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4 » The Red and Black « Friday, February 16, 1990
OPINIONS
"If you're going to shoot from 18 feet, you might as well shoot It
from 20 feet and go for an extra point." —
Alec Kessler. Georgia's senior center on taking 3-point shots.
The Red & Black
Established 1 M3—Incorporated 1980
An independent student newspaper not affiliated with the University of Georgia
Charlene Smith/Editor-irvChief
Amy Bellew/Managing Editor
Robert Todd/Opinions Editor
■ EDITORIALS
Basement sale
If the University sold off every resource that no one
really uses all the time, the library would be empty.
What good is anything if it’s not displayed every day?
Come on now, when was the last time anybody sat
down and watched the whole Peabody collection? Let’s
just sell it. And the rare books collection? Nobody really
reads those. Think of the money the University could
make with just a one-day yard sale.
That’s where the University is headed if the
University of Georgia Foundation doesn’t rethink the
possibility of selling the paintings it owns.
The foundation may have set a dangerous
precedent with the sale of a valuable Lamar Dodd
painting.
Atlanta art dealer David Ramus saw Dodd’s
"Bargain Basement” and offered to pay $100,000 for it.
The foundation told Dodd about the offer and he
approved the sale on the condition that the money go to
a worthy cause. Well, several of Dodd’s supporters had
established a chair in his honor with a $500,000 goal,
but had raised only $400,000. So the foundation offered
to channel the money from the sale of “Bargain
Basement” toward the chair.
Dodd approved the sale because he wants to help
the art department and felt students will benefit more
from the painting’s sale than its present use. The chair
will be used to attract visiting art professors and to
fund research and travel expenses. It’s appropriate for
the money to go to the chair after the many years of
service Dodd has given to the art department, which he
founded in the 1930s.
Although the sale is justified in this case, it was
badly mishandled, and put Georgia Museum of Art
officials up in arms. They were angered over the lack of
communication and now fear that all 192 Dodd
paintings owned by the foundation will be put on the
auction block.
University administrators did nothing to calm their
fears, remaining silent on what really happened, and
the foundation Board of Trustees have considered the
idea of selling more Dodd paintings. Museum officials
should have been clued in to the circumstances of the
deal.
Once again, lack of communication between the
University administration and the departments
affected by its actions has created friction on campus.
Though the foundation sold the painting, the
University administration has great influence on the
Board of Trustees. It could have bridged the gap
between museam officials and the foundation or nixed
the sale of the painting. It did neither. Instead, the
administration sent the message that any University
art is for sale for the right price.
The foundation shouldn’t make a habit of selling art
to raise money. This is a university, an institution of
higher learning where talent and art should be
appreciated.
Dodd is an important Georgia artist, a genius. It
would be a shame to let any more of his works go. He
thought enough of the University to donate his
paintings instead of selling them for his own benefit.
For the foundation to sell any more of them would be
ungrateful and rude.
Unfortunately, there are no rules to keep the
foundation from doing what it wants with the
paintings. Sale of the museum’s art — owned by the
University and not the foundation — has to be
approved by the museum staff, the University
president, the museum advisory board and the vice
president for Academic Affairs. Similar guidelines
should be established for the sale of foundation art.
It’s not uncommon for the Universtiy or the
foundation to receive non-cash gifts. Though not as
useful as cash, these gifts shouldn’t be appreciated any
less and works of art shouldn’t be sold away.
Gothic values not gone, just forgotten
I saw a man and woman in Po Folks the
other day — he had on some lower-rank mili
tary uniform and she wore a small baby and a
soft red dress. They were with an older couple,
her or his parents; I couldn’t tell.
There they were in Po Folks, having Sunday
dinner; being themselves and not realizing my
observing eyes were upon them. They were so
daily yet so romantic. So real.
The younger mother was decidedly practical,
her husband obviously resigned to her partic
ulars. The baby gurgled and talked to itself.
The elder parents were stoic; upright. Not one
of them smiled as I watched them yet their hap
piness was bo apparent that I couldn’t suppress
a grin.
They sat there immersed in themselves, im
mersed in their conventionality, getting every
thing they needed to know from the
conversation yet not really talking about any
thing in particular.
It struck me then and there that these people
are of what the concept of goodness is made.
These people are “good folks.* Not important,
not insignificant, but good. People living their
lives peacefully, graciously, with regard to all,
with regard for all.
The world is so caught up in the rat race that
these “good folks* have become insignificant by
today’s standards. No one cares about Mr. and
Mrs. Middle America anymore.
People are so concerned with the hottest-
Jennifer
Wilkin
new-this and the must-be-that that they have
lost sight of the proverbial “backbone of
America,” the work ethic.
Privately-owned businesses are folding
faster than a speeding bullet. Corporate moguls
are more powerful than a locomotive. Job com
petition and costs of living are leaping tall
buildings in a single bound. You have to be Su
perman in order to survive these days, much
less “be somebody.”
What the world doesn’t realize is that
“common folks” ore the somebodies of today.
They were the somebodies of yesterday and will
be the somebodies of tomorrow. These people
are the mainstay of the economy, the founda
tion upon which our society rests.
No one gives credit to the working class,
which bears the weight of steadily-increasing
tax breaks for its “betters.” No one cares about
the middle class, which shoulders the burden of
grossly disproportionate social programs for
the poor. Somehow, the voice of the majority
goes unheard, or at least unacknowledged.
Maybe the middle class is content. Maybe it
knows the balance of this beloved countTy
would be upset if middle America wasn’t there
to bear the brunt of everyone else’s woes.
But if we continue to ignore this silent ma
jority, if we continue to take advantage of their
obligatory charity, our working balance will be
upset.
