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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 27, 1989)
The Battalion OPINION Tuesday, June 27,1989 Old Glory signifies freedom to freely exchange ideas On Wednesday the United States Supreme Court made an ef fort to ensure the presevation of the First Amendment — in a 5-4 vote, they said no law could make it illegal to desecrate or destroy the American flag in peaceful protest. The case stemmed from a protest during the 1984 Republican National Convention in Dallas where Gregory “Joey” Johnson burned an American flag in a political protest. To say it is illegal to punish those who desecrate the flag is to support the very principles for which the flag stands — individual freedom and the free exchange of ideas, both of which are critical in a Democratic society. In the majority opinion, Justice William J.‘ Brennan Jr. said, “We do not consecrate the flag by punishing its desecration, for in doing so we dilute the freedom that this che rished emblem represents.” Burning the flag does not harm the spirit of America. Physi cally, the flag is just another piece of colorful cloth, another icon — its true meaning lies in its spirit. The decision upholds the spirit and values of the flag and America. You must protect the ideas you hate in order to protect the ideas you love. You can burn the symbol, but you cannot kill the meaning, and for the Court to de cide otherwise would have done just that. The Battalion Editorial Board University Tower: home or playpen for the wealthy? First there was the controversial door- lock policy. Then there was the heated “dormitory”/“residence hall” debate. And now (to continue what seems to be my tradition of voicing my opinion about various aspects of student living) there is the University Tower, which will open in Fall 1989 as Aggieland’s first private, co-educational off-campus dor mitory. The newly renovated hotel, described as “above and beyond the rest,” is just that: above and beyond the financial reach of the average college student looking for affordable housing. The 304-room facility will house about 700 students. For a fee signifi cantly higher than on-campus housing fees, the students will be provided with numerous “benefits” which include full meal plans, an indoor swimming pool, a sun deck, a volleyball pit, a weight room, a computer room, a TV room and, of course, a game room. The whole thing sounds like a glori fied playpen to me. Now if you’re like me and have been griping about the rising costs of on-cam pus living since the day you set foot on this campus, this pricy, self-contained living arrangement definitely doesn’t appeal to you. Drawing upon personal experience, I know that after the first year of college a student realizes he has little time to “play” and needs a roof to sleep under for only short periods of time. (After your fresh man year, you either party until the wee hours of the morning, work late or stare at the library walls until the building closes). So much for play time. Now I admit that when 1 first came to A&M my mother carefully inspected all the living options available to me and practically made my housing decision for me. Of course she wanted the best ■ 1 11 * lit Juliette ■ V ^0 Rizzo Opinion Page Editor for her little girl and the best included the necessities: carpet and air-condition ing. That’s it, though. Quality over quantity. None of these “extras.” I question whether this alternative liv ing option actually appeals to a signifi cant number of students. With the addi tion of five modular residence halls on campus (two of which are coed), who deemed it necessary to provide this ad ditional living space? With the availability of additional dorm space and a significant number of apartments and houses in the commu nity, just how many students will need to take advantage of this“Dynasty”-like dorm setting, complete with winding staircases? By setting such high prices and by advertising after students have already made their fall housing choices, Tower management may be in for a sur prise. Anyone who has ever had the priv ilege of visiting the University of Texas has seen a similar structure inhabited by a bunch of wealthy slobs. The once “ulti mate” tower-style dormitory, known as Dobie Center, has been trashed by its in habitants (who are seemingly spoiled students) and is basically unattractive both inside and out. Because high costs will limit residents, the University Tower may follow Do- bie’s downfall as a toy rich kids will play with and discard when the newness wears off. Only time will tell. Juliette Rizzo is a junior journalism major and opinion page editor for The Battalion. 