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4 • The Red and Black • Friday. February 2. 1990
OPINIONS
■ QUOTABLE
"I’m very disappointed that we had to take these actions as Cor*
rlnne is a senior and knows what It takes to be a success." —
Suzanne Yoculan. head gymnastics coach on the suspension of
star gymnast Corrlnne Wright.
The Red & Black
EttabUthed 1893—Incorporated 1980
An independent student neut paper not affiliated with the University of Georgia
Charlene Smith/Editor-in-Chief
Amy Bellew/Managing Editor
Robert Todd/Opinions Editor
■ EDITORIALS
Make yourself heard
As you may have noticed, The Red and Black has
been making a big deal about calling local
representatives to the State Legislature and the
actions of the Legislature in general.
If ever there was a time to wake up and get involved
in Georgia's political system, this is it. Too often people
see government actions as not affecting them. People
don’t believe they can make a difference, allowing
complacency to set in. People sit back and watch as
government makes decisions that drastically affect
their lives and then complain later when they realize
how unhappy they are.
The 40 days the Legislature meets are perhaps the
most critical to the state as a whole. In its first 16 days,
the Legislature has dealt with assault-weapon
restrictions, hand-gun laws, the lottery, the war on
drugs and fraud within trade schools. Still ahead lie
abortion legislation, more drug testing of state
employees, under-21 nightclub restrictions and, of
course, the budget. Do you still think you’re not
affected?
The University community already has
demonstrated it can make a difference. The Student
Association successfully worked to revise two proposed
drug bills which targeted students; “enough phone calls
to choke two horses,” prompted state Sen. Paul Broun
to promise to stop the under-21 bill; and
representatives of the Young Democrats will lobby the
Legislature next week. The University community —
students, faculty, staff and the people of Athens
involved with the Universty — has raised its voice and
that voice was heard.
This is why you have been asked to take action in
the past, and this is why you must contine to take
action in the future. It is useless to grumble after the
legislation ends. Instead, make your voice heard while
the decisions are being made.
Jobs well done
The 1990s have gotten off to a productive start at
the University. The new ideas and achievements of
January have set the tone for a year and a decade of
change and recognition. Congratulations to the
following people for their accomplishments this month:
• Dean Rusk, a University law professor and
former U.S. Secretary of State, is this year’s recipient of
the Abraham Baldwin award for service as a world
leader.
• William Prokasy, vice president for Academic
Affairs, has been elected chairman of the Executive
Board of the Council of Scientific Society Presidents, a
national group with more than 1 million members.
• Dale Leathers, speech communication
department head, has been elected second vice
president of the national Speech Communication
Association, a post that puts him in line for the
presidency of the organization.
• The Student Association lobbied the state
Legislature for changes in drug and alcohol bills that
would take away student rights if passed into law.
State representatives listened to the SA’s suggestions
and revised the proposals. The SA’s efforts show that
students can make a difference.
• Tennis Dog A1 Parker is ranked No. 1 in the
United States and took the SEC indoor title in
January.
• Rodney Hampton has entered the NFL draft.
While we’re sorry to see him go, we wish him well in his
professional football career.
• Jack Stenger, former opinions editor of The Red
and Black won first place in a national journalism
competition for his column about hitchhiking across
America.
STAFF
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Finding a cure for tortured conscience
My youthful idealism got the best of me a few
weeks back.
It was one of those rare and simply beautiful
scenes where friends sit back and talk in a res
taurant after the waiter has cleared away all
the disheR and napkins, the empty pitchers,
wiped away the checked vinyl tablecloth.
The tone of the conversation was definitely
dark, definitely restless. The three of us had
had it; our country had become a place we could
no longer stand. We had become veritable
strangers in our own land and had no choice
but to become pure but tortured exiles of con
science.
By evening’s end, I was ready to take off, to
hop a freighter, working my way across vast,
vomitous sens by scrubbing head floors and
sleeping in salty lifeboats. I was leaving — no
apologies, no goodbyes, no forwarding ad
dresses — seeking madder music and stronger
wine.
If I remember correctly, the thing that got us
started was the invasion of Panama and the ap
parent popularity of that messy abortion.
Panama has had the United States telling it
what to do since the Bull Moose still ran free;
it s sovereignty has never meant much to Amer
icans. Instead, it’s a piece of real estate that
uses our money and lets our ships pass through
its canal.
Clearly, all the madness that started down
Christopher
Grimes
there in December is a Bush smokescreen — a
hazy symbolic blow to drugs, terrorism, his own
involvement with Noriega and all Evil in gen
eral.
Well, one more trick like that and I'm outta
here, I remember saying.
The conversation jumped to smaller, more
local injustices, like urine testing, 21-only clubs
and open container ordinances.
Writing about testing urine for drugs, the
venerable William S. Burroughs said, “Our pi
oneer ancestors would piss in their graves at
the thought of a urine test to decide whether a
man ie competent to do his job. The measure of
competence is performance."
Try telling that to Joe Frank Harrie, whose
anti-drug package for this year included a man
datory test for all applicants of state-paid posi
tions and random testing of current state
employees. To combat this, we decided the best
solution would be to throw “fill-the-viar‘ par
ties, where participants would do just tnat,
then mail the samples to the governor’s man
sion. Call me at the paper if you have questions.
Concerning the 21 only clubs and open-con
tainer ordinances, just consider this: every ac
tion has an equal and opposite reaction. There’s
no telling what kind of rabid craziness would
result, particularly in college towns. Window-
brickings, more rapes — general sickness.
On and on we ranted, with most of it making
good sense. But 1 was left the next day with a
sad taste in my mouth, the taste of talk. Be
cause I know I’m going to finish this quarter,
this year and my college career without fleeing
the country with an acoustic guitar and books
by Rimbaud and Baudelaire.
