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■ QUOTABLE
4 » The Red and Black • Thursday, April 26, 1990
OPINIONS
The Red & Black
Establish*] 1093—Incorporated i960
An independent student newspaper not at film tad with tha Unrverstty ot Georgia
Charlene Smith/Editor-in-Chief
Amy Bellew/Managing Editor
Hogal Nassery/Opinions Editor
■ EDITORIALS
Demand control
The lack of gun control in the state of Georgia is an
accident waiting to happen, and it does happen almost
every day of the year. It happened Tuesday afternoon
at Perimeter Mall in Atlanta, when an armed man
gunned down five innocent bystanders in the food
court.
The suspect was released only the day before from
Georgia Regional Hospital, carrying release papers
that described him as “homicidal, suicidal and
suffering from delusions.” There is currently no state
law regulating gun sales. This must change.
It is time for Georgia’s legislators to draft and
introduce bills that will address this issue. Instead of
endlessly pontificating on the fictional Drug War, our
representatives must take the steps necessary to
ensure the safety and security of Georgia’s citizens. It
is time the National Rifle Association and other various
lobbying groups who ignore common sense and
rationality finally acknowledge the dangers of overly
accessible handguns.
Is it too much to ask to require a waiting period
before handing someone a murder weapon? A teen-ager
cannot legally drive an automobile without passing
tests, yet in Athens one can simply peruse the classified
ads of a local paper, make a phone call, and purchase
anything from a handgun to an automatic weapon.
When our nation’s founders guaranteed Americans the
right to bear arms, it is doubtful they meant to
jeopardize the lives of lunchers in a suburban mall.
Under federal law today, gun brokers must require
a driver’s license and proof of address before selling
anyone a gun. The customer must fill out a form, swear
that he isn’t under indictment and has never been
committed to a mental institution against his will.
Apparently, some customers lie.
Thanks to years of legislative irresponsibility,
Georgia is in an untenable position. So many people
have handguns that it is almost impossible to enforce
any type of regulation. However, inroads must be
made. Most of the gubernatorial candidates have
ignored this issue to date, with Roy Barnes and Bubba
McDonald standing in direct opposition to any
proposed gun control legislation. Don’t vote for them.
The families of the victims of Tuesday’s shooting
would be justified in suing every legislator in the
General Assembly who backed down under pressure
from the NRA. Their failure to act costs lives. This
election year, every time a candidate mentions crime or
drugs, it is everyone’s responsibility to speak out above
the rhetorical din and demand more support for the
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. We must
demand protection.
Share the tests
Now the students with learning disabilities are
getting the short end of the budgetary stick.
The University’s Learning Disabilities Adult Clinic
is one of the best programs in the nation, but it doesn’t
have the money to serve all the people who need it.
Students get turned away because the waiting list for
taking the necessary tests to use the clinic’s services is
so long. The clinic will only accept the results of the
University’s test, even if another psychologist has said
the student has a learning disability.
To solve the crunch, the University should work
with private psychologists by sharing its standardized
tests. The private clinics could administer the tests and
take some of the load off the University. As it is now,
students may have already been diagnosed, but have to
satisfy the University’s test to use clinic services.
Different psychologists’ conclusions would then be
more uniform and re-evaluations of potential LD
students unnecessary.
STAFF
NEWS: 543-1809
Naws Editor Jonrofor Ranpay
Sports Editor. Trover Padgett
Entertainment Editor Margorot Waston
Associate Nows Editors: Chris Gfima*. Jennifer
•enter Advertising Wspreeontativoo: Sear Fagan.
Kncheiie Haiualan. Julie Reynolds
Advertising Representatives: Aitfusta Ouffey,
Shannon (keens, Karen Haynes, Rich Higgins. Mark
laoomm, Chris M unguis, Toby Myers, LeeNetUes,
Leigh Rlffe, Lon Thurman
Assistant Editorial Prod. Manager: Cristina Feindt
Assistant Advertising Prod Manager Martens
Martin
Widen
Front Rags Copy Editor: Oavtd Johnston
Inside Copy EdNora: Joel Qroover, Kelly Keating,
Mary Rate lifts. Johanna van dor Wai
UOA Teday/Wke Editor Robert Anna
Oraphles Editor Oavis O'Keeffe
Chief Phot omophor. Peter Frey
Photo Editor: Marta Clay
Staff Writers: Wafter Colt. Marta Edwards, Anne
Mane Fanguy, Lance Hetme. Christopher Hightower.
Den McLeod. Mike McLeod. Stephanie Smith.
Sandra Stephans. J. 0. Squitiante. Robert Todd
Sports Writer: Chns Lanottts
Specie Seed one/Trends Ed* or: Cara May
Assistant Special Sections/ Trend# EPtor
dona Rowbothem
Edited* Assistant: Pama«a Warren
Cartoonist: Mike Moreu
ADVERTISING: 543-1791
Student Advertising Msnagsra:
Krtsb Burnham. Beverly Taytor
Advertising As* st an is:
Jennifer Dev's. Scott Donaldson. Katharine Faindai
Production Staff Andy Ard, Laura Friedrich, Andrea
Manaour, Lonn Marsh. Eiiiabeth Mauu. Laura Miller.
