Page 2/The Battalion/Wednesday, November 4,1987
Opinion
The Battalion
(USPS 045 360)
Member of
Texas Press Association
Southwest Journalism Conference
The Battalion Editorial Board
Sondra Pickard, Editor
John Jarvis, Managing Editor
Sue Krenek, Opinion Page Editor
Rodney Rather, City Editor
Robbyn Lister, News Editor
Loyd Brumfield, Sports Editor
Tracy Staton, Photo Editor
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Men will be boys
Some people just have never realized that Texas A&M has
left the Stone Age. Unfortunately, many of them are Aggies.
On Friday, four Aggieland photographers went to cover the
raising of centerpole at the bonfire site. Two were male. Two
were female. The male photographers were allowed to go about
their business relatively undisturbed. The female photogra
phers were harassed, cursed at and threatened until they left the
perimeter.
William Kibler, the adviser for bonfire, told The Battalion
that students can be excluded from the perimeter only if they
are not wearing a helmet or have no legitimate reason to be
there. The Aggieland photographers were wearing pots. Their
assignment gave them a legitimate reason to be there.
Allegations of sexual harassment at bonfire are nothing new.
Last year a female cadet filed assault charges against several stu
dents after she was attacked and dragged from the perimeter.
Three years ago, Battalion staffer Kathy Wiesepape was
dragged from the perimeter while taking photos.
It’s doubtful that harassment will end with this incident. But
bonfire is supposed to reflect Aggie unity, not outmoded atti
tudes. It’s time to ditch the mentality that says a woman’s place is
on the cookie crew or as a bonfire buddy. Because as Wiesepape
wrote three years ago, real men aren’t threatened by women
who come within 20 yards of their bonfire.
— The Battalion Editorial Board
With government,
Americans get
what they deserve
It seems cruel to
point it out in
these times of inci
pient chaos, but
the American peo
ple are getting the
government they
deserve.
It is a govern
ment of stalemate,
with a conserva
tive, Republican
president dead
locked on all fronts
ocratic congress.
In foreign affairs, Reagan struggles
to maintain a big-shouldered attitude in
the Persian Gulf while Congress strug
gles to rein him in. On the political
front, Congress has handed Reagan his
head in response to his effort to remake
the Supreme Court in his own image.
The economic scene resembles a
World War I battlefield with both sides
entrenched in long-held positions. Rea
gan wants to reduce the federal deficit
by cutting domestic spending to the
bone, then cutting bone, while Congress
believes higher taxes should be part of
the solution.
Both Congress and President Reagan
have made noises of compromise re
cently, but the sounds all have been
drowned out by the crack of political
sniping.
Well, what did we expect? We elected
them. And they did not lie to us. The
president has tried to do just what he
said he would, and so has Congress.
Whose fault is that?
Ours.
The American political system is vir
tually unique in the world in its ability to
elect what amounts to two competing
governments of diametrically opposed
views. If the American people love Pres
ident Reagan as much as his electoral
majority would indicate, why didn’t they
give him a Congress that felt the same
way about things?
If we didn’t trust Mr. Reagan to run
things, why did we elect him? I don’t
know why. I don’t live in a well-ordered,
rational society; I’m an American.
The economic turmoil we’ve seen in
the past two weeks has changed the po
litical landscape. Up until now the Dem
ocratic presidential Field has resembled
a circular firing squad. They haven’t
been trying to find a winner,* they’ve
been trying to pick a survivor. The Re
publicans, on the other hand, looked as
though they were on their way to nomi
nating an experienced politician of na
tional stature who would ride a wave of
peace and prosperity to victory. No
more.
Historically, voters have turned to
Democrats in hard times, and the stock
market crash offers, at the very least,
the suggestion of hard times ahead. The
question remains: Which Democrat?
None of them has yet seized the public
imagination. Oh, let’s be frank; they
haven’t even seized the private imagina
tion. Some say that the new political
reality might induce one of the missing
party heavyweights — Mario Cuomo,
Bill Bradley, Sam Nunn — to reconsider
his options and make a late dash for the
nomination. Perhaps, but that seems a
dim hope, even now.
The Republicans, in the meantime,
are trying to close the compassion gap.
In Republican circles compassion gener
ally consists of feeling sorry that rich
people have to pay higher taxes than
poor people, but all the current GOP
candidates are beginning to sound like
Walter Mondale. If the idea takes hold
among grass-roots Republicans, it’s en
tirely possible that the Republicans will
nominate Mario Cuomo for president
and the Democrats’ problem will be
over.
Not likely. Democrats are better ad
vised to take comfort in this characteri
zation of Franklin D. Roosevelt, made in
early 1932 by Walter Lippman, the most
respected political analyst of his time.
He called Roosevelt “a highly impres
sionable person without a firm grasp of
public affairs and without very strong
convictions. . . . He is a pleasant man
who, without any important qualifica
tions for the office, would very much
like to be President.”
Roosevelt grew to fill the office; so
might one of the Democrats. Goodness
knows, there is enough room for growth
among them. There is a joke making the
rounds these days, a pretty good joke:
Gary Hart, Joe Biden and Paul Simon
die on the same day and go to their re
ward. They are greeted by the Celestial
Gatekeeper and assigned to their
rooms.
Hart opens the door to his room to
find it populated by 1,000 rats. A deep
voice comes over the loudspeaker: “-
Gary Hart, you have sinned and for
your sins you are condemned to spend
eternity in a room with 1,000 rats.”
Biden goes to his room and finds five
lions there. The voice on the loud
speaker says: “Joe Biden, you have
sinned and for your sins your are con
demned to spend eternity in a room
with five lions.”
Paul Simon goes to his room and
finds Sophia Loren there. The voice on
the loudspeaker says: “Sophia Loren,
you have sinned . ..”
