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■ QUOTABLE
4 » The Red and Black « Wednesday, January 17, 1990
OPINIONS
"I have enough phone calls to return on my desk to choke two
horses." — State Sen. Paul Broun, D-Athens, about the re
sponse to a proposal that would prohibit bar owners from admlt-
tlng patrons under 21.
The Red & Black
Ketabliehed 1893—Incorporated 1980
An independent ttudent newipaper not affiliated with the University of Georgia
Charlene Smith/Editor-in-Chief
Amy Bellew/Managing Editor
Robert Todd/Opinions Editor
■ EDITORIALS
Down with PE
The University Council Curriculum Committee is
reviewing the University’s physical education
requirement and asking the Student Association for
input.
Kudos to the council on both counts.
It’s wonderful to see the University Council actively
seeking student input on issues that affect students.
And the requirement that every undergraduate
complete five credit hours of physical education classes
certainly needs to be reconsidered.
For freshmen and sophomores, trying to schedule a
PE class is next to impossible unless they’re in the
Honors Program. And for upperclassmen, it’s difficult
to schedule a PE when they have to take those last few
major classes that are offered at limited times.
The University’s undergraduate curriculum is too
much like a repeat of high school, especially the PE
requirement. Granted, college PE is a lot more fun than
high school PE. We have all these great courses like
bowling, tennis, canoeing and fencing to choose from.
Exercise is good for everyone, but it should be a
choice, not a requirement. Some students may choose
not to exercise, some may want to do it off-campus.
Society as a whole is more conscious of the benefits of
diet and exercise today than it was when PE became a
requirement in 1977.
It’s time to adjust the curriculum to reflect today’s
needs. The students of the 1990s is a student who often
has to work to pay the increasing costs of their
education. They don’t always have the time to spend
two hours a week playing racquetball.
But let’s not forget the many students who would
take PE, even if it wasn’t required. The University
should continue to offer a wide variety of PE classes as
there are students interested in taking them.
One more van
The Student Association’s escort van program has
been such a success, it needs another vehicle and the
University should provide it.
Walking alone at night isn’t safe and students who
need to keep late library hours should have safe
transportation options.
The night bus works to an extent, but the long route
it must take leaves students waiting for up to half an
hour. The night bus can’t possibly include all the stops
anyone might need on any given night. The escort van
serves individual needs and is more effective.
However, the demand for the service is quickly
making expansion necessary. About 700 people rode
the van last quarter. That’s making the service less
efficient, stretching the wait to about 15 or 20 minutes.
Students are less likely to wait that long if they
could walk to their destinations in about that much
time. The University should encourage safety practices
by providing efficient transportation.
Additionally, the cost of maintaining an on-call
escort van is probably much less than to keep the night
bus running constantly into the wee hours of the
morning.
Phone home
Don't forget to let your state Congressmen know
how you feel about a proposal before the Senate that
would prohibit bar owners from admitting anyone
under age 21.
Remind the senators here and in your home district
of the economic and cultural harm such a law could
bring to the Classic City.
Messages for Sen. Paul Broun can be left in Athens
at 546-6700. He can be reached in his Atlanta office at:
(404) 656-5095.
STAFF
NEWS: 543-1809
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Bleak outlook only brings bleak future
"Get the widow on the set, we loue dirty
laundry. ’
We love dirty laundry.
Yeah, it’s an old song, but the message still
holds true: humanB are amazingly captivated
by decadence, gore and tragedy.
Terrible, horrible things, ranging from messy
divorce stories to bloody airplane crashes —
these are the subjects of devoted attention, not
the latest advancement in medicine or educa
tion.
Some have blamed this phenomena on the
media.
“Newspapers only report the bad stuff," it
has been said.
We get first-hand accounts of the mass-mur
dering of serial killers and picture after picture
Ceausescu’s dead body because that’s what the
public wants, not because the media think it’s
great.
How many car accidenta have you driven by
and not itched to take a look? And when it turns
out to be a simple fender-bender, why is there
some rumble of disappointment deep within the
soul? Would the sight of someone's decapitated
head or dismembered body amongst flattened
vehicles been more satisfying? Maybe so.
