The Optimist (Abilene, Tex.), Vol. 75, No. 6, Ed. 1, Wednesday, September 16, 1987 Page: 2 of 6
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."To the Jews who had believed him Jesus said 'If you hold to my
teaching you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth and
the truth will set you free' " ohn 8:3 1
Optimist
i
Wednesday September 16 1987 page 2 1
Constitution worth hubbub
.it-'f
MnrvWIlm
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m
Candy Holcombe
editor In chief
Kilstl Duchart
Wednesday edition editor
Mlentxpatrlck
frlday edition editor
Dawn Treat
features Wednesday editor
Cindy Lceper
friday news editor
KerrvCole
lonathanWitt
editorial pace editor
Kenneth Pybus
sports editor
Lance Fleming
assistant sports editor
lanlsWatkins
features writer
Donna Southerland
design director
Lvnda Turner
copy editor
production
The Optimist Is published semi weekly except during the sW?
bv the loumallsm and Mass Communication Department at Abilene Christian University AbBene. Texas
79699. The Optimist Is affiliated with the Associated Collegiate Press the Texas Interscho asUc league
Press Association the Southwest loumallsm Congress the Associated Press and the Rocky Mountain
COEd!torial opinions appearing In the Optimist are views of the editorial board and do not necessarily
reflect the official policy of the ACU adminlstratloa
Signed columns represent the views of the authors.
editorials
School right to fund
repair of fountain
By Homecoming or even sooner
water will be flowing through new
pipes in the GATA fountain.
The work will be done by ACU's
Maintenance Department and the
cost will come from maintenance's
routine budget not from GATA
social club.
We say "Way to go
maintenance." GATA shouldn't
have to pay for the fountain repairs;
that responsibility should fall to the
university.
The university has accepted that
responsibility.
The repairs are necessary because
through the years the pipes that br-
ing water to the fountain have
rusted and each time the fountain is
turned on mud pours into the pool
said Lynn Moore director of
maintenance.
The pipes will have to be replac-
ed a task that will cost $3500 he
said. " ""
Ordinarily the repairs would -be
paid for from an endowment that
was set up by GATA the year it
gave the fountain to the university.
However a $2200 chlorination
Ads should stop exploiting
old-time rock 'n' roll tunes
You say you want a revolution?
Well so does the Nike Corporation
and it's using the Beatles' song
"Revolution" to spark a shoe sales
revolution for itself.
Nike's not alone and it's not the
first. But the habit of corporations
milking the artistic energies of musi-
cians of the '60s and early '70s for
extra bucks has been on the rise dur-
ing 1987.
This advertising technique is ar-
tistically criminal.
To adults the ads shock us by
placing the songs within the context
of corporate materialism.
For the youth of our country the
first time they will be exposed in
bold fashion to many of the great
songs of the '60s and early '70s will
be through an advertisement.
When a kid hears "Revolution"
no longer will he think of the tumul-
tuous age of the '60s with all its
Man's 15
If Andy Warhol is right and each per-
son is famous for at least 15 minutes of
his or her life then William T. Code
should deserves another 15 minutes.
His fame came after he died.
You've never heard of Mr. Code
unless you reside in Shreveport La. I
lived in Shreveport this summer as a
reporter for The Times and I will
never forget his name.Nor will I forget
the name of his nephew Nathanial
Robert Code Jr.
Although I never met the elder Code
I'm told he was a "kind and gentle
soul."
He was retired from the Army and
Louisiana State University at
Shreveport. His 73 years and failing
eyesight were not a hindrance to him.
He worked at a local funeral home and
technical director
Paul llaynes
graphics
Cade White
Jihoto editor
ohn Paul Brownlow
assistant photographer
Thomas Graham
senior staff writer
Dr. Charlie Marler
adviser
staff
.system installed in the fountain last
year drained the endowment and
left the GATA fountain high and
dry.
Bill Fowler assistant vice presi-
dent for finance' said the endow-
ment will recover from last year's
major repairs but not in time to pay
for the replacement of the pipes.
Originally GATA was told it
would have to come up with the
money but Fowler said GATA will
not be paying for the repairs.
