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■ QUOTABLE
4 » The Red and Black • Thursday, January 11 1990
OPINIONS
The Red & Black
Ettablithed 1893—Incorporated 1980
An independent ttudent neu fpaper not affiliated with the Unioerzity of Georgia
Charlene Smith/Editor-in-Chief
Amy Bellew/Managing Editor
Robert Todd/Opinions Editor
■ EDITORIALS
Just say no
In the midst of the War on Drugs, Gov. Joe Frank
Harris has submitted a proposal which calls for
random drug testing of all state employees including
faculty and staff of public schools. The proposal
includes provisions under which students found guilty
of drug-related offenses will be automatically expelled
from school. Offenses include trafficking, possession or
manufacturing of illegal substances.
It seems that the lust to fight The War on Drugs is
turning a noble cause into a witch hunt. Combatting
drug use is one thing, but invasion of privacy is quite
another. Gov. Harris’ proposal asks state employees
not only to give their time and energy to the state, but
also their civil rights.
Random drug testing blantantly violates Fourth
Amendment and other civil rights. Also, the testing
further invades individuals’ privacy by identifying
birth control, anti-depressant and other non
debilitating drug use.
Peoples’ private lives are just that, Their Private
Lives. No one asks Harris to be randomly tested for
violation of the state’s sodomy laws.
Random testing assumes that the University’s
faculty and staff are drug users. It would be different if
there were some grounds for suspecting an individual
and then testing him or her. However, this isn’t the
case here. Could you look Former Secretary of State
Dean Rusk in the eye and ask him to fill a urinalysis
cup?
The portion of the proposal which deals with
students is equally disturbing. Automatic expulsion for
any drug-related offense is an extremely generic
attempt to address a diverse problem.
A student convicted of misdemeanor possession of
marijuana faces the same penalty as one who is selling
heroin to elementary school children.
Punishment is not the solution to drug use.
Rehabilitation is. Harris and the Legislature would be
better off if they channelled state funds and their
efforts toward improving state employees’ benefits
which could pay for such rehabilitation. Instead they
choose to shake their fists and spout propaganda about
their good intentions.
Political ploy
The faculty and staff of the state’s schools aren’t
piloting the Exxon Valdez, aren’t engineers on
passenger trains and aren’t making life and death
decisions on a daily basis. This policy obviously isn’t
motivated by safety concerns but by political ones.
What it boils down to is the government trying to
enforce its election-year ideologies on the public. The
governor and state legislators are attempting to drum
up some tangible evidence that deserve to draw a
paycheck from the taxpayers of Georgia at the expense
of state employees.
So who will decide who gets randomly tested and
how often? Will the State Attorney General have to
develop a Governor’s Task Force on Urine Samples, or
will Republicans test Democrats and vice-versa?
More than likely this will turn into another means
to keep state employees towing the party line. Got a
problem with a faculty or staff member, harass them
through drug testing until they either fail or become so
fed up with the abuse of their rights they leave.
The good news in all this mess is that the proposal
is still only a proposal and not law. Already intelligent
legislatures are revising the proposal to avoid civil
rights violations and a potential legal battle. We
encourage those legislators with more than political
propaganda at heart to move accordingly and develop a
sensible means to combat the drug problem.
STAFF
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"I getthe Impression that students are now pressing for change
— as well as faculty, staff and administration."—
Leslie Bates, Candidate for Department of Minority Student
Services and Programs director.
$0,YOU'RE THINKING
OFMMMtNONCGk
TDATUN1X? /
Not agiaNCE. ifhe
SAVtlUE MARBWTCHE
NIGHT FKLRKUIVf HOME
Election year intimidates legislature
The Georgia General Assembly opened its
1990 session Monday and this year will likely
prove to be much ado about nothing. The va
rious upcoming races will keep the rhetoric
alive but the action lean.
The Governors race consists of six candi
dates. Four of these candidates are connected
with the General Assembly: State Senator Roy
Barnes (D-Mableton), state Representatives
Johnny Isakson (R-Marietta) and Lauran
“Bubba” McDonald (D-Commerce), and Lieu
tenant Governor Zell Miller who presides over
the Senate. Also in the race are former Atlanta
May or Andrew Young, a Democrat, and retired
Judge Greeley Ellis of Newton County, a Re
publican.