In a world where lotteries, contrived "for
mulas for success” and Machiavellian politics
run rampant, I applaud the ones who forgo
seemingly foolproof schemes that promise in
stant monetary gratification. I applaud the
ones who work hard all their lives, perhaps
scrimping and definitely saving for their own
retirement, and not waiting for others to pad
their pockets.
I applaud Mr. and Mrs. Middle America who
are content, by today’s standards, in their me
diocrity, but are invaluable to our society. They
are satisfied to be Clark Kent and Diana
Prince, knowing that Superman and Wonder
Woman wouldn’t exist without them.
Jennifer Wilkin is a columnist for The Red and
Black.
Homophobia betrays civil rights gains
A few weeks ago I had lunch with a white les
bian friend of mine, and she told me about the
last Gay Pride march she attended. The march
route wound past a predominantly black neigh
borhood, where the inhabitants loudly taunted
the marchers with comments about the “fags”
and “lezzies.” My friend was saddened and frus
trated, especially when she thought of the Civil
Rights marches in which she’d participated.
Her lover told me about their trip to Wash
ington D. C. for the most recent Gay Rights
rally there, and their experience with a black
taxi driver who adamantly insisted that “there
are no gay black people.*
The black community at large has long had
it’s head in the sand concerning the existence of
black gays and lesbians. Its something only
joked about, or spoken of in scandalized whis
pers. The very real needs of black gays and les
bians have never been seriously addressed
within the black community or the Civil Rights
Movement, because most blacks have no real
perception of homosexuality within the black
community. Its perceived as an exclusively
white phenomenon, and only an occasional ab-
berance in the black community. The only
person “allowed” to be gay in the black commu
nity is the Baptist church organist, and even
he’d better be quiet about it.
The truth is that homosexuality occurs at the
same rate among blacks as in the general pop
ulation. Several prominent black artists have
been gay or bisexual, but this knowledge has
been suppressed by some blacks who have as
sumed upon themselves the sanitation of our
icons; reinforcing the idea that one cannot be
black and gay.
Many black leaders were upset by the film
“Looking for Langston.” It explored the homo
sexuality of poet Langston Hughes and was di
rected by a young black gay male. The film
upset those who felt it besmirched the image of
a major black “role model," yet Hughes’ homo
sexuality was never a secret in the black com
munity. Only when the idea was exposed to the
larger community was there an uproar among
blacks.
In many ways, a lot of blacks veiw homosex
uality as a betrayal, or a crime against the race.
Some would point to the sacrifices of those who
died and were brutalized during the Civil
Rights Movement, as if to suggest that I owe it
to their memory to uphold some superannuated
standards of sanctioned behavior. I say that in
spirit, if not in consciousness, they fought just
as much for my rights to be judged solely on the
content of my character in all matters, not by
my race or affections] orientation. However, too
many of us think that civil rights (the right not
to be descriminated against because of who or
what you are) began and ended with us as a
race. We forget that bigotry isn’t racially exclu
sive. We too, can be very prejudiced.
I imagine the black faces my friend con
fronted as she marched bore a Baa resemblance
to the distorted faces that many blacks encoun
tered when they marched for equal employ
ment and housing opportunities, when they
marched to win their basic human rights.
Until homophobia is equated with racism by
the black community, we haven’t fully realized
the spirit of the Civil Rights Movement. Until
homophobia is fought with the same tenacity
we reserve for racism, the Civil Rights
Movement isn’t finished. We cannot deny the
humanity of others without diminishing our
own.
The real crime against the race occurs when
we contribute to the same bigotry that so many
of us fought against and died fighting. The real
crime against the race occurs when we add to
the kind of hatred that destorys lives (and
anyone who has read reports of anti-gay vio
lence knows that homophobia kills, too). The
real crime against the race occurs when we be-
come haters.
Terrance Heath it a columniet for The Red and
Black.
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Shaefer clarifies position
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Hinduism is both syncretistic
and, at least when transplanted in
America, tolerant. The Chris
tianity of Jesus, while not syncre
tistic, is tolerant. As I will explore
in a lecture next quarter, Islam is
neither syncretistic nor tolerant.
The difference between syncre
tism and tolerance is an important
one for a pluralistic society such as
ours. Syncretism is the attempted
Does this mean that I
am not tolerant of
Hinduism? Absolutely
not!
reconciliation of belief system*
that are inherently contradictory.
Gandhi’s famous “I am a Hindu;
I am a Christian; I am a Muslim; I
am a Jew” is the ultimate
statement of syncretism. Of course,
all this statement really means is
that Gandhi was a Hindu. The idol
atry inherent in Hinduism makes
such a statement impossible for
any orthodox Christian, Muslim or
Jew.
When belief systems or philoso
phies are genuinely different, it
doesn’t serve any purpose to pre
tend otherwise. The phraae “Go-
ahead and believe anything you
want — they’re all the same
anyway” may have an alluring ring
to it. But it should be recognized
primarily as the voice of syncre
tism, not tolerance.
I find it amusing that the advo
cates of syncretism are often re
markably intolerant of those of us
with specific world views.
Hinduism is a) wrong and b)
evil. The caste system (very bad
karma for untouchables) and the
execution of widows on their hus
bands’ funeral pyres are only the
most visible historical manifesta
tions of these facts. Hinduism’s
worship of graven images is a di
rect violation of the second of the
Ten Commandments.
Does this mean that I am not tol
erant of Hinduism? Absolutely not!
I don't have to agree with every
exercise of freedom that is properly
protected under the law. Tolera
tion, yes; endorsement, no. Syncre
tism is bad. Tolerance is good. We
need to be able to distinguish be
tween the two.
Henry Schaefer
Director, Center for Computational
Quantum Chemistry