Page 2/The Battalion/Friday, February 6, 1987
Opinion
MS
The Battalion
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Southwest Journalism Conference
The Battalion Editorial Board
Loren Steffy, Editor
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Tom Ownbey, Photo Editor
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TbESH. COVJbmOtf 5
/\RF CUENIXX
UNCONSTITUTIONAL!
there are 3 men
TO A CELL, ANO
THOSE BUILDING*
TENDERS HAVE BEEN
KIWN TOBOTUP
ON PEOPLEf
What an encore
Like Gov. Bill Clements, The Battalion Editorial Board reserves the
right to change its position. In the case of Clements, however, we
have decided not to change our thinking.
Before Clements was elected, we felt that the Governor-to-be
wasn’t looking at the state’s economic situation realistically — or at
least his public presentation of Texas’ future didn’t mirror reality.
Clements was making slap-happy campaign promises in an effort
to maximize Mark White’s unpopularity and slither into office. His
tactics worked, and here he is — doing just what he so obviously in
tended to do all along.
In the first “state of the state” speech of his new administration
Wednesday, Clements virtually repealed the campaign promises that
so handily won him the governor’s seat.
Two weeks into his term, Clements told Texas, “I reserve the
right to change my position. I can’t be in granite in a changing pan
orama; that’s just not possible. I’m trying to be responsive to the facts
as they exist.”
If only Clements had been as responsible and responsive to the
existing facts during his campaign, he wouldn’t be eating the words
that certainly will prove taxing to his credibility during his new term.
Instead, Clements promised Texans there would be no tax in
creases during his reign. In the completely mortal words of Clements
on Feb. 3, 1986, “I have the know-how and the commitment to tell
Texas that I will veto any and all tax or fee increases. Bill Clements
stands absolutely firm on this.”
On Wednesday — one year later — Clements asked the Legis
lature to adopt an additional $2.9 billion in taxes beginning Sept. 1
and said he would sign it.
The proposed increase in sales and motor fuels, taxes is a con
tinuation of the temporary taxes passed by the Legislature under
Mark White’s administration.
Though Clements admitted he asked the Legislature to approve
the continuation of the revenue generated from the taxes, he is justi
fying his action by stating that the tax was instituted by White. “It’s
not my tax; it’s his tax,” Clements said.
Insurance companies pul
a premium on tort reform
State Sen. Kent
Caperton, D-
Bryan, is right on
when he says Rep.
Richard Smith, R-
Bryan, is “way off
base” on tort re
form. Does Smith
really think tort-
reform legislation
will help combat
high insurance
costs?
own making. A Washington state task
force concluded last year that the crisis
“is mostly a result of poor management
practices by the (insurance) companies.”
In New York, a report of the Governor’s
Advisory Commission on Liability In
surance said “the industry’s poor recent
financial condition largely reflects self-
inflicted wounds.”
Cases are appealed, some parties if
out of court, trial judges reductl
awards and, most importantly,thee
tics used by the insurance indur
elude only the verdicts in favor;
plaintiff. Cases the defendant® I
those resulting in no award art
counted.
And now the state of Texas isn’t White’s or Clements’ problem;
it’s our problem.
Think again, Smith.
Insurance companies across the na
tion are blaming huge jury awards for
the high rates now charged for many
types of liability coverage. These rates
have forced many professionals, such as
doctors, chemical manufacturers, cor
porate officers and even governmental
entities to quit buying insurance.
A more objective analysis suggests
the “crisis” is of the insurance industry’s
Insurance companies have two major
sources of money to cover claims and
make profits — the premiums policy
holders pay, and the interest the compa
nies can earn on money that isn’t imme
diately needed to pay claims. When in-
terest rates are high, insurance
companies try to gain as many custom
ers as possible to bring in premium dol
lars for investment. The “crisis” came
when interest rates dropped, slowing
the rise of investment income.
Smith and other proponentsoi; (
reform legislation favor lim
tive damages to $100,000. Punitivta
ages are damages paid by thedete;
for acting irresponsibly or with;
gard for safety. Unfortunately,wt;
live in a perfect world where peep
ways put the well-being of others; ^ 5
of their own profit. Punitive t
act as a deterrent to irresponsible!!
ior.
To right itself, the industry has taken
two major steps. First,
Smith also favors elimination of
liability which transfers the bunk
payment to other parties founds
if one defeni
What do experts know about AIDS?
Annie, all looks
and no personal-
ity, is a kept
woman. She is
kept, in fact, by
the local fire de
partment which
uses her to prac
tice mouth-to-
mouth resuscita
tion. Mannequin
that she is, she
hardly cares who
like the firemen I’m not sure that what I
know is necessarily true. The older I get
and the more I know (the two some
times go together), the more I distrust
experts. They are sometimes not so ex
pert.
Richard
Cohen
puts their lips to hers. But that is not
true of the firemen. The care very
much. Suspecting one of their number
might have died of AIDS, they have re
fused to put their lips to Annie’s. She
was said to have had a brief intimate
relationship with the deceased.
Thomas Tibbett, an officer of the
firefighter’s union, was quick to offer an
explanation: “A lot of it is education and
fear of the unknown. That’s a hell of a
risk you’re asking people to take when
there seems to be daily changes in the
medical community about what they
know about the disease.” Tibett was one
for two. Education and fear of the un
known probably had little to do with the
boycott-Annie movement. Firefighters,
unlike the object of their immediate
fear, are no dummies. They know quite
a bit about AIDS.
My own childhood is instructive.
