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4 | Wednesday, March 5, 2003 | The Red & Black
Dena Levitz | Editor in Chief
editor@randb.com
Lona Panter | Managing Editor
me@mndb.com
Leah Newman | Opinions Editor
opinions@ranclb.com
Majority opinions of The Red & Black's editorial board
A diverse showcase
Tickets to the annual fashion show will
help fund two University scholarships
Tonight you can get a lesson in fashion and do
a good deed at the same time.
The Student Government Association is host
ing its annual Diversidad Fashion Show at 7 in
Georgia Hall of the Tate Student Center.
At the event, about 20 models representing a
multitude of University student organizations
will show off just as diverse a selection of cloth
ing.
From Wet Seal trends to Indian fashion, they
will model more than 100 outfits in all.
The result will be a wonderful representation
of cultural traditions from all over the world to
stand for the international presence here on
campus.
And the low admission price — only $3 for stu
dents and $5 for non-students — will go toward
funding two SGA-sponsored scholarships.
The scholarship winners, chosen because they
are the best and brightest local high school
seniors, have committed to attending the
University in the fall.
So, the money raised at Diversidad, along with
the money raised at other SGA fund-raisers this
year, will assist these high schoolers in bringing
their leadership skills and talents to the
University.
It’s basically a matter of helping your fellow
Bulldog, so show up and get some free food in
the process.
All torture is wrong
Getting information from terrorist suspect
should not involve inhumane treatment
With the capture of Khalid Shaikh
Mohammed, said to be one of the masterminds
behind the Sept. 11 attacks, we are worried.
Not because of his apprehension, but because
there are indications that the Taliban supporter
may be unethically treated to pry information
from him.
American officials are prohibited from tortur
ing suspects under an international treaty and
according to U.S. law.
But this weekend, Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV,
the ranking Democrat on the Senate
Intelligence Committee, said the United States
might consider turning over Mohammed to a
country with no legal restrictions on torture.
Though a Rockefeller aide took these state
ments back, they still raise important issues.
Yes, Mohammed may be able to provide offi
cials with crucial information about Osama bin
Laden and al Qaeda. And, yes, information of
this sort, assuming it is not false, is extremely
useful to our government at this point in time.
However, using inhumane and torturous mea
sures to crack any of the 3,000 terrorist suspects
detained so far is an unlawful, immoral outrage.
According to the international treaty signed
by the United States, torture is defined as the
infliction of “extreme pain or suffering, whether
physical or mental.”
This includes not only having U.S. officials
institute such treatments but also willfully turn
ing over terrorist suspects to other countries
who will do such dirty work, using any means
necessary to attain information.
Without basic rights, like the ability to defend
oneself in trial before punishment, America is
not living up to its own ideals.
Our Staff
NEWS: 433-3002
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Copy Editors: Melanie Horton, Katie Davis, Nicole Ciomek,
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Opinions expressed in The Red & Black other than unsigned editorials are the opinions of the writers of signed columns and not nec
essarily those of The Red and Black Publishing Company Inc. All rights reserved. Reprints by permission of the editors.
Editorial board members include Dena Levitz, Lona Panter, Leah Newman and Mack Williams.
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Cole striving for 15 minutes of fame
M any people see athletes
as egotistical and low
brow.
They breeze through
school on the scholarship
train, not having to work,
receiving good grades and
only focusing on themselves
and their playing time — or
so the stereotype goes.
Thank you, Tony Cole, for
reinforcing that stereotype.
Tony Cole: Here’s a man
whose ego seems larger than
his small frame — and
whose morals may be based
solely on that same mam
moth ego.
Cole claims he isn’t bring
ing up his allegations
against head basketball
coach Jim Harrick and assis
tant coach Jim Jr. for fun; he
seems to be doing it for the
sheer sake of revenge.
Ironically, he only has
himself to blame for his bit
terness.
He’s a lukewarm point
guard that never did much
of note on the court during
his stead at Georgia but still
garnered some bad media
attention.
Even if his well-publicized
allegations are true, it would
only prove the Georgia bas
ketball program treated
Cole better than he
deserved, while all he
returned was poor publicity
and an even worse attitude.
