Newspaper Page Text
I'ag# I
1 hr Hiil mill l»lm h. t Mtl.lt. .l.ih.nirt 19. 1979
‘Perceptions
Voting important
l Exploring Red China
A bill to allow Georgia cities to
keep their bars open on election
day will be another incentive for
voting levels to decrease if
passed.
The b'll, introduced by Sen.
Culver Kidd of Milledgeville,
would allow bars to serve liquor
on election days—a practice that
is now illegal. Kidd contends that
it costs the state money in the
form of a liquor tax everytime
bars are closed. He also feels
that many elections are of such
Letters
“low public interest" that they
do not justify closing the bars.
Interest may be low for some
elections but giving people just
another incentive not to vote will
definitely help lower that interest
even more. And regardless of
what the interest level is, most
elections still decide serious
matters that need to be thought
out. These matters should not be
decided on while sitting in a bar
on election day.
In some matters what is best
for the public’s interests must be
kept in mind rather than the
monetary interests of the state.
Elections are important be
cause they are the basis our
political system is built on. And
even though that basis may seem
shakey at times it doesn’t
deserve being torn down com
pletely.
The state is going to have to
take a revenue loss in this case.
The right to vote is too important
to be overshadowed by other
interests.
‘Gun control unpopular’
TO THE EDITOR:
I would like to comment on Frank
Gregorsky's article. Moderate Gun
Control." which The Red and Black
published last Friday
Although Gregorsky acknowledged that
outlawing guns was not an effective way
to reduce crime he did make one
remarkably bad journalistic error in his
article He said. "Registration of
handguns on a national basis deserves
consideration .”
Computerized, national registration of
ALL firearms was indeed given
consideration just this past summer by
the U S House of Representatives and
was humiliatingly defeated The Bureau
of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, a
bureau of the U S. Treasury Department,
tried to get such a scheme past the House
by using the “back door" method of
having gun registration regulations
published in the Federal Register If the
regulations could be passed in this form,
they would have the same authority and
effect as a statute of law. The BATF
knew they couldn't get similar legislation
passed because Congress has steadfastly
defeated such attempts for the past
decade
However, the House forced the BATF
to request public opinion on their
proposed regulations, and when the
deadline for citizen response Was up. the
BATF reluctantly revealed we results: of
the 320,000 letters filed 4>y the public
nationwide. 316,000 letters were against
the BATF’s gun registration regulations
That comes to 99 percent Idaho's U S.
Representative Steve Symms called the
response "a national public opinion poll
that represents the real feeling of the
American people.”
This massive rebuke, coupled with the
enormous expense of gun registration,
caused the House to overwhelmingly
defeat the BATE Ngula ote of
314 to 80 The House realized that the
expected cost of the first year of gun
registration would cost as much as the
entire Social Security program Even the
U S. Congress knew that is is impossible
to pay for a program THAT expensive. In
fact, the House voted to cut the Treasury
Department s budget by $4 2 million
because of this
If Gregorsky had done his homework
and stayed informed about the subject he
was writing on. he wouldn't have been
talking in a vacuum Ht mild haw-
realized that national firearms registra
tion is not only extremely unpopular with
the people, but is too costly to be a
reality That kind of money could be
better spent in any number of other
worthwhile areas, such as alleviating
unemployment, improving our energy
situation and others. I hope that next
time Gregorsky writes, he won’t suggest
we chase shadows
JACK COWART
‘Be humane
in reporting’
TO THE EDITOR:
I am writing this letter in regard to a
news’ article you ran on Nov 16. 1978.
The news concerned the death of a
University student. George H. Harvey II.
Considering that you are a University
newspaper and the death was handled by
University Police I feel that you should
have contacted them for their press
release. As you stated, the article you
printed came directly from an Athens
newspaper
I realize that this was just news to you.
but I know if a little time was taken to
contact University Police and a little
thoughtfulness was shown in writing your
article, it would have been appreciated
by his family Considering that he spent
three years of his life at the University,
and in that time touched the lives of
many. I feel you could have given him
more dignity than the coldness of your
reporting Perhaps in the future you will
consider family and friends who are left
to carry such a burden and will be more
humane in your reporting
Sincerely,
his wife.
DEBORAH D HARVEY
‘Don’t condemn
other people’
TO THE EDITOR:
I am disillusioned with many people on
this campus. I realize that I have also
met a few people, but I feel as if the
majority of people that I've met are very
bigoted, and because of this. I feel a need
to hear from other people on this campus
to see if their feelings are similar to
mine
Maybe we all don’t realize what we say
daily to each other, but is this any
excuse? I am trying daily to be sensitive
to others and I am trying to be a good
listener and an understanding person I
am also beginning to realize the
TREMENDOUS amount of power that a
single word or a group of words contains.
