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4 • The Rea and Black • Wednesday. ApM 11, 199C
OPINIONS
■ QUOTABLE
"We were lucky. Right now we are trying to make them so ugly
that no one in their right mind will want them.
— Alison Brlster, of the Dawson Hall computer lab on ingraving
large, red identification numbers into the machines
The Red & Black
19i3—licr.rporaUii I960
An isuup*-\lfU ttudfit vuipap*’ ict itc »Uh t/u L'uurtity of Gturgia
Charlene Smith/Editor-in-Chlef
Amy Bellew/Managing Editor
Hogai Nassery/Opinions Editor
■ EDITORIALS
Civic dream
Clarke County’s dream of building a civic center
i that will be an economic boon to the area is one step
i closer to reality. Negotiations over the final parcel of
land on the site are complete.
As architects draw up their final designs on the
project and other construction plans are made, the
county should not ignore the issues surrounding the
massive project.
For one, the county should make every effort to use
local contractors and labor for the construction work.
And architects should design a structure that
complements existing downtown structures.
For another, the county should preserve the area
around the proposed site. The Foundry Street
warehouses could be restored and made into
interesting attractions that would also bring money
into downtown. The county shouldn’t even consider
tearing them down. While the center will bring more
cars downtown and thus, more parking problems, the
warehouses would be more valuable as a historical
attraction than a parking lot.
The civic center is a good idea. It will provide the
University with alternatives to staging performances
in the fine arts auditorium which is often too small. If it
works, it will steal a few business conventions from
Atlanta and give Athens some of that windfall.
Making the civic center succeed, however, is quite
another matter. It’s going to take progressive ideas
from the city to make it work. It’s almost hard to
believe a city that passes an open container ordinance
wants to bring more entertainment downtown.
Obviously, some things are going to have to change.
But some things should stay the same. The charm
of downtown Athens is jeopardized by the project.
When big concerts are booked at the civic center, if that
indeed happens, what will become of the small clubs
that make Athens so diverse?
Whether Athens is ready for such a big commercial
endeavor remains to be seen. But if the Foundry Street
warehouses and the staples of Athens cultural scene
are the costs, the price is too high.
Number one
Atlanta is definitely number one. The capital of
Georgia is the crime capital of the United States, two
years in a row. This means that it ranks at the top of
the urban list in number of murders, armed robberies,
aggravated assaults, burglaries and auto thefts per
capita.
Needless to say, most of these crimes are not going
down in Dunwoody and Roswell. It’s South Atlanta
that’s being hit the hardest, and it’s up to Mayor
Maynard Jackson to tackle this crisis head on. He’s
already taken action by increasing police presence in
the city’s violence-ridden projects, but the question is:
How long can this effort be sustained?
Atlanta needs a long-term solution to these
problems. Life expectancy among the underprivileged
nationwide is down, and sociologists maintain that
many Americans today aren’t taking care of their
health because they aren’t excited about living in
violent neighborhoods. The answer is to elevate the
standard of living in these areas through education.
This year, as candidates sling mud and accusations
back and forth, this is the issue they should be
addressing. There’s no avoiding the ramifications of
this problem. The International Olympic Committee
will note these statistics when it chooses the location
for the 1996 games this September.
The effect will be felt here in Athens, where some
Olympic events will be held if Atlanta wins the bid.
Athens and Atlanta are growing closer together all the
time. Pretty soon, these statistics may directly affect
the lives of Athenians.
STAFF
NEWS: 543-1809
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Environmental zealots kill
Now, did I miss the night of the news when
Meryl Streep recieved her doctorate in toxico
logy and Michael Stipe won the Nobel Prize for
agricultural science? They may be great enter
tainers, but scientists they are not. They are
desperately attempting to perpetrate a serious
fraud on the American people. They argue that
organic food is better for our nation and for an
individual’s health.
Streep launched her attack last year with the
help of the Natural Resources Defense Coun
cil'NRDCi. She and her comrades portrayed
apples as cancer-causing if treated with Alar.
Since most apples are treated with Alar, horri
fied moms were dumping hundreds of thou
sands of gallons of apple juice and sauce. The
innocent apple growers were targeted like they
were evil defilers of children’s bodies. Sales
went down by over 1/3.
