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4 • The Red and Black • Tuesday, February 6, 1990
OPINIONS
The Red & Black
Established 1893—Incorporated 1980
An independent student newspaper not affiliated with the University of Georgia
Charlene Smith/Editor-in-Chief
Amy Bellew/Managing Editor
Robert Todd/Opinions Editor
■ EDITORIALS
Save the house
Last fall, the Athens City Council rescued the
historic Hull-Snelling House from a proposal that
would have turned the beautiful antebellum mansion
into a flat, gray parking lot.
Tonight, the council will decide the future fate of
the house with its vote on whether to make the area
around the Hull-Snelling House a historic district.
Few issues, besides alcohol, raise more debate in
Athens than historic preservation. The city is full of old
houses, warehouses and shops that add to the charm of
the Classic City.
Historic structures reflect the ideals, aspirations
and cultures of times long past. To learn from those
times, it’s important to study the products of those
times — the few we have left. What better history
lesson than a stroll through an antebellum mansion to
see how our ancestors lived and worked? The Hull-
Snelling House is a study in Victorian and Greek
Revival architecture as well.
Tourists love to see a bit of history and that’s one
more reason they flock to Athens to spend money and
boost the economy. Historic preservation just makes
sense. If the city doesn’t protect historic buildings, it
will lose a valuable resource with only parking lots and
Golden Pantries to replace them.
However, arbitrary historic preservation can be
detrimental to the area as a whole. In its attempts to
preserve Athens history the council needs to use good
judgment. Designate the Hull-Snelling House as an
historical landmark, but not the whole Christian
College of Georgia campus.
Save the Hull House for its historic value, but
remember that just because a building is old doesn’t
mean it’s historic.
Citizens’ job
When the Holiday Inn announced plans to destroy
the Hull-Snelling House and replace it with a parking
lot, the people of Athens shook their fists and
threatened action. When the City Council voted on the
rezoning proposal which would have allowed the
house’s destruction, the people of Athens turned out in
full force to voice opposition and suggest alternatives to
Holiday Inn’s plan.
At that council meeting, representatives from
Christian College made a legitimate argument that
although everyone wanted to save Hull-Snelling, no
one but Holiday Inn offered tangible solutions to their
problem.
Everyone has an alternative to the sale, they said,
“but Christian College hasn’t seen dime one, or
received one offer from anyone but Holiday Inn.”
That was Nov. 7, 1989. It is now Febuary, and still
no one has offered to help the college. Christian College
President Morris Wood said several people have looked
at Hull-Snelling, but no one has made any offers.
Christian College isn’t opposed to saving the house he
said, but the college can’t afford to do it.
Is saving Hull-Snelling an honorable endeavor?
Yes. But what the people of Athens need to realize is
that this endeavor is going to take commitments of both
time and money. Thus far, these commitments seem
few and far between.
It’s unrealistic to hope the University will buy Hull
House. The Universty can’t afford to meet its own
capital needs. Maybe R.E.M will come to the rescue, or
Coca-Cola.
Maybe the people of Athens should stop talking
about historic preservation and do something about it.
If Hull-Snelling is boarded up and left to decay
Christian College won’t be the ones to blame, the
people of Athens will.
STAFF
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"1 hope this is some kind of sick joke. Does he actually believe
his Idea to be feasible?" —
Phil Smith. Young Democrats President on the latest under-21
drinking law and Its author.
m,im IS GREAT! I CM WAVE
MV'AFRICAN NATIONAL CONGRESS FLAG-.*
X CAN complain ABOUT THE GOVERNMENT,
I CAN EVEN SAT ' POWER IB THE. PEOPLE "
V/ITHOUT BEING- SHOT.' WHy.IALMGST
FEEL UREA REAL HUMAN BEING/
A
behind campus activism
The catalyst
A friend and I were eating goat at Strick
land’s last week when we discussed my lead
ership in Scholars Organized for Library
Expansion. SOLE petitioned the University for
more library hours last year, only to fail for lack
of student and administration support.
“Even though things didn’t work out,” my
friend offered, “at least it’ll look good on your
resume. Think about it. You started a group on
campus. I know a recruiter at IBM who looks
for things like that.”
‘Yeah, but think how much better it would
have been if we had gone through with the
study-in,” I mused. “Read the headlines: UGA
Students arrested for studying: Chained to li
brary shelves, they refused to leave when the li
brary clsed. That would have received more
media coverage. I could have sent clippings
with my application to Dean Witter.”