The reason nothing meaningful will get done
this year (with the exception of an anti-drug
measure and child welfare reform) is twofold: 1)
This is an election year so no one wants to upset
voters and 2) All the candidates will be out to
beat the performance of their opponents.
An election year tends to keep politicians
from tackling the tough issues. Abortion bills
will be introduced only to be referred to com
mittee where they, like the unborn they are at
tempting to protect, will die. House Speaker
Tom Murphy (D-Breman) has already said the
issue will not surface for a vote. The legislators
do not want to vote on this issue so close to the
November 1990 election. We are dumb enough,
they assume, to forget this issue by 1992.
Candidate competition will keep other bills
from passage. Mr. Miller is known as a big pro
ponent of a state-run lottery, providing the
funds are used for education. The lottery bill,
which passed in the Senate last year, may find
defeat in the House where Murphy is sup
porting his colleague “Bubba” McDonald.
Campaign reform has turned into a fiasco
after Mr. Miller introduced his desire to force
candidates to disclose personal finances. Since
then, Mr. Barnes has proposed putting tough
new laws on lobbyists. Mr. Isakson would like
to prohibit state elected officials from trans-
fering leftover campaign funds to their personal
accounts (similar to what the U.S. House of
Representatives is doing).
The most controversial “reform” proposal has
come from Appropriations Committee
ChEiirman Mr. McDonald, the man who
brought you “Sales Tax ’89.” McDonald pro
poses limiting campaign donations to $5,000.
Why? It seems he is distantly trailing other
Democrats in the fund raising department. Mr.
Miller has received numerous gifts over $5,000
while McDonald has received only six.
One thing the session will have in abundance
is problems to deal with: Georgia is putting
criminals on the streets. Our insurance bills
are dramatically increasing. Drug abuse is
common not only in our high schools, but also in
our middle and elementary schools. Our public
education system is still in bad shape despite
some recent gains. A tight budget, stemming
from poor planning from the leadership of the
state, is causing many legislators to think “tax
increase.”
A tax increase is unlikely, however. With the
election year upon us the Democrats do not
wish to give Republican candidates additional
fire power. Last year, the main opposition to
the sales tax increase came from the Republi
cans.
Voters should watch this year’s session with
keen interest. 1990 may be the year the voters
decide they want their Governor, Lt. Governor,
and legislators to have the foresight to plan for
the future and not just react to problems as
they arise. If our officials fail to do so, their only
job next year may be in the private sector.
Phillip Foil is a senior economics major.
China policy, freedom sold to business
On June 20, 1989, the White House issued a
statement in reaction to the murder of thou
sands of Chinese students in Tiananmen
Square earlier that month. It read, “The U.S.
has supported the legitimate democratic aspi
rations for freedom of peoples throughout the
world. The U.S. will continue to voice its con
cern and its support for these aspirations.”
President Bush went on to ban all high-level ex
changes of government officials, as well as mili
tary exchanges previously announced with the
People’s Republic of China (an oxymoron).
Apparently this was all just for our benefit. It
was a public relations ploy. It was a blatant lie.
Just two weeks later, the U.S. National Secu
rity Advisor and Deputy Secretary of State
made a secret trip to Beijing. This past De
cember the two men made a follow-up visit. The
Beijing Quarantine, which lasted all of six
months, was lifted.
It would be nice if this was all in response to
a drastic shift in China’s policy of suppressing
dissent and dialogue. Unfortunately, tne oppo
site is true. With every passing day more re
ports of torture and extra-judicial executions
(that means lining a bunch of people up in front
of a firing squad without a trial) ot citizens
emerge and are condemned by human rights or
ganizations. These organizations are looking to
the U.S and other democracies to react with
outrage and horror, not reconciliation spurred
by greed.
Hogai
Nassery
It is now part of the reality of being an Amer
ican to know and accept that our government
(especially President Bush) is controlled by eco
nomic incentive. Bush is willing to invade
Panama in order to protect the right of the Pan
amanian people to free and open elections.
