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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 28, 1989)
The Battalion OPINION Wednesday, June 28,1989 THE SUPREME COURT'S GUIDE ] to yufw MEANxmes CURRENT TERMS: Smokino n yorf-smoKWt is Rose’ the hole It’s two out in the bottom of the ninth and Pete Rose is at bat. The score is tied, Baseball 2 and Gamblers 2. Here’s Bart Giamatti with the wind-up, and the pitch . . . strike one! — Rose is accused by bookmaker Ronald Peters of placing over $1 million in bets over a two-year period. The second pitch . . . strike two! — The FBI acquires betting sheets from Rose’s house ready equipped with fin gerprints. Rose is in the hole 0 and 2. Giamatti’s pitch . . . ball one — Rose takes Giamatti to court. Wait! What’s happening? The umpire, Norbert Na- del, has postponed the game for 14 days? Supreme Court justified in decision to protect ideals I’d be willing to bet that most of you are aware of Pete Rose’s problem. For those who are not, the former baseball great and current Cincinatti Reds man ager has been accused of gambling by some quite reliable sources. At stake, and the stakes are high I must say, is Rose’s association with baseball, since gambling is strictly forbidden. In the good old days, if a grader brought home a lousy grade, have apparantly changed. The kid now hire an attorney, if he thinks his parents have prejudged him, he could be grounded. Tin :rs w * 10 remov ■ -— the spot tear peared, Warlike the court system determine his st ' lU ' e ^S ure a ^.' • . . . itrCCt caiH 1 i Obviously this is ridiculous, butsoii'™ for court system tor even accepting a such as the one involving Pete andl pitch dark and < Under this system, the courts could cide the fate of any employee of! company who was to be fired, or who received a low grade. (O.K. ample.) Rose, baseball’s all-time hit leader, is now batting against a formidable foe in Major League Baseball Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti. I recently received a letter from the TRUMPET mailing list on our com puter network condemning the Su preme Court decision overturning the conviction of the man convicted of flag- burning (a.k.a. desecration of a vener ated object) under the Texas Penal Code. This subject is getting an awful lot of airplay, and I’m nearly convinced that in many people’s minds, the emo tional issue and the constitutional issue are being impractically and unneces sarily yoked together. Brent Walter Auvermann Guest Columnist city streets to protect us (or to give us parking tickets), yet they do not under stand that state laws are not sovereign, and that the Supreme Court has the power to nullify any federal or state law that conflicts with Constitutional prin ciples. The Supreme Court justices have not hypocritically washed their hands of bloodstains in the way that Pilate did at Jesus’ trial (or, insert your own analogy, if you don’t care for that one). They have confirmed, however, that to vener ate objects over ideals amounts to empty idolatry; to honor the flag over the ide als it represents is exactly that kind of vanity. The American heroes of past wars gave their lives, not for the flag, but for freedom; to suggest otherwise is to belittle their sacrifices. In the past, the Commissioner’s power was unquestionable. The first Commissioner of Baseball, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, handed down life sus pensions to eight Chicago White Sox players after a wagering scandal in 1919. A more, poignant example of the Commissioner’s power may be that two of the greatest baseball players in his tory, Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle, were banned for life for dealings with a casino. (They were later reinstated by a different Commissioner.) Second, if Rose’s case wasn’t ridr lous enough, Judge Nadel’s may make the books so to speak, asl ing a landmark case of misjustice.Jud Nadel thrust the courts into like a quarter into a slot-machine. I Commissioner is not allowed to take action in the next two weeks. OnJulj Nadel will consider a motion forapi liminary injunction, which would!, ther delay baseball’s case while N» decides who should determine R® guilt. Some of you may construe that to mean that every person who disagrees with me on this is letting his emotions overrun him. That is not what I mean to suggest at all; I realize that just as nine Supreme Court justices could not come to a concensus on the issue, neither should I expect that all reasonable citi zens should see eye-to-eye on it. But the evidence is overwhelming that many are confusing the emotional and legal facets of the flag-burning brouhaha. One of my good friends, a policeman in Dallas, has a brother on the force who was watching from only a few feet away when the flag was burned in 1984. His brother remembers seeing an 80-year old veteran walking up to the pile of ashes, with tears streaming down his cheeks, scooping them up, and taking them to be buried. I don’t know if he was stopped so that the ashes could be used as material evidence or not ... I doubt it, as eyewitness accounts proba bly sufficed to put the guy away under Texas law. Secondly, (and this is more in line with my initial premise) the illustration of the broken-spirited veteran with the tear-stained clothes seems more to ag gravate the emotional reaction