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4 • The Red and BJack • Wednesday, January 9, 1991
—:
OPINIONS
"If push comes to shove I'll either raise hell or go to Canada,
said Todd Fantz, of the Objectivist Society, on what he would do
if a draft was instituted.
—
The Red & Black
Ettabliahed 1893—Incorporated 1980
An independent student newtpaper not affiliated with the University of Georgia
Jennifer Rampey/Editor-in-Chief
Elizabeth Graddy/Managing Editor
Jeff Rutherford/Opinions Editor
■ EDITORIALS
Persian Gulf
When Secretary of State James Baker meets today
with Iraq’s foreign minister, Tariq Aziz, he holds the
lives of many Americans in his hands.
President Bush originally ordered the increased
deployment of U.S. troops in the region it was for the
protection of Saudia Arabia.
But that’s no longer the case. We’re poised on the
brink of a bloody war that will not end in five days — as
Bush would have the public believe.
If Bush orders a first strike military offensive
against Iraq, he will be making a big mistake.
As many hostages have detailed, Iraq is busy
digging in to Kuwait. If we have to fight street to street,
the casualties will be high. And for what?
If the United States attacks Iraq, we will embroil
ourselves in a region that has been engaged in war
since the dawn of time. It’s an area where borders
oftentimes change overnight.
Is the United States willing to pay the price in lives
for Bush’s actions? If he declares war on Iraq, the
rampant anti-American sentiment in the region will
increase.
Because of cultural differences, a simple victory
will not be enough. As long as one Iraqi survives, a
grudge will be held and acted upon later with violence.
Is Bush ready to commit the United States to a
position that would force us to maintain a considerable
military force in a volatile region for years to come?
Despite those arguments, the real drawback is that
many Americans would die.
Can Bush really sit down with a grieving parent,
wife, husband, or child and justify the death of a loved
one over a patch of desert which we don’t need for oil.
Neighboring countries have already increased the
region’s oil production above what it was when Iraq
invaded Kuwait on Aug. 2.
If Bush really wants to prove himself as a diplomat,
he can give economic sanctions a chance to work
instead of snapping offlines like “we’ll kick his ass.”
DUI Laws
University student Patrick Schlottman received a
mere slap on the wrist Friday when he was sentenced
to three and a half years for running down Dawn
Roberts while driving drunk in a University parking
lot.
When Schlottman hit Roberts, she flipped over the
car after her head shattered the windshield. Not
bothering to stop, Schlottman showed his
irresponsibilty further by parking his car before he
decided to walk back and see what happened.
His blood alcohol level was .19 at the time of the
accident. The legal limit for DUI in Georgia is a blood
alcohol level of .10.
Roberts, a sophomore at Stephens College in
Columbia, Mo., was only visiting the University when
she was hit. She’ll never forget her visit because of her
severe injuries.
While Schlottman was scheming with his lawyers
on how to get a light sentence, Roberts was having to
learn how to speak and eat again.
We hope that some of the stiffer DUI laws proposed
by Zell Miller will prevent further such injustices. A
good example is the suggested 10-day suspension of a
person’s driver’s license upon arrest for DUI.
But, stiffer laws must be balanced with education.
Nothing will be accomplished if we continue to
prosecute these criminals without trying to educate
them about the problem they have — alcoholism.
Once a comprehensive alcohol education program is
implemented statewide, such stiff penalties will be
justified and supported.
The Republican machine stripped bare
Above all things, America loves a comeback
story. Taking an item from pariah to acceptable
has become commonplace. Even chickens eat
their own droppings.
On chicken droppings and pariahs, the Re
publican party may well be the ruin of us all.
In order to avoid seeming partisan, the only
good thing about the Democrats is that they
probably didn’t vote Republican. Politicians are
politicians, party affiliation be damned.
The Republican party has perpetuated a per
sonality cult worthy of comparisons to Mao’s
work. Witness Nixon being referred to as an
‘elder statesman’ rather than the vessel of polit
ical corruption. It’s amazing that the atmo
sphere here in the States is one of freedom. The
job that has been done on the nation is akin to
changing the course of the Nile versus steering
a cow.