The team obviously is
doing great without him.
Between the current cir
cus that Cole is the ringlead
ing and his run-ins with the
law in the past, I think it’s
safe to say he is somewhat
socially inept.
Cole not only has been in
trouble with the law several
times, but he has been
known to cause rather loud
disruptions in such places as
Greg Woods
the Ramsey Center as well.
On each occasion, it
involved Cole’s disregard for
simple and easy to under
stand rules that he seemed
to feel he was exempt from
because, as he put it, “I’m
Tony Cole!”
That’s not tough; that’s
just bratty.
Bullying one’s way into
any situation or manipulat
ing people to get what you
want is extraordinarily
spoiled and snotty.
The world does not turn
how you want it when you
want it, even if you’re Tony
Cole.
If you think it does, you
need to make an appoint
ment with reality.
While my smirking opti
mism wants to believe Cole
is an anomaly in the world of
athletes, my eyes tell me
otherwise.
Just last weekend I wit
nessed a group of guys get
out of a car and yell at a
passing group of women as
if they were cat-calling from
a construction site.
Then I recognized who
they were — a pack of rather
well-known athletes whom
I’d rather not name (lest
they beat me up).
These guys are role mod
els, and it’s about time they
started acting like it.
While I’d never be able to
sink a game-winning three
pointer or catch a clutch
touchdown, I’d also never
compromise morality for
money.
I’d take a blow to my own
pride before I ever mali
ciously pursued the destruc
tion of someone else’s life or
career.
Swinging one’s weight
around is not an admirable
quality.
Frank Sinatra said, “The
best revenge is massive suc
cess.”
Perhaps Cole chose such
desperate revenge because
he could not achieve the
aforementioned massive
success.
Regardless, I’ll be wear
ing my Harrick’s Hounds
shirts around campus, what
ever the outcome of the cur
rent media debacle.
I’ll still admire our ath
letes each for their individu
al accomplishments, lest
they give me reason to look
down on them with some
sort of Cole-esqe behaviors.
I just hope that all
Bulldogs — athletes and
regular students alike —
learn the important lesson
that Tony Cole has shown
us:
Sometimes you’re the
Dog and sometimes you’re
the hydrant.
If you’re the hydrant,
take it like a man and then
go on about your life.
At least then you’ll live to
fight another day, instead of
exposing your ego and other
weaknesses to the world as
Cole has.
He couldn’t get the life
time of success, so I hope he
enjoys his 15 minutes.
— Greg Woods
is a senior in English.
[ailbox
E-mail, letters and. faxes from our readers
Recycling shows respect for the environment
Brian Lee (“Campus trash
litters our daily lives",” March
4) urged students to throw
away their trash in order to
keep the campus aesthetical
ly pleasing.
But, he fails to recognize
the entire problem of litter
on our campus.
Appearances are superfi
cial and Lee should encourge
students not to throw recy
clable products in the trash.
Lee should advocate more
important problems than
excess trash, such the lack of
recycling on campus.
Students may not have
much respect for campus,
but Lee does not have much
respect for the environment.
KARA BARRENTINE
Sophomore, Americus
Anthropology/Sociology
“Gator chomp”
angers Georgia fans
During Friday’s gymnas
tics meet the Florida team
was not booed the entire
meet as Tiffany Killen
(Mailbox, March 4) seemed
to suggest.
The Florida gymnasts
were booed because each
gymnast had the “gator
chomp” in her floor routine.
While I agree it is inappro
priate for fans to boo, I think
anyone who understands the
Georgia/Florida rivalry can
see why it happened.
NICOLE JONES
Graduate Student, Athens
Affairs Administration
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Florida gymnasts
asked to be booed
I have never been embar
rassed to be a Bulldog.
I am proud to say I was
one of the Gym Dog fans
booing the Florida gymnasts
last Friday.
I understand these girls
work hard at what they do.
However, I also under
stand that the University of
Florida is our rival.
Throughout this year, I
have come to understand
what it means to be a college
sports fan and how to sup
port your team.
I realize that there are cer
tain rules of etiquette in gym
nastics, but these Florida
gymnasts were asking for
everything they got.
