Newspaper Page Text
The Red and Black
Tuesday, April 20, 1982
Page 4
The Red and Black
W
GCPA
mm
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
Morality not a court issue
Tax credit blunder
President Reagan’s “New Federalism” may
yet turn the economy around, but the presi
dent’s latest enterprise offering tuition tax
credits to families sending children to private
secondary schools is doomed to fail.
While the tax credits will serve only to aid a
relative handful of wealthy families, the credits
will do nothing but downgrade the public school
system.
It seems reasonable, for example, that if the
administration wanted to correct problems of
poor military recruitment or seriously wanted
to cutback on welfare benefits, then it would
look deep at the root of the problem. After all,
poor education is the beginning of many pro
blems that face society today.
It would then seem likely the president would
literally pour money into the public school
system That way, everyone would be better off.
Instead, current budget allocations would
send $2 billion to tuition tax credits for attending
private schools; that money would be much bet
ter spent poured into the public school system.
But then we hear from the Moral Majority and
other groups complaining that the federal
government is taking sides, and not allowing all
students a freedom of choice by not affording
equal financial backing to public and private
school students.
The Moral Majority, and other groups, are
also the ones who prefer their children go to
private schools in the hope they will receive a
better education. And, they are probably right
in that respect — because of a sometimes lax
public school system, students might be better
off elsewhere.
Why, then, should we support these tax
credits?
Either these credits will serve as a reminder
of our decaying public school system, or the
money could be spent to make the public school
system better.
They’re at it again, those fearless
fighters of freedom of expression; the
moral watchdogs of our time —
legislating morality for the masses
The latest purge on the local level has
been the Paris Adult Theatre, where
Athens police arrested two people last
week on charges of distributing obscene
materials.
This is not the first time the theater
has been in hot water. In 1973 the Paris
Adult Theatre company appealed a
Georgia Supreme Court judgment that
two of the theater’s confiscated films
were obscene The U S. Supreme Court
upheld the ruling, rejecting the notion
that consenting adults had a con
stitutional right to view whatever they
chose.
Chief Justice Warren Burger, in the
case decision, said, “Legislators and
judges could and must act on un-
provable assumptions such as the
notion that the crass commercial ex
ploitation of sex debases sex in the
development of human personality,
family life and community welfare."
There are several things wrong with
that statement First, the phrase
dealing with “improvable assump
tions.” No one, especially not
legislators, should have the right to ban
anything from public consumption
solely on the basis of an “improvable
assumption.” What it boils down to is
the right of judges and legislators to
withhold from the public any material
they personally believe is obscene
They become moral judges — a
privilege that should not be placed in
their hands
Second, the notion of “crass com-
Jun ! hillings
mercial exploitation of sex" which
Burger downgrades seems oddly
singled out in a case involving two
pornographic films. Sex is crassly and
commercially exploited daily, in
respectable magazine advertisements,
in newspapers, in prime time TV.
Actually, any human being can con
sume massive amounts of crass,
commercially exploited sex without
ever entering an adult movie house —
yet automobile manufacturers continue
to hawk their wares with scenarios of
seductive women, and "Three’s
Company” endlessly repeats its
mindless drivel, chock-full of sexual
innuendos — undaunted by the specter
of moral legislation.
Third, Burger’s opinion that the
exploitation of sex "debases sex in the
development of human personality,
family life and community welfare”
should be his personal, private opinion
— not a point of law. While sexual ex
ploitation may indeed result in the
warping of people's personalities,
family life and community welfare,
Burger already said this was an “un-
provable assumption." Therefore, it
should not be assumed, and certainly
should not be legislated against.
Striking out for the right to show
pornographic films or distribute ob
scene material is not a particularly
popular cause Indeed, pornography
can be tasteless, disgusting or
degrading to some people. However,
the issue here is not to defend it as an
artistic medium, but as a form of free
speech
In a free society, people should have
the unmitigated right to choose
whatever form of entertainment they
wish — as long as it does not endanger
anyone else's right to life, liberty and
pursuit of happiness. While some
restrictions can be placed on this
freedom without impinging on an in
dividual’s rights, such as designating
an age of majority for a balanced, adult
choice, such restrictions should be
minimal.
Pornography has many opponents,
primarily moralists who find the
material shocking and take it upon
themselves to save the rest of us.
It is certainly within these peoples’
rights to criticize the distribution of
sexually explicit materials. But to
allow one person to decide, first, what is
obscene, and second, who should and
should not be restricted from this ob
scenity, is going too far.
The U.S. Constitution guarantees
freedom of expression, not the freedom
of repression. Consenting adults should
be allowed to make their own choices,
unhampered by the moral restrictions
of others, as long as their choices do not
endanger anyone. In short, morality
should not be legislated.