Whatever swine dedicated to cleaning up
Nixon’s swill will be pulling late-night hours
piecing back together Reagan’s credibility. As if
there needs to be a finger pointing at the
Deavers and'Nofzigers that saturated His ad-
minsistration to prove this point.
The pitiful floundering of Him stuttering and
forgetting His way through Poindexter’s Nu-
rembourg presented the possibility that He was
not only crooked but incompetent to lead, too.
Next is Bush. Imagine what it must have
looked like to the political leaders of Europe to
have an ex-head of the CIA take over at the top
position. What would be the reaction here on
the homefront if the KGB hoisted a man into
the top spot?
A crossroads is approaching between inter
esting and horrifying. If the past decade was
any indication, it could be a close race between
Bill
Davis
Quayle and Manson. The Republican party
seemed to be able to bend their brainwashing
program to any candidate.
If Reagan is to Nixon what Bush was to
Reagan, then what will the next Republican be
like? Is this David Duke’s chance to slip into the
Oval office while the nation’s conscience is dis
tracted? Will Lyndon Larrouche resurface as a
liberal with Falwell as his Veep?
When is America going to wake the hell up
and kick these bozos out in the street on their
keisters? Is 1991 going to be the year when it
dawns on citizens that politicians are, by na
ture, slime and should be viewed cautiously?
I’m very concerned by zealots of any type, be
they Shiite or GOP. Being a fatalist, I am of the
opinion that life is about to serve an irony sand
wich on a tin plate. The very men they support,
Nixon-Reagan-Bush-Quayle, will sit in their
ivory towers smoking their big cigars, lit with
Franklins, dining on T-bones, while the Sav
ings and Loans suck the federal insurance pro
grams to the marrow just in time for bank
foreclosings.
The question of blame arises. The Democrats
blames the Republicans. Shortsighted. The Re
publicans contend it was the interference of
partisan Democrats. Nice try. Even better, they
try to lay the blame on Carter. They attempt to
ignore the issues of waste and poor manage
ment.
I am no mathematician, but it would seem
that even Carter would be hard pressed to be
four times as inept as Nixon and Reagan, as he
served one fourth the time. Yes, I know that
Nixon didn’t complete two full terms. He just
set a robot on automatic for a couple of years
and got on the phone to the imagemakers to
start the cleanup.
The blame falls on everyone and nobody. No
one set out with a list of things to do that in
cluded picking up the kids at the dentist, going
by the grocery store, willfully mislead a nation
to a real crisis, and etc. It is cyclical. The Amer
ican people vote for dirt, dirt wins, dirt will pre
vail. Then again, if a decent candidate doesn’t
run, electing him or her will be tough.
What, then, is to be done? I have waxed po
lemic and have yet to offer up any type of solu
tion.
Basically, everyone needs to wake up and
question everything that comes out of Wash
ington. After a few years of attentive rehabilita
tion, there is a slim chance that the American
system will prevail. When you hear dogma, hy
perbole, or rhetoric, realize that in some way,
big or small, the politician is lying to you. Let
the politicians know with votes and we will
have some painfully honest representation. If
you peel the grey matter open of a politician,
the first directive is lie. The second, getting re
elected.
Bill Davis is a campus correspondent for The
Red and Black
Many patriots hypocritical, misguided
Wake up and smell the Columbian coffee
America; the days of hypocrisy, materialism
and blind patriotism must come to an end.
The Mideast crisis of oil prices serves as a
fine example of just how fork-tounged our flatu
lent fat-cat society is. We rant artd rave like
rabid dogs about our sacred duty to God and
country while we proudly stream red, white
and blue ribbons from our German, Japanese
and Korean made cars. We are ready and
willing to kill Arabs for our “vital American in
terests" in some distant sun-baked land of
sand, but here at home we spend billions of
yankee greenbacks on non-domestic products
that cripple our Neil Bush savings and loan
bailout budget.
If one is to argue that allegiance to our
country is important, why will we pay in blood
for the oil that runs the economies of the foreign
producers of the products we buy?
