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Page 20 • UGA: An Independent Look • May 1990
A reporter looks back on The Red and Black
By Tommy Tomlinson
All the letters started the same way: “As
Almighty God, I greet you.”
At fine journalism schools like our own
Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and
Mass Capitalization, half-asleep aspiring
reporters are always taught to write an
opening sentence that grabs the reader.
For example, “Earth was consumed by a
huge violent fireball this morning” is an
excellent lead, although to keep it fresh I
would use it only every six months or so.
But no matter how good I get, if I have to
shove a stack of Pulitzer Prizes off my
dresser every morning to find the deodorant,
111 never write a lead as good as, “As
Almighty God, I greet you.”
God used to write us quite a bit back in the
mid-80’s, when I worked for beer money at
The Red and Black.
According to the letters we used to get,
God lived somewhere in Ohio and
communicated through his son, whose name
was not Jesus, but Eugene.
Anyway, God — through Jesus/Eugene —
would pass along the Good News that we
newspaper people were all going to Hell if we
didn’t do something to lower taxes.
Of course we wondered why God didn’t fix
the tax problem Himself, maybe by throwing
the entire IRS into the Lake of Fire or
something, but we figured He knew best.
Besides, we had enough odd people at The
Red and Black to last us awhile.
We had a reporter who changed his hair
color every day and, as a fashion accessory,
cut notches out of his eyebrows.
We had another reporter who, in the
middle of parties, would just wander off
through the back streets of Athens, oblivious
to the world, until she was found.
We had an editor who was addicted to Tab.
And we were not, shall we say, stars in the
academic world. My own GPA, a sterling 4.0
my first quarter, plunged in almost
mathematically perfect inverse proportion to
my workload at The R & B.
Tm doing the right thing, I told myself. I’m
learning more at the paper than I ever would
in class, I told myself. Let’s go get margaritas
at Gus Garcia’s, I told everybody else.
They were good listeners.
As with any group of people trying to
inform and enlighten society, The Red and
Black should be measured by its parties. We
had great ones, although I must admit we
never actually hazed anyone to death.
But one time we did have a party at a
house where the power hadn’t even been
turned on yet. Although I don’t remember
much about it, I do remember we ended up
pushing each other down the street in a
wheelbarrow.
Now what all of this has to do with the
10th anniversary of The Red and Black’s
independence, I don’t know, except this: All
these strange and wondrous things
happened to me (and of course, my faithful
dog Toto) because a bunch of us had The Red
and Black in common.
We drank with each other. We fought with
each other. We slept with each other. And I
loved it.
In four years as a pro reporter, I’ve covered
everything from double murders to psychic
dogs. I’ve met Dan Quayle, Miss America
and James Brown, not in that order of
importance.
And the main reason is The Red and
Black, which gave me the most important
stuff in life: Things to believe in, people to
love and stories to tell my grandkids.
Although I think Til skip the story about
the Day-Glo paint and the empty house.
Only God and Eugene know that one.
Tommy Tomlinson worked for The Red and
Black from 1984-86. He’s now a reporter for
the Lancaster, S.C., bureau of The York
Observer, a part of The Charlotte Observer.
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From page 6
wished to say anything. “Tm sorry,” Bankston said. “Fm sorry I
killed them.”
• Handicapped students assert rights •
The Red and Black ran a story about the problems of
handicapped students going to Office of Handicapped Student
Services, as early as 1981. Since the office was on the second floor
of the Academic Building, an elevator was necessary for those
most affected by the service. In the Oct. 1, 1981 article in The
Red and Black, a University official was quoted as saying “We
have seen that being on the second floor has not caused too much
of an inconvienience to handicapped students.”
It took one man’s protest seven years later to get something
done.
On April 25, 1988 then-University sophomore David Bliss
began to climb the stairs in front of the Academic Building. Bliss,
unable to walk since birth, said later he climbed the stairs
because he was the only one of (he 13 protesters who could even
attempt the feat.
Prompted by statewide publi<ity, the University began to
make changes. In August of the same year, the Handicapped
Student Services office was moved to the Tate Student Center.
The Handicapped Task Force was formed and targeted 26 widely
used campus buildings for renovation. Since then, all of the
buildings have been made at least “partially accessible,”
meaning that least one floor is reachable by handicapped
persons. In 1990, 13 of the 84 most-used campus buildings
remain inaccessible.
Jeff Wohl is a former editor for The Red and Black. Staff Writer
J.D. Squillante and former Entertainment Editor Nicole Gustin
contributed to this article.