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The Krd ami Black
Thuraday. April 8,1982
Page 4
The Red and Black
W
Gem
Established 1893 — Incorporated 1980
Charles II. Kussell, General Manager
Mack Browning, Editor-in-chief Tim Bonner, Managing Editor
An independent student newspaper not affiliated with the University of Georgia
Does freedom really exist?
College tax credits
It is interesting that Treasury Secretary Ter
rel Bell says the administration should be
careful not to pit private versus public institu
tions when considering tuition tax credits.
President Reagan had made the mistake of
saying last year he would favor tuition tax
credits for students attending private colleges,
but not for students attending public colleges.
Such an uproar was heard over that proposal
that now, as tax-credit legislation is due to reach
Capitol Hill this month, revamped proposals
call for tax credits only for students of private
elementary and secondary schools.
Colleges and universities, where students are
already having to make adjustments because of
budget cuts, are not listed at all as far as
students receiving tax breaks.
This kind of wishy-washy legislation (and ad
ministration turnaround) makes us wonder
what Reagan is doing. The administration had
the proposal half right, at least, when it called
for tuition tax credits for students attending
private colleges. The same should be afforded
for students at public colleges, but to avoid a
showdown, the administration apparently is
now willing to offer neither.
The bill proposed by Senators Daniel P.
Moynihan, D. N.Y., Bob Packwood, R.-Ore.,
and William V. Roth Jr., R.-Del. would be a
wiser course of action.
That measure would provide tax credits of up
to $500 for college tuition payments as well as
tuition at private elementary and secondary
schools.
Certainly, when the President talks of tax
cuts and getting the government off the backs of
the people, then tax credits for college students
would seem a logical addition to that
philosophy. If students are to be expected to
share more of the bill of the cost of higher educa
tion, then tax breaks for college students would
be more appropriate than tax breaks for school-
age children who choose to attend private
schools rather than public ones.
I have, of late, become convinced that
there can be no true freedom under a
democratic system of government.
Such a statement is bound, I am quite
sure, to cause quite a stir among
children of the American propaganda
machine. Such reaction I accept as in
evitable Most will cry that I am simply
a terrible communist drug addict who
has no right to knock the greatest na
tion on earth In this reaction lies the
basis of my position.
The ill-educated, unreasoning, un
thinking and misinformed masses are
the foundation of the American political
system. Can such a group be expected
to govern justly? Are they able to pro
vide a system with respect for all men
and all ideas? To this point in history
the answer is an emphatic no.
The great defender of American
democracy, John Dewey, said, “The
foundation of democracy is faith in the
capacities of human nature; faith in
human intelligence and cooperative ex
perience.” But if we rely on human
nature to provide a basis for liberty,
justice and freedom (the professed
ideals of democracy), then we are left
with a shaky foundation indeed We can
surely count on human nature to drive
men to serve their self-interest and to
put themselves above all others
But how much faith can we put in the
capacity of such men to provide a free
government? Can we be sure they will
be able to put aside their immediate
egotistic tendencies in favor of long
term programs that might eventually
provide the greatest good for the
greatest number? Was it human in
telligence and the power of pooled and
cooperative experience that interned
Creationism is an attack
on reason and the mind
Creationism is a concerted attack on
reason and the human mind.
Consider the intellectual ancestry of
creationism The church has attacked
men of science consistently whenever it
has been in a position of enough power
to do so, even burning them at the
stake If our present-day creationists
are willing to settle for a wishy-washy
compromise like equal time for in
tellectual rubbish - why, thank the
great men, from Rodger Williams to
Thomas Jefferson to Hugo Black, who
have known that the church can't he
trusted with the power of the state, as
well as that the state has no business in
the affairs of the church, for no group is
more corrupted by power than the
church.
Consider the current tactics of crea
tionists Do they seek to persuade
others of the truth of their beliefs by ra
tional argument'’ Or to legislate their
views to be stuffed into children's
minds’’ Is their approach to this logisla
tion honest, stating the (Biblical) foun
dation of the beliefs they desire taught?
