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Regents’ Test
We’ve generally believed that
it's sad commentary on the state
of education when college
students have to be tested to
determine if they can read and
write before they graduate. But
there’s a required test in the
University of Georgia system
which, essentially, does just that.
It used to be called the Rising
Junior Achievement Test. Now
it ’s called the Regents’ Test. New
name. Same test. While it s
unfortunate that the test is
necessary, we can see a purpose
for it. It’s advantageous to spot
those students who, for one
reason or another, are having
trouble with the basic skills in the
college classroom. They have,
afterall. been placed at an unfair
disadvantage in comparison with
their better prepared classmates
But now we see that th6re may
!>e some students who aren’t
spotted by the test scores. And
it snot because the Kegents’ Test
is poorly designed but because
those students never take the test
in the first place. Instead, they
manage to find someone to take
the test for them.
Apparently, those students see
less trouble in beating the system
than in making the grade.
Whatever the reason, it still adds
up to .1 raw deal for those that
carry their own weight
The Spirit of ’74
Next week will bring
lndependance Day once again
This time a cloud seems to have
gathered in our Fourth of July
atmosphere. Since the last July 4
Festivities, we have seen more
Watergate, the first serious
impeachment talk since 1866, and
no gas, plastics, fertilizer, toilet
paper, and you name it
The administration as well as
groups of concerned citizens
across the nation have been
Conservancy
The (Georgia Conservancy and
the city of Carrollton have gone to
a lot of trouble to find recyclable
paper by placing dumpsters
around the city. Granted the
move is small and does little to
solve more important ecological
problems, it is a start in creating
awareness in this part of the
state.
We commend the efforts of the
people in charge of this project
and lend them our hearty sup
port. Even if the only paper you
can spare is this copy of “The
West Georgia.” chuck it into the
nearest project dumpster.
We urge campus off.cials to
take steps to put a halt to the
practice of students who buy
their way out of a test. That goes
especially tor the Regents’ Test.
We think the best time to help
students who have trouble
reading is in the secondary
system But if help can’t be given
there, then it ’s doubly important
in college. It’s not a bit less im*
port ant for those who squeeze out
of the test than for those who take
it
Activity Budget
The work of the student activity
finance committee is over at
least until enrollment figures,
and student activity receipts can
be evaluated By and large, we
think the committee did a
creditable job in deciding which
activity program gets what
money. It s no easy task to divide
a quarter of a million dollars and
keep everybody happy.
We were pleased with the speed
that the committee used in
completing deliberations. They
realized that activities are in
need of knowing the final score so
they can begin planning their
individual operating budgets.
working feverishly to foster a
patriotic spirit for the 76 bi
centenial. But instead of
producing recitations of Patrick
Henry’s “give me liberty and
don’t investigate my tax
returns.”
It’s hard to place pride in a
revolutionary past when a
country is torn by a revolting, not
revolutionary, present.
No one has the answers, but
there is a key Beneath the
riotous dissent, beneath the
braggartly “if the President can
cheat on his taxes then so can I,”
and beneath the political sub
version, there lies within
America a heart. The country has
not lost the ability to put out a
helping hand to our neighbors,
nor have we lost the pride in
seeing a job well done.
It is to our credit. Perhaps,
though in the midst of a national
crisis, we are still able to
promote peace and brotherhood
as a nation.
So. above the superficial flag
waving, there is a hope for a
better Fourth in ’76 than in ’74.
Carey Smith
The Bomb and Other Creatures
Scorpions and tarantulas are
not pleasant things to think
about But, these two creatures
are very symbolic when com
pared to countries in the cold war
—that lurking cloud hanging
over the heads of nations, which
do, and which do not, possess the
power of the harnessed atom.
The scorpion and the tarantula
are pleasant in comparison to the
jT ft*
”1 Was Elated When I Heard
He Was Going To The Mid-East.
Then I Learned He Was Coming Back...’*
Charles Autry
A Shortage Greater Than Energy
During the past winter,
Americans agonized over a series
of shortages ranging from cuts of
beef to gasoline to petroleum
mj' derived plastics used for perm a
press clothing I can’t help
feeling that all of the anguish
sounded a bit hollow and
unrealistic
The problem that we will have to face much,
much sooner than a serious energy shortage is
the threat of a world wide famine, perhaps as
soon as spring of 1975.