When I was a kid, the experts decreed
that sneakers were bad for your feet. As
opposed to shoes (especially ugly Boy
Scout shoes), sneakers were said to lack
support. They could, with constant
wear, give you something called flat
feet. Not only would that keep you out
of the Army, but it would in some way
cripple you. The only thing worse was
that other invisible plague of my child
hood years, lockjaw. What that was, no
body seemed to know. But we all imag
ined that if you got it, you walked
around with your mouth half open —
frozen forever in a kind of exclamation.
cause pimples. The cure for them, I bet,
will soon be discovered to be exactly
what my grandmother always said it was
— a good exchange of pheromones with
a tramp of the opposite sex. And when
it comes to sex, the insistence of some
experts that boys and girls are not made
of different things is now being chal
lenged by different experts. It does
seem to be a matter of snakes and snails
and puppy dog tails as opposed to sugar
and spice and everything nice.
Grandma was right once again.
it has jacked up rates
for all liability-insur
ance to levels that not
only cover current
costs but, some critics
charge, recoup losses
from mismanage
ment in previous
years. Second, com
panies have dropped
lines of business des
ignated as high risk
such as doctors, day
care centers and chemical manufactur
ers.
The firefighters’ real objection was
better stated in the second of Tibbett’s
sentences: They don’t trust the experts,
even though the experts have been re
markably consistent when it comes to
AIDS. They have said all along that
AIDS is only spread by sexual contact,
contaminated needles or infected blood
products. Annie — lifeless, sexless and
habitless — is the safest kiss you can find
outside of Debbie Boone.
For some reason, none of the experts
noticed that poor kids, who invariably
wore sneakers, seemed to walk just fine.
In fact, some of them were the best ath
letes around. Flat feet or not, they could
run like the wind. Now, of course, kids
wear nothing but sneakers. They seem
to run right from the playground to the
Army, miraculously bypassing flat feet.
(Whatever happened to lockjaw is any
body’s guess.) I suppose a whole new
generation of experts have ruled sneak
ers safe at any speed, including cowboy
boots which once were, as I recall, even
worse for your feet.
The firemen who spurned Annie got
something of a bum rap from many
people. They were not reacting out of
ignorance, but out of the basis for all
wisdom — skepticism. They knew about
AIDS, but they also knew something
about the people who said they knew
about AIDS: The one thing they don’t
know is what they don’t know. Let a
dummy kiss the dummy.
Copyright 1986, Washington Post Writers Group
Of course, the insurance companies
would rather have the public believe the
blame for its financial problems lies
with juries, lawyers and the people who
were injured. Not only do they want the
public and elected officials to buy this,
the insurance industry has launched a
$6.5 million advertising campaign and
intense lobbying to make sure it does.
Looks like Smith is buying it.
cannot pay
ently, Smith Ji
think it'sfn
make a weals!
fendant payrc
all the daraap
peciaily if
fendant bears
10 percent ofi!
sponsibility.
fair to shift tit
den to the')
leaving them
out compensat'
Nonetheless, Smith is in
pany. It seems President
misinformed. His administratioi
vocating much of the same tort»
legislation, but these measures
solve the insurance crisis. Simi
sures in other states have fai
even the insurance companies
states admit tort-reform laws willt
suit in lower insurance rates
ing insurance more readily availai
The huge jury awards that the indus
try claims are given to injured parties
(the industry says the average award in
product-liability cases is now more than
$ 1 million) is a misleading statement be
cause the statistics they use are raw data
on initial awards by juries, but that’s
usually not the last word on litigation.
If Smith believes a change is®
then he should look at regu
surance industry instead of erf
legislation that will rob injured))! 1
just compensation.
Jo Streit is a senior journalist
and a co/umnisf for The Battali'
The question I put to you is this:
Would you have kissed Annie? My an
swer is I might have — but not, as with
entering a “haunted house,” without
some hesitation and fear. Like the fire
men, I know how AIDS is spread, and
Other examples of experts being
wrong abound. Nuclear reactors, once
proclaimed so safe are, after Chernobyl,
being scrutinized. Pesticides have gone
from boon to menace. A world that the
experts said was running out of oil, now
seems awash in it. The danger of over
population, always just over the hori
zon, still remains over the horizon and
ulcer diets which limited my father (and
therefore me) to foods colored white
and tasting like paste, are now thought
to be useless, and maybe harmful.
Mail Call
Truth of tradition
EDITOR:
This letter is in reply to the numerous letters of Feb. 3.
continuations of past events to which we assign any
meaning we wish. When one defends a tradition, or
anything for that matter, as a reflex action, and notrf
some value it possesses, one loses the feeling of
The main reason one attends a university, A&M
included, is to receive an education. This entails not only
academics, but also knowledge gained outside the
classroom— chiefly from social interaction and open-
minded observation. We defend ourselves against the
entrenchment of dogma in the classroom. Why do we not
recognize and eliminate dogma outside the classroom?
volunteering which makes participation so enriching
We have an excellent environment for learning^ 1
A&M, but without students who are willing to open
minds and think and question, we cannot realize ourf
of making A&M the finest university in the world
Traditions have been mindlessly defended as a way of
life at A&M —the sole reason for choosing A&M over
another school. They are indeed a valuable asset which
makes A&M a unique institution, but that’s only because
they offer enormous opportunity for student interaction
which provides a sense of belonging. They have no
inherent value in themselves. They are nothing but
As for Miss Gordon and the unenlightened few D
up a map! All highways run two ways!
Louis J. Needleman ’87
Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 words in length. The editor
serves the right to edit letters for style and length, hut will make eve.
tain the author’s intent. Each letter must he signed and must included
tion, address and telephone number of the writer.
Chocolate and peanuts no longer