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6 • The Red and Black • Wednesday, February 14, 1990
OPINIONS
The Red & Black
Euiabliahtd 1893—Incorporated 1980
An indffMndtnt iludent ntuitpaptr nut affiliated with the University of Georgia
Charlene Smith/Editor-in-Chief
Amy Bellew/Managing Editor
Robert Todd/Opinions Editor
■ EDITORIALS
Knapp’s report card
Today the Board of Regents will rubber stamp
University President Charles Knapp’s contract for
another year. While Knapp has made some mistakes,
his overall performance in 1989 was average. He
addressed several issues of importance to the students
and faculty, and at least tried to make some positive
changes.
The following is a report card on how Knapp
handled some of the major issues he faced in 1989.
• Minority Issues: A. Knapp approved the
creation of the African-American Cultural Center, a
place where all students can learn about black history,
achievements and culture.
He approved the creation of a Department for
Minority Services and has followed through with an
open search to find a department head. It remains to be
seen whether he will take the faculty and student input
into consideration when he makes the final selection.
He hasn’t done that in the past.
• Pre-game Prayer: C. Knapp made the political
decision in saying he would defy a Supreme Court
ruling and allow prayer between the hedges. However,
faced with a chance to place this world-class institution
in a leadership role, Knapp balked. He let state
Attorney General Michael Bowers be the bad guy by
waiting for Bowers to tell the University it wouldn’t
win a lawsuit over the issue. Knapp saved face, but he
took the wimpy way out.
• Faculty Salaries: A for effort, C for results, B
overall. Knapp proposed a 12 percent increase in
faculty salaries, but the Board of Regents and Gov. Joe
Frank Harris aren’t cooperating. On the other hand,
when the merit raises were applied, high-level
administrators seemed better off than the faculty.
• Student Relations: C. Luncheons once a
quarter with a few students aren’t enough. Knapp
should make more time to meet with students who are
involved on campus and concerned about student
issues. It took a student revolt to get student
representation on the search committee for a new
athletic director. How about attending a Student
Association meeting some time, or Students for
Environmental Awareness, or numerous other groups
to help him keep in touch with what students are
thinking?
• Faculty relations: D. Knapp doesn’t listen to
the recommendations of search committees or
University Council committees. He tried to stifle the
efforts of the council’s Committee on Intercollegiate
Athletics, setting up a task force to evaluate the
student-athlete program. Faculty are afraid to voice
their concerns about anything for fear of repercussions.
This isn’t the spirit of openness Knapp promised when
he came here.
• Staff Relations: D Knapp refused to meet with
the Staff Representative Group until last fall at a
“special meeting” when he gave the University staff a
pep talk. Knapp has turned down several invitations to
attend SRG quarterly meetings and has yet to hold a
working meeting with the SRG.
• Environmental Efforts: A. Knapp has created a
task force on recycling and another on environmental
issues that will study the environmental soundness of
the way the University is run.
Considering the heavy course load, Knapp’s C
average — about a 2.4 — isn’t too bad.
In the meantime, if Knapp wants some extra credit
to boost his average, he can find a way to expand the
Macintosh lab at the main library. If he wants to know
what’s on the minds of students, he can stand in the
line there and chat for an hour or two.
A more open and collegial relationship with the
people of the University may be in order. Knapp has
some good ideas, he just hasn’t gotten results on some
of them yet.
STAFF
NEWS: 543-1809
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■ QUOTABLE
"Those who aren't sure about what they're going to do after
graduation, don't have a relationship and know their college ex
perience Is coming to an end may have difficulty,” — Mike
Slavlt, University psychologist, on Valentino's Day depression.
VHATDoyoimtAR
"XT's hot FAIR!”
VIE HAVE TUtSAME
NUM&EROfTTOOPS,
PONT WE?
Constitution suffers from war on drugs
I was dismayed to see Andrew Mayor Young
quoted in The Red and Black Wednesday as
saying, “In war, you do have the need to sus
pend civil liberties. I think our police should
have the right to stop and searen cars.” This
statement badly distorts both our constitution
and some elemental truths about our shared
political life.
1. Granting for the sake of argument that we
may legally suspend civil liberties in time of
war, we are clearly not at war.If the war on
drugs is a war, then we will always be at war
against something, against birth defects or
sexism and racism, or cigarette smoking or
drunk driving. And if so, we will always sus
pend civil liberties.
2. War is serious business. War means
killing human beings to prevent the destruction
of our society. If we are really in a war on drugs,
then we don’t simply stop and search cars. We
gun down those who posess drugs on the spot.
3. War is also, in nearly all cases, evil. It is a
metaphor we should try to reject, for the same
reasons we reject racist and pornographic
metaphors in political rhetoric.
Lief
Carter
4. But let’s suppose for the sake of argument
that we are at war. War does not justify sus
pending civil liberties as a matter of law. Not
even in the infamous Japanese internment
cases during World War II did the court hold
this. The U.S. Supreme Court’s Korematsu
(Opinion began with the strongest rhetorical
condemnation of race-based policies the Court
w»d ever issued. In a companion decision the
Court held that the government could not de
tain Japanese-Americans once they had veri
fied their loyalty.
5. The real lesson of the Japanese intern
ment case is that the rhetoric of war so en
hances racism and hysteria that we are
tempted to suspend civil liberties without fac
tual justification, but with devastating effects
on innocent people.
My main point is this: Our constitution and
the rule of law, indeed, all of the social reality
we construct, depend on the language we use.
