Newspaper Page Text
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4 • The Red and Black • Friday. April 20. 1990
OPINIONS
■ QUOTABLE
"It's a fad to be into the environment. Right now, ecochic is the
thing." — Bill Walsh, Chair of the Earth Sciences section of the
Georgia Academy of Sciences and owner of the Blue Bird Cafe
and Talking Leaves bookstore.
The Red & Black
Eslabliihed 1893—Incorporated 1980
An independent student newspaper not affiliated with the University of (leorgia
Charlene Smith/Editor-in-Chief
Amy Bellew/Managing Editor
Hogai Nassery/Opinions Editor
■ EDITORIALS
Ralph David Abernathy: 1926-1990
‘I tried.'
A plain-spoken man
Great leaders aren’t always as eloquent as a Martin
Luther King, Jr. They are not always as flamboyant as
a Jesse Jackson, or as smooth and confident as an Andy
Young. Sometimes they are plain-spoken, simple men
like Harry Truman, who once defined leadership as the
ability to “persuade people to do what they ought to do -
without (their) feeling persuaded.”
Rev. Ralph David Abernathy, who died Tuesday at
the age of 64, was that kind of leader.
In 1956, Abernathy, along with King, helped launch
the modem civil rights movement with a boycott of the
segregated city bus system in Montgomery, Alabama.
Abernathy followed King to Atlanta in 1961, and
became a pastor of the West Hunter Street Baptist
Church where he served until his death. He and King
soon founded the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference (SCLC), an organization which would be
the dominant force in the civil rights movement until
King’s death.
Abernathy and King were jailed together 17 times,
and, on the eve of his assasination in 1968, King called
Abernathy, “the best friend that I have in this world.”
Abernathy always played a secondary public role to
King, but he never minded. He was proud of his friend,
and happy to work alongside him. Theirs was a
friendship without rivalry.
It was Abernathy who cradled a dying King in his
arms that fateful day in Memphis, and it was he who,
following King’s own wish, took over the leadership of
the SCLC.
The leadership of the civil rights movement
fractured in the wake of King’s murder, and one clear
leader never emerged again. But through it all,
Abernathy remained true to his vision of the best
America. An America in which, in Abernathy’s words,
African-Americans wouldn’t be “scratching where they
didn’t itch, and laughing when they weren’t tickled.”
Ralph David Abernathy may not have been the best
known American civil rights leader, but he was the one
who was always there - persuading and forcing us to do
what we ought to.
U.S. Representative John Lewis (D-Atlanta) said
Tuesday, “If it hadn’t been for Dr. King and Rev.
Abernathy, I don’t know what would have happened to
me.”
Indeed, what would have happened to us all?
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Opinion* • ■ proceed In The Red and Mack other than
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I DIDNTANyoMCEVER
tell frank Lorenzo
ITS SAFERTbSlTlUTWE
BACKofaN AIRPLANE?
• DS4U'
■n«iW>iBjk*
Humans must halt animal exploitation
The exploitation and inhumane treatment of
animals must stop. An animal holocaust is
taking place that must be challenged .and
changed. Humans have a moral duty to amend
centuries of animal torture and death.
Manufacturing animals for their hides, and
then tailoring them for our bodies is barbaric.
We are no longer Cro-Magnon men; we need not
continue their primitive practice of butchering
animals to clothe ourselves. Animal hide can
and should be completely replaced by modem
synthetic materials. Animals are not products;
they are living beings capable of feeling fear
and injury. To manufacture them confined and
bewildered in tiny cages is reminiscent of Adolf
Hitler’s people factories where basic rights due
to any living being were denied. Why do we
abhor Auschwitz and Treblinka yet embrace
their animal equivalents?
Baby cows raised for veal demonstrate this
paradox particularly well. They spend their
short 14 weeks of life confined in darkness in an
excrutiatingly small box in which they cannot
move. Their flesh is of a poorer eating quality if
they are allowed to walk or exercise, because
normal activity toughens their muscles. ‘Veal’
stands in one spot its entire life, restricted of
any movement except for its head, so it can eat.
