Newspaper Page Text
■THE WEST GEORGIAN, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 17,1984
2
Opinion-
THE
WEST GEORGIAN
West Georgia College, Carrollton, Georgia
Editor Managing Editor
Don Stil well Angela Webster
Advisor
Joe Cumming
News Editor Advertising Manager
Ris Cowan David Bryson
Beware Of Credit
In its zealousness to raise money for a Student
Leadership Scholarship, the SGA may be leading
students down a road of financial misery that will follow
them years after they graduate.
Promoting the splendors of credit cards to 18 and 19-
year olds at West Georgia may be doing students more
harm than the good a scholarship could offset.
Borrowing money at 21 percent interest (which is
what credit customers do, in effect) is not good business
when cheaper money is available at banks and other in
stitutions. What disturbs us more, though, is that the
SGA salesmen will be pushing the idea that finanacial
aid grants, student loans and other limited student in
comes will be good enough sources for credit card ap
provals.
Letter To The Editor
WHAT’S THE BEEF? a Response
to a Guest Editorial by Mike Tierce
entitled “Where’s the Books” and
one by West Georgian staff writer
Rachel Boehl “Allan the underdog
thrives on competition”
It is generally considered good
journalism or rather ethical jour
nalism to offer opposing views. Two
articles which appeared in the
Wednesday, Oct. 3 West Georgian
were neither reflective of good or
ethical journalism. Both Mike
Tierce’s editorial “Where’s the
Books” and Rachel Boehl’s “Allan
the Underdog” thrives on
competition-were more of the nature
of testimonials and advertisments
than evidence of either editorial or
journalistic concerns. In this
response I shall attempt to
demonstrate the flaws in each and
offer what I feel is a balanced pic
ture regarding the Campus Book
Store. The conclusion that one gets
from reading either of the above
mentioned articles is that the Cam
pus Book Store is at the very least
negligent in not offering sufficient
texts (for example Tierce exclaims
that “...a student cannot walk across
campus and buy a copy of Moby-
Dick.” now, really, when was the
last time that a student wanted to
walk or run anywhere and buy a
copy of Moby-Dick or for that matter
War and Peace) are somehow
dishonest by charging exorbitant
prices for the texts offered (most of
the books selected showed a differen
tial in price ranging from 2 to 3
dollars, where the lower prices were
to be found in Allen’s Book Store,
again there is no concern about how
this translates in terms of quali
ty— i.e. how new and or abused are
the books in Allen’s versus those in
the Book Store). Tierce even goes so
far as stating that the inadequacy of
books is one of the causal
mechanisms in the retention pro
blem currently being faced by WGC.
Such absurdity would be hilarious if
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The Staff
Sport* Editor Jimmy Espy
Features Editor Brian Baker
Photo Editor Warren Hogg
Business Manager Marty Sanborn
Office Manager Nikki Ovies
not so serious. Retention problems
are being faced not only by WGC but
Emory, Georgia University, Atlanta
University, The University of
Chicago, the University of
Alabama...etc...etc.. All of these are
larger educational institutions,
sizeably larger campus book-stores
(with, I might add a greater variety
of non-course related books) —but
still must deal with the problem of
retention.
Student retention is a multifaceted
problem and to indicate or imply
that it is somehow related to what
extra texts are or are not available
in the Book store is ridiculous. Fur
ther the comment that West Georgia
is an “intellectual wasteland” ig
nores the abundance of material that
is easily and readily available in the
Library for those with either the in
clination or the desire to utilize then
services.
And finally the comment that
“...the Sing gas station offers more
current reading matted than the
bookstore,” is evidence of the lack of
taste of Mr. Tierce I mean who
really reads those sleazy paper
backs. For the most part these books
are only fit for the lining of either a
bird cage or to house train one’s dog,
not for serious reading.
The principal function of the Cam
pus Bookstore is to provide the
books, materials and supplies by
which a student might successfully
complete their course work. To the
extent that the Campus Bookstore
also provides novelties in the form of
College and Greek paraphenalia on
ly adds to services offered by the
staff. Finally when one considers the
warmth and efficiency of the staff
one can only conclude that the Cam
pus Bookstore is a vital and essential
functioning part of the college.
Granted all things could be better,
there could be more books available
as things stand it is a Good
Bookstore and so What’s the beef... ?
Rodney D. Coates
Sociology Professor
Gingrich Gets a
Lesson in Politicking
“Newt Gingrich is one of the inno
cent.”
I once wrote that. To this day. I
stand firmly by it. And right now, in
light of the recent Mother Jones arti
cle that attempts to ‘nail Gingrich to
the Republican wall’, I think he does,
too.
Perhaps Gingrinch is coming now
to fully understand how hard it is to
turn back the hands of time and
repair the damage done in one’s
past.
To loosely paraphrase the 8ib1e,...
‘When I was a child, it was the boogie
man beneath my bed who came to
visit me; but when I became a man,
it was my past.’
The boogie man, as much as we
may play at the game of it being an
exponent our imagination, is
somehow intricately tied to our reali
ty.
One of the charges leveled against
Gingrich is that he has too often dis
illusioned his campaign workers for
his own benefit.
In short, he went for the limelight
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We were, for several years, office
mates back when he was earning a
modest, yet dedicated living as a col
lege teacher. He was filled with
ideas —some fascinating and im
aginative, some just plain
wrongheaded. Newt Gingrich and I
are friends who often disagreed in
those days. After reading Newt’s
book, Window of Opportunity, I can
only conclude little has changed
even with the help of David Drake
and Marianne Gingrich. He is still
bubbling with thoughts: and some
worthwhile, many short of serious
consideration.
Newt’s thesