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4 • The Red and Black • Tuesday, October 27, 1992
OPINIONS
"We want to find out how we can, In general, promote an at
mosphere of racial tolerance and acceptance on the campus."
-President Charles Knapp on what needs to be done to ease
racial tensions on the University campus.
The Red & Black
Established in 1893 - Incorporated 1980
An independent student newspaper not affiliated with the University of Georgia
Mike McLeod/Editor-in-Chief
Johnathan Bums/Managing Editor
Melody Willis/Opinions Editor
■ EDITORIALS
Our editors, after much cat-fighting, have decided to of
fer two views on the presidential candidates. Like our
newsroom, we can’t choose. You decide who to believe.
Perot ain’t no Romeo
Do you remember your worst love affair?
Do you remember how well that special someone first
flirted with you? Do you remember how you were allured
by his personality, his background, his behavior? Good.
Now, do you remember how you paid for it in the
end? How the person, who looked so illustrious and
trustworthy at the beginning of the relationship, turned
out to be a paranoid, schizophrenic manipulator?
Good. You’re in the proper frame of mind to contem
plate the wonderful world of Ross Perot.
He’s a great flirter. Have you heard some of his latest
lines from the debates? “We’ve got to get at that govern
mental gridlock. We’ve got to get the government out of
the hands of foreign lobbyists.” What about domestic lob
byists? Red jingoist flags are waving here. “We’ve got to
protect American business.”
Those of you currently enamored of Perot will find
yourself smiling at the last paragraph, convincing your
self that you can almost hear his Texas twang.
Wake up. He hasn’t told us what he’d do yet in any
substantial form. He’s terribly uninformed on the issues.
He stands for no ideological platform. He attacks the me
dia, while using them and ducking them with incredible
finesse.
Now, don’t you remember how you ended up wishing
you’d examined the object of your tragic love affair clos
er? Remember how immature he was? How you wish
you’d known then what you know now?
We haven’t had the chance to progress past the flirt
ing stage with Perot. Even though he’s pushing all the
right buttons now, don’t trust your heart on this one.
It will only end up broken and lost with the country
in tow.
Sir Perot to the rescue
Love affair? Yes, America has the once-in-a-lifetime
opportunity to be swept off her feet. This Romeo has got
brains, money, power and respect. He’s Ross Perot, a
man who offers this country the best chance to resurrect
from her quagmire of debt.
He is an outsider with little Washington savvy.
Rather, Perot is the ruler of all he surveys, a king in the
high-profile world of business.
This maverick billionaire breaks the mold for presi
dential candidates and injects national politics with a
much-needed breath of fresh air.
Sure, he wants to stick to the basics. No frills for
him. He’s a simplistic man who only offers what this
country needs- bare-bones basics in proper management.
Perot is the master of money, a magician with coins.
Who wouldn’t fall under the spell of such magic?
Couldn’t any girl use some guidance in balancing the ol’
checkbook?
Perot wants to make this a peaceful world by turning
our warriors into gentle knights. No unnecessary cru
sades. Moreover, he wants to steal from the rich to bene
fit the poor, with health care for all.
Like a good husband, Perot wants to make sure his
young love doesn’t live beyond their means.
He gets a little paranoid in his efforts to protect the
ones he loves. If need be, he’s willing to close the castle
and put the gators in the moat, all for self-preservation.
Being a self-made gentleman, he doesn’t court her
dowry nor her continued affections. He just wants to
serve at the feet of his beloved.
America should accept the affections of such a
courtier. It really and truly is better to have loved and
lost than to never have loved at all.
STAFF
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NEWS: 543-1809
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National health care will only harm Americans
Every election year the political powers-
that-be select a few of the many problems chal
lenging our nation find bestow upon them the
titles of “Election Issues." Health care is one
of these chosen issues in this year’s presiden
tial election. In response to the issue, Gov.
Clinton has supported a “pay or play" plan that
would provide insurance coverage for
Americans. This plan is foolish for many rea
sons, but what bothers me most about Clinton’s
plan is a belief I share with many Americans,
namely that this “play or pay" plan will lead to
a socialized medical system in America. Such a
system is the last thing America needs.
First, it isn’t the responsibility of our gov
ernment to provide health care for Americans.
However, many people favor entrusting our al
ready inefficient government with their health,
and indeed, their lives. Often, these are the
same people who complain about the inept na
ture of our government, yet they favor even
more governmental control in their lives.
