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The lied and Black. Thursday, October 1(1. 1914
STEVE ONEY
r
THE OPINIONS OF
THE RED AND BLACK
Surtax unfair
Middle income Americans who
have already tightened their
belts due to spiralling inflation
are now being faced with a
proposed five per cent tax sur
charge.
In a message Tuesday, Presi
dent Ford asked Congress to
impose a five per cent surtax
on corporations and middle in
come and wealthy taxpayers to
help combat inflation.
However, middle Americans
will bear most of the increase,
with corporations contributing
$2.1 billion and individuals $2.6
billion.
The tax increase will mean an
additional $100 per year in feder
al income tax for an average
$20,000-a-year family of four. A
single person earning $10,000
would pay $54.78 more than his
present $1,095.50 in taxes. The
surcharge would apply only to
families with $15,000 or more in
income or single people earning
over $7,500.
We think the surtax is unfair to
the already overburdened middle
class family. These same people
who have in recent months been
asked to cut down on fuel
consumption and pay higher
prices for food and housing, or
either do without, are now being
asked to bear the brunt of a tax
proposal that has been wrongly
directed their way.
Surely those citizens and busi
nesses who have avoided federal
taxes through loopholes and
other means should have to
share an equal amount of the
burden.
We realize something needs to
be done about inflation and
applaud Ford's efforts to make
concrete proposals in that direc
tion.
However, we think another
proposal should be considered
with all Americans except those
with very low incomes sharing
the tax increase instead of
putting most of it on the already
overburdened middle income
citizen.
Rep. A1 Ullman, D-Ore., has
suggested that the surcharge be
phased in rather than hitting the
taxpayers as soon as he makes
$15,001. If the surtax bill does
pass the Congress, this seems at
least a more equitable arrange
ment to us.
Either way, we encourage all
taxpayers to let their Congress
man or President Ford know
how they feel about the surtax. If
the additional tax won’t work,
other measures to combat infla
tion need to be taken.
Turn 'em off
President Ford also asked
every American to continue to
try to cut energy usage. Most of
us have been trying to do this
since the energy crisis last
winter.
But frequently little wastes are
overlooked either because they
seem too unimportant to worry
about or simply because no one
has thought about them.
The spotlights outside Myers
are a good example of such a
needless waste of energy. The
lights burn 24 hours a day for no
reason, except no one bothers to
turn them off. While they waste
relatively little electricity per
day, they waste a significant
amount in a year’s time.
We hope that the Physical
Plant or whoever is responsible
for the lights will start Turning
them off. except at night.
lefler$CE3ellers
Sicky Dick promoted pity
The Associated Press photograph show
ed a tired emaciated face, and the smile
which flashed across ii could not conceal
the face's fatigue. And somehow, this
struck a note of consistency.
The picture was of
Richard Nixon The
consistency was that
Nixon was having a
difficult time mask
ing his inner self
There is the quote
from William Butler
Yeats that reads.
“Who can tell the
dancer from the
dance?" Taken out
of context it has always applied to
Richard Nixon
As Nixon was wheeled from his
California hospital room in a wheel chair
to return to his San Clemente home
(wearing said tired, emaciated and
smiling face), the pathos seemed to ooze
from the flat two dimensional newspaper
photograph like ice cream dripping from
a sugar cone in the summer time.
And thinking retrospectively, when
really in times of conflict or trial has
Richard Nixon not oozed?
CASES IN POINT: 1952 — The "Check
ers" speech. Nixon was faced with a
funds scandal which threatened his
viable chances to appear on the Republi
can Presidential ticket with Dwight
Eisenhower Nixon — in a nation-wide
speech — defended himself. He was
teary-eyed. and he ended his appearance
with a scnliinenlal defense of his dog
Checkers —- who was also a gift.
l%K-74 — the prior shacklement state
ments. When, in the course of any speech
announcing any move to end the Vietnam
war, establish new foreign relationships,
or deal with domestic problems did
Richard Nixon not mention that his
Democratic predecessors had tied him
down with unbelievable burdens? Never
in my memory.
Again he was oozing. It’s part of the
Presidential game that the new President
will have to deal with problems left to
him by his predecessors. It’s as surely a
fact of life as the omnipresent "black
box’’ which controls nuclear arms that
the president also inherits. Yet, Nixon
used his assumed woes to contrast with
his personal victories
AUGUST H. 1971. In his private Presi
dential quarters in the White House
Richard Nixon had just informed his
family that he was going to resign. In an
emotional scene, he called in his White
House photographer to snap shots of the
decline and fall.
