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THE RED AND BLACK
VOLUME H4, NUMBER 60
Georgia's only collegiate daily newspaper
UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA. ATHENS. GEORGIA 30002
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JAN 2 5 |97Q
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25, 1978
Photo by ANDREW S KRANTZ
Early morning stroll
Regardless ot what it may look like, the student above is not on his way to Legion
pool Instead he is a Millege Hall resident who has found it necessary to take
showers in neighboring Payne Hall The reason? Millege Hal! has been without hot
water since the fourth day of classes and its residents have found it necessary to go
elsewhere for such luxuries as showers. It seems like some people are never
satisfied
Election bill in senate 4 dangerous, ’
Public Service Commissioner says
By YVONNE WILLIAMS m
State editor ^ U
Public Service Commissioner Bobbv Pafford addresses local civic club
Photo b? DAVID TULIS
State Public Service Commissioner
Bobby Pafford has labeled a Georgia
Senate proposal to abolish statewide
election of commissioners “a dangerous
thing’ which would “disinfranchise the
voters of this state."
The senate resolution, introduced
Friday by members of the Senate
Committee on Public Utilities, would
divide the state into five Public Service
Commission (PSC) election districts
while trimming the com**-, sioners’
terms from six to four years.
Speaking Tuesday before l. > Athens
Kiwanis Club, Pafford charged the
sponsers of the resolution. Senators John
Riley and Charles Wessels (D-Savannah)
and Ed Johnson (D-College Park) with
"blatant politics."
Pafford maintained the proposed
constitutional amendment is doomed to
fail, citing Speaker of the House Tom
Murphy ? Gov. George Busbee as
major o* -nts to the resolution.
BUT SHOULD the proposal pass the
full house and come before state voters
for consideration next fall. Pafford said,
the proposed amendment “will then get
the tar whipped out of it."
"I would enjoy taking the stump this
fall in the state and explaining the folly
of the senate," Pafford said.
The proposal would "meet with
miserable defeat" from the voters
statewide, Pafford said, “and I’ll be out
there leading the cheers."
Pafford argued an attempt to trim the
terms of PSC commissioners "is
inconsistent" with another proposed
constitutional amendment to extend the
terms of state legislators to four years
The PSC proposal resulted from a
report bj he Senate Interim Study
Committt on the Public Service
Commisr a\ which conducted statewide
public ii*put hearings !ast year.
According to Pafford, the hearings
“wasted a lot of the taxpayers money"
while failing to receive significant input
from consumers.
“IN VALDOSTA, two people showed
up, and I heard in Athens that three
people were her®" for the hearings,
Pafford said.
But according to Charles Wessels, one
of the sponsors of the proposal, the public
hearings drew large crowds of utility
consumers throughout the state.
"As a result of these hearings, we
found that people had very little
knowledge of what is going on in the
Public Service Commission
“Most people feel helpless in dealing
with the commission as a whole. Wessel
said.
As a result, the Senate Committee on
Public Utilities felt that forcing the PSC
commissioners to run for election
through districts would “put people more
in touch with these commission
members," Wessel said.
“Districting provides a more intelli
gent, effectual level for PSC commis
sioners." Wessel said, adding "The PSC
shouldn't be insulated from the public.”
The terms of the proposed resolution
call for commissioners from the districts
1 and 2 to be elected in 1980 for four-year
terms, and commissioners for districts 3,
4 and 5 to be elected the same year for
two-year terms, Wessels said
Resounding' to Pafford’s charges of
inconsistency within the legislature.
Wessel said. "1 don't know of anything in
the Georgia law requiring the General
assembly to lx* consistent
"Sometimes consistency is not in the
best interest of the people." he said
PAFFORD SHARPLY criticized the
state Senate for attempting to “inject
politics" into the PSC
“I’ve had all of it I want." said
Pafford. “The\ (the senate) might run
over me. but they'll know they hit me."
Maintaining that he was originally
elected to the PSC seven years ago
because of his “big mouth.'' Pafford said
that without it, "I’d still be sucking
tobacco m South Georgia. The PSC is not
the place I want to go to advance my
political career,' said Pafford. “It’s a
tough spot."
Turning his attention to Georgia Power
Company. Pafford was critical of some
utility executives who do not practice the
conservation measures they promote
“Can you imagine talking conservation
on television the way they do." Pafford
asked, “and then having one of the vice
presidents using six to seven thousand
kilowatt hours a month?”