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 Katny Haveman, Art Director Hal Hammons, Makeup Editor Editorial Policy The Battalion is a non-profit, self-supporting newspa per operated as a community service to Texas A&M and Bryan-College Station. Opinions expressed in The Battalion are those of the editorial board or the author, and do not necessarily rep resent the opinions of Texas A&M administrators, fac ulty or the Board of Regents. The Battalion also serves as a laboratory newspaper for students in reporting, editing and photography classes within the Department of Journalism. The Battalion is published Monday through Friday during Texas A&M regular semesters, except for holiday and examination periods. Mail subscriptions are $17.44 per semester, $34.62 per school year and $36.44 per full year. Advertising rates furnished on request. Our address: The Battalion, 230 Reed McDonald, Texas A&M University, College Station, i'X 77843-1 111. Second class postage paid at College Station, TX 77843. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Battal ion, 216 Reed McDonald, Texas A&M University, Col lege Station TX 77843-4111. 2STi e Battalion uesday, Ji Izzy Stone won’t be forgotten IVri ormei Izzy Stone, that extraordinary mind and lovely spirit, is gone. A hero; short, puny, dimpled, looked like a madly in telligent chipmunk, but a real hero. As a citizen, the model. As a journalist, none better. And as a human being, a perfect delight. He was so generous, he loved nothing more than sharing. I think, “Have you read . . . ” must have been the words most often out of his mouth — he had always just dicovered some wonderful “new” writer. In one fairly typical 20-minute discussion of Marxism a few years ago, he offered wonderful insights on the works of Marx, Lenin, Hegel, Heraclitus, Victor Serge, Ro- main Rolland, Gide, Koestler, Howard Fast, Francois Fejtel, Jean-Paul Sartre, Kingsley Martin, Wolfgang Leonhard, George Moore, Abelard, Jesus, Ber- dyaav, Czeslaw Milosz, Anatole France and Krapotkin. good society and it is not led by honest men.” But just reading and knowing more than almost anyone else I ever met isn’t what made Stone a great man. The aca demy is full of learned professors who have no gift for life. Izzy Stone was as “in the ring,” as Teddy Roosevelt put it, as you can get; he was one of the great est muckrakers the country ever pro duced, and the man knew his muck. “All governments lie” was one his dicta, and he certainly proved often enough that ours does, But none of the ugliness and none of the unfairness he found in life ever dimmed his hope or his energy — not an ounce of bitterness in him and I don’t think I ever knew anyone who had a better time than Izzy Stone. In his late 60’s, already nearly blind and nearly deaf, he was thrilled to be off to Europe by ship. He loved ballroom dancing with his wife, Esther, and of course by then shipboard bands were about the only ones left where the dancers didn’t have to do The Monkey. And he would rise every morning before dawn so he could watch the sun come up over the water — oh, he loved that. Since Stone couldn’t get a job, he started his own paper, “I.F. Stone’s Weekly.” Among the original subscrib ers were Albert Einstein, Bernard Rus sell and Eleanor Roosevelt, By the time he finally quit in 1971, he had over 70,000 readers. They mourned when he shut down the paper, but not Izzy: He was so excited about doing longer pieces, he said, “I feel as though I’ve been practicing my scales for years and now I’m going to play music.” In his 70s, he began studying Greek so he could read about the origins of freedom of thought in the original. The result was his book, “The Trial of Socrates.” With his usual scrupulous reporting, Stone studied the documents and then chal lenged the conventional academic the ory that Socrates was sentenced to death only for preaching virtue. He brought to life a 2,500-year-old national security case. arms race, the Vietnam War and a other things he considered stainsc mocracy. He was kicked out of the! tional Press Club in 1941 forbringir; black judge to lunch there. He will nally readmitted 40 year later. Peril his last great controvesy was over Id For years Stone supported Israel win heartedly, visited it many times, w books about it. But after the Arah! raeli war in 1967, he urged Israelii compensate Arab refugees for losses and to cede the occupied tei ries to them to create an Arab Pale: federated with Israel, with Jerusak the joint capital. Once again, he right long before anyone else. WASHING IT weaker Jim Wri win back the s Ithics charges ai onal career on I “It’s best for eople whom P' |nd make room atement issued Wright, who i homas S. Foley led to resign hi; fort Worth, Tex He had left oj e-election to tht Easily the finest newspaperman of his generation, Stone became unemploya ble during the McCarthy era becausq he was “a red.” Of course he was a man of the Left, but always of the independent left. He infuriated those on the Left as much as he did those on the Right. He was briefly