Stacy Stenberg. Michelle Wegert
if Manager: Harry Montartdeo
Manager: Mary St/aub
rtlon Manager Judy Jordan
ClasaMsSyRaesatlsidat: Baverty Vaughn
Credit Manager Susan Oavis
Clartsal: Joanna Horton
The Rad and Meek is published Tuesday through
Friday during tha regular school year and each
Thursday during summer quarter, with tha exception*
of holiday* and exam partods. by Tha Rad and Black
Publishing Company me. a non-profit campus
newspaper not affiliated with tha University of
Georgia. 123 N Jackson St.. Athsne. Ga 30601
Third class postage paid at Athens. Ga. Subscription
rata: S24 par year
0pinion* expressed la The Rad and Mac* other then
unsigned edrtonai* era tha opinions of the writers of
signed column* and not neoeseaniy those of The Red
end Black Publishing Company Inc. All rights
reserved Reprint* by permission of the editors.
"There are a lot of negative feelings about the South. The South
Is not anymore racist than anywhere else."
— Curt Collier, member of Culture of the South Association.
Television destroying modern politics
After a hard day at the office, a resident of
Dallas, Texas, comes home, pops open an ice-
cold beer, and settles down in front of the tube.
But when Gilligan and the Skipper are inter
rupted by a commercial, it’s not for Chevrolet,
Coca-Cola, or even Freedom Rock. Instead,
state Treasurer Ann Richards appears, with a
chilling question superimposed over her face:
“Did she use marijuana, or something worse
like cocaine ... Not as a college kid but as a 47
year-old elected official sworn to uphold the
law?”
This accusation, in Texas’ recent Democratic
gubernatorial primary, took modern attack pol
itics to a new low. Richards’ opponent, Jim
Mattox, had no proof that she was a drug ad
dict. Richards, an admitted former alcoholic,
simply had refused to answer a question in a
debate as to whether she had ever used drugs,
feeling she had exposed enough of her personal
life. On this flimsy foundation, Mattox built a
campaign of smear and innuendo, citing conve
niently anonymous sources who claimed to
have seen his opponent using drugs.
The irony of all this is that Richards burst
onto the national political scene two years ago
with a vicious attack of her own. It was she who
charmed the 1988 Democratic convention with
her portrayal of George Bush as the man “bom
with a silver foot in his mouth.”
Is this just a simple case of one who lived by
the sword dying by it? According to The New
York Times, “an unhappy consensus has
emerged ... that domestic politics has become so
shallow, mean, and meaningless that it is
failing to produce the ideas and leadership
needed to guide the United States in a rapidly
changing world.” Or, as former Vice President
Walter Mondale said, “We’ve got a kind of poli
tics of irrelevance, of obscurantism, that is
more prevalent than in any time I can recall.”
Politics in America has never been a gen
tleman’s game; as Robert Caro points out in his
most recent volume on Lyndon Johnson, Texas
elections were once decided by party bosses
buying and selling huge blocks of votes, or even
having dead citizens cast ballots for their man.
But the system was also capable of producing
the Lincoln-Douglas debates and of giving us
leaders of real genius such as Thomas Jef
ferson.
The difference today is television. The ubiq
uitous set trivializes everything it touches, and
politics is no exception. Instead of addressing
the S & L crisis, the collapse of communism, or
the Social Security question, candidates bom
bard their opponents with 30-second attack
ads, such as Mattox’s. In place of giving sub
stantiate speeches, candidates head for the
flag factory, hoping to grab ten seconds on the
evening news. And Ronald Reagan perfected
the art of transforming a televised "debate” into
a stream of witty one-liners.
Public figures from the left and right alike
are swallowed by a media feeding frenzy.
Robert Bork, John Tower, Jim Wright, and
Gary Hart spring immediately to mind. In
Bork’s case alone, a sinister whispering cam
paign of outright lies cost this country the
service of one of its greatest constitutional
minds. But television concerns itself less with
someone’s true worth than with digging up tiny
such spicy gossip which might boost ratings.
The 1972 film ‘The Candidate” starred
Robert Redford as an idealistic politician grad
ually seduced by power, slowly becoming more
concerned with the act of getting elected than
with public service itself. Eighteen years later,
fiction has become fact. For Lee Atwater,
George Bush’s 1988 campaign manager, freely
admits: “We had one goal in the campaign, and
that was to elect George Bush. Our campaign
was not trying to govern the country.”
It wasn’t; George Bush isn’t; and it seems as
if no one else is either.
John Hunter is a junior English major.
Advice for the romantic fools of spring
All I really needed to know about dating I
learned in high school.
But the problem for most people I know is
that they got to college, learned a few big words
and started applying them to dating. Re
member what happened the last time “commit
ment” or even “communication” came out of
your mouth? Trouble, right?
I tell all my friends that, whenever they get
the urge to talk big, they should just sing that
old standby - “ABCDEFG...HIJK...LMNOP...”
