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I
4 * Th> Red and Black « Wednesday. May 13.1992
■ QUOTABLE
OPINIONS
The Red & Black
Established in 1893 - Incorporated 1980
An independent student newspaper not affiliated with the University of Georgia
Lance Helms/Editor in Chief
Angela Hornsby/Managing Editor
Melody Willis/Opinions Editor
■ EDITORIALS
Vote needs a boost
Quarterly registration drives, initiated in 1990 by
the local chapter of the Young Democrats, have regis
tered 867 people this year. Would you believe that the
first drive, in spring 1990, registered 1,007 in a week
and a day?
The Student Government Association deserves to be
commended for its role in keeping voter registration
drives alive at the University, but the movement ap
pears to have lost its steam. As SGA members share
their successful strategies at the state Capitol with oth
er state universities, they should reflect on what made
our earlier drive, as the first in the state, so successful.
Organizers had Georgia Secretary of State Max
Cleland, U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), former Atlanta
Mayor Andrew Young and Athletic Director Vince
Dooley speak at Vote ’90. It’s understandable that Nunn
and Young, who were running for senator and governor,
would make a swing through Athens. And it’s laudable
that they would spend time encouraging 18-to-24-year-
olds, who traditionally turn out in the lowest numbers,
to register.
But where are they now? We were successful mov
ing our presidential primary ahead a week, and Cleland
promised a campaign to boost the state’s number of reg
istered voters beyond its current 47 percent.
Here are two things we can mobilize, vote and
change right here in Athens:
• We need a polling place at the Tate Student
Center. We can register to vote there, but students who
live on campus currently must vote off-campus.
• The 6,000 students who live in University housing
should be in a single county commission district, rather
than divided between the 3rd, 4th and 7th districts.
Let’s get on with it. Register and vote.
Bleak outlook - for now
Two universities have released studies on the job
market prospects of college graduates, and the future
looks bleak. Studies by Northwestern and Michigan
State universities show a 30 percent decrease in avail
able jobs since 1989 - meaning nearly one out of three
jobs has disappeared. And almost 1 million experienced
professionals and managers now looking for jobs were
laid off during the recession.
With all the gloom-and-doom talk from economists,
a student would rightfully feel job a search is futile -
but that’s just not the case. A University study on the
state’s job markets gives heartening news:
• Atlanta is recovering faster economically than the
rest of the state and the nation.
• During the next year, non-farm jobs are expected
to increase by 15,000. Those openings are mostly in
food and paper-products production.
The Michigan State report, which compares the
number of available jobs to the number of graduates
applying, says technical areas have more jobs than ap
plicants. Nearly 45 percent of this year’s 1.1 million
graduates are. in technical fields. Unfortunately, 42 per
cent of graduates are in social sciences and communica
tions - two areas with more graduates than jobs.
There’s a plethora of liberal arts majors. Many grad
uates are choosing graduate school to delay entering
the job market. Graduate applications have risen as
much as 75 percent in the last year at some schools.
The result: tougher standards, fewer admissions.
For those about to graduate, job prospects in the
South, Southwest and Northwest are expected to be
better than in any other area of the nation. So the old
“no geographical preference” line will take on new sig
nificance for those unable to get jobs in the South. But
the good news is the recession may finally be over.
STAFF
ADVERTISING: 543-1791
NEWS: 543-1809
DoH. Chad Eaty. Shawn Farm*.
r. John KauU, SM
McLaod. Suoan
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"The Class of '92 Is walking into a recovery."
- Jeffrey Humphreys, director of economic forecasting
at the University, on upturns in the labor market.
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'REMEMBER myw OLD m, WHEN IRE ONLY Time You THOUGHT ABolft RACE
RELATIONS VIAC wmu YOU WATCHED THE Cosby suoy/?*
The “evils”
of free choice and
In this election year I would like to take the
opportunity to persuade the people of America
(or at least this esteemed University) to revolt
against the democratic society in which we live
and demand a society controlled totally by the
government in which no free choice is involved
whatsoever.
Free choice endangers many ideas and op
tions. It endangers the common will and unity
which binds all people together. With free
choice as the only option, all we have in common
with each other is the will and desire to live and
survive.
In a democratic free choice society, the risk
of segregation is very much in existence. People
will unite in collective groups only under an
idea in which no one outside the group believes.
Citizens with free choice allowed to live in any
neighborhood they wish will propagate colonies
separated by the color of their skin, their reli
gious preferences, or even the merest details
such as the size of a person’s house.