For example, I can condemn a whole
group of people by saying spic, wop
chink, nigger, queer, jew and honkey. I
know that if I condemn these people I
also cut them off. I alienate people who
could have greatly benefited me
There are wonderful and special
individuals in each minority, just as
there are those who are hateful and
spiteful. But the important thing to
remember is that the choice is yours, the
choice is mine, the choice is ours; this is
your campus, our campus; this is your
world, our world. What will you choose to
do 9 Will you choose to be more accepting
of others?
One day you should try to be aware of
how sensitive you are being towards
other people. You should count the
number of times that you praise someone
and the number of times you condemn
someone. You should count the number of
times you compliment other people and
the number of times you criticize other
people You might be amazed. I
certainly was
I know that from time to time, I am
spiteful, and I know that I have
condemned many people. But 1 have
chosen to try to be more sensitive to
others and more accepting and under
standing of others. 1 hope you will, too
Do you think my opinions about this
campus are accurate and justified? Are
you going to change the situation? Are
you already trying to change it** Do you
want the situation to be changed? I’d like
to hear HONEST responses. Please make
your responses known to The Red and
Black Thank you In closing I’d like to
say that I am a white Anglo-Saxon.
ELIZABETH WOOLES
‘Am appalled
by Senate’
TO Till-: EDITOR:
Having served as both the editor of the
Six Mile Post and as a SGA Senator at
Floyd Jr. College. I was appalled at the
refusal of my right to speak before the
University Student Senate at their
January 10. 1979 meeting
Since I am not a member of the Senate,
Chairwoman Clair Cornwell refused to
recognize my right to speak even though
I had met all Senate requirements to do
so
Making the matter worse, she granted
Gregg Jocoy. also not a Senator, the right
to speak
I wanted to speak in opposition to a
motion presented by Senate President
Billy Key, which opposed a tuition
increase that has not even been
presented to the Board of Regents While
the spirit of this motion was commend
able. the wording of it has made the
Senate look like fools
But the issue has become more than
just the motion It has become the right
of students to speak before their Senate
The Chairperson must not be allowed to
arbitrarily choose who will speak before
the Senate
I intend to pursue this issue with the
Student Judiciary and copies of this letter
are being sent to the proper authorities
RANDY REDDICKS
IMBHHBBHn
Frank Gregorsky
This is not a column about Carter’s
recognition of R~d China It is about the
Red China he recognized.
People talking publicly about elections
in that massive nation are no longer
being shot, and a C mimunist government
that, in 1%9. refused to telecast to its
people the U S moon landing, is now
Frank Gregorsky is - student at West
Georgia College
permitting its people to listen to Voice Of
America broadcasts. One of the party’s
interpreting committees recently said
Mao was only 70 percent ‘ correct'’ in his
teachings-a thirty percent drop from the
infallible demigod he was portrayed as
when he lived
Political writer Robert Novak visited
.the mainland in November Sufficiently
conservative, he was still impressed
when, on a Sunday night, “about a
thousand” Chinese deluged him with
questions about how to make democracy
work He told ABC News Dec 6 that
rallies of up to 10.000 take place without
government rebi -that the state media
(in China, there is not other type) run
English-language broadcasts every day,
and Laiat foreign investment is welcome
in Chinese business ventures up to *.
share of 49 percent. Novak doubts that
these trends can be reversed easily, once
in mo on.
p robabl> not. b^t we shoidd not forget
why such things surprise us as they do
T hey surprise us because, for about 29
years. Red China has been a totalitarian
sta)°. in which ever., aspect of human
life is controlled and dictated by the
government. Evervthing—dress, occupa
tion housing, sexual rela.ions and lamily
size, food rations, and even, as much as
possible, thought. Terror has been used
to destroy culture and stifle dissent.
Chinese historical expert J. Guillermaz
believes that, between 1949-52, five
million non-Communist Chinese were
killed, and that is one of the more
cautious estimates for those early, bloody
year Add to it hundreds of thousands
killed by M^o’s “cultural revolution '
during 1966-69. plus the normal tyrannies
regularly needed to keep 800 million
people in line, and you get a picture of
repression fifty times worse than what
goes on in Rhodesia, or e»*en the
post Stalin Soviet Union.
What an irony it is that, in Sept. 1976
when Mao finally went to his regard,
people such as Nixon. Ford and Kissinger
outdid themselves in paying homage to
his ‘ courage" and “vision." While
American politicians glorified a dicta
torial thug. Chinese reenters of h.story
were even then preparing to downgrade
him to a mere mortal Perhaps then
years from no-v we’ll catch up with the
latter view
T' ree decades of Communism bred a
nation of atheistic, self-denying “ puri
tans." This “conversion" was wroght
with guns and little red hooks, not
prayi.s or reason The romantic
delusions about Red China now in full
bloom are unjustified. Even today they
support genocide in Cambodia.
