The Battalion
OPINION
2
The!
S
Mon
Monday, May 1,1989
Wright among
S
FROM
great salesmen
Initiative is a wonderful quality, part
of what made America great.
For example, there used to be a cop
on the South Side who made a practice
of carrying a couple of dozen wood pen
cils in his pocket while on duty.
Mike
Royko
Columnist
usual was the deal he got from his pub
lisher.
When he stopped a motorist for a tra
ffic violation, he would explain the se
riousness of the offense.
Then, in a f riendly manner, he would
say: “I have three kinds of pencils which
I sell — a $5 pencil, a $10 pencil and a
$25 pencil.”
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Thanks for your support
EDITOR:
When our son Scott was injured during a Cavalry
review for Parents’ Weekend, we were naturally quite
devastated, especially during the days that followed
when he remained unconscious and close to death.
We would like to express our gratitude to the cadets
of Squadron 11, especially to the Commanding Officer,
Bill Peterson, who stood by through all the days Scott
was in St. Joseph Hospital; to Shannon Fairchild, who
brought us meals at the hospital three times a day in
addition to his own busy class schedule and Cavalry
duties; and to the freshmen and sophomores of
Squadron 1 1 who donated their own money to pay for
the meals.
Also, to Maj. Gen. Thomas G. Darling, Corps
commandant, and the other officers from the
Department of Military Sciences; Miss May Dene
Walker, for her continued concern and kindness to us
and our son; Dr. Sutter, Dr. Edwards, Dr. Milford, and
Dr. Vogelseng from the Animal Science Department,
for their individual attention to our son’s scholastic
needs; Mr. Ken Durham and Ann Lovett from the
Texas A&M University Development Foundation, for
their kindness and consideration; all the members of
the Parsons’ Mounted Cavalry, for their constant and
continued attention and support; John Hall and the
members of Squadron 7; Dr. Karl Schmitt and the
outstanding staff at St. Joseph Hospital, who tended
and cared for our son so carefully; Dr. Ron Henricksen,
Sheryl Fairchild, and Teresa Cimini, who cared for
Scott at the scene of the accident; Col. and Mrs. Tom
Parsons, for their kindness and devotion; and all
friends of ours and Scott’s who called, visited and
offered us their support, comfort, prayers, food and
even their homes.
Bob and Linda Armstrong
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.
Depending on the degree of the vio
lation, he would then tell the motorist
what kind of pencil was appropriate. A
speeder might need a $25 pencil, while
a yellow-light jumper might require only
the $5 model.
T hat cop sold a lot of pencils, since
$5, $10 or $25 was cheaper than taking
a day off work and going downtown to
Traffic Court.
And years ago we had a Cook County
assessor who was talented as an artist.
When a new , tall office building went
up in Chicago, the assessor might pho
tograph it , then set up his easel and do
the building in watercolor, his specialty.
He or one of his associates would
then show the drawing to the building’s
owner.
Door-lock policy good idea
Real estate people are aware that the
county assessor decides how much their
buildings are worth for tax purposes. So
most of them would marvel at the
beauty of the paintings. And, of course,
they would insist on buying the master
pieces.
A real estate executive once showed
me his painting. It had been stored for
years in a closet in his building.
A standard book contract gives the
author between 10 percent and 15 per
cent of the retail price of the book, de
pending on how many copies it sells. For
paperbacks, the writer gets as little as 5
percent.
But Speaker Wright received 55 per
cent of the sales price, which may be the
best royalty deal in publishing history.
When this came out last year, I wrote
an open letter to Wright’s publisher,
pleading with him to handle my books.
He never responded, which sad
dened me. On the other hand, I could
understand why he ignored me.
Unlike Wright, I don’t have a cam
paign committee with a big financial war
chest. So my non-existent campaign
committee couldn't throw $265,000 in
campaign printing business to the man
who printed Wright’s book.
Another fascinating aspect to
Wright’s literary career was that he
didn’t bother with bookstores, where
books are usually sold.
His books were sold at political rallies
and to people who wanted to be
Wright’s friend. When you are speaker
of the U.S. House of Representatives,
one of the most powerful jobs in Amer
ica, boy, are there a lot of folks who
want to be your friend.
And it has also turned out that a uni
versity in Texas bought a big batch of
the books.
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Even though I’ve been living away
from home for three years now. Mom
still calls and tells me to do my home
work, go to bed early and lock my door.
I’m continuing to live on campus in
the fall, but Mom will not have to worry
about my door being locked because the
University will do it for me.
In an attempt to guarantee the safety
of students residing on campus, the
University will lock all residence hall ex
terior doors 24 hours a day, effective
Fall 1989.
I believe the decision is in the best in
terest of those who live on campus.
We need to realize that although Ag
gies supposedly do not lie, cheat or steal,
the campus is not free from those who
do. We cannot walk around believing
everyone on this campus is friendly and
that everyone lives by the Aggie Code of
Honor.
