The Battalion
OPINION
The
Wednesday, May 2,1990
Opinion Page Editor Ellen Hobbs 845-3
Wc
Pro-Life supporters join endangered species list J
You wouldn’t know it from the size of
the rally they had in Washington D.C.,
but the members of the Right to Life
Movement are the last of a dying breed.
They assembled in Washington this past
Saturday in a vain attempt to encourage
our nation’s leaders to either support
the Pro-Lifers or lose their backing at
the ballot box.
With the exception of Vice-President
Quayle and a few soap opera actors,
nobody with a large following cared to
attend. Even President Bush had other
things to do; in lieu of stopping in he
called and made a speech over the
phone.
Why wasn’t there broad support from
all areas of the public spotlight as there
was when the Pro-Choice movement
had its rally last year at this same time?
The answer lies in the attitude
Americans have concerning abortion.
The majority of Americans believe
that women, not a legislature composed
lai gely of white males, should have the
right to make a decision on the personal
issue of abortion. It only makes sense,
then, that not too many members of
Congress cared to show up and support
Patrick
Nolan
Columnist
the Right to Life movement. Why
should they when they are elected to
represent the views of their districts in
Congress?
Simple logic will tell you that if a
majority of Americans support the right
of a woman to make her own choice,
then the majority of the members of
Congress representing those districts
will agree with their voting constituents.
Consequently, taking the Pro-Life
stance is political suicide. The Supreme
Court might have been trying to help
the unborn when they ruled on the
Webster vs. Reproductive Health
Services case last summer, but the only
ones to gain from that decision have
been the Democrats. While the
Republicans were still gloating over
their latest presidential victory, the
Democrats were diligently searching for
an issue that they and the American
Mail Call
Vote Saturday against sales tax
EDITOR:
On Saturday, May 5, students at Texas A&M will have an opportunity to
help determine how deep local government will dig into their pockets and
pocketbooks.
Few, if any, will take advantage of this opportunity.
History shows very little student interest and involvement in local govern
mental affairs, perhaps unfortunately for them.
The City of College Station is holding an election next Saturday to fill four
seats on the City Council (all with only one candidate) and, of concern to A&M
students, the imposition of an additional one-half cent to the local sales tax.
When the question of putting this matter before the voters was first dis
cussed and voted on, I voted no because this is generally considered to be a
very regressive tax and because the approaches being considered for off
setting the extra burden — lowering utility bills and reducing the property tax
rate — would discriminate against a very large segment of our population:
students at A&M, both on-campus and off-campus, who pay no utility bills or
property tax. Some do pay the latter in their off-campus rent and quite a few
of these pay for city utilities.
It seemed to me then that the unfair treatment of students, particularly
those living on campus, was just an unfortunate consequence of imposing this
additional tax on the general citizenry.
Recent information form City Hall, however, makes it clear that the zap
ping of “on-campus students, visitors and others” is the objective. Their ratio
nale: These folks use city streets and parks and the campus gets municipal fire
protection.
This reasoning is hard to understand. The visitors pay a large portion of
the $4 million in sales tax revenue now collected.
And students are, after all, the basis of our local economy and the reason
there is a College Station.
Time is very short before the election. Those living on campus (Precinct
20) may vote Saturday at A&M Presbyterian church on Church St. as well as
those in Northgate and University Towers, other student-voters in other parts
of the City at their regular polling places.
A much larger than normal showing of student concern just might be ef-
fectve in deciding the fate of this question of equity and principle.
Jim Gardner
TAMU Professor and C.S. City Councilman
A couple of good Ags
EDITOR:
Lance Anderson and Jeff Beltz have the Aggie Spirit which attracted
many of us to attend Texas A&M University.
My car stalled in the flood waters on the Eastgate entrance to campus dur
ing heavy rains on Tuesday, a week and a half ago.
After being pushed to higher ground, the car would not start. Both Lance
and Jeff spent thirty minutes in the rain working on my car to get it started.
