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The Red and Black, Wednesday, October 22, 19H0
-IhgJted and Black
Established 1893
Incorporated 1980
V
GCPA
Linda Spikes. Acting General Manager
Brian O’Shea. Editor-in-chief
Virginia Lynne Anderson, Managing Editor
“An independent student newspaper serving The University of Georgia community.''
Rough]
ing it i
:or ‘Florida’
ft
Skip Hulett
The passing of John Anderson
For better or worse, John Anderson’s
candidacy is dead.
The Congressman from Illinois has run out
the string of his “national unity campaign."
He has sadly failed in his mission to “reunite”
this nation politically, and now it seems even
his role as spoiler in this election is
diminishing daily.
From the start of his independent campaign
in April, Anderson’s chances have been slim
at best. He has consistently trailed behind
Ronald Reagan and President Carter in every
national poll and has never led in any one
state.
However, Anderson’s failure is not that he
will not win. Rather, John Anderson’s
candidacy has not really served any purpose,
nor will it serve in the future toward
influencing future policies and actions in
Washington.
Often, a third-party or independent
candidate can build enough support behind a
particular issue so that even if he is not
elected, those in power are made to realize
the existence of a large group in dissent with
the present policy.
However, Anderson’s candidacy has accom
plished nothing of the sort. His primary issue
has been himself, the so-called “Anderson
alternative.” John Anderson, we’ve been told,
represents an alternative to the Reagan-Car-
ter choice. A vote for Anderson would be a
vote striking at our present two-party set-up,
a chance to tell the big political bosses we
were disgusted with what they had served up
this year.
Unfortunately, Anderson seemed to have
forgotten who put Reagan and Carter in the
nominees’ seats: the American people. In
fact, the American people nominated Carter
and Reagan in record-breaking numbers
through participation in the winter and spring
primaries. What Anderson presented us was
a most curious paradoxical statement: you
people were foolish once, but I’m willing to
give you another chance and your sins will be
forgiven.
Anderson never managed to assemble any
kind of coalition whatsoever. Republicans,
hungry to put one of their own in the White
House (party leaders have no doubt written
Anderson off the party rolls), never dreamed
of taking any votes away from Reagan. And
Democrats, equally frantic about keeping
what they’ve got. and realizing the difficulties
of the race ahead, never quite lined up behind
Anderson.
It is a shame that Anderson did not succeed.
Although not all of his ideas were terribly
popular, some were rather innovative.
Unfortunately, his reluctance to discuss issues
and his insistence on bad-mouthing Carter and
Reagan caused his campaign to fail. Perhaps
Anderson should have watched Georgia
politics closely and learned the same lesson
Zell Miller learned this year—you can’t defeat
a powerful political machine by just saying
bad things about the machine. Once in a
while, you’ve got to blow your own horn.
We mourn the passing of John Anderson
from this year’s race and hope he will
re-enter public life at some future date. For
whatever his shortcomings in this campaign,
he possesses many of the ideas and talents
necessary to guide this country through the
turbulent decade to come.
Only he’ll have to do it from some place
other than the White House.
But then they danced down the
street like dingledodies. and I
shambled after as I’ve been doing all
my life after people who interest me,
because the only people for me are
the mad ones, the ones who are mad
to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved,
desirous of everything at the same
time, the ones who never yawn or
say a commonplace thing, but burn,
burn, burn like fabulous yellow
roman candles exploding like spiders
across the stars and in the middle
you see the blue centerlight pop and
everybody goes “Awww!"
Jack Kerouac. “On the Road”
It is not these well-fed long-haired
men that I fear, but the pale and the
hungr\-looking.
Julius Caesar
The moral? Julius would have lost
it completely after five minutes
among the lean, hungry who
populated the Coliseum lawn for a
free-swinging Drunken Anticipation
trip Tuesday night. Jack would have
dug it, I think.
The urge to burn, burn, etc. drove
me into that tiger pit of Florida-Au
burn ticket seekers
Skip llulett is associate news editor
for The Red and Black.
