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■ QUOTABLE
4 « The Rad and Black » Tuesday, March 2, 1993
OPINIONS
■It doesn’t affect students. Student habits are not focused at
all on mined drinks, but rather beer and wine."
Gwen O’Looney, Athens-Clarke County Chief Elected
Official, on the new liquor tax.
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
Religion raping rights
Women should bear the offspring of rape, according
to Pope John Paul II. He was speaking Saturday about
the Bosnian women who have been raped and tortured
by Serbian rebels as part of the ethnic cleansing being
waged in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The modem day Roman Catholic Church has had to
deal with its strict prohibition against abortion in light
of the new cases of sexual violence. Should a child be
bom if it was conceived against the woman’s will? The
church says yes.
Moreover, the pope exhorted the Bosnian community
and church to aid these women in raising the unwanted
kids. Some consolation. Forcing women to bear and raise
the tainted offspring of rape violates every notion of hu
man rights and decency.
Women, no matter what religion or nationality,
should have the right to control their bodies. If these
Bosnian women can’t stomach the thought of carrying to
term the seed of Serbian bandits, then abortion should
be a viable option.
Being an unwanted offspring would be cruel to both
the parent and the child. But, some children of rape
have made it through life without too much trouble.
NBC News’ Faith Daniels has recently admitted she
was conceived through date rape. Her birth mother gave
her up for adoption afterward. Daniels has been hitting
the talk show circuit discussing her experiences as a
date rape child. She had the good fortune to be cared for
by loving adoptive parents.
These Bosnian children won’t. They will be seen as
the progeny of murderers and rapists. How can these
women be forced to bear children that no one will want?
With all the ethnic strife in Bosnia, it will be impossible
for the communities to overlook a small fact like the fa
ther’s occupation and nationality. It just won’t work, no
matter how hard the Roman Catholic Church wishes
otherwise.
The pope is wrong. These women should not have
children who will only be spurned by the community.
Abortion is an option they should have the right to exer
cise. Adoption is another. Both are the women's choices.
Squeezing students
Uh-oh. They’re looking to squeeze us again.
The ever-present and busy “they” (you know who
they are - the ones against us) want to raise the cost of
liquor drinks and make sure we pay when we park in
the College Avenue Downtown Parking Deck.
It wasn’t enough that they, this time “they” being the
Athens-Clarke County Commission, limited to two the
number of unrelated residents who could live in houses
in some neighborhoods last quarter. Now they want to
increase by 3 percent the cost we pay for mixed drinks.
Any conspiracy theorists we have at the University
might conclude that the local government is looking to
drive us out of our homes and into the bars to exploit
us. Then when we park in the downtown parking deck,
they (this time “they” being the Downtown Development
Authority) want to make sure we pay $2. Previously, the
parking deck closed at 7 p.m., and students zoomed in
and out freely in the evenings.
What’s next, a tax on tie-dye T-shirts?
OK, OK, we are exaggerating. There are valid rea
sons for the parking deck to want to collect from drivers
who park after 7 p.m. The liquor tax is not necessarily
aimed at students. We drink an awful lot of beer, and
the number of students that pack the higher priced bars
every night seems to suggest we could pay it easily.
Taken individually, all these measures seem reason
able. But added up, it seems like “they” are putting the
squeeze on us. Athens is just not as free as it used to be.
All the time it seems to be getting more and more so
phisticated - and not necessarily in a positive way.
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Possible solution to America’s economic woes
Imagine a great mother lioness with 75 teats.
Every day at feeding time she is rushed by 100
anxious cubs, each vying for the nourishment
needed to live. The strongest 65 or so cubs will
manage to seize upon a teat, supplanting, if nec
essary, weaker cubs who got there first, and hold
their position firmly enough to satisfy their
hunger. Twenty-five not so strong may be able
to achieve minimal sustenance from brief turns
at various nipples. The weakest 10 will be
crowded out completely and, barring dramatic
turns of fate, will soon perish. Now, imagine
that the lioness is the U.S. economy, that the
teats are jobs and that the cubs are American
workers, and you will have a sense of the alarm
that I’m beginning to feel over the current un
employment situation.
Of course, this analogy invites skepticism.
Besides being simplistic and abrasive to human
pride, its numbers are probably not the most apt
statistically. Just the same, if we are truly com
mitted to understanding and solving jobless
ness, we need to consider a possibility that may
be hard to swallow for many - that just as the
lioness’s yield of milk is finite, so is our conven
tional economy’s potential for job creation and
that unemployment reflects not an essentially
weak economy but one overburdened by a natu
rally growing and increasingly displaced labor
force.
