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4 » The Red and Black « Thursday, February 15, 1990
OPINIONS
"We're not brain surgeons, but the job does require Intelli
gence." —
Charles Jent, Federal Bureau of Investigations recruiting agent.
The Red & Black
Etiabluhed 1893—incorporated 1980
An mdtpendtnl itudtnt ntutpaptr not afTUiated unth the Uiutxroity of Gtorgui
Charlene Smith/Editor-irvChief
Amy Bellew/Managing Editor
Robert Todd/Opinions Editor
■ EDITORIALS
For the people?
Georgia’s government has developed an irritating,
if not mealy-mouthed, method of accounting for its
failure to adequately serve the citizens of this state. In
fact, Georgia’s beloved politicians have become so
confident in their ability to stay in office regardless of
how ineptly they govern, it’s hard to believe they
harbor any concern for the voters.
Gov. Joe Frank Harris leads the group in fine form.
Last Tuesday, he demonstrated his mastery of political
double-talk to superintendents, principals and other
educators from around the state. After admitting that
his proposed $7.70 billion state budget left education
reform by the wayside, Harris laughed, joked and then
promised to lobby to change his budget and get more
education funds. Sure he will.
The same day, the State Senate moved to solve a
problem affecting 123 of Georgia’s 159 counties. It
seems in these counties, one cannot call everywhere in
one’s own county without incurring long-distance
charges. The Senate approved a bill barring long
distance charges for county-wide telephone service.
However, the Senate showed its true colors and
stood up for the rights of Southern Bell by amending
the bill to require the users to bear the cost of installing
the new service. Thanks gang.
What is most disheartening about this pathetic
situation is that the citizens of Georgia deserve what
they get. No one holds these windbags accountable
come election time, and Georgia gets the same
legislators at every session. Until the voters stop being
duped by empty promises and send some politicians
packing, this state can continue to lie in the bed it has
made.
Example for all
The world’s eyes are watching South Africa as its
citizens rejoice over their newly freed leader who has
brought them hope.
For the rest of the world, the release of Nelson
Mandela has brought lessons in perseverance and in
standing up for a cause.
For 27 years, Mandela has stood beside his cause,
trying to give blacks in South Africa the basic rights
many Americans take for granted. Imprisonment
didn’t weaken his commitment to the social injustices
that plague the nation.
This dedication has won him the admiration of free
peoples all over the world and more importantly, the
admiration of his fellow South African blacks. In a
speech earlier this week, Mandela told the children to
go home and study diligently, stressing that education
is their key to freedom. Remarkably, hundreds of
children and teen-agers left the speech that very
instant.
Most Americans don’t remember firsthand what it’s
like to attend segregated schools, drink from
segregated water fountains or ride in the back of the
bus. Those things have been part of our past for more
than 30 years. Such discrimination exists today in
South Africa. Though racism is alive and well some
shallow American minds, in South Africa, it’s the law.
Mandela has a captive audience with the new
government in South Africa and the people who look to
him for leadership. He is using that influence to move
the masses to positive action.
University students will march on campus Friday
in celebration of Mandela’s release and in support of
the much work still to be done there. As Americans
praise Mandela, they should also pause to consider
South Africa. Here is a living example of how hatred,
ignorance and intolerance can destroy a nation and
cripple its people.
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Religion fails the tests of a rationalist
Having attended last week’s lecture entitled
“Is Gandhi in Heaven?” by Henry Schaefer and
having forced myself to sit through previous
vainglorious proselytising on his part, I feel
compelled to put forth a rationalist’s, or
athiest’s, rebuttal.
It is imperative to discuss three issues: the
merit of the Bible as “Gospel"; religion’s com
monly accepted purpose as a guide to a moral
and good life; and the existence of God.
First then , the Bible. It is well known, and
not just by just Biblical scholars, that the Bible
is teeming with inconsistancies and contradic
tions. This, of course, makes it ludicrous to
claim, e.g., that the Gospels of Matthew, Mark,
Luke and John are indeed “Gospel,” to be taken
as unimpugnable. To cite just a few examples:
Was Jesus a “poor carpenter” (Mark) or an aris
tocrat, descended from King David (Matthew)?
