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< « The Red and Black » Tuesday, April 17, 1990
OPINIONS
The Red & Black
EitabUihed 1893—Incorporated 1980
An independent itudent neu I paper not affiliated with the University of Georgia
Charlene Smith/Editor-in-Chief
Amy Bellew/Managing Editor
Hogai Nassery/Opinions Editor
■ EDITORIALS
Henyon for SA
If the Student Association is ever going to earn any
power as an effective student voice, if it’s ever going to
earn the respect of the students it represents,
responsible leadership must be chosen in today’s
election.
The best vote students can cast toward a better
student government is a vote for Ian Henyon and Misty
Lathem, candidates for SA president and vice
president.
Henyon, a junior telecommunications major, has
served as an SA senator this year and has worked hard
on student issues. He co-authored a proposal to let any
student become a general committee member. He
lobbied against drug bills in the Georgia Legislature
and lobbied against financial aid cuts in the U.S.
Congress.
Henyon has good attendance at SA meetings, which
is unusual for many of this year’s senators. He has
taken an active interest in most issues addressed by
the SA. Responsive to minority needs, he firmly
supported the creation of the African-American
Cultural Center, even when other senators wanted to
change the name of the center. Henyon is also the only
student member of the Environmental Task Force
appointed by University President Charles Knapp.
These attributes alone are enough to distinguish
Henyon from the other candidates, but the most
important reason to vote for Henyon is that he believes
in the SA. He sincerely wants it to work and is willing
to put forth the effort required to make the
organization an effective student voice.
Other candidates promising “reform or abolition”
are blowing hot air. The message they send is that if
they can’t run the SA, no one can. The SA constitution
already provides for a student referendum to keep or
abolish the SA every four years. That vote is scheduled
for spring, 1991, which gives the SA just one more year
to prove it can work. Students don’t need leaders who
are out to prove that it can’t work.
Henyon and Lathem, who served as an SA general
committee member this year, are best qualified to turn
the SA around. They’ve seen where it’s been and what
problems it has faced, so they know how to take it
forward.
Blood safety
The Red Cross is in town this week, collecting blood
to help ease the Northeast Georgia blood shortage. And
while every good citizen in good health should consider
giving, any high-risk donor definitely should not.
The Red Cross will be setting up blood donation
sites today at Memorial Hall from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., and
Wednesday at the Tate Student Center from noon to 5
p.m. Northeast Georgia has been suffering from a
deficit in its blood banks for years now, a crucial
shortage to car accident victims or people with
hemophilia.
But out of enthusiasm to help, people shouldn’t
ignore the criteria for safe donors. If nothing else, Ryan
White’s death last week should serve to warn us of the
harm that can result from being an irresponsible donor.
If you fall into any one of the Red Cross high-risk
categories, don’t give blood.
People who have any type of infection, be it AIDS,
herpes or a sore throat, are disqualified from donating
blood. So are male homosexuals and people who are
sexually promiscuous, have traveled to any of the high-
risk areas of the world, or are underweight.
Unfortunately, medical technology only allows
testing for antibodies to the human immunodeficiency
virus (HIV), not for HIV itself, which can go undetected
for several years. Thus, it is imperative that blood
donors screen themselves before donating.
STAFF
NEWS: 543-1809
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Graph ice Ed Nor Dens O'Keeffe
Chief Photographer Peter Frey
Kioto Editor Merle Cloy
Stall Witters: Welter Colt. Mena Ednerds. Anno
Mono Fenguy. tones Heims. Chnstopher H^htower.
Dors McLeod. Mike McLeod. Stephen* Smith.
Sendro Stephens. J. 0 Semitone. Robert Todd
Sports Wrttor: Chna lenootte
Special Sections/ Trsedo EdRor: Cere Mey
Assistant Special Section a/ Trend a Editor
Qione Aowbothem
Editorial Aaofotant: Pome* Warren
Cartoonist Mike Moreau
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"Everyone got preoccupied with the Cold War. The 'Evil Empire'
was considered our number-one enemy, but now that global rela
tions are Improving, our number-one threat Is waste."
— Eugene Odum, founder of the University Institute of Ecology.
Tur DEfcPUNE FOR FILING YouRTfl(E$
WAS YESTERP/y, MR.TONES. HAVE YoU
CoNSIPEREP DECLARING YoURHoUSEHoLP
AN INPEPENPENT REPUBLIC?
E3I
Stop the switch to satanic semesters
At the end of May, the Executive Committee of
the University Council will hold a council vote
on the change to a semester system.