Streep offered as proof one test, a mutagen
test. Meanwhile, sound scientists were being
ignored by the media. The creator of this test
even said the conclusions drawn from the test
were flat wTong! Obviously scientific proof
means little or nothing to these rhetoric-
packed, chemophobe granola-heads.
One of the worst is, of course, R.E.M.’s Mi
chael Stipe, who really enjoys handing out ad
vice (like to vote for Dukakis in ’88, now there’s
a winner idea). Stipe, in conjunction with COO
Film Corp., produced a ‘public service’ message,
saying that we should take a technological step
backward and eat organic food. Supposedly,
this will lessen our intake of carcinogens, be
cause man-made fertilizers and pesticides
aren’t used. Stipe is operating on the premise
that anything man-made is bad, and that man
made chemicals are the only carcinogens.
R. Gabriel
Sterling
Again, scientific fact flies in the face of this
granola-head’s delusions.
The average American takes in 1 gram/day of
natural carcinogens from vegetables, fruits,
and meats themselves. We take in 0.03 grams a
day in man-made carcinogens. These numbers
were released by the National Institute on
Health (NIH), not some crackpot entertainer.
The NIH states that these exposure levels are
insignificant. So, the only way to avoid all car
cinogens is to stop eating and thus, die. Lis
tening to ‘consumer rights’ activists, one would
think that there is a cancer boom in America,
which they, the environmental elite, will pro
tect the public from. Again, scientific fact belies
this notion. The American Cancer Society
states that, aside from lung cancer, cancer
rates have remained constant or dropped after
50 years of pesticide use.
For the sake of argument, let’s say we had
solely organic farming. We would be paying
25%-50% more for food. This would mean a low
ering of everyone’s standard of living and would
hit the poor, who spend a greater percentage of
their income on food, the hardest. Scientists
know that the lower the standard of living, the
shorter the lifespan. Another fun by-product of
Americans
organic farming is the disease-causing pests
that are allowed to flourish in the organic food
supply. I guess it’s not that bad if you like the
extra protein from the worms and larvae you’ll
eat. The main reason that we’re healthy is our
cheap and abundant food supply. Stipe and
Streep would have us end this way of life.
Why do they whip up this hysteria? MONEY!
The bigger scare, the more visiblity, hence
fundraising increases. The callous nature of
these 'benevolent, consumer rights, enviromen-
talists’ was boldly exposed when The Wall
Street Journal published a confidential memo
by publicist David Fenton, who boasted about
creating the Alar scare. The memo said,“A
modest investment by the NRDC repaid itself
many-fold in tremendous media exposure and
substantial, immediate revenue”.
This is not my main problem with these
alarmists. The real issue is that they ignore
true food-related consumer problems, or worse,
fight the solutions to those problems. No one is
dying from pesticides. But, 4,000-5,000 people
die annually from food-bom diseaes like trichi
nosis. The answer to this situation, food irra
diation, has been approved by both the USDA
and FDA ns safe and effective. By attacking
food irradiation, these ‘activists’ are causing
the death of Americans each year.
Call me old-fashioned, but if people have to
die because others are more worried about
saving a bug from a pesticide, I get a little
ticked off Maybe it’s time we looked at the facts
on consumer rights and health issues, and
leave the lofty, misguided rhetoric for Streep’s
movies and Stipe’s songs.
R.Gabriel Sterling is a sophomore economics
major.
Humans must halt global
With Earth Day 1990 right around the
comer, the time is right for everyone to realize
the many threats to our environment. Igno
rance of these issues is almost the worst enemy
to this important cause, the worst being denial.
However, despite these obstacles, successful ef
forts to protect our surroundings are apparent
world-wide and in order to continue the mo
mentum, further education and awareness are
necessary.
For thousands of years humans have
marched across the earth taking from it what
ever was needed in order to satisfy our wants
and needs. We have destroyed land, water,
plants and animals in order to drive the force of
humanity.
Oddly enough, we are now destroying what
we need to survive.
Through the release of unprecedented
amounts of carbon dioxide, methane, chloroflu-
orocarbons, nitrous oxide and tropospheric
ozone, we have turned our planet into an oven
in the same manner that Rover can be killed if
you leave him in your car on a hot Athens day.
