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Tuesday, January 20, 2009 | The Red & Black
Carolyn Crist | Editor in Chief editor@randb.com
Chelsea Cook | Managing Editor me@randb.com
Shannon Otto | Opinions Editor opinions@randb.com
Our Take
Majority opinions of The Red & Black’s editorial board
Hoping for history
Professors should take a break at noon
today and let us watch history be made
At approximately 12 p.m. today, Barack
Obama will place hig left hand on the Bible,
recite an oath to uphold the Constitution and
be sworn in as the first black president in our
nation’s history.
And many of us will be stuck in a classroom.
We pray we don’t have to tell our grandchil
dren we missed this historic event because we
couldn’t get out of biology lab.
For those of us who didn’t make the trip to
brave the cold in D.C. today, we’re at the mercy
of our professors. We encourage them to take
a break from lecture and allow students to wit
ness this historic event. It shouldn’t be too diffi
cult, as most major news sources will stream live
coverage of the inauguration on their Web sites.
It can be inconvenient for professors to break
from their carefully micromanaged syllabi. But
this is the eighth day of classes. There’s plenty
of time in the term for professors to cover what
ever they planned on teaching today.
Watching the inauguration will hold as much
educational value as any lecture if not more.
Yes, many of the inauguration events are
tedious. We don’t plan on spending much time
watching the balls and the parades. It certainly
seems frivolous to toss millions of dollars on
those events when most Americans are having
trouble making house payments.
But the swearing-in ceremony of Barack
Obama, a leader who seems to personify the
feeling of hope that many Americans are des
perately searching for, is mandatory viewing.
Drew Wheatley for the editorial board
Save the boobies
Each year, the Gym Dogs ‘pink ofuV one
meet to raise money for cancer research
Using their popularity for good, Suzanne
Yoculan and her Gym Dogs raise money each
season for the Athens Regional Medical Center
Breast Health Center.
At one meet each year, in addition to witness
ing the gymnasts’ feats on the blue mats, attend
ees can help benefit breast cancer research by
buying T-shirts or making a donation.
We’d like to congratulate Yoculan for start
ing a trend among collegiate gymnastics teams.
More University teams should take advan
tage of their stature and do some good in the
community.
As Yoculan said, “There’s other things more
important in life than sports.”
By raising awareness and money, the Gym
Dogs are proving that message true.
Shannon Otto for the editorial board
As Obama begins legacy, policies should involve youth voters
Today marks the
beginning of anew
chapter in American
history.
Though many will focus
on the significance of our
nation’s first black presi
dent, let us not forget this
inauguration serves as
another historical land
mark.
More Americans aged
18-29 including many
at the University voted
for Barack Obama than
any other presidential
candidate in recent his
tory. According to exit
poll analysis by CIRCLE,
an independent research
agency at Tufts University,
more than 22 million youth
voted in 2008, in the high
est turnout since 1972 (the
first-year 18-year-olds were
allowed to vote).
Around 70 percent of
all youth supported him.
Obama will become presi
dent of the United States
today in part because of
the strong support he
received from young voters.
For years, the baby
boomers have shied away
from addressing some of
the nation’s most pressing
issues while supporting
policies that will place a
substantial burden on our
generation in the future.
During the next 100
Opinions expressed in The Red & Black are the opinions ol the writers and not necessarily those ot The Red and Black
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days, President Obama
will begin shaping his lega
cy. It is essential the poli
cies he implements reflect
consideration for our gen
eration; after all, he would
have had a much more dif
ficult time getting elected
without our support.
Consideration for the
youth of America must be
representative of a general
commitment to help the
majority of Americans,
not just the lucky few with
political influence.
Obama’s first priority
should be preventing our
country from taking on
an unsustainable level of
debt. The U.S. economy
is (still) very powerful and
able to handle a significant
amount of leverage, but his
administration must keep
our national debt from spi
raling out of control.
An irresponsible fiscal
deficit will force our gener
ation to suffer from higher
taxes and painful inflation.
Although the administra
tion supports releasing
another $350 billion in
bailout funds, they cannot
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Opinions
BkBSISS. . i H'l jf
Lessons learned from recent months
After weathering the craziest
autumn in economics and
politics in untold decades,
Americans have a right to ask: what
should we learn from it all?
The last time so much changed
so rapidly in our country, the 9-11
Commission was appointed to
explain the run-up to disaster and
point us in anew direction.
I think we need that same sort of
guidance today.
In recognition of George W.
Bush’s last full day in office, I
propose we reverse the order of
the numbers and appoint a “1-19
Commission” to sift through the
rubble.
But since we’re now buried
under a pile of debt, this will have
to be a gratis, DIY affair. So here
are my thoughts on the lessons
that should be gleaned:
1. “Dynasty” ends in “nasty.”
Our political system has veered
ever closer to inherited power on
both sides of the aisle.