to the act than to address the legality or the mor ality of the Supreme Court decision. The statements I’ve heard are, “that flag was paid for with men’s blood, but now the Supreme Court has given the god less commies and immigrant ingrates free rein to spit upon it, burn it or tram ple it in front of thousands and millions who serve or served in our Armed Forces.” Yes, that is true, and it is a gut- wrenching sight to most of us who are citizens of this “great nation.” But the use of this illustration to deride the Su preme Court decision really suggests, then, that the justices are somehow un- American, disloyal slobs who have no respect for the flag or for the ideals it represents. This is patently unfair, both to justices, and to ourselves. Take a rose and dry it sometime. Then take it in your hands and crush it. Is not its aroma more fragrant and beautiful when it is “dishonored?” Just as the flag represents freedom when it waves proudly over our military bases, our stadiums, and our neighborhoods, it represents freedom even more boldly when it is burned in portest. Essentially, Baseball law gives the Commissoner absolute power to regu late disputes “in the best interests of the game.” Every player, manager and team owner knows and respects this. It has worked for years. So what the heck is Judge Norbert A. Nadel doing? My main gripe is not whether or Rose gambled. It is his money. I ® care. It would be slightly upsetting bet on his own team, especially if picked them to lose, but that is noi major problem either. My compl® that baseball and the courts mixaboi well as happiness and season ticket see the Atlanta Braves. This isalnw bad as our government’s boycottnf the Olympics. HOUSTON (. rirl swept into a lowing water Ir Allison spent IE ide an undergr iel before she w mthorities said. “She spent tin ity’s major sev hat flood water hardly had Departmer Warnkesaid. “It’s just a mi itill be alive,” he Latricia Reese r south Hous m. Monday :ousin saw her fast-moving into a nearby gu She was retri Tuesday by two “We used a said Ti instruction wo he drain Tuesc Univ dies ] STAFF AND WII The man v Texas A&M L Monday in Ac Frank H. V tablished sol houses at the and the Unive lina. He served 1978. During lishing caree publication c books, about University wo Wardlaw c serving as fc the Universit 24 years. Be Let us not be drawn into the trap of emotionally exalting objects over the ideals they represent, and let us not im pugn the motives and patriotism of the five justices who, in the face of intense criticism, boldly sought to preserve those ideals in our Constitution. If Pete is found guilty of bettint games other than ones involving Reds, he could be suspended fa year without wagers oops 1 wages. Of course if he did bet on Reds, he gets the boot for life. Pete Rose filed suit in Nadel’s court against Commissioner Giamatti. In his suit, Rose charged that Giamatti had predjudged him about his gambling. Rose’s motive was to block a scheduled hearing on his conduct which Giamatti . was to have held on Monday. Nadel said Since the courts are involved, no dice to Giamatti and issued a 14 day ^ now s when this thing will be resov restraining order on the Commission- doubt that Rose can convince ^ er’s hearing. As with all columns, opinions ex pressed by Guest Columnists are not necessarily those ofThe Battalion. Per sons interested in submitting guest col umns should contact the Opinion Page Editor at 845-3314. First of all, this court case is absolutely ridiculous. Suits such as Rose’s have be come major thorns in the side of our ju dicial system. Isn’t this the same court system with a backlog so large that many cnminals aren’t even brought to trial? As for lawsuits it is a free-for-all. that he is not guilty. If he has to, Pete Rose prove his innocence in of a jury? I doubt it. In fa ct > \ ‘ someone Mr. Rose and three J>' Any takers? Oh sit down, FeW- l: Matt McBurnett is a junior engineering major and a colu^' The Battalion. That policeman friend of mine could not believe that the Supreme Court could issue such a decision. After all, he said, it is Texas state law, and the fellow was obviously in violation of that law! I sometimes shake my head in disbe lief when I hear statements like that, be cause it demonstrates a certain lack of understanding about just exactly what a Supreme Court decision is for. We have among us patriotic citizens who would fight for freedom if called upon. Many put their lives in jeopardy daily on our The other side, the one that agrees with the Supreme Court decision, has often claimed that the flag “is nothing but colored cloth, anyway . . .” The left-wing justice who served in the US Navy, the one that defected from the fold of his left-wing counterparts by dis senting, would probably not agree with that statement, and I feel fairly confi dent in suggesting that if a poll were taken of people who were born and raised in the United States, the majority would disagree, as well. It is not nec essary for us to deprive the flag of its honor in order to justify the Court’s de cision. The issue goes much deeper than that. I like this one She brought her own blindfold... this s the $50 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 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. 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