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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 31, 1989)
The Battalion Ba OPINION Thursday, August 31,1989 MAR&VUBS nc islature of tli and famous The advanced reaches of rationalism have been on display heresince the Aus tin American-Statesimm started writing about Texas lawmakers using political contributions to buy expensive homes, cars, planes and other little accoutre ments to help support them in the style to which they’d like to become accus tomed. Turns out several of our solons failed to grasp the notion that one runs for public office in order to serve the people — they thought they were being elected to “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.” They’re too dumb to tell the difference between the Texas Legis lature and “Falcon Crest.” UST T^as h( the first tnoie tlu Hn oi idnesc iut ol GlRollie Tl they schedule irVVe'n Black of loing to I * Mail Call Thank you, and you, so on Coming to America EDITOR. EDITOR: At the beginning of August, I was returning from Houston after picking up my jeep that was being serviced. I was in a hurry to get back for a class at noon, so I neglected to put gas in my quarter-full tank. Needless to say, I ran out of gas. After knocking on two doors and getting no reply I found an old gas can. I was walking up the road with it when an Aggie stopped and offered me a ride to get some gas (even though I made no motion to flag him down). Thanks friend! Since coming to America, I have learned a number of English words that I had never heard before through a dictionary or in a classroom. “Howdy,” “rip off,” and “what’s up?” are a few. I began to learn English since my first day in this country when a professor asked me “what’s up?” and I replied “the ceiling. ’’However, the word “rip off’ seems to be unique in its use. By this time it was 12:20 p.m., so I decided to try to make it to College Station without adding to the one gallon of gas in my tank. I made it to the intersection of Texas and New Main when I ran out of gas again. An Aggie hopped off of his bicycle and helped me push my dry vehicle through the stoplight. Thanks! A Corps buddy of mine stopped and offered me a ride to class after I secured the jeep in a parking space. Thanks Again! Recently, a junkyard man ripped me off. The part I bought for my car turned out to be much worse than the one I already had in my car. They also ref used to give me a ref und or do any other fair compensation. In the process I lost about $ 150. I did not ask any of these people for help, yet they went out of their way for me. All I can say is “thanks,” and I hope I can give back to A&M some of what it has given to me. When the junkyard man ripped me off, the English Language Institute (ELI) of our university came to my emotional rescue. I told myself that I was even more ripped off when ELI charged me $555 for two useless courses (from the junkyard I at least got a bad part). Putting it in my Buddhist perspective, I am not the only person ripped off! This is not the first time I was ripped off!! So why worry? Mahinda Karunaratne Graduate Student Pete Dill ’89 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. I particularly enjoyed the clarity of Sen. Chet Brooks of Pasadena as he ex plained how he has been laundering money from his political contributions through a one-man political advertising agency consisting of himself. In 1988, Brooks funneled $30,000 in campaign funds into the Brooks Agency, which operates out of his house and out of one of the three rooms in his legislative of fice in Pasadena. His legislative staf f an swers the phone. and entertainment. I can the $2,341 for gifts and dinnerfe committee members — I meanjtj chairman, he’s gotta treat 'em a nice diiiiH-i. right? But it womeH wns > that poor S< hlueter had to spend feeding and < met Im:.' tl f ing the session — because lobb)iM ld op ported spending millions and Mai of dollars this yeai entertainingiBcomni lators ii came to a staggeringsmB s t° d capita. 1 lundreds of lobbyistspanii 5011 ' v I 1 . 1 take out all the other fegislatonB^^pn poor Si hlueter, despite beingckiKiut th of the most important committeeii™^ House, kept having to pay for hisi dinner. It’s sad, isn’t itP Theguvn needs to work on his personality. ■ AUS1 ine is that in 191. of a legis hairmen in theItL stue 1 ;1U Lol The 47 Legi loot tom mimittee latur got $4.7 million incamp Last year, Chet Brooks the politician leased two cars and some office equip ment from Chet Brooks the ad agency for $13,000. Although he had no oppo nent, he spent $16,000 to hire himself to direct fund-raising and voter legisla tion drives. In his other civilian life, Chet Brooks the ad agency is a real-es tate appraiser. contributions; Lobbyists andPACsi percent 'T tributed 63 percent of it/Unders law, a legislator can treat campaj funds as an “officeholder accouni’i use them to pay for any expense* dated with holding office. Veryfe»J these people have opponenis Schlueter hasn’t had one since hef ran 13 years ago. So when a lobii gives one of these folks a $5,000“a* aign contribution,’ what do you tl® Iiews 1 ly he m tifv befoi |“lf we int to ti will come ney, D Laney’ littee b< the camp pvs. A f filled io d< ■ The in Now, follow this explanation closely: Asked if he wasn’t using campaign funds to bolster his personal finances. Sen. Brooks said, “If it was a big, com plex company with a large office and staff, that might be a legitimate and valid question. In my case, for all practi cal purposes, it’s a one-man operation. There’s no big overhead.” he expects it to be used ft Bent mo ainmt ol the L< Is this practice necessary, sinceBguIarst pay our legislators so notoriously hup That Is this some thing everyone hastohl So what about the $16 K he paid him self to run a campaign when he had no opponent? “The work I did in 1988 was for the Democratic presidential ticket. The Brooks Agency was not hired by the campaign. It was just my way of helping the