It is fed a ‘special’ diet, again to keep it tender,
which produces no bowel. The calf passes only
diarrhea its whole life. Since it is unable to
move, it must deficate upon itself. Still we eat
veal.
Elephants are shot down and their faces cru
dely hacked apart by poachers who make
Steven
Sacco
money from ivory. In the last decade, half of the
world’s elephant population has been slaugh
tered for their tusks. As the adults are killed,
baby elephants, which rely on their mothers for
up to 20 years, wander about confused and in
shock. Eventually they die from exposure, star
vation or predators. As these animals are
highly social and intelligent, the orphaned ba
bies feel the loss of their parents. The recent
ban on international ivory trading is a logical
start to end the killing of elephants, but as long
as any market for ivory exists, these animals
will continue to be seen as a product and they
will be treated as such.
Closer to home, Georgia’s black bears are
hewn down in ever accumulating numbers.
Poachers make a few bucks selling bear gallb
ladders to a Korean black market which pays
up to $1,500 for each. Some Asians believe the
gallbladders have medicinal properties, and
they are willing to buy them from capitalistic
Americans who care nothing about the world’s
inhabitants. The dead bears decompose where
they were killed, intact except for this one
organ.
The testing of pharmaceutical and cosmetic
products on animals is in many cases uneces-
sary or superfluous. The FDA does not regulate
cosmetic companies. They are free to use or
abuse animals as they wish. One of the more
horrible abuses of cosmetic testing is the Draise
eye test done on rabbits. Substances are put
into an eye to test for potential irritancy. Often
the rabbit’s eye will ulcerate causing blindness.
Rabbits have no tear ducts so the products
cannot be naturally washed away; this makes
them particularly ‘good’ testers. Cosmetic com
panies are not required to test on animals.
Many of these tests could be performed by com
puter models or cell and tissue cultures, all of
which are safe and harmless.
Currently there is no centralized data bank
on animal testing. Many experiments are re
peated countless times unbeknownst to the re
searchers, who duplicate results. Rep. Robert
Torricelli (D-NJ) nas introduced a bill that
would formulate a data bank that would elimi
nate duplicative research. This would be a
giant step in the right direction to start the
process of responsible and humane testing.
Everyone must become sensitized to animal
exploitation and become vocal and active in
upholding their right to humane treatment. All
life is to be cherished and respected. Mindless
slaughter of animals only reflects the dark side
of being human. We must overcome our dark
side and learn to love the world’s creatures.
Steven Sacco is a senior criminal justice major.
Animal rights tabloid sentimentalism
)
There is little doubt that the 1990s will prove
to be a decade when Americans regard our envi
ronment as the popular issue. A fresh focus on
both ecological and societal factors seems inevi
table and necessary since we have ignored
these concerns for too long. However, as with
any multifaceted issue, priorities must be es
tablished among the various environmental
causes if any progress is expected. Recently, the
number of “environmentally conscious” poli
ticians has expanded; meanwhile, environ
mental lobbyists line up for support.
Unfortunately, only a few of the major, more
significant topics will receive adequate atten
tion while lesser ones will be left out. Animal
rights activists, as members of this latter
group, should be completely forgotten. There is
no room for efforts which rob valuable re
sources from other legitimate struggles. Ameri
cans should never tolerate the camouflaged lies
or allow the tabloid sentamentalism used by
these fanatics to distort their reason. These tac
tics only discredit the environmental
movement altogether.
Energy spent to advocate animal rights could
be better spent solving more immediate di
lemmas. While it may seem elementary, these
radical left-wingers ignore the truth that an
imal rights are not very important when com
pared to serious problems such as
deforestation. For example, since 1950, twenty
percent of the topsoil and forests have been de
stroyed. The same is clearly not true for ani
mals.
