The Battalion
OPINION
Friday, June 9,1989
Li’s action appalling
Chinese Premier Li Peng’s commendation Thursday of the
People’s Liberation Army’s “defense” of Tiananmen Square is the
latest display of the Chinese government’s appalling lack of hu
manity, acumen and basic common sense.
The student protesters should be commended for their noble
aspirations for basic democratic rights, as well as the nonviolent
way most of them have sought to bring about the change. The gov
ernment should be condemned by every civilized nation for its in
humane way of confronting the problem.
A government unused to seeing its wisdom questioned has sim
ply overreacted. But the intensity of the overall reaction to the
Beijing massacre may bring about the exact result that it was in
tended to suppress.
- An elite oligarchy has ruled 1.1 billion people with a system
that ignores the individual. The individuals may have had enough.
The Battalion Editorial Board
Mayoral office big
step for women
Women mayors all over the Lone Star
State and everyone wants to know what
it means: Houston, Dallas, San Antonio,
El Paso, not to mention Galveston, Cor
pus Christ! and more.
Kathy Whitmire, Annette Strauss,
Lila Cockrell, Suzanne Azar, Janice
Coggeshall, Betty Turner — we’ve got
Madam Mayors out the wazoo around
here. Has Texas, that old sexist bastion,
where woman’s highest ambition was al
ways to be cheerleader, come down with
religion? A case of that old-time femi
nism? Does this prove that there is no
such thing as discrimination against
women anymore, that we can all quit
worrying? No more special pleading
necessary? Are they going to disband
the Kilgore Rangerettes?
Women got the right to vote in Texas
in 1920 (Gov. Bill Hobby Sr. signed that
bill), but by 1950 our role as citizens was
still so limited we weren’t even allowed
to serve on juries. (We pass lightly over
even earlier eras of Texas sexism when
we were legally classed with morons and
the insane.)
The role of women in politics was
clearly defined — we licked stamps and
addressed envelopes. We started mov
ing up slowly, from stamp-licking to of
fice manager, from office manager to
campaign manager, to precinct chair, to
the school board (whole lot of us on
school boards), civic boards and com
missions and finally city councils. Just 20
years ago it was rare to find a woman on
a city council.
The current crop of women mayors is
not bolt out of the blue, it’s just one
more step for women who had already
given long service to their communities
on city councils, as treasurer or city sec
retary. The higher the proportion of
women in such offices, the more likely
that a woman would finally be elected
mayor. That this process came to its log
ical fruition in several Texas cities si
multaneously is swell, but it’s not revolu
tion, it’s no breakthrough, it’s just
another step on a very long march in
deed.
Some polls show that being female is
actually a slight, very slight, advantage
for a woman now at the municipal level,
because women are perceived as more
honest than men (ah, how true). But,
there is still a wall that women hit when
they run for higher office. Same wall we
hit in every other area — lawyers, re-
Molly
Ivins
Syndicated Columnist
porters, business executives, bankers.
You don’t see many women at the top
because discrimination lives. It persists
and continues not just in subjective
areas like promotion and advancement,
but in rank pay differences as well.
In politics, the problem is money, the
mother’s milk of the enterprise. “Is she
serious?”, is the question most asked
about any woman candidate. What it
means is, “Does she have money?” And
it is just flat harder for a woman to raise
money for a campaign than it is for a
man. That’s the reason EMILY’s List
and other fund-raising networks for
women are being developed, (EMILY
stands for Early Money Is Like Yeast —
“it makes the bread rise.” The organiza
tion is headquartered in Washington
and raises money for women candidates
with strong records on women’s issues,
most of it in $100 contributions from
working women.)
The difference between the way men
and women have to raise money is
neatly illustrated in the case of a mailing
made a month ago by Atty. Gen. Jim
Mattox that went to all the Democratic
precinct chairs in Texas. In addition to a
pitch from Mattox, the mailing included
an article written by Sam Attlesey and
Wayne Slater of the Dallas Morning
News, a fairly straightforward account
of the fund raising being done by Ann
Richards and by Mattox. The Mattox
campaign highlighted portions of the
article in yellow ink and sent it out as a
fundraiser for their side, including such
alarming news as: “Nearly 65 percent of
Ms. Richards’ contributors are women,
while 90 percent of Mr. Mattox’s givers
are men.” And: “While Atty. Gen. Mat
tox had tapped traditional Democratic
sources of campaign money, Ms. Rich
ards has traveled a different path - from
Hollywood to the Harvard Yard, seek
ing support from celebrities, feminists
and first-time political contributors.”
There are a lot of people who don’t
believe a woman can be elected gover
nor — and many of them are women.
That is the biggest handicap women
running for office still have — we are
still considered oddities in positions of
authority. It is changing, but slowly,
very slowly.
The Battalion
(USPS 045 360)
Member of
Texas Press Association
Southwest Journalism Conference
The Battalion Editorial Board
Ellen Hobbs, Editor
Juliette Rizzo,
Opinion Page Editor
Fiona Soltes,
City Editor
Drew Leder, Chuck Squatriglia,
News Editors
Steven Merritt,
Sports Editor
Kathy Have man,
Art Director
Hal Hammons,
Makeup Editor
■ IIM 11 "" . 111
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2
Open mind; close mouth
This summer, for the first time in my
life, I ate sushi.
That’s not a big deal, right? I mean,
sushi is a very trendy food. Lots of peo
ple eat it all the time.
But I don’t. It’s raw fish. I just don’t
eat raw fish.
