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The Battalion
Vol. 83 No. 31 (ASPS 045360 12 pages
College Station, Texas
Tuesday, October 13, 1987
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Hanging around
Sam Harris of Houston replaces lights in the Kyle Field sign Monday.
Co-worker Jim McCafferty, also of Houston, explained that the lights
Photo by Sam Myers
on. At $30 per
i pigeons
foot of n
neon, the birds can run up quite a bill.
Amtrak wreck
in Iowa ends
with 115 hurt
RUSSELL, Iowa (AP) — Amtrak’s
California Zephyr slammed into a
railroad crane laying new track
Monday, knocking both locomotives
and 11 cars of the passenger train
off the tracks and injuring at least
115 people, officials said.
“Everything was going smoothly
and all of the sudden I heard the
screeching of the brakes and every
one went flying,” passenger Mildred
Faddis of Oakland, Calif, said.
“There was debris everywhere. It
was terrible.” ,
Amtrak spokesman Debbie Marci-
niak said the railroad’s 16-car No. 6
train was headed east toward Chi
cago shortly after 11:30 a.m. when it
hit a crane being used by Burlington
Northern, which operates the tracks
across southern Iowa.
A preliminary investigation deter
mined that a work crew moved the
crane and another car onto the rail
road siding to allow the Amtrak
train to pass, but an improperly
aligned switch put the train on the
siding, causing the collision, a
spokesman for Burlington Northern
said.
At least 112 people were taken to
the Lucas County Memorial Hospi
tal in nearby Chariton, hospital
spokesman Barbara Riggs said,
while three of the most seriously
hurt, including two railroad work
ers, were flown by helicopter to hos
pitals in Des Moines.
She said at least nine of the in
jured would be hospitalized over
night, but that most of the injured
suffered bumps, bruises or broken
bones.
Marciniak said Amtrak’s records
showed 248 passengers and 22 crew
members were on the train, but she
said that number would not include
passengers who failed to show or
who bought tickets at the last min
ute.
Amtrak operates on Burlington
Northern tracks across southern
Iowa.
Burlington Northern had a der
rick and crew in the Russell area, but
spokesman Yvette Brown said she
could not confirm the company’s
equipment was involved.
She said a Burlington Northern
employee in charge of the crew was
injured, but said she had no details.
Amtrak dispatched six buses to
take the passengers to their destina
tions.
Group: Legalizing
drugs will put end
to prison crowding
Bush officially announces quest
for presidency to Houston crowd
HOUSTON (AP) — Vice President George
Bush officially began a “last hurrah” quest for the
presidency Monclay, trying to become the first
man in over 150 years to win the White House
while serving in the No. 2 job.
Returning to his hometown to formally kick
off his second campaign for the Republican nom
ination, Bush told hundreds of cheering sup-
See related story. Page 3
porters that the key issue in 1988 will be who
should follow Reagan in the Oval Office.
“For seven years now, I have been with a presi
dent, and I have seen what crosses that big desk,”
Bush said. “And who should sit at that desk? I am
that man.”
Bush, surrounded by his wife, Barbara, and
other members of his family, said, “I mean to run
hard, to fight hard, to stand on the issues. I mean
to win.”
In a 20-minute speech, Bush walked a fine line
between praising Reagan as “a great president”
and suggesting ways he would part company with
his boss.
“The president asked for and received my can
dor,” Bush said. “He never asked for, but re
ceived, my loyalty. But now it is my responsibility
to turn to the American people and share with
them my hopes and intentions, and I wish to
lead.”
During the speech, which touched on an array
of domestic and foreign policy issues, Bush em
braced Reagan’s stand against any general or sig
nificant tax increases, vowing that “I am not
going to raise your taxes.”
But he offered a slight variation on a frequent
Reagan theme of recent weeks — the president’s
call for an “economic bill of rights.” Bush said the
U.S. tax code is “cloaked in deliberate ambiguity”
and advocated a “taxpayer’s bill of rights.”
He indicated a shared philosophy with Reagan
on the need for “a prudent skepticism” in deal
ings with the Soviets and said the Reagan doc
trine of encouraging struggles for democracy
“must thunder on.” That, Bush said, includes Ni
caragua as well as Afghanistan and Africa.
Without citing any names, Bush blasted those
who engage in “influence-peddling in Washing
ton” and said Americans must “leave the tired
old baggage of bigotry behind us.”
Bush joined New York Rep. Jack Kemp, for
mer Delaware Gov. Pete du Pont, former tele
vision evangelist Pat Robertson and former Sec
retary of State Alexander M. Haig Jr. as officially
declared candidates. Senate Minority Leader
Bob Dole of Kansas is expected to announce his
candidacy next month.
Bush campaign organizers set up an ambitious
schedule of public appearances and national tele
vision interviews to accompany the vice presi
dent’s announcement.
AUSTIN (AP) — The Libertarian
Party, urging Texans to vote against
proposals that would pay for new
prisons, said Monday the best way to
reduce prison crowding is to legalize
drugs.
Current drug laws have forced
higher prices for street drugs, often
requiring drug users to turn to crime
to support their expensive habit,
said Gary Johnson, the Libertarians’
Texas secretary.