Students of UGA unite! Do not let the admin
istration railroad the passage of this measure
by us! Think seriously about this matter be
cause it is indeed a serious matter. University
President Charles Knapp advocates the se
mester system. You know him. He is always
keeping the best interests of the University of
Georgia in mind. That was illustrated adequa
tely by his trek to Charlottesville, VA last
month.
I have had experience with both academic
agendas, so please listen wholeheartedly to my
words.
I attended a small, private college in Con
necticut which offered two semesters a year. I
studied there for two years before I transferred
to UGA, where I have been for three years this
quarter. Out of my five years of diverse colle
giate learning, I have drawn one undeniably
final conclusion. Semesters are hell. Quarters,
on the other hand, are quite heavenly. Let’s not
let go of a good thing here too hastily.
Let me present a realistic semester scenario.
In the semester system, each student registers
for five classes, which equals a full load of 15
credits. Yes, this means that every class taken
merits a mere THREE credits. Yes, three.
The schedule is comprised of Monday,
Wednesday, Friday classes and Tuesday,
Thursday classes. Monday, Wednesday, Friday
classes convene for 50 minutes, while Tuesday,
Thursday classes meet for an hour and 15 min-
Marianne
McCarthy
utes. I suppose this is convenient for those of
you with adjustable attention spans.
Speaking of attention spans, semesters will
certainly test yours. Fall semester begins
around September 1 and stretches until at least
mid-December. Some schools have their last
final as late as December 23. Spring semester
begins at the end of January and extends to
mid-May. This means that having a paper due
in April could result in the complete loss of
Spring break, which happened to a friend of
mine up north this year. Her senior year, and
everyone traversed to Jamaica except her.
Bummer, mon.
Complaints that quarters cram too much in
formation into too little time are foolish. As far
as actual academic achievement goes, semes
ters are just long and unnecessarily drawn out.
While in the tropical paradise of Connecticut
for Spring break, I had a chance to look over my
old notebooks. In three and a half months, a se
mester class meets approximately 42 times and
earns three credits. With quarters, a class
meets about 47 times for two and a half months
and earns five credits. Simply stated, more in
tense work equals more credit. Cramming
knowledge? How can you understand the
phrase until you have lived through a five-final
finals week??
Other benefits are offered by quarters as
well. For one, quarters keep a student on top of
the work by daily classes. Meeting only two or
three times a week, it is easy for semester stu
dents to lose sight of assignments. If you blow
off one class, you’ve missed half a week of work.
Secondly, it is advantageous having quarters
coordinate perfectly with the seasons. During
Winter quarter, when it is frigid in the
morning, we can sleep late and take afternoon
classes. When Spring quarter rolls around, we
can register anew for morning classes in order
to enjoy that happily shining Southern sun.
Heed my words. Let’s carefully consider the
options and voice our opinions before this mon
umental decision is made for us, and all future
UGA students are subjected to satanic semes
ters.
Think about three mere classes for those big
five credits. Picture yourself on the beach
during Spring break, totally free of academic
worry. Imagine yourself sitting by the pool in
May. Then conceive the notion that semesters
will completely rob students of these simple
pleasures.
Quarters are the only way to go, Dawgs!
Marianne M. McCarthy is a senior in the Col
lege of Journalism.
Stenger strikes at Sterling
■ 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 for 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 classify
cation and major other appropriate 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.
Gabriel Sterling hailed the use
of carcinogenic fertilizers, typ
ifying the view of the capitalistic
obscurantists who promote the use
of chemical farming without re
straint. After ridiculing two public
figures who promote organic
farming because they are not scien
tists, Sterling soon makes it clear--
he’s not one either.
He points out that we consume
many natural carcinogens in our
diet. But, must we ingest more
cancer-causing junk if it’s not nec
essary? We can produce the same
amount of food with farming tech
niques that do not rely on chemi
cals. For example, natural insect
species can be added to cropland
instead of chemicals to control pest
populations.
The only real argument Sterling
makes against organic farming is
that it costs more. Actually, the
long-term cost makes chemical
farming much more expensive
than organic farming. The shop
pers at Super Kroger do not pay
the real cost of pesticide use.
The real cost includes the incal
culable loss of health and liveli-
hood to many migrant
farmworkers who must apply dan
gerous chemicals to crops. Heavy
pesticide use also threatens to con
taminate underground water sup-
f )lies which provide the water for
ocal communities. The longterm
cost of the contamination of a re
gion’s water supply would be enor
mously higher than the cost of
organic farming. Perhaps the most
important argument against heavy
chemical farming is its threat to
other species. The runoff of agricul
tural chemicals into streams and
rivers concentrates some of the
substances to the point that they
kill life forms in and around the
water systems.
