Lamar University Press (Beaumont, Tex.), Vol. 57, No. 28, Ed. 1 Friday, January 30, 1981 Page: 3 of 6
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UNIVERSITY PRESS January 30,1981*3
Lack of compassion, pride choking U.S.
rViewpoint—
Bloody revenge
not the answer
After all the months of patience that the
United States has shown over the release of
our now-freed hostages, it would only seem
logical that now’s the time to make Iran the
world’s largest pancake.
Wrong.
Central behind the taking of the hostages
was not only Iranian animosity over our
support for the Shah, but a growing sense of
nationalism among Third World nations. To
seek revenge against Iran would only open
up other American outposts around the
world for attack.
Especially embittered would be the
Algerians. After spending several months
serving as a go-between for the release of
the hostages, the U.S. is already stabbing
this new friend in the back by delivering
long-delayed reconnaisance airplanes and
battle tanks to arch-foe Morocco.
And, other countries might hesitate
before offering any assistance to America
for fear of losing credibility in the world
community.
Nevertheless, in the flurry of national
pride generated by the release of the
hostages, the American ego demands some
soothing. With stories of mistreatment of
the hostages surfacing daily, military ac-
tion seems too far-fetched an idea, while
> continuation of economic sanctions do not.
Further, the military equipment pur-
chased from the U.S. by Iran should not
and, as far as President Reagan is con-
cerned, will not be delivered.
Iran might call it “holding out.” We call it
the “rental fee for 52 American punching
bags,” something we pray never happens
again.
By MAXWELL GLEN
and CODY SHEARER
© Field Newspaper Syndicate
LOS ANGELES — Seventy-seven-year-old Mike
Mansfield of Montana recently gave the
Washington Post some examples of what he
thought was “wrong” with American society.
There are “too many fat people. . .Not enough
pride or courtesy or politeness,” he said. “Too
many people for themselves.. .Too willing to ‘let
George do it’ because they don’t want to be per-
sonally affected.”
Are these merely the ravings of an old crank?
Not really.
These criticisms come from a former Senate
majority leader, who, as U.S. Ambassador to
Japan, has spent the last four years watching
America from the outside. Undoubtedly, his stan-
By MARIANNA OHE
UPI Business Writer
NEW YORK — Jimmy Carter hired more
women at the policy-making level than any U.S.
president in history — a record Ronald Reagan
appears unlikely to match.
Now the “Carter women" have re-entered the
job market — some to find out if their high-level
government experience can be translated into the
bottom-line skills needed in the corporate world.
And women’s groups say there are signs women
simply are not being placed in significant num-
bers in the new administration.
“If you look at the pictures of the new ad-
ministration, its just a great sea of white male
faces,” says Anne Wexler, who was Carter’s
assistant for public liaison.
Wexler, “weighing a couple of offers” from
dards have been influenced by Japanese culture,
which is steeped in pride, courtesy and a strong
family tradition.
For a while now, Mansfield has been concerned
that the erosion of such values in America may be
responsible for our ills. During an interview with
us at his tastefully decorated embassy office in
Tokyo sevferal months ago, he appeared par-
ticularly troubled by the way this decay has made
the baby-boom generation a selfish, materialistic
and lazy lot.
Lately, we’ve noticed evidence of Mansfield’s
concerns in our own circles.
* A second-year law student in Washington,
D.C., threatens to sue his roomate for jeopar-
dizing his legal career. Apparently, the aspiring
attorney, who is a New York City native, became
distraught when, near exam time, his roomate un-
private industry, says 22 percent of all Carter ap-
pointments to high-ranking, policy-making jobs
were women, compared to 12 percent under for-
mer President Gerald Ford, the runnerup.
“It was fantastic,” she says. “The president
made a really strong effort to bring women in at
very high levels throughout the government, un-
dersecretaries, dozens of assistant secretaries,
general counsels of five cabinet departments run-
ning staffs of between ISO and 300 lawyers each.
“Having women in on policymaking, having
men working for women bosses, became the
norm,” she continued. “Nobody paid a heck of a
lot of attention to women running billion-dollar
budgets.”
Women in middle-and highlevel government
posts jumped 17 percent under Carter, according
to the Coalition for Women’s Appointments of the
National Women’s Political Caucus.
derwent tests for hepititas, not knowing whether
the entire household had already been infected.
* A married couple, 25-years-old, complains
that they have had to resort to supermarket store
brands and meatless days in order to make
payments on their new Porsche spors car.
