Page 2/ r The Battalion/Tuesday, April 14, 1987
Opinion
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 Bryah-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.
A U.S. sanctuary?
Instituting sanctions against Japan because of trade violations
may be a punitive measure aimed at curbing the intense and, some
say, unfair competition in the high-tech war with Japan. But such
sanctions not only will soften domestic competition for the United
States, relieving the pressure for quality American products, it will
further weaken the United States’ high-tech muscle abroad.
If Reagan’s plan to restrict the sale of such Japanese high-tech
goods as TVs, disk drives and stereos is implemented, the American
public can look forward to a stagnation, if not decline, in the quality
of similar U.S. goods. The idea that competition is healthy is not lost
on the high-tech industry and aptly was demonstrated by the auto in
dustry. In fact, we can thank Japan for the fall of the great American
Cruiser, guaranteed to self-destruct at 40,000 miles.
Though American-made compact disks and stereos produced in
the same vein as the Ford Pinto or the AMC Pacer may not cause our
economy to crash, sanctions will open the road for similar measures
in the future.
jAfter
j tei deba
Jnate o
jluron in
Jy salat
giMe fact
Jlhe n
l| evide
til bet we
|tJose ol
Bmio
Imiid S'
Bnrc (
|‘‘An ir
■mion (s
Jrtmen
■mLiia <
■ l;u ult
diate rai
■ose
: dismmii
■solutio
J'lhe Ir
■ emerg
^Bu-tuliii
mi thei
IIV fro i
Growing up as Grandpa’s namesakei
I don’t think
about the old boy
much any more,
which I suppose I
feel somewhat
Rick
Young
Guest Columnist
ahead of me and a number who fol
lowed. But my mother, knowing the*
ways of the world we live in, had pres
ence of mind.
event ua
t eat heel the pointtl
they spoke, but it was only bee
Grandpa took up giving them am
on occasion.
Any time the United States has trouble meeting prices in foreign
markets, it will be inclined to look for the quick-fix solution and shut
its front door to outside competition — a tactic certain to escalate the
problem with overseas competition.
Instead of running from a goods struggle, the United States
should take a lesson in high-tech combat from the Japanese. Japan
has learned that people’s wallets are not connected to their country’s
flag, and they will buy quality products no matter where they’re pro
duced.
guilty about. He died in 1964.
To mention Grandpa to anyone in
the family today elicits the same re
sponse. They all agree he was a mean,
disagreeable, rotten old goat. I’m the
lone dissenter, albeit with some degree
of prejudice.
I’m not the eldest of Grandpa’s de
scendants. There was a boy and a girl
Once upon a time in Aggieland
■ ■
Low-Lifers — Nov. 7, 1928
We hate to admit the fact that we
have “low-lifers” mingled with us, but
it is a true fact and must be met squa
rely by those who have been so
named. You to whom this editorial is
written comprise a really low class of
students, and it is hoped that you will
think the matter over.
It all concerns your actions at the
corps dances. The freshman have
hereto fore been the objects of all the
gripes, but it is time to aim a few at the
upperclassmen.
Imagine a senior sitting around at
the door for an hour or more waiting
for the doors to be opened up, in or
der to save a dollar. Or maybe it is to
hurt the social secretary, and conse
quently the Senior Class. Or imagine
some juniors coming around the back
way and breaking in one of the doors.
These and several other things were
actually done at the last corps dance,
and the actions have certainly
branded several members of the stu
dent body just exactly what they are.
And it is these men invariably who,
after getting by the door, strut out on
the floor like nit-wits and make utter
asses out of themselves. You know
who you are and how you have been
acting. Try to be more considerate
and let the man who has paid his dol
lar have just an enjoyable time as you
are trying to have without paying.
And if you haven’t a dollar, see the
social secretary — he will loan you the
money.
Signs — Oct. 10, 1928
Did it ever occur to you that there
are certain traditions here that have
existed and are likely to exist for some
time to come? 'There are traditions
that ought to be broken and others
that ought to prevail but certainly
there is no use trying to start one that
is so nonsensical as the one that is
about to be started this year. Each year
the numerals are painted on the water
tower and then are painted out and
during that process of painting out
and re-painting someone gets the big
idea of putting company names on the
tower. Perhaps that is all right, but I
think there are other ways of advertis
ing your company than by putting it
up before everyone as a shining exam
ple to the school regardless of whether
it really deserves that high place it
holds on the campus or not.
Last week there were no less than
four companies with their names on
the tank. Only a small percent of the
men in the company are responsible
for this but that still makes it look bad
for the company, and the majority of
the men would not be in favor of it if
they had anything to do with it. Re
gardless whether the shoe fits or not,
remember this: The man who blows
the longest and the loudest is usually
the one who has nothing to be blowing
about.
Senior Week — why not? — April 22, 1924
We have heard it rumored that
there was once such a thing as Senior
Week. This seven days was devoted to
rest and recreation, and to the renew-
ing and strengthening of the
friendships that had been neglected in
favor of some driving instructor who
thinks that his course is the only one in
school. Take the E. E.s for an exam
ple: they are good boys, and we like
them, but we never get to see them for
over five minutes at a time and they
can’t talk of anything except that they
should be writing up an experiment.
There are many others in the same
predicament as these unfortunate
hermits. It may be said that all that can
be done during commencement, but
we have seen a few such events, and it
has been our observation that the ad
miring relatives and others get all the
attention at that time.
probably lower the efficiency. We say
let efficiency go to the devil for one
week.
