County, 30 miles to the north of At lanta, is national news. That’s because a mostly black group, led by Atlanta City Councilman Hosea Williams, recently tried to hold a “brotherhood march” in the all-white county and a collection of fools, some of whom were wearing Ku Klux Klown outfits, threw rocks and bottles at the marchers. The networks broke their necks get ting reporters and cameramen on the scene. George Shultz, secretary of state, mentioned Forsyth County in the same breath with Howard Beach during his address in Atlanta commemorating the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Howard Beach is the New York com munity where racial violence, which in volved the death of a black man, erupted recently. I drove past country stores and white frame houses and over the rolling hills of Forsyth that give hint of the north Georgia mountains just up the road. I caught myself feeling sorry for the 99-plus percent of the county residents who wouldn’t throw a rock or bottle at most any living thing, much less a hu man being. But in Fond-du-Lac, Wis., Ypsilanti, Mich., Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and Holyke, Mass., they have heard of Forsyth County now and they have turned to one another and said, “Just like we thought. The South and its dumb, racist rednecks will never change.” We do have our past and that is our cross to bear, and that is why the spot light is always turned on us so brightly when such idiocy as the violence in For syth County breaks out. I wanted to puke when I saw the vi deo tapes of the melee. I wanted to grab one of the Ku Klux Klowns and explain what was happening. “You can’t win,” I wanted to say. “You throw your rocks and bottles and next week there will be more marchers and the week after that even more. “You are dealing with seasoned veter ans here. These people have been pelted before. They’ve been scorned and beaten and put in jail. “They have seen members of their numbers killed. They will never give up, they will keep coming back no matter what you do. They have beaten you be fore and they will beat you again. “Now, please, get back in your truck and go home and don’t embarass the rest of us any more.” To their credit, Forsyth county lead ers have condemned the violence and say they are committed to making cer tain there will be no further incidents. I pray they can deliver. Black people don’t want to move in droves to Forsyth County. They don’t want to burn anything, disrupt any body’s life, nor breakdance on the street corners as the county’s loony tunes might think. They just want to march to prove the point that, as Hosea Williams, former aide to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., said, “This isn’t South Africa. This is America.” “Forgit hell!” the Ku Klux Klowns may be saying. Hell, yes, do forget, is what I say. The war’s over. And reason won. Copyright 1986, Cowles Syndicate Lewis Grizzard 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 The Battalion is a non-profit, self-supporting newspaper oper ated as a community service to Texas A&M and Bryan-College Sta tion. Opinions expressed in The Battalion are those of the editorial board or the author, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Texas A&M 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, Department of Journalism, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-4 111. Second class postage paid at College Station, TX 77843. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Battalion, De partment of Journalism, Texas A&M University, College Station TX 77843-4111. Despite many taxpayers’ fears that the court-mandated prison reforms will turn incarceration into the equivalent of an all-expense-paid stay in a luxury ho tel, Texas prisons need cleaning up. The reforms won’t make prison enjoya ble, or even tolerable, but they will maintain what few rights the inmates re tain behind bars. the past — funding for new facilities, for upgrading existing facilities, for hir ing and training an adequate number of guards — is now having to be paid with interest. .tm fc While the purpose of prison is pun ishment, the prisoners are still people and, while they forfeit many rights granted other citizens, they don’t de serve to have basic human rights ig nored in the name of justice. Even Texas’ pet punishment, the death penalty, can’t help us out of this one. The TDC is getting more needles than ever before into condemned crimi nals’ veins, but it’s still a long and expen sive process for the state. If turnover on death row were tripled, it still would not clear beds fast enough to accommodate the influx of new prisoners. Instead of blaming the U.S. District Judge William Wayne Justice’s plan to return our prisons to a liveable level, Texans must realize that the reforms are necessary because of our past reluc tance to fund prison improvements. Yesterday’s prison policies are catch ing up with us today. The price we re fused to pay for TDC improvements in In the short term, we have a choice: Release inmates before they have served their sentences or pay monetarily for vi olating court requirements. In the long term, there’s still time to reverse our past neglect. In a new show of political expediency, Clements (this time around) has ear marked more money for prison facili ties. Perhaps we’ve realized that our cries for crackdown on crime meatif must be willing to pay for theincartd lion of offenders. Much as it may repulse usastaxpl ers, we’re going to have todigdet| into our shallow pockets and funduH prisons. After all, we want criminal!I be punished. Why should we pay to supportsorj The one who fails or refuses to confer:;ents a our laws? Because, through our de:iay