The thought of entering middle-class death
of bitching from an easy chair, hung ovsr my
head chiding me when I thought about my
probable failure to become an exiled boheme.
But I realized there always will be restau
rants and there always will be friends to bitch
with. And I felt secure again.
Christopher Grimes is a columnist for The Red
and Black.
Bush is kowtowing to Chinese tyranny
At some point during my life — probably
when I was learning the Pledge of Allegiance in
second grade — I got the idea that democracy is
a good thing. Twisted bb it seems, I thought de
mocracy was a commodity Americans wanted to
share with the less fortunate of the world.
Call me a fool — unless you, too, are won
dering if George Bush has a spine and even a
scoop of gray cells to call brains.
The Bush administration’s refusal to protect
pro-democracy Chinese students living in
America isn’t only idiotic, it’s un-American.
Land of the free? Home of the brave? No. Bush
is making this country the land of the hypocrit
ical and home of the wimpy.
Last year, in response to Beijing’s violent
crackdown on democracy demonstrators, Con
gress passed legislation that would allow
Chinese students to remain in the United
States after their visas expired. The idea was to
keep them from having to go back home and
face punishment (like, you know, death) for
wanting democracy in China. Both houses ig
nored partisan differences and overwhelmingly
supported protecting the 40,000 Chinese stu
dents here.
But Bush (Mr. Kinder Gentler Nation him
self) vetoed the bill on November 30. Bush
|\
Elizabeth
Graddy 1IS5 ; .#1.
“promised* to protect the students; he just
didn’t want to actually put it in writing.
Coming from anyone who was ever involved
in the Reagan Administration (the most dis-
honest, corrupt bunch of politicos to ever foul
the Oval Office), a “promise” isn’t all that reas
suring.
Bush said his refusal to guarantee official
protection for the students was an effort to
avoid “offending” Chinese authorities. If you
really try to put a good light on that (as Bush
did), you could say he wants to stay on good
terms with the Chinese government so that he
can pressure them, sway them toward democ
racy.
Well, you don’t pressure or sway a govern
ment that drives tanks over its own young,
leaving a river of blood in its path. So it's hard
to put a good light on that.
It became clear that a congressional override
of Bush's veto was likely, not only because pro
tecting those students is clearly the right thing
to do, but also because Congress was, in gen
eral, righteously upset about Bush’s recent
kowtowing to Beijing. (Aside from writing off
the students, Bush’s kowtowing included the
all-too-auick resumption of high-level contacts
suspended after the crackdown and easing of
economic sanctions.)
Last week, the administration began pow
erful lobbying efforts to head off the override
with that inane diplomacy argument, partic
ularly putting the squeeze on Republicans to
support their man. The strategy worked, and
40,000 Chinese students are left wondering if
they are the only people in this country willing
to stand up for democracy.
And I m left wondering just whose side Bush
is on.
Elisabeth Graddy is a columnist for The Red
and Black.
Mednikow narrow-minded
FORUM
Sjumn R «« *^L BlaCk v ', elo ??* s letters lo I 1 ® «<*>» and prints them In the F
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and Black s offices at 123 N. Jack on St, Athens, Ga.
Has Molly Mednikow considered
wearing her favorite bullet-proof
vest this morning? If Mednikow’s
purpose (Jan. 30) was to stir hun
dreds of Islamic and literally thou
sands of Islamic-sympathetic in
the Athens area into a frenzy, she
has done a fair job.
While the headline states her ob
vious contempt and fear for
Moslem peoples, the rest of her
breathless slcittering attempts to
knivingly mitigate the initial
claim(“...the bombing of Pan Am
flight 103...last year’s death
threats against Salmon Rush
die...paint an unsightly picture of
the Islamic people ”)
What Mednikow apparently
doesn’t realize is that if it were not
for ths United States’ constant
prying, meddling, and big-time big
otry in the international arena,
many of these Islamic groups
would not act vengefully in the
first place.
On another front, why has the
narrow-minded Mednikow chosen
only the Musim as the whole
source for world terrorism. Ob-
Is it because some of
these groups are
Christian, hence non-
Moslem, that they are
saved?
viously she has chosen to ignore
the FALN, ths IRA, the Khmer
Rouge and among these, ALL of
the drug-related strong-arm orga
nizations who will kill for nothing.
Is it because some of these
groups are Christian, hence non-
Moslem, that they are saved?
Andrew H. Scott
senior, geography and german
Jobs for the boys
I have found The Red and
Black’s recent articles on the Uni
versity’s lackluster fund-raising
performance to be very interesting.
However, I found Scott Cutlip’s
letter of January 23 to be of even
greater interest.
If, as Cutlip claims, Nik Edes,
the University Vice-President for
Development and University Rela
tions, had no prior experience in ei
ther public relations or fund
raising before he came to Athens in
1987, how did he get the job? Why
would the people of the state of
Georgia pay anyone $100,000 a
year to do a job which, on paper, he
is not qualified to do, and appar
ently has difficulty doing success
fully?
A brief look at the current edi
tion of Who’s Who in America will
inform the reader that from 1977
to 1981 Charles B. Knapp served in
the Carter administration, firstly
as Special Assistant to the Secre
tary of Labor, and subsquently as
Deputy Assistant Director of
Labor. During the same years Nik
Edes was also serving in the Carter
administration as deputy underse
cretary for Legislation and Intergo
vernmental Relations — in the
Department of Labor. Knapp and
Edes obviously go back a long way.
This would appear to be plau
sible explanation as to why Nik
Edes is in Athens and not doing a
very successful job. Is this a case of
“jobs for the boys?"
St. John Flynn
teaching assistant, department of
comparative literature