Was Jesus, on his birth, visited by shepherds
(Luke) or by kings (Matthew)? Perhaps more
importantly, are Christians meant to believe
the “conception christology” (Luke and Mattew)
or the “incarnation christology” (John)? Inci
dentally, it was in A.D. 325, at the Council of
Nicea, that it was decided by vote that Jesus
was a god, not a mortal prophet. The point is
this: How can the Gospels be unimpugnable
when they impugn each other?
Secondly, religion must be examined. One
only needs to look at world history to see that
being religious, i.e., believing in a god, doesn’t
necessarily lead one to a high moral ground.
Look, for example, at the current state of the
Jean-Pierre
Caillault
SI
woflir Catholics fighting Protestants in
Northern Ireland, Shiites battling Sunnis in
Uzbekistan, Jews warring with Muslims in the
“Holy Land,” Christians clashing with Moslems
in the Soviet Caucaseus, Christians killing
other Christians in Beirut, etc. Not exactly
laudable behavior! The religious use their belief
in an omniscient and omnipresent being to re
move the responsibility for their lives on Earth,
much the same as those who consult astrolog
ical charts. Or, as Dostoevsky’s Inquisitor said
in "The Brothers Karamazov,” man has “the
need to find someone to worship, someone who
can relieve him of the burden of his conscience.”
And what of the concept of an afterlife, so prev
alent in many religions? Clearly, this idea has
been manufactured by man in order to avoide
dealing with the potentially emotionally
crushing realization that man is not immortal
— how wonderfully self-serving!
Finally, the concept of “God.” What kind of
God would require of his creations, i.e., man
kind, that primary among their functions was
belief in His existence? Is the case such that,
given all of the suffering and sorrow on this
planet, it’s so difficult to believe in His exis
tence that He makes this a prerequisite to all
else, including an eternally happy afterlife? Is
doing good irrelevant if we don’t believe? Not
only is this type of god vain, also, but also con
sider his supposed benevolence and forgive
ness. Why, if there exists a perfect afterlife, a
heaven, would a god go through the cruel and
perverse game of first putting man on Earth?
Why not put all of us, His creations after all, di
rectly into the better place? What kind of god
would create mankind, play this game (i.e. you
had better be good or else) with them, and then
knowingly banish the game’s unfortunate
losers to an eternity in Hell? Surely not a god
worthy of any respect, love or admiration. Or, to
tum Schaefer’s question onto its more logical
head, “Is ‘God’ in Heaven?”
The insatiable need for quoting the Bible and
treating it as incontestable, for professing one’B
religious beliefs as the only way to an imagined
eternal happiness, and for being subservient to
an invented supernatural being is incongruous
with rational thinking. For the rationalist, too,
one’s time on Earth is indeed precious, but as
an end in itself, not as a means to an end. The
morality by which athiests live is generated in
ternally by one’s own personal sense of right
and wrong; there is no need to rely on a god cre
ated in man’s image.
Jean-Pierre Caillault is o guest columnist for
The Red and Black.
Which organizations get the money?
As if you don’t have enough to worry about
and pay for, this University actually is going to
put together a task force to study the idea of
paying University student leaders, moet no
tably the student association president.
How can SA President Mark Schisler justify
the need for us to dig deeper in our pockets so
he (or we) can adequately pay for his parking
fees and long-distance calls? I’ve got a much
simpler solution — ride the bus or walk and use
the phone in the SA office. Isn’t that why it’s
there?
The SA and its officers haven’t shown the
students that the services they perform are
worthy of payment. I applaud the senators and
officers for their efforts, but efforts alone don’t
butter the biscuit. An indication of future per
formance is past performance, and SA’s past
has been littered with broken promises and in
activity. Why should we monetarily pay for the
SA’s ineffectiveness when we are currently get
ting it for free? The whole idea of paying the SA
is another form of taxation without representa
tion.
