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P«gr 4
Thf Krd and Black
Wednesday. March 31. U«
Established 1893 — Incorporated 1980
Charles H. Russell, General Manager
Mack Browning, Editor-in-chief Tim Bonner, Managing Editor
An independent student newspaper not affiliated with the University of Georgia
Voting for democracy
Though no party earned a majority in the
country’s elections and the slant of government
is still to be determined, the people of El
Salvador gave an overwhelming mandate to
democracy with a high voter turnout.
Often traveling to the voting places amid gun
fire, the Salvadorans decided they would rather
live under a democratic government rather
than under a band of communist-backed guer
rillas.
The United States should look at the turnout as
a victory, for in a way it is. If the people are will
ing to risk their lives to throw back the rebels,
then we can be assured they will do what is
necessary to keep communism from getting a
Stranglehold on their country.
The United States need not be so preoccupied
with the thought of defending the Latin
American nation, or any other nation in the
region from communism.
The lesson we all can learn from the
Salvadorans is that the right to vote cannot be
abused. We hardly think that some day we may
not be able to freely elect to public office whom
we please.
Voter turnout at most U.S. polling booths is
usually below par. Many Americans shirk their
responsibility to vote for any number of reasons
— like a favorite TV show, a light rain, or a
slight cold. And then they have the nerve to
criticize those who were elected.
The people of El Salvador have made their
choice: It’s freedom. Their heroics should serve
as reminders to us all.
'of course NM&isrs k solution to all ms eiraoN
FRAUD AND INTIMIDATION- NO M0R£ FACTIONS! r '
Appreciate your freedom
Spring quarter has arrived at last.
The signs are all around us: frisbees in
the air, coeds bathing in the afternoon
sun, water balloons falling from dor
mitory windows. It is a time when the
case for skipping class becomes ir-
resistably persuasive, when each
delicious day is a microcosmic
foreshadowing of summer. For
students (prisoners of the academic
prison), summer means freedom. Each
spring we begin our battle for freedom
from everything we loathe and abhor;
each summer is our annual and all-too-
short-lived victory.
Elsewhere in the world, a more pro
found and ominous struggle for
freedom is taking place. In Poland,
where Lech Walesa and thousands of
other Solidarity members remain im
prisoned by the Soviet puppet
Jaruzelski, this struggle is quintessen-
tially stated in an epitaph scrawled on
the shipyard walls in Gdansk: "The
winter is yours, but the Spring will be
ours!"
For us, freedom means throwing
frisbees and sunbathing. We take for
granted the right to organize into volun
tary associations like the Solidarity
movement, which was crushed under
the iron boot of goose-stepping Marxist -
Leninism last Dec. 13. We take for
granted the right to hold our own
political beliefs and express them free
ly. We often find it difficult to relate to
the tribulations of Nobel laureate An
drei Sakharov, who was thrown into a
Soviet concentration camp, and then
forcefully exiled to Siberia after seek
ing to emigrate from Russia.
We are hardly assisted by the
American Media Establishment, which
trumpeted a blow-by-blow account of
the birth and meteoric rise of Solidari
ty, only to shift its coverage elsewhere
after the vicious denial of human rights
under martial law. The media have
whitewashed the genocide in
Afghanistan, where Soviet troops have
used chemicals against its civilian
population, forcing more than 3.5
million to flee into neighboring
Pakistan. Typical has been the un
balanced and therefore inaccurate
reporting of attempts by Cuban-backed
guerrillas to sabotage democracy in El
Salvador.
Recently, Salvadoran citizens climb
ed walls and waited in lines for hours to
freely choose their own representatives
in democratic elections. The Marxist-
Leninist guerrillas placed bombs on
public buses, and threatened to murder
anyone attempting to exercise their
right to vote.
But only irresponsible students will
shirk the initiative of learning these
facts and blame their ignorance on the
media. For us, seeking knowledge is at
least temporarily a vocational respon
sibility and should be our fundamental
aspiration.
It is painfully ironic that American
college students, the future of the freest
nation in the world, fail so utterly to ap
preciate the ongoing battle for freedom
in other nations — and the threat to our
own freedom that Marxist-Leninism
represents. Our college campuses are
dominated by leftist activists and
Marxist-Leninist sympathizers.
One such group on our campus is
distributing a flyer by David
McReynolds entitled “The Soviet
Threat — How real?", which is
distinguished by a wholly unintelligent
discussion of Lenin's writings. I asked
the person who handed it to me if he had
ever read Lenin. His reply: “No, I just
follow my feelings."
One can only conclude that such
students are by their own choice
pathetically uninformed of the goals of
Soviet imperialism. They would greatly
benefit from a discussion with just a
few of the more than two million
political prisoners in Soviet work
camps, many of whom dared to print
and distribute the Bible.
Ralph Reed is a junior in the College of
Arts and Sciences.
