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4 • The Red and Black » Friday. April 27, 1990
OPINIONS
The Red & Black
Established 1893—Incorporated 1980
An independent student newspaper not affiliated with the University of Georgia
Charlene Smith/Editor-in-Chief
Amy Bellew/Managing Editor
Hogai Nassery/Opinions Editor
■ EDITORIALS
Between April showers, North Campus naps and
baseball games, the University community has found
plenty of time this month to excel, share and achieve.
The people involved in the following events and awards
deserve praise for their accomplishments, as well as
their efforts to make the world a better place.
• Personal achievement. Two academic advisers
in the College of Arts and Sciences were recognized for
outstanding performance on the job this quarter —
Bobbie Epting and Oliver Coleman.
Elizabeth Cuddy, a psychology doctoral candidate,
received the Florence Young Award for displaying
outstanding professionalism in her field.
Andy Wen, a doctoral music candidate was the
national winner in the Music Teacher’s Association of
Collegiate Artists competition for playing the
saxophone.
Law students, Stacey Ferris and Doug Smith, won
the School of Law’s spring mock trial competition.
• Team efforts. The gymnastics team finished the
season ranked third in the nation.
Fraternity service hours are at an all-time high and
grade-point averages are up over last year.
Congratulations to Beta Theta Pi for having the
highest fraternity GPA on campus, a 3.21. Beta’s GPA
is also higher than the all-men’s GPA of 2.63.
Zeta Tau Alpha has the highest sorority GPA,a
2.98.
• Administrative enlightenment. University
President Charles Knapp upheld Sigma Chi
fraternity’s five-year suspension. The sentence had
been pared down enough by the time it got to Knapp.
It’s good to see him take a stand and not undercut the
Student Judiciary like every other step in the appeals
process did.
Macintosh access on campus was expanded this
month with more lab hours open to the public. It’s
about time.
The University was quick to respond to art thefts at
the South Thomas Street Art Complex. After three
students lost valuable art work they had spent months
creating, the Physical Plant installed a fence around
the courtyard area within a week of the third theft.
Students had to leave large, heavy scuplture outside
because it was too big to bring in every night.
• Environmental awareness. Earth Day was a
success in Athens, largely because of all the University
students who helped plan, organize and publicize the
event. The Students for Environmental Awareness and
other volunteers certainly are doing their part to save
the earth.
Students who live in residence halls are also joining
the environmental crusade. Many have initiated
recycling projects on their halls.
• Community giving. The University Service
Organizations Council raised about $300 for the
Athens homeless by trading peanut butter-and-jelly
sandwiches for donations. Students have a great
impact on the city and it’s good to see them mobilizing
their resources to help others.
• Bringing it here. Thanks to the University
Union for bringing G. Gordon Liddy, Susan Sontag,
and next month, Spike Lee to the University. Such
guests keep discussion alive and broaden our horizons.
The chance to meet and talk with such figures is the
most fun part of a higher education.
Rapid Fire moderator David Herndon also deserves
praise for bringing keeping the student-run program
going with guests ranging from Knapp to the
candidates for governor of Georgia.
With only one and a half months to go before the
end of the academic year, it’s good to see yearlong
efforts such as these come to fruition.
STAFF
NEWS: 543-1809
Newt Editor Jonmfw Rarrpey
Sports Editor: Trover Padfctt
Ent arts town ant Editor: Mw(»et Wealon
AaaocUta Now* Edftoro: Chris Gnmo*. Jennifer
Front Pago Copy Editor David Johnston
Staid a Copy Editors Joel Groover. Mary Ratcliffs.
Johanna van dor Wal
UGA Today/Wlrs Editor: Robert Azuia
Qraphlca Editor: Daws O'Kooffa
C*M Photographer: Patar Fray
Photo Editor: Mona Clay
Staff Writers: Waiter Colt, Mana Edwards. Anno
Mans Tanguy. Lanes Malms, Christopher Hightower.
Oars McLeod. Mike McLeod Stephanie Smith.
