University Press (Beaumont, Tex.), Vol. 64, No. 24, Ed. 1 Friday, February 5, 1988 Page: 3 of 8
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UNIVERSITY PRESS February 5,1988*3
Comment
Rules of power
predict outcome
in Israeli conflict
For the past two months,
Palestinians in the Israeli-
occupied territories of the
Gaza Strip and the West Bank
have been protesting Israeli
occupation.
But that happens all of the.
time. The most shocking part
of this story is the fact that
Israeli soldiers have killed at
least 40 people during these
demonstrations, using live
ammunition to quell riots.
But that is only part of the
story.
Whether you agree with the
Palestinians, who claim that
their homeland is being held
against their will by a
U.S.-backed military power, or
you agree with the Israelis,
who are trying to establish
colonies in the occupied ter-
ritories, is not going to be
argued here.
There is a larger concept at
stake in this battle — the con-
cept of power.
The same thing is happen-
ing in Israel now that has
already happened over the
past several years in South
Africa, Afghanistan and
other slightly third world-ish
nations around the world.
A few of the elite are con-
trolling the majority who have
not the monetary or interna-
tional support to win a battle.
In South Africa, 24 million
blacks continue to live under
the oppressive system of
apartheid, controlled by 5
million whites and the
military force to back the
system.
In Afghanistan, the Soviet
military has had a harder time
controlling a wide-spread and
popular rebel force during the
occupation of that nation, but
the Soviets are still there.
And, although the subject
has become something of a
cliche, hundreds of
thousands of homeless and
malnourished people barely
survive on the streets of cities
across America. They lack the
money and the confidence in
the system to form a political
movement.
Power is addictive, and the
Israelis won’t give it up
without a major international
incident — not military,
necessarily, but certainly
diplomatic and monetary.
In America, the Reagan ad-
ministration wants to send
nearly $50 million to aid the
Contras in Nicaragua, money
that would feed and clothe
many of those homeless.
In South Africa, it appears
that apartheid may have once
again won the battle of sup-
pression versus freedom,
mainly owning to an inade-
quate response from other na-
tions to the unjust system
that survives on the cape of
Africa.
There may be hope, though,
in Afghanistan, where the
Soviets are seriously talking
about pulling their forces out
of that country, but only
because of economic pro-
blems.
Someone once said,
“Power corrupts. Absolute
power corrupts absolutely.”
We agree.
Lamar offers choices
to students who look
Anyone who says there is
nothing for students at Lamar
isn’t looking.
All students were invited to
send in applications to attend
the Student Conference on
National Affairs at Texas
A&M University.
The Student Government
Association allocated $300 to
send two students. The
money would cover travel,
hotel expenses and some
meals.
Cheers to SGA for becom-
ing directly involved in the
student body.
Cheers again to the Fisher
Lecture Series which will be
bringing the Pulitzer Prize-
winning Texas author Larry
McMurtry to Lamar.
The series, which also
brought former President
Gerald Ford, presents
students with a chance to
hear and experience excellent
lecturers, an opportunity
students should not miss.
There is a multitude of
organizations for every in-
terest — French, chess,
groups relating to one’s major
and social organizations.
After student suggestions,
changes were made in the
self-paced math 1314 course.
Currently, the results of a
survey concerning the course
are being evaluated.
Hopefully, all task forces
will be as quick to implement
positive change as the math
1314 precedent.
Students are the substance
and make the difference.
Without them, obviously,
Lamar is nothing.
Dissatisfied lecturer
wants more coverage
Dear Editor:
I think it’s very strange that the
SSCC has a new president, and
nothing was reported about the re-
cent change in the school paper. I
was at the Jan. 29 SSCC event in the
Perch, and I was surprised to see
Jeffrey Floyd (aka Tank) introduc-
ed as the president. He has been
president for almost a month now —
so I am told. Now why has nothing
been reported about this in the
paper? Much of the student body is
not aware that he is the current
SSCC president. I think some sort of
write-up on this would be in order.
Letters to the Editor
Also, for all I know, this president
may be the first jblack one the SSCC
has had. Isn’t this at all newswor-
thy?
Greg Smith
Lecturer
Department of English
(Editor’s note) See an article on
Floyd in today’s University Press.
FEP&RAL
BUREAU
Of
INTIMIPATlOrt
1
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1 J.
ERSAR
HOOVER
1
Bush follows capitol rules
By Fred Barnes
Vice President George Bush says
he was only along for the ride in
Iranamok. Yes, he attended White
House meetings on the overtures to
Iran in 1985 and 1986, and yes, he
supported the weapons sale. But no,
he wasn’t aware at the time that it
was arms for hostages, and no, he
didn’t hear a thing about the diver-
sion of money to the Contras in
Nicaragua.