A friend who has done
gymnastics for most of her
life and knows about working
on routines for months and
performing skills that take
years to accomplish, was
booing with me when the
Flordia gymnasts started the
“gator chomp.”
If some “high class” gym
nastics fans can’t accept that
rules of etiquette can some
times be broken, then they
shouldn’t attend a college
sports event.
MICHALEI MILLER
Freshman,
Stone Mountain
Pre-Business
Reality television is
American torture
With the recent announce
ment of more than 20 new
reality shows airing in the
months to come, it is pretty
apparent that reality
television producers are
milking this fad until it runs
dry.
But I think this craze
poses a bigger problem that
needs to be addressed.
One of the main reasons
we are starting this war on
Iraq and Saddam Hussein is
because he is a hateful tyrant
who murders and tortures
his own people.
In our new reality-based-
television world, one of the
biggest forms of entertain
ment for us Americans is to
watch our fellow citizens be
tortured (granted, it is not to
the point of death) and
tormented on television in
front of millions of viewers —
watch “American Idol.”
Maybe we should deal
with this problem on the
homefront before hypocriti
cally hunting down a guy
who is “evil” because he finds
it entertaining to torture his
own people.
RYAN PAYNE
Freshman, Fort Valley
Graphic Design
Greg Bluestein
▲
White House
press corps
faces battles
W ashington, D.C. —
Ari Fleischer walked
in and the gaggle of
reporters that bombard
him with questions daily
quickly reached an uneasy
hush.
The affable, well-spo
ken press secretary’s
smile beamed as brightly
as the unnatural glint of
the half-dozen cameras
bouncing off his bald
head.
True, it’s not easy
being President Bush’s
press secretary now — in
the midst of a downtrod
den economy, constant
fears of terrorism and a
squeamish certainty of
war against Iraq — but
Fleischer makes it look
pretty enjoyable.
Fleischer, or “Mr.
SmartyPants” as one jour
nalist affectionately called
him, calmly fielded ques
tions Monday as he does
twice a day on most days.
The eclectic mix of
chattering newspaper
reporters, larger-than-life
television anchors, eccen
tric talk radio hosts and
thickly accented interna
tional journalists pep
pered the White House
spokesman with ques
tions.
Each, in their own way,
tried to get Fleischer to
slip up and tell more than
he should, while all the
while the large clunky
cameras watched.
The cluttered press
room, which once was the
White House swimming
pool before being convert
ed into its latest incarna
tion, relegated journalists
to eager schoolchildren,
wildly waving their hands
in the hopes that their
teacher, Fleischer, would
give them some useful
information.
But for the most part,
the frustrated reporters
were left foaming at the
mouth — especially when
it came to the mounting
prospects of an Iraqi inva
sion — which I am told is
the status quo for the
White House press group.
Standing on the podi
um, Fleischer repeated
the same lines he’s been
repeating for quite some
time now: The timetable
for the “complete, total
and immediate disarma
ment” is “weeks, not
months.”
And, aside from vague
comments on the ongoing
deliberations to house
U.S. troops in Turkey and
the expected joy over the
capture of al Qaeda mas
terminds this weekend, he
gave little more substan
tive information.
White House reporters
are faced with a unique
challenge.
They’ve got to respon
sibly cover the most pow
erful man on the planet —
President Bush — at a
time when we’re teetering
on the brink of war.
They’re surrounded by
competition and forced to
operate with a “pack”
mentality, as many chase
the same stories and use
the same soundbytes.
There is limited access
to not only the top dogs,
but even the lower-level
officials who fear retribu
tion to their job if they
talk.
Wading between the
official line — the press
releases, daily events and
speeches — and what’s
really going on behind the
scenes is the balancing
act reporters like Greg
Hitt, the Wall Street
Journal reporter covering
the White House, deal
with daily.
But when bombs start
dropping, reporters like
Hitt will continue their
own daily battle with the
Bush administration,
seeking to tell the nation
what’s really going on.
— Greg Bluestein is a
former Red & Black staff
writer who is interning
with the Wall Street
Journal in Washington.