Page 2/The Battalion/Monday, February 16, 1987
J
Opinion
The United States is taking a giant step backwad
Until last
month, I thought
America had come
a long way since
the 1800s in the
areas of race rela
tions and equality.
But when the
events that took
place in Cum-
ming, a small town
in Forsyth County,
Ga. made front
page news all
changed my mind
Dallas. The ratio of blacks to whites was
almost equal. We went to the same par
ties, restaurants and movies together,
and we never thought twice about it.
During my four years in high school,
there was never an episode of racial vio
lence.
Paula
Vogrin
over the country, I
When I saw the Klan in action in For
syth County, I wondered if all men
really are equal. How can men who
throw rocks and bottles at other men for
no reason except a difference in skin
color be considered equal to other hu
man beings? They can’t be.
ity and civil rights. The violence asso
ciated with the organization was real,
but it wasn’t real enough to have a large
impact on me. Murders, beatings, cross
burnings and various other violent inci
dents were simply reports on the news
or articles in print. I had never wit
nessed or experienced Firsthand any of
the violence connected with the Klan.
• A black cadet at the Citadel, a mili
tary academy in Charleston, S.C., was
subjected to racist hazing when several
white cadets entered his room with a
burning cross.
On Jan. 17, about 90 people planned a
peaceful, biracial civil rights march
through Gumming. It sounded unob
trusive enough. But the marchers were
met by hundreds of Ku Klux Klansmen
and their supporters and became tar
gets for bottles, rocks and racial jeers.
When 1 saw this on the news, I was
disgusted. My parents raised me to be
lieve that all people, regardless of skin
color, are equal. No one has the right to
claim superiority based upon the
amount of pigment in his or her skin.
I know as much about the Klan as
anybody else. I’ve read about the Klan
in newspapers, books and magazines,
and have seen Klan marches and rallies
on TV news reports. In high school, I
used the Klan for the topic of a paper
about the person or organization, past
or present, I felt had contributed the
least amount of good to humanity.
So when the cameras in Gumming re
corded the actions and words of the
Klan and its supporters, the baseness of
the organization struck me hard for the
first time. These are people who have
no greater regard for another human
being’s feelings and safety than they do
for the paper this column is printed on.
To hear those people chanting “White
power!” and “Niggers go home!” and to
see rocks they threw actually striking the
marchers was enough to make me
ashamed of my race.
• The sheriff of Jefferson Parish, a
New Orleans suburb, made the sugges
tion (later retracted after public outcry)
that blacks walking in white neighbor-
goods be stopped for questioning.
• A young black man died trying to
escape from whites who were beating
him with Fists and baseball bats in How
ard Beach, N.Y. before Christmas.
partment’s community relations sem
recorded 99 such attacks in 1?
1986, that number had increased;
276. And, depending on how racist^orId
tacks are deFined, other listings gomucE 5 ^ 11
higher. Time magazine reports thatf} 1 . 1
New York City alone, the policedepi| rt i ( U |
ment’s bias-incident unit reported T p,
such occurrences increased from at “Jesus
four a week to 10 a week in justther# us !‘ I
month. IS
and s[
The most discouraging thing at nin;.
racism is that it appears to beanumB 63
• Boutique owners in New York and
Washington, D.C., began posting signs
reading “Men by appointment only" to
keep black men — potential robbers in
store owners’ eyes — from entering
their stores.
vable problem. Members of the y
Mike
insdllins
apt is
and other racist groups are
their children the same misguided Teadi
lues that they hold. When cameraib4 v f
Klan rallies focus on infants dressedi 3 !' '! 1
Aan'
miniature white robes and hoods,
huna
And Gumming, Ga. isn’t the only
place racial violence is taking place.
I attended a private high school in
But until the civil rights march in For
syth county, the Klan never seemed hu
man. It was an entity made up of
nameless faces that managed to put a
damper on any event promoting equal-
A sample of the news stories from the
last several months can attest to the fact
that America is taking steps backward
instead of forward where racism is con
cerned :
This country has never been entirely
free from racism, but if the events of the
past several months are any indication,
racism is on its way back into the mains
tream of American society. Since 1980,
the number of racial attacks reported in
the United States per year has increased
by almost 300 percent.The Justice De-
dlers waving Confederate flags atiqde
teens brandishing signs emblazoiiilfih 1
with swastikas and the words “W:Jr U( *'
Power,” remember — these rhildrer J» u !
the future of our nation.