This prevents putting your foot in your mouth
and your heart in a meat grinder.
In fact, I told a lot of people that trick, and it
caught on. (Haven’t you noticed all those people
humming the alphabet under their breath?) My
reputation as a dating adviser caught on, a cult
following formed and I was forced by that noto
riety into a certain belligerent responsibility for
the troubled daters of the University.
So here it is, yes — puke! — Advice for the
Lovelorn.
HI begin at the beginning: Breaking Up. The
beginning, you ask? Yes, if you have the right
attitude, what I call the Graddy attitude. More
on that in later columns.
Rule No. 1 on breaking up: See it coming and
beat ’em to the draw.
If your significant other (S.O.) says any of the
following:
• "I love you, I just don’t know if I’m in love
with you...”
• “1 just need more freedom...”
• "I just need more space...”
Elizabeth
Graddy
• “I just need more time...”
Smile and point the S.O. toward the door
with a lighthearted “Don’t slam it on your way
out.”
Then, of course, you can come apart at the
seams: scream, call your best friend and malign
the S.O. over the phone, eat 27 Milky Ways
while crying your heart out, etc. How long does
this continue? You're permitted to engage in
this type of emotional exorcism according to the
1-2-3 Formula —one minute for every three
weeks you dated the S.O.
Then, for heaven’s sake, get yourself together.
Take all the stuff that reminds you of the
S.O. — the sappy photos, the boxers left in the
bathroom, etc. — and hide it under the bed. (I
can’t bear to throw away that sentimental crap,
either.)
Stop listening to the radio for six months or
until the songs that remind you of the S.O work
themselves off the playlists. I mean, music will
kill you. During my last big break-up, all the
local stations decided to make “our song” —
Peter Frampton’s “I’m In You” — a hit all over
again. I was beginning to think my ex-boyfriend
bribed DJs just to torture me.
On the other hand, music can be therapeutic.
I’ve found that nothing helps my broken heart
like dancing around my room and singing,
“Girlfriend/how could you let him treat you so
bad/girlfriend/vou know you were the best he
ever had/WOH-oooh-woh-oooh-woh...” at the
top of my lungs. My roommate, Rebecca, also
likes it when I sing Rick James’ classic ‘That
Girl (Thinks That She’s So Bad).”
I also recommend the recently dumped to
begin dating as quickly and voraciously as pos
sible. Two reasons: (1) You’ll begin to realize
that there are a lot of beautiful boys/girls out
there and your former S.O. was kind of a goob
anyway, and (2) you’ll have a great deal of suc
cess with the many beautiful boys/girls out
there because you’re broken-hearted and
slightly unattainable.
And remember, this is the first day of the
rest of your life, blah, blah, blah.
Editor's note: If you're desperate, you can write In
for advice in care of The Red end Black, 123 N.
Jackson St., Athene, Ga., 30602. If you’re really,
really desperate, call and we'll eat you up with
some of the people who work here and don’t get
out much.
Elizabeth Graddy is a senior political science
and journalism major.
The R & B ignored Law Day
■ 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 II
belous material. Letters should be typed, doublespaced and must Include the name,
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reason upon request. Letters can be sent by U.S. mall or brought In person to The Red
and Black s offices at 123 N. Jackon St., Athens. Ga.
This weekend, the UGA School
of Law held its annual Law Day.
Among the guests were the di
rector of the Federal Bureau of In
vestigation, William Sessions, as
well as the Chief Justice of the Su-
S reme Court of Georgia, the Chief
udge of the Georgia Court of Ap
peals, and several other distin
guished Justices and Judges.
These are some of the most pow
erful and important people in this
state and nation. Yet in an aston
ishing display of poor judgement,
The Red and Black chose not to
cover this event. Apparently, sto
ries about horror movies and recy-
cling were deemed more
newsworthy.
It is no wonder that The Red and
Black enjoys such little respect on
this campus. By neglecting impor
tant campus events, it’s ignoring
its journalistic responsibility , and
will continue to be perceived as one
of the nation’s poorest ■‘news’pa-
pers.
Jeff Rothman
Paul Rathks
1st year law students
S.E.A. office evicted
Students for Environmental
Awareness may soon be without an
office. The office space currently oc
cupied by S.E.A. will apparently
resume the guise of the mail room
which it once was. This is a neg
ligent waste of office space. Fur
thermore, if Pres. Knapp wants a
more environmentally aware
campus, then he must give active
organizations like S.E.A. a place to
meet and organize.
As an employee in the Tate Stu
dent Center, I am able to view a
cross-section of the offices which
remain in use. S.E.A. has been
making fairly constant use of this
office space. There are other of
fices, such as the All-Campus
Homecoming Committee, that are
rarely used during certain times of
the year. 1 am not attacking the
rights of any organization. 1 merely
suggest that the administration in
charge of these offices should take
a closer look at which organiza
tions truly need and deserve this
office space. If University students
allow this to happen, we will be
demonstrating just how apathetic
the University has become. And if
you attended Earth Day festivities,
remember those students who
worked hard to make it a reality.
Tom Cohen
Junior, englleh