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4 « The ReO ant) Black » TueaOay, January 9, 1990
OPINIONS
The Red & Black
kitabluhid 1893—J*corpor*Ud I960
An u%<Upa*J4>it $1*44*1 *4u.$pap*' \iA tfViatod wUA tkt L'm.i'tity of Gtorgw
Charlene Smith/Editor-in-Chief
Amy Bellew/Managing Editor
Robert Todd/Opinions Editor
■ EDITORIALS
Strike three
Strike one: Hazing. Strike two: Disorderly conduct.
Strike three: A big party.
Expulsion seems like a harsh penalty for just
throwing a party that got too big, that is, too big by
open-party policy standards But stack that on top of
other violations for which Sigma Chi fraternity had
received a probated expulsion penalty on top of social
probation that was in effect fall quarter and it’s time
for the student court to show it means business.
The decision to expel Sigma Chi sends a warning to
all student organizations who seem to think University
regulations don’t apply to them. It says just what the
judiciary is supposed to say: Obey the rules or suffer
the consequences.
It’s about time the student court got tough after last
quarter’s Kappa Alpha case. That fraternity was found
innocent of stealing chickens from the University
poultry lab for its Barnyard Social after the fraternity’s
president had told The Red and Black a member took
chickens from the lab.
Maybe the judiciary is trying to salvage its
reputation, but it nonetheless made the right decision
in expelling Sigma Chi.
Now they only have to worry about the decision
i being overturned. Sigma Chi plans to appeal and the
University administration historically has been
sympathetic to groups the judiciary kicked off campus.
Today, the Chi Phi house on Lumpkin Street is full
of life, despite the 1987 Student Judiciary decision to
suspend the fraternity until the year 2002. The fifteen-
year sentence was reduced to one year when University
President Charles Knapp decided the final appeal
during his first year in office.
We can only hope that some bleeding-heart
administrator won’t stab the judiciary in the back by
overturning its ruling and thus defeating the purpose
I of a student court by nullifying its decisions.
Sigma Chi knew it was skating on thin ice. Its
members should’ve been painstakingly observant of
every regulation.A wise man once said that when one is
in water up to one’s nose, one should not make waves.
Instead, like the Deltas of “Animal House," Sigma
Chi chose to ignore “double-secret probation” and
disregard University policies. Fittingly, their big bash
was their undoing. The fraternity deserves expulsion,
not necessarily for the one party, but for its previous
problems and present lack of judgment.
Students sit on the Organizations Court for a
reason. Their decisions send the message that we, the
students, won’t tolerate such behavior on our campus.
It is now in the hands of the officials who hear
Sigma Chi’s appeals to back the student court and help
send its message. Call the play like it is. Three strikes,
Sigma Chi, you’re OUT!
Open Government?
Forget for a moment that the city already has litter
laws that are effective with or without the open
container ordinance. Forget for a moment that the
ordinance will detract from the marketability of the
convention center city officials are in such a frenzy to
build. Forget for a moment that the ordinance will go
out the window as soon as the Twilight Classic
(sponsored by Michelob) and Bulldog alumnus roll into
town.
Let’s think for a moment about the open and
straightforward path the city council took to put this
law on the books. During the holidays, with no students
in town, the city council sneaks the ordinance by. Then,
council members have the audacity to claim that the
law isn’t aimed at students.
Who are they trying to kid?
STAFF
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QUOTABLE
■'The idea of expelling a fraternity is like the death penalty to a
person in Jail. There’s no rehaOilitiatlon." —
Tom Greene, interfraternity Council President on Sigma Chi s ex
pulsion try the Student Judiciary.
w you cmur wammstyom.vb!
iyatuepope ofthischurcu!”
Clouded legacy of environmental fund
George Bush i» serious about this 'Environ
mental President’ thing. If the War on Drugs is
any indication, Bush’s concern for the environ
ment is genuine • Republicans have had a War
on the Environment for years. As the present
administration is a legacy of the one before it,
perhaps an examination of the former will best
reveal what we can expect from George Herbert
Walker Bush when he officially declares the
War on the Environment. For the moment, let
us return to the eighties, remembering the
work of the Environmental Protection Agency
after the passage of a massive law known as
Superfund.
