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4 • The Red and Black • Tuesday, October 3, 1989
OPINIONS
The Red & Black
EitabLsKed 1893—Incorporated 1980
An independent itudent newepaper not affiliated with the University of Georgia
Keith Phillips/Editor-in-Chief
Charlene Smith/Managing Editor
Jack Stenger/Opinions Editor
■ EDITORIALS
Campaign ’90
The Georgia Republican Party has never fared well
when faced with the omnipotent Tom Murphy
Democratic machine. But now an unlikely group is
seeking to end the Democratic dominance in this area,
a group of politically precocious students, otherwise
known as the College Republicans.
It’s a monumental task before the intrepid CR
Election Targeting Committee to get a Republican
candidate elected to the two Athens posts. First,
because students aren’t too interested in politics (see
student returns for Athens City Council elections) and
generally seem content with eating, drinking and
merriment. And second, because Democrats hold
overwhelming majorities in both the Georgia House
and Senate, 144 to 36, and 44 to 12, respectively.
It’s in order to comend the CRs for showing the
chutzpah for possibly putting up candidates. Even
Athens Reps. Micheal Thurmond and Lawton
Stephens, who would face the CR student candidates,
probably would enjoy the unspeakable pleasure of a
political landslide over green, token Republican
opposition.
But before students become too appreciative to this
Republican run, here’s a friendly reminder to the CRs:
A candidate for elected office in the Georgia House of
Representatives needs to be running for more reasons
than a neat political science project. Unless candidates
have serious ideas and a real commitment to the
obligations of an elected office, they don’t need to waste
voters’ time.
Also, any student candidate can’t seek to further
University interests over the needs of this district.
Opposing an open container ordinance might play on
the Tate Center Plaza, but Thurmond and Stephens
represent all of Athens, young and old, students and
voting adults.
Otherwise, Happy Days are here again!
Bus business
The bureaucratic wheels of the University often roll
slowly. They often also seem to roll contrary to student
needs.
But that wasn’t the case Monday. The bureaucratic
wheels set into motion wheels of a different sort — bus
wheels.
Three additional buses were added during peak
times to the three heaviest routes, Milledge, Orbit and
Russell.
The need for the buses couldn’t have been clearer.
Despite tighter admissions standards, enrollment has
increased to an all-time high this year, somewhere
around 27,000 plus. It’s a simple equation: More People
plus Same Number of Buses equals Less Space.
The need also was perfectly clear to any student
who has ever been beaten mercilessly by the back doors
of an Orbit bus while trying to jump on. Or to any
student who has angrily said, “Forget this,” and
hurriedly jogged to class, hoping to make it on time.
The new buses have been available all year.
‘Thanks” to a $2 transportation fee increase this year,
so was the money for drivers and gas.
The ride won’t be perfect, but it will less cramped,
anyway. The new buses also mean added safety. Fewer
students packed in the aisles means bus drivers have
greater visibility.
It’s great to see the University responding to
student needs. First Styrofoam in The Bulldog Room
and now buses. This could be trend developing.
STAFF
NEWS: 543-1809
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QUOTABLE
"''Ga® ^^cow^e^Alex'H^nVn 61 commuting o^n^is bar’s new
— Ga. Bar co-ow e a oub-like olace wi
CO AHEAD, COMRADE., BLOW IT OUt!
A legal prayer for the faithful Bulldogs
In response to the cessation of the pre-game
invocation from the past two home games, I
have composed a prayer of my own, since we
still have the First Amendment.
Don’t we?
September 16, 1989 the year, / a date that
true Dawg fans will always revere. / Ray Goff
first stalked and walked the sidelines, / and
twos the last time our prayer was Divine.
Eighty two grand visited Athens that day / to
see Georgia and some team from Texas play. / A
national TV audience also tuned in, / For an
other year of Southern football to begin.
But before the coin toss, before an end around
run, / as coils of heat streamed from a bright
midday sun, / all fans in Sanford Stadium
were up from their seats / while removing their
hats to stand on their feet.