Do you think that Schisler’s job will become
easier if he’s paid? The money-conscious stu
dents of this campus will demand that the SA
and other organizations produce some tangible
benfits, creating more pressure and added time
constraints— the very problems the idea of pay
ment is supposed to alleviate.
If the problem is so great that Schisler needs
recompensation, then the SA should include
the sum of his expenditures in its budget. Then
he, or any club president, is directly account
able to its members and the organization can
place controls as to how much money should be
allocated and where the money is being spent.
Compounding the issue is the question of
how will anyone decide who will get paid and
who won’t? According to Schisler, a hierachy of
organizations should be established on campus.
Groups like the SA, Black Affairs Council, and
Communivereity have more of a campus-wide
efTect than the canoe club might and those
leaders should get paid.
Maybe we should have a "Club Top Ten” to
determine who gets paid and would work sim
ilar to the college football rankings. Just
imagine a system where if the Canoe club
schedules a trip, it moves up a notch; if the Ice
Dawgs lose, they move down. Everyone contrib
utes to making the University what it is, so how
can a hierachy be justified?
What kind of criteria would you use in cre
ating a hierachy? Production? The University
Union leaders would rank high on the list. Or
how about WUOG’s station manager, since the
station spins tunes all day for your listening en
joyment?
How about importance to the University?
The Georgia Recruitment Team does a great
service as does the student judiciary. Or how
about the board of Pallahenic and IFC? Should
they get paid since the majority of the students
are greek?
Last year, the Residence Hall Association
proposed that its officers be paid. The idea was
rejected by the dorm hall councils. All of us
should follow suit and nip this plan in the bud
before it nips us in the back pocket.
Gene Williams is a columnist for The Red and
Black.
Schisler defends leader pay
■ FORUM
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and 8lack’s offices at 123 N. Jackon St. Athens, Ga.
Recently, there’B been a lot of
talk of student leader compensa
tion. This issue isn’t an easy one to
address and puts some people on
end. Visions of tyrannical, self-
serving leaders appear in their
heads and the idea is shot down be
fore it can even be discussed.
Myself and several others, how
ever, feel compensation is justified
and at least deserves a group to
look into the possibilities.
Seemingly one of the greatest
concerns of most students is that
the positions student leaders fill
are volunteer positions and
nothing else is needed. This might
be true for some of the fortunate
students who don’t have to work
their way through school or count
on a aprt-time job for their ex
penses, but moet student leaders
have very constrained schedules
and aren’t able to hold down a
salary-paying job. I am lucky
enough to have moet of my ex
penses paid for by my parents, but
many studenta aren’t. Does that
mean they should be kept from
these leadership positions, or made
to try and balance school, work and
an important position?
The amount jf money given at
most schools is nominal and
doesn’t provide adequate compen
sation. The idea is merely to offer
some kind of help to make the posi
tion less taxing and hopefully en
able the student to do a better job
at the position he or she has. Com
pensation is given at most schools
and the University is the exeption
rather than the rqle.
There are many aspects of this
issue that have yet to be solved,
and many questions need to be an
swered. I hope that students will
keep an open mind to compensa
tion. Mark Schisler
SA President
Thank you, Schaefer
Many will never reach the level
of success in their choeen fields
that Dr. Henry Schaefer has
reached with his work in the area
of quantum chemistry. Schaefer,
though, says his top priority in his
relationship with Jesus Christ.
In fact, in the ‘Is Gandhi in
heaven?” lecture, Schaefer said
that his decision for Christ was the
best decision he’d ever made.
Pretty impressive for s Nobel prize
nominee!
I am amazed at Schaefer’s excel
lence in his field of study and en
couraged by his committment to
Christ.
In a time where apathy is the
norm ruling one’s approach to the
true meaning of life, it is refreshing
to hear a lecture of utmost impor
tance. Thanks, Dr. Schaefer, for
bringing us face to face with life’s
most important issue...Jesus
Christ.
Randy Cain
graduate student, education