The Battalion
OPINION
"he l
Wednesday, July 19,1989
ted i
Personality plays rol
in political outcomes
Here in Realityville, there’s a partic
ularly fine example of how personality
influences the outcome of political
struggles taking shape under the Capi
tol dome. At issue — though settlement
seems to be at hand — is the fate of
workers comp in this state, and a critical
factor in how it will all turn out is the
personality of one man.
Molly
Ivins
Syndicated Cote
MARCHES
95
..and this is my Lamaze coach.
Serious moviegoers despise
obnoxious, fidgety audiences
The fellow in question is Rep. Rich
ard Smith, Republican of Bryan, not a
bad fellow and not a stupid fellow ei
ther. Smith, who is chairman of the Pub
lic Safety Committee, did not have
much background in workers comp —
he’s not a lawyer, he’s not on Labor or
Insurance. But, according to the Speak
er’s office, “he expressed an interest in
playing a role on the issue” and so Gib
Lewis made him the House chair of the
interim committee that studied the
problem of workers comp, and that
gave him a year or so to learn the field.
And he really worked at it, read every
thing, talked to everybody, studied.
compounded his problem byfrei)L:
appearing disingenuous. Lessij
frank. He may not be. Butheoflal
conf used and defensive.
The uncharitable interpretatoj
this is that he’s ignorant. The chanj
interpretation is that he has an ink
ity complex about being the onh:
lawyer dealing with the complex!
Sometimes he seized on bad infos
tion if it appeared to bolster his;
Senators who don’t know him well
this down to duplicity.
What happened?
When I was a kid, an unwritten rule
of going to the movies was that you
didn’t make unnecessary noise in the
theater. In my family that meant no
talking, no fidgeting, no obnoxious pop
corn crunching, no kicking the chair in
front of you, no humming along with
the theme music, etc.
enough to where almost everyone could
buy them.
Don
Atkinson Jr.
Guest Columnist
This was promptly followed by the
creation of thousands of cable channels,
the result being that people like me,
people who respect the sacred rules,
could now stay at home with our VCR s
and “The Days And Nights Of Molly
Dodd” on the Lifetime network.
Any violator of these sacred rules
would be immediately:
a.) Smacked in mid-sentence.
b.) Rushed outside for a stern lecture,
(i.e. “How would you like it if people
came over to your house and talked
while you were watching Hercules?
Huh? Huh?”)
Eventually I got to the point where I
wouldn’t go see a movie unless it was
something I just couldn’t wait for. I
have found that watching movies on my
VCR is much more enjoyable than see
ing them in a theater. It’s a lot quieter, I
can pause it if I need to and it doesn’t
cost half as much as going to the theater.
Now that the history lesson is over,
the question still remains: Why are to
days audiences so obnoxious?
Sometimes you give a backbencher
like Smith — some guy in his third term
or so who’s never done much to write
home about — a big assignment like
that, carrying the most important bill of
the session, and he’ll suddenly blossom.
Given a chance to star, to do something
that will really make a difference in peo
ple’s lives, some legislators who have
been loafing along will really take hold
and display all kinds of heretofore un
suspected abilities. It didn’t quite hap
pen with Smith.
Smith who is in real estate andn
ments in Bryan, is considered extra
capable by those who know him
and also sincere in his desire tof
comp system. But he was so afral
getting “pencil-whipped” by theii
yers, afraid each proposed change::
tained some secret loophole hecoi
spot, that he was suspicious, del
and difficult during negotiations.
The answer, or at least the best an
swer I can give, is that movie theaters
now cater to an entirely different audi
ence.
c.) Arrested by the F.B.I.
But what I can’t understand is, what
happened in the first place? Why are
movie audiences today so unlike the
ones I grew up with?
As I became older and realized that
the “sacred rules” were really just com
mon sense and good manners, I discov
ered that most audiences were fairly
quiet as well. Any person in the theater
who talked loudly and continuously was
immediately asked by either an audi
ence member or the manager to quiet
down since it was disturbing to others.
Well, just like everything else, the an
swer is not that simple. In fact, the an
swer requires a slight history lesson.
Since the introduction of Home Box
Office, the VCR and the thousands of
cable networks, people have become
used to feeling right at home in front of
a movie. At home it is OK to talk as loud
as you like, to make as much noise as
possible and to kick the chair in front of
you.
In the beginning, there were movies.
Then along came the television set
which was fruitfull and multiplied. In
the years that followed, movies and tele
vision existed side by side.