If only he’d known of opposition to
the arms sale by Secretary of State
George Shultz and Secretary of
Defense Caspar Weinberger, then
things might have gone differently.
Bush’s story is not only believable
but indicative of the way he has car-
ried out his vice presidency. He sat
through meetings and said prac-
tically nothing. At one point, he ex-
pressed an opinion — his “misgiv-
ings” — but this didn’t prove to be
pivotal in the White House decision-
making. By all accounts, including
his own, he was a largely passive
figure. But he rued the day the rules
were broken.
Bush is a rules fetishist. He thinks
that if you stick to rules and pro-
cedures, if you follow the process,
things will work out fine. In Bush’s
scheme, ideas and policies are less
important. Fill a conference room
with good people and they’ll come up
with good policies, so long as they
abide by the rules.
This is nearly the opposite of what
Reagan believes. For him, ideology
is almost everything. Reagan
wanted to be president to cut taxes,
build up the military, ban abortion,
etc.
In his closing statement in the
Republican presidential debate in
Des Moines on Jan. 8, Bush
declared, “I want to be the president
because I believe in public service.”
That’s the top rule for Bush— you
serve.
When Bush arrived at the White
House, he found a transformed vice
presidency. Walter Mondale had
made the job into something, and he
offered Bush five rules for keeping it
that way. Bush perked up. The rules
were: He should have unfettered ac-
cess to the president; he should have
regular one-on-one meetings with
him; he should get all the same
paperwork; he should be informed
of all the intelligence information
that goes to the Oval Office; and he
shouldn’t get in disagreements with
Cabinet members.
On top of Mondale’s rules, Bush
brought five of his own. The first is
that the vice president should never,
ever, overshadow the president.
Bush is peerless at this. But it sharp-
ly limits his role and visibility, and
it’s made him an uninteresting
politician. The second rule holds that
The New Republic
a veep shouldn’t “play the oppor-
tunist’s game by putting distance
between yourself and the president
when some White House decision or
policy becomes unpopular.” Bush
has honored this rule in Iranamok,
which is admirable.
He does well, too, on his third rule
— “don’t play the news-leaking
game.” He calls his fourth the
Stockman Rule. It says that all inter-
views should be on the record, “even
interviews with friends, if you want
to keep them as friends.” And his
fifth rule is that the vice president
owes his boss, along with total loyal-
ty, “his best judgment, whether he
and the president agree or
disagree.”
I’m willing to take Bush’s word
that he’s spoken his mind with
Reagan. Even so, it doesn’t seem to
have made much difference.
Bush’s impact has been felt when
he’s been assigned a specific task,
but he’s never stretched the limits of
his assignment. One day in early
1982 four civic leaders from Miami
met at the White House with Bush
and told him that drug trafficking
was ruining their city. Later that
day, Bush relayed the story to
Reagan, who immediately named
Bush the head of the South Florida
Task Force. Bush confined himself
to the South Florida problem, and it
wasn’t until 1986 that the ad-
ministration came up with a com-
prehensive anti-drug policy.
In Reagan’s first term, Bush was
deregulation czar. Again, he did his
job, but no more.
In the second term, Bush was boss
of the task force on terrorism. This
task force obviously had no impact,
since the administration was selling
arms to Iran at the time. In his
defense, Bush says he thought the
arms were going to “moderates” in
Iran and not for hostages.
Bush occasionally abandons his
low profile. In 1985 Treasury
Secretary James Baker came up
with a tax reform proposal that
would have drastically reduced
preferences benefiting the oil in-
dustry. Bush wanted to retain then-
current law, and he argued this posi-
tion in two meetings with the presi-
dent. He was partly successful, as
some preferences were restored.
As he cranked up his presidential
campaign in 1987, Bush has gotten
interested in acid rain, an important
issue in New Hampshire. When the
issue comes up at a lunch or
meeting, Bush jumps in, pressing
Reagan to make good on his commit-
ment to curb it. His interest in
education and day care, both cam-
So why do
chickens
cross the
highway?
By Dick West
WASHINGTON (UPI) [ — A
publication describing itself as an
“Animal Rights” magazine
estimates there are about 400 million
“Roadkills” in this country every
year.
Naturalists seem to feel it is up to
motorists to reduce the total, and I
suppose it is. The animals
themselves appear rigidly fixed in
their habits, although a commuter
who is accustomed to driving the
same routes twice a day may be the
most habit-ridden type there isT
“More than a million animals are
killed each day by cars and trucks in
America — making roadkills second
only to the meat industry in terms of
animal death,” it says.