Except, of course, when that really
nice guy I’m really interested in, who I
really want to make a good impression
on, takes me out to his favorite Japanese
place for his favorite Japanese dish, su
shi. Then I eat raw fish.
I should have known that the whole
thing was a bad idea when, on the way to
the restaurant, he started saying things
like, “You’ll like it. Just keep an open
mind.”
I’ve always considered myself an
open-minded person. Now I wasn’t so
sure.
I tried to think of any excuse to get
me out of this meal: “I’d love to go out
and get some sushi with you, but, unfor
tunately, I’m terribly allergic to sea
food.” That one might work, unless he
remembered that the night before I or
dered grilled tuna. “I’m not really very
hungry. I think I’ll just stick with salad.”
Very lame. I’m known for eating like a
bird, literally — my food intake is about
twice my body weight.
I finally resigned myself to eating the
meal. There didn’t seem to be any way
for me to avoid it without damaging my
pride and dignity.
The restaurant was a very pleasant
little place. Our hostess seated us and
our smiling waitress brought us pur
green tea. If I hadn’t known better, I
never would have suspected these peo
ple, who seemed so nice, were plotting
in the kitchen to serve me raw fish.
“If you don’t like it, you don’t have to
eat it,” said the young man who was sit
ting across from me. “We can always
stop somewhere and pick up some hot
dogs or pizza or something.”
There is no way I was going to admit
that I’d rather eat a hot dog on the cor
ner than sushi at this expensive restau
rant. I’d slip all the food into my purse
and dump it out in the restroom first.
“I’m almost sure you’ll like it, though.
It’s one of my favorite foods,” he said,
beaming at me. “You’ve just got to keep
an open mind.”
It bothered me that he kept saying
that. I am open-minded, I told myself.
Just because I have an aversion to eating
uncooked fish served with sticky rice
does not mean I'm close-minded. In
fact, I’m one of the most open-minded
people I know. I think.
I’ve always prided myself on having
an open mind, on being able to take the
other guy’s opinion and weigh it fairly
for its virtues and faults. But this little
incident was really eating away at my so-
called open mind. Why was what I con
sidered to be one of my really positive
personality traits being eroded by a
plate of seafood?
My train of thought was interrupted
by the arrival of the food, and I knew
that I was actually going to have to eat
sushi. I tried desperately to remain
calm. Little beads of sweat began to
break out across my upper lip.
The young man started telling me
what type of fish each of these little
strips of meat had been before they
>jvound up on my dinner plate. He said
something that made me laugh, and I
began to relax a little bit. Maybe this
wouldn’t be so bad after all.
For a few minutes, it wasn’t so bad.
After I doused the fish in hot mustard
and soy sauce, it was even sort of tasty.
Then, from out of nowhere, came a
small voice: “Hey, what are you think
ing? That’s raw fish you’re biting into!”
— Mail Call -
I could feel the hinges on my open
mind beginning to close. The littlesfo
of pink fish suddenly became a loi
harder to chew.
1 tried to think about something else:
school, work, the play we weregoingto
see that night, my stance on theabortioc
issue. Nothing worked. I chewed fu
riously on the fish, no longer able to
swallow. The young man began to loot
at me strangely.
“Is there something wrong? You
okay?” he asked.
“Oh, yeah. I’m fine. I’m fine,” I Said
as I darted around in my mind looking
for some mental crowbar toopenupmv
now firmly closed mind.
I wandered back to the idea of open
minds for a moment. I saw a bumpei
sticker once that said, “If you havean
open mind, people will throwalotof
garbage in it.” I wondered if they reals
believed that.
I thought for a while about lettersw
had received at The Battalion. I remem
bered getting some that said thatcolum
nists with rather non-traditional ideas
had open minds. I wondered how true
that was. Just because someone has an
alternative outlook, or seems more lib
eral’ than the majority of the students
on campus, doesn’t mean he has an
‘open mind.’ His mind may be as dosed
as everyone else’s, if not more.
I seemed to be suffering from that
sort of syndrome. I could say I havean
open mind, but in reality I stick stub
bornly to my own ideas. I’m not always
as willing to give somebody else’s ideaa
shot as I’d like to think I am.
“Well, how was the halibut?” tbe
young man asked sweetly.
Then I realized — it’s gone! I swal
lowed it! I’m not a close-minded person
after all!
“Great!” I said. “I love it!”
“I knew you’d like it,” he said. “Go
ahead. Have some more.”
Ellen Hobbs is a junior journalism
major and editor o/The Battalion.
Don’t let it happen
Editor:
Our legislators in Austin just passed an amendment
giving themselves a 300 percent pay raise.
This outrageous salary increase, at a time we can least
afford it, will cost us, the taxpayers, $3.5 million a year.
It gets worse. The amendment will take away the
voters right to vote on future pay raises. In my opinion,
the legislators are not being financially responsible with
our wallets.
The legislators have craftily worded the amendment
on the Nov. 7 ballot to limit their salary to one-third of the
governor’s salary. The legislators vote on the governor’s
salary.
Basically, they will vote their own pay raise when they
give the governor a pay increase.
Their salary doesn’t include the present daily
allowance of $30, which will be increased to $81. That’s
$4200 increased to $11,340 for 140 days of work in Austin
Can you imagine getting that kind of allowance for food
and gas?
We need state government to be financially
responsible. We need to stop this pay raise.
Lynn Oates
Fort Worth, Tx
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maintain the author’s intent. Each letter must be signed and must include the
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