One shot of Nixon embracing his
daughter Julie Eisenhower received wide
newspaper play, and it wasn’t exactly
your Matthew- Brady tintype shot of
Abraham Lincoln. Of course, Nixon
contends that the photos w'ere to preserve
history. Yet they promoted pity.
All great men face problems that make
them waver. Yet. to push these problems
to the foreground, to continually make
others aware of them does not speak of
heroism to say the least The great
leader shirks pity. For in the pleasant
ness of pity looms the closeness of total
defeat Yet in the Checkers speech, the
prior shacklement statements, and the
resignation photos Nixon consciously-
created pity for himself
That's why the photo of the poor man
i no longer Tricky Dick but sadly Sicky
Dick> struck such a consistent note.
In his report on expatriate Paris. ‘“A
Moveable Feast," Ernest Hemingway
wrote. "All things truly evil begin with
something truly innocent ”
Perhaps it was so with the introspective
Nixon. His declines is even not magnifi
cent. It should have all the flavor of a
Greek tragedy. It should be tailor made
for Shakespeare Yet it is strangely
comic. Sadly comic. And most probably
because of the consistency of Richard
Nixon s search for self pity.
At one time. Nixon saw himself as the
innocent great hope Maybe when he was
young, he dreamt intensely of reaching
out to some idealism, grasping it and
making it a reality. Yet, he could never
understand that he was going to have to
be strong and honest — admit mistakes
and endure his hardships.
In one sense, he has endured. He is still
alive. But a code of true heroism would
have called for him to take his life. (A
code such as the Japanese Samari)
Yet. a suicide would have shaken the
country. Our culture is not as iconoclasti
cally heroic as Japan. So, perhaps Nixon
has triumphed in this small way. But it is
a shallow victory.
University athletic facilities
insufficient'
TO TIIE EDITOR:
1 am very displeased and disappointed
in what the University has to offer the
students tn the way of athletic facilities
The purpose of a university is to give
people an opportunity to develop both in
the mind and in the body The University
fulfills this resolution for the athletes — a
small fraction of the total student body
However, this university falls drastical-
l> short in this endeavor for the majority
of the students
1 am a transfer student who is
apparently spoiled by the accessibility of
student athletic facilities at the university
that I attended prior to transferring I
am a graduate student who has time to
participate in physical activities only on
the weekends.
For the past two weekends. I have
driven to Stegeman in anticipation of
playing basketball Maybe I do not get
there at one of the rare moments when
Stegeman is accessible, but I am yet to
find the “Student Athletic Facility” open
1 do not speak just for myself, because
every time that I get turned away by
locked doors, several of my colleagues
have found the same fate.
I hope that this letter does not fall on
apathetic ears because a major universi
ty like this one should not have such a
deficit in their program. I realize that the
gym cannot be open 24 hours a day, so
while you are at it, please be so
courteous as to post a gym schedule.
LEE DARCH
Desks being
thrown away'
TO TIIE EDITOR:
This letter is intended to convey my
perplexities about certain policies seem
ingly employed by the University
This past Monday (Oct 7) two Univer
sity trucks were parked on the sidewalk
in front of the chemistry building being
loaded with old yet usable drawer-type
desks (The kind your fourth grade
teacher had.) Upon being asked where
the desks were going to be taken
workmen replied, "to the dump to be
burned.”
Visions of a back yard full of those
things, then anger.
This is not the first time furniture has
been disposed of in this way. According
to a friend who worked for the Physical
Plant this summer a number of lab
tables were likewise treated. There are
thousands of places this furniture could
be used.
We are constantly confronted with this
"U. Ga — U S A. mentality,” and I am
tired of it and frustrated by it.
Waste such as that cited above is a way
of life Throw away society just like
throw away cans can be recycled into
something useful
But until then, tuition will climb and
prices go out of sight as an anachronistic
mind rules government, business and the
individual
Surely there is a slow change of mind
and thus hope for dramatic change for
the better in quality of life, but what can
we hope for as long as the educators and
policy makers flaunt ignorance in our
faces?
The war still goes on in Southeast Asia
and I smell burning desks
TOMMY CLEMENTS
Knapsack taken
from Physics'
TO TIIE EDITOR:
On Tuesday. Oct 8. at approximately
10:30 a m someone stole my knapsack
w hich contained my books and calculator
I had been studying for a physics test
in the auditorium (room 202) in the
physics building when I left for five
minutes to go to the men's room. I
thought that putting my calculator in my
knapsack and closing it was sufficient
protection against having the calculator
stolen (What student would steal a
knapsack full of books not knowing a
calculator was present? >
However. I have learned a sickening
fact that someone will and did steal for
only the books, unless they opened the
knapsack, saw the calculator and took
the books as an extra
I had 10 hours before 1 had to take my
physics test and was left with no notes or
calculator Luckily. I had taken my
physics textbook with me for the duration
of my stay in the men’s room
In three days. I have a psychology test
but have no book or notes to study Books
are replaceable, but not notes. Also my
driver’s license and student I D. were in
the knapsack which cost money and
inconvience
I would like to appeal to what little
conscience might be left in the person
who stole my knapsack to please send the
notebooks, driver’s license and student
I D. to me C O D. If this letter has really
served its purpose you can also send the
calculator and textbook.
