The Battalion
OPINION 2
Monday, January 22,1990
Opinion Page Editor Ellen Hobbs 845-3314
Coaches’ squabbling
hurts A&M athletics
Texas A&M Basketball Coach Shelby Metcalf had one
looong weekend. His Aggies lost to Arkansas. Then he said he
might be losing his job.
“It’s obvious I’m not going to be here,” Metcalf said after
Saturday’s game. “I just hope everybody doesn’t feel like he
(A&M Athletic Director John David Crow) feels, because that
would give me a terrible inferiority complex.”
Metcalf charged that Crow had “cussed” him locally and at
the recent NCAA Convention in Dallas. Crow released a
statement Saturday saying he has never said anything publicly
to hurt A&M’s basketball program.
Metcalf s contract runs out at the end of next season, and
Crow said he would be evaluated at the end of the year like ev
ery other coach.
Metcalf said he was embarrassed that Crow must air the
athletic department’s dirty laundry out in the open, and he’s
right.
What a shame. The public display of their problems is
doing nothing but making the athletic department look bad
when the department should be concentrating on winning bas
ketball games.
The Battalion Editorial Board
Mail Call
Our solutions to racism make it worse
EDITOR:
Since celebrating Martin Luther King Day on Jan. 15, there has been
much thought concerning racism. It’s been referred to as a disease and a
disgrace to this country, which has supposedly been founded on equality.
However, I think that may be simplistic.
I know racism is bad. It causes bitterness and frustration.
But it seems to me that today’s solution to racism only creates more rac
ism rather than solving the problem.
It does this with reverse discrimination. Turn on the TV. Very often,
blacks are clean, suave and erudite, while whites are foul-mouthed, shallow
and unscrupulous.
And, of course, there are quota systems that favor minority students
over white students regardless of academic records.
If a minority student is denied, they can level charges of racism. The
white student is out of luck.
Finally, there is guilt manipulation. Whites are portrayed as oppressors,
members of minority groups as victims. , (i( ,
When minority group members take pride in their heritage and con
gregate together, it’s called racial awareness. With whites, it’s racism.
I’m a white man and proud of it. Nevertheless, I’ve never oppressed a
minority that I know of, or am I likely to.
Reverse racism is still racism. For racism to be eliminated, both sides
must take a share of the guilt and realize we’re all human and subject to
pride.
Then we’ll get somewhere.
James E. Sexton ’91
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Reader cites problem with capitalism
Sarang Shidore
Guest Columnist
Andrew Matthews’ well-written article in Thursday’s Bat
talion has one obvious drawback — it is oversimplified. He
sees practically no problems with unadulterated capitalism. I
beg to differ.
There is no doubt that communism as an ideology has
failed. However, there is no reason to suppose that the erst
while Communist dictatorships will go the way of the United
States and opt for a completely market-oriented approach.
They could also adopt the example of the so-called social
democracies (or social market economies) such as Sweden,
Denmark and perhaps France. These countries realize the
importance of the market as an enormously efficient mech
anism capable of generating immense resources. However, at
the same time they also realize that an efficient system may
not necessarily be the most just.
Matthews says that the wealthiest members of our society
are those who could please their fellow men the most. This is
obviously untrue. A significant number of the rich owe their
wealth to inheritance.
Matthews’ statement of a businessman asking himself
“How can my labor and creativity be most utilized by my fel
low man?” is simply hilarious. As far as I have experienced,
the only question in a businessman’s mind is “How can I use
my labor and creativity to maximize my own profit?” Altruis
tic motives are rarely the reason for maximizing profit; rather
maximizing profit itself is the final objective.
When an industrialist creates thousands of jobs by work
ing endlessly, he hardly has the creation of jobs in mind. If he
could earn as much without creating the jobs, he glad
would.