“The war on drugs is over,” he
said at a Capitol news conference.
“Drugs won.”
The Libertarians oppose Proposi
tion 8, which would authorize $500
million in bonds for projects such as
prisons, and Proposition 18, which
would create property tax districts
for local jails. Both are on the Nov. 3
ballot.
The amendments are supported
by state leaders who say additional
prison space is sorely needed for
compliance with a federal court or
der concerning Texas prisons. But
Johnson said the answer is fewer
crimes.
“Instead of building more pris
ons, Texas should stop locking up
peaceful.citizens for harmless activ
ities,” Johnson said. “The first step
to solve prison overcrowding is to le
galize victimless crimes, especially
drug possession.”
He said the continued incarcera
tion of drug-law violators means
criminals who pose a greater threat
to society are released from prison.
Johnson said legalization of drugs
probably would not cause a great in
crease in drug use. Personal use of
drugs should not be a government
concern unless the drug use forces
people to rob or steal to get drug
money, he said.
Property crimes would drop sig
nificantly if drugs were legalized,
Johnson predicted.
“Drug abuse should be treated
like alcoholism,” he said. “The law
should deal with reckless behavior
like driving while intoxicated, but
not mere possession or moderate use
of recreational drugs. Possession of
marijuana, cocaine, LSD or heroin
should be as legal as possession of a
six-pack of beer.”
The anti-drug laws have been as
unsuccessful as the ban on alcohol,
Johnson added.
“A rerun of of the 1920’s Prohibi
tion overburdens our courts, jails
and prisons,” he said. “Many crimi
nals who commit property crimes
and violent crimes are not caught,
tried or punished.”
Firm sells phony passports
for protection from terrorism
lay!
HOUSTON (AP) — A Houston
company is selling fake passports to
Americans traveling abroad who
hope to avoid being singled out as
U.S. citizens during terrorist attacks.
The passports, which apparently
are not illegal and use fictitious
countries, sell for $135 and come
complete with fake entry and exit
stamps and other notations.
For $95, military personnel can
buy the same artificial passport to
use as a subterfuge since they often
travel with only their military identi
fication cards.
Donna Walker, whose firm Inter
national Documents Services makes
:he passports, said she got the idea
tfter Iranians took 52 Americans
nostage at the U.S. Embassy in 1979.
But she didn’t act until more Ameri-
:ans were singled out by terrorists
hrough their passports or military
ards.
She said the attacks made her re-
lize that Americans needed a way to
‘hide” from terrorists even when
hey could not run from them.
The artificial passports sometimes
ill purport to represent a nation
nder an old name that has since
een changed for political reasons.
The passport comes with two ad-
itional pieces of documentation,
uch as a library card or an identifi-
PASSPORT
JLepu&Cica cte
Nonex-istia
Graphic by Susan C. Akin
cation card supposedly for the inte
rior of the non-existent country.
Walker said she first consulted
federal officials about making the
documents.
“They said they didn’t think I
could do it, but didn’t say I couldn’t
do it,” she said. “All the printers I
talked to were scared to death to
print the passports because they
thought it was illegal.
“I finally found a printer who
would do the work. Now, some of
my best customers are federal offi
cials.”
Members of Communist Party
explain ideas about socialism
By Kimberly House
Reporter
“We want to take real people
and put them in Congress, people
like truck drivers, steel workers
and factory workers,” members
of Communist Party USA told
students Monday night in Rud
der Tower.
The Atheists, Agnostics and
Free Thinkers Society sponsored
a one-hour forum to allow these
members of the party to present
and discuss some of the goals and
beliefs of Communism.
A1 Rodriguez, Class of ’74, has
been a member of the party for
10 years and is now a member of
the Texas District Executive
Committee. Rodriguez said Com
munist ideas go back as far as the
American Revolution.
“Thomas Payne and Samuel
Adams fought for Communist
ideas when no one even knew
much about the party,” Rodri
guez said. “The ideas make the
Communist Party, and history is
moving it our way.
Photo by Robert W. Rizzo
A1 Rodri
iguez, left, and John Carter call for questions from the peo
ple attending a forum on Communist Party beliefs and ideas.
“The socialist system will come
to the U.S. because capitalism will
not be able to solve the social
problems of poverty, unemploy
ment, etc. It doesn’t offer solu
tions to the problem of itself.”
John Carter, also a member of
the party for 10 years, has been
chairman of two Communist
clubs in Los Angeles and one in
Houston. He was also in Young
Communist Youths for one year.
Carter pointed out the main goals
for Communism:
• An end to the threat of nu
clear war.
• Guaranteed jobs for all.
• The elimination of bigotry,
prejudice, anti-Semitism and rac
ism.
• Opportunities for all and an
end to discrimination.
• Equality for women.
• Decent place to live at affor
dable rents for all people.
• A secure life for the elderly
and handicapped people.
• A system that guarantees
free medical care, child care and
education for all.
• A U.S. Congress that is truly
of, by and for the working peo
ple.
Carter said the Communists
have the strongest party in the
world for gaining peace and end
ing exploitation.
“We want to throw out the
gamblers and parasites in Con
gress,” Carter said about the mil
lionaires and billionaires in
power. “Their money comes out
of other people’s pockets.”