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Volume 110 • Issue 44 • 10 pages
Haunted houses • Page 3 Opinion: Impossible terms • Page 9
R ATT AT TO
p y / m 1 Jp / % k \
A Texas A&M Tradition Since 1893
www.thebattalion.net Wednesday, October 29, 2003
BUSH AWARD
for Excellence in Public Service
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy will be
presented with this award on Nov. 7
Former President George Bush
has 51 percent of the input on who
receives the award
Kennedy is the first
American to receive
this award
Previous recipients
of the award are
German Chancellor
Helmut Kohl and former Soviet
Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev
RUBEN DELUNA • THE BATTALION
SOURCE : BUSH OFFICE
Kennedy to receive Bush award
Senator's antiwar comments lead students to question the choice
By Sonia Moghe
THE BATTALION
Former President George Bush
will present Sen. Edward M.
Kennedy, D-Mass., with a Bush
Award for Excellence in Public
Service on Nov. 7.
Kennedy, brother of former
President John F. Kennedy, is receiv
ing the award in recognition of the
consistent stand he has maintained
on issues throughout his 41 years in
the U.S. Senate.
The George Bush Presidential
Library Foundation’s decision to give
this award to Kennedy will make him
the first American recipient. Previous
recipients of the award include for
mer German Chancellor Helmut
Kohl, as well as former Soviet Union
leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
Some Texas A&M students and
alumni, though, have voiced concerns
about Kennedy’s selection, citing his
recent comments against President
George W. Bush’s plans for Iraq.
“The purpose of this award is not
to celebrate a partisan ideology,” said
Jim McGrath, spokesman for the
Bush Office, “but to recognize the
American ideal of public service.”
The decision to award Kennedy
was made in January, with 51 per
cent input from Bush himself — the
rest of which was in the hands of the
other members of the Bush
Foundation, McGrath said.
“He gave (members) free reign to
make the decision they wanted to,”
McGrath said. “He encouraged them
to think boldly.”
This decision was made around
the time Kennedy voiced his opinion
regarding the manner in which cur
rent President George W. Bush was
handling the war in Iraq. Despite the
announcement of the Bush Award,
Kennedy has continued to criticize
the current president’s policy.
“An unnecessary war based on
unreliable and inaccurate intelli
gence, has not brought an end to dan
ger,” Kennedy said in a released
statement on Oct. 16. “Instead, it has
brought new dangers, imposed new
costs and taken more and more
American lives each week.”
Barbara Bush, wife and mother to
the former and current presidents,
was interviewed by Larry King last
Wednesday. She shared her discon
tent with Kennedy’s remarks, but
acknowledged that he deserved the
award because of his years of contri
bution in the Senate.
“(George) Bush will be making a
statement in his speech regarding
See Kennedy on page 2
Gearing up
RANDAL FORD • THE BATTALION
Beyond Petroleum (BP) firefighter instructor David Mayville on Tuesday afternoon. This week, BP is training firefighters
begins training firefighters at the Brayton Fire Training School from all over the world including two oil fighters from Kuwait.
Ferris promotes Air Force art
JOHN C. LIVAS • THE BATTALION
Aviation artist Keith Ferris stands in front of "Thunderbird Take Off," one
of 29 paintings depicting U.S. aircraft on display at the George Bush
Library's Museum Center.
By Pammy Ramji
THE BATTALION
Because Keith Ferris’ father
was often away on business, his
4-year-old son had to find a
way to show him all the planes
he saw from his backyard in his
dad’s absence. So, Ferris picked
up a pen and some paper, mark
ing the beginning of what has
been a long and successful
career in aviation painting.
Ferris spoke Monday night
at an issues forum at the
George Bush Library and
Museum on his flight experi
ences and passion for paint
ing. “The Art of Keith Ferris”
is on display at the Bush
Library and will be exhibited
until Jan. 4, 2004.
Ferris said he was practical
ly made for the U.S. Army Air
Corps, as he was born the son
of a career Air Force pilot who
served from 1925 to 1955.
Ferris attended Texas
A&M, where he majored in
aeronautical engineering.
Although his career in the Air
Force ended when he discov
ered he had an allergy to some
of the required inoculations,
he wanted to stay close to the
Air Force.
Before ending flight mis
sions, Ferris flew in the United
States, Asia, Europe,
Antarctica and many other
places within every jet fighter
aircraft in the Air Force.
Ferris found a perfect fit at
the Air Force’s Training
Publications Unit at Randolph
Air Force Base in San Antonio
as a civilian apprentice artist.
The job combined his two
loves, and his career in serious
aviation painting started.
“I was not quite sure what I
was going to do when I had to
stop flying,” Ferris said.
After several years as an
apprentice artist, Ferris left the
civil service altogether, opting
for work at an art studio with
Cassell Watkins Paul in St.
Louis, Mo.
In 1960, Ferris became a
member of the Society of
Illustrators in New York and
made the move to the Big
Apple.
“I did not know anyone that
lived there, but I still went
with my wife and my 1-year-
old daughter,” Ferris said.
Ferris started freelancing
more, specializing in aviation
art. Some clients he has served
in the more than half a century
he has worked include the
Aviation Trade Association,
Texaco, Air Force Association,
Air Force Magazine and
Aircraft Owners and Pilots
Association.
Not limiting himself to
aircraft alone, Ferris started
painting smaller airplanes
on helmets worn by Air
Force pilots.