However, his priority in China is hardly as
noble. He simply does not have what it takes to
deny American businesses, especially his bud
dies in the defense industry, the market that
1.1 billion Chinese have to ofTer. How willing
the Chinese people will be to purchase products
supplied by a nation that has abandoned them
is unclear.
Economists will say that if the U.S. abandons
the Chinese market, other nations, like Japan
and Germany, will be only too happy to step in.
If the Japanese and German taxpayers are
willing to deal with a regime that massacred its
own young, then leave them to deal with their
Japanese and German consciences. The Amer
ican conscience has been tainted only too often,
and this is one sin that should not even tempt
us.
The fact that a Republican administration is
choosing to ignore the atrocities committed by
the most Stalinistic of communist countries de
fies the very ideals that the party holds dear.
President Carter was criticized for his reaction
to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.
Republicans called it weak and ineffective.
Compared to Bush’s duplicitous China policy,
Carter is a hard-liner. Perhaps the real differ
ence is that Carter was unwaveringly deter
mined to make human rights a global issue.
Bush seems determined to undermine it.
University students need only peruse the
summer issues of The New York Times to relive
the shock and anger that we felt at the events
in Tiananmen Square. Better yet, try asking
one of the many Chinese students on campus
for their reaction to Bush’s willingness to for
give and forget. Most will respond with bitter
ness and disillusionment. For even though they
are from a communist country, they made the
mistake of believing American rhetoric about
democracy and freedom. Some in Beijing actu
ally had the audacity to carry a replica of the
Statue of Liberty just days before they lost their
lives.
Hogai Nassery is a senior biochemistry major.
Soap opera inappropriate
■ FORUM
□ The Red and Black welcomes letters to the editor and prints them in the Forum
column as space permits. All letters are subject to editing for length, style and li
belous material. Letters should be typed, doublespaced and must include the name,
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reason upon request. Letters can be sent by U.S. mail or brought in person to The Red
and Black’s offices at 123 N. Jackon St.. Athens, Ga.
I find it hard to believe that
there aren’t more appropriate hap
penings in the world, the United
States, Georgia, Athens or the Uni
versity than the ‘"Live Soap Opera”
incident, pictures of which took
one-fourth 9 Jan. front page of The
Red and Black. I’m disgusted be
cause phyical abuse of any kind is
real and shouldn’t be thought of as
humor such as your title suggests.
I struggle to answer several ques
tions. Is this really the kind of in
formation that needs to be a pEUl of
The Red and Black in order to
convey the concept of effective jour
nalism? Does coverage of this inci-
dent truly represent the
journalism techniques for which
The Red and Black has won so
many awards? The Red and Black
is supposed to be “an independent
student newspaper serving the
University of Georgia community,”
but I fail to see how you are doing
this by publishing pictures and
comments such as the “Live Soap
Opera.” In the future I suggest you
use advertisements to kill space on
the front page rather than print
embarrassing picture stories like
the one Tuesday.
Sandl Castro
senior, agricultural engineering
More than just a party
The lead story in the January 5
issue of The Red and Black con
cerned the expulsion of Sigma Chi
from the University of Georgia.
While the article objectively re
ported the facts of this case, sev
eral points were not touched on. I
will not attempt to give my biased
opinion on the ruling, but would
like to use this forum to describe a
facet of Sigma Chi which has been
ignored.
The brothers of Sigma Chi are
not hooligans who show disdain
and disregard for the University’s
rules. Instead, we are clean-cut,
ambitious students who have been
made into an example for the rest
of the Greek organizations on
campus.
Since 1872, our fraternity has
been part of the University of
Georgia tradition and has added to
the college experience of both
members and non-members. Over
the past 10 years our philanthropy,
The Hope Haven School for the
Mentally Retarded, has bonefitted
from both monetary aid and by in
teraction between our brothers and
the children attending the school.
The Sigma Chi fraternity has al
ways been a major donor to char
ities.
Before a panel of student jus
tices decides to end forever the tra
dition of Sigma Chi at the
University, I hope that they will re
view the role which we have played
in the Athens community.
Joe Brasher
Sigma Chi member