Likewise, every dollar spent to educate
Americans concerning alleged crimes against
animals could be more wisely spent investi
gating ozone depeletion and pollution, prob
lems which threaten all life on this planet.
After all, without an environment, animals
don’t need any rights. Perhaps these activists
should view their decisions and efforts more
closely. Is this really their top priority?
Besides confusing priorities and disrupting
the optimal flow of resources among environ
mental issues, animal rights activists are guilty
of other crimes. Their psuedo-logic, which
points to the fur industry and medical testing
with animals as ur\justified and inhumane, is
blatant and staggering.
Regarding the industry, animal rights activ
ists argue that animals raised on fur farms live
under horrid conditions and are killed without
compassion. This is simply not true. First,
these animals receive the finest care and nutri
tion available, because this directly affects the
quality of their fur. Second, when was the last
time anyone thought animals died peacefully in
the wilderness? While this scenario is found in
Disney films, it isn’t all that common in reality.
Activists also attack trapping which accounts
for no more than twenty percent of the pelts
used in coats. They argue that trapper methods
are often cruel but they conveniently ignore the
fact that, without trapping, thousands of ani
mals would starve to death everytffir. Would
the activists prefer this? gj/mU
Considering the threat of our
planet, it is surprising that anfm^^Bto activ
ists oppose testing with animaW.^HB^-isiaer
this inhumane, yet they offer i^}^|HPaltema-
tives. Although it is not neces«aribMr«ifernble
to experiment in this manner, have no
choice. Animal research has been a major
mechanism by which medical briduhroughs
have been possible. Can we ignore |kis? I would
rather sacrifice a few animals for tne sake of a
human life than allow technological devel
opment to cease. Perhaps activists believe this
is harsh? It actually makes perfect sense.
Although animal rights activists believe
their cause is genuine, they only fool them
selves. Because of their emotional ploys, un
wary individuals eagerly follow their cause,
enabling the leaders of this movement to steal
easy media time and attract attention. At the
same time, other legitimate problems remain
unsolved.
Scott Kelly is a Rapid Fire panelist and pre law
senior.
FBI bad choice for Law Day
■ FORUM
□ The Red and Black welcomes letters to the editor and prints them in the Forum
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and Black's offices at 123 N. Jackon St. Athens. Ga.
The choice of FBI director, Wil
liam Sessions, as keynote speaker
for this year’s LAW DAY is an un
fortunate one. The FBI is our coun
try’s most significant federal
criminal law agency, yet it has a
long history of involvement in il
legal and unconstitutional activ
ities.
In the sixties, under J. Edgar
Hoover, the FBI spied on and at
tempted to discredit Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr. and employed in
formants to spy on the activities of
many more domestic organizations
involved in non-criminal activities.
According to one veteran FBI
agent, Wesley Swearngen, the
agency committed 25,000 illegal
entries during that time.
Later, under William Webster,
1
According to one
veteran FBI agent,
Wesley Swearngen, the
agency committed
25,000 illegal entries
during that 1960s.
the agency was involved in political
spying for Ronald Reagan using
highly intrusive and disruptive
forms of surveillance directed at
campus and community groups
peacefully opposing Reagan’s poli
cies in Central America. More than
150 church, labor, peace and com
munity organizations were tar
geted.
We can only hope Mr. Sessions
will work to correct these prob
lems, however he has not gotten off
on too good a footing. He has de
fended the FBI’s “Library Aware
ness" program under which FBI
agents have been visiting libraries
to recruit librarians and other li
brary employees to report on the
use of library materials by foreign
students and others presumed to
be foreign. This practice has been
condemned by the American Li
brary Associaton.
With Sessions’ distinguished re
cord, one would think he would
know better than to continue
sleazy activities like these. I hope
we can do better for our next “Law”
Day.
Terry Boling
staff photographer, Cartographic
Services