I would like to thank them for their help. They are what being an Aggie is
all about.
Michael S. McGrann ’93
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Editor
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Lifestyles Editor
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public had in common. The answer they
came up with was merely another
question, the one of abortion.
The issue of abortion played a key
role in the recent gubernatorial
elections held in New Jersey and
Virginia. Both Republicans running in
these states were Pro-Life, and both
Democrats were Pro-Choice. The
result? The Pro-Choice candidates
emerged victorious.
These two races marked the begining
of a new trend — elections nationwide
having their outcomes influenced
heavily by the candidate’s view on
abortion. The victories of these Pro-
Choice candidates in gubernatorial and
soon to be congressional elections will
continue as long as Americans feel
threatened by the actions of the
Supreme Court.
Evidence of this threat can be seen in
the fact that the Pro-Choice movement
currently has roughly seven times the
amount of funds that the Right to
Lifers’ possess. While this gap is
expected to narrow, it clearly shows how
the Supreme Court’s decision
galvanized the Pro-Choice crusade.
It was a painful lesson for the
Republicans, and now they are facing a
dilemma on what to do with this political
hot potato. For years the Republican
Party has had crusaders such as Ronald
Reagan and Pat Robertson advocating
the Right to Life agenda. As a result, the
Republican Party has been associated
with the Pro-Life movement.
Now they are softening their
rhetoric; Lee Atwater, Chairman of the
Republican National Committee, has
stated that the Republican Party is big
enough for all views on this sensitive
issue. This desperate attempt to keep
the voting public from running into the
arms of the Democrats is weak at best.
It has been the Democrats who have
been supporters of the Pro-Choice
movement since its inception, and they,
not the Republicans, are the ones that
are likely to reap the benefits of this
sudden concern for abortion rights.
With the New Jersey gubernatorial
landslide fresh on the minds of all
potential candidates for any political
office, it is going to be difficult for the
Right to Life movement to attract new
talent. The safe political stance to take
Al
on abortion these days is one of . ^ (
“personally opposed, but up to a wnj not )
to decide”. Anything more extreme , ia nc<
than this is likely to cost a candidate jnga
votes on both sides of the issue. | erna
It is for this reason that the dayso®8 anl
the Pro-Life movement are nurnberjl,
cC(
Candidates will realize that the Pro-lL on ,
advocates are in the minority, thim p a id
have no choice but to support the ij filed
constitutional right of women to mal
their own decision.
It will be interesting to see whatri
abortion plays in the governor’sract
here in Texas. With Ann Richards
strongly pro-choice, Clayton WilliaAoint
going to have a hard time convincinj e ( l u ‘ t
women that he is the candidate for ^
them, especially since he has alienatelP^
large share of women already vvithtii
timed analogy linking rape with the
weather. You never know, though,
Williams might switch sides when he
realizes that women in the “servicing
business” can get pregnant too.
Patrick Nolan is a junior economic)
major.
Students’ slacking on census
not due to publicity problem
I would like to address the article
about the census printed in The Batt on
Thursday, April 19, 1990. In this article
Tom Murray, associate director of
student affairs at A&M, stated that “the
publicity wasn’t as good as it could have
been.”
At this point I would like to ask
Murray where he has been and what he
has done to promote the census during
the past six months.
The city of College Station created a
committee of volunteers that gave their
time solely to promote the census in this
community. One of the committee’s
major concerns was the student count. I
would now like to share with you what
this committee did to promote the
census to the students:
• The committee felt that awareness
was the key to success in having students
fill out and return their forms. On that
assumption, student leaders, such as
Kevin Buchman, student body
president, and Leah Hanselka, Resident
Hall Association president, made Public
Service Announcements asking students
to “stand up and be counted.”
In addition, campus administrators,
such as Dr. John J. Koldus, vice-
president for student services, were
contacted for suggestions on how to “get
the word out.” Koldus even went as far
as volunteering to make a Public Service
Announcement asking the students to
fill out their forms.