Let us be very careful not to destroy our reality
by sloppy talk. If we want to stop and search
cars because it is pragmatically necessary to in
terdict drug traffic, let us define driving a car in
public ns a privilege, and let us define civil lib
erties so ns to exclude privacy on the public
roads. I do not endorse this policy, but it would
be far better than to throw out the constitution
whenever it seems convenient. This is, after all,
why we have a constitution, to limit the power
of government to become a police state; and we
only really need a constitution when politicians
tempt the people to do so.
Lief Carter is a ploitical science professor and
two-time winner of the Josiah McigsAward for
Excellence in Teaching. He appears as a guest
columnist for The Red and Black.
China policy through a student’s eyes
In his Feb. 9 letter, Rob Rankin thought “it is
naive to believe that Chinese students re
turning home will face death or wanton tor
ture.”
I do not know what evidence Rankin based
this conclusion on. I know that I cannot predict
the future like Rankin does. However, I believe
that Chinese students will face danger once
they return to China under the current regime.
This is based on my understanding of China
after 1 had lived there for 30 years.
The Chinese communist regime has gained
notoriety over the years for its cruelties and
brutalities to its critics and opponents. Because
of their active participation in the pro-Democ-
racy movement and their severe condemnation
of the communist atrocities, many Chinese stu
dents have definitely been blacklisted.
Not long ago, the Chinese government openly
labeled the Independent Federation of Chinese
Students and Scholars as a “counterrevolutio
nary” organization which most of the Chinese
students have joined. In China, membership in
Lu
Hongkia
.4PA
any so-called counterrevolutionary organiza
tion is a “felony,” and the regime has prescribed
severe penalties, including capital punishment,
for this offense.
Just as Senator Lloyd Bentsen pointed out in
a recent letter to me, “Recent events in China
make it clear that this could be the case, espe
cially for the Chinese students who spoke out
publicly against their government’s brutal at
tack on those supporting a more democratic
form of government.”
Rankin thought that“preaching against
American idealistic politics to the Chinese lead
ership will serve no purpose other than to of
fend and alienate China.”
I just want to remind him that the dramatic
changes in Eastern Europe and the Soviet
Union have been brought about because of the
constant effort of the peoples of the free world.
It happened because of American people who
stand firmly on their “ideals” and not their
“deals.” I believe the “ideal” that worked in
Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union will work
in China, too.
Let me end by citing Senator Connie Mack’s
letter to the Chinese students at the Univer
sity, “Freedom and democracy are the Amer
ican values which have made our nation the
inspiration for people around the world strug
gling to achieve their own freedom. Freedom is
the most precious of man’s god-given rights,
and our country has a moral responsibility to
support those struggling for their own self-de
termination.”
Lu, Hongkai is a psychology graduate student
and a guest columnist for The Red and Black.
Valentine’s cards miss Cupid’s mark
Romance, love, courtship — it’s changed over
time. Unfortunately, Valentine’s Day hasn’t.
It’s still a time of mushy, gushy hearts and
flowers and songs while dating in this day and
age has come to resemble something closer to
military field maneuvers.
I was at the Hallmark store, trying to find
just the right card and getting more and more
frustrated. I pulled out a card — one of those
plastic-over cardboard deals picturing a couple
sporting 1970s-style hairdos and walking hand-
in-hand by a pond. In script writing was a long,
long, long, free-verse poem that began:
"My dearest darling, Once in a lifetime
someone comes along who touches you so deeply,
who gives so freely...You, darling are the one,
that one in a million. I love you with my heart,
my soul, with every fiber of my being... 0 Etc.
When I opened it, music came out — the
theme from “Love Story,” of course.
I just wanted to drink Pepto Bismol right out
of the bottle, you know?
About half the cards were like that; the other
half went to the other extreme and also weren’t
indicative of today’s courtship. Instead of love,
love, love, they were sex, sex, sex.
Forward? One such card actually lept from
the stack and wrapped itself around my leg. It
was musical, too: “Slide It In” by Whitesnake
was the uplifting selection. The penned senti
ment was along the lines of, “My dearest dar
ling, I want to chew you up and spit you out."
I like the guy, you know. I don’t want to do
him physical harm.
Elizabeth
Graddy
Someone needs to create a card that fits the
kinds of relationships that inhabit reality. It
would have a window where you could insert a
smiling photo of yourself and would read: “You
know, I really like you a lot, but I’m not, like, in
love or anything. But that’s not to say I couldn’t
be. Like, I’m just not right now, you know? And
I'd really like to keep seeing you, but only if
that’s what you want. If not, like, I really hope
well still be friends, but I doubt it, what with
my vindictive nature and all...”
I considered that old stand-by I learned in el
ementary school. I could use Blue Horse let
tering paper and write (in color crayons), “Dear
Valentine, I like you. Do you like me?” I could
draw two boxes — one so he could check “Yes”
and one so he could check *No.” A box for
“Maybe” might be a good idea, too.
He might get the urge to pelt me with spit-
balls or pull my pigtails, but he would under
stand it. And he probably wouldn’t vomit or
fear for his physical health, either.
Remembering it was my mind that first at
tracted him to me (he said), 1 decided against
the juvenile approach. What 1 came up with
was somewhat more elaborate. I got a job at
this newspaper and clocked numerous hours on
four different beats. I took abuse from intervie
wees as a reporter. 1 worked my way up to spe
cial sections editor, taking abuse from my
subordinate writers. All this was a successful
effort to weasel my way into a columnist posi
tion; all this was just so that, when February 14
rolled around, I could say — in print before 27,-
000 people — Happy Valentine’s Day sweet
heart. Won't you be mine?
Elizabeth Graddy is a columnist for The Red
and Black.
■FORUM
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