When the word went out several
weeks ago—6,000 tickets for the
annual Dionysian orgy known to
veterans as simply “Florida" would
go on sale Oct. 21 at 8:.10 a m.—I
realized my responsibility as a
journalist required me to participate.
For the purpose of a reliable public
record, of course.
So, without further ado, an account
of the night's festivities:
12:20— Armed with a bellyful of 01
Milwaukee, a Tracks-seasoned flan
nel Sears sleeping bag, Army surplus
multi-pocket field jacket and a lotta
Heart, I arrive unceremoniously via
Vega station wagon Several hundred
bodies lie scattered about—nerve
gas! But why are dozens still
standing?
‘‘They’re immune," says a stringy-
haired platinum blond who notices
my alarm “But that doesn’t make
them any less dangerous Has
something to do with the alcohol
intake level, I think." I nodded and
pressed on.
1:15—While retching into a drain
pipe, I meet a Red and Black
colleague. He hands me Miller Lite
and guides me into the inner guts of
what purports to be ‘‘a line."
"You'll be safe here," he assures
me. “Some Greek had a Coleman
lantern explode during halftime of
the Steelers game. Took his arm
right off at the socket. But the real
bitch is the blast soaked the whole
area in lantern fuel, a real
powderkeg Only people with True
Grit will take a chance on looking
like a Polynesian drink. Oh yeah,
don’t smoke."
I crushed my Parliament out in
my hand and dug a fire break
around the aluminum chaise lounge
before nodding off Best to get some
rest, I thought. Combine an inflamed
hangover with no sleep and you sign
your own death warrant when the
throng decides to rush the ticket
booth in the morning. Nobody
remembers the names of those poor
devils trampled at the Pope’s
African tour, either Play it safe
4:30 or so—A shrill blast from a
riot whistle wakes me with a start.
Most lights are out now but several
dozen predators continue to stalk the
sidewalk 25 feet away from where I
lay. To the rear, six Crackers are
stomping a Mazda to the tune of
Pink Floyd’s "The Wall" and two
sorority pledges are smothering a
Big Sister with a wine bladder I roll
over, remove a singed Topsider from
the small of my back and doze off.
6:45—1 am awakened again, this
time by what first sounded like a
Merrill Lynch commercial I am
sucked up into the crowd which is
forcing its way in the direction of the
ticket mongers’ booths. I fall in line
behind an olive-drab sleeping bag
which is balancing a Playmate
cooler on its peak Soon we are
surrounded in a crunch of flannel
and multicolored polyvinyl.
10:15—Sgt. Thugg of the Campus
police is running discipline drills
with an unruly crowd which shows
the potential for turning on him at
the drop of a hat
“Two people abreast," the officer
shouts over cries, shrieks and the
familiar snap of crushed ribs "Use
your gun! These pigs don’t know
anything but force," a concerned
fellow in a flaming red toboggan tells
the officer.
11:15—Finally. Two tickets in
hand, I sweep the matted hair from
my forehead and board the
Lumpkin-Milledge bus for home I
lift the window a bit and slump in the
seat as a voice across the road
bellows
"Let’s bring more beer tonight."
Construction site is unsafe
Susan Morris
University students are familiar
with the often dangerously narrow
streets of Athens. Who hasn't winced
as they've driven down the mystery
road of Milledge Avenue and tried to
figure out how many lanes there
really are?
Students and Athens residents now
have East Campus Road to wince
about Because of Sanford Stadium
expansion construction, East Cam
pus Road is far too dangerous to
ignore any longer. The road is
currently too narrow for both
pedestrians and motor vehicle
traffic.
Susan Morris is a staff writer for
The Red and Black.