Temperature is on the rise with the 1980’s re
cording the hottest five years in the century.
The gases responsible for this global heating
are mainly the by-products of the burning of
fossil fuels and the use of those notorious chlo-
rofluorocarbons.
To slow this catastrophic process, we all need
to work together to conserve energy. Simple
every day habits like buying recyclable goods
and over-insulating our homes can make a
huge difference if everyone is willing to do so.
The problems that exist with our earth as a
result of human negligence are many and
varied. Resources that are disappearing today
will not return in our lifetime unless action is
taken now. Not only can we learn to operate our
homes in an environmentally safe way, but we
can get involved in the education process, make
others aware of the grave problems, and be po
litically active on all levels. We can write our
exploitation
congressmen concerning the deforestation of
the Pacific Northwest. Students can bike in
plnce of driving. Consumers can boycott compa
nies and organizations that do not meet with
environmentally sound standards. These ac
tions will not drastically change our lifestyles
today, but will drastically alter the lifestyles of
tommorow.
April 22 is the perfect opportunity for all of
us to show support by participating in the
events of Earth Day. You do not have to be a
nuclear scientist to listen and understand what
the experts are saying. NASA, the EPA and
other governmental agencies are sounding the
alarm.
The steps we take now are so easy in compa
rison to the bleak future we will have to face
otherwise. To say that there is no problem is
the root of the problem. Education and action
are the answers. We can invest one per cent of
our effort now and see a future 100 per cent
better. NOW is the time, because God forbid the
day our last words are, we should have pre
served, when today we can say, we should pre
serve.
Phil Smith is co president of the UGA Young
Democrats.
Society encourages rape
■ FORUM
□ The Red and Black welcomes letters to the editor and pnnts them in the Forum
column as space permits. All letters are subject to editing for length, style and li
belous matenal. Letters should be typed, doublespaced and must include the name,
address and daytime telephone number of the writer. Please include student classify
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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.
The Red and Black’s editorial on
rape on April 3, was well-intended,
but offers the wrong solutions for
the problem. It put the onus on
women to avoid rape by being ‘cau
tious’. Such a premise sets up the
possibility of dismissing rape be
cause a woman was ‘asking for
it’.We don’t expect men to use such
caution because they might be
robbed and beaten at night on city
streets. Telling women to ‘stay
home where it’s safe’ fits into our
vestigal ideology about where
women should really be.
‘Exercising caution’ just won’t
solve the problem. Most rapes are
caused by acquaintances and per
petrated homes and dorms. Men
are encouraged to treat women as
objects of sexual gratification, and
women are taught to see them
selves as such (just watch a chorus
line of the UGA pom-pom team
bump and grind). Until we all see
women foremost as people with in
telligence, dignity, and indepen
dent rights, rape will be something
men treat as natural, when the op
portunity arises (polls have shown
that the majority of college men
say they would rape a woman if
they thought they could get away
with it). Let’s not tell women to
abandon the public world; let’s
make that world friendly to
women. A required core course that
explored gender, race, religion, age
and ethnic differences might con
stitute the Univerist/s small con
tribution to this project.
Celeste Michelle Condit
associate professor, speech commu
nication
Men can’t forge peace
It has been said that Coleridge
wrote his famous fragment Ttubla
Khan’ upon waking from an opium-
enhanced dream. Would that
Steven Sacco's fantastic dream of
world government were but half as
realistic as Coleridge's heady vi
sion.
Is building a one-world pleasure
dome that would unite Americans
with backwards tribesmen, violent
religious zealots and millions of
n le unpracticed in the exercise
Bmocracy really such a laud
able idea? I think not.
Unfortunately for Mr. Sacco,
who recently dismissed religion as
a dangerous superstition, the per
fect peace and narmony he so de
sires will not be forged by the
hearts and hands of mere men.
Surely, on this point, the mil
lions sacrificed to communism, to
mankind’s most recent effort to
unite the world in equality, peace
and brotherhood, would silently
caution: No more utopian experi
ments; no more ideological night
mares.
Luke Boggs
senior,history