Joll
Paula Vogrin is a senior jounuliC^ '
major and a columnist for The Bi&jent t!
ion. Hgi
Presidential candidates
should run, not crawl
GaE\ ThiftT'S TOO e&D
Joe Biden, D-
Del., says he will
run for president
if he can find the
time for it. He says
he has other ;^.-
sponsibilities —
you know, like be
ing chairman of
the Senate Judi
ciary Committee.
In California, he
gave a terrific
speech on leadership
izes he lacks that extra gene — that
overweening drive and ambition that
characterized John F. Kennedy?
REFUGEE*, T=RotA ContlUNISM?
BUT HBVf IT'S REALLY (hREftT to
OUR SYSTEM UORKSf .
PUUT2-ZKS MoUtJb rtZOE lately
THAT
SZ.EM AMY
Richard
Cohen
and then, in a
press conference, said he’s not too sure
he can offer it. He has so many de
mands bn his time.
Mario Cuomo, D-N.Y., is similarly
conflicted. He is governor of the Em
pire State and campaigning for the
White House takes so much time. Be
sides, he is awed by the job. It’s a very
important one, “the most important in
the universe” and fame is a heavy bur
den.
As for Cuomo, could he be wonder
ing if he can take the heat? Concerns
about family are legitimate enough, but
Cuomo is already in the fishbowl as gov
ernor of New York. Or maybe his
doubts have to do with the critical area
of foreign policy? He has never really
dealt with it and, for a public official, he
is something of an urban provincial: a
big-city boy whose idea of foreign travel
is New Jersey. A potential presidential
candidate need only twirl a globe to
have second thoughts: Nicaragua, Leb
anon, the Philippines, Iran. Cuomo may
prefer to whistle “I Love New York.”
SCftNDAL
Indignantly, Cuomo notes that his
daughter Madeline has been called a
bleached blonde in the newspapers. “I
mean, I could strangle that guy,” the
governor observed.
Together, these gifted men are the
leading members of the Presidential
Procrastination Society .Their an
guished indecision is in the public do
main. They wondered about how their
families would fare in a presidential
campaign. That behind them, they now
wonder if they have the time for a cam
paign. Biden is putting the demands on
his time into a computer to see, appar
ently, if there really are 24 hours in a
day. Cuomo spurns the computer. He is
ready to declare his intention to study
whether he should have any intentions.
Neither Cuomo nor Biden are fools.
On the contrary, they are both bright
and insightful. Better than Ronald Rea
gan ever did, Cuomo realizes that know
ing little about foreign affairs is hardly
an asset. And as for Biden, he might
sense that knowledge and expertise are
not enough when it comes to seeking
the presidency. You have to show you
want it. The lust that Jimmy Carter said
he had in his heart for women, he really
had for the White House. He made it
there on raw ambition.
For an actor, Hamlet is a great role.
The indecision and ambiguity that is
synonymous with his name enriches the
part. But for a politician, a Hamlet-like
persona spells trouble. It announces
that he knows something about himself
that his admirers don’t. Why is he hold
ing back? Why all the political stutter
ing? Whatever the reason, the very pub
lic anguish of these two politicians is the
antithesis of leadership. Instead of
launching a crusade, they both seem to
be awaiting a draft.
The presidency is not your average
job. It should go to the politician who
has a vision, a message and fire in his
belly. It should go to someone who picks
up the newspaper, slams it down and
says, “They can’t do that.” It should go
this time around to someone who is fu
rious about the deficit, balance of trade,
cuts in the education budget, the plight
of the underclass, declining living stan
dards and a foreign policy being made
on the fly by a clique of paunchy In
diana Joneses.
Aside from the way he has conducted
his own presidency, Reagan ought to be
an example to Cuomo and Biden. He
really did slam down the newspaper in
indignation. He had a message, an ide
ology and a program. He wanted to get
to the White House in the worst way.