The university has stepped in and
accepted responsibility for the foun-
tain which is enjoyed by the entire
school. Therefore maintenance by
tightening its belt will cover the
costs in its general repairs budget.
We support the university cover-
ing the costs even though some-
thing else maintenance would ordi-
narily do will have to go.
This way the university as a
whole covers the costs not just
GATA.
And after all the university as a
whole enjoys the fountain and the
university as a whole should pay for
its repairs.
social upheaval. No now the kid
will see energetic yuppies bouncing
around in their new Nike shoes.
And what will a 9-year-old think
of when she hears Marvin Gaye's
No. 1 hit "I Heard it Through the
Grapevine"? California raisins danc-
ing around on a table that's what.
Paul McCartney is suing Nike for
its use of his group's song "Revolu-
tion." We hope he wins thus striking a
blow to this exploit-a-song make-a-buck
approach to advertising.
Admittedly if the damage to the
songwriter can be ignored the ad-
vertisements usually are pretty en-
joyable. So what if it's artistically wrong
some people have said. It works
doesn't it?
So does murder if a person wants
somebody dead. But that doesn't
make it right.
minutes
with the help of two "adopted" grand-
sons kept his yard neatly trimmed.
He lived an interesting life: spent
time in the Army overseas learned to
drive at the age of 45 and after his
wife's death refused to remarry out of
devotion to her one of his close friends
told me. But he did have a lady friend
and he picked up her grandsons from
school or the recreation club each day.
"He cared about those two boys" the
friend told me. "He worried about their
future."
Tuesday afternoon Aug. 4 Code
picked up the boys stopped and bought
a watermelon and the three spent the
remainder of the afternoon cutting the
lawn and trimming the numerous
plants and shrub? that surrounded his
small wood-frame home on 66th Street.
The United States Constitution isn't
as grand as some people think
The Constitution doesn't state that
all men are created equal or that they
have the right to life liberty and the
pursuit of happiness.
Nor does an eloquent air of iambic
pentameter grace its opening lines.
The Declaration of Independence
claims these distinguishing features
despite the fact that a large and confus-
ed number of people attribute them to
our Constitution.
The Constitution which its creators
signed Sept. 17 1787 was a dry docu-
ment with little of the stately beauty
found in the Declaration of In-
dependence. The Constitution also lacked guaran-
tees of freedom of religion and freedom
of speech. None of our founding fathers
at the Constitutional Convention
bothered to ensure freedom of the press
in this document cither.
Four years elapsed before the Bill of
Rights took care of those glitches.
More serious than these problems
the Constitutional Convention suc-
cumbed to a political pressure of the
worst kind; these men denied slaves the
freedom that the Declaration of In-
letters to the editor
Window bolts
never helped
To the Editor:
I would like to point out a minor
problem in the article appearing in
Wednesday's Optimist concerning
the bolting of windows in Sikes and
Smith-Adams dormitories.
Lynn Moore was credited with the
statement that part of the reason for
bolting the windows shut was that
"people could easily break in." This
statement . is either an attempt at
""deception or a result of ignorance. As
a resident of Smith-Adams I took it
upon myself to investigate the forces
holding my window shut a few days
after I arrived. I discovered the bolts
and that these bolts were easily
removed from the outside with a pair
of pliers. There is absolutely no way
that fastening the windows shut from
the outside could reduce the ease of a
in spotlight came
fielder's choice
thomas graham
I would find myself on the front
porch of this home the next evening an-
swering a call "Sergeant we've found
three Signal 73sl"
Nothing not four years of college
not a summer of learning the ins and
outs of daily newspapers not several
weeks as the police reporter for The
Times nothing would prepare me for
what was in that house.
The door swung open not from my
pressure but from the police officer in-
side making an exit. As he pushed me
witticisms
Jonathan witt
dependence insisted all men deserved.
So what's all the hubbub about? Arc
these 200-year-old pieces of parchment
worth this bicentennial commotion?
Definitely!
The Constitution isn't a philosoph-
ical treatise on what government should
be. This document is an operation
manual for a nation not some text-
book Utopia but a real country com-
plete with racial bigotry factions and
external enemies.