Free choice provides too many situations for
diversification and no commonality. Within a
short amount of time those larger groups of peo
ple with free choice will become divided over a
new issue and the divisions will become so
small and multiplied that it will be incredible if
there are even any families left to live with their
differences. By having no free choice, the former
Soviet Union had remained socially stable and
the people had worked towards one goal: Soviet
Greatness. The Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics covered a vast amount of land and the
people, though of differing republics, all had the
commonalities of the working for the same goal
and of a Slavic ancestry. The Soviet people were
Richard
Campbell
united, one people, even though they were so
separated from each other geographically, be
cause they were so strongly united psycho-
graphically in their goals.
Once the evils of free choice and democracy
were filthily injected into the Soviet Union the
people began segregating and losing the har
mony which they had experienced under a to
tally anti-democratic society. Now they are a
“Commonwealth" much as Great Britain, for
merly known as the United Kingdom, is a com
monwealth of nations.
And how goes things in Great Britain, a na
tion of free choice with a society slightly under
governmental control? Every day we hear of vi
olence, whether it be a car bomb, mass shoot
ings or riots in Ireland, which is allowed free
choice by the British government. Sex scandals
abound among the royalty, the government is
never stable because the leader, the Prime
Minister, is changeable at every election nnd
the whole notion has lost power drastically
since losing its dominance militarily over the
world.
Yes, Great Britain used to be a mighty pow-
democracy
er with complete dominance of all the shipping
lanes and therefore economic and commercial
supremacy in the entire world. Of course in
those glorious days when “the sun never set on
the British Empire" they were referred to as the
United Kingdom. The significant loss of world
power is symbolized by the changed name:
which sounds more impressive, Great Britain or
United Kingdom?
This land, home of Monty Python, Charlie
Chaplin, Stan Laurel and many other such tal
ents, became a nation of free choice and never
again saw the glory it had once known. Now the
nation has become as great a military and eco
nomic power as Luxembourg and all because of
the hideous evil known as democracy.
No democracy can ever unite a nation, and
no democracy ever shall. If anything can pull a
nation together and hold it with strong bonds,
then an omnipotent, omnipresent government
can. This heaven of a government must be led
by an equally strong individual who has in mind
only the good of the nation and the unification
of the people.
This individual, be it man, machine, or mon
ey, unfortunately will not come about until
there is a vast, earth-shaking movement to rid
our society of free choice and the segregation,
poverty, and prejudice that always accompanies
it. Until this blessed day arrives, we can only
look to the future when George Orwell’s vision
of Utopia in 1984 and Ray Bradberry’s ideal so
ciety in Fahrenheit 451 will thankfully come to
pass.
Richard Todd Campbell is a senior in journal
ism and a registered voter.
■ FORUM
■ The Red and Black welcomes letters to the editor and prints them in the Forum
column as space permits. All letters ore subject to editing for length, style and IF
belous material. Letters should be typed and double-spaced, and they must in
clude the name, address and daytime telephone number of the writer. Please also
include student classification, major and other appropriate identification. Names
may be omitted with a valid reason upon request. Send letters by U.S. mail or
bring them in person to The Red and Black s offices at 123 North Jackson Street.
Athens. Georgia 30601.
King trial was
This is in response to last
Thursday's article in The Red and
Black titled Trial shows ‘success’
of system." I would like to address
three points about that article:
First of all, I would like to say
there is a social misunderstanding.
And that social misunderstanding
is described best and most truth
fully by Amy Peterson’s article
“White America needs to wake up,
learn history." In the article,
Peterson states that “The different
ways in which white America has
reacted to what’s happened is a
true reflection of the ignorance we
have for the rest of the country."
That statement simply reinforces
what was pointed out in the suc
cess article: “The recent events
that have taken place in Los
Angeles have been proven substan
tially that people’s emotions can
lead to an unbelievable world-wide
social misunderstanding." In addi
tion, Peterson’s article also makes
another very important statement:
“Many white people are not willing
to try to find ways to hear the oth
er sides of the issue, although
many are willing to loudly voice
their ignorant opinions of what’s
happening." Now, that is the true
social understanding summed up
in a nutshell.
Secondly, I would like to express
my disagreement with the follow
ing statements: “The biggest virus
that came out of this incident was
based on the fact that the four po
lice officers were white and Rodney
king was black. So everybody, es
pecially within the black communi
ty, automatically assumes that this
is a blatant example of racism."
Well, let me tell you this: those
statements constitute only an opin
ion and a form of prejudice. For
one thing, when the “biggest virus"
came out I had long been vaccinat
ed and since acquired immunity.