"The invocation will be given..the an
nouncer intoned. / A hush spread across the
stadium, from end zone to end zone. / A time-
honored tradition on this day renewed / but
little did we know, we were soon to get screwed.
Gene
Williams
“Protect the players from both injury and
harm.” / How could this plea create great
alarm? / Were there people or lawyers who
could disagree f / Do they wish for a tight end to
tear up his knee?
"Please help each player, to give it his best." /
"And put his abilities to your noble test * /
"Make sure that each knows, that football is
mere game. * / "Come Monday there are classes
and professors to tame.
"Keep sportsmanship first, above all else
today. ” / This is all we ask and this is what we
pray." / And with that last line, the PA grew si
lent again, / And a mighty roar of approval the
home crowd did send.
The game was played well and our Bulldogs
won. / But as that skirmish ended a new clash
had begun. / A legalistic battle had just gotten
started, / not long after the red and black
throng had departed.
"That prajer violated my constitutional
rights! m / Folks screamed and shouted with all
of their might. / Knapp said the game prayer
was just a tradition. / But now — after the
ACLV — the dang thing won't ever be men
tioned.
1 hope you’re happy, maybe satisfied, / now
that The Prayer said by Dawg fans has dud. I
But when Hampton goes down or the Dogs are
in the gutter, / you can still bet the house that
prayers will be uttered.
Amen.
Gene Williams is a sports writer for The Red
and Black.
Nuclear war needs to be in public mind
Nuclear weapons are in the background of
our lives. Probably no one has ever seen a nu
clear detonation occur and certainly most
people don’t think about them. Occasionally,
when the media happens to focus on arms con
trol talks, public interest in nuclear matters is
pricked.
But thi? temporary reaction is inadeauate to
deal with this most pressing problem. Tens of
thousands of nuclear weapons pose an unprece
dented threat to humanity: the extinction of life
on Earth.
But it seems we’ve forgotten this.
If a neighbor with whom you’ve had
longstanding animosities puts a bazooka to
your head, would you act quickly to remove the
barrel? Everyone would because it is an imme
diate threat.
But none of us likes to dwell on the reality of
death in a nuclear war, so we become numb to
the whole idea. When the bazooka is unseen,
it’s dismissed.
When people are indifferent to the very real
possibility or nuclear destruction the danger of
it happening increases. Ignorance or denial of
the arms race exacerbates it. The public should
be alarmed about some world leaders’ plans for
limited nuclear wars, yet we hear neither hue
nor cry.
Perhaps you believe I’m exaggerating the
problem or that the outmoded national policy of
Charles
Martin
nuclear deterrence, of Mutual Assured Destruc
tion, will forever foretall disaster. But are you
willing to leave the risk of nuclear war to mere
policies and the fallible judgements of small
groups of men? During the Cuban Missle Crisis
in 1962, President John Kennedy observed that
the U.S. and the Soviet Union had about as
equal a chance of getting into a nuclear war as
avoiding it.
Government strategies for fighting limited
nuclear wars create an illusion of deterrence.
And Pentagon generals, State Department
strategists, and trigger-happy politicians de-
icide how nuclear weapons are to be used if de
terrence fails. Since the Atomic Age began
these decision makers have followed a plan to
maintain American superiority in the nuclear
arms race.
And the once vogue Mutual Assured Destruc
tion isn’t the prevalent belief among people
with access to the nuclear buttons anymore.
Some are starting to believe we can fight a nu
clear war and survive.
Former President Ronald Reagan was al
most cavalier about the potential for nuclear
conflict, offering fanciful notions of an impene
trable “space shield" that would solve all our
problems. But political rhetoric won’t save us.
Nuclear deterrence policies are mere psycho
logical head games playing on our limited per
ceptions of the world and our fragile emotions.
First strike capabilities, “Star Wars” and de
tailed nuclear retaliation schemes all demon
strate our leaders’ ignorance. But their
ignorance is costly. When thoee who control the
missies of destruction delude themselves to the
point where a nuclear war is to be planned for,
and is possibly “winnable,” a nuclear holocaust
is a self-fulfilling prophesy.
