The Battalion
Vol. 91 No. 184 (6 pages) “Serving Texas ASM Since 1893” Wednesday, July 29, 1992
Inside
Rap songs voice frustrations
toward larger problems
Page 5
Instructor races
in Death Valley
By Mark Evans
The Battalion
The highest recorded tempera
ture in Brazos County is 110° F,
but when Mike Sandlin began the
High-Tech Bad Water-146 race
last Wednesday in Death Valley,
CA the temperature was a siz
zling 127 degrees.
Sandlin, a kinesiology assis
tant lecturer, finished third out of
15 participants in the 146-mile
race from Death
Valley (elevation -282
ft. below sea level) to
the top of Mt.
Whitney (elevation
14,494 ft.), the highest
and lowest points in
the continental
United States. The
race included runners
from the United
States as well as sev
eral foreign countries.
The race started at 6
p.m. Wednesday
evening. Sandlin
reached the top of Mt.
Whitney 31 hours lat
er after stopping once
for an hour and a half
nap. The temperature
at the top of the
mountain was 15° F.
He finished four
hours behind the sec
ond place runner and
four hours ahead of
the fourth place winner.
"This race was, without a
doubt, the hardest thing I have
ever done," Sandlin said.
The race is invitational with
runners being invited on the basis
of their past performance in ultra
races (an ultra race is any race be
yond the traditional marathon
distance of 26 miles), Sandlin
said. He spent eight months
preparing for the competition,
running 100 miles a week during
the heat of mid-afternoon.
"As the weather became
warmer, I would start to run
around twelve to three o'clock in
the afternoon," Sandlin said. "I
aimed for the heat of the day be
cause that's the conditions most
of the race is in."
College Station's sweltering
summer fit well into his training,
he said, though the heat still
made the race difficult.
"I was surprised at how much
the heat affected you early in the
race," Sandlin said. "Even in the
first 20 miles, I could feel the
draining effects of the heat."
The mountainous terrain of
the race caught him off guard as
well. College Station's flat terrain
made training for a mountainous
course all the more difficult, he
said.
What surprised me the most
was how hilly the course was. In
my mind, I thought it would be
flatter than it actually was."
The race crossed several
mountain ranges with elevations
of 6,000-7,000 ft.
"I really was not anticipating
many problems for the first 50 or
60 miles," Sandlin said. "But by
the time I reached the first check
point, 18 miles into the race,
physically, I felt as if I had run 50
miles."
Because of the toll this type of
race can take on a person's body,
race officials required each run
ner to have a crew which fol
lowed the runner throughout the
race in a car, providing them
with water, ice and food.
Sandlin's wife and daughter
served as his crew.
"I had the best crew there," he
said.
The top of Mt. Whitney served
as the finish line for the race,
though once the runners reached
it they still had a seven-mile walk
before them, back down. Cars
cannot reach the top of the moun
tain. Back home, Sandlin has al
ready returned to work.
"I feel pretty good consider
ing," he said. I'm not stiff at all,
but my legs are real tired . . . not
as bad as I thought I would be."
Sandlin may participate in a
100-mile race in September, but
he hasn't decided yet. Each year,
he participates in at least one ul
tra race and about three 50-mile
races. He has been racing for 15
years.
"After I graduated from col
lege, I was looking for something
to do because I like the spirit of
competition.
"One of the nice things about
running is you don't need a part
ner, and you can do it on your
own time," he said.
Sandlin believes that it is im
portant for people to challenge
themselves, or to at least try, es
pecially as they get older. They
shouldn't fear failure.
Participants in ultra races, in
cluding Sandlin, take part for that
reason: they relish the challenge.
"A lot of people think we're
strange for doing these things,
and I agree with them to a point,
but it's just a challenge. That's
what it's all about."
High-Tech Bad Water 146 Race
Nevada
Ml. Whitne'A
elev. 14.494 ft>
1 Bad Water Basin,
Death Valley'
elev. -282 ft.
California
GARY CARROLL, JENNIFER MAXWELL/ The Battalion
MICHAEL MARSHALL/The Battalion
Cooling off
Nane Werner, a graduate student in ocean pool to work out. Werner says she swims for
engineering, swims laps in the Wofford Cain enjoyment and exercise.
Two-party
politics on
way out,
experts say
WASHINGTON (AP) - In a
post-Perot post-mortem, experts
on the politics of discontent
contended on Tuesday that the
two-party system is bound to give
way over the next 10 years to a
multi-party structure in America.
"We've found a level of
discontent in American politics
and American institutions that
simply knows no parallel since the
beginning of polling in the 1930s,"
said pollster Gordon S. Black,
seeking to measure the public's
appetite for trying something new.
"Over half the people are willing
to bolt the party system."
Analysts said future third-party
movements are likely to grow
from the ground up/electing local
and state officials and members of
Congress before trying to capture
the White House. Ross Perot's
supporters tried to elect him with
no party at all.
"The American love affair with
the two-rparty system is just about
over," said John B. Anderson, a
former Republican congressman
from Illinois who bolted his party
to run for president in 1980. After
a strong start, he wound up with
only 6.6 percent of the popular
vote.
If a new party starts in 1996, "it
may take six years before they can
elect a president," Anderson said,
citing the history of the Republican
Party. It was founded in 1854, six
years before Abraham Lincoln
came along to lead it into the
White House.
Any new parties that evolve,
the experts said, were likely to
champion a variety of causes.
