Lamar University Press (Beaumont, Tex.), Vol. 59, No. 20, Ed. 1 Friday, November 5, 1982 Page: 3 of 6
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UNIVERSITY PRESS November 5,1982*3
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As I was saying. . .
Is there really an ‘E.T.’?
5 -
By BONNtE DOIRON
UP columnist
Finally, I went to see that movie about
that below teen-age (measured in light-
years) alien from outer space.
’* E.T.’s age is hard to determine but, if I
were E.T. and I happened upon such a
weird-looking thing as an Earth human, I
would react just as E.T. did regardless of
my age.
What I really went to see was if the
movie would show E.T.’s mother giving
him a spanking for wandering off in the
wilderness.
No such luck.
So far, I have not had any nightmares
from viewing the movie. I attribute that to
the fact that my dog is uglier than E.T.
That’s the beauty of being ugly. Just
mediocre ugly won’t do. But, if you are
uglier than ugly, you are positively
lovable, for ugly, as beauty, is in the eye of
the beholder.
So, what would you do if you saw a cute
little ugly lovable something-or-other in
! your back yard?
. Of course, I don’t have to wonder about
that. I would promptly faint, fall back on it
and deny the whole episode.
Should the government seriously con-
sider formulating plans and preparing for
the exigencies relevant to a visit from ex-
traterrestrials?
Not according to Sen. William Proxmire.
In July 1981, his amendment to the
federal budget killed the NASA project for
the search for extraterrestrial intelligence
(SETI), which means that there ain’t no
such thing, so settle down and learn which
route to take whenever we get our three-
day notice that a nuclear bomb is heading
for this prime target area.
Strange to say, in December 1981, the
Soviet Union held an international con-
ference on SETI to which scientists from
the United States were invited.
So you see, somebody down here does
think that there is somebody out there.
Considering the size of the universe, it
seems reasonable to assume that we ear-
thlings would be awfully presumptious if
we believed that we were the only
creatures swimming around in all this sea
of interstellar dust.
After all, it has been discovered that the
molecules of the raw materials for life are
scattered throughout the cosmos and, if
you were to look through the big end of the
telescope, you might find that we are the
extraterrestrials—just earthbound.
And I wouldn’t want you to think that our
earthbound government is not looking out
for us.
There are regulations in the Federal
Guidlelines giving NASA the responsibility
and authority to “detain, examine and
decontaminate” anything or anybody
“returning to Earth” which has been “ex-
traterrestrially exposed.”
But, returning to Earth means that a
body would have to have originated on
Earth and left Earth before returning to
Earth.
So, what do we do if a body, originating
somewhere out yonder, just accidentally
on purpose drops by to look over our blue
marble?
Follow Elliot’s example. Hide it in the
closet and insist on your legal rights to
keep it.
Viewpoint-
Reagan being cut short
JJ
Tuesday's elections,!, which were
dominated by the Democrats, may
have started a trend where the
American public will not give a Presi-
dent's economic package time to work.
According to a poll taken Wednes-
day, voters, by a two to one margin,
said they would not vote for President
Ronald Reagan if he ran for re-election
in 1984.
Although the Democrats picked up
25 seats in the House, that's not
unusual because the party that isn't in
the White House traditionally picks up
seats.
What is unusual is how the
Republicans held their ground in the
Senate. There, Republicans hold an
eight-member edge.
Various television networks inter-
viewed people who were out of work.
Those people said it was time for a
change and that they were tired of
Reaganomics.
Tip O'Neill, speaker of the House,
called the elections "a disastrous defeat
for the president.'' Reagan, on the
other hand, said, "We feel very good
about what happened."
Now that everybody's happy, or so
they say, both Republicans and
.Democrats need to work together.
Sen. John Glenn, D-Ohio, said Tues-
day that both Democrats and
Republicans need "to work together to
turn the economy around."
The distressing aspect of this elec-
tion is that Reagan, who won by a
landslide in 1980, is not being given
the support he needs to make his pro-
grams work. Those same people who
voted him into office turned out in
droves to vote Democratic.