‘Eye Drop Bill 5 is dropped again,
for second legislative year in a row
By TOMMY COTNEY
A Georgia Senate Committee has for
the second year in a row dropped a
legislative "hot potato" which would
I Youngs cancel
Appearances on campus by Andrew
Young. U.S. ambassador to the United
Nations, and Neil Young, the durable
rock balladeer, have been cancelled
Andrew Young was scheduled to
appear at Fine Arts on Feb 18 but
dropped the date because he could not
get prepared on time, according to a
University Union official Young hopes to
make up the date some time during
Spring Quarter, the Union official added
Neil Young’s booking agency, on the
other hand, cancelled Young’s entire
winter tour of the United States,
according to Tom Dover, program
advisor for the University Union
allow optometrists practicing in Georgia
to use certain topically applied drugs to
diagnose eye related diseases
The "Eye Drop Bill" (Senate Bill 20),
introduced by Senator A1 Holoway of
Jesup, was returned to a subcommittee
of the Senate Human Resources
Committee last Thursday.
The action taken on the bill is,
according to Dr. Frank Gibson, chairman
of the public affairs committee of the
Georgia Optometric Association, equiva
lent to death for another year
Gibson declined to comment on the
optometric association's plans for Senate
Bill 20 in the 1979 General Assembly.
THE LONG STANDING battle between
Georgia's optometrists <non physicians)
and opthamologists 'physicians* centers
around one question for the most part:
Are optometrists qualified to use
pharmaceutical substances for the
diagnosis of eye disease?
Gibson, and more than 300 other
optometrists in the state ol Georgia say
they are Ray Abernathy, of Cohn and
Wolfe, Inc., an Atlanta public relations
firm representing the Georgia Society of
Opthamology, sav they are not
According to Abernathy and the
optometric association, the bill would
have allowed "erosion of the medical
profession "
In the eyes of the opthamologists. the
bill would permit "non-physicians to
practice medicine.'' The medical doctors
also contend that the "consequences of
allowing optometrists to use these drugs
may not only result in tragic
mis-diagnosis of disease, but also force
law makers to rewrite hundreds of laws
in all areas of medicine
A FACT SHEET released by and
distributed by Abernathy and his firm
adds that the bill “could drastically
change the structure of the medical
profession granting a mid-wife the
license of an obstetrician, making a
nurse practitioner equivilant to a family
doctor, making a clinical psvchologist the
equivilant to a psychiatrist ”
Abernathy also cited the fact that
opthamologists generally have 12 years
of college study to their credit as opposed
to two to four years of under graduate
and four years of post graduate study for
optometrists.
Gibson claims, however, that optome
trists are fully "trained and educated
beyond what is necessary to use the
drugs authorized effectively and safely."
The optometric association is defending
its interests in the bill by use of
exaggeration and misrepresentation,
says Gibson
"O.D.’S (OPTOMETRISTS) are fully
trained to cope with the rare
complications which may arise from the
use of the drugs by the opthamologist as
well as the optometrist," Gibson says
Popular ‘beetle’ to be phased out in America
The Volkswagen was the first foreign car to make major inroads into the American market
Though the little car will soon be gone, it is not likely it will be soon forgotten.
By LISA JONES
When Adolph Hitler began production of Volkswagen Beetles in the 1940's and
tagged them as the "people’s car.” little did he Know that the ‘‘bug’ would
someday find a place in the heart of millions of Americans
But Hitler’s days were numbered and as times changed and technology
advanced, the beloved Beetle's days too became numbered
After 29 years of faithful service, the Volkswagen Co. has stopped importing the
Beetle sedan into the U.S. and will discontinue the model this year
So by the 1980‘s, the omnipresent "bug" with the rounded hood and magnified
purr should merit more than a few "When I was your age" stories.
TO ITS owners the “people's car” has represented more than an automobile
The ugly shape has been compared to that of a "pregnant skateboard " But one
owner said the vehicle still possesses a certain charm and lovability-something
like the way a child feels about the runt of the litter
“It's easy to drive and fits anywhere, anytime.” Jimmy Farr, owner of a 1971
Beetle, said Farr said the ability of the car to squeeze into a miniature space.
vacant only because it wasn't intended to be used as a parking place, makes the
Beetle convenient at the University.
Although the size of the interior is also small, many bug-lovers wouldn't have it
any other way
“You can reach everything just by stretching your arm," one student said in an
attempt to justify the limitations
THE SIMPLE, squat frame, with the trunk up front and the motor in its
posterior, has given the "bug" an identity of its own. Since 1919. this basic design
has escaped changes.
Economic aspects, such as reasonable maintenance costs and good gas mileage,
have made the popular car adaptable to the budget of the majority
But regardless of the reasons for owning a VW. the love-of-bug exists and will
continue to exist until Beetles are merely something read about in history books
And when those last "bugs” have bumped down the road, there will be more than
a few regretful owners Institutions must sometimes end and the "people's car"
has surpassed its time
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