Newspaper Page Text
* • The Red and Black • Thursday, April 12. 1990
■ QUOTABLE
OPINIONS
“If you step on the little people, you're going to have an uprising
—which you almost saw this year."
— Andrea Naterman, SA President Pro Tern, about senators'
considering an impeachment of SA President Mark Schisler
The Red & Black
EtlabLtKtd 7*93—Incorporated 1M0
An independent itudent neu spaper not affiliated uitb the Vmvemty of Georgia
Charlene Smith/Editor-in-Chief
Amy Bellew/Managing Editor
Hogai Nassery/Opinions Editor
■ EDITORIALS
Results
As Student Association elections draw near,
promises and more promises fill bus cards and fliers.
Campaigners better beware of making promises they
can’t deliver. The current SA administration came into
office with several ideas for making the SA a better
organization.
Here is a list of the promises made by Mark
Schisler and Mary Beth Hartlage, SA president and
vice president, at the outset of their administration.
Students should see how their actions matched up to
their promises and hold the new SA leaders
accountable for the promises they make now to gain
votes.
Enforce the senator attendance policy. Half-hearted
effort. Absentee standards were set, but were either
ignored or ineffective. Senators were warned that two
unexcused absences could result in expulsion.
However, there were still too many empty chairs at SA
meetings.
Make sure senators accomplish something. Some
did, some didn’t. The SA did this and a few projects got
done because a few senators took their responsibilities
seriously. Students got an escort van, a debate on
campus between the Athens mayoral candidates and a
designated driver program
Push for a parking deck near Russell Hall. SA has no
power to do anything about this. The SA did confer
with University President Charles Knapp who is
amenable to the idea. However, there is no money to
fund the project until the SPACEXTER is financed.
Stage a spring stadium concert. Crash and bum.
For the second time, the SA has found that a stadium
concert isn’t going to happen. SA is realizing that to get
an affordable band that would appeal to 30,000
students is not going to be possible this year.
Keep the computer labs open 24 hours a day or get
more computers. Half-hearted effort that got virtually
no results. SA claims that it was responsible for the
extension of lounge and computer lab hours in the main
library at the beginning of fall quarter. However,
Scholars Organized for Library Expansion (SOLE) is
the true champion of this cause.
SA picked up the issue last fall, and launched a
pilot program that extended hours until 2 a.m., but this
was revoked due to “lack of student usage.” SA
monitored the number of people sitting in the lounge,
not the computer lab, which was full during most of
that period.
Get teacher evaluations published. SA laid the
groundwork. This was one of those individual projects
that was initiated, but never completed. Admittedly, it
is a heavy task that will take a year or two to get off the
ground.
Establish a Student Rights Committee to push for
eliminating selective enforcement of the city's open
container and noise ordinances. Ineffective. The
committee was formed, and the Athens City Police
finally stated that the open container law would only be
enforced to maintain crowd control. But it is doubtful
that SA had anything to do with it. The SA didn’t follow
up on the noise ordinance.
Hold SA meetings once a week, instead of every two
weeks. Flying colors on this one. SA met every week.
Create a Black Affairs Committee to work with the
Black Affairs Council. Left hanging. This was later
denoted the Cultural Affairs Committee in an effort to
be more inclusive off all minority groups on campus.
Under senator Djuana Austin, this committee
sponsored activities that included the international
food festival and movies on minority topics. SA started
this, but didn’t work to keep it going.
STAFF
NEWS: 543-1809
New* Editor- Jenrxfcr Rampcy
Sport* Editor Trevor Padgett
EM arts town snt Editor: Margaret Wetton
Associate New* Editor*: Chris Gomes, Jennifer
Wilkin
Front Pag* Copy Editor: Oavtd Johnston
Inside Copy Editor*. Joel Groover. Kelly Keating.
Mary Ratcliff*, Erik Schmidt. Johanna van dor Wai
UGA Today/Wire Editor: Robert Ajuia
Graphic* Editor: Davis O'Keeffe
Chief Photographer Peter Frey
Photo Editor Mona Clay
Staff Writer*: Waiter Colt. Marla Edwards. Anne
Man* Tanguy Lane* Holms. Christopher Hightower.
Dora McLeod. M>M! McLeod. Stephanie Smith.
Sandra Stephens. J. O. Sqmiianta. Robert Todd
Sports Writer: Chris Lancetta
Special Sec Hons/Trends Editor: Cara May
Assistant Special Sect Ion a/Trends Editor:
Glona Powbothem
Editorial Assistant: Pamela Warren
L Mika Moreau
ADVERTISING: 543-1791
Student Advert!ling Managers:
Kristi Burnham. Beverly Taylor
Advertising Assistants
Jennifer Davis. Scott Donaldson. Kathennc Feindal
Senior Advertising Represent at I vss: Scan Fagan.
Knchclic Haiualam, Julie Reynolds
Advertising Representatlvss: Beth Biumcr, Sutanne
Dills, Karen Haynes, Rick Huggins, Mark lacomini.