It doesn't matter who is running the
circus in Washington. Voters need to
quit making quick changes when
miracles aren't performed with the
economy.
There are no quick solutions,
especially abandoning Reaganomics
before they have a chance to work.
There are too many people out of
work, but this just didn't happen in the
last two years since Reagan has taken
office. Our problems with unemploy-
ment have built over the past 20 years.
If the American public is fickle
enough to change the control in the
Senate and House every two years,
how are programs supposed to be im-
plemented? Time is a big factor in pass-
ing bills and formulating legislation.
The public has a right to vote into
office whomever. This is much better
than revolutions and civil war. But suf-
ficient time has to be given the Presi-
dent to implement his programs.
Americans need to support the Presi-
dent and his policies, whether it's
Reagan or someone else.
The time for teamwork is now.
Marriott: ‘Son of SAGA’
Service with a happy face?
This is often a foreign cliche to those
who serve us our daily bread—Mar-
riott Food Services.
In late spring, the word arrived that
Lamar was getting a new food ser-
vice—SAGA was out. There were
students dancing on Virginia Street.
Five months later though, Marriott
has given us flashes of "Son of SAGA,"
with the rudeness of some of its
workers, the high cost of food and the
quality of service.
The attitude of some workers seems
to be generally negative when a ques-
tion is brought up by a customer. One
customer said that "workers are rude,
always saying 'I don't know' if asked
questions."
Another incident happened last
week with a customer's call-in order
for pizza from the Setzer Student
Center Perch. Some 15 minutes after
the order was taken, the customer
went to the Perch to pick up the order
and found that the pizza fyad been "ac-
cidentally'' thrown away, one
employee said. Another said that it had
been "accidentally" picked up by so-
meone else. In any event, another
order was placed and another 15-20
minutes was spent by a hungry
customer trying to get his supper.
In most restaurants, when the
management makes a mistake in ser-
vice, the food is on the house. But
there was no offer to provide a free
pizza. Of course, the customer did not
suggest this. However, the food service
might have had a better satisfied
customer and more business from him,
in the long run, had the second pizza
been provided at no cost.
Examples, such as these, do not even
mention the often long lines in the
Setzer Student Center Perch and the
SSC Nest during lunch,’ which seem-
ingly move nowhere—especially in
the Perch.
By and large, employees, during
these rush times, often seem to be un-
concerned about the long lines stacking
up, moving at a pace a turtle would
despise.
One customer said that he timed a
line that he was in. It took him 10
minutes in the Nest to get through a
line at the cash register.
To these problems there are solu-
tions.
Two operating cashiers in the Perch
and three at all times in the Nest would
help limit the line problems.
Rudeness on the part of employees
seems simple enough to correct. Train
them that they serve the public, and
part of that service is to be polite and
helpful to customers who are paying
their salaries. And that is not ad-
vocating that they be pollyannas.
This is not to mention the high
prices of foods.
Marriott management should be
aware that many people on this cam-
pus are neither happy with the service
nor the attitude of some of the
employees in the Nest and the Perch.
* i
NORML looks for reform of marijuana laws to take money crops
By MAXWELL GLEN and
CODY SHEARER
Field Enterprises Inc.
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Newsweek’s Oct.
25 cover photo of a ski-masked North
Carolina marijuana fanner was enough to
make one believe that we live next door to
a dangerous criminal who protects his
garden with an M-16 rifle and a shiny new 1
pitchfork.
Yet the striking cover only foretold a
more remarkable story: “Guns, Grass and
Money-America’s Billion-Dollar Mari-
juana Crop.” Domestic production of
grass, particularly the development of a
high-powered seedless strain known as
sensemilla, has advanced such that the na-
tion’s habit has become, if you will, in-
grown.