✓ An office secretary vows to “get even" with a
local dry cleaning establishment when she
discovers the label on her $100 designer jeans had
been torn off.
To some, these anecdotes might seem like
aberrations. But they are all too common, and
probably reminiscent of pigheadedness of which
we’ve all been guilty and later regreted.
Maybe we need such accounts to remind our-
selves that we’re all too selfish for our own good.
To be sure, few secular public figures, aside
from Jimmy Carter and California Gov. Jerry
In the Defense Department, middle-level
women appointees leaped from 17 percent in 1976
to 40 percent in 1979, while those appointed to
higher levels rose from zero to 10 percent, ac-
cording to Coalition figures.
"We have submitted over 150 names of highly
qualified women to the Reagan administration,”
says Coalition spokeswoman Janice Katz. "At this
time the women have not been contacted. They
have received form letters saying their resumes
were received.
“From what we hear,” Katz adds, “women are
not being placed in the structure. We cannot find
out who is being hired.”
Bette Anderson, appointed by Carter as the first
woman under secretary of the Treasury and
recently elected to the board of International Tele-
phone & Telegraph, says Reagan "to this point
has made so few sub-cabinet appointments that I
Brown, seemed willing to articulate the need for
values in tune with these times of scarcity. Then
again, the electorate wasn’t too receptive either.
In the 19S0 presidential campaign's least talked-
about speech, Jerry Brown told a dozing
Democratic National Convention audience last
August:
“As a small minority of the world’s population,
we must live by our wits, think better and work
harder. . .We can invent new ways to live better.
We can learn to place quality above quantity and
caring above consumption.”
Like Mike Mansfield, Brown has been warning
Americans about the consequences of resting on
one’s laurels and not adapting for the future. Bad
habits may be difficult to overcome, but the less
likely our hunger for personal gain and worldly
superiority, the less painful the transition will be.
honestly cannot say” what his attitude on hiring
women will be.
Meanwhile the Carter women — many with lit-
tle or no experience in industry — face the task of
translating their specialized expertise into
marketable skills.
It may take them six months to a year to find
positions, says John Schlueter, vice president and
senior partner of KornFerry International. The
executive search firm has sent resumes of 30 of
the high-level women appointees to 100 of the For-
tune 500 companies and 60 executive recruiting
firms.
“People working in high-level government
positions assume the private sector will have jobs
for them, but some have qualifications and skills
not applicable to the corporate world,” Schleuter
says.
fair
Comment
Editorial/Le tter/‘In Public View *
‘Carter women’ still see hiring inadequacies
Computer whiz wants swap
By TIM BRYANT
United Press International
SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, 111. — Com-
puter whiz Louis Elsen says he would give
up all rights to his computer system, which
has already saved the government a quar-
ter of a billion dollars, for a chat with
President Reagan. ’
“Yeah, I’d do it,” Elsen says with a
sheepish grin. “I’d probably throw away a
million dollars.”
Elsen developed the system in his spare
. time and estimates its worth at $1 million.
The Air Force estimates the system has
saved the government $238 million in just
one year.
Elsen, a civilian working for the Air For-
ce, says he would give up the chance to
make money with his computer system for
a two-hour, closed door talk with Reagan
on the subjects of Elsen’s choosing.
“I’d like to sit down and talk with
Reagan,” Elsen says.
' Elsen’s computer system is called
LOUIS, which doesn't stand for Elsen’s fir-
st name but Logical On-line User Inquiry
System.
“It’s a coincidence it came out that way,
but I’m not denying I’m proud of it,” Elsen
says.
One of the reasons LOUIS is so valuable
UNIVERSITY PRESS
Editor _
Managing Editor
Copy Editor _
Newt Editor _
Editorial Page Editor
Sports Editor _
_Susan Marlow
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. David Harrington
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Entertainment Editor_Drorit Szafran-Heitner
Advertising Manager_____;__Renita Johnson
Advertising Representatives__Paula Lagush,
Mike Marroquin
Composition Manager _David Martindale
Graphics Coordinator__Tom Newton
Graphics Editor _ _Lisa Wilson
Cartoonist-Illustrator
Campus Editor_
Photo Editor _
_ Lance Hunter
. Vladenka Rose
Sports Assistants _
Entertainment Assistant
Advertising Assistants _
Photographers _
_ Fernando Prado
_ Rose Broussard,
Kevin Lindsey
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Kristi Jordan
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Charlie Cheek, Robert Garrett, Ian Martin,
Shawn Prablek, Steve Sandlin
aff Writers • Marvin Montgomery
Becky Moss
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Typesetters
Office Assistant _
Circulation Manager
Production Manager
Gloria Post
Assistant Director of Student Publications
is that practically anyone can learn to use
it in minutes. To perform a variety of com-
plex computer functions, the user has only
to type a series of commands in simple
English.