A constitution that outlawed slavery
never would have become the Constitu-
tion. The masterminds of the Constitu-
tion men like James Madison
recognized the erring ways of mankind
and worked the Constitution around
this.
Far from being the greatest weakness
of the Constitution this is its greatest
strength.
The framers of the Constitution'set
up a series of checks and balances
break-in. I was relieved to learn that
this problem was to be taken care of.
I am disturbed by the apparent
disregard for the safety of students'
possessions and lives on the part of
our administration. Dean Archibald
seemed concerned more about a few
broken windows than the basic secu-
rity and safety of the students. This
seems to be part of a larger policy at
ACU that consistently sacrifices
human dignity and common sense in
the name of "morality" and money.
Mike Daudt junior
Welser Idaho
Paper's routine
strong as ever
To the Editor
I hope this note finds everyone in
Abilene doing good and enjoying
school. I received my Aug. 28 issue
of the Optimist today via Reg Cox
and was relieved to see that the usual
back the view over his shoulder reveal-
ed a half-eaten watermelon. The air
conditioning inside the house had been
offall day and a distinct though mild
odor slipped through the opened door.
The police did not re-enter the house
for another 40 minutes or so after
stringing up a "Police Barricade: Do
Not Enter" banner around the
neighborhood. And then it was a group
of six men top-level homicide detec-
tives and the deputy coroner.
William T. Code and his two grand-
sons died violent deaths deaths that
would dominate the front pages of both
Shreveport dp''y newspapers for a
week. He hac. en bound gagged and
stabbed 1 3 ti j. His grandsons had
been strangled.
His nephew Nate Code would be
among the executive branch the
legislative branch and the judicial'
branch that allowed the three to keep
each other in line.
The down-to-earth let's-be-honest-with-oursclves-guys
attitude is what has
made the Constitution so enduring.
This document doesn't require that
every president realize the world would
be a dangerous place if he was allowed
to call all the shots. With the Constitu-
tion a president who sees the Congress
as an obstacle for progress can't abolish
the Legislature to give himself more
power cither.
And if the Congress gets mad at the
President and decides to outlaw the ex-
ecutive branch the judicial branch can
ax the idea in a hurry.
The Constitution certainly isn't im-
pervious to a rotten ethical system but
it does make sure that someone can get
at the diseases that do pop up now and
then.
This celebrated document is in many
ways like an Army Jeep. Both were
designed for rough roads. With both
one can replace a part when needed
such as slavery or a carburetor.
Neither of them is very pretty either.
But they both work.
topics (hazing dorm rules Chapel
changes telephone damages and late
registration) were not left but of the
first issue of the ACU student paper.
The article concerning the new in-
tramural director Don Davis was
very good. The school's choice of
Davis should be applauded. Who else
could so smoothly make important
decisions such as the transition from
a two-belt flag to a three-belt flag for
IM football? He's a genius! I Also the
motto he has brought to his position
"Remember it's only intramural"
should be memorized by all students.
Some of you who may have a hard
time remembering this motto should
think about it like this "Remember
irVonly Coke (or is: ir Pepsi?)." HA!
In closing I would enjoy seeing
future articles on Davis and also
more columns from that master-mind
Charles Wicker ("Underwear is the
standard by which laundry is done.")
Only at ACU!
Doug Condor
Tucson Ariz.
too late
arrested the next morning and charged
with four murders that happened two
years earlier in the same neighborhood.
Police Chief Charles Grubcr said the
arrested man was a suspect in nine sim-
ilar murders including William Code's.
I did not grasp the magnitude of the
story I was covering until I reported for
work the next day. The newsroom was
bustling as managing editors were
establishing teams to cover all the
angles: similar murders in the area
possibleconnections the police's case
the suspect's life and Mr. Code's life.
I learned more about this man's life
during the next week than anyone else I
wrote about all summer. Hi? fame still
haunts me.
I remember telling myself "A kind
and gentle soul deserves better"
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The Optimist (Abilene, Tex.), Vol. 75, No. 6, Ed. 1, Wednesday, September 16, 1987, newspaper, September 16, 1987; Abilene, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth92128/m1/2/?q=technical+manual: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Abilene Christian University Library.