Recollecting from high school, our economy is
founded on the laws of supply and demand, and
Americans have been a relatively demanding
lot. U.S. industry, blessed also with ample inge
nuity and natural resources, has therefore gen
erally thrived. I suspect, however, that we’ve
reached a point where demands in this country
are on average being over-met. Teeming enter
prise coupled with dynamic technology has giv
en us a supply of goods and services that would
gorge even the most rapacious markets (the
waste and folly of such overproduction, inciden
tally, should caution advocates of government
subsidy). Meanwhile, uncertain times and grow
ing distaste for extravagance have tightened the
average American’s wallet, and though new in
ventions may broaden the range of consumer ap
petites, diversity is no cure for drought. To fit
comfortably into today’s market, many indus
tries must now shrink. The result: more workers
put out in the streets.
Automation itself has also played a part in
unemployment. The machines and computers of
our age, with their preterhuman speed, power
and efficiency, have simply reduced the practi
cal need for human labor. It should be noted that
as it dooms certain jobs, new technology also
calls for the production, maintenance and dis
semination thereof, resulting in new jobs.
Unfortunately, American education hasn’t kept
up with technology’s advances, and only a minor
percentage of the work force will have the nec
essary knowledge and skills to adapt to increas
ingly scientific and specialized fields.
Some point to international commerce as our
salvation, arguing that American industry,
trade barriers not withstanding, simply needs to
become more intensely competitive in the global
market, an expanded share of which will expand
the U.S job market. But here at home, the goals
of competing and fighting U.S. unemployment
aren’t exactly harmonious. The competitive edge
offered by lower overhead through deflationary
wages and lax environmental standards will
naturally incline businesses to do their hiring in
foreign countries like Mexico or Thailand. When
it comes to building a labor base, the Land of
Opportunity frankly doesn’t appeal much to cor
porate opportunism. Even among American ser
vice workers not rivaled (legitimately) by for
eigners, there has been a steady tide of layoffs
because companies now find their survival de
pends on becoming as lean as possible (exempt
ing CEO salaries, of course). Tire disenchanting
part of having economic competitiveness as an
ideal is realizing that in any competition some
one has to lose, deservedly or not. With liveli
hoods at stake, I’d say we’re in a fairly critical
game right now. Moreover, despite its greater
scope, the world economy is ultimately no less
exhaustible than the domestic economy (hence,
the increased bickering and standoffs between
wealthy trade partners). Already the bulk of
world trade is confined to a relatively small cir
cle of economic powers, beyond which are only
countries too poor to tender the profitable busi
ness we depend on (though from a cosmopolitan
standpoint, one might suggest that the world’s
capital needs to be more diffuse and free flowing
around the globe, even if it compromises some
nations’ eminent prosperity).
I don’t claim to be an authority on economics;
actually, I would welcome the reassurance of a
sound correction from any readers knowledge
able in this area. Nor do I want simply to preach
gloom and despair, although the unemployment
crisis can make resignation somewhat tempting
(France, in fact, has already resigned itself to
having and providing for a permanent class of
jobless citizens). I believe there is hope, but it
may require some hard political and philosophi
cal adaptations. The one specific prospect that
comes sketchily to my mind is enlarging the pub
lic sector to make up for private industry’s short
fall of jobs. For this to work, we as Americans
must find some unifying project to which we are
willing to resolutely commit our productivity, re
sourcefulness and tax dollars, akin to the great
war effort that some 50 years ago helped to bail
us out of the Depression. An idea like this will
likely be criticized as a tentative step toward so
cialism. But on the other hand, just letting peo
ple languish in poverty and disuse is a step to
ward moral anarchy.
Tom Johnson is an Athens resident.
State flag does offend blacks
■ FORUM
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Athens, Georgia 30601.
There has been much talk lately,
as we are all doubtless aware, of
changing the state flag of Georgia.
A large number of Georgia residents
will most likely find this proposal a
nuisance, merely another tentative
ly enacted waste of valuable tax dol
lars and voters’ time. But when you
stop and actually ponder
the issue, it becomes ap
parent that the flag is, in
fact, in need of change.
Being from
Massachusetts, I see this
issue from an unbiased,
outside perspective.
Although it has been
years since all aspects of
segregation have been
abolished, the societal di
vision of various ethnic
groups is still a prevalent
factor. In 1956, when segregation
was rampant in the South, the state
of Georgia added the Confederate
emblem to its state flag, affirming
the state’s support of the system of
segregation, where all people are
equal, but not quite equal enough to
use the same bathroom or water
fountain.
Supporters of the current flag
say it honors those Confederate sol
diers who fell during the Civil War.
