Austin High School - Comet Yearbook (Austin, TX)

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Editor s Jo rnal 1 approved by tl Fab. 23 Edwin Meeae was Attorney General. Feb. 25 A longer school day School Board. When the board elementary school by ten minute; I lengthening upper schools to a Red Rockers i-presJdent Bush visited MARCH LEYLA COHLM A talking of the achieved any other ¥ HB 72 proviBion aaaembliea. March 1 A stronger economy with lower interest rates broke the all time high of the Dow ,fones industrial 9 officially began. Three of Mayor Ron Mullen ' s major opponents. Frank Cooksey. Micheal MaK Nofziger and Mike Poulsen participated in a public forum (o start their campaigns. March 5 During second period students nominated three teachers for the PTSA ' s Outstanding Teacher March 5 A U.S. Senate bu( give the Pentagon $115 billion less in the next t than the President requested tor his sharp t defense spending. March 6 Group pictures for the yearbook v in the cafeteria. March 7 The Junior Historians hosted I Independence Day Commemoration in the Hall of Honor March 7 The stale senate voted 24-5 for a resolution to ease the extracurricular restrictions on failing students ' participation. March 8 Mayor Ron Mullen was found in violation of state law by filing affidavits after abstaining from property voles in which he held financial interests. March 9 Continued Soviet-U.S. Arms Control talks t egan in Geneva. March 10 The Oak Ridge boys opened at the Frank March 11 Soviet President Konstantin Chernenko died after his two month ailing. The control o passed to Mikhail Gorbachev. 54, who i Communist Party member ever to rule. March 11-15 Spring Vacation March 12 Billy Ocean performed at the Austin Opera Texas March 12 ' Mikhail Gorbachev in Moscow and Bush came away saying, we can move forward with progress. March 17 Capital 10,000 was open to running Austiniles on Saint Patrick ' s Day. March 19 The U.S. Senate voted 55-45 to approve the construction of 21 MX missiles. March 20 Cheerleader elections were held in the I graduating March 20 The Texas Senat drinking and driving offense March 22 TOTO in concer at the Frank Erwin Center. March 23 March 23 SAT testings March 23 TheFirmappeared with Jimmy Page and Paul Rodgers at the Frank Erwin Center. March 24 An hourlong debate between Mayor Ron Mullen and Frank Cooksey included issues on growth management, the South Texas Nuclear Project, ethnics, tratlic and water pullution. March 25 Julian Lennon performed at the Palmer March 25 U.S. Army Major was shot by a Soviet sentry while on duty in East Germany. The American was a operation that has monitored Soviet and East German miUlary activity smce WWII. March 28 Ron Mullen was against him when he vot cleared o( e loiKr. wen a conflict APRIL LJ death as the power shorted out. An electrician repaired the fuse to restore the building ' s lights, however, the cooling system remianed out-of-order for two weeks. November election results In the presidential election, Reagan defeated Walter Mon- dale by a margin of 59 to 41 percent, winning a record 525 electoral votes and sweeping everything except the District of Columbia and Minnesota. Reagan was declared by vari- ous publications as the most popular president since Franklin Roosevelt. President Reagan ' s elec- toral landside was the largest triumph in American history. Even after the fears of the dis- mantling of social security, 61 percent of the elderly voters went in Reagan ' s favor. Ten percent of the resulting mar- gin were female voters for Reagan even when the first woman symbol, Geraldine Ferraro, was on the ballot. Voters under 25 gave Reagan 59 percent of there votes. Bas- ically, a half of Reagan ' s votes were from union households who believed the election promice of no new taxes and a tamed inflation for the next four years. The Democratic party was in despair. By 1988 the party will have only controlled the presidency for one term within a twenty-five year period. Not only was the elec- tion a resounding defeat to Mondale, but an embarrass- ment to the interest groups that supported him. Many in- terest leaders questioned Democratic loyalty. On election day, Reagan said he wanted to shepherd negotiations with the Soviet Union during his next for years. He concluded one of his speeches with a concern of his challenge in dealing with Congress. The president would obviously have to face severe tests for stamina and ability to forge or fight for his legislative and foreign policy agendas. During Reagan ' s campaign, he claimed he was opposed to increasing taxes to reduce the deficit, though after the elec- tion he discussed raising re- venue through a vague pro- gram of tax simplification. The president said future arms control aggreements de- pended on his negotiating strategy the power struggles with the Kremlin in the next four years. Despite his defeat, Mon- dale ended his last race for public office with the same dignity and determination that marked his campaign. He said he would leave the leadership of the United States to Mr. Reagan, but he urged the American people to fight on for their democracy and freedom. In Texas politics. Con- gressman Phil Gramm filled the seat of retiring Republi- can, Senator John Tower by deeating Democrat (and Au- stin High alumnus) Lloyd Doggett. A year before the election, Gramm defected to the Republican party. He boasted that he was more closely indentified with the U.S. president than anyone else in the House. The campaign was one of the most expensive and nasty political battles in U.S. history, where each can- didate desperately tried their best to prove his opponent an unqualified leader. Although Doggett appealed to the majority of the Austin area and South Texas, Gramm won with the GOP support in Texas. Some critics claimed that he just rode the coattails of Mr. Reagan to his place in the U.S. Senate. Despite Ronald Reagan ' s avalanche, the Republicans failed to beat most of the in- cumbents in the Congres- sional election. The GOP gained some 15 seats, falling short of the 26 needed to com- pensate for the loss in 1982. But in the Senate, the Demo- crats only took two seats in this election, leaving the GOP with a six-vote majority. Editor ' s note: When Election Day rolled around, I was 18 years old and with a voter ' s registration card at hand. 1 strolled into pre- cifict 256 with two things in mind: How do I do this? and Why are they trusting me to vote on propsitions and minor offices that I have never even heard of? I have to admit, once I ivas handed a ballot and my name was scratched off the precinct voter ' s list, 1 had a blast humming eeny-meeny- miney-moe to choose which of the little holes on the ballot I would punch for railroad commis- sioner or for the fifth chair on the left of the eighth rozo in the down- town treasury advisory next door to McDonald ' s. It was a mess. I did feel a bit guilty, but I figured other first time voters felt the same hysterical frustration as 1 did. Perhaps all the Nov. 6 voters shared that feeling which climaxed when reviewing the propositions. If you ever thought that bad grammar is only in high school, I ' isit your next election ballot. Peeuh. After I left my neighborhood precinct, I wondered if I should have simply pressed through the 100% Democratic or 100% Republican hole. Then I realized that I was neither of the two and I did the right thing. 1 gave those •as