The nuclear threat requires a public sense of
urgency. And even if official U.S. positions are
rooted in illusions of winning the nuclear arms
race, Americans must chart a different course.
In order to remove the threat of nuclear
weapons we must get rid of them. But we can’t
count on our government to change until each
of us takes nuclear weapons out of the back
ground of our lives first.
Charles Martin is a junior psychology major.
Looney left is to blame
After reading Hogai Nassery’s
editorial diatribe I felt it necessary
to write in. Nassery has lost touch
with the real world along with any
normal sense of values, much like
her looney liberal friends Speaker
Foley, Rep. Frank, ex-Rep. Wright,
Gov. Dukakis and the ever-famous
Stenger Brothers.
According to her America should
be blamed for much of the world’s
misery. This is a misrepresenta
tion of history and facts. If blame ia
to be placed, let’s look to the
Marxist government of Ethiopia.
This government has moved tens of
thousands of its population out of
what little ariable Ethiopian land
there is left. The U.S. has given
millions toward the effort of
feeding Ethiopia’s hungry. And the
Ethiopian government has squan
dered a vast majority of the money.
Nassery also called for gun con
trol. To justify her position she
cited the murder rate in Wash
ington, D.C. If she had bothered to
use facts to bock up her ridiculous
rhetoric, Nassery would know that
there has been a gun ban in Wash
ington, D.C. for over 15 years. The
obvious success of rigid gun control
has manifested itself in our na
tion's capital, with the highest per
capita murder rate in the nation.
Gun control is stupid, unconstitu
tional, un-American and an incred
ibly looney libera] idea.
Nassery condemns the American
bombing of Libya as a superpower
bullying a Third World state but
her condemnation just shows lib
eral tunnel vision. After our strike
against Libya, terrorist attacks
dropped off dramatically in Eu
rope.
As any normal person (meaning
one who is not a member or victim
of the looney left) knows, America
is a beacon of hope, peace, and
freedom to millions around the
globe. If Nassery sees fit to blame
America for the world’s woes, that
is her right. However, from now on
she should try to look at the real
world and real facts without a lib
eral tunnel vision.
R. Gabriel Sterling
sophomore, economics
Boggs is off base
I congratulate Luke Boggs for
his deceptively clever editorial con
cerning the apartheid situation in
South Africa. However, as cleverly
as he assembled his blasphemy he
completely neglected the points we
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address and daytime telephone number ot the writer. Please include student data!
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reason upon request. Letters can be sent by U.S. mail or brounht in oerson to T!
Red and Black's offices at 123 N. Jachon St.. Atttens G " ^
most important in South Aft-
Progress in South Africa cannol
measured by Boggs’ sprinkling
statistics. So maybe a handful
blacks have acquired "middle m
agement” positions. But they c
tinue to be paid less for tl
efforts than whites and have
chance for advancement, t
blacks have never been allot
any significant control in either
political or economic sectors. V
should the present regime br
with history if lazy conservati
like Luke Boggs are satin!
seeing blacks in "middle mane
ment” positions? Furtherm
what about the countless bla
who continue to live in abject [
erty in shanty towns? Boggs ne
to surrender his pinpoint oxfc
and Beiss loafers — give up
money, his credit, his educal
and his CIVIL RIGHTS — and
out and try to find a job and pi
here in his own country. Perhaps
then he might better understand
the need for immediate change in
South Africa, and know why lib
erals find it violently repulsive
that he should criticize as “irre
sponsible" Bishop Desmond Tutu’s
call for the extension of voting
rights to blacks. The fact that
Boggs defends black standing in
South Africa is, in my opinion,
purest racism.
I don’t endorse a violent revolu
tion in South Africa but I do en
dorse immediate change. It has
been the calls of the liberal activiet
for reforms in South Africa which
have pushed the movement this
far. Had we relied on conservatives
of Boggs’ caliber to put an end to
racial injustice in South Africa *»
wouldn't have progress in our lift -
times.
GooflrsyC.** 11 *
Junior, history msl 0 '