The general public doesn’t eeem too inter
ested in faithful and devoted families or organi
zations desperately trying to bring about peace
in the world. These things are only trifely inter-
Mollie
Batts
esting, and are dissipated to society only
through obscure television shows and newslet
ters.
Blood! Guts! Corruption! Now that’s inter
esting! That stuff sells papers and gets viewers.
However, is this truly what we want to sur
round our lives and occupy our thoughts?
Thomas Dreiyer once said: “When you talk
about your troubles, your ailments, your dis
eases, your hurts, you give longer life to what
makes you unhappy...Give recognition only to
what you desire...If you don’t talk about your
grievances, you’ll be delighted to find them dis
appearing quickly."
1 don’t mean to imply that if we don’t recog
nize fatal car crashes then they’ll stop hap
pening, but life sure would be less like a funeral
if we could open the paper to a front-page head
line that read: “Solar car perfected: energy
crisis over” rather than “247 die in crash."
Granted, 247 people dying in a plane crash is
news, but why should bad news take prece
dence over good news?
And don’t go thinking that the reason why
good news isn’t reported is because it’s not
there. Of course it’s there. A solar car is on its
way to perfection, by an M.I.T. student; and a
flying car, too. There is a society of Palestinians
and Jews called Neve Shalom/Al Wahat Salam
in Israel who have dedicated their lives to
bringing peace to the two cultures. The Peace
Corps is still working in full force, if you haven’t
heard (and you probably haven’t), and an orga
nization in South Africa called Koinonia exists
to unite the blacks and whites there.
Oh and hey — the Berlin Wall came down!
Well, I guess that news did make it to prime
time viewing, but only to be followed by de
tailed eurveyB and studies on how this event
will mess up the European economy.
Why are we so pessimistic? Some would re
tort, “Not pessimistic, realistic," but reality has
everything to do with what we expect and what
we want. If we plan for the worst, moat of the
time, we’ll get just that. But if we expect the
best...then what? At the rate we’re going, we
may never find out.
Mollie Batts is the editorial assistant for The
Red and Black.
Forum: Sigma Chi sentence
■ FORUM
□ The Red end Black welcomes letters to the editor end prints them in the Forum
column at space permits. All letters are subject to editing tor length, style and II-
beloue materiel. Letters should be typed, doublespaced and must Include the name,
address and daytime telephone number ot the writer. Please Include student classifi
cation end major other appropriate Identification. Names can be omitted with a valid
reason upon request. Letters can be sent by U.S. mall or brought In person to The Red
and Black's offices at 123 N. Jeckon St., Athens. Ge.
In response to Joe Brasher's
Jan. 10 plea for mercy:
First of all, it isn’t relevant
whether or not Sigma Chis are, aa
Brasher described, "clean-cut, am
bitious students” (whine). Nor does
it matter that, according to
Brasher, the "brothers of Sigma
Chi are not hooligans’(beg). It mat
ters that Sigma Chi broke the
rules.
As for the charge of Sigma Chi
being "made into an example for
the rest of the Greek organizations
on campus” (grovel). Sigma Chi’s
earlier problems with the Univer
sity should have served as good ex
amples of how it all works.
As for their philanthropy...that’s
it? According to the University of
Georgia 1988 fact book, Sigma Chi
had 90 members in the fall of 1988.
Ninety people can do much more
than wnat Brasher listed The
Hope Haven School for the Men
tally Retarded is most definitely a
ood “philanthropy." I’m sure some
rothers help out at the school, and
some probably help out every week
— or am I exaggerating? If it
weren’t mandatory, would Sigma
Chi do anything for the commu
nity?
Sigma Chi probably won’t get
the full boot. If it doeB happen, cur
rent members can pay me $300 per
quarter. I’ll tell tell members that
we're friends no matter how
childish they act. I’ll even smash
beer bottles on their living room
floors once in a while to remind
them of home. Well have thous-
nade of people over and act sur
prised when the landlord wants to
evict us. Then, well try to convince
all of our neighbors that it's not our
fault because our parents made us
give to charity. I know, it doesn’t
follow.