And, since movies are now aimed at
younger audiences, there are less adults
and more children going to the theaters.
Without adults, the sacred rules cannot
possibly be enforced.
Smith’s first mistake was to lose the
moral high ground by writing a bill that
appeared to include a fat piece of pork
barrel for his own district. There was a
clause in there setting up a special Cen
ter for the Study of Workers Comp at —
guess what?! — Texas A&M University,
folks, right next door to Bryan. This
caused veteran opponents of pork like
the Unspeakable Hollowed of Grand Sa
line (the social utility of Hollowell sur
faces every now and then) to have con
niption fits, and it was taken out. So
here’s Smith, who’s carrying the ball for
business, already looking like a greedy
Pig-
The only lawyer on the Houses
ference committee is Steve \
Dallas, probably one of the sraaii
House members in sheer IQ, l
lens is a trial lawyer himself, wl
him more on the Senate sided
House side. The Senate sent five:
yers into conference from theirsidfj
Smith was nervous and defensiveeitJ
time the Senate proposed a changtl
had to scurry out of the room tocoiis
with his own lawyers.
Fortunately not many people had to
be told to behave because it was under
stood by audience members all across
the nation that the theater was a special
place. When you walked into a theater
and sat down, it may have seemed like
just any other building. But when the
lights went down and the curtains
opened, you and the people around you
were transported away to an imaginary
world in which anything could happen.
Consequently, any noise or reminder of
the real world would ruin the fantasy.
But then one day, a man came into
the Garden Of Entertainment with a
new idea called Home Box Office. Now
people could stay at home and watch
movies instead of going to the theater.
With the new technologies looming
on the horizon for television, it would be
my guess that the movie theater stands a
good chance of going the way of the
drive-in.
Understandably ticked, the movie
people responded by making the movies
more spectacular. Screens became big
ger, sound got better and popcorn went
up in price.
Considering the zoo that theaters
have become, I can’t help but look for
ward to the day when I can watch mov
ies in the privacy of my own home with
all the advantages of a larger screen and
better sound.
Actually, all the proposed research
center at A&M did was to formalize an
arrangement that already existed
whereby A&M has a contract with the
Industrial Accident Board to study the
system: It’s not a bad idea to have a
continuing outside audit of workers
comp — it’s one of those deals you have
to keep adjusting as you go along or it
will get seriously out of whack — as it is
now. But it looked real bad and was a
tactical blunder.
Smith also blundered a coup
times in ways that made the other
consider him untrustworthy — at:
point his bill halved the compens:
for widows of workers killed on I
After the AFL-CIO indignantly cal
press conference to point this out,S
claimed “oops,” it was just a misi
little oversight there, heh, heh. No®
ter what his motivation, he thenloolj
like either a dimwit or a cheat-Jl
all, picking on widows is not go<
He got his bill through the Hoi
masterfully — of course, he started*
a lot of high cards in his hand—bi
did not shine during negotiations*
the Senate.
But then things began to change.
It happened so slowly at first that I
hardly noticed it. More and more I
would go to see a movie, trying my best
to obey the sacred rules set down by
generations before me, only to end up
next to some goober who couldn’t seem
to sit still long enough to watch the
movie.
Things seemed to be OK again. Mov
ies, television and Home Box Office had
learned to exist together in peace and
harmony.
Don Atkinson is a senior journalism
major and a cartoonist for The Battal
ion.
The legislative politics on the issue
were pretty simple — the House is
safety pro-business, while the Senate is
either more pro-worker or pro-lawyer,
depending on who you listen to. Smith
The saga of Richard Smith
comp bill, which may be mercifullyd
to an end, is more of a sad storyl
anything else. He misplayed a str
hand and emerges, despite allhisl
work on the issue, with his
credit diminished. And it wasn’tabuiij
of “smart lawyers” who did him in-
did it himself.
But then the movie people noticed
they could make more money by ap
pealing to younger audiences. The re
sult was THE TEEN FLICK!!!
As the years went by, the sacred rules
vanished altogether. Audiences now
kicked chairs, chomped popcorn, talked
loudly, hummed along to the theme
music and fell asleep with a reckless
abandon I had never seen before.
Young people flocked to their local
theaters to watch great quantities of sex,
violence, bad language and food fights.
Older people flocked in the opposite di
rection.
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Shortly after this, the video-cassette
recorder (VCR) dropped in price
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