It turns out that, no, we didn’t
“misunderestimate” President Bush
when it came to competence in any
number of areas.
It wasn’t enough just to be a
president’s son. And look out for
round two: Bush’s dad was on Fox
News recently, stumping for his son
Jeb to be, yes, president.
Meanwhile, New York is consid
ering Caroline Kennedy for ex-Pres
idential spouse Hillary Clinton’s
Senate seat primarily because
she’s, um, you know, a Kennedy.
Obama is an exception, but
it seems most of the potential
replacements for his appointees
are, like Kennedy, famous primarily
sacrifice our generation’s
fiscal burden to alleviate
our current ills.
Obama si
make sure there are jobs
available for graduating
college seniors includ
ing the more than 5,000
University graduates set to
enter the job market.
He should make a com
mitment to affordable stu
dent loans educating our
generation will drive eco
nomic growth in the future.
Second, Obama should
take measures to create an
environmental policy that
leads our country toward
energy independence.
This is especially crucial
for our generation, as our
dependence on oil will con
strain our economy while
leaving our prosperity sus
ceptible to political unrest
overseas. Energy policies
should reflect the youth’s
desire for sustainable pro
grams that promote the
long-term health of our
environment.
Now that Obama is
in the White House, it is
imperative we continue
the civic engagement that
we all participated in and
witnessed throughout the
campaign season.
We urge the 30 percent
who voted against Obama,
to hold him accountable.
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for their familial relations.
A nation that rebelled against a
demented monarch should know
better.
2. Some things really are price
less. Those Master Card ads got
it right, but mostly for the wrong
reasons.'
We’ve spent the past two
decades turning everything into a
financial commodity.
Houses were flipped; mortgages
siphoned and bundled; anything
that could be bet on (in a casino or
on Wall Street), was —with all the
real action in the side bets. This is
all insanity you can’t, or shouldn’t,
commodify everything. Houses are
homes, not ATMs; bodies are tem
ples, not the Federal mint.
Ironically, even the financial
world couldn’t put a price on the
sliced-and-diced “assets” it had cre
ated. Fannie, Freddie, and Lehman
wound up basically priceless.
In a flash, a whole worldview
built around putting a price on
everything bankrupted itself, liter
ally as well as morally.
We need to elevate our game a
little above the bottom line in the
future.
3. Reality isn’t just for TV. Did
anyone notice that the most mon
strous public fictions were told dur
ing the very heyday of “reality TV?”
The Bush White House famously
Serve as the friction that
forces this administration
to implement policies that
benefit all Americans.
By remaining active,
we will reinvigorate our
democracy. As Obama
himself said, “This victory
alone is not the change we
seek it is the chance for
change.”
At the Roosevelt
Institution, we work to
move student policy ideas
into proposals that are
published in reputable
journals and presented to
policymakers.
If authoring your own
policy proposal is not your
thing, find another way to
stay involved. Hold rallies
in support of your cause.
Call your congressmen and
senators. Talk about the
issues.
We elected this presi
dent, but today is only the
beginning.
Lucas Puente is a
junior from. Wilmington,
N.C., majoring in inter
national affairs and
finance. The Roosevelt
Institution, sponsored by
the Honors Program, is the
University’s only student
think tank. It will have its
spring information session
on Thursday at 8 p.m. in
MLC 268.
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John
Knox
Bat *. jjjr• *-
W m&Wk ,
The Associated Prbss
A Barack Obama spent Monday participating in
a renovation project at Sasha Bruce Youthwork,
a shelter for homeless or runaway teens in
Washington, D.C.
embraced a “faith-based” approach
and scoffed, like Henry Potter in
“It’s a Wonderful Life,” at what they
sneeringly called “reality-based”
decision-making.
We then suffered the pain when
faith in Saddam Hussein’s weapons
of mass destruction, or Brownie
at FEMA, or Alan Greenspan and
other false gods of finance, turned
out to be horribly misplaced.
All the “bubbles” of recent years
depended on a denial of common
sense just ask Bemie Madoffs
scammed clients.
One of the highest priorities of
the new era, then, should be a brac
ing dose of reality in our political
and economic realms.
4. Things can, and will, fall
apart. The dominant image of this
decade is collapse: Enron; dot
bombs; Twin Towers; Baghdad;
New Orleans; bridges; water mains;
Wail Street; networks; newspapers;
Constitutional checks and bal
ances.
Whatever isn’t being built up
wisely, instead comes apart at the
seams.
Can the center, or the centrists,
hold? Probably the key test of the
Obama administration —and the
nation as a whole is whether or
not we can engineer lasting fixes to
the core problems that were created
or ignored during the party-hardy
unreality daze that preceded it.
If not, expect a lot more of the
unthinkable and more devastating
falls like the last one.—
John Knox is an assistant
professor in the
Department of Geography
Cambri Steadman
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