The Clarke County Traffic Engi
neer office reports that the average
and minimum width of a legal two
lane road is 20 feet The track side
lane of East Campus Road didn’t feel
like 10 feet to me. Yet, I was assured
by the traffic engineer office that it
was indeed 10 feet wide
Assuming noble journalistic qual
ities I went to East Campus Road
with a borrowed standard Ace
Hardware tape measure in hand I
figured that if I was wrong, no one
would know But. if East Campus
Road did not measure at least ten
feet wide 1 still had a column.
I managed, with help, to stop
traffic long enough to measure East
Campus Road. I discovered that in
the widest place. East Campus Road
measures 23 feet wide. In the area
parallel to the chain-link fence,
however, the road is only 18 feet
wide—two feet short of county
minimum standards
Big deal—two feet Wrong.
A few simple mathematic proce
dures show a big problem Add 6’9",
the width of a Chevrolet pickup, and
l’lO”, the width of an average man,
and subtract 8’4", the width of the
track side of East Campus Road
The answer is 3 inches
Th’-ee inches is enough to swerve
into the lane of oncoming traffic to
avoid a pedestrian. Three inches is
enough to cause a car to swerve into
the chain-link fence to avoid another
car. In the case of East Campus
Road, three inches is enough to kill!
Students or Athens residents on
their way to south campus, River
Road, or Athens General are not
necessarily concentrating on the
width of the road. Most drivers
assume that roads will be wide
enough for safe travel. East Campus
Road now violates this theory
Students and Athens residents will
face the narrow lanes of East
Campus Road until next fall, when
the new wing of Sanford Stadium is
opened. And University officials say
there is no alternative to blocking
the street.
In order to assure safety, officials
must decide whether East Campus
Road will be. limited only to
pedestrians, or widened, or altogeth
er closed to any traffic
To avoid a disaster, the involved
section of East Campus Road should
be further blocked off to allow only
pedestrian traffic.
This might be inconvenient, but
Lumpkin Street runs parallel to East
Campus Road and would be an
adequate detour for motor vehicles.
This detour would allow pedestrians
who travel from the Chemistry
building and River Road to north
campus the convenience of a safe
way to get to their destination
An alternative solution is to widen
East Campus road. The road could
be widened on the west side because
there is no construction going on in
the road area which is currently
fenced in. Trees were cut down from
the dirt banks However, now the
trees are gone and with them so is
any danger of falling debris.
Widening of East Campus Road
would return the safety of a
respectable car passing distance to
both vehicle drivers and pedestrians
One other idea is a total fence—in
of the area of East Campus Road
stretching from the north to south
ends of the stadium An off-limits
would be in effect for both
pedestrians and vehicle traffic. This
solution eliminates any possibility of
an automobile accident involving a
pedestrian in the area.
These alternatives to the problem
of current East Campus Road
construction are simple. Yet the
seriousness of the East Campus
Road’s lack of safety demands a
solution and action.
This situation demands a solution
now. Do the University’s campus
planning office and Clarke County-
officials need a tragic statistic in the
books before they can be prodded
into action? Can we afford to wait?
Letters
‘Reagan can’t fight bias with bias’
‘Student help
is available’
TO TIIE EDITOR:
Both Carter and Reagan have
made blunders in their campaigns
thus far, and at this point I have no
idea which candidate will receive my
vote; but that’s not what I want to
talk about. What I do want to talk of
is a recent mistake committed by the
latter of these men—in specific, that
if he happens to be elected, and if,
during his reign, there happens to be
a vacancy in the Supreme Court, he
will fill it with a woman.
Don’t misunderstand me: I’m not
against a woman being a member of
the Supreme Court. I'm not against
a woman being President, if she is
qualified. If she is qualified. I don’t
like to hear someone say "I’ll give
this job to a woman" or "a man" or
"a minority”; I want to hear "I’ll
give this office to the person I feel
can do the job the best".