Regardless of the fact whether
Rodney King is a human being and
he was subjected to an inhumane
act. The beating that was shown
on the videotape was absolutely
unnecessary because there were
too many other officers standing
around and the ones that were do
ing the beating could have consort
ed their efforts with the ones who
were not and restrained King in a
more humane manner. In addi
tion, I am black, I am also a mem-
an injustice
ber of the black community and I
am not one to automatically as
sume racism. Remember, keep
your morals. Don’t be prejudice.
Third, and most importantly,
the trial has shown a failure of the
criminal justice system. We must
not let opt emotions lead to a mis
understanding of the judicial sys
tem here in America. The trial in
which the four white police officers
were acquitted involved a question
of criminal law. Criminal law in
volves crimes which are committed
against society. Therefore, it can
be inferred that the beating of
Rodney king sustained was also
sustained by society. Our criminal
justice system is supposed to pun
ish those who commit crimes
against society, not reward them.
Are we suppose to interpret the
verdict handed down by the all
white jury as a sign that police bru
tality will be tolerated by society?
Will this lead to more police bru
tality? Hopefully not. However, if
the Justice Department upholds
the jury’s decision, it will actually
give a green light to more police
brutality. That is, this case where
the officers were acquitted can in
fluence other cases of police brutal
ity and allow more brutal officers
to be acquitted. And as for
whether the police officers were
acting within the limits of the law,
we need to ask this question: is the
law acting within the limits of so
ciety? If it is the law that has al
lowed the four white officers who
beat Rodney King to be be acquit
ted, then the criminal justice sys
tem in itself has committed a crime
against society. Now tell me. With
whom does the real social misun
derstanding lie?
Timothy D. Murfree
Junior, management
Keep defense budget
This is in response to Juan
Garcia’s May 6 letter titled “Cut
Defense Budget one-third."
Yes, the government spends bil
lions of dollars on the military.
Currently, the state of the world
shows this country that we can in
fact benefit by a small downsizing
of our overall military forces. The
Cold War is over and once again
the U.S. is victorious.
We no longer need to be worry
ing about a Soviet first strike sce
nario. As we look into the future,
it is evident that most battles
which will take place will no longer
be of large scale (such as World
War II) but will actually be small
er scale operations against outlaw
nations (such as Operation Just
Cause and Operation Desert
Storm). Even with the current
lapse of the Soviet Union, we must
still be ready to meet any contin
gency with swift and mighty force.
New technology comes about
through the process of research
and development. A considerable
amount of our current household
and industrial technology which
we take for granted originally
emerged through research done for
military use
What people must also consider
is the fact that military and mili
tary-based companies employ civil
ians which in turn gives the gov
ernment a larger tax base to help
fight AIDS, give more money for
education and feed the homeless.
The way to resurrect the econo
my is to create more jobs which will
give this country more tax money
and take people off of unemploy
ment. Take the F-22 fighter pro
ject for example. Lockheed, based
here in Georgia, won a large de
fense contract which has put peo
ple to work thereby increasing gov
ernment revenue in the form of
taxes people off unemployment. If
we can increase the job base in
America then more people will be
covered on their companies insur
ance policies which gives them the
health care which they need.
Cutting the defense budget by
one-third is too much. That would
hinder research and development
of new weapons which in turn
would put Americans out of work
thereby cutting the government
tax base and putting another
American on unemployment which
in the end can only lead to a larg
er government deficit that will not
help us to get out of this recession.
Jeffrey L Davis
Sophomore, political science
Tolerance explained
Here are some questions you
might want to ask yourself in case
ou never have, or ask again if you
ave.
These are some seeds that may
grow into the invisible structure of
something called tolerance.
1. If I had bom into a different
culture, a different race, or been
born a different sex, would I still be
me? How would I be different?
2. Where have my beliefs come
from? (Were they sought out, or
handed down from a different
background?)
3. Why are my beliefs more
valid than someone’s who is com
ing from a different background?
4. Would I still be me if some
how all my ideas were removed?
Big stumbling blocks to this ex
ercise could be if you think:
A) Any society that has more
complex technology must be
smarter.
B) (Goes with A) More primi
tive* societies are that way be
cause their brains are less evolved.
C) Formally educated people
are more intelligent than non.
D) Or if you have any precon
ceptions that any race, sex, reli
gion, or culture is inferior or supe
rior to your own. (Unless, of
course, you know for sure)
If any of A,B,C,or D apply to
you, where did you get these ideas?
* The word “primitive" has the
connotation of “inferior" to it, in
this culture. Try to think of the
word more in terms of “primary",
"original", “basic", and “fundamen
tal."
Marcl Herman
Junior, ait