Because of our ignorance about
the effects of DDT, it has since ac
cumulated to lethal levels in many
ecosystems. As a result, two of
America’s most majestic birds, the
bald eagle and the California
condor, have become endangered.
The condor will probably become
extinct in a few years. Other spe
cies already have.
The United States has banned
the use of DDT, but our govern
ment still sells the deadly pesticide
to other countries which, ironi
cally, export crops to the United
States.
Sterling is right to raise the
issue of money when discussing or
ganic farming, but the greedy ones
are the petroleum companies
which have created and flooded the
market for innumerable agricul
tural chemicals, not non-profit en
vironmental groups like tne NRDC
which devote limited resources to
promote common sense alterna
tives.
If you and your capitalism-es
pousing buddies really wanted to
see the free market work, Mr. Ster
ling, I suggest you ask your Con
gressman to remove all the tax
subsidies and corporate welfare
which allow the petrol-agriculture
industry to coerce farmers to use
their junk.
Richard S. Stenger
alumnus
No one deserves AIDS
On April 10, the opinions page
headline read, ‘AIDS victim
changed public perception’. People
with AIDS should not be called vic
tims, as the word *victim’ implies
helplessness and it is important to
the mental and emotional health of
people with AIDS that they not
think of themselves as helpless.
The accepted term is ‘person with
AIDS’. I hope The Red and Black
will exercise a little more sensiti
vity in the future.
I also take issue with Jeff Wohl’s
statement regarding Ryan White’s
illness and death. After describing
public sentiment concerning the
deaths of Rock Hudson and Lib-
erace, Wohl went on to say that
“White is the first famous person to
die of AIDS through no fault of his
own.” Am I then to understand
that Rock Hudson, Liberace and
other gay men or IV drug users
who have AIDS are simply getting
what they have coming to them?
I happen to have friends who
have AIDS, and I have witnessed
the things they have to experience
because of the disease. I have also
been privileged to witness their un
believable strength and tenacity in
fighting the effects of the disease in
their lives. I don’t believe anyone
could do anything to deserve to
have AIDS. It angers me beyond
expression to hear others imply
that they somehow deserve their
illness.
If Wohl was thinking of the life
styles of some people with AIDS
when he wrote his editorial, then I
would like to inform him that AIDS
is not a lifestyle' disease. People
get AIDS from practicing unsafe
sex, needle-sharing, and blood
transfusions (though the risk of in
fection from transfusion has de
creased greatly since the mid
eighties, when White was in
fected). Many people became in
fected with the virus long before
anyone knew how it was trans
mitted, only to become ill years
later. To say that Ryan White got
AIDS “through no fault of his own”
is to call him an “innocent victim”,
and to imply that there are some
people with AIDS who deserve to
have the disease. I defy anyone to
sit by the bedside of a person with
AIDS and tell him that it’s some
thing he deserves.
IPs a shame that anyone has
AIDS, regardless of how a person
gets infected. No matter now a
person gets the disease, people
with AIDS deserve respect, under
standing, and compassion.
Terrance Heath
Junior, engllth
Sigma Chi ignorant
I am writing in regards to Mr.
Moreu’s cartoon, which appeared
in the April 11 edition of your
paper. As a member of the Sigma
Chi fraternity, I was appalled and
outraged by the way Sigma Chi
was portrayed. Do you truly be
lieve that an entire fraternity may
be characterized as being so
shallow and ignorant? To think
that we would attempt to bribe Dr.
Knapp wth a case of light beer is ri
diculous. I heard he drinks Bud-
weiser.
Chris Olson
Junior, Jounalltm
Religious vandalism
The other day I was walking in
front of Reed community, and saw
“TRUST JESUS' spray-painted in
big letters on the sidewalk. I’ve
subsequently seen the same sprav-
painted message on the sidewalk
coming from the Chemistry
building, and on the pavement of
the Tate Center Plaza. I also saw it
written in indelible black marker
on the railing of the bridge in front
of Sanford Stadium. There’s no
telling where else it’s written.
The religious zeal of the indi
vidual responsible for this is admi
rable, but the fact is that
vandalism in the name of Christ is
still vandalism. I’m not writing
this letter because of some kind of
vendetta against Christianity; I'm
writing it because spraypaint on
the sidewalks doesn’t look nice re
gardless of the content of the mes
sage.
In the future, I’d suggest that
this individual send his message
by something other than deface
ment of property that everyone
here has to ultimately pay for. Why
not put up fliers? Printing costs
couldn't be much more than a can
of good spray paint, and I’d almost
guarantee that his point would be
much better taken that way.
Patrick Neal
aophomore, journalism