If the user gives an incorrect command,
LOUIS says so.
"LOUIS is a very fast and usable
system,” says Elsen, a computer trouble-
shooter for the Air Force Communications
Command based at Scott. “Just about
anyone with reasonable intelligence
should be able to use this system.”
Elsen claims his brain-child is almost an
artificial intelligence. “It mimics what
you tell it.”
Four years in development and testing,
LOUIS is used throughout the Air Force
and some federal agencies. Air Force of-
ficials say the system’s value is its sim-
plicity and the reduced use of computer
time.
LOUIS is a tape program that can be
placed into the memory of any Honeywell
government computer. Once the tape is
stored in the computer’s memory, simple
commands can be used to get information
on personnel, budgets, finance, in-
ventories, status of equipment,
availability of communications circuits
and whatever else government computers
have stored away.
Elsen, 31, said his family background
had much to do with LOUIS’ development.
“When I was a kid, my dad was working
at a plant and one day he pulled out a piece
of welding rod,” Elsen said.
‘“What are you going to do with it,”’
Elsen asked.
“Anything I want,” was the reply.
Elsen says keeping in mind that a single
item can be used for many things is im-
portant.
“I’m a very basic individual,” Elsen
said. “The simple approach is usually the
best approach.”
Though he is known as something of a
marvel in the Air Force, Elsen has no for-
mal data processing training and
developed LOUIS on his off hours. The in-
scription on a cartoon over his desk reads,
“Louis Elsen, a legend in his spare time.”
The Air Force currently has exclusive
rights to LOUIS, but Elsen says private in-
dustry may be using the system within six
months.
“I didn’t realize the significance it
(LOUIS) would have,” Elsen says. “To
me, it was just a toy.”
Air Force work is important, he says,
adding, “I’m going to be extremely cost-
effective for the next eight years."
A cure for the lagging ski industry
By DICK WEST
United Press International
WASHINGTON — You think you’ve got
troubles, just be thankful you’re not a ski
resort operator.
First comes the Aspen Institute for
Humanistic Studies with a report that the
world is heading into a warming trend cer-
tain to cause . “altered distribution of
snow and ice.”
Then comes the magazine American
Demographics with bad news of the type
that even snow-making machines can’t
alleviate. Quoth the January issue:
"Skiing will soon become a declining in-
dustry ... The median age of active skiers
is only 26, while the median age of the
general population has already turned 30
and will reach 35.5 by the year 2000.”
And by the turn of the century there will
be 2.5 million fewer people in the 25-to-29
age group, it says.
It remains to be seen how the ski in-
dustry will cope with these adverse con-
ditions. But if my livelihood depended on
hillside utilization, I would get in touch
with Edwin Paget.
Having devoted 1980 to luring infants out
of the crib and into athletic competition,
Paget is now bullyragging the rocking
chair set.
Fresh from his triumph — if that is what
it was — as producer-director of the
world’s first “Baby Olympics,” the retired
North Carolina speech professor, who
never lets anyone rest, has devised a new
physical fitness program called “Two
Years of the Great- Grandparents.”
“My plan is to inspire great-
grandparents to increase their activity to
the point of running up to 15 miles a day,
plus swimming and stair-climbing,” Paget
threatens.
As a reward for all this exertion, he
holds out the prospect of living to be 150
years old — if climbing all those stairs
doesn’t kill you first.
I can't say whether the superannuated
will respond to Paget’s intimidation any
more willingly than toddlers did to last
year’s “Baby Olympics.” But at least
Paget, who is pushing 80, will be picking on
someone closer to his own age.
Moreover, he won’t be exorting them to
do anything he wouldn’t do himself. He
sends word from his winter home in
Raleigh that he runs “up and down the
back stairs every day from 3:30 to 5:30
p.m.”
In sum, he seems the ideal man to rescue
the ski industry from a fate worse than
Chrysler.
To survive the predicted demographic
changes, ski resorts obviously will need to
lure older people out on the slopes. Paget's
program for great-grandparents seems a
good place to start.