We understand human rights—they
don't They understand Soviet expan
sionism we don't. America must recog
nize the latter, and never surrender on
the former
Public deserves information
George Callaway
The spectre of government control over
America’s supposed free press has again
raised its ugly head. The controls
referred to would be indirect—not like
actual censorship or government liscens
ing, the traditional forms of press
control. At issue here is the Supreme
Court’s recent decision that a newspaper
may be the subject of an unannounced
search and seizure, provided that the
search is approved beforehand by the
issuance of a court-ordered search
warrant
This was the Supreme Court’s decision
in the much disputed Zurcher v. Stanford
Daily case. The case arose as a
manifestation of a police clash with
student demonstrators or. the campus of
Stanford University in April. 1971.
Students had seized control of the
George Callaway is a post-graduate in
the School of Arts and Sciences.
administrative offices of the Stanford
University hospital, and when police
broke a barricade to try to dislodge the
demonstrators, nine officers were injured
with clubs in the melee.
Two days later the Stanford Daily
carried a story on the violence
accompanied by photos of the action It
was obvious that a Daily photographer
had been in the midst of the violence, and
authorities successfully sought a warrant
to search the Daily's offices in the hope
that photos and negatives could he
recovered which might help in “the
identification of the perpetrators of
felonies, to wit. Battery of a Peace
Officer, and assault with a deadly
weapon...” The search was carried out
and no significant evidence was
recovered.
In May the same year. The Daily
brought suit against the city police chief
and the district attorney, charging that
1st, 4th, and 14th amendment right.; were
violated. The federal district court found
the search to indeed be illegal,
suggesting that a subpoena requiring the
presentation of evidence in court would
have been a more appropriate end less
intrusive action. A U.S. Court of Appeals
five years later upheld the decision for
the Stanford Daily.
But only last year the U.S. Supreme
Court reversed these earlier decisions
and declared that newspapers are subject
to such unannounced third-party search
es The Court was split 5-3 on the
decision, and it is interesting to note that
four of the five justices who made up the
majority weie appointees of Richard
Nixon—and his adversity to and paranoia
of the press are well documented
Justices Stewart, Marshall, and Ste
phens dissented, noting the imminent
disiuption oi the orderly operation of a
newspaper under such a law Also noted
was the possibility of disclosure of
information received from confidential
sources and the possible identification of
those sources
Journalists today get a great deal o»
information from sources they promise
not to reveal This ruling in effect denies
the journalist the right to promise
confidentiality to his po’eniial sources
and thereby limits the journalist’s—ar.d
by extension, the public’s—access to
information This law could easily be
used to prevent the publication of stories
such as the Watergate scandals and the
Pentagon Paprs—information the public
net only wants, but deserves to have
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HI Red and < BlacK
Staff
F-dhnc Hope Dlugoiima
KiocuUse editor Cathy M Lewis
Gmieral manager Ed Stamper
Advertising manager Chart*** Kuv*ell
Capy editor* Elaine Elmer Scott Jacob*
Dianne Chance Sharon Giliooiy
lanm edfcm
m> editor Nlta I
Feature* edHer Gary Tout*
Katmammewt editor Robert Holland
sport* editor Warren Rary
Photo edito- Hal Brooks
IGA Today torn dm a tar Belt Norcrau
\*»i\t*M campus editor* Kns Young Justin Gilti*
I HI) editor Mary Thurston
Id*mining salesperson* Greg Griffith Daly Jackson. Wendy Jackson Dorna Peavey Donna Rntchford
Bob Ryate. Tm Steed Lu Wilson
Classified *d%erUtiAg manager Sunan Turner
Production manager Seal Kumanaky
Graphic coordinator Frank Lee
<*rsphtr designer Wtyre E Nad
The Red and Black Undent newspaper ol the InisersMy of Georgia \then* i* published Tuesday through
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signed (damns or rartoootus and are not necessarily those ol the l ntsersM* Administration the toord of
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Stole national aod mtemolmeal Ms in The Red and Block M from .he wires oi l mted Press Iid-raatmaol
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reversed
Subscription rale la til a* per year Information asaiiaM- at basin %» offices ft’ NTJIIi.
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and libelous material loiters must
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o be ddres.ed To the edito
Whe submit tint, returns* I
Contacts
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lucres* sdeac* should be tdresses,
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The Red and Black m Journalism
How inter policy with *ength held U
uti M2M4I at the
n la tog should he made
office* tot M2 Mll>
1 nisersrtt of