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1 . The Stephen F. Austin Birthday celebration In Austin ' Straight Jackets, Scott Montgomery, Brent Covert, Eric Meisser, Loius Black and November Robert Johanson. Senior IMIke Gaudion is awarded his varsity football at the last pep rally. body began to realize the gravity of passing class es within a year of drastic academic change. Foreign policy debated On Oct. 21 the two presi- dential candidates tried to prove his rival incapable of handling the occupation as leader of the free world in the second debate, this one on foreign policy. President Reagan and in- cumbent Mondale clashed over the responsibility for the terrorist bombings in Beirut and American policy in Cen- tral America. However, the most major issue of the debate was arms control. The president made a bold suggestion about the Star Wars missile-defense technology plans. He said the U.S. would share the technol- ogy with the Soviet Union. Mondale strongly disareed. He said he would not share any nuclear technology. After the debate was over, critics agreed that Mondale had failed to achieve any gain in popularity in which he de- sperately needed from his performance in this debate. Contrary to his appearance in the first debate, Reagan dis- played a polished and confi- dent image, thus excusing the age factor in the campaign. Squirrel darkens building A squirrel climbed into Austin High ' s electrical sys- tem Oct. 1 and triggered a power outage throughout the building for approximately five minutes. The lights and the cooling system instantly quit operat- ing when the squirrel crawled into a transformer fuse and consequently was shocked to Mock Election demonstrates Democratic support By PAUL SHERMAN De spite an overwhelm- ing victory for Republicans Ronald Reagan and Phil Gramm in the 1984 election, the results of the SFA mock election showed Democrats Walter Mondale and Lloyd Doggett the winners. The poll was held by paper ballot dur- ing all third period classes. In the student poll, Mondale narrowly defeated Reagan, gathering 42 more votes. However, in the US Senate race, Doggett won a substan- tial victory, gaining 417 more votes than his opponent Gramm. In the student elec- tion Mondale received 723 votes (51 7o) to Reagan ' s 681 votes (49%). Doggett received 904 votes (65%) to Gramm ' s 487 votes (35%). Roughly 84% of the student population par- ticipated in the election (1404 students out of a student body of 1670). The ballots were tabulated by the beginning re- porting class. The election was by paper ballots because an earlier and elaborate com- puter-assisted election was ruined by a software flaw. Al- though a majority of the stu- dents at Austin High sup- ported Mondale and Doggett, polls taken throughout the nation showed that the Re- publican party had tremend- ous support from the youth voting bloc. H

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polttiam wlwt they needed ... .possibly and vote here, but not there, and those mumbled propositions received either a yes or no when in reality I did not know or perhaps care. for that incomprehensable ballot. Crisis in India During the first week of November, Prime Minister In- dira Gandhi of India was shot to death by two of her guards in New Delhi. The leadership of India was directly trans- fered to her son Rajiv, 40, who immediately faced the coun- try ' s feud between the Sikhs and the Hindus. Indira was strolling toward her office when two security guards drew their guns to as- sassinate her. While a frantic struggle to capture the assail- ants took place, Mrs. Gandhi was rushed to a hospital where she died. A member of Mrs. Gandhi ' s Congress (I) Party appeared before 100,000 Indians outside the hospital to announce, She is no more. The people believed the murder to be an act of pure and pointless vengeance. (The life of India ' s prime minister in payment for the many lives lost when she sent her Army to root out the armed Sikh Seperatistists who held up the Golden Temple of Amritsar, a Sikh reliigious temple.) Although high priest and political leaders deplored the act, some Indian Sikhs celeb- rated it. Therefrom, mobs of Hindu followers rampaged across the countryside, killing and wounding thousands of Sikhs for their vengeance and celebration. Consequently, the violence continued as Hindus and Sikhs vandalized and slaughtered each other for weeks to come. Arms talks revived On Thanksgiving, the superpowers announced that Secretary of State George Shultz would meet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko in Geneva, Switzerland on Jan. 7-8. Both sides agreed to re- vive nuclear arms talks on negotiations on long-range stategic missiles, European- based warheads and space weapons. Gromyko was likely to table a demand that the U.S. stop deploying its new NATO mis- siles in Europe. Washington was expected to argue every point. After election time, Reagan wrote Soviet President Konstantin Chernenko about his seriousness to an arms control commitment. Then Reagan persuaded his own administration that he in- tended to break barriers be- held its first national election in tween Moscow an the U.S. In effect the Soviets agreed to come back to the bargaining table. Tax reform proposed to Congress In the first week of De- cember, Treasury Secretary Donald Regan unveiled his departmnet ' s proposal for a fundamental tax reform, the biggest U.S. tax revision since the adoption of the income tax in 1913. The goal of the proposal was to simplify federal tax codes and consequently re- duce federal taxes for the majority of U.S. taxpayers. Critics said his plan was too ambitious and its final pass- age by Congress would be years away. But Regan said his immediate objective was to get a tax reform on the table because congressional atten-