As the snow melts from the predicted
climatic changes, report owners can in-
stall steps where chair lifts once operated.
Should attract thousands of 150-year-old
stair-climbers on weekends.
Maybe that sport won't be as exciting as
the giant slalom. But those “apres stair”
parties are something to look forward to.
Seating
allotment
ridiculous
Editor, UP:
I am one of the Lamar students who
went to see the Cardinals play basketball
last Monday night and had to “steal” a
seat in the "Reserved” section. Yes, you
remember me, one of the students who
went to the game only to find that the small
area labeled “Students” had already been
filled.
I am getting pretty tired of being treated
like the “General Public” when I have
already paid for at least 10 tickets through
Readers’ Forum
registration fees in the first place. We
students should have the best seats in the
house instead of only three sections in one
corner of the Civic Center—especially
when we are forced to sit behind Channel
6’s television cameras when that section
fills, as I had to do Monday.
Can’t something be done to get a better
arrangement for the students to see a
basketball game that is supposedly for
them anyway? I know I am not the only
one who had to go through the entire game
wondering if someone was going to say,
“I’m sorry lady, you’re in my seat.”
Kristi Jordan
Beaumont junior
Is some burning issue of the day stuck in
your craw? Or are you just fed up with
something on campus? Well, this space is
yours...all yours. _ _ „
Letters to the editor, be they from
students, faculty, staff or the community,
are welcomed, and the UP staff invites you
to speak up and say what’s on your mind.
Not everything, though, because the editor
reserves the right to edit letters.
Letters should be signed and must list a
phone number where the author can be
reached. Student writers must include
hometown and classification. Faculty and
staff writers must include department and
position. All letters, lest they be subjected
to further editing, should be limited to 250
words.
America’s typical Johnny not doing
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 columns
are those of the student management of the
newspaper. These opinions are not necessarily
those of the university administration.
> %
By DAVID MARTINDALE
of the UP staff
In recent years, the declining verbal in-
telligence of Johnny, the American
student, has been of major concern to
educators, researchers and many close
friends of the family.
It came as a great surprise in 1963 when
they first learned through Scholastic Ap-
titude Test results that Johnny could no
longer read.
Through the years, as researchers and
journalists have chronicled Johnny’s
mounting inadequacies, surprise faded
away, only to be replaced by frustration.
Not only is Johnny illiterate, but he also
1
has trouble with basic writing, math and
science skills. And word has it that he can-
not even perform a simple song and dance
that amounts to much.
Simply stated, Johnny’s a loser.
Now another of Johnny’s many faults
In Public View
has surfaced, a problem that the experts
consider more disconcerting even than his
inability to read.
The problem, of course, is that Johnny
cannot sew.
Since the early 1960s, the average score
in the SAT sewing section has dropped
dramatically. This decline can be at-
tributed to a great number of factors, but
none of them particularly enlightening.
But whatever the causes are, the
problem still exists. And students are
making their way through school without
the slightest knowledge of even the most
basic sewing techniques.
One thing is certain, our educational
system is in sad shape when Johnny can go
through years of schooling and still be
unable to mend the hole in the crotch of his
pants.
For further insight to the problem
surrounding Johnny’s poor sewing skills,
we talked with Dr. Quasar ZoBell, a fic-
titious professor of English.
Said ZoBell: “Of course, the declining
sewing skills of the American student can-
not be attributed to any one factor. This is
a problem that has developed over many
years and no easy answers are im-
mediately available. God knows, I've been
on the lookout for them.”
ZoBell, however, believes he has un-
covered a major contributing factor to
Johnny’s problem.
“Johnny cannot sew because he is
unable to decipher the instructions in the
sewing manuals. And why can’t Johnny
read the directions?
“Because Johnny is as stupid as the day
is long.”
But the reasons for concern are not en-
tirely for Johnny's sake, but also for the
welfare of the American society as we now
know it.
Explained one expert who does not have
a name:. “With this thing called social
promotion, we’re faced with the terrifying
possibility that the idiot may graduate.
“Our economy is in bad shape now.
When Johnny, the American student,
trades in his dunce cap for a briefcase and
becomes the American businessman,
there’s no telling what kind of nosedive the
economy may take.”
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Marlow, Susan. Lamar University Press (Beaumont, Tex.), Vol. 57, No. 28, Ed. 1 Friday, January 30, 1981, newspaper, January 30, 1981; Beaumont, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth499801/m1/3/: accessed May 10, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Lamar University.