The star-spangled patriots that want to
stomp Iraq into oblivion are wearing Italian
made footwear that has brought domestic shoe
reduction to heel and impoverished our down
ome shoemakers. These club-footed flag wa
vers, who supported marching through Gre
nada and Panama with old glory at the helm,
conveniently overlooked the fact that the cloth
which makes our banner of thirteen unlucky
stripes was produced abroad only to be fash
ioned here at home by capitalistic industries
which pay underpriveleded minority workers
minimum wage.
Such hypocrisy is commonplace in our great
nation which liberated Nazi death camps in
World War II while true blue Japanese Ameri
cans, many who had sons dying for American
freedoms, sat behind government sanctioned
barbed wire prisons here in “the land of the
free”. Their guaranteed constitutional rights
were cast to the wind along with every posses
sion and dollar they rightfully owned.
Our endearing blind patriots find many good,
clean excuses for such loathsome behavior as
they cheat on income taxes while munching
caviar from the Soviet Union and slurping it
down with expensive French bubbly. While
clamoring to protect citizens of Kuwait, a
sexist, elitist society which embraces every
thing but democracy and equal rights, these
Swiss cheese breathed double talkers care
nothing about the 24,000 good old American
boys which will be gunned down on our own
streets this year.
Indeed these red, white and blue bufoons
breathe fire at those who oppose our big stick in
the gulf policy as though those who believe in
non-violent solutions to volatile problems
should be burned at the stake. The flame
throwing tongues of this Rambozo religion need
a fire under their backsides to singe home the
reality that Fighting a war in the scorching
sands of Iraq would be like pouring gas on a
fire. We will all get burned in the process.
The time has come for those who talk Amer
ican values to stop their lip service and put
their money where their big mouths are. Alle
giance to our country should mean spending
billions of dollars correcting our own problems
of drug abuse, domestic violence, unemploy
ment, health care, crime, education and home
lessness rather than on a bloody half baked
military solution to keep plastic and gas affor
dable to the very people that perpetuate our do
mestic maladies.
Before we flex our “righteous” muscles
abroad, let us pump up our own oppressed with
the strength of opportunities and an equal
chance for life, liberty and the pursuit of happi
ness for everyone here at home.
Steven Sacco is a senior criminal justice major.
Persian Gulf Open Letter
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We invite all UGA faculty and
staff members to join us in sending
the following Open Letter to Presi
dent Bush, Senators Nunn and
Fowler, and Congressman Bar
nard.
“We, the undersigned members
of the University of Georgia faculty
and staff, want you to know that
we strongly oppose the par,Jnci-
pation of United States’ military
forces in any ’first strike’ attack in
the Persian Gulf. In our view, the
only presently foreseeable justifi
cation for military action in this
crisis would be in response to an
Iraqi attack. The present embargo
is the proper and sufficient reac
tion to Iraqi’s invasion of Kuwait.
Not all of us necessarily have the
same reasons for holding this posi
tion. Some of us hold it for religious
reasons, like those of the Atlanta
Clergy and Laity Concerned, an or
ganization of more than 200
churches, temples, and synaga-
gues. Others of us have moral ob
jections to a first strike, based
upon the likelihood that starting
such a war would lead to the
slaughter of thousands of innocent
people on all sides. And still others
of us regard a first strike as strate
gically foolish and not in the long
range interest of either the United
States or the international commu
nity of nations.
Though we may arrive at our
conclusion for different reasons, we
are united in that conclusion: No
First Strike. We all urge each of
you to use the office with which you
are entrusted to forestall any first
strike, whether direct or by calcu
lated provocation.
Thank you for your attention."
If you wish to endorse this letter,
simply write “No First Strike” on a
sheet of paper, print and sign your
name, give vour campus phone
number, and send to: Bernard
Dauenhauer, Philosophy Depart
ment, Peabody Hall. All endorse
ments must be received before
Tuesday, January 15 so that the
letter and endorsers’ names can be
faxed that morning.
We trust that students will orga
nize their own ways to express
their views.
We will report through The Red
and Black the number of endorse
ments this letter receives.
Ronald Bogus
Comparative Literature
Joan Friedman
History
Loch Johnson
Political Science
Jane Russell
Recreational Sports
Bernard Dauenhauer
Philosophy