Confidentially, Dean Payne, your memo disturbs me
To: Arts and Sciences Dean Jack
Fayne
from: David Nelson
6ubjrcl: Exactly what kind of crap are
you trying to pull, sir?
- 1 read with much interest your
''confidential" memo to your college's
department heads In it you said that
you "strongly oppose approval of the
■ihanges" in the college's bylaws that
Would make it easier lor your faculty
ptembers to express displeasure with
their department heads
- This juicy bit of info needs to be
feibeled confidential? Why, everybody
end his grad assistant already know
precisely how you feel about associate
Sociology professor Homer Cooper's
progressive proposals
You have constantly spoken out
fgainst the proposals ever since they
fussed | he A&S Faculty Senate last
flay A full faculty vote on the changes
jbas been languishing for almost a year,
and now that that vote is about to take
place, you are attempting to use blatant
coercion and power politics to defeat
Dr Cooper's amendments.
I quote from your secret memo to the
department heads: “I hope you will
have opportunity to speak with
members of your departmental
faculties about our concerns. And, I
strongly urge that you attend the
meeting to aid in representing our
interests in the discussion of these
items."
“Our" concerns, Dean Payne? "Our"
interests?
It seems you have had to stoop to
some petty "us against them”
reasoning to hide the fact that you have
never presented a lucid argument as to
why the changes shouldn't be made
The proposed changes would require
you to review department heads every
three years instead of every six as is
now required.
Six years is a long time. 1 learned to
talk, walk and ride a bicycle in six
years
‘Maybe (the dean) and Fred are canning the
ones the faculty would like to keep and vice
versa.’
1 made it through high school in
another six.
The proposal would also require you
to hold a meeting of each department's
faculty at the beginning of the review at
which the faculty members would cast
secret ballots saying whether they
wished to keep the department head.
The bylaws now require your “full
consultation with the faculty of the
department" every six years, but we
both know, and you freely admit, that
this doesn't happen With some 700
faculty members, that really isn’t
feasible.
You have attempted to get around
this problem by saying your door is
always open to any faculty member
wishing to discuss his department
head's performance with you.
Do you really think this will give you
an accurate picture of how the faculty
members feel?
I would feel somewhat uncomfortable
and intimidated walking into your
office to complain, and you don't even
have absolute control over my job.
The current rules also say you should
consider firing a department head
when a majority of the department's
faculty members petition for his
removal. Under the second of Dr.
Cooper's proposals, two faculty
members could call a meeting at which
the whole department would vote on
whether the department head should be
retained.
As near as I can come to un
derstanding it, which I admit I find
difficult as I am not fluent in Dean-
speak, a language of the sneaky and the
vague, you say you oppose the changes
because they don’t really offer any
improvement, and they "represent the
potential for serious difficulty,”
(which, from your viewpoint, I would
guess they most certainly do).
As additional evidence to show that
the changes aren't needed, you have
pointed out that there is already a high
turnover rate for your college's
department heads.
Gee. What sterling logic.
Ever consider that maybe you and
Fred are canning the ones the faculty
members would like to keep and vice
versa?
On the other hand, Dr. Cooper has
been quite specific in his arguments for
the changes
In a memo to the faculty members
who will meet today and later decide
the fate of the proposals by mailed
ballots, Cooper points out that your
"open door" policy is slightly more
intimidating than would be allowing
them to express their feelings via
secret ballot.
Now, of course, I don’t think you
would try to intimidate anyone, Dean
Payne, but with "confidential" memos
supporting “our" concerns, someone
might get the wrong idea
Oh, did I mention I loved the reason
you gave for labeling that memo
confidential? You said it wasn’t really
that it was secret and for their eyes only
— you only did it to get their attention
Here’s an idea. Try writing SEX in
big. bold letters at the top of your next
memo, and then you say something like
“now that I’ve got your attention ... ”
We used to do that on posters in high
school, and everybody got a real kick
out of it.
I really don’t see why you are so
vehemently opposed to these changes.
Even under the new rules, you and Fred
wouldn't be bound to follow the faculty
members’ recommendation if you
didn't want to.
Could it be that you're afraid of
seeing just how many of your faculty
agree with the way you run the college?
Brace yourself, sir. When the votes
come in after today’s faculty meeting,
everyone will see how much support
you have in your attempt to thwart
efforts of your faculty members to gain
a bigger voice in the way the college is
run.
I only hope they have the guts to
stand up to your coercive tactics
designed to rob from them some of the
power they deserve
The vote on the changes will show us
all what holds sway at this university —
power politics, vague arguments and
coercion, or clear reasoning and a
move towards more democratic
representation
Clearly, the latter should win out, but
I’ve been around here long enough to
see what politics, coercion and am
biguity can do and have done, and the
potential outcome of this vote scares
me.
But I really believe that the faculty
will do the right thing, and I think you
believe that, too
And that's why I'm probably not half
as scared as you are.
David Nelson is copy editor for The Red
and Black.
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■ Editorial: 543-1809
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