party and the candidate.” We can do better than ‘non-reg’ Ah, now we understand. We communicate through our lan guage, and the words we use impact greatly upon how we convey our ideas and how we view our world. As a freshman I learned that the term “non-reg” refers to “any civilian under graduate student” who attends Texas A&M. Literally, it means “non-regula tion” and refers to students who attend A&M without following Corps of Cadets regulations. The word came into use during a time when the vast majority of A&M students attended as cadets. Obviously, since then times have changed and so has the campus. Al though the term may still be actively used in the Corps’ military vocabulary, I question whether we roughly 30,000 ci vilian undergraduate students wish to continue thinking of ourselves as “non- regs.” “Non-reg” qualifies as an “inverted description.” Inverted descriptions identify what someone is not, rather than what someone is. A few examples may help to put these descriptions in perspective: • A woman having bright blue eyes describes herself as “non-brown-eyed.” • An engineering student visits home and tells family and friends that he is majoring in “non-liberal arts.” • A competitive diver tells his class mates that he participates in “non-swim ming.” The inverted descriptions above shine a self-deprecating light upon those who label themselves with them. I Jim "Hayes Columnist think the term “non-reg” tends to have a similar connotation around campus. Obviously, “non-reg” has served some useful purpose since, to this day, it remains in the A&M vocabluary. Many differences distinguish the two distinct groups of students at this uni versity. Cadets live and eat apart from everyone else, adhere to a distinct ap pearance code and follow a military training regimen. Cadets also report to the Office of the Commandant regarding disciplinary matters instead of the Department of Student Affairs. And the freshman ad missions policy now differs slightly re garding students who intend to join the Corps. Removing the term “non-reg” com pletely would clearly leave a void; a re placement term would be needed. To fill the void, I suggest “civilian stu dent body.” “Civilian student body” could refer to those students who attend Texas A&M and choose to live as civil- the Texas A&M image has remained very military to this day. “Majority stu dent body” could help to bring that image closer to today’s campus climate by demonstrating that a majority of A&M students hold no military affilia tion. When cadets first uttered “non-reg” years ago, they could not have foreseen the immense growth and rapid changes that have occurred at the university. A&1VI has grown from a virtually all male and all-military college to a co-edu- cational and mostly civilian university. The campuswide use of “non-reg” implies that most students view them selves as negative counterparts to the Corps. Such an implication seems false to me, and I pose this question: Do we, this civilian majority, want to continue thinking of ourselves as “non-regs?” Jim Hayes is a senior economics ma jor and a columnist for The Battalion. Plus, note this: “I pay income tax on everything that goes through the Brooks Agency.” And besides, think of the sacrifices he has to make: “During the legislative session, the Brooks Agency is shut down for all practical purposes.” On the other hand, the ineffable Rep. Stan Schlueter of Killeen, chairman of the powerful House Calendars Commit tee, took, as he often does, the attack. He’s a great believer in the theory of press relations that the best defense is a good offense. “The groundswell of 20 people trying to equate campaign con tributions with members-for-sale is a bunch of bull,” he quoted. Schlueter uses $9,000 a month in campaign con tributions to help pay the costs of his private airplane, to rent a three-bed room house in North Austin, to pay for memberships at private clubs, to lease a car, pay his utilities, have his plants taken care of and so forth. The item that concerns me most is $3,200 in food ore tha order to afford to be in the Le?eat;f| j le * 0 Rinks, hi golf gamt Well, no one ever claimed Rep ll nestine Glossbrenner of Alice wasaPp ical Texas legislator — she’s terrific typical. Ernie Glossbrenner chairs important committee —public edu don. She used to be a teacher,butwli she got elected she became a full-tu legislator. She lives on the $7,200aifj the people pay her. She doesnt around in a private plane; she dot even lease a car from an ad agencyff* sisting of herself — she drives green bomb that only a low-ridercoii love. She represents a lot of poor down in the valley — and she’s than most of them. It’s never stoppi her from doing an excellent job. Forii sake of the Ernie Glossbrenners Legislature, 1 continue to supportap! raise for this sorry collection ofliatt T he Ernie Glossbrenners will cor to be the exception unless we pay people a decent salary. As for the rest of them, merrily H eting campaign contributions font' personal use and “disguising” it in sit subtle ways — in a sane and decentsiil they’d be under indictment. People ways whine and say, “I know it’sterri but there’s nothing / can do about The hell you can’t — you’re the only*' who can do anything about it. You get vote on the pay raise, and you get choose between the whores and | heroes — all you have to do is pi enough attention to know the dil ence. lans. “Majority student body” also might work. Fronted by a staunch Of Sarge, The Battalion (USPS 045 360) Member of Texas Press Association Southwest Journalism Conference The Battalion Editorial Board Scot Walker, Editor Wade See, Managing Editor Juliette Rizzo, Opinion Page Editor Fiona Soltes, City Editor Ellen Hobbs, Chuck Squatriglia, News Editors Tom Kehoe, Sports Editor Jay Janner, Art Director Dean Sueltenfuss, Lifestyles 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 7'he 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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