Most commonly foreseen was
the development of a "Green
Party" devoted to protecting the
environment. Also envisioned
were a party dedicated to
preserving family values; a private
enterprise party and a citizen-
legislator reform party out of the
term-limit movement.
Gore attacks Bush
Iraq allows U.N.
weapon search
Democrats criticize
ATLANTA (AP) - The
Democrats counterattacked
Tuesday in the
increasingly bit
ter political de
bate over for
eign policy ex
perience, with
A1 Gore declar
ing that if
President Bush
and Dan Quayle
"are such
whizzes
. . . why is it
that Saddam
Hussein is thumbing his nose at
the entire world?"
Former President Carter joined
the assault, blaming Bush for the
"politicizing of foreign policy"
and saying it would be "a traves
ty" if Secretary of State James A.
Baker III quit such a vital post to
lead the president's re-election
campaign.
In contrast, the White House
was all but silent on the issue, a
day after Bush's spokesman called
a statement by Bill Clinton on
Yugoslavia "reckless" and Bush-
Quayle campaign aides attacked
Clinton as lacking both ability and
experience in foreign policy.
Presidential spokesman Marlin
Fitzwater reiterated Bush's appre
ciation of the Democratic presi
dential nominee's general support
on the Iraqi situation.
Asked if the White House
weren't sending an inconsistent
message, Fitzwater smiled and
presidential policy
said, "Nobody gets our blanket
endorsements."
Clinton took a verbal shot at
Bush's Monday suggestion that he
alone had "the experience, the
seasoning, the guts" to stand up
to such foes as Iraqi President
Saddam Hussein.
Bush should show such quali
ties "a little more consistently,"
Clinton said.
Gore, appearing in Atlanta
alongside Carter, accused the
Bush administration of focusing
on foreign policy to the detriment
of domestic matters — and still
failing to dislodge Saddam.
Although Americans do have
concerns about world affairs, he
said, "the dominant issue in this
campaign is going to be how
we're going to get our country
moving forward."
Carter, too, said the "recent
success" of Saddam in his nation's
standoff with the United Nations
over military inspections "doesn't
show to me any particular advan
tage to having experience in the
White House."
The former president, during a
news conference at the Carter
Library, said, "One thing that con
cerns me very deeply is the politi
cizing of foreign policy."
About Baker's possible move.
Carter said it would be "a very
sad day and an unacceptable
precedent if the secretary of state
does step down from his role and
assumes the role of political cam
paign manager."
MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) —
Iraq opened up its Agriculture
Ministry to U.N. weapons experts
Tuesday after a three-week stand
off, but also unleashed anti-U.S.,
pro-Saddam demonstrations in
Baghdad and other cities.
Protesters were kept away
from the ministry, the scene of re
peated demonstrations that forced
an earlier, predominantly
American team to end a vigil out
side the building.
Under the cease-fire, Iraq must
surrender its weapons of mass de
struction under U.N. supervision.
A nine-member U.N. team was
systematically going through the
Agriculture Ministry to look for
documents and other materials on
Iraq's weapons of mass destruc
tion Tuesday, and was prepared
to spend the night to complete its
work.
Experts said Iraq likely had re
moved significant material during
the period inspectors were barred.
Two American members of the
inspection team remained outside
under a compromise worked out
between Iraq and the United
Nations. None of the experts in
side were from countries that
went to war last year to force Iraq
to reverse its invasion of Kuwait.
Tim Trevan, a spokesman for
the U.N. commission on Iraqi dis
armament, said after nightfall that
the inspectors were still in the
building and he did not discount
the possibility they would remain
around the clock.
He said the inspectors had not
yet reported discovering any
weapons-related materials. U.N.
officials suspect the ministry con
tained documents on Iraq's chem
ical, biological, nuclear and ballis
tic weapons.
"When I met the members of
the government this morning I
underlined the importance of se
curity and safety for our people,"
Swedish diplomat Rolf Ekeus, the
chairman of the disarmament
commission, told Cable News
Network in Baghdad. "I got a
very strong promise.”
Ekeus led weekend negotia
tions that allowed inspection of
the Agriculture Ministry, then ac
companied the inspectors to
Baghdad to try to ensure Iraqi
compliance.
Ekeus had been backed by U.S.
threats of force, but he accepted
conditions on the make-up of the
team similar to a demand
Baghdad made shortly after the
inspectors' vigil outside the min
istry began July 5. At the time,
Iraq said it wanted only neutral-
country inspectors in the building.
The United States remained
poised to strike if Iraq continued
its foot-dragging on compliance
with U.N. cease-fire resolutions
that ended the Gulf War.
Gore
Explosion damages Riverside Campus
By Robin Roach
The Battalion
A gas explosion at the Texas A&M
Riverside Campus occurred yesterday at 3:25
p.m. injuring Lone Star Gas employee Danny
Meadors.
Meadors was repairing the gas lines in the
Gas Regulator House after they had been cut
off during construction on Highway 21.
Meadors heard a leak and ran from the
building.
"He could foresee something was wrong,"
Lieutenant Russ Kline, University Police
Department, said. "He heard a leak and got
out of the building."
There was no fire involved in the explo
sion. A build up of pressure from the gas
leak in the building caused the sides and roof
of the Gas Regulator house to blow out.
"There was extensive damage to the build
ing," Kline said. "The sides of the building
were pushed out and the shingles were
blown up."
Meador was taken to St. Joseph Hospital
where he received medical attention for a
possible broken leg and other injuries.
Further investigation will be conducted to
identify the cause of the explosion.