SENIOR WEEK — MAY 25-31
Seniors — It is yours to demand.
Faculty — It is yours to grant — do
it.
It may be that our dream to a place
in the world may rest on that last
week’s work, but we doubt it. It would
be a terrible crime to waste one hun
dred and forty-forth of our time at
college in a little bit of rest. It would
Once upon a time in Aggieland fea
tures old columns and editorials
printed in The Battalion. The
material in the feature is selected by
the Opinion Page Editor and is not ed
ited for style.
The early March morning in 1945
when 1 was dragged screaming into this
world, and the doctor announced she
had a son, my mother made a decision. I
was named Richard Calvin Young III. I
was assured a place in the heirarchv.
Other cousins had names like Au
brey, LaVerne, Phillip. Allan. Cynthia,
Larry Robert, Jerry Wayne and the like.
I was R.C. Young III.
On the occasions when the family
gathered in Mirando City, the tiny,
obscure town off Texas Highway 359
east of Laredo that Grandpa was instru
mental in birthing, I would he perched a
seemingly impossible height above the
rocky ground on Grandpa’s shoulder
and taken on his rounds. He would in
troduce me.
“This is my namesake," he would an
nounce. For many years I wondered if
that was really my name, rather than the
one my folks called me.
Grandpa liked to dress me in a white
shirt, with one of his neckties, and
march me to the front row of the Baptist
church where he attended services. He
was also fond of arming me with hall a
dollar or so in assorted change and
parking me in front of the candy coun
ter at Campbell’s Grocery. Mrs. Camp
bell hated that. Took me all day to
spend half a buck, but Grandpa knew 1
was safe from traffic, which in those
days was heavy on Mirando City’s single
paved street, Farm Road 649 through
the center of town.
1 he girl cousins had it worse.Ik;
shining example of old-worlddui
nism or not. Grandpa never spoil
the ^ii lx until they were about 16ot
Perhaps he wanted to make surtikI
were going to be around awhile
he wasted words. Cousin LaVera
up, had four children of hero*
attended Grandpa’s funeral never it
on\ei sation with him.^
huh I’m sure they both
i W men.
ivocatei
xease
Rmbers
■ All res
Fa uliy S
lesideni
■me pol
ISc
th
ing had ;
thing for
e poorer.
As 1 grew older I seemed to
icr away from him
bout the green oxygen tankbehimil
ait in the living room, norihq
it grew more and more shuffling,
1 was in Corpus Christi pursn
never ib« !oin ^
beeaus
h
‘ buic
hibits
Buildii
room
wings of gold through theskiesin
paration lot my first uiptoSrf
Asia when the word came dial his
remaining lung had given out. 1 sin
inspection that morning, occupyingi
mind trying to recall invainthelii
1 had talked with him.
The f ury started with the read
will. I didn’t go, the onlysurvi
er learned, who did not ai
event. Or maybe it should bee
revelation, because his illness,ye®
not being able to give all heftk
should to his business, and ihesifl
ing up of the oil fields around'
mdo City had left him noife
[added
ing.
“Th
fibergl
howlin
th
hit
dry
i
He didn’t even get upset when I took
the Cushman three-wheel scooter out of
gear, causing it to roll down the hill onto
the highway where it was smashed flat
as a bookmark by a passing oil field
truck.
Where Grandpa went, I went. I was a
tiny shadow behind a giant of a man.
It is a shame, remembering it. Cousin
Sonny avoided Grandpa. Danny and Al-
leave.
Only there was an heir to a
none of the others — his widow,W ^ ^
dren, grandchildren and bythenjn
grandchildren — knew existed,
still don’t know of it. Because 1 inb
the whole thing, a legacy that,beo®
have it, will live. Something lb
guaranteed years before, on mil
elate in a cold Kansas night, is®
alone.
You see, I have bis name.
3 V:
All
3V:
4’x
4’x
16’
23C
Rick Young writes for the Cod 1
Daily Sun
LAST NIGHT,
JESUS CAME
TDMEINA
VISION,, HE
SAORAL..
TH.LMY PEOPLE
TOSENPYOU
2H0 POLLARS
EACH ANP f'LL
CURE CANCER’
IM
ISA\P,
'YES.L0RP,
IS THAT
All?/
Mail Call
he st:
TELL!
ACCEPT!
AM
card,:,
V
Amen!
EDITOR:
by slaughtering and burning animals on an altar. In return, their
god would look favorably upon them.
Their return is immortality and eternal paradise (heaven).^
one expects something for nothing. Their place in heavenmustlx
bought by money and blind faith.
In Karl Pallmeyer’s article on April 9, he pointed out many of
the problems with random religion. He basically said the problem
was not religion but the selfish individuals who use it.
Pallmeyer was wrong. Religion is the problem. These selfish
individuals are the natural by-products of Christianity.
Next came the famous human sacrifice of the alleged Jesus to
placate their “powerful” deity. Fortunately, human and animal
sacrifices are no longer fashionable. So what do people sacrifice?
Their money. Roberts, Swaggert, and Bakker serve an important
role.
The methods of reaching heaven have not changed, onlytb
currency.
John R. Spessard ’86
president; Atheist, Agnostic and Freethinker Society
In the Old Testament people felt they could please their god
Christians require a representative of God to sacrifice their
money to. In no way are these monetary gifts unselfish. Christians
expect a good return on their investment.
Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 words in length. The editorial staff mtnO
right to edit letters for style and length, hut will make every eff ort to maintain theaulhn^
tent. Each letter must be signed and must include the classification, address andidy
number of the writer.
84,