Sandra Stephens. J. 0 Squ.iiante. Robert Todd
Sports Wrttsr: Chris La name
Spaa si Sac flans/ Treads Editor Cara May
Assistant Special Sections/Trends Editor:
Gloria Rowbotha-n
Editorial Assistant: Pamela Warren
Cartoonist: Mika Mortu
ADVERTISING: 543-1791
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AdvertMng Assistants:
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Production Staff: Andy A/d. Laura Friedrich, Andrea
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Gen at a l Manager Harry Montevideo
Advertising Director: Robin Stoner
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Clerical: Joanna Horton
The Rad and Black is published Tuesday through
Friday during the regular school year and each
Thursday during summer quarter, with the exceptions
of holidays and exam periods, by The Rod 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 postage paid at Athens. Ga Subscnption
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Opinions expressed In The Rad and Monk other than
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and Black Publishing Company Inc All rights
reserved Reprints by permission of the editors
"We've been lucky — knock on wood — we haven't bad anyone
get huit In the last four years, and we're one of the few that
haven't."
— Ron Binder, adviser to fraternities, on liability
PEU»-
lei «nd Slack
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Wow! TKe Hubble telescope
Will allow US \o count
every planet, star, and galaxy
in entire universe/
Why can’t they aim
to gfcmo
at the United States?^
Civil disobedience to abolish injustice
From the time most of us were small chil
dren, we were taught the importance of obeying
the law. We learned to respect the law and
those who enforced it, because laws are made to
insure public and private safety, and to main
tain order. We were made aware of harsh pe
nalties for disobeying the law. However,
throughout history, some of the most horren
dous attrocities have been perfectly legal. What
happened in the concentration camps of Nazi
Germany was legal under German law at the
time. The daily degradation of human beings in
South Africa is legal under the system of apart
heid.
Under certain circumstances blind obedience
of the law is a disservice to humanity. There are
times when there are laws that need to be
broken.
Most people believe there is a higher law
than societal laws; sometimes the two are in
accord, sometimes in discord. Some call it
“God’s Law”, but it is better understood as a
law of conscience, as the human conscience ulti
mately indicates right and wrong to the indi
vidual.
There are, then, two types of societal laws:
just and unjust. Dr. Martin Luther King wrote
that, “Any law that uplifts human personality
is just. Any law that degrades human person
ality is unjust ” The litmus test for any law is
how it addresses the treatment of human be
ings. Any law that sanctions the degradation of
other human beings in unconscionable, and
ought to be broken. In the spirit of such persons
as Henry David Thoreau, Mahatma Gandhi,
and Dr. King, the individual is compelled to dis
obey unjust laws in favor of following his con
science. Thoreau did in his refusal to support
with his taxes a government that tolerated
slavery and waged an unjust war against an
other country, and Gandhi and King did in
their refusals to adhere to laws that degraded
their people.
The individal is compelled to follow his con
science even if it means breaking the laws of his
community or society, but he must also be
willing to suffer the consequences of breaking
the law, otherwise civil disobedience loses its
effectiveness. As the individual is compelled to
disobey unjust laws imposed by his community,
so is the state compelled to arrest and punish
those who break laws. Without the willingness
to accept arrest and punishment, the most ef
fective element of civil disobedience is nullified.
The effectiveness of civil disobedience lies in
the fact that large-scale noncooperation calls
attention to an unjust system and strains its fa
cilities. Mass civil disobedience causes crises
that force negotiation and foster change, as in
the case of the Civil Rights Movement or Gan
dhi’s movement to free India. Civil disobedience
alerts the collective conscience of a community
or society to the existence of injustice, and be
comes a catalyst for heightened awareness and
change.
There are those who would argue now, just
as during the movements of the 60’s and 70’s,
that intentional disobedience of the law is an
affront to law and order. However, law and
order exist for the purpose of establishing and
maintaining justice, and when the laws of a so
ciety are unjust in nature or application, the in
dividual is compelled to disobey the law in an
attempt to see it corrected. Disobedience of the
law becomes a higher act of patriotism than
strict obedience.
Civil disobedience has been an element of so
cial change since the inception of this country,
most evident in events like the Boston Tea
Party. Across the globe it is applied again and
again in efforts to bring about the end of laws
that legalize degrading treatment of human be
ings; in South Africa when hundreds of blacks
peacefully invade “White Only” beaches; in
China where thousands of students gathered in
hope of fostering reforms, and ignited the con
science of the entire world; in American cities
where ACT-UP loudly protests laws that dis
criminate against people with AIDS.
Where there are laws that institute the in
human treatment of people, one is justified in
breaking such laws.
Terrance Heath is a junior English major.