And to all the other unsuspecting
students on this campus who think things
like this don’t happen — they do!
BOBBY EVANS
Melting pot
not necessary'
TO TIIE EDITOR:
If Atlanta's leadership really wants to
promote understanding, accord and co
operation. all that is needed is some
straight thinking and honest analysis
Atlanta's population is predominantly
negro and Caucasian Within the Caucasi
an group there is a fairly large commu
nity of Jews most of whom are adherents
of Judaism
While Christians have the same religi
ous heritage as Jews until their paths
separate at Jesus Christ, no black
Christian or white Christian would think
of deny ing Jews their religious freedom
Nor do they object to Jew ish-oriented
organizations that effectively exclude
others, nor even to a community center
receiving United Way funds which boldly
proclaims it is Jewish
At the same time. Jews and white
Christians are not offended when black
churches sponsor apartment projects that
are occupied by blacks only, when any
community, institution or organization is
all-black.
Indeed, when Jews and blacks exhibit
this separatism that comes from a
normal preference for their own, it is
considered right and good. It is viewed as
a just pride in their God-given identity
and heritage Then why do integrationists
declare this same pride and preference is
somehow wrong for others, especially
Christian Caucasians 0 And why do they
pretend to be distressed when Caucasians
"flee" to be with their kind?
Christians know that the all-redeeming
love and way of Christ is for all the
world, all peoples And they should know
that Jesus lived in a crossroads of the
world where there were members of
different races and ethnics, yet He
resided among and socialized with those
He was identified He observed their
customs and chose all 12 of His closest
companions from them
But some ignore this example and the
lesson: that the variety and differences
God had created He desired to continue
wherever people might migrate to
Moreover, the parable Jesus used about
the Good Samaritan was His example of
and desire for. proper love, assistance
and brotherhood between the different
groups, not "integration” and "change.”
We love our neighbor as ourselves in
our racial-ethnic relations when we have
high regard for each variety of human
kind with their identities, qualities and
cultures, when we work together and aid
and cooperate, but never a thought that
God's children should conglomerate and
adulterate
The concept of the American melting
pot derives from the foregoing. It is the
unifying of different racial, ethnic, religi
ous and cultural groups in citizenship
only, it is not a mixing submerging
process to alter or eliminate that which
God has created.
It is this understanding that will bring
accord, that can promote good will and
true brotherhood in Atlanta and
throughout the world.
T.J. CAMPBELL
Police priorities
questionable'
TO TIIE EDITOR:
I am questioning the priority of values
in the police department on this campus.
It is a known fact now that the crime rate
has increased in Athens and a new surge
of rapes has been predicted for the near
future.
But it seems that the most important
problem to the police department are
those darn parked cars being unappeal-
ingly positioned. Our crime rate rises,
but at least our cars are properly parked
Having more parking stickers than
parking squares can get rough
Students spend thousands of dollars
and hours here to receive a worthwhile
education and everytime we turn around
there’s a fee to pay as there seems to be
a monopoly over all the services we need
We are already scraping the bottom of
the barrel to stay alive in this inflated
country of ours and can’t afford parking
tickets and other non-essentials.
There must be a movement out to get
college students for all we’re asking for
is a little knowledge Most students are
unaware of regulations simply because
their time and mind is occupied with
more important things concerning learn
ing — our reason again for being here
It’s a shame I have to even take time to
write this type of letter when I should be
doing important school work
Dealing with parking problem realist!
cally, it would be a much improved
system if warning tickets were issued for
first timers which is often done when
someone is pulled over on the street We
deserve that second chance.
Besides, our lormer president is getting
off free for his high crimes, why
shouldn't we college students receive a
pardon for our cars?
Letters
Letters to the editor should:
•Be t\ped. double spaced, on a
60-space line
•Be oriel, to the point
•Include name, address and
phone number of contributor.
• Be original, rather than
duplicates of letters to other
persons or publications
Names will be withheld for
Policy
good reason upon request, but
must bear the above information.
Letters are subject to editing
for style and libel laws as well as
for space limitations
Mail letters to The Red and '
Black 139 Journalism building,
Lniversity of Georgia, Athens,
Ga. 30602, or bring bv 130
Journalism building.
NAME WITIIHKI.I)