Before laws like those imposing a minimum wage wen
passed, there were innumerable cases of work exploitationki
greedy landlords and industrialists. It was only after tradi
unions grew in power that businessmen were forced todojusl
tice to workers, for example, by linking wages to living costs
We should never forget John Adams’ principle — a mat
ket can be a great generator of wealth for the society unde:
the assumption of perfect competition. Many products in tie
United States are marketed by one or very few businesset
The growth of such monopolies or oligopolies leads to unfai
pricing and a tendency for the wealthy to accumulate monop
olies. T his further breeds greater injustices. Government in
tervention is a must to restrict monopolies, which retard soda!
justice by destroying perfect competition.
I would also like to object to the so-called moral founda
tion of capitalism. A person is great when he gives not with
ultimate objective of getting something in return, but selfles
sly, without a thoughtas to how he may benefit by it. Givin;
with the actual aim of taking is a selfish — not a moral —act
Unfortunately, man is, in reality, almost always selfish. Tht
brilliance of a social market economy lies in its ability to hat
ness these selfish tendencies through the mechanism of die
market to generate wealth for the common good of all. .
When Matthews blames the intellectuals for being Hand?
the market he expresses a typical conservative bias for them
which I believe is unjustified. Intellectuals have rarely re
jected the market in its totality, they only realize the fact that
it needs to be guided (not controlled) by the government to
prevent it from causing injustices to society.
Sarang Shidore is a graduate student in aerospace eng;
neering and a guest columnist for The Battalion.
More flaws found in economic system
Paul B. Woodard
Guest Columnist
After reading Andrew Matthews’
rhetoric for the umpteenth time, va
rious words come to mind; namely
greedy, self-centered and selfish.
Matthews, money is nice to have, but
don’t let the aquisition of wealth become
the be-all and end-all of your life. Be
lieve me, that is a big world out there,
and there is more to life than trying to
get rich. Capitalism is a wonderful sys
tem, but it has some sever flaws that
have to be addressed, not ignored. De
nying their existence will only make
them worse.
When I lived in our nation’s capital
for for two years I had the opportunities
to witness two extremes of capitalism
and its winners and losers. On one
hand, there were persons like myself
who lived in good neighborhoods,
drove nice, expensive cars, wore nice
clothes and had plenty to eat. For the
most part these were good, decent peo
ple who were concerned about their fel
low human beings.
Then there were those who lived in
Laffayette Park or froze to death in the
winter outside of my father’s office in
the Internal Revenue Service Building
on Constitution Avenue. There were
people who dug through trash recep-
ticals on the Mall after a Fourth of July
celebration just to get something to eat.
These, too, for the most part, were de
cent people, only they couldn’t afford
food, clothing or shelter. These, too,
were our fellow Americans, only they
were too poor to have some of the nice
ties the rest of us can afford.
If the plight of adults suffering does
not affect a person’s sensibilities, then
the suffering of children should. I have
seen four- to five-year-old children of
impoverished parents in both affluent
Fairfax County, Va., and Arlington who
.depend on public programs in order to
get one decent meal a day. Many of
these small children do not have winter
coats to wear. Many had parents who
had to work two jobs in order to survive.
These are the ones who do not bene
fit from the current system and have
fallen through the cracks. These are the
ones whose needs are not fulfilled.
Whether you and those like you accept
it, there are more people living in pov
erty in this nation today than you and
your kind care to admit or worry about.
This past decade had be referred to
as the decade of greed, and you, Mat
thews, add another element of truth to
this. Your statement that college stu
dents are trying to “eradicate poverty —
namely our own,” is the typical selfish
attitude that has run rampant througli
out this nation for the past 10 years.
Matthews, you and I both have never
been forced to experience true poverty
The same goes for the majority of our
fellow students. If all else fails we can
call our parents for assistance. We km
opportunities for financial success that
many of our fellow Americans cannot
afford to dream of.