‘Yeah, NPR would have carried a story like
that, maybe even USA Today. Tell me, what
issue is hot now? Are there other great wrongs
on campus that an ambitious UGA student like
me can publicly criticize to embellish my re
sume? Pass the salt, will ya?”
“Sure, it’s easy,” I answered. “As Mariel
Hemingway’s grandfather once said, ‘Any fool
can find fault.’ That qualifies most of us here at
Georgia. If I didn’t have that job with Merrill
Lynch lined up, I’d have half a mind to help
you. First, you can petition to get the air condi
tioners removed from the windows of Old Col
lege. Those big eyesores ruin the oldest and
prettiest buildings on campus. More tea,
Richard
Stenger
4?
please.”
“No, that’s not it. How about something more
important.”
“How about that awful fountain by President
Knapp’s office? It looks like a bargain item from
a K-Mart catalog. It’s so plain, and most of the
water misses the fountain on a windy day.”
“No, no, architecture is small time stuff. Be
sides, all of South Campus looks worse than
anything K-Mart could do.”
‘Yeah, you’re right,” I mumbled between
mouthfuls. ‘There’s the SPACENTER, but
Scott Starling’s done that one. And the SA, but
everyone is doing them. Hey, how about the
SPACENTER, the SA and Charles Knapp to
gether? That’s an issue with an angle. Compare
the SA/Knapp SPACENTER referendum to the
Iran/Contra Affair, a sort of conspiracy thing.
The similarities are endless.
“Remember when Knapp gave thousands of
dollars to the SA toads to fix the results of the
poll?” I asked. “That was funny, considering
that the state later ruled that Knapp’s proposal
violated the law.”
“I think I’m catching on. How’s this: both
scandals involve seedy foreigners in covert ac
tions. Iran/Contra has persians buying arms;
SA/Knapp has Greeks buying an election.”
“What do you mean?" I asked. Perhaps my
friend had eaten too much goat.
“SA combined the referendum with their
elections, right? Most of the SA is Greek. They
rigged the election. I saw two sorority girls
coaching an independent how to vote. Better
yet, the question of Greek affiliation was in
cluded with the ballots. The Greeks counted
their own, giving points or something to the frat
with the biggest turnout. To them it was all a
game. And to think the SA had almost earned
some credibility.” My friend sighed deeply.
‘You’ve got it,” I errupted. “Okay, you have
an issue. Now consider an organizational struc
ture best-suited to achieving your goal. You
need something that will get your name in the
papers a lot and look great on your resume, but
requires as little time or effort as possible. In
short, solving the problem is not important;
looking good is.”
“Oh merde!” my usually reserved friend ex
claimed, “I’ll have to get another issue.”
“Why?”
“How can I criticize President Knapp? I need
him to appoint me to a University Task Force.”
Some things weren’t meant to be discussed
over goat at Strickland’s.
Richard Stenger is a columnist for The Red and
Back.
Forum: Drawing party lines
■ 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,
address and daytime telephone number of the writer. Please include student classifl
cation and major other appropriate identification. Names can be omitted with a valid
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 would like to know who is defi
ning “conservative” and “liberal” to
college students today.
There is nothing wrong with
being “conservative” or ‘liberal” as
long as you can support what you
believe with facts. If an opinion can
be supported with facts and logic
and not just with emotional fervor,
it should be respected. The argu
ments against abortion, for ex
ample, are based for the most part
on emotional, religious beliefs.
When one presents non-emotional
facts as to when a fetus becomes a
viable entity, I listen to and respect
that opinion. No matter what one
may think, religion is not based on
concrete fact, but on what one’s
emotions dictate that one believes.
What one believes emotionally is
irrelevant because a thinking
person — liberal or conservative —
will not allow his emotions to con
trol other peoples’ lives.
The point is that one should be
lieve exactly what one wants —
emotional or not — and should de
fend that personally; however
ideas, based strictly on emotion
shouldn’t be forced upon others
who maintain their own beliefs. If
one insists on pressing one’s emo
tional views politically, one is vio
lating the very essence of
American life, including the right
to believe as one chooses as long ns
this belief doesn’t infringe upon the
rights of another to believe os he
will. The terms “conservative” and
‘liberal" are iust insignificant la
bels which don’t really indicate
anything. The real groups are
“thinkers” (those who think) and
“sheep” (those who believe and
follow unouestioningly certain
ideas that tney are told).