Or have they, as Justice Overton found,
“an awareness that I creationism 1 is a
religious crusade, coupled with a desire
to conceal the fact" (he quotes him: "It
would be very wise ... not to present
our position and our work in a religious
framework ")
To make clear the foundation of my
beliefs: I believe one can obtain
knowledge of the world by observing it
and fully conceptualizing those obser
vations. and only in that way - and. a
fortiori, that there is a real, objective
world, a point which may seem too silly
to state until one realizes that some
dispute it.
Implicit in the idea that one ought to
present competing theories without tak
ing a position on their validity is that
there is no method of determining
which is valid In another context this
might lead to presentation of theories of
how to turn lead into gold Each of us
would be free to make up the remnant
of our mind that would be left after such
a dis -education
Hurry llill I nut
Such an approach to education would
destroy a person's mind as thoroughly
as would insisting, dogmatically rather
than by proof, on certain answers as
right - but in a different, perhaps more
insidious, way. The latter would
destroy a person's understanding: I
think the former would destroy even the
notion that there is something • a real,
objective world - to be understood. This
is the notion under attack
If John believes the earth stands still
and the sun revolves around it. because
he interpets Joshua 10:12 as literally
true, and Mary believes they revolve
around their center of gravity because
she understands Newtonian mechanics
- can anyone who really believes there
is an earth and a sun, regard their
beliefs as having equal status, not just
politically but intellectually?
Consider next the high emotions of
the issue a sign that high values are at
stake It would be unprecedented in
history for laymen to be so concerned
over a scientific issue Here’s the right
scientific question: "What sorts of liv
ing things have been on the earth, how
and when did they first appear, and how
have their forms changed over time?”
Creation pseudo-science does not even
address this question. It is often said
that concern over ancestry accounts for
the emotion. Without more evidence,
I’m not convinced Low though my opi
nion of creationists is. I don't believe
they're really so lacking in self-esteem
as to feel a personal affront at any con
ceivable answer to the question above
The issue is rather: How do we deter
mine, discover, the answers to such
questions? By reason examination of
things now living and the remains of
those that were, or by blind faith in
COMFORTABLE IGNORANCE
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CL. Reineke
Japanese citizens in World War II, or
blacklisted Americans accused of being
communist in the '50s, or bombed
civilians in neutral Cambodia during
the Vietnamese conflict?
If the answer is yes, then we must
assume that the American system,
throughout its history, has produced
leaders that represent a population
with an evil and sadistic attitude
toward freedom. If no, then we must
agree that this system can not be relied
upon to provide leaders who truly serve
the will of its people.
Liberty is unknown under the
republican system (not party, system).
As Mencken said: “Democratic man is
quite unable to think of himself as a free
individual; he must belong to a group,
or shake with fear and loneliness. " But
more than this, the democratic man
must not only cling to his group, he
must protect that group from those he
perceives as a threat to it. Groups were
free to demonstrate in 1968 at Chicago's
Democratic (party) National Conven
tion; free, that is, until the government
of that city felt they had gone too far,
said too much. When the demonstrators
began to be seen as a threat, police
were ordered to gas, club and arrest
them.
Many persons will point out that I
have more freedom in the United States
than I would in, say, the Soviet Union
To this I agree heartily. But can one
claim to be free in this nation because
he would be less free in another’’
Freedom is defined as "an exemption
or liberation from control of some other
person or some arbitrary power.” No
doubt in the Soviet Union I would not be
allowed the opportunity to print these
words. This would indeed be an affront
to liberty.
Yet this nation would jail me for
refusing to register for involuntary
military conscription. It will brand me
a traitor for objecting to the repressive
policies of its leaders.
It is clear that the state has driven
home to the masses the message that
preservation of the government must
supercede liberty. And as usual, the
masses have swallowed the line. There
is no state that exists without coercion.
Therefore, there is no government that
is free; not socialist, not communist
and certainly not democratic.
If freedom will ever exist it will exist
only through individual autonomy and
complete self-determination. Un
fortunately, as I have previously
stated, the masses are incapable of in
dividualism. The common man is
suited for little more than consumption
and reproduction.
And because of this inability to be
free, man has established his systems
of government. Whatever form it may
take, whatever name it be given, these
states invariably represent a dismal
chain that shall forever imprison the
spirit of those who foolishly attempt to
rise above it.