While this is true, and a noble thing
at that, we must remember that the
flag was not adopted for that pur
pose. Its adoption was an affirma
tion of archaic, ignorant beliefs; the
new flag showed the rest of the
country that Georgia shared the be
lief that one race of people was su
perior to another. The Civil War
ended in 1865. Why would Georgia
wait almost 100 years to begin hon
oring the war’s casualties with a
new flag?
If I were an African-American
Georgia resident, I would have a
hard time taking pride in the cur
rent state flag as it immortalizes
the fight to keep Negroes in the
chains of slavery. Tfirough diligence
and hope, we are only beginning to
see equality finally catching a firm
foothold in our culture, a century af
ter those rusted chains fell to the
ground - useless, obsolete. We are
only beginning to uphold the belief
all men truly are created equal, two
centuries after the great men who
began this country first held truths
to be “self-evident."
So, if you are a voter
and you want to make a
change for the better,
consider these things.
Try to picture how you
would feel confronted by
such blatant, obvious op
pression. Being a Jewish
American, I would be
strongly opposed to the
addition of a swastika to
the German flag in honor
of fallen Nazis. Does that
seem ridiculous? It is.
Now you decide how you would feel
and use your voice and your vote to
make a difference.
Brian J. Rodman
Freshman, International business
Reading the articles concerning
the debate that has been raging
over the state flag, I have noticed an
alarmingly repetitious and inaccu
rate comparison. Since last year, I
have come across several articles
that have, in essence, said, “Blacks
can have Malcolm X. Whites can
have the state flag.” People, there is
no comparison or equation between
Malcolm X and the state flag deba
cle. I do not need to elaborate on
why blacks are offended by the flag;
we all hopefully know. However,
many still do not understand
Malcolm. It is because of this igno
rance that people continue to “com
pare" and “equate" Malcolm to the
flag issue.
In the Viewpoints of the Jan. 24
edition of the Atlanta
Journal/Constitution, John C.
Thompson of Marietta said, “I am
affronted by thousands of Malcolm
X icons everyday." Unfortunately,
there are others who feel the same
way as as Thompson. Yet, he exem
plifies the ignorance that continues
to surround what Malcolm stood
for. He stood for black self-empow-
erment, racial pride and indepen
dence. Sadly, Malcolm’s rhetoric
was too sharp and in-your-face for
many thin-skinned whites like
Thompson. Admittedly, Malcolm’s
language was perceivably insulting,
harsh and lacking in euphemisms,
but this is by no means an apology;
for, he told it like it was.
Thompson’s lack of insight is
only surpassed two years ago by
Linton West III who wrote in the
Nov. 1, 1991, Red and Black, “The
wearing of the flag may offend
(Richard) Martin, but
the wearing of the
‘Malcolm X’ hats offends
also." He said that if
someone attacked him,
he would defend himself.
This was in response to
the civil rights activists
who were letting the po
lice and hate groups beat
them down but not retal
iate. Justly, he was bit
ter toward whites for
killing his father and the
injustices perpetrated against his
people. Moreover, whereas Malcolm
was telling the cold, hard truth, can
anyone say they could hear the
truth at a Klan rally or Skinhead
meeting? He showed his forgiving
nature when, after his pilgrimages
to Mecca, he declared integration
was possible in America. Does this
sound like a violent man to you? If
Thompson or West read Malcolm’s
biography (by Alex Haley), they
would see how ill-conceived their
perspectives are.
Another misconception about
Malcolm was (and still is) that he
hated whites. Never once in
Malcolm’s speeches, interviews or
writings did he say that he hated
whites. On the contrary, Malcolm
said, “Unless we (The Nation of
Islam) call one white man, by name,
a ‘devil’, we are not speaking of any
individual white man. We are
speaking of the collective white
man’s record. We are speaking of
the collective white man’s cruelties,
and evils, and greeds, that have
seen him act like a devil toward the
non-white man.” Thus, Malcolm’s
condemnation of the white man is
from a historical perspec
tive. Even so, Malcolm,
true to his continuing evo
lution as a more broad
minded individual, de
clared on May 21, 1964,
that he would never again
make “sweeping indict
ments of all white people.”
He knew then that not ev
ery white person was a
racist imperialist.
For all those who feel
the same way as these two
gentlemen, I implore you to look
further into Malcolm X. Ignorance
is infectious, and many people are
plagued by it. So before comparing
and equating Malcolm with the
Stars and Bars, read his autobiog
raphy, attend the events during
Malcolm X week, see the movie and
enlighten yourselves “by any means
necessary.”
Kori D. Robinson
Sophomore, pre-mod/biology