Jan Hullings is news editor of The Red
and Black.
Here & Now: Maxwell (Hen and Cody Shearer
Polish students struggling
WARSAW — The ease with which
ruling generals imposed martial law on
Poland's university campuses last
December may have been the simplest
part of the well orchestrated national
crackdown. But the government's
measures have only temporarily
lengthened the fuse leading to one of
this country's most explosive
powderkegs
At the moment, Polish campuses
don't resemble the hotbeds of activism
that existed last year. Under eight
pages of regulations imposed Jan 8,
students have been required to attend
all classes, remain off campus after
hours, and resume mandatory courses
in Russian and Marxist-Leninist
theory All extra-curricular activities,
save those of the pro-government
student organization, have been
suspended From what we could see,
campuses become virtual ghost towns
after dusk
While Poland's restive and in
creasingly anticommunist students
admit that some reforms of campus
governance are still unchecked, they
are overshadowed by their nation's
larger economic agonies. Pessimism
about the future is one disease the
generals can't cure under the threat of
a gun.
Though it once boasted a mem
bership of 80,000, the Independent
Union of Polish Students is all but dead
today Half of its 30-member leadership
still languishes in government in
ternment camps, along with perhaps
200 other student activists, according to
one spokesman who met with us
privately in a small car on a deserted
Warsaw street.
"Though the association posed no
real threat to the government, it was
the only part of the social reform
movement that could be snuffed out
completely," he said
Underground newsletters are still
published, but communications are
limited to clandestine contacts between
campuses Under the threat of in
ternment, students are extraordinarily
fearful of talking openly (We were met
by one student and led by a series of six
others from location to location before
making contact with student leaders
Most demonstrated their anti
government feelings by wearing tiny
electronic resistors on their lapels,
where Solidarity buttons, now banned,
once hung freely.)
Said one young official: "Since only
one-fourth of the students were in the
union, the others can’t be trusted.”
Aside from public warnings of
possible arrest and expulsion for
violating martial law, the government
has clearly avoided stricter measures
Most liberally oriented classes are
continuing unfettered by on-campus
government monitors. Attendance
remains imperfect. Moreover, the new
minister of science, higher education
and technology, Benon Miskiewicz, has
told university chiefs that the higher
education reform bill, which was
sought by students and faculties last
year and promised more university
autonomy, will be in place next
semester
Indeed, the government may have no
choice but to reinstitute some academic
freedoms as well as some form of
alternative student organization. If the
authorities crack down on what's left of
the liberal reforms, they'll probably
have to choose between the em
barrassment of closing down the
universities altogether or the horror of
firing on students Maintaining order
could soon become impossible
Quite simply, Polish students have
nothing left to lose. Young Poles face
far bleaker prospects after college than
most young Americans appreciate.
They know that their country is
bankrupt and that the socialist promise
of a job for everyone falls flat when so
many are already on the dole They also
know that emmigration, despite this
week's initiation of a relaxed exit visa
policy for dissident elements, will be
virtually impossible.
Meanwhile, though the government
pays for students' room and board, food
and housing shortages in the coming
months are only likely to exacerbate
unrest "We have no future," said a 20-
year-old woman who intends to enter a
university next year
Due to delays in the academic
schedules, which resumed Feb. 8 after
two months of internal turmoil, most
students won't finish exams until July.
Unfortunately, proposals for a general
military training program, designed to
keep potentially unruly young in
tellectuals off the streets, may then go
into effect for the duration of the
summer. It doesn't give students much
to look forward to in the short term.
“Right now, it's a wait-and-see
period,” said the independent union
spokesman. “Over the next several
months, students will be forced, like
their counterparts in the worker’s
ranks, to decide whether the economic
crises of their country allow for con
tinued acquiescence to the authorities ''
Ironically, the Polish government
may be tying its own noose with its
requirement to return to the study of
Karl Marx. It shouldn't take long for
Polish students to see that they "have
nothing to lose but their chains."
Copyright 1982
Field Newspaper Syndicate
‘ Teenagers should have means to prevent pregnancy!’
TO THE EDITOR:
I am writing in response to Bart
Parker's April 16 editorial supporting
the proposal of requiring federally
funded programs to inform parents
when providing contraception to a
teenager. In addition. Parker criticized
sex education programs as destroyers
of morality.
I once worked in a Child Support
Recovery Unit, an office charged with
collecting child support payments for
children receiving AFDC payments
(welfare). Most of the children had
been born to unwed, teenage parents.
The youngest mother I interviewed was
age 12 I talked with fathers as young as
14 Mothers and fathers age IS and 16
were the rule and not the exception.