These PSA’s made by Koldus and
student leaders, as well as others made
nationally by The Ad Council, were run
by local television and radio stations on
a regular basis.
• Every student organization (all 700
of them) was sent a letter, addressed to
their president. The significance of the
census and the impact it could have on
the University was briefly outlined in
this letter. Each president was asked to,
during their next meeting, outline these
facts and encourage students to fill out
their forms as soon as they received
them.
Each residence hall is considered a
student organization, so each hall
president received one of these forms.
• Speakers from the committee went
and spoke at student organization
meetings, organizations such as Student
Senate and Resident Hall Association.
In the ten minute presentation, the
Timothy W.
King
Reader’s Opinion
speaker outlined the importance and
impact the census will have on the
nation, the state, the city, and the
university. Every student present was
asked to “spread the word” and make
sure College Station and Texas A&M
got an accurate count.
• The city of College Station, in
conjuction with student government,
ran a quarter page ad in The Battalion
Monday, April 2- Thursday, April 5. In
this ad students were asked to fill out
their form and were shown how to fill
out the section on income if they got the
long form. This was a paid
advertisement.
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wollege Station volunteers gave
their time solely to promote the
census in this community. One of
the committee’s major concerns
was the student count.
• A banner was hung across Texas
Avenue for two weeks. This banner was
located at the corner of Texas and
George Bush Drive, because the
committee felt it would get maximum
publicity at this location.
• The Battalion was contacted by one
of the committee members. This
individual asked that The Batt give
maximum coverage to the census. The
Batt responded and published one
major article and one minor article
concerning the census, although they
failed to publish a special to the editor
written by the committee chair and
KBTX television news anchor, Jeff
Braun, a special published by the Eagle
and the College Station Press.
• The media was contacted and two
press conferences were held concerning
the census. In response to these press
conferences, KBTX did a story on the
census that ran on the 10 p.m. news.
• A list of every location, and a
contact for that location, on campus that
promotions for the low return. I be we’
that Murray owes the College Static
Census Promotions Committee, the
of College Station, Student Governi
and the students of Texas A&M an
apology for the remarks he made
concerning this issue.
I would like to end this comment!
by encouraging you to fill out yourt
and turn it in if haven’t done so yet.
Your parents cannot claim you, you
have to do it yourself. It is not toola ivar
yet, but it will be soon. Time is runni hat
out.
So dig through that pile of stuff o ^
your desk, find that blue and white
form, and fill it out. If you threwyoi
form away, you can get one fromthl
Census Bureau in Bryan. Let’s go,
twelfth man, stand up and becountfj
The f uture of Texas and Texas A&
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might have someone living there wai
created by the committee and given
the Census Bureau to ease their scan
of people on campus.
These are just some of the things
committee did to encourage the stub
count. They also did several other
projects that were targeted at other
areas of the community.
Now' I would like to let you know
what Murray and his staff did (ot&
not do) to promote the census.
Murray’s office received the form
individually addressed to each stuck
living in a residence hail, early on f;
afternoon (about two p.m.), March:
Murray was supposed to distribute!
forms to the restdtnts through hissi
(i.e. resident directors and resident
advisors).
No resident got their forms befot
Tuesday night, April 3, and most
residents did not receive their form
until Wednesday or Thursday nigh
(April 4 or 5). The return date ontl
forms was Friday, April 6. Severalt
presidents, aware that somethingv
wrong, called a member of the
committee concerned because itvffl
Tuesday night and they had notyei
received their forms.
It is absurd for Murray and hiso&^y
to take so much time to get the fore ^
out, and then blame the lack of
will
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Timothy W. King is a senior
bioengineering major.
Adventures In Cartooning
by Don Atkinson J
flT6 Nice To NECT YOU.
THWKS FOR. GNSmPJNC
(jVIV' PCROOMFL no.