Even between campaigns, he cam
paigned. There was never any question
he was going to run for president.
In Biden’s case, he has been circling a
presidential campaign for well over four
years now. His organization oozes doubt
and hesitation and you get the sense,
maybe unfairly, that the champ is always
looking to his handlers for encourage
ment: Can I win? Do I have the time?
Send me a memo. Do a time-and-mo-
tion study. Could it be that Biden real-
Please, Mario and Joe, do us no fa
vors. The presidency is not a humbling
affair, like entry into a monastic order.
It is the country’s premier leadership
position, and it demands someone who
can fill that role, who exults in it, who
shows by the very way he approaches it
that he is at least as big as the office he
seeks. If you want the job, go for it. If
not, shut up.
Copyright 1986, Washington Post Writers Group
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
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Mail Call
A real issue
EDITOR.
Tell it like it is
This letter is not of a political nature like so many I
frequently read in this space. I won’t address such lofty
intellectual” topics as abolishion of the Corps, the
existence or nonexistence of God, or whether or not this
grand ol’ school will ever achieve “worldly” status.
EDITOR:
In fact, the subject of this letter is not really open to
debate or interpretation by any religious, military or
political faction, especially if the members of these groups
have decent vision and are not afraid to look up.
The subject matter in question are those unsightly,
unworldly, ungodly, untraditional, downright
embarassing stains, blemishes and residual eyesores which
cover the exterior of one of the most frequented and
observable buildings on our campus: Rudder Tower. I’ve
even seen this structure on postcards.
Has anyone on The Battalion editorial board ever
been in a high pressure, split second shoot/no shoot
situation, such as occurred at a local 7-Eleven store Oct.
22. Has anyone on the board studied the dynamicsof
these situations? If not, I submit that the board is ill-
qualified to pass judgement on men who have trained
hundreds of hours for situations like this. Real hostage
situations are not as simple as TV would have us believe,
In real life, there are usually no cameras to show wheretl*
robbers are hidden and no script to tell the police whois
the robber and who is the victim. For these reasons,polit
train to quickly understand the varied situations and
quickly make the correct decisions.
I
Will someone please tap Frank Vandiver on the
oulder and let him know that visiting dignitaries and
ospective students probably don’t find our complacency
r cleaning very worldly?
If anyone out there agrees, please write The Battalion
and let’s get a wave of progression headed toward “World
University Beach” by starting with the basics. We all know
first impressions are very important. Would you wear
dirty clothes to an interview?
As I recall, most coverage of the 7-Eleven robberys^ |
the officers handled the situation well. I believe the
student/hostage said he was quite happy to be rescued
When someone opposes you — robber vs. police—widi
deadly force, such as firearms (shotgun) or edged weapo 1 * |
(machete), people who value their lives know that they
cannot wait to see if the robber is bluffing. They can and |
must reply immediately with deadly force. Fromwhatl
have heard and read, the officers in this situationhandltd ]
it very well tactically and responded with an appropriatt *■
level of force.
If you haven’t noticed the sordid spaces between the
distantly visible windows of Rudder Tower, look up the
next time you are within a few hundred yards. I feel
confident your eyes will not fail you.
There is an alternative. We could call the soiled outside
of Rudder Tower “art”. It would blend well with those
hideous frogs!
In an effort to gain support from the numerous
people at A&M who subscribe to the more conservative
and literal view of life, let me remind them of a basic
Christian virtue. “Cleanliness is next to Godliness.” That
should help a bleeding-heart, commie-pinko like me get
some right-wing sustenance.
Marty Tate ’88
To have The Battalion editorial board label the
capture of these robbers as “bumbling” and “Rambo-si j
is an unfair slap in the face to the police. It calls toques^
the professionalism of journalists who would print suet J
irresponsible statement.
Jay Schoenover ’82
Editor’s note: The College Station Police Departmenl
does not have a hostage crisis training program. The
questions raised by The Battalion about the incident
stemmed from concerns of the hostages and from
prominent law-enforcement officials not associated*
the College Station Police Department.
Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 words in length. The ed
reserves the right to edit letters for style and length, but will make ever} if
maintain the author's intent. Each letter must be signed and mustindudi^
classification, address and telephone number of the writer.