It's time folks learned that you
can't fight discrimination with
discrimination Discrimination is a
sickness that, like alcoholism, can
only be remedied by those who have
it. Setting any sort of quotas, or
giving high offices to persons simply
because they are not white male
Protestants is—to cut frivolities and
get to the crux—stupid
Discrimination will exist as long as
we see our fellow humans in terms of
black, white, male, female, short,
ugly, rich, poor. etc... And trying to
appease voters or special interest
groups by making rash promises
only worsens the situation Reagan's
decision ought to upset men because
of their exclusion, and women, as it
makes them appear that they are
incapable of earning such posts of
distinction and honour. And besides,
human attitudes can not be forced
into change.
If a woman can do the job best, by
all means let her have it-we need
all the competence we can get in
Washington; but if another can
better handle the duties, whether a
man or a mule or whatever, he
should not be forced out After all,
isn't that the idea?
JEFF SATTERFIELD
Departments
EDITORIAL S43-I809
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Winaton Skinner
New* editor* Chuck Reece. Tim Bonner
Feature* editor Tew Yarborough
Entertainment editor Tom Lee
Sport* editor Ed Legge
Photo editor Larry Cutchall
Art director Cliff Chandler
Aaaociate new* editor Skip Hulett
Auistant new* editor Steve Goldberg
Aaaiatant sport* editor Mack Browning
Editorial auistant Natalie Walton
Wire editor Phyllis Gilston
Promotion* director Jeffrey Jowdy
ADVERTISING S43-I79I
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Classified manager Julie Fletcher
Production staff Tam Edgar. Terry Boling
Jesae Day Brenda Cleveland
The Red and Black, an independent student newspaper not affiliated with the University of Georgia,
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lOiO I
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TO THE EDITOR:
This is an open letter to the
University Community. There have
been a variety of issues, some
frivilous. some serious, upon which I
have thought to make comment in
the year I have been at the
University. I've never written those
letters because the issues did not
involve my areas of expertise.
However, a series of unrelated but
unhappy events have occurred
during the past month upon which I
would like to comment as an
“expert.” I hope this letter is
thought provoking, if nothing else
On Wednesday, one UGA student
was killed and another seriously
burned in what appears to be a
speeding accident, possibly involving
the use of alcohol Last Saturday one
of the Georgia football players
nearly collapsed on the field
because, according to news reports,
he was sick enough to require
antibiotic medication (Why he was
certified as healthy to play is
another issue which I will not
explore ) Two weeks ago we had a
student suicide. I am also aware of
several incidents of students requir
ing medical attention for the
ingestion of depressant medication
along with alcohol. If that Isn’t
enough, each month I co-lead a
group whose members are students
who have been arrested for some
alcohol-related offense
This is not an anti—alcohol letter
What I would like to suggest is that
there seems to be a number of
students (and maybe some others in
the University community) who
seem to be balancing themselves on
the rim of a garbage can trying to
see how far they can lean over
without falling in As a mental health
provider on this campus. I’m having
an extremely difficult time under
standing why anyone would want to
play that game
A main thrust of this letter is to
share the frustration and feelings of
helplessness we sometimes feel in
this office, particularly at times like
these. There are many of us at a
variety of offices on campus who are
trained and have been employed to
help the University community
(students, faculty, and suffl cope
with the pressures and tensions of
being here as well as to deal with the
normal kinds of concerns encoun
tered in growing older i relationships,
personal issues, career decisions,
sexuality, etc.). All of us work with
the mode) that If someone has a
concern, they will come in to work
on it.
What I'd personally like to do is be
able to sit down with every student
and chat about how things are going
I can't do that To a certain extent,
it’s none of my business. I do.
however, want to let people know
(again) that, whatever concerns
them, there are people who care and
are willing to talk about things They
are (in no particular order): RAs,
GRs, RLCs, Counseling and Testing,
Mental Health, Psychology Clinic,
Campus Minis'ry Association, Tutor
ial Service, Child and Family
Development Center, and HELP
LINE. This is probably a partial list.
If you can’t decide who you ought to
talk with, call any of us and we'll
help you find an appropriate place.
But, PLEASE CALL.
DON ROSEN
Counseling and Testing Center