These children who had brought
children into the world had not been
inculcated by "immoral" sex education
programs the office I worked for is
located in Macon, Georgia, a con
servative, religious community.
Macon's public schools do not have sex
education programs. If high school
students are lucky, they will study
reproduction in earthworms and
chickens.
Those few who had thought of con
traceptives were equally uninformed.
One girl had taken all her pills in one
day. One girl only took her pill when she
saw her boyfriend. Another girl thought
the pills were inserts. The boys
uniformly believed birth control was
not their responsibility.
Like it or not (and I do not),
teenagers are sexually active, and in
increasing numbers at younger ages
(see Allen, "Managing Teenage
Pregnancy,” 128 (1980)). Furthermore,
teens are sexually active whether or not
they have access to birth control
devices. More than one million
adolescents become pregnant annually
The pregnant girls are not running to
the nearest abortion clinic, either;
approximately 600,000 girls carry their
babies to term every year (Zitner and
Miller, "Our Youngest Parents," 1
COMFORTABLE IGNORANCE
By-
ART ROCHE
DAVID TWEALL
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(1980)).
More and more unwed mothers are
keeping their babies after birth, too,
often locking a new generation into
poverty and ignorance. Lest anyone
think otherwise, however, sexual ac
tivity and teenage pregnancies are not
the exclusive domain of the poor
Teenagers somehow need to be
taught how to deal morally and
emotionally with their sexuality. Since
many parents have abdicated their
rightful roles, the schools should at
least teach how and why sexual in
tercourse causes pregnancies and how
those pregnancies can be prevented.
Meanwhile, contraceptives should be
made as readily available as possible.
In a recent comparative study of two
southern towns, the town where teens
needed parental consent to obtain
contraceptives experienced twice as
many babies per 1,000 females age 15 to
19 as the town that did not require
parental permission (Allen, 173). When
teenagers decide to be sexually active,
they should have the means to prevent
pregnancies.
WADE W. HERRING, II
Second year law student
Tire alarm
solution’
TO THE EDITOR:
I note the recent consternation on the
part of staff and residents alike over the
problems with false fire alarms at
Russell Hall, and I feel obliged to
comment
I recently moved to Athens from
Mankato State University in southern
Minnesota, where a similar problem
developed. False alarms had become a
terrible nuisance, if not a hazard, in one
of the high-rise dorms there about two
years ago Although their alarm system
was not at fault, the students who
triggered it were, and in this respect
the situation there parallels the Russell
Hall situation exactly.
The problem was solved there,
however, and the solution was
deceptively simple A state law, which
imposed rather stiff penalties in the
form of fines and imprisonment for
pulling a false alarm, was strictly
enforced, and local judges imposed the
maximum penalties allowable on the
violators. Student residents were
requested to “rat on" the violators (as
if they needed any other incentive than
a good night’s sleep). After a few were
caught, fined and imprisoned, the false
alarms mysteriously stopped.
GARY SNEIDE
Doctoral student, real estate
‘Shocked’
TO THE EDITOR .
I was shocked to say the least to hear
that the KKK was planning to form a
group on campus. I only hope that the
University will not officially tolerate
such an idea.
I am a firm believer in the right to
assembly, but the University is a
sacred place which should also uphold
an even stronger principle, that every
man is equal.
Can an ego be so fragile that it must
hide behind a white shield, failing other
resources to fall upon?
NAME WITHHELD
Editorial: 543-1809
Chief copy editor Justin Glllis
Copy editor* Aim Deacon Ain Johnson David
Natoon. Jack Threodgill
News editor JanHulluvn
Associate ne«» editor Sob Kr>»
Sport* editor Jachts Crosby
Entertainment edits - ITiuok Reece
Photography editor Sam W a Hon
A Mutant new* editor* Sylvia Colwell. Mart B
Art director Art Roche
T'aimn^ coordinator Steve Goldberg
A**i*tant apart* editor Steve Corrigan
Aiaiatant photograph} editor Nancy Shepherd
Editorial po#e editor Brian Jaudor
l/GA Today coordinator Librarian Elaine Dukakis
Advertising: 543-1791
Advertising manager David Raines
Sales Training manager Vickie O'Brien
National Inside Sale* Jay Burdett
Ad vert iain« representative* Doug Bailey Jeff
Hemnf. Phyllis Pope Jean Mane Wilson.
Frances Wall. Charles Cuilbaau. Olga Fennell
Production: 543-1791
Production manager Stephan A Beard
Production * toff Karleen Chalker Sonya Boltin. Joy
Pennington Bill Krueger Dara Sawyer Brenda
Cleveland. Emily Westbrook
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