The Battalion
OPINION
Tuesday, August 1,1989
WELCOME TO ALASKA \MHER.E, THANKS TO EXXOM,
YOU LAN HARDLY TELL THERE WAS EVER AN
OIL SPILL.
Columnists
shadows of
Many times as I discuss working at
The Battalion with friends and ac
quaintances, at some point in the con
versation the person I’m talking to will
say, “Well, Timm, you’re a pretty good
writer, but you’re no Karl Pallmeyer.”
My first semester at A&M was the fall
of 1987, just weeks after Karl wrote his
last column for The Battalion, so I
never had any first-hand experience
reading Pallmeyer’s work. And because
he has not been at A&M for almost two
years, many of the current Aggies have
never read any of his work. Yet he re
mains a “legend” of sorts here at A&M.
analyses of current
Imeyer’s offering.
Not knowing what his writing was
like, I at first dismissed the few people
who spoke of Pallmeyer. But as I heard
more people speak of him more and
more often, I began to wonder about
this Pallmeyer man. I’d ask my critics
what was so great about Karl Pallmeyer,
and most would reply that he had a
knack for stirring up controversy and
making people mad.
Other of his topics included t;
fruit pies, his love for his cat, moi
his lawn, parachuting, Pee Wee I
man, not being able to get asongot
his head,. . . well, you getthepici;
He also wrote about a dozen coluu
entertainment subjects; they were
good, but misplaced.
have a
Hardy
since tl
give th
time is
The
actualh
ackup
— Monda
■ the Lo
pany sy
Thir
The Cc
had be
Coast t
confirn
Mail Call
Some Catholics ignore
birth control ban
EDITOR:
one real family (that has real emotions) should not be
assumed to be less painful than a child’s death in a second-
world family. Many non-Catholic countries have the
population problem.
Matt McBurnett has apparently not seen the poll that says
a huge majority of Americans who consider themselves
Catholics has indeed ignored the papal “ban” on artificial
birth control. In Italy itself, which is not usually considered
Third World (unless you’ve looked for a restroom there),
abortion is widespread as a form of birth control.
Reproduction in “Catholic” third-world countries is not
determined solely by a papal edict. In many of these
countries, cultural tradition places high value on offspring as
a sign of manhood. Local cultures have repeatedly proven
more powerful than “universal” Catholicism. And despite t
high birth rates, infant mortality is high and a single death in
The papal office has justifiably been a target for various
accusations over the hundreds of years of its existence. But as
McBurnett says, times have changed. The Pope is high
profile even today, but nowadays he’s high profile and low
impact. Overpopulation is far more complex than
McBurnett’s solution would suggest.
M.L. Creamer
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.
Signs of that truth are everywhere.
There’s a T-shirt hanging on one of the
back walls of the Batt-Cave that says
“Beat The Hell Outta Karl Pallmeyer”
in big letters. And last fall one of our
columnists, Stephen Masters, wrote a
column describing how, no matter how
hard we try, none of the present colum
nists can get out from under Karl Pal
lmeyer’s shadow, he was just too good
and too controversial a writer.
In all fairness, he did write seveui
rious and interesting articles. Hi
topics included drugs, AIDS.civill
ties, football, America as a deck
economic pow r er, accessibility of
to handicapped students, the Corp
Cadets and several columns abouin
gion and its many misuses.
Yet most of his views on the polls
topics of the day (Robert Bork,
Bernard Goetz, etc.) were coloredbt
shoot-from-the-hip liberalism. Inoi
words, many of his articles appear!
written on the basis of his dogma
stead of well-planned logic.
So I pulled out Pallmeyer’s clippings
from the files in the Battalion office to
experience first-hand
from the past.
my competition
Religious congregations
practice what they preach
Karl was an entertainment writer in
addition to being an opinion page col
umnist, so I read a few of his entertain
ment reviews and feature stories. For
the most part, his reviews portrayed a
definite knowledge of the subject matter
and his analyses were enjoyable, thor
ough and unbiased. I thought he really
was a good writer, like everyone had
been telling me.
The one column that everyone
tions when they think of Pallmejei
the “Bowhead” article — the one
which he describes the new pheiM
non (at the time) on campus,
who wear bows in their hair. I read
and found it to be a paper of sexisli
reotyping, though I realize his
were meant only in fun.
