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■ QUOTABLE
4 » The Red and Black ♦ Wednesday, November 14, 1990
"People think war Is a video game, you’ve got this neat tank
versus that neat tank or this neat plane versus that neat plane.
— History teaching assistant Jonathan Bryant on the military
build-up in the Persian Gulf.
The Red & Black
KtlabluKtd 1893—Incorporated I960
Ah independent student nturn paper not a/fiLated with tht Univenity of Georgia
Robert Todd/Editor-in-Chief
Jennifer Rampey/Managing Editor
David Johnston/Opinions Editor
■ EDITORIALS
Police protection
For several Bulldog fans, this year’s Ga-Fla cocktail
classic wasn't so enjoyable. We’re not talking about the
game, we’re talking about the festivities.
Two students who claimed to have been threatened
by a vagrant with a gun couldn’t get help from a 911
dispatch because they used profanity when calling the
emergency number.
Another student saw his friend being arrested. He
went over and asked his friend how to contact his
parents or if he should call anybody else. The
Jacksonville police took offense to that and arrested
him too.
Many others gave accounts of police hassling people
outside The Landing while they waited for cabs.
Meanwhile, chaos reigned inside. Several large fights
broke out and the police were very slow in arriving — if
they arrived at all.
For the most part, the people of Jacksonville and
even the area authorities went out of their way to
create a pleasant and safe atmosphere for the annual
festivities. It’s a shame that a few incidents leave
people with not so fond memories of that experience.
Fans should expect a safe environment when they
go to Jacksonville. Though it’s certainly an
inconvenience for the police, that’s why they get paid.
The Ga-Fla weekend brings incredible revenue to
the area, and the people of Jacksonville shouldn’t take
that lightly.
In the future, let’s see more police inside The
Landing and a little restraint on the part of police when
they make arrests.
We’re not saying everyone arrested shouldn’t have
been or the police were 100 percent wrong in every
case. But there is certainly a great deal of room for
improvement on the part of the Jacksonville police.
Convene Congress
Senators in both parties asked President Bush on
Tuesday to convene an emergency session of Congress
for a vote on administration policies in the Persian
Gulf.
Georgia’s Sen. Sam Nunn, who chairs the Senate
Armed Services Committee, said “Congress ought to
speak on this subject” before any offensive military
action by the United States.
The White House immediately rejected the idea
saying that the senators are jumping the gun — that
there is no war right now.
But a positive vote would confirm the support of the
Congress and the American people for Bush’s
commitment and persuade our allies of U.S.
seriousness.
This affirmation is important as the resolve of our
allies weakens and the need for offensive action in the
crisis becomes more and more apparent.
If Congress rejects a military solution to the crisis,
which seems highly unlikely, then it’s obvious that we
aren’t united enough as a nation to sustain what would
be a major military effort.
The bottom line is, whatever methods we use, we
are vitally dependent upon the oil in the Persian Gulf
and we cannot allow a madman like Hussein to control
such incredible resources.
The lesson we should learn from this crisis is that
we must find long-term solutions to our energy needs
which don’t leave us dependent upon unstable foriegn
nations.
“So long as Saddam Hussein and the rest of the
world have any doubt about the unified resolve of the
United States in this matter, the chances for
miscalculation and tragic mistakes loom much too
large,” Sen. Richard Lugar (R—Indiana) said.
Only as a united nation can we keep the upper
hand.
STAFF
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A call to arms for lovers of ‘real’ music
A few days ago, I stepped onto the east-west
bus and found myself a seat. The bus started
rolling and, for a split second, I felt sick to my
stomach, a primordial urge to see Bolton’s
finest congealing on the floor at my feet.
No, not motion sickness.
No, not the fact that my history midterm is
this week and I haven’t bought my books for the
class.
And then it hit me, like a grease-laden slab of
Spam, sloping down my esophagus, and set
tling heavily into the dark pit of my stomach.
The radio on the bus was playing this week’s
top-ten country-western smash, “How can I get
over you, when you’re lying under him?" by
Mule Renfroe.