People such as these epitomize one of the ma
jor problems facing our nation, specifically that
many people believe that the government owes
them a solution to all of their problems, in
cluding those affecting their health. Being a cit
izen of this great country should not entitle a
person to freedom from responsibility for him
self.
One of the most common complaints about
our current medical system is that administra
tive costs are driving up the price of health
care. Anyone who thinks that a socialized
health care system would alleviate this prob
lem is sadly mistaken. Governmental agencies
are notorious for superfluous staffs, and should
the government assume control of our health
Cheri
Wiggins
care system, the number of people involved in
medical administration will become even larg
er. As a result, an even greater percentage of
medical care expenses will be used to pay ad
ministrative salaries. The money that would be
used to fund this overabundance of workers
could be put to more logical use by funding
medical treatment. Unfortunately, taking
funds away from medical care to support ad
ministrative salaries will not improve the qual
ity of care received by patients. Everyone has
at one time waited in a government line. The
government is notorious for creating these
lines, but waiting for a driver’s license is much
different from waiting for medical care. Often,
prompt medical care means the difference be
tween life and death. In Newfoundland,
Canada, under their socialized system, the av
erage wait for a coronary-artery bypass is one
year. The United States should never consider
taking such a colossal step back in the quality
of medical care.
It’s ridiculous to replace the American
health care system, which provides the highest
quality medical care in the world, with a sys
tem that will most certainly result in an enor
mous step backwards in the caliber of care
Americans receive. Socialized medical systems
evaluate medical procedures on a cost effec
tiveness basis, which is rarely an accurate mea
sure. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans
seem expensive at an average cost of $1200, but
they are much less expensive than the ex
ploratory surgery they often preclude.
The German socialized medical system is of
ten cited as one of the best, but even it isn’t
without its problems. For example, the number
of prescriptions a German doctor writes is mon
itored, and if the number written exceeds the
quota, the doctor must reimburse the govern
ment for the excess prescriptions. Ostensibly,
this curtails abuse of the system, but such a
policy has far-reaching effects on a physician’s
willingness to prescribe necessary drugs. The
average amount of time German physicians
spend with a patient during an office visit is
three to five minutes. Such a short visit pre
vents any doctor-patient relationship from
forming, but such a stressful pace is necessary
to keep the doctors in business as the govern
ment reimburses the doctor based on the num
ber of patients he sees.
The United States can’t allow its medical
system to become a “Medicine Machine." The
people of America deserve better treatment.
Ironically, when America is examining social
ized medical care as an alternative, Canada
and England are looking to turn away from
their well-established socialized health care
systems. The U.S. should learn from their mis
takes.
Cheri Wiggins is a sophomore in exercise phys
iology and English.
DEA has taken drug war to totalitarian heights
A story in The Atlanta Journal Constitution
on Oct. 20 detailed another atrocity committed
in the name of the so called "drug war." It seems
that federal drug enforcement agents evicted the
residents of 22 rental trailers after they seized a
Covington trailer park owned by one Larry
Davis. It would appear that Davis didn’t do
enough to get rid of drug dealers in his trailer
park. Davis states that “The [dealers] were not
tenants...I took out criminal-trespass warrants
out against them...and everything else I could
legally do. You just can’t shut the gate on a mo
bile home park."
Davis was never charged with a crime. In
fact, the police never even insinuated that Davis
was involved, but his property was taken
nonetheless. This is a criminal action on the part
of the government. The Constitution guarantees
a right to due process and trial by jury. It also
prohibits the taking of private property with out
due process and without compensation. The pre
sent operating scheme of the DEA is unconsti
tutional. The DEA took this man’s property
without charge, without trial and almost with
out legal recourse. Davis’s recourse consists of
appearing before a federal judge to attempt to
prove his property wasn’t used for drug purpos
es, this according to a DEA spokesman. Did you
catch that? How about innocent until proven
guilty? How about burden of proof being on the
plaintiff? How about a trial in which the gov
ernment must make a case and prove it beyond
reasonable doubt? Instead, the government
takes a citizen’s property without charge and
then the citizen must prove that he is innocent.
Totally ridiculous.
Several other points need to be made. The
purpose of the police force is, in short, to enforce
the law. In this case, the police left the enforce
ment of law to a citizen, i.e. “Get the drug deal
ers out of your trailer park." The police then
punish the citizen for not enforcing the law- the
domain of the police. The police obviously know
that there are dealers there, why don’t they get
rid of them? What do they expect Davis to do?