Superfund was a collection of acts passed by
Congress a decade ago to establish guidelines
for clean-up of the nation’s most dangerous haz
ardous waste sites. How the Reagan-appointed
EPA doled out millions of the appropriated dol
lars for Superfund shows quite an interesting
pattern.
In Autumn 1983, Republican Congress-
woman Millicent Fenwick was running for a
U S. Senate seat from New Jersey. Six days
after a Reagan campaign appearance in the
state on Fenwick’s behalf, EPA head Anne Bur-
ford and New Jersey Governor Thomas Kean
(both Republicans) announced six Superfund
grants totaling $5.2 million for the cleanup of
New Jersey toxic waste sites. A coincidence?
The evidence continues.
Days before the announcement, deputy EPA
administrator in charge of Superfund, Rita
Lavelle, sent a memo to the White House sug
gesting Reagan announce the EPA grants in
Marching on
Adolescence U a beautiful time of life. It is a
time of change. It iB a time for heroes other
than one’s father or mother. My hero was
Martin.
About 21 years ago during the month of Feb
ruary 1968 this 37 year old professor of math
ematics was 16 years of age and walking down
the streets of Washington, D.C. in a protest
march. In the first row of that protest march
was a man, a black man. His name was Martin
Luther King, Jr. or just Martin. He was 39
years of age and a leader of people.
That day Martin was leading a march to pro
test the American involvement in Vietnam. The
protest group, called Clergy and Layman Con
cerned about Vietnam, was meeting in Wash
ington to lobby our senators and congressmen
against the war. Martin had come to town to
join hands with those white ministers leading
the protest group in a march to Arlington Na
tional Cemetery.
The march was a small one compared to later
ones, which I participated in, consisting of only
several hundreds of persons. But those persons
were important people. They were lay and
clergy who would subsequently return to their
churches to pray. Those prayers would be for
peace. Those prayers would be for wisdom for
our leaders to turn away from war-making and
from the racism that helped to drive it. Yes, this
was a small protest group but nonetheless a
significant ons.
Martin’s presence helped to bring national
media attention to the march. The next Sunday
Richard
Stenger
such a way as to provide “maximum media cov
erage" to support the candidacy of Millicent
Fenwick.
The notes of another EPA official suggested
President Reagan wanted to visit selected haz
ardous waste sites and announce they were tar
geted for cleanup through Superfund. The
timing of the announcementa were to assist the
races of Republican Senate candidates. Is the
proof in the hazardous wastepudding? Con
tinue.
Only days before his election, Republican
Senator Richard Lugar announced the EPA
cleanup of a site in his home state, Indiana. In
federal court, an aide to Rita Lavelle testified
Ms. Lavelle said her efforts put Lugar over the
top.
In contrast, where Democratic candidates
would have benefited, Superfund grants were
Nathan
Habegger
in church a high school friend who had accom
panied me on the trek from Indiana to Wash
ington, showed me our picture in Newsweek.
There we were, right behind Martin.
Months later, Martin was dead. Months later
I was in Chicago for the protest at the Demo
cratic National Convention. Another hero of
mine, Phil Ochs, a protest singer was enter
taining the crowd. When the singing was over
the crowd dispersed, violence erupted between
the police and the crowd. The police were
beating on the proteetere with their batons and
throwing canisters of tear gas. At 16, my eyes
were opened to realty. That reality was that
this nation and this world would not arrive at a
quick solution to ita problem.
“Freedom, Yes, Apartheid, No, Down with
Apartheid blow by blow,* we chanted last Jan
uary as we marched on to city hall in Athens.
This time there were few white* end moat were
college age Thie time I wasn't in the front rows,
but in the back. As I glanced over my shoulder,
noticably lacking. In 1982, an EPA grant ear
marked to clean a hazardous site in
Stringfellow, California was withheld for no ap
parent reason. Having discovered that Demo
cratic Senate candidate Jerry Brown had been
pushing for the cleanup of the Stringfellow site,
Lavelle reportedly declared, “I’ll be damned if I
am going to let Brown take credit for that."
In 1983, Rita Lavelle was convicted on con
flict of interest and perjury charges relating to
her use of Superfund as a political slush fund.