Political labels need to be understood
This being the first article in a series of arti
cles by political science graduate students/pro
fessors, I thought I would speak to the subject
of paradigms. Paradigms are lenses. In other
words, they are the theoretical bases through
which we view the world. In the next few weeks
we will present articles discussing everything
from the Georgia gubernatorial race to East-
West trade to the benefits of American foreign
aid policy. Before we embark on this wide range
of subjects, we should solidify our grasp of what
politics is and how we understand it.
I am constantly amazed by people who clas
sify themselves as “conservative" or ‘liberal,”
but, at the same time, do not really know what
these terms mean. To their defense, however,
what these terms actually do mean shifts over
time. For example, today’s conservative is
based in what can be called “classical liber
alism." This school sees the world as composed
of rationally calculating, self-interested indi
viduals. The role of government, as seen
through this lens, is to allow for as much indi
vidual freedom as possible, limiting freedom
only to the extent that the individual inflicts
harm upon other individuals. This school
stresses the need for free markets/trade, under
the premise that only through free markets-
/trade can the lot of humanity be improved and
individual freedom be strengthenned.
Today’s liberal rejects many of the premises
of “classical liberalism.” This school sees the in
dividual as self-interested, but self-interest is
only one of the individual’s attributes. Individ
uals are driven by a host of motivations, in
cluding self-interest, morality, religiosity, and
creativity. Whereas the conservative views
these other attributes through the self-interest
motive, the liberal puts all motives on equal
footing. Further, liberals tend to view commu
nities as extant above and beyond individuals.
In other words, communities are not simply ag
gregates of individuals, but are entities which
affect and are affected by individuals. This lens
leads today’s liberals to call for social welfare
“safety nets” and foreign and domestic policies
which take into account human complexities.
Regardless of the lens one chooses (whether
it is one of the above, something in between, or
something different altogether), I believe it is
important that one comes to grips with why he
or she believes what he or she believes. Too
often people spout this or that dogma, trying to
win an argument.even though they have little
understanding of what they are actually
saying. At the recent Earth Day celebration
downtown, this point was made all to well by
Bullet Standing Deer, a member of the Che
rokee tribe in North Carolina. While he was
complimentary of Earth Day in general, he
openly questioned whether the majority of
Earth Day participants were concerned for the
earth or simply out for a nice Sunday afternoon
party (i.e. be part of the “in thing”). While I may
not feel the need to criticize Earth Day partici
pants, Bullet Standing Deer is correct in
pushing us to see what we are doing and saying
in a clearer way. He was pushing us to under
stand our own paradigm and all its implica
tions.
In the ensuing articles in this series many
important aspects of our political world will be
addressed. I believe that in many respects it is
less important what positions we take on these
issues than it is to understand why we take
these positions. As we read these articles, we
should try to understand how they relate to the
political paradigms we accept.
Chris Brown is a graduate student in the polit
ical science department.
Boggs vs. women’s health
■ 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 classifi
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.
Luke Boggs’ column was a dis
couraging attempt at justifying the
vulgar behavior of big business.
His faulty premise that a company
prescribing addiction and death as
their formula to success deserves
an appreciative response by the
American public, demonstrates his
complete disregard for the health
of an entire generation of women
who are targeted by R.J.R. To
bacco. Mr. Boggs obviously lacks a
social conscience and sees the
women who will get cancer from
smoking as worthless other than to
pad the pockets of corporate fat
cats who value the almighty dollar
over human life.
People are sorely persuaded by
what they read and hear in the
media. Mr. Boggs has fallen prey to
media brainwashing as evidenced
by his supporting former President
Reagan as “the real man of the de
cade” of the 80’s. Others will fall
f irey also as R.J. Reynolds, Co. se-
ectively targets consumers to turn
them into substance abusers who
cannot say no to buying cigarettes.
Let’s hope that like Boggs’ hero
Ronald (arms to Iran) Reagan , the
days of capitalism over values are
gone forever.
Steven D. Sacco
senior, criminal justice
Animals need respect
This letter is in response to Scott
Kelly’s column. He argues that an
imal rights activists use “tabloid
sentimentalism" to distort reason.
First of all, we must understand
that reason, not sentiment, forces
us to acknowledge that animals
possess an equal, inherent right to
oe treated with respect.
The fundamental problem is
that humans treat animals as re
sources, to be used in whatever
fashion we feel is necessary.
Merely because we have the power
to exploit animals, does not give us
the right to do so.
We must recognize that we are
only stewards of this planet and we
must treat it nnd the animals in it
wth respect and awe, because their
fate is in our hands.
Nicole Mabet
sophomore, Interior design