Howard R. Brown
Junior, joumalltffi/orlmlnel Justice
Charity can continue
After reading Sigma Chi
member Joe Braeher’s letter in the
January 11 iseue of The Red end
Black, I had to chock my calendar
to bo eure that the 1980s were ac
tually over. I thought I heard
echoes of the patheticpleaa of that
1980s woman, Mrs. Tammy Faye
Bakker, herself. Altnou gh
Brashers letter lacked Tammy’s
smotional expressiveness, his mes
sage was worthy of only her.
Brasher's attempt to win sympathy
for his habitually-offending frater
nity by citing Sigma Chi'e ability to
throw money at humanitarian
causes is disgusting.
As a “native Athenian" I appre
ciate the many beneficial
relationships between the Univer
sity and the city. If Brasher and his
fellow Sigma Chie are truly in
volved with community and
charity work, they will continue
their efforts; indeed, they may now
devote more time towards these
endeavors as they are freed from
the weighty obligations of fraternal
membership. In so doing, Brasher
and his newly-freed brothers will
move forward with the rest of the
world into 1990 —a year in which
freedom is celebrated world-wide.
Susan Shackleford
junior, telecommunication arte
“Strike three” unfair
The editorial, "Strike Three"
which appeared in the January 9
issue of The Red and Black should
have been titled "Strike Two”or
“Foul Ball.” Your paper continually
cites a hazing violation which lead
to a conviction of Sigma Chi last
Spring Quarter. In fact, Sigma Chi
was never convicted of any hating
violation. It was an incident during
our initiation process which origi
nally caused our fraternity to ap-
ar before the Student Judiciary,
t me make thie point clear: The
Delta Chapter of Sigma Chi does
not haze its pledges. We have not
and will not act in any way which
would endanger or embarrass our
perspective brothers. I was disap
pointed in the degree of unprofes-
alonaliem which was displayed by
publishing an inaccurate editorial.
Joe Brasher
senior, political science
Judiciary questioned
The Student JudiciarVa recent
permanent expulsion of Sigma Chi
fraternity is so grossly unfair that I
must seriously question the integ
rity of the Judiciary and the true
purpose of its derision. There is
only one way to describe the Judi
ciary’s derision — the punishment
simply does not fit the crime.
Sigma Chi received such a harsh
sentence, in part, because of its
prior record. When considering
thie record, which consists of two
infractions, it is important to note
that Sigma Chi did not and does
not haze. This is probably the
reason Sigma Chi was never found
guilty of hazing, as The Red and
Black reported. Instead, the frater
nity received a penalty for a consid
erably minor student safety
infraction. The second offense, dis
orderly conduct, stemmed from an
incident that, much like the Kappa
Alpha chicken heist, involved only
a small number of members and ia
certainly not representative of the
fraternity as a whole.
I must seriously
question the Integrity
of the Judiciary.
Perhaps the Student Judiciary
is feeling pressure from those who
believe eome of their recent rulings
were too mild. It ie a shame to
think that the Student Judiciary
may be more concerned with its
reputation than with handing
down just and well-considered de-
ciiion*.
For now, Sigma Chi will begin a
series of appeals. I am confidant
that whoever might hear these ap
peals will have the courage and in-
tegrity to overturn thie ill-founded
derision.
David Farrell
sophomore, finance
Segregated Univ.
This letter ie written in response
to our Univesity’s completion of the
African American Studies Pro
gram. The administration should
note that when blackB enter school
here they are admitted with lower
SAT scores and lower grade point
averages. When they are accepted
they can receive separate financial
aid and minority scholarships that
are not available to any other stu
dents. They have their own Creek
organizations, their own student
council, and their beloved Black
Power Coalition. Now the African
American Studies Program is
going to give them their own major.
This will complete their goal of a
segregated school for blacks within
an integrated state university.
The generation of black students
that are in college today have
never known racism and segrega
tion like their parents did. Likeise,
white students in college today
have never submitted blacks to
those types of brutality. Neverthe
less, the preferential treatment of
blacks is continually on the in
crease. How much longer will thie
special treatment last? It has be
come quite obvious that blacks do
not want true equality with whites;
they want to be treated better.
It ie high time that our federal
government and our own Univer
sity realize that aa Affirmative Ac
tion and programs like African
American Studies increase, so will
ths polarization and resentment of
many white people.
Mark Cornwell
junior, marketing