I remember as a child being.asfc
ed, “Why does a chicken cross the
road?” The answer, then as now,
was, “To get to the other side.”
Only when, as an adult, I started to
familiarize myself with animat
rights, did I learn why they- might
want to get to the other side.
The magazine says they rpay be
trying to “find mates.”
It does not specifically address the
issue of how many chickens are. run
over each year trying to crqgs 'the
road but estimates “600,000' of the,
million roadkills daily are birds.” •
Dogs and cats, I gather, have
largely replaced chickens as pets;
and in some places appear more
desirous of reaching the other side of
the road, as well.
In one “relatively small” Califor-
nia county alone, Humane Society
workers “picked up 2,900 dead-dogs
and cats” in 1986. The magazine
doesn’t say how many were' killed
nationwide, but since dogs and &ats,
are primarily pets, it follows they ■
are the primary victims.
i»* v; i
Frankly, I have never tasted a dog 1
or cat steak. Maybe I’ve been miss-
ing something. However, if I were a
pet owner, I would try to teach it that
one side of the road is pretty much
like the other side — at least, insofar
as mates are concerned.
If you have one of those pets that
like to chase cars about the
neighborhood, I can only .say,
“Heaven help you.” You and the
other car owners in: the
neighborhood. They do not get away
unscathed, of course.
The National Highway Safety Ad-
ministration says at least 120 human
beings are killed in animal-vehicle
accidents and property damage runs
as high as $40 million, according to
some insurance estimates.
I assume some of that happens
right in your own neighborhood, but
statistics ara unavailable. Animals
must be very lax about taking out
accident insurance.
And even when they are clearly to
blame, police may be reluctant to
give them a ticket.
Despite all the time that animals
have shared our environment, they
“still are baffled by the noise, lights,
and motion of our vehicles,” the
magazine says.
If animals are baffled, you should
see some of the motorists in my
neighborhood. They are totally
mystified by animal eyes, which
have changed very little over the
years.
paign issues, has blossomed as well.
Still, Bush is usually a wallflower
at the White House. Last December
Chief of Staff Howard Baker and
Communications Chief Tom
Griscom decided it was time to get
Senate GOP leader Bob Dole on
record in support of the INF treaty.
Baker raised the issue with Dole at
a meeting, which Bush attended,
and then gave Reagan a memo on
the subject during a meeting at
which Bush was present. Not a peep
of complaint was heard from Bush.
But when his campaign aides heard
that Dole would appear with Reagan
to endorse INF, they charged
favoritism in the presidential race.
Baker had to soothe Bush. Just as
he’d missed the objections to tjbc
arms sale by Shultz and Weinberg*, . —
Bush said he hadn’t gotten wind ef mSSS-
the wooing of Dole.
It wasn’t so much that Reagan
joined Dole at the press conference,
Bush told a White House official. It
was the way the thing was handled.
The rules, after all, said he should
have been informed.
UNIVERSITY PRESS
Editor..........................Steven pool
Managing Editor..............Bryan Murley
Newa Editor...................Evelyn Hapn.
Sports Editor...................Lyra Katana
Copy Editor....................Karen D^is^
Photo Editor...................Lyra Katana.
Photographer..................Keith Watsoir
Entertainment Writer..........Brent Snyder
Staff Writers................Marlene Auster,
Cathy Faughnan, Tina Freeipap,
Jason Hammond, Leah Hon,
Steven Lightfoot, Bonnie McDailt,
Sharon Perkins, Denise FSolly-
David Smith, Danny Stegall'
Advertising Assistant.......Antionette Kelly
Circulation Manager...........Darrell Ford
Office Assistants.....Dung Pham, Anh Pham
Marketing Representative
Elaine Butler
Production Manager
Gloria Post
Assistant to the
Director of Student Publications
Louise Wood
Director of Student Publications.
Howard Perkins
Publisher
Students Publication Board
Ann Shaw, Chairman
3 I
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d&ftjWt' . University, and is
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Offices ate IbeMW if P O. Bat MW,
Setter Student Center, University. Station,
Beaumont, Texas 77710.
Opinions expressed in editorials and,col-
umns are those of the student management of
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necessarily those of the university administra-
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Ford, Steven. University Press (Beaumont, Tex.), Vol. 64, No. 24, Ed. 1 Friday, February 5, 1988, newspaper, February 5, 1988; Beaumont, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth499791/m1/3/?q=Lamar+University: accessed June 5, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Lamar University.