In the last few years the Sahara desert has
moved southward* into the agricultural Salhel
due to overgrazing and an extended drought. In
spite of massive outside help, over a quarter of a
million people and 16 million head of livestock
died of starvation there last year.
Is this what the rest of the world can expect
within a decade? Probably not. The future effect
will no doubt be much worse, because there
won’t be much outside aid and each country will
be left pretty much to its own devices.
The world’s grain reserves are at an all-time
low. A 28-day surplus stands between sub
sistance and starvation for a large part of the
world’s people. Anything less than a bumper
harvest by both the United States and the Soviet
Union would guarantee a protein deficiency for
most of the world for the next several years.
Even so. there will be barely adequate grain
destructiveness they symbolize.
When Louis Halle described the
cold war and compared the
situation with the two vermin in
the bottom of a bottle there were
only two. But now we find that
just as moths multiply in the
dark, so do the nations possessing
the ability to blow up the earth
with the push of a button.
Scary isn’t it?
Less than six weeks ago. India
tested her first atomic bomb
Two years ago France joined the
United States, China and the
Soviet Union by obtaining her
own massive destructive device
And now the Shah of Iran
seems to have the prize in his
possession also
Late last week in a press
conference, the Shah told in
ternational news bureaus that
Iran would have atomic weapons
soon, much sooner than the rest
of the world might think.
Iran is not alone. At nearly the
same time, President Nixon
blessed Egyptian President
Saadat Hasan with a going away
promise of Egypt ’s very own 600
megaton nuclear reactor.
This little gesture now has
Isreali soldiers shaking in their
boots for fear that the Middle
East Crisis might turn into the
Middle East Crater It only takes
the 200 kilograms of plutonium
that the promised plant would
produce each year to build a real
crater making bomb
So. what does all this mean?
Whereas Halle paralleled the
cold war to scorpion and the
tarantula in the bottom of a
bottle, fighting for preservation
without any understanding, the
plot will thicken for humans as
time goes on and possession ot
atomic venom becomes more
popular and easier to obtain.
Scientists have approximated
that there is enough atomic
power to blow up the world
several hundred times
There is enough poison in a
scorpion to kill a tarantula with
one sting
It only takes on time. One push
of one button and the universe
would be missing this life
sustaining planet called Earth.
It is just logical that the more
nations possessing atomic bombs
there are, the more the temp
tation there will be to start an
atomic war
It is frightening, but then again
primitive man was frightened by
stone weapons.
Hiroshima was a blaze of fire
and a great explosion. Revelation
says the earth will end in fire.
Time will tell
It is like the spider's web. Each
night’s dew weakens it. each
morning's sun, in turn, makes the
dew sparkle. It is fragile, but the
web is a trap for those who are
concerned or curious. Time is the
great healer, or destroyer Let’s
hope there is enough time
allowed to heal, and to educate
man about his own potential for
destruction
supplies for the next few years. Those who need
it mos* will be unable to afford it.
Thanks largely to the Russian wheat deal and
an artificially high demand, grain prices tripled
last year. Over half of the world's population
already spends 80 percent of its income for food
Now. with the prices inflated beyond all reason,
two billion people can’t afford enough wheat
paste to survive
It has been fashionable to say that World War
111 will be fought with nuclear weapons and the
next one will be fought with sticks and stones.
Perhaps it will be fought with hunger instead,
with the United States competing with the Soviet
Union for support in the third world by offering
them grain instead of guns.
The producing countries have four alternatives
They could:
hoard the grain and let two billion people
starve.
lend the indigent countries the money to buy
grain at the inflated world prices and thus en
slave the third world economically.
—sell grain at reduced prices, inviting a black
market. Or,
enforce a system of rationing at home to
increase international supply and thus bring
down the price naturally.
A middle-class Salhelian, when he saw his
country starving sold his home and tried to feed
40 relatives on his meager income. He is now as
indigent as his cousin Given this sacrifice, is it
too much to ask the two most powerful nations on
earth to forego table scraps to keep two billion
people alive?