Within the next ten years you and las
well as the majority of our fellow stu
dents will be living quite comfortably
and will have good jobs. We really don't
have to worry about erradicating our
own poverty. Unfortunately there are
others in this country who will never
have the same opportunities that we
have been blessed with.
Whatever happened to the ideals of
Jack Kennedy that led our nation to
selflessly “Ask not what your country
can do for you, but what you can do for
your country”? Have they been buried
with a more base desire to accumulate
wealth and power at the expense of oth
ers? I hope not.
I pray that there will again come if
day in which Americans will look be
yond their won greed in order to hfelfl
their fellow citizens, and that this da]
will not be long in coming.
Paul B. Woodard is a senior politici
science and history major and a guesi
columnist for The Battalion.
Radio show brings back writer’s memories of dad
Lewis Grizzard
Syndicated Columnist
When you write a book, they make
you travel and do call-in radio shows.
Publicity is my life.
It was December and we were in the
second hour in the call-in show. A lady
had complained about something I’d
written about Oral Roberts, somebody
else wanted to know if I planned to get
married again, and then a man called
and said he knew my late father.
“He taught me in high school in At
lanta,” the man said. “He was an unfor
gettable character.”
Indeed. A number of people have
contacted me over the years and said
they had come across Lewis, Sr.
One such person called and said,
“Your daddy owes me $300. I let him
The Battalion
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Member of
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The Battalion Editorial Board
. Scot O.Walker, Editor
Monique Threadgill,
Managing Editor
Ellen Hobbs, Opinion Page Editor
Melissa Naumann, City Editor
Cindy McMillian, Lisa Robertson,
News Editors
Richard Tijerina. Sports Editor
Frederick D. Joe, Art Director
Mary-Lynne Rice, Lifestyles Editor
borrow it in Kingsboro, Term., in 1962.”
After informing him of my father’s
demise, I asked him how long he knew
my father before he lent him the
money.
“About an hour,” was the reply.
“My good man,” I said, “You are one
of many with the same experience.”
My father was a lot of things, but
more than anything else, he was a sol
dier. He served in World War II and in
Korea. The Purple Hearts and the
Bronze Star he earned hangs on my of
fice wall.
In Korea, his outfit was overrun by
the Chinese communists.
He survived by hiding under dead
comrades and later by hiding for 16
days in a cave while the enemy walked
about him.
When he finally made it back to the
American lines, his feet were severly
frostbitten, he was suffering from mal-
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nutrition and he would never again be
the man who went off to war a second
time in 1950.
When he returned home to Ft. Ben-
ning I was 4. He drank heavily. He
screamed out in the night.
Eventually, he left my mother and
went AWOL and spent the rest of his
life roaming, drinking, and living off his
considerable charm.
I have no idea how many different
jobs my daddy held between the time he
left the Army and his death in 1970, but
somehow he always managed to be able
to get a teaching position whenever he
wanted one.
“Your daddy,” the man on the radio
told me, “would make us laugh with all
his carryings-on, and he would tell us
about what happened to him in the war.
“And the thing I remember most was
how he used his experience to teach us
never to give up no matter how bad
things looked.
“He said there were times in Korea he
felt it would just be easier on him to die
than to live in the situation he was in.
“He told us how his feet were swollen
and bleeding and how he was afraid to
move in that cave because the enemy
might find him.
“But he said he just made up his mind
he wasn’t going to die out there, and
that’s what pulled him through.”
We’d been on the line a long time. I
thanked the caller, but he had more.
“I was in Vietnam,” he said. “I was
wounded and was left behind in a hot
landing zone.
“I didn’t know if anybody was coming
back for me or if the enemy would find
me.
“But I hid myself and I held on and I
got out of there.
“I wanted to give up, too, but I kept
thinking about your father.
“If Captain Crizzard could make it, 1
told myself, so could I.
“I give him credit for my being alive
today.
“He was a great man.”
I thanked the caller one more time —
for perhaps the best gift I’ve ever got
ten.
Don Atkinson Jr.
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