“I am not painting air
planes, but I am painting what
is likely to fly,” he said.
Ferris said he examines all
the planes he paints before
starting a piece, such as the
Thunderbird, which is the old
est Air Force plane. The exam
ination of the Thunderbird
birthed “The Retirement Party
for Old Thunderbird,” one of
the 50 major paintings Ferris
featured in the Air Force Art
Collection.
Ferris uses only the three
primary colors for his work.
“My dreams were with
paint, and I absolutely love it,”
he said.
Currently, the National
Air and Space Museum
houses two of Ferris’ paint
ings, a mural of a B-17 and
jet aviation.
I
4-5199
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Thousands evacuate
San Diego county
wpaP'
;amP uS
oer
By Seth Hettena
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SAN DIEGO — Tens of
thousands of people fled
mountain communities in San
Diego and San Bernardino
counties Tuesday and caused a
traffic jam on a narrow moun
tain highway as frantic resi
dents raced to avoid
California’s deadliest wildfires
in more than a decade.
Frustrated firefighters said
there was little they could do to
stop the flames, and exhausted
crews in San Diego County
were pulled back even though
two devastating blazes began
merging into a super fire near
Julian, a mountain town of
3,500 known for its apple crop.
In San Diego County, a blaze
of more than 200,000 acres
formed a 45-mile front stretch
ing into Scripps Ranch and
Julian. The fire was just miles
from joining with a 37,000-acre
fire near Escondido.
The two fires have
destroyed more than 900
homes. If they join up, the
flames would cut off escape
routes and whip up the wind.
“Just about everything is
burning,” said William
Bagnell, fire chief of the Crest
Forest Fire Protection District.
Authorities announced two
more deaths in San
Bernardino County on
Tuesday, bringing the death
toll from the fires to 16.
Nearly 1,600 homes have
been destroyed, and 10,000
firefighters were on the front
lines throughout the state. Gov.
Gray Davis estimated the cost
at nearly $2 billion.
Since Oct. 21, at least 10
wind-driven wildfires —
many of them arson-caused —
have rampaged through
Southern California, demol
ishing neighborhoods, gutting
businesses and blackening
more than half a million acres
of land from the Mexican bor
der to the Ventura-Los
Angeles county line.
Promises of
aid to Iraq
dwarf other
causes
A comparison of
financial pledges
to agencies within
the United Nations.
Funds to rebuild-
Iraq, including
U.S, pledge of
$20 billion
Through 2007
Global Fund
to fight AIDS
2001-05
Development
Program
2002
$2.8 $3.6
SOURCE: Associated Press
$33.0
AP
Donors pledge billions in aid to Iraq
By Barbara Borst
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
UNITED NATIONS — Donors were generous last
week in pledging billions to rebuild Iraq — dispropor
tionately generous compared with their donations to
fight poverty and AIDS in the world’s poorest coun
tries, development and AIDS' officials say.
The $33 billion for Iraq over the next four years,
including $20 billion from the United States, is more
than 10 times the U.N. Development Program’s annual
funds of $2.8 billion for all underdeveloped countries.
The amount is also nearly 10 times the pledges to the
Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria,
which kill millions every year.
At development agencies and in poor countries,
leaders are worried that the generosity shown to Iraq —
a middle-income country with major oil reserves — at
the donors’ conference in Madrid, Spain, will erode
resources for other needs.
Stephen Lewis, the U.N. secretary-general’s special
envoy for AIDS in Africa, called the contrast between
pledges for Iraq and other donations a “weird, discor
dant upset in the scales of justice.”
“I don’t deny that Iraqis are under stress and num
bers of them are dying tragically. But I am forced to
point out that more than 2 million Africans are dying of
AIDS every year, and their poverty is vastly more
wretched,” he told The Associated Press. “There is
something fundamentally wrong with the sense of
moral balance.”
Lewis said he understands the focus on fighting ter
rorism but that it has introduced “a completely uncon
scionable distortion” of funding priorities.
See Donors on page 2
Grenade attack kills U.S. soldier in Baghdad
By Robert H. Reid
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BAGHDAD, Iraq — A car
bomb exploded Tuesday west of
Baghdad, killing at least four peo
ple a day after three dozen people
died in a wave of suicide bomb
ings in the Iraqi capital. U.S. offi
cials said one of Baghdad’s three
deputy mayors was killed in a hit-
and-run shooting.
The latest attacks, including
the killing Sunday of Deputy
Mayor Paris Abdul Razzaq al-
Assam, raised fears that a
strengthened insurgency is
increasingly targeting Iraqis who
work with the U.S.-led coalition
as well as international groups
that had considered themselves
at less risk than U.S. soldiers.
Despite the escalation in
attacks on Iraqis, American
forces remained targets, with
insurgents firing on a U.S. mili
tary base and convoy in two
northern cities Tuesday.
In Baghdad, a rocket-pro
pelled grenade attack killed one
U.S. soldier and wounded six
others while they were trying to
destroy roadside bombs, the
U.S. military said Tuesday.
The soldiers, from the 1st
See Grenade on page 2
TURK]
SYRIA
0 100 mi
l. 0 100 km
IRAQ
IRAN
FallujaH ©Baghdad
I
Four people
killed in car bomb
explosion
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SAUDI ARABIA
SOURCES; Associated Press; ESR1 AP