lor cratic process, we choose the laws, : nstlLut should be worth it to us to enstirejM^j those who refuse to acknowledge laws are put where they can’t harr ’ rest of us. i h' If the violators of our demooLgj,,,,, rights aren’t duly punished, it wonT ol | )mi i long before democracy itself is viokt$ujda) “Take no prisoners” may bead Dr. matic motto for the battlefield, kipstific; the war against crime, it under;: |ect ' our judicial firepower. Loren Steffy is a journalism gracj5 clI * ar and editor forThe Battalion. system Dtechn III (> Preside vorahlc Board’ Mail Call And they're off! EDITOR. Each semester there is a race between the Police Beat, the suggestion board at the library, and the editorial page of The Battalion to see which is the most tedious and banal. (Although I must admit I get a stunned, dazed pleasure from reading them.) The editorial page got off to a flying start with Tuesday’s drivel by Loren Steffy. Administration, as well as all students of Texas A&M. Mr. Sullivan, if you are not proud to be an Aggie, “highwayfi 1 runs both ways.” Steve Murray class of ’89 Jeffrey Ditges class of ’89 Editor’s note: Opinion writing is not necessarily “inform- tivejournalism. ” Opinion merely offers personal commi on an issue, and though good opinion o ften informs in tlx process, it is not the specific purpose of the writer to do® In it, the author constructs an imaginary conversation, a frequent style for the columnists. This type of column is very easy to write and serves the author’s purpose well —to spread senseless fear and to avoid having to think or reason to draw conclusions. Muckrakers EDITOR: Steffy never explains how the development of the strategic defense initiative (SDI) will result in the abolition of colleges. He never explains why teaching is a career that benefits society while nuclear physics is simply a “job.” Finally, he implies that the Soviet Union, West Germany, and Japan will overtake the United States or the world because of their commitments to education. A discussion of these commitments would be far more convincing than the author’s silly scare tactics. Steffy’s points may be valid, however. All I’m saying is that he should be less lazy and present a reasoned discussion of his topic. How could I miss it? How could anyone miss it? In fact it is obvious that the primary objective of a headline on tk Jan. 22 front page of The Battalion was sensationalism. I was reading The Battalion looking specifically for what I found, but I expected more tact on such a sensitive issue. A friend of mine, out of town due to surgery, know Dr. Stephen Daniel of the philosophy department well anil wanted information on his kayaking accident. Am I expected to send her a clipping about her friend that screams, “A&M professor loses legs in tragic holiday accident”? Anyway, I realize I am taking this too seriously. With comic strips like Warped, The Battalion must get its laughs somehow. Ben Barnett Class of ’87 Enjoyed the movie Now is not the time to air my usual opinions and expectations of the quality of The Battalion, but from a newspaper whose letters and editorials inevitably argue moral and ethical issues or matters of principle, I someho» expected something slightly less indelicate. Christine Stephenson ’87 EDITOR: We are writing in response to the new teaching method being employed in the Management 211 class this semester. Since last Wednesday, all 211 classes have been taught on local cable. Wednesday’s Battalion column, entitled “Management 211: The Movie,” by Mike Sullivan, is the most disappointing article we have read in our two years at Texas A&M. The intelligent and discriminant reader is bombarded with the impudent pretentiousness conveyed in the mindless, garbled piece that Mr. Sullivan chooses to call informative journalism. Sex sells EDITOR: While attending the “Maximum Sex” lecture Tuesday night, I was impressed, if not persuaded, by the views presented by Josh McDowell. Even though I liked and enjoyed the lecture, I was disappointed with the overuse the word “sex” in his advertising campaign. During his lecture, Josh talked about how sex has become demoralized in our society, yet his ads seemed to demoralize sex. It seems a double standard exists. Being former 211 students, we feel that for two reasons, Mr. Sullivan was completely mistaken in implying that the new cable system will dramatically decrease student-professor interaction in class. First, in classes the size of 211, we feel student-professor interaction is naturally limited. Secondly, the new system, by freeing the professor from redundant lectures, will allow for expanded office hours which students can use to acquire further explanation of class material. Therefore, we conclude that Mr. Sullivan’s argument is based on weak premises and thus is ridiculous in nature. Was it really necessary to go overboard by commercializing the word “sex”? Was his talk, deep down inside, really about “Maximum Sex”? I agree it dealt with sex, but didn’t he use sex to show how relationships are weak and could be improved? Didn’t his lecture really inform us about how relationships could and need to improve? Why, then, wasn’t his lecture titled “Maximum Relationship”? Keith A. Johnson ’90 As for equating Texas A&M’s educational system with the likes of Mr. Rogers, we feel that Mr. Sullivan has greatly insulted the students of the College of Business Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 words in length. The editorial stajl ^ serves the right to edit letters for style and length, hut will make every efj^ maintain the author’s intent. Each letter must be signed and must include the ^ sification, address and telephone number of the writer.