a member of the Socialist Party as a young man, but never a Com munist. After his first visit to the Soviet Union in 1956, he wrote, “This is not a In Andrew Patner’s book, “LF. Stone, A Portrait,” Izzy surveys the walls of his home in Washington, D.C., all lined with books in Greek, Latin, Hebrew, En glish, Yiddish, French and German, and remarks, “There’s so much I haven’t read. There’s so much to learn.” What a shame that so many people are under the impression that William F. Buckley is a well-educated and well-read journal ist: You have only to compare Buckley to Stone’s breadth and depth, and to his laser-like ability to cut through bull, to see what a truly educated man can bring to public debate. There was nothing af-. fected or jejune about Stone, his lan guage had the energy and simplicity of the newsroom. But what made him so special to know was his joy — at a poem, at natural beauty, at a good joke, a pithy phrase, a meaty essay. There’s a wonderful document film about Izzy called “I.F. Stou Weekly” made in 1973: They stillsk it at film festival and it may be on sometime. Fry to catch it if you can. the books, I would recommend start with “Polemics and Prophecies," a lection of essays from 1967 to 1 will give you an idea of his wonder style and of the formidable research hind his reporting. As an investigai reporter, there was no one bettertl Izzy. One of the of things investigai reporters know is how much infort tion there is in the public records- just have to dig to get it out. Stonewi champion digger. He used to readi entire federal budget, plus thestatisi in the back and the “Special Anal) and Topics” section — and heemerg with wonderful stories. His book Killing at Kent State: How M Went Unpunished” (1971) is a cl; 11 piece of investigation. ideal lymin The list of causes that made Izzy a pa riah for many years are now pretty much the conventional wisdom: He op posed McCarthyism, racism, the nuclear One reason Izzy Stone remained® side the pale of respectable discor for so long was not only because he vocated unpopular causes, but alsoh cause he was so unconcerned with pn tige. He simply did not care ah winning the Pulitzer Prize or any oft other little tokens of professional a cess, including lunching at “in” rest rants. He not only refused to close to anyone in politics, hedidn'tc whether other journalists invited hia dinner. He wasn’t, anti-social— he an absolute charmer and had the mi wonderful laugh; he just couldn't corrupted by the phony glitter of “a cess” or money. He never wanted to “respectable.” He was so wise, so brave and fun. Mail Call Aggie apathy unavoidable EDITOR: Pogue feels the United States is the savior of the world,1 is this imperialistic attitude that got us into the Vietnam fiasco, or have we forgotten that already? I take issue with Greg Pogue’s letter on June 22 concerning apathy at A&M for the people of China. I have yet to speak with anyone who is not shocked and disgusted. The demonstration on Wednesday was an honest reaction to the events in Beijing, but I personally didn’t see the point, and I expect that several thousand Aggies didn’t either. Rather than interpret this as an indication of apathy among the Aggies, I feel that people may have classified the demonstration as a silly gathering that served no beneficial purpose. With respect to Mr. Pogue’s opinion that Bush’s reaction has been limp and anemic, it appears that Mr. I mourn the deaths of these Chinese people and pm’ for the immediate halting of these murders, but I alsofe that direct involvement by the United States would probably accelerate the bloodshed and result in a very tense world crisis. Rambo Reagan would probably have sent in the troops, but I applaud Mr. Bush for showing common sense and restraint in this difficult and comply situation. Gary Sera Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 ■words in length. The editomlM senes the right to edit letters for style and length, but will make evtrj | ■ maintain the author’s intent. Each letter must be signed and must includethi sijication, address and telephone number of the writer. See related si vindicatio: he first House s An aide, spet said a v fict support foi he decision noi hat was vindicat The poll said :nts who were < :or him again if The poll, wl eek and had at Wot conti out i AUSTIN (/ cial legislativ< needed to bre the state wor system, if a r and place the on a fast tr House leaders But a key s tiations dismis I don’t think Montford. House Spe; House and S< attempt to for private over J and if all goe bers may have the finished ] July 5. “What we pick up some that we think so it will get both the Hou Lewis, D-Fort The major strategy is to committee wh getting a fina said. But Mont said the Sena : hammer out conference co “I’ve never of legislation proved in o tee,” he said. After failir ~ He;/...you made dean’s list! 95