C.E. Reineke is a staff writer for The
Red and Black.
literal Genesis?
Consider the current "equal time"
strategy of creationists. By pretending
it's just a matter of fair play they get
much support from decent people who
don’t understand the matter, and at
present, in this country, it's all they can
hope for, so there's not really any
mystery to it. Even so, I think there’s
more to it than meets the eye. For if, as
I claim, the effect of this "equal time"
-and, by implication, equal intellectual
status- is to destroy the concept of ob
jectivity - what would that do to the next
generations of decent people? I submit
it would destroy much of their decency.
For people who do not believe there is
a rational, objective method for
discovering the truth, soon find a
substitute: What I say, goes. And
arguments are answered by “See this
fist?" or "My daddy’s bigger than your
daddy" or "My guns are bigger than
your guns". As Ayn Rand put it
(Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, p.
253), skepticism and chronic doubt do
not lead to social harmony.
An amusing triviality: The Attorney
General of Arkansas says the judge's
"absolutist approach that there was no
scientific evidence for creation
science" might provide grounds for an
appeal Would he also regard a jury's
"absolutist belief that there was no pro
ven evidence of the defendant’s guilt"
as a reasonable ground for appealing
an acquittal in a criminal case?
Finally: The classification of men
that puts the religious, like Rodger
Williams (the founder of the first
government dedicated specifically to
religious freedom, that of Rhode
Island) and Ruhollah Khomeini,
together, versus atheists like Thomas
Paine and Vladimir Lenin, is not very
useful Rather, put together those who
believe in the efficacy of, and favor, the
human mind, versus those who are
against it.
Barry Hill-Tout is a student in the
Graduate School.
THE ReiFnHJ^c)c)
SEARCH FoR
MORE THINGS
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Rocky mtn. Ntwfc -NEh
College Press Service
4 More free swim hours needed at pool’
TO THE EDITOR:
It is near impossible for a University
student to get a lane in the evening and
if you can, you usually get bumped,
kicked or scratched by someone
because of overcrowding The other
free swim hours are fine if one doesn't
W-
ART ROCHE
bAVIO 7WEALL
have a second of fifth period, but the
probability of that is low. At Georgia
State University the pool is open all day
for their students.
Serving the young people of the com
munity is fine, but a college of this size
needs a pool for its students One alter
native might be extend the hours or
build a new pool by the married housing
tennis courts or something.
1 suggest a means of feedback from
the students, faculty, and staff such as
signing whether they agree or disagree
with the present policy or some other
means of feedback for an objective poll
of how people feel.
I would like the policy changed but
have not bothered to complain because
I really didn’t think it would do any
good If the rental money the kids pay is
the problem, then take it out of my ac
tivities or athletic fee since the pool is
all I really attend.
HENRY HALL
Senior, arts and sciences
‘Thanks'
TO THE EDITOR:
All too infrequently will an
undergraduate cross paths with a pro
fessor who expresses more than a token
interest in the student's development.
Such a professor is Charles B Kopp of
the journalism school
It was with more than a tinge of
regret that I read about the impending
retirement of Dr Kopp
Journalism schools apparently are
forgetting that they are also suposed to
be in the business of educating and
training young journalists. As Dr Kopp
said of his own school, "The whole em
phasis has changed from teaching and
service to research.”
BENJAMIN J. ANDERSON, JR.
Journalism graduate
Departments
Editorial: 543-1809
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Sport! editor Jackie Crosby
Entertainment edito' Qmck Reece
Photography editor Sam W alton
AMiitum new* editor! Sylvia Colwell. Mark H
Fleming
Art director Art Roche
Training coordinator Steve Goldberg
AMiatont ipo'ti edtto' Steve Corn*an
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Editorial pope editor Brian Jaudor
L’GA Today coordinator Librarian Elaine Dukakta
Advertising: 543-1791
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Solei Training manager VickieORnen
National f nude Sales Jay Burdrtt
Advertising repreientativei Doug Bailey. Jeff
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Production: 543-1791
Pr.«tu« fi..n manage' Stephan A Beard
Production itaif Karleen Chalker Sonya Boltin. Joy
Pennington Bill Krueger Dara Sawyer Brenda
Cleveland. Emily Westbrook
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