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
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periods.
Mail subscriptions are $17.44 per semester, $34.62 per school
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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.