Suddenly, the world started spinning, and I
fell into an alternate reality stronger than any
thing from ‘The very best of Mork and Mindy."
I saw myself living in a small, rural community,
my father driving a transfer truck for a living,
and myself with the genetic inability to pro
nounce the word nuclear.
I shuddered. Reality did a cartwheel, and I
found myself back on the bus, standing now,
and shouting, “has anybody seen my horse?"
I regained my composure long enough to sit
down.
Everyone was staring at me.
A few minutes went by, but my stomach was
still convulsing. The rest of the passengers
were in a zombie-like trance, working hard to
Adam
Etheredge
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consciously block out the earth-tone pull that
the music produced.
All, that is, save one individual. This evolu
tionary throwback was, of course, sitting di
rectly across from me. He had a sloped
forehead, thick browridges, and short forearms.
His overalls were torn at the crotch.
He was tapping his feet vehemetly to “My
girlfriend ran off with my best buddy, and I’m
sure gonna miss him.” He was also clapping out
of rhythm. I would have bet money that his
nickname was Slim, and that his expedition to
the lake this Saturday would be cut short be
cause he’d get too drunk to fish.
And I had to ask myself; Was the selection of
music to benefit this one person? Were the rest
of us to suffer, so that one may have his (God
forbid the term) homespun hoedown? A girl
nearby had shoved black olives into her ears.
Another student was contemplating the opera
tion of the emergency exit, so that he could be
come the new hood ornament for the north-
south bus whizzing past us.
But would it not surely be better to have
strains of Depeche Mode, Pink Floyd, Concrete
Blond, (or basically anything else with a 4/4
beat) wafting from the speakers? Would not the
campus rest better at night knowing that in the
morning they could make themselves late by
riding to class and listening to real music?
And so I sent out the Clarion Call to all of you
left whose minds have not been stolen by the
subliminal messages of the prairie and the
monster truck counter-culture. Unite. Stand up
in Glorious Rebellion. Revolt against this hei
nous subterfuge brought by the American
Flannel Lovers Association. Help bring down
the Society for the Promotion of Farming
Equipment before you all drop out of school to
become cowboys instead of being doctors and
lawyers and such. Suppress this evil outrage
before you have the urge to elope with your first
cousin. For if you thought yuppieism was bad,
just contemplate a future in which you trade
plugs with a beechnut buddy.
Truly, in these formative years of our young
lives, just think of the destructive effect this
music could hold.
Adam Etheredge is a freshman computer sci
ence major.
Americans have ‘attitude’
Drinking is part of our local color here in
Athens. Along with football games, local bands,
social events, drop/add nightmares, the 7:50
class from below Hades, and that stupid
double-barrel cannon, drinking is part and
parcel of what makes this city the way it is.
Frequently, though, some of us take this
drinking thing too far. And all of you know who
you are. The people who always pull dorm fire
alarms at 2:30 in the morning because the/ve
had that sixth beer and think it’ll be a scream
to wake everyone else up. The idiot who picks a
fight in Lowery’s Tavern and sends some guy
home in traction. Or, worst of all, a jerk who is
driving drunk and runs down innocent pedes
trians.
Now, the states can raise their drinking ages
as high as they like, and even try to enforce the
twenty-one limit. And the city of Athens can
keep enforcing its open container law selecti
vely against students. But laws can’t change
the attitudes of people, and people around here
have a serious attitude when it comes to
drinking.
I was in Italy over the smmer. Over there - as
in most of western Europe - there is no drinking
age. Any kid could buy a box of cheap wine in
any grocery store for about $1.53 at current ex
change rates. So how many Italian youth do
vou think I saw falling down drunk and acting
like the guy down the hall?
Not one. The people who were getting drunk
and waging war on the beach umbrellas were
my fellow American students. Europeans, for
the moet part, grow up with alcohol. They have
a little bit of wine rrom childhood on. They
drink at dinner with their families. They have
Johnny
Laska
no need to prove their maturity - if that is the
right word tor it - by dnnking themselves into a
stupor.
