The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, April 21, 1987, Image 3

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    Tuesday, April 21,1987/The Battalion/Page 3
State and Local
LIES
ociety re-creates medieval life, history
By Lawson Reilly
Reporter
gladiators, the two armored men
slowly approach one another — shields high,
sw< ids ready — as a crowd of spectators
watch. Then, suddenly, the pair is a blur of
winging swords and parrying shields.
■Onlookers wince each time sword and
shii Id connect with a loud crack.
■Seconds later, one of the fighters receives a
blow to his heavy metal helmet. He steps back
from his opponent, knees wobbling, and falls.
■The Society for Creative Anachronism may
be well-known for its re-creation of medieval
jjcoiniut, but the non-profit research organiza-
|tjoi is more than chain-mail deep, says Allen
Hurst, a Texas A&M junior animal science
■jot and seneschal of the local SCA shire.
■TheSCA's main function is to find out how
People lived in the Middle Ages, Hurst says.
B|‘We don't want people to think all we do is
beat each other up,” he says.
Hiraduate student and SCA member Gorrie
leigeron says the SCA’s roots go back to the
University of California at Berkeley in 1966,
| when a group of fantasy and history buffs got
Hgetlu r one weekend to participate in a tour-
ne) in celebration of spring.
■hirst says they used wooden swords and
football pads to simulate medieval melee, and
! they apparently enjoyed it so much they did it
again the next weekend — and the next,
bday the SCA has more than 20,000
members worldwide, he says, including shires
and baronies in Australia, Europe, East Asia
and even aboard the USS Nimitz.
A&M’s shire has 45 members and contin
ues to grow, Hurst says.
Bergeron, known as “His Lordship Bren
dan O’Corraidhe” to other SCA members,
says each member adopts a persona — a his
torically possible character — from a period
between 800 and 1650, such as a Viking, a
crusader, a bard or a jester. If they wish,
members can register their personas with the
SCA so that no one else can use them, he says.
Hurst says a persona cannot represent a
person who actually lived or a character from
a book or a movie.
“You can be King Arthur’s first cousin, for
all we care, but you can’t be King Arthur,” he
says.
Most personas chosen are from the middle
class, such as merchants or artisans, although
some members prefer to be peasants. Mem
bers help each other research personas and
create costumes, he says, and clothing can
have a lot to do with the persona adopted.
“If you wouldn’t be caught dead wearing
tights then you’re not going to be 16th centu
ry,” he says. “If you wouldn’t be caught dead
wearing a dress then you wouldn’t be an 11th
century Norman or Saxon.”
Asian personas are becoming more popu
lar in A&M’s growing shire, Hurst says, which
has enhanced members’ cultural knowledge
even further.
“I’m learning a lot about Japanese armor,”
he says. “I can’t pronounce it, but I know it.”
Hurst studies medieval blacksmithing of
armor and weapons. Other SCA members
learn Middle Age songs and dances; brewing
techniques for ale, wine and cider; and spin
ning and weaving, he says.
“You take a sheep and make a shirt out of it
somehow,” he chuckles.
Bruce Hartweg, a junior geophysics major,
says he has known members who learned fal
conry and book binding.
Hartweg practices heavy fighting, which
simulates combat with heavy weapons such as
axes, spears, broadswords, halberds, maces
and two-handed swords. The weapons are
made of rattan bamboo, he says.
The SCA has strict safety rules for fighting,
which include weapon regulations and mini
mum armor limitations, Hartweg says, and
the most severe SCA injury he has heard of is
a broken arm.
“For the most part injuries are bruises,” he
says.
Combatants are on their honor to admit
when they receive a crippling or killing blow,
Hartweg says. Judges are not used, although
marshals are on the combat field to ensure
safety rules are followed.
Tammy Hobbes, a freshman computer sci
ence major, says most women in the SCA are
dress ladies who help buckle and lace fighters
into their armor. Hobbes, however, chose to
enter the male-dominated area of heavy
fighting. She says everyone in the SCA has
been supportive of her decision.
“They recognized that I wanted to be dif
ferent, and I could probably handle it,” she
says.
The fighting requires a lot of skill and sta
mina, Hartweg says.
“What I wear when I’m fully armored is
about 80 or 90 pounds,” he says.
Hurst says most fighting is done in tour
neys on weekends.
The SCA divided the United States into 11
kingdoms, he says. A&M is part of the Shire
of the Shadowlands, which is part of the Ok
lahoma and Texas kingdom, Ansteorra.
At least two SCA events take place some
where in A&M’s kingdom each weekend,
Hurst says. Most of the events are fighting
tourneys, but they often include art and sci
ence contests, as well as gaming tourneys.
Hall feasts are also popular during holidays.
In the fall the SCA will sponsor King’s Col
lege — a series of classes in Rudder Tower
dealing with life in the Middle Ages.
One of the SCA’s largest events is the Pen-
sic War, in which about 200 people from the
East and West kingdoms fight each other an
nually at Cooper’s Lake, Pa., Hurst says.