Chns Manguia. Lee Nettles, Leigh Riffe. Lon
Thurman. Pamela Walker
Assistant Editorial Prod Manager: Cnstma Fcmdt
Assistant Advertising ftod Manager: Marlene
Martin
Production Staff: Andy A/d. Laura Friedrich. Andrea
Mansour. Lonn Marsh. Ei>*abcth Mauu. Laura Miller.
Stacy Stcnbcrg. Michelle Wrgert
General Manager: Harry Montevideo
Advertising Director: Robm Stoner
Office Manager: Mary Straub
Production Manager: Judy Jordan
Classifieds/Receptionist Bcver'y Vaughn
Credit Manager: Susan Davis
Clerical: Joanna Horton
The Red and Black i published Tuesday through
Friday during the regular school year and each
Thursday during summer Quarter, with the eicephon*
of holidays and e>am penods. by The Red and Black
Publishing Company Inc. a non-profit campus
newspaper not affiliated with the University of
Georgia. 123 N Jackson St , Athens. Ga 30601
Third class pottage paid at Athens. Ga. Subscription
rate: $24 per year
Opinions * (pressed In The Red and Back Other than
unsigned editorials are the opinions of the writers of
signed columns and not necessarily those of The Red
and Black Publishing Company Inc. All rights
reserved Reprints by permission of the editors
U.S. should recognize ‘free’ Lithuania
Many times during my childhood my parents
looked into my brown eyes and asked me what I
wanted to be when I grew up. Being at a very
impressionable age with chronic mood swings, I
usually would respond with either, “the Presi
dent of the United States,” or, “the lead singer
of the Doors."
Judging from the extremely delicate situa
tion in Lithuania, I can say now that I defi
nitely don’t wish to be in George Bush’s shoes.
He must cleverly balance U.S. relations with
the Soviet Union and the new and still formally
unrecognized country of Lithuania. Bush can
offer moral support to the Lithuanians, but
should he give military and economic support to
a country that recently told the Soviets where
to go and how to get there? Can he officially rec
ognize Lithuania without inflaming Soviet tem
pers?
First, a little history. In 1940, Lithuania, Es
tonia and Latvia were literally given to the So
viet Union by Adolf Hitler in exchange for
Soviet assurances that they would remain out
of the war. Obviously, this non-aggression pact
was short-lived. However, the three countries
remained in the Soviet Union. On March 11,
1990, Lithuania decided that enough is enough
and that it would like to be free, as it was when
Soviet Communists were chasing Nicholas II
around the country.
Since then, the Soviets have uttered one con
tradiction after another. Initially, Soviet Presi
dent Mikhail Gorbachev stated that military
force would only be employed when lives were
endangered. A few weeks later, Soviet par
atroopers were tiptoeing in the night, invading
a Lithuanian psychiatric hospital, and brutally
attacking two dozen former Soviet soldiers, who
had ‘deserted’ the Soviet military and had
Patrick
Tobin
sought refuge in the hospital after Lithuania
seceded.
In actuality, these ‘deserters’ are Lithuanian
citizens, who were illegally drafted into an
army of occupation. Illegal drafting once got
many young American colonists very pissed ofT.
The morning after the assault, the Kremlin or
dered all foreigners, including reporters, out of
Lithuania and forcibly occupied a fifth Commu
nist Party building in Vilnius, the unrecognized
capital of Lithuania. Now, Gorbachev is
warning the Lithuanians that military force
would be called upon again as a last resort if
Lithuania did not relinquish it’s quest for inde
pendence. Sounds to me like the Soviets are
getting ready to rumble.
And rumble they will, especially since the So
viets are experiencing a major economical
slump in which Soviet production has fallen for
a third straight month. This slump will un-
doubtably intensify without Lithuanian pro
duction profits lining Soviet pockets.
Gorbachev contradicted his earlier pledge “not
to use force except to save lives” by replacing it
with “using force as a last resort”. I fear a mas
sacre may be at hand.
The Lithuanian government, in it’s first act
of democracy, has decided to conduct a public
referendum on their move for independence. I
simply cannot help but doubt that they would
protest and scream “No!!..No!!..I want to be
owned by Russia....The Hell with freedom and
democracy!!!” I wonder what the results would
be if the same referendum were conducted in
the Soviet Union. This act, along with the Lith
uanian government telling it’s people "not to re
sist if Soviet officials try to take their weapons”
and deciding against setting up a border guard
are indicating that they do indeed desire a
smoooth and peaceful transition. The Soviets,
however, have indicated that they desire a
transition marked by massacres and exploita
tion of the people.
So, with all this in mind, where is our noble
President standing? Bush has decided to ignore
this issue, thus living up to his ‘wimp’ image.
Perhaps he is discovering that it takes a bigger
man to stand up against suppression than it
takes to humiliate a well-known reporter on na
tional television. The Lithuanians are pleading
for U.S. support and we, as the leaders of
modern-day democracy, should officially recog
nize Lithuania.