Cuff them and drive them down to the station is
his van? Another point- what about the evic
tions? This is the wonderful government that
would rather have people living in the streets
than living in substandard housing or using
drugs. In fact, they didn’t even bother to charge
any of the tenants; they just pitched them out.
So, in fact, I was wrong. It appears that the gov
ernment would rather have you living in the
streets than to be living in housing that could be
owned by someone who couldn’t successfully rid
his property of drug dealers. Are you getting
this? I hesitate to make a class-based argument,
but I must admit that this action would never be
taken against anyone who was relatively well-off
or could actually fight back. “60 Minutes" did an
excellent story about similar cases in which cit
izens who fit “profiles" had property seized and
were never charged with a crime. The story also
depicted the massive struggle these people went
through fighting the government, a government
that assumed they were guilty.
The term drug “war" was at one time a
nomenclature to describe the atmosphere of the
situation, but now it is being taken literally i.e.
“all is fair in love and war" or legally, to suspend
rights during wartime. They got computers,
they’re tapping phone lines, I know that that
ain’t allowed." Americans are obsessed with
drugs. They believe that all the social problems
from illiteracy to athlete’s foot are caused by
drugs. To this end, it appears that they will tol
erate anything to get ‘rid’ of ‘them’. Even to the
extent of supporting a candidate for president
whose solution to the drug problem makes the
“Red Scare" look like a bridge party. I am speak
ing of Mr. Perot, Parrot for those of you at
90.6FM.
I am an advocate of drug legalization but not
drug use. I will hopefully expound upon this at
a later time. In any case, whether you are for or
against drug legalization, rational citizens can’t
and shouldn’t tolerate the draconian practices of
the DEA and the current administration.
Totalitarianism once accepted on one front will
soon rule all fronts. As for as this particular case
goes, I agree with displaced resident Mtyuana
Allen who said “You can tell the government to
kiss my bottom."
Todd Fantz is a senior with a soap box.
Farmer’s letter real sell-out
The time has come for a badlv
needed response to Kevin Farmers
Oct. 21 letter which shamefully in
sulted Jocelyn Walters and a large
portion of the school’s African-
American population.
Let me bepin by saying your
views (so tactlessly displayed) ex
pressed not only ignorance and
nerve but also made your betrayal
complete. I’ve often heard the grass
is greener on the other side. Well
Farmer, how does it taste? The only
enlightening portion of your letter
was the line tnat began s as a black
student,” because believe me, we
never would have known. You seem
to have some knowledge of racism,
but yet you maintain a “Step ana
Fecmt" attitude. Were we supposed
to conclude that you like being
shoved in the beck seats of police
cars or slammed to the pavement?
Or is your experience limited to
“Colors* and “Boyz *N The Hood”?
Attitudes like Walters’ come from a
lifetime of negative experiences.
They neither regress our race nor
retard its progress. They attempt to
open the eyes of the blind Qike your
self) attempting to provoke change.
You were right, in saying we live
in tumultuous times. But you seem
to be ignorant of the fact that a
house divided against itself can’t
stand. In the midst of the brothers
and sisters working to unite one an
other on this campus, is you, Toby,
with ajar of fade cream in one hand
and a pork chop sandwich in the
other. How can you address my peo
ple by saying, “Free your minds”
and in the same breath ask “how we
*bitch’ about racism”? When my
grandfather lay lynched in the
Newport River of Darien, Ga., I was
given a lifetime of reasons. If you
were more in touch with your own,
Kevin, you would know 400 other
reasons. You need not be concerned
■ FORUM
■ The Red end Black welcomes letters to the editor and prints them kvthe Forum
column as space permits. All letters are subject to editing for length, style and II
belous material. Letters siKxikJ be typed end 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.
with whether people will call you
sellout because since Oct. 21 they’ve
been calling you “soldout*
So the next time you decide to
put a letter in the paper, check with
your Mama first. The progress of
the black man shall not be hin
dered. Shunning all oppression
through aggression, he will contin
ue to rise with no assistance from
the “house nigger."
Joe Lumpkin
Sophomore, allied health
Marilyn's features OK
In Richard Martin’s Oct. 16 col
umn he refers critically to Dan
Quayle’s “ugly, long-nosed wife
Mnnivn." Since he apparently holds
her physical features against her, I
would ask what makes him any bet
ter than those who hold his black
skin against him? Prejudice is prej
udice, even if the traits aren’t racial.
Thomas W.C. Johnson
Athens resident