D. Keith Morris
Junior, music performance
Churchill’s quote
Obviously Kyle King, despite the
fact that he is a political science
miyor, doesn’t understand the
meaning of the Churchill quote he
used is his letter. (Jan. 31) The con
servative idea is to stay with the
status quo; liberals want change.
When you are 20, it is assumed
that you want to make the world a
better place — after all, there is al
ways room for improvement. It also
is assumed that you have nothing
to lose at this point in your life.
Hence, you should have “heart.”
However, when you are 40, it is as
sumed that you will be well-estab
lished; that vou will be one of the
“have’s” rather than one of the
“have-not’s.” Consequently, you
would have to be “crazy”and “have
no brain” to want to change the
way things are. That is what Chur
chill meant by that quote. It is not
the blanket condemnation of lib
erals that King construes it to be.
I resent being called “a rebel
without a brain” simply because I
am a liberal. When I entered col
lege, I was very conservative, be
cause I blindly believed all that the
older generation told me. It is only
after many years in college that I
have become a liberal, many years
of studying and questioning all the
things I was told. It is because I am
a thinking person, rather than a
blindfollower, that I am a liberal.
Alice Day
graduate student, College of Veteri
nary Medicine
High standards
How can Hogai Nassery have
the nerve to say South Africa has
higher standards of decency than
any country? (Jan. 25) She com
pares our justice system to the de
cency of other countries. The
standards of decency in South Af
rica allow imprisonment without
trial. These standards allowed
Steven Bicho, who stood up for his
rights as a human, to be beat to
death while in prison without a
trial. Many others were killed in
South African prisons, and re
ported causes of death varied from
epileptic seizures to head injuries
suffered while falling down stairs
(in prison?). I don’t see any stan
dards of decency there.
Standards of decency cannot and
should not be measured by one
factor (capital punishment).
Nnssery should open her eyes and
think about how decent life is here
in the United States, where you
can’t stay in jail for a year without
a charge and you don’t have hun
dreds of people standing up for
their human rights killed in jail
through severe beatings.
Greg Maddox
Junior, criminal Justice
Service enough
I agree with the Feb. 1 editorial
opposing salaries for student
leaders of campus organizations.
Fast-track Yuppies
notwithstanding, it’s about time
we recognized that some actions
are motivated by something other
than personal wealth. I applaud
people who put time and energy
into charitable causes, environ
mental organizations and civic
groups, and thus contribute to the
quality of life for all of us.
I do think student organizations
should reimburse their members
for legitimate, documented ex
penses related to the organiza
tion’s business or mission. These
should accord with some rea
sonable guidelines set forth ahead
of time. But c’mon, SA President
Schisler, “hundreds of dollars a
quarter in parking fees”? Take a
bus like the rest of us.
Christopher DeForest
employee, School of Forest Re
sources
Who deserves pay
Public service is a real pain, isn’t
it, Mark Schisler? If it’s not “hun
dreds of dollars a quarter” in
parking fees at the Tate Center, it’s
long distance calls. Believe it or
not, there are students who face
similar problems in their jobs. No
one forced you to take the job of
president.
The “hierarchy” of organizations
that would be established seems
like a power trip. Who is to say the
canoe club has less campus-wide
effect than the SA? All I’ve seen the
SA do is spend money.
Jeff Wohl
senior, Journalism
member of the waterskl club
Look both ways
This is in response to Shellie
Sims’ comments in the Jan. 24 edi
tion of The Red and Black con
cerning the unfortunate accident
involving a biker and a pedestrian.
I want to make a comment on Sims’
statement that “something should
be done about the careless
speeding of our Athens bikers.” I
am constantly on Sanford Drive
and every day I see near collisions
between bikers and pedestrians.
This is not because people on their
bikes are carelessly speeding, but
because pedestrians here have a
habit of crossing without looking
and not using the specified cross
walks.
Students of Athens, this kind of
accident can be easily avoided. If
you’re going to walk, stay on the
sidewalks. If you have to cross the
street, use a crosswalk. And we can
please not blame this kind of thing
on something as ludicrous as
“speeding bikes” and practice what
we learned in kindergarten — Look
both ways before you cross the
street!
Jason Chambers
senior, advertising