Grown in greenhouses and on rural
plots, sensemilla is to regular grass as the
MX is to a squirt gun. “It’s a quicker
high,” explained Kevin Zeese of the Na-
tional Organization for the Reform of
Marijuana Laws (NORML). “You used to
have to smoke joint after joint to get high
on Mexican dope. Good sensemilla will do
the job after one or two hits on a water
pipe.”
Sensemilla’s secret recipe is nothing
complex. Farmers simply weed out male
plants early in the growing season, promp-
ting female plants to secrete excess resin,
which contains grass’s active ingredient,
THC.
Unfortunately, no one really knows the
value of America’s fastest-growing cash
crop. NORML claims that, bushel for
bushel, marijuana yields more dollars
than do U.S. rice, potatoes or cotton crops
(between $8 billion and $10 billion annual-
ly).
They also believe that home-grown dope
is now favored by 30 percent of all
American users. The Drug Enforcement
Administration says NORML’s figures are
inflated to make legalization appear a fait
accompli.
Yet, regardless of the extent to which
locally-grown grass has won over the
hearts and minds of Americans, its
emergence only confirms our feeling that
the “evil weed” will never be legalized in
the U.S.
We aren’t just saying that because Nan-
cy Reagan told us to. Though one could
make a good case against decriminaliza-
tion on the basis of medical evidence, the
real reason is that legalization is no longer
in the national interest.
Moreover, suppliers who feed off
domestic producers would wither under
decriminalization. With dope grown out in
the open, makers of halide lamps,
hydrophonic filter systems, trip-wire
security gadgets and specialized fer-
tilizers (with names such as “dyna-grow”
and “iron mix”) would go belly-up.
Authors of the respectable library of ad-
vice on clandestine cultivation would have
to chart new courses. High times would
also mean hard times for the innumerable
drug lawyers who make a living defending
the guilty (a national directory is available
from NORML).
Commercial exhibits Readers’ Forum
open to college dorms deader disagrees with UP editorial
O Editor: a seauel (it isn’t) or that a follow-un was means “silly.”)
Finally, it seems clear that America’s
200,000 grass growers wouldn’t benefit
from a free market. Legalization, as with
deregulation of other service industries,
would only spawn more competition.
Small-business men, who now enjoy a
monopoly of sorts, would be eaten alive by
the big discounters. In time, the Japanese
would probably find a way to grow dope
faster and cheaper, and decriminalize it
for the sake of the yen.
So, at the risk of sounding conservative,
we’ll endorse the status quo. Business is
booming, profits are larger and the highs
are higher. Can anyone deny that money
grows on trees in America?
By National On-Campus Report
If a state university permits social or
political organizations to meet in dorm
rooms it must also allow commerical
presentations, a federal appeals court rul-
ed recently.
The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals
declared Penn State officials can’t restrict
the American Future Systems Inc., a
tableware sales firm, from making
presentations in dormitory rooms when in-
vited by students. The court said banning
commercial activity is only permitted to
protect the health and safety of dormitory
residents.
Even in that case, the ban must apply to
all organized or invited group meetings.
The court also ruled that a state college
cannot permit commercial speech but then
censor its content, unless such content is
unlawful or untruthful.
The court said there are no allegations
that AFS presentations are fraudulent,
misleading or otherwise unlawful.
off campus
I would like to know who wrote the
editorial in the Oct. 29 issue of the UP.
Whoever it was, I disagree with him/her
on the evaluation of “Halloween HI—The
Season of the'Witch.”
.1 have not seen the new Sylvester
Stallone action film “First Blood,” but I
have seen, and loved “Halloween HI.”
From reading the editorial, I wonder if
the writer saw either film at ail. After call-
ing both films “silly” the writer wonders
“Why are they and their sequels made.” .
I was not aware that “First Blood” was
a sequel (it isn’t) or that a follow-up was
planned. “Halloween EH” is not really a
“sequel” to the original film; it is a whole
new story in an Anthology of films entitled
“Halloween,” not unlike “The Twilight
Zone” or “Night Gallery.”