At her trial she was described as an overzea-
lous Republican loyalist working without White
House consent or knowledge. Lavelle maintains
she had White House approval.
Amusingly, Lavelle’s testimony sounds like a
transcript to the Oliver North trial. In both
cases, a mid level government official was con
victed of a crime even though there was signifi
cant evidence he or she had White House
approval. The difference was that North was
the fall guy, Lavelle the fall girl.
So all this speaks poorly of President Rea
gan’s administration. What about George
Bush? Well, I’m not finished. According to sev
eral sources, including the congressional testi
mony of Edwin Meese, there was a White
House connection in the Lavelle case. That con
nection was Craig Fuller, chief of staff to then
Vice-President...George Herbert Walker Bush.
I believe the President is serious about this
environmental thing His staff has been
fighting the War on the Environment for years.
Richard Stenger is a senior history mQjnr
right behind us were police cars yielding us pro
tection. The speakers reminded us that we are
still in Georgia, that Forsyth County still ex
ists, that racism still exists in America, that
apartheid still exists in South Africa, that yes
we have come a long way, but we have not
reached the mountain top.
Yes, Martin was a great teacher. But to be
come a great teacher one must first study and
learn from other gTcat teachers. Martin studied
Ghandi and Martin studied Jesus Christ.
What Martin learned from those two great
teachers was that there is something stronger
than weapons and that is faith, faith in the es-
sential goodness of mankind. There is some
thing stronger than the atomic bomb and that
is hope, hope that wisdom will descend on us,
wisdom to beat our swords into plowshares, to
spend our defense dollars on education and
building pence.
Finally, Martin learned from both Ghandi
and Jesus how to best deliver his message-
without fear. Yes, guns do have power, but
their power is temporal. Their power can take a
life, but Martin was not afraia to die. As both
Ghandi and Jesus had sacrificed their lives,
Martin sacrificed his. What he paid for was a
giant leap forward in this nation's race rela
tions. He paid for his dream- that our con
sciences will forever remind us that all men and
women are created equal.
Nathan Hahegger is an associate math pro
fessor.
in memory of hero, King
FORUM
□ The Red end Black welcomes letters to me editor and prints them m the Forum
oolumn ss space permits. All letters are subject to editing lot length style and II
belous materiel. Letters should be typed, doublespaeed and must Include the name
address end daytime telephone number o( the writer. Please Include student classlfl-
cation and major other appropnate Identification Names can be omitted with a valid
reaaon upon request. Letters can be sent by U S. mail or brought In person to The Red
end Black's offices «t 123 N. Jachon St. Athens, Ga. ^ to me Had
WUOG playing
Could someone please explain
the curent policy of WUOG (90.5)
that will not allow them to play
local requests except during Block
Party and Sound of the City? I waa
informed of thie policy when,
during finals week, I made a local
request. I am not in tha band nor
do I know anyone in the band I re
quested. I juet like their music,
which I have heard before on
WUOG. Are you worried about
band members requesting their
songe? Why it that a problem if
they are listening? This current
licy makes it even harder for
nd* to have airtime. I also feel
thie makes the bands up to tha
mercy of whoever makee tha rota-
own hit list
tion liste. I waa given the impree-
•ion that WUOG waa proud of not
playing Top 40. In essence, they
are juet playing their own.
Tiffany Ihlneman
graduate student
Concern for animals
The fete of many dogs, cate, and
other animals depends on people
who care. It is a matter of life and
death, and aa human beings, we
are in the position to determine if
animals live or die. Animals are
mute, helpless end can't appeal to
ou for help. Those of u* who care
eve to do it for them.
As a dog owner, it concerns me
that 40,000 dogs will die today and
40,000 doge will die tomorrow —
sadly, because of human thought-
lesenaaa and irresponsibility Ani
mals have right* just like humans,
end cruel treatment and neglect
can never be justified.
Unless we care to contribute or
help our Humane Society or An
imal Shelter, it's a bleak picture for
animal, in the United States.
”b® g«nerous with your con
tribution to the Humane Society or
Animal Shelter because I know
that the animate are grateful for
your help. It’s a terrible tragedy to
let animals die.
Jim De La Perrlere
Athene