It is to our disadvantage if we let our
guard down and fail to protect ourselves
or our personal belongings.
The “it will never happen to me” syn
drome plagues us all. But it can happen
to any one of us. Last summer, a man
entered the residence hall I was living in
and walked into an upstairs room unan-
nounced. The girl in the room
screamed when the attacker entered.
Her roommate, who was out of the
room at the time, heard her cries and
ran in, scaring the attacker away. This
hit a little too close to home when I real
ized that five minutes before the inci
dent I had left my door unlocked to go
to the laundry room.
Incidences similar to these definitely
sparked Department of Student Affair’s
study of locking doors for longer times
and initiated the implementation of the
door-lock policy. The decision to imple
ment the study previously underway
was certainly reaffirmed by the incident
involving Harry Lewis Horak.
JSstf
Juliette
* —
Kizzo
Opinion Page Editor
locks, but we have failed to use them.
We don’t lock our inside doors, because
we are too trusting of those who live
around us, and we prop open outside
doors because we are too lazy to open
them when our guests arrive. Wiatt said
none of the reported on-campus resi
dence hall burglaries have been caused
by forced entry.
“What do you think it cost us?” he
asked.
I guessed about 50 bucks.
“It was 10 thou,” he said, “and worth
every penny of it.”
T hat happened after Wright gave a
speech at the university. As we all know
congressmen often receive something
called an “honorarium” for giving a
speech. Or for just having breakfast
with rich influence-seekers. Some calli'
a “fee.” Others, less charitable, call it<
bribe.
Vi
These nostalgic memories of initiative
came back to me while thinking about
House Speaker Jim Wright and his re
markable book deal.
Many of us set foot on campus and
tune out the rest of the “real w r orld.”
What we forget is that the campus is
part of this world, and thieves and crim
inals exist here and prey on the naivete
of students. What we need to do to alle
viate problems is to become as actively
aware of our surroundings on campus
as we are when we are off campus.
When we are at home, we are more
aware of our surroundings, and
whether it be in a big city or a small
town, we feel safer when we lock our
doors before we go to bed at night. At
school, we have the tendency to auto
matically put ourselves in study mode
and become oblivious to what is happen
ing around us. Opportunistic thieves
take advantage of such negligence.
A survey published in the Oct. 4,
1988 issue of USA Today reported that
Texas A&M had the highest rate of re
ported misdemeanor crimes of all col
leges in Texas.
Bob Wiatt, director of security and
University Police, said the majority of
crimes are caused by victim carelessness
in and out of residence halls.
The University has attempted to take
on a parental role just as our parents
have reprimanded us and even pun
ished us to set us straight in the past.
But increased crime rates have led the
University to believe that we have ig
nored their concern. The school has
supplied us with inside and outside door
Accessibility to the halls by “undesi
rables” obviously was too easy even
though doors were locked from 7 p.m.
to 10 a.m.
Students basically have unknowingly
set themselves up for crimes and should
have seen the door-lock policy ap
proaching. Student Affairs should not
be admonished for instigating such a
policy. Although students may feel that
Big Brother is taking control, they
should have realized that he was there
all along. Our carelessness has man
dated that the University educate us to
protect ourselves.
I know that he's accused about a wide
variety of hanky-panky, but as a writer
myself, I’m most intrigued by his liter
ary career.
However, there is a legal limit on ho"
much a congressman can receive in
year for blah-blahing an audience. And
when Wright made the universit'
speech, he had reached the limit.
But there was nothing to prevent thf
university from buying a brickload ol
Wright’s dust-covered books.
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If you have followed the Wright case,
you know that a few years ago, he tossed
together a few of his old speeches, idle
thoughts and tidbits of wisdom, and a
friend of his in the printing business
turned it into a thin book.
And as Wright keeps pointing out
there’s nothing illegal about sellinj
books.
So what does all this tell us? It tells u
what initiative can do. #
It has been hailed by critics as being
useless, banal and not worth reading.
The pencil-selling cop had it. So di
the art-selling assessor. And so has th
book-selling speaker of the House.
Juliette Rizzo is a junior journalism
major and opinion page editor for The
Battalion.
Now, this isn’t the first book ever
published about which these things have
been said.
But what made Wright’s book un-
The same instincts. The only diffei
ences are the products and the custom
ers. And the price.
Copyright 1989, Tribune Media Services, Inc
BLOOM COUNTY
by Berke Breathed
The Battalion
(USPS 045 360)
Member of
Texas Press Association
Southwest Journalism Conference
The Battalion Editorial Board
Scot Walker, Editor
Wade See, Managing Editor
Juliette Rizzo, Opinion Page Editor
Fiona Soltes, City Editor
Ellen Hobbs, Chuck Squatriglia. News
Editors
Tom Kehoe, Sports Editor
Jay Janner, Art Director
Dean Sueltenfuss, Life Editor
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BLOOM COUNTY
by Berke Breathed
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