Copyright 1987, Tribune Media Services, Inc.
Donald
Kaul
with a liberal, Dem-
Obnoxious Arizona governor
deserves nomination to court f
Ronald Reagan
wasn’t happy
when the Senate
decided to reject
his nomination of
Robert Bork to the
Supreme Court.
He was so
miffed, in fact,
that he told an au
dience that “If I
have to appoint
another one, I’ll
Sue
Krenek
try to find one that they’ll object to just
as much as they did to this one.”
It was a great attitude, an attitude
that said, “If you don’t play by my rules,
I’ll take my toys and leave.” It banished
wimpdom and brought the Rambo fac
tor back to the White House. You could
almost see Ronnie gearing up say nasty
things about Mikhail Gorbachev’s
mother or invade Grenada again to
demonstrate U.S. military superiority
over sunbathing medical students.
But Ronnie blew it.
He nominated Douglas H. Ginsburg,
the ultimate in generic judges, a man
whose stint as a federal judge has been
so brief that one law professor was
moved to point out that the Supreme
Court really isn’t designed to provide
on-the-job training.
I really don’t know what Ronnie was
thinking. I mean, how can you object to
a man who’s only been a federal judge
for 18 months? He hasn’t had time to be
objectionable about anything. And his
specialty, antitrust law, hardly provides
for any titillating rulings to get people
riled up. You know, rulings on abortion,
women’s rights, abortion, civil rights,
abortion, the right of the godless Com
munist media to slander our beloved
country, and abortion.
Like I said, Ronnie blew it.
The perfect candidate was out there,
lurking in the Arizona shadows. Insult
ing women. Insulting blacks. Creating
random chaos.
Ronnie should have nominated Evan
Mecham.
Mecham is the Republican governor
of Arizona — until he gets impeached
or recalled, anyway, and that seems like
only a matter of time. Before he even
took office, a recall movement had
started, a sure sign that he’d out-offend
Ginsburg on all counts.
The beauty of it is that Mecham is an
equal-opportunity offender. The gospel
according to Evan would include such
gems as:
• It’s OK for textbooks to refer to
black children as “pickaninnies.”
• Arizona doesn’t need a paid state
holiday in honor of the Rev. Martin Lu
ther King Jr.
• Working women cause divorce and
the women’s movement causes lesbia
nism. (Mecham agreed with that one af
ter one of his appointees drew fire for
saying it in the first place.)
• Civil rights guarantees don’t apply
to homosexuals because of their “unac
ceptable” lifestyle.
If none of that seems offensive, try
this: Mecham’s appointees include a
man under investigation in connection
with a slaying and an education adviser
who said that “If a student wants to says
the world is flat, the teacher doesn’t
have the right to prove otherwise.”
Te
o
AUSTII
Mecham obviously has the sametal
ent for making appointments as doe [returns 11
Ronnie, the man who brought us ’
Watt. But would Mecham get the reat ,
tion Ronnie wants? Would the
object to him as much as it did to Bork:
Yeah, I think so. After all, tk
Mecham Watchdog Committee hasgai
nered more than 300,000 signature
needed to force a recall election.
Buck, the group’s chairman, says
Mecham: “Never before has one mat.
alienated so many people in such a shon | erot s ’ ^
period of time.” *°
n the past
With 5 i
sorting, 1
/oted for
16,362, c
:ontinuin£
tooint the 1
Billiona
Mecham and his cronies share tk
Reagan administration’s talent for em
barrassingly inappropriate off-the-culi |House Bil
[refonns i
iystem, fe
remely b
remarks. The day after a party official
referred to the recall movement as “Ed
Buck and his band of homosexual agita .
tors,” a newspaper revealed that tht
head of the Mecham Fan Club wasi
convicted child molester.
Mecham might even be able to join
another group of the Reagan elite, tht
now-under-indictment government of
ficials. He apparently didn’t disdosea
$350,000 campaign loan. He’s talkingio
a grand jury about that now, and even
the Republicans are talking impeach
ment.
Doonesbury has lampooned him.
Bumper stickers blast him. (One popu
lar one says, “Arizona needs a governor
that is higher on the food chain.”) Bui
still Evan Mecham rolls on, insulting tht| XEXAJ
hief chee
Perot,
jie good «
landmark
Characi
in his criti
the world
elected bo
Perot !
nothing
elected to
tion.
Exi
masses in his own Neanderthal way. forced ev;
I don’t know what Ronnie was think- more tha
ing when he passed up this one.
Sue Krenek is a senior journalism ma
jor and opinion page editor for The
Battalion.
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Mail Call
Why be rude to SMU band?
EDITOR:
I feel somewhat compelled to write about the conduct
of the crowd during halftime at the A&M-Louisiana Tech
game. Our support of the SMU Mustang Band was
something to write home about. I was proud of the way
that the Aggies made the SMU band feel at home despite
being asked at yell practice by head yell leader Doug Beall
to be as loud as we could to drown out their music.
Yell leaders, you represent Texas A&M, and many
people outside of A&M mold their perceptions about our
University through your actions. As responsible student
leaders, you should make sure that you are representing
Texas A&M in the best way possible. After all, that’s why
you were selected, isn’t it? Remember, you are yell leaders
leading a school to victory, not generals leading a country
into war.
David Mendoza ’88
We were not playing against SMU, and I don’t think
their band came to Kyle Field in an attempt to “blow out”
the Fightin’ Texas Aggie Band. Why create rivalry where
there is none?
Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 words in length. The editorial staff
reserves the right to edit letters for style and length, but will make every effort to
maintain the author’s intent. Each letter must be signed and must include the
classification, address and telephone number of the writer.
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