Also, after mentioning the two films, the
writer goes into a discussion of “teen-
scream” or “slasher” films, implying that
“First Blood” and “Halloween HI” are of
those categories, which they are not.
“First Blood” is an action/adventure
film, while “Halloween HI—The Season of
the Witch” is a science-fiction thriller
along the line of “Invasion of the Body
Snatchers.” (I might add also that it is an
effective and well made production, the
best of the film series so far which is by no
means “silly.”)
The writer also seems upset that the
films are “made to make money.” All
films are made to make money. Bogart
made a lot of ganster and detective films
in the ’30s and ’40s because they made a lot
of money for Warner Brothers.
Sure, today they are called “classics,”
but back then, they were just movies. For
your information, John Carpenter’s
“Halloween” (the original) is already con-
sidered a “classic.”
Who’s to say that in 50 years “Halloween
IH” won’t be called a “classic” too?
Brent Snyder
Beaumont junior
Editor’s note: The editorial was written by
Clyde Hughes, UP managing editor.
Cajun history misunderstood
Editor:
This letter is in response to an article ap-
pearing in the Nov. 3 edition of the Univer-
sity Press. The article decribed the dissen-
sion over the name of the Southwestern
Louisiana “Ragin’ Cajuns.”
Obviously, Adofo Harmon, a counselor,
and Micheal Dixon, a basketball coach,
have a poor knowledge of history.
A “cajun” is not a derogatory remark
used by blacks against whites. And it has
nothing to do with blacks’ retaliation for
being called “nigger.”
Rather “cajuns” are a rare of people liv-
ing in South Louisiana. The ahscestors of
these people migrated from the coast of
France to Nova Scotia in 1604. In 1755, they
were ejected from Nova Scotia and settled
in South Louisiana.
The proper name for these people is aca-
dians but frontier Americans referred to
them as “cajuns.” The descendants of
these settlers remain in South Louisiana
and refer to themselves as Cajuns.
Cajun is not a derogatory remark
against whites but rather a proud race of
people. Why this name is not approriate
for a school mascot is beyond me.
Paul Mills
San Diego, Calif., junior
UNIVERSITY PRESS
Editor..........................John Tisdale
Managing Editor..............Clyde Hughes
Copy Editor................Sandra Schroeder
Wire Editor..................Barbara Rogers
Photo Editor..................Jan Couvillon
Sport* Editor................Mike McDevitt
Columnist....................Bonnie Doiron
Advertising Manager..........Lisa Hoffpauir
Advertising Represents UveMargene Lenamon
Cartoonist....................Lance Hunter
Graphics..............Joe Bruns, Judy Paul
Photographers..Charles Cheek, Paul Heihn,
Kyle Loftin, Keith McKnight,
Staff Writers.. Catherine Green, Alice Jordan,
Nancy Lawrence, Alice Nolan,
Adrian Pretz, Russell Shaver
Sue Wright
Sports Assistants................Joe Rutland,
Jay Toler
Typesetters... .Karen Dwyer, Baxter Faulk,
Ingrid Faulk
Circulation..................Cynthia Brown
Office Assistant............Vickie McIntyre
Production Manager
Gloria Post
Assistant Director of Student Publications
Jill Scoggins
Director of Student Publications
Howard Perkins
Publisher
Student Publications Board
George McLaughlin, Chairman
The University Press is the official student
newspaper of Lamar University, and
publishes every Wednesday and Friday during
long semesters, excluding holidays and
Wednesdays immediately following holidays.
Offices are located at P.O. Box 10055, 200
Setzer Student Center, University Station,
Beaumont, Texas 77710.
Opinions expressed in editorials and col-
umns are those of the student management of
the newspaper. These opinions are not
necessarily those of the university administra-
tion.
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Tisdale, John. Lamar University Press (Beaumont, Tex.), Vol. 59, No. 20, Ed. 1 Friday, November 5, 1982, newspaper, November 5, 1982; Beaumont, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth499712/m1/3/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Lamar University.