“We usually hire ourselves out for, oh, like
a six-pack,” he laughs. “We try to pretend it’s
real, for the weekend at any rate.”
lements predicts defeat for ‘budget busters’
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LAREDO (AP) — Gov. Bill Clem-
Js, chastising legislators who en
dorsed a budget with spending levels
higher than his plan, predicted
Monday that Texans will not tolerate
I'ncv taxes.
■dements began his 1 7-city auster-
pty-|)l,m tour in the border city of La
ired >, where he also met privately
ftvii 1 Gov. Jorge Trevino Martinez of
the Mexican state of Nuevo Leon to
dluss regional issues.
■dements planned another no-
fnev-taxes stop in Harlingen later in
ihe Jay. But in Laredo he told about
75 supporters that he would veto a
■iv 1989 budget above his $36.9
billion spending plan.
S\ House committee has approved
a $ ’>8.4 billion budget proposal and
the full Senate approved a $39.9 bil
lion proposal. The state faces a pro-
fectnl $5.8 billion deficit and either
mtist cut spending or raise taxes,
■dements said he would not cut
Btnan services, education or prison
expenditures.
“The truth is this is a battle be
tween fiscal conservatives on one
side and budget busters who want to
greatly expand the size, role and cost
of state government on the other
“I will veto any attempt to
raise taxes $5.8 billion. . . .
We're going to live within
our means. ”
— Gov. Bill Clements
side,” Clements said.
“Right now, the only thing the
Legislature is talking about is spend,
spend, spend and tax, tax, tax. ... I
will veto any attempt to raise taxes
$5.8 billion. . . . We’re going to live
within our means,” Clements said.
He said he agreed to the exten
sion of the temporary sales tax and
the motor fuels tax increases think
ing legislators would agree with him.
“I was mistaken,” Clements said.
“I did not get cooperation. The re
sponse of too many, especially in the
Senate, was ‘Bill, you’ve only gone
halfway. Go whole-hog and support
a $5.8 billion tax bill.’
Clements said a tax increase
would not attract new businesses to
the state and would do little to help
the unemployment rate, which in
Laredo is about 18 percent.
“The best thing we can do for
those out of work, for those in need,
for our schools, is to get our Texas
economy moving again so we can
create jobs and have the increased
revenues from a growing economy,”
he said.
House Speaker Gib Lewis has said
legislators do not want to raise taxes,
but it might be necessary to maintain
current services.
Clements said that when he left
office in 1982, me budget for the
biennium was only $26.6 billion and
has increased by $10 billion.
“In the last year and a half, the
people of Texas made it clear to me
they understand we can restrain
“The best thing we can do
for those out of work, for
those in need, for our
schools, is to get our
Texas economy moving
again. ”
— Gov. Bill Clements
spending without cutting essential
services, even if they don’t know the
line-item detail of the budget,”
Clements said.
The governor told Laredo sup
porters that he endorsed the twin-
plant manufacturing concept along
the border. He said the governors
from U.S. and Mexican border states
would meet within 60 days to discuss
regional issues.
Later, in Harlingen, Clements ad
dressed the controversial Casa Oscar
Romero. The Catholic-run sanct
uary for refugees from Central
America has drawn the ire of some
Cameron County residents as it at
tempts to move to a new location
near Brownsville.
“I am fundamentally opposed to
the theory of a sanctuary for illegal
aliens,” Clements said in response to
a request for assistance from Joe
King Jr., a spokesman for a group
opposed to the Casa.
He said he would ask the U.S. At
torney General for an opinion on
whether the Casa Oscar Romero le
gally could house illegal aliens. If the
practice is against the law, Clements
said, he would ask the U.S. Immigra
tion and Naturalization Service “to
do something about it.”
Pre-trial sessions
begin in Austin
drug-test case
AUSTIN (AP) — Brenda Jen
nings says her employer should
not have the right to test her
urine unless the firm has reason
to believe she is taking drugs.
The 27-year-old production in
spector at Minco Technology
Labs Inc. of Austin is the central
figure in a court test of the right
of a private company to order
mandatory, random drug tests.
“We are not machines, we are
people,” Jennings told reporters
during pre-trial sessions. “They
can’t check our oil to be sure we
are productive.”
The class action suit was filed
by the Texas Civil Liberties
Union in the name of Jennings, a
Minco employee for three years.
She alleges her right to privacy is
violated by the company’s an
nounced program for routine,
periodic urine testing.
The firm, which tests and dis
tributes computer chips for mili
tary and space contractors, says
the drug tests are necessary. A
year ago an employee addicted to
heroin stole $250,000 in com
puter ships and tried to sell the
chips to support his expensive
habit.
Minco is backed in the suit by
the Texas Association of Busi
ness, which contends random
testing is necessary to control
drug use in the work place.
The electronics firm’s man
agers have been tested, but the
firm agreed not to test rank-and-
file workers until the court chal
lenge is complete.
“I am against random testing,”
Jennings said. “I think there
should be at least some suspicions
before they call you down to the
laboratory.”
Jennings says she has never
been asked to take a urine test
nor has she volunteered for one.
But she said she feels she has
been working under pressure
since the suit was filed in Decem
ber 1986.
“I know there are several peo
ple watching me, all the time,”
she said.
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