Over here in the United States, where there
is a drinking age, there is also an attitude
problem. Alcohol is the forbidden fruit, and by
nigh school, if not before, teenagers are buying
it to prove themselves as adults. And among a
good many guys, drinking is some kind of en
durance test. The real man is the one who can
drink the moat shots of vodka before sprawling
across the floor. You can bet my friends who are
twenty and younger made the best of Italy’s
nonexistent drinking age. ^
The drinking age simply won’t wfrk. If a
high school kid wants to drink, he can steal it
from his father’s liquor cabinet. Or get his big
brother to buy it for him at the package store.
Or lie about his age. Or find some merchant
who doesn’t care about his age at all. It’s easy. I
regularly give money to the guy down the hall,
who is legal, to buy beers for me. You mpy as
well try to outlaw drinking - and, if you recall
Prohibition, you know how much people will re
spect that.
on drinking
The problem is not with the laws, it’s with
the peple. Alcohol is very much a part of our so
ciety in general ad the collegiate experience in
particlar. And there is no smple way to change
everybody’s attitude. All we can do is deal with
our own Lives.
But is it really necessary to drink all the
time? What do you get out of it? You feel tipsy
that night as you walk home, singing “Welcome
To The Room...Sara" way off key. Then the next
morning you feel as if someone filled your
stomach with battery acid and installed a jack
hammer in your skull. Do you really want to
put up with a hangover? Who are you trying to
impress? One game I play is to drink half as
much as everyone else. Then, when theYe
drunk and I’m not, I sit back and watch them do
retarded things
Drinking has to be your decision. Know when
to say when, like the billboards say. Remember,
the guy who wants you to have that next beer or
next snot of tequilla isn’t responsible for you.
You are. So get drunk if you want, but that’s
your choice. After all, he can’t have your hang
over for you.
And, finally, though I know Mothers Against
Drunk Driving has probably made this point
clear, driving drunk is never O.K. Got it? You
might run me over while I’m biking down Mil-
ledge. Drink yourself to death if that’s your
wish, but leave me out of it. I think I speak for
the rest of humaity.
Whatever our laws are, we’ll still have a
drinking problem until we change our attitudee
about alcohol.
Johnny Laska is a senior psychology major.
Goode criticism not biblical
■ 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 matenal. 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.
I found David Goode’a attack on
tha Christian Church’s patronage
of U.S. military in Iraq totally
lacking in biblical grounds. His
only support comes from the “Apos
tolic Tradition of Hippolytus” (215
A.D.). The actions of Christians
shouldn’t be based on the well-in
tentioned early church, but on
God's word. Nowhere in the Bible
is fighting for an army condemned.
Goode must remember that God
is also the God of the Old Testa
ment. God often commanded his
peopls to fight for just causes whsn
necessary. The commandment,
■Thou shalt not commit murder,’
doesn’t prohibit fighting for a just
cause.
To biblically condemn the U.S.
military presence in Saudi Arabia,
one must argue that our intentions
are not just. To use the military to
stop the unprovoked invasion of in
nocent nations by an aggressive
power seems to be a wise and just
decision. It may even prevent war.
I am a Christian and personally
a pacifist (I would rather die for my
country than kill for it). But I sup
port our soldiers who are sweating
in the Arab desert, protecting the
freedoms of many nations. I pray
that it won't come to war, but if it
does, our soldiers will need the
support from everyone back home.
Josh Jackson
•fMhman, Journalism
Williams is wrong
I was disgusted with Gene Wil
liam's (The Red and Black,
10/30/90) recent signed column
concerning University Head Foot
ball Coach Ray Goff.
I can’t in a million years under
stand how someone who probably
hasn’t ever played football can
make such ignorant statements.
Goff heads a fine program and
the hostility directed at him and
his staff is unwarranted.All sports
teams are face with rebuilding
years.
In closing, I only “pray" that he
stays in the stands, where he can
benefit the team the most, and that
Goff stays on the sidelines.
Lee Yetee
senior, biology/pre-med