Bush also must stand up to the Soviets to
avoid possible bloodshed. I do not at all desire a
war with the Soviets, but I likewise do not wish
to witness Soviet troops as they cut down many
unarmed Lithuanians. Once we officially recog
nize Lithuania as a democratic nation, we
should aid them economically the same way we
aided England and Japan after World War II,
and in the same way we were aided during our
fight for independence. The road to freedom is
long and tiring, and at times we, as Americans,
forget just how toilsome it was.
Patrick Tobin is a junior environmental health
major.
U.S. history should be wider in scope
What happens to history deferred?
The question of black American history has
surfaced as a serious issue of debate and con
cern in recent months. Admittedly, black Amer
ican history is seriously studied in advanced
circles, but it continues to be overlooked as a
basic part of American history. There are those
who contend that the work of blacks, women,
native Americans, 'ethnic whites’, religious mi
norities or anyone else unjustly ignored was
worthless to shape this country and today’s
events. This is wrong, not just because these
groups built this nation with cunning and sore
backs, but because many fields are considered
trivial by basic history teaching.
Let’s put this on. a personal level. The inter
esting thing about the University of Georgia is
that we are all academic minorities. No major
program is so dominant here that one group is
in a majority. We identify ourselves not by our
hometowns or ethnicity, but by what we study.
(Does “Hey, what’s your major?” sound fa
miliar?)
Women and traditional minorities aren’t the
only ones to complain about the state of history
Reaching. I know manv business, fine arts and
science majors who also complain. This is be
cause people usually don’t like or learn the his
tory they don’t associate with themselves. This
works for minorities of race and academics
alike. As a white male, I wasn’t struck by the
fact that introductory classes exclude non
whites and women. Professors who try to cor
rect this are met with textbook publishers who
Scott
Wells
print incomplete histories. But I was struck by
how little religion was taught, which I deeply
care about. When I look back, there was little
art history, little commercial history, little sci
ence history, and, in fact, little history aside
from geographic exploration, war and political
development. Few can identify with that in
more than a vague nature.
Survey history classes need to include more
facets of the American experience. If our ances
tors broke their backs to build the nation, then
I want to know how they did it. I want to know
how they used their artistic and scientific abili
ties to build our nation. These ‘non-history’
fields need to be taught in history instead of a
rehash of the battles of the American Revolu
tion and the Gold Rush.
When I study American religious history, I
do not see the builders of the faiths as white
men alone. Instead, American religious history
is fully represented by all groups. For instance,
before blacks had political power, they had
power within their own congregations, thus
training themselves as civic leaders and great
orators. This history is long; the African Meth
odist Episcopal Church dates back to 1816.
Some individual congregations are older. But
this is unvalued.
Black American art and music make Amer
ican art distinct. Art isn’t taught as a part of
history, so we would be left not knowing.
Before women were given the ballot, they
took the initiative to pioneer fields in public
health, education and literature. The breadth
of American history is ours to claim.
An argument lingers: If everyone has so
much history to claim in a particular group,
why should I learn another? I answer, that our
own pasts, as separate racial and national
groups, are not isolated. While there was once
great fear of ‘race mixing’, few realize how
much *race mixing* there had been all along.
Blacks have given America distinctive lan
guage, cuisine, folklore, art and means of
worship. If blues and Brer Rabbit seem trivial,
then what is important as history?
These simple things are a part of American
history that we live with. They are a part of the
history that has heretofore been invalidated.
They should be taught. Changes in the current
curriculum must be made. If we learn our his
tory in a full context, then we may fully trea
sure our history, worry less about our identity,
and begin to treat each other as we should.
Scott Wells is a senior history and religion
major.
Employees deserve a break
■ 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 (or 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 classifi
cation and major other appropnate 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.
There is definitely a rotten apple
here at the University of Georgia,
and it must be ferreted out before it
spoils the whole barrel. This Uni
versity is state-funded, yet while
our state officials give themselves
a 40 percent increase in retirement
benefits, they refuse a 9 percent
pay raise for the employees at the
University, who are already under
paid. We will get around a 4 per
cent raise, which will be eaten up
by our huge annual increase in in
surance premiums (a 25 percent
hike this year, which means we
will bring home less money after
our raise than we do now).
I have worked here for 3 years
and yet someone hired today in a
likewise position will be making
the same salary that I make after
putting in all those years.
My outgo far exceeds my income,
my kids and I wear hand-me-
downs, I can’t afford a telephone,
and even with my dental insurance
I don’t have the money to get our
teeth fixed. Now, you tell me who
benefits most from our tax money.
Bonnie L. Carlan
clerical office, forestry resources
Moreu misguided
The way cartoonist Mike Moreu
sometimes depicts certain groups
is insensitive. He taunts and
makes degrading comments about
women, blacks and other minori
ties. Now, when society is aware of
the social problems that exist,
there is a movement toward im
proving the world. One wonders
whether his cartoons are designed
to help or hinder our progress.
YaLonda Brown
freshman, marketing