Then I started reading his opinion
page columns, the articles for which
Contributions to religion, which far
exceed any other kind of philanthropy
in America, rose to $48.21 billion in
1988, up 8.24 percent. But the money
doesn’t go just for religion itself.
Other causes such as health, educa
tion and the poor come in for a big
share of it, for which religion usually
isn’t credited but which it sees as part of
serving God’s world.
Nearly all the religious receipts came
from individual donations. The increase
in the total was almost double the year’s
inflation rate of 4.78 percent.
While these figures compiled by the
American Association of Fund-Raising
Counsel show a steady climb of religious
giving in the country, they don’t show
an intriguing aspect of it.
This is that the religious recipients
themselves give away nearly half of
what’s given to them, acting as a conduit
to various other causes such as schools,
community projects and caring for the
needy.
The new figures show total American
philanthropy last year passed the $ 100-
billion mark, reaching $104.37 billion,
up 6.7 percent from the $97.82 billion
the year before.
That, for comparative purposes, is
considerably more than the $82.6 billion
the federal government spent in 1988
for non-defense goods and services.
George W.
Cornell
AP Religion Writer
Aside from the sheer bulk of giving,
however, the figures don’t show that
much of the more than 40 percent slice
received by religion also is passed on to
other causes.
Consequently, while the report shows
$9.78 billion going to education, $9.5
billion going to health and hospitals and
$10.49 billion going to human services,
that’s not all that these and other social
causes received.
They also are beneficiaries of reli
gious giving, although this indirect
funding often is disregarded in classify
ing charities.
The broader impact was brought out
in an extensive study last year by the In
dependent Sector of Washington, D.C.,
and the Gallup Organization of Prince
ton, N. J., in cooperation with 100 reli
gious organizations.
It found that 54 percent of what reli
gion receives goes to maintain its own
worship and educational institutions,
but that the other 46 percent goes to so
cial programs beyond the church
sphere.
Based on the ratio determined by the
study, religion in 1988 would have put
more than $22 billion into various social
improvement causes.
That’s far more than $11 billion com
bined given in 1988 by foundations
($6.3 billion) and corporations ($4.7 bil
lion) for such public purposes.
On a national and international level,
substantial religiously given funds also
are channelled into overseas agriculture
improvement and health projects and
also tc serving refugees and promoting
peace and racial justice.
Brian O’Connell, president of the In
dependent Sector, a non-profit organi
zation of corporate foundations and vol
untary organizations, said the study
findings showed religious congregations
“practice what they preach.”
George W. Cornell is an AP Religion
Writer.
Karl Pallmeyer apparently had become
famous. I read through several of them
and couldn’t believe it. They were medi
ocre at best. I thought that maybe I had
read his worst ones, so I read some
more, but they didn’t get that much bet
ter.
Overall, I found him to be a
writer, but I couldn’t see how became
be perceived as a veritable writinggi
ius. Some of his more controversialai
cles made many people mad, butnoil
cause he presented his views
interesting ways that made people C 1
lenge their long-time beliefs. Instes
his columns made people mad ink
part because they were offensive
those people. For example, he cal
members of Student Governmt
“Young Urban Fascists” and Fish Cat
“Fish Concentration Camp.”
His columns were not poorly written
or incomprehensible, just mediocre.
That’s not necessarily bad for a column
ist, but it boggles my mind that people
hold this guy’s writing in such high es
teem.
Here’s an example of one of his col
umns.
I still can’t understand why he k
membered to this day, two years a"
his last article. I just assume thatafet
his articles sparked particular coni
versy, for whatever reasons, and al®
that he had a reputation for writing
troversial articles. So anything hewn*
was probably immediatley controvert
which built upon itself.
Q: What’s this: Buzz buzz buzz...
few dozen more buzzes]...buzz buzz?
A: The only thing you hear with the
new phone registration system.
And that’s the whole column! It is
very unlikely that something like that
would even get printed on the current
opinion page. We’re into more concrete
The current Battalion columnists j
live in a part of Pallmeyer’s shadow.!
I hope our writing styles and top
choices will provoke people’s think!
for the right reasons and in the rig!
manner. With some good writing and
few more graduations, hopefully
Imeyer’s shadow will forever fade.
Timm Doolen is a junior comp:
science major and assistant opiL
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
Kathy Haveman,
Art Director
Hal Hammons,
Makeup Editor
Editorial Policy
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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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during Texas A&M regular semesters, except for holiday
and examination periods.
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lege Station TX 77843-4111.
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