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The Ked and Black. Tuesday. October 28. i«mo
The Red and Black
Established 1893
Incorporated 1980
%
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."
Voting for president a challenge
As America goes to the polls next Tuesday
to select a new president, the choices are less
than satisfying. Voters in this state will
choose among four candidates: Democrat
Jimmy Carter, Republican Ronald Reagan,
Independent John Anderson and Libertarian
Ed Clark. The question becomes not which of
the candidates is best qualified, but rather
which of the four will inflict the least damage
on the nation.
By this yardstick, the best man is
Incumbent Carter, the beleaguered man from
Plains. Although Carter’s first four years
have been less than exemplary, he is the least
offensive of the four.
Reagan has campaigned on a platform of
cutting taxes, increasing defense spending
and reducing the size of the national
government. The former California governor
has accused President Carter of allowing the
country to become weak militarily and of
damaging the country by failing to limit
government spending.
John Anderson, a Republican congressman
from Illinois, has centered his campaign on
the poor nominees offered by the Republicans
and Democrats.
Jimmy Carter has had quite an education
since he defeated Gerald Ford for the
presidency in 1976. Carter promised to clean
up the wasteful Washington establishment,
balance the federal budget, create jobs, slow
inflation and perform other wondrous
miracles.
Many of his promises remain unrealized
because Washington wasn’t quite ready to
change just on his say-so. During Carter's
first term, inflation and unemployment have
reached astoundingly high levels, the cost of
living has risen drastically with the price of
world oil, and world instability has increased.
Carter has been justifiably criticized for his
inabilities to deal with the federal government
in Washington, but those criticisms should be
viewed in perspective. Carter may have
honestly believed in 1976 that an outsider
could make wholesale changes in government,
but the government does not work that way.
In voting for president next week, the voters
should weigh Carter’s record against the
promises of the other candidates. What they
will find is that Reagan and Anderson are
making Carteresque promises to solve the
nation's woes. Reagan and Anderson will
probably meet with at least as much
resistence from Washington as has Carter.
The difference between the incumbent and the
would-be presidents lies in experience. Carter
has begun to deal with Congress and the
bureaucracy, and he has met with some
success in the waning days of his term
(Witness the Synfuels bill and the creation of
the Department of Education.)
Other Carter successes include the Middle
East Peace Agreement, the Panama Canal
treaties, refinancing of Social Security, and
establishment of diplomatic ties with China.
His failures in the areas of inflation,
unemployment, and his failure to reduce
the size of government weigh heavily against
him.
But the alternatives are no better. Reagan
has repeatedly insulted the intelligence of the
electorate with flip-flops on campaign stands
and ridiculous arguments. Reagan, for
instance, began the campaign arguing that
the federal government should leave
education to the states. He has since changed
that stand, maintaining that the Department
of Education should not be abolished and that
federal funds to education should not be cut
off. He also sticks to his argument that trees
and mountains cause more pollution than
does industry.
Finally, Reagan’s foreign policy pronounce
ments, if implemented as United States
policy, would increase world instability.
Reagan argues that the United States needs to
regain its military superiority over the Soviet
Union, while discounting the possibility that
such a move would provoke an arms race.
Anderson has failed to discuss the major
issues in any detail leaving the electorate
confused as to what he would do as president.
The voter in the 1980 presidential race will
likely feel like a person who has been asked
whether he prefers to climb into a fiery
grease vat or dive into an active volcano.
Either way, he’ll get burned.
But the voters should examine the issues,
and weigh the promises and the records of the
candidates carefully. Voters seeking to suffer
the least damage in the next four years should
strongly consider a vote for Carter; then they
should pray 1984 comes soon.
Letters
'Mitchell column misses several points
‘Little space ‘No blame
for big event’
TO THE EDITOR.
In regard to your editorial stating
the case for (God help us! > President
Reagan. Mr Mitchell didn’t exactly
say everything. Obviously, Mr.
Reagan’s influence has rubbed off on
him Why will Reagan lead us into
war' 1 Hr MB, in filed. stated that he
would In a speech given at the
University of California at Berkley.
Mr. Reagan said, if we re going io
have a blood bath, let's get it over
with."
If you want to go fight this war. be
my guest, but count me out Mr
Reagan has also come out in favor of
the Vietnam War. another point
which was overlooked. It would have
been interesting to see what would
have happened if California had had
an army under Reagan Russia 41,
California 0.
“Why is Reagan a racist?” Mr.
Mitchell asks. Well, it’s not every
clean cut gentleman who gets
endorsed by the Ku Klux Klan.
Obviously they think he will do
something about blacks. Jews, and
inyone who doesn't use Kendall oil
to keep their hair in place His tax
program would help eliminate funds
to poverty stricken people of this
country Is that an “equal opportun
ity for all Americans’* ”
When Mr Reagan says that he will
cure the U S. the same way he did
California, does that include the
three tax increases he implemented*'
Is this the same policy that his
running mate. Mr Bush, called
”. voodoo economics?" And how
about ecology? “Trees cause more
pollution than factories." Mr Rea
gan says Why don't both of you go
on a fact finding trip and try to find
China Someone seems to have lost
it.
RALPH SMITH
Sophomore. Arts and Sciences
TO THE EDITOR:
Homecoming 1980 was a big
success and The Red and Black gave
adequate coverage of all the
activities up until tl-e Homecoming
Parade. We do not feel that The Red
and Black gave the credit due to the
parade winners
This year the Homecoming Com
mittee asked for full participation
from the residence halls Not only
did Myers Community win first place
in the banner competition, window
painting competition, and the float
competition for the residence league,
but Myers Community also won the
overall Homecoming competition.
This is the first time that a residence
hall has accomplished so much in the
Homecoming festivities
Since The Red and Black did not
see fit to allot any space to this
important University activity we
would like to recognize Bob Gillespie
'Myers Community Chairman) and
all the residents who helped. It was
great to see so much participation
from so many residents I am sure
that the winners of the other leagues
would like to be recognized also.
Everyone put in a great deal of time,
money, and hard work for the event.
The Red and Black has in the past
served as an informative University
of Georgia paper, reporting on the
events of the University. It seems
that The Red and Black has given
little importance to one of the
biggest events on campus during the
school year
DIANE CARL
JEFF DEHAVEN
Myers Hall Council
Co-presidents
Standardized tests trivial
John P. Harrison
If ever 1 meet anyone involved
with the design of those nationally-
standardized, multiple-guess tests. I
shall immediately stab him tor hen
to a slow and bloody death with two
sharpened number two pencils. And
then drag him off to be tortured.
Now before someone shouts “sour
grapes." I did fairly well on the SAT
(1200), but I hated every minute of
it; and last week, during the Vandy
game, I had to relive my hatred by
taking the GRE (and consequently
missing the half-time show) Where
in creation (or evolution) do they get
these assanine exams?
John I*. Harrison is a senior in the
College of Arts and Sciences.
Well, I’ll tell you It didn't start
with the elite mental gymnasts at
Princeton or those basic skills
examiners in Iowa, but it started
with a Frenchman named Binet, who
wanted to rid Parisian schools of all
the pinheaded Pierres and the
feeble-minded FiFis. Of course it
didn't work there, so a bunch of
intellectual-pygmies-by-the-sea at
Stanford decided to introduce the
tests to America.
Now. to get some insight into this
lunacy, one has to know the clever
theory behind these tests First, a
group of kids of a certain age are
given a set of questions. Meanwhile,
the examiners go out and get a hold
of the grades which these kids have
received in school Then the tests are
scored; the questions which corre
late with grades are kept, and the
ones which don't are thrown out In
other words, if Little Lord Fauntle
roy, (who is a straight A kid) gets
question 1 right, and Jethro (who
comes to class with hayseed in his
ears) gets it wrong, then bingo—that
question is right on target But if
Jethro picks the right answer, and
Little l,ord Fauntleroy muffs it up.
then that question sails out the
window Certainly, if they both get
the right answer, that question
self-destructs with a little help from
the proctor
After this has all come to pass (or
fail), a group of educators distribute
this test to their students and say,
“Wow, look how our tests predict
grades in school!" Of course, they
predict grades in school; they
couldn’t do anything but predict
grades It’s just like saying grades
predict grades, which clearly is not
false (or is it true? or maybe both of
the above?).
Here’s a sample of the logic behind
the questions on an IQ test: "What is
the thing to do when you cut your
finger?" Full credit is given to the
response "fix it up with medicine.”
The child gets half credit for saying,
"tell my mother about it," and no
credit for an anser like "don’t
panic.” Well, that really was
sort of an ambiguous question
(shades of Bio 101); I reallv should
have used a more straight-forward
one except I couldn’t find any.
There are some people who claim
that these wonderful tests are full of
cultural biases I used to think it
meant nothing that people from the
South do worse than yankees, or that
blacks don't do as well as whites, or
that boys do better than girls (on
Binet’s original test the girls did
better on some questions—guess
what happened to those questions),
but it must mean that »he rest of the
world is just not equal to those
cerebral stuck-ups at Princeton
(thank the U>rd). Wonder how they
would do on a question like "what’s
the difference between turnips and
rutabagas’ 1 " Be careful, for it could
be a trick question.
About the only people who defend
these tests are the educators who
make them up (well, you’ve got to do
something to get a Ed.D.) Besides,
the tests are easy to grade. Here’s
what one of their gems looks like:
"Select the lettered pair which best
expresses a relationship similar to
that expressed in the original pair.
DILIGENCE SLOTH (A) pa
tience: snail. (B) acrimony: shrew,
<C> innocence: lamb. (D> speech
lessness: magpie, or <E) voracity:
vulture." (Educational Testing Serv
ice. GRE Information Bulletin, 1980,
p. 31). Of course, the answer is <D)
speechlessness: magpie—anybody
who is ever going to amount to
anything knows that
The presidential funnies
for bad sealing’
TO THE EDITOR:
In response to a letter I recently
read in this column stating that
blacks were being issued seating
tickets for the football games that
were less than ideal. I wish to take a
stand for the Athletic Department
which is being blamed for this
occurrence
First of all, the majority of the
tickets sold at the university for
students never match the seats that
the ticket holder is occupying at a
game Students, in most cases, either
sit where they please, or they sit in a
block This is probably the case in
this instance It only makes sense
that this is the case, and it disturbs
me to find someone seeking to blame
another for something that probably
has a good explanation for happen
ing
The Athletic Department at this
university could have no reason for
issuing bad seats to blacks in
particular After all, the Athletic
Department is there to serve the
students, and with all of the
activities and benefits they have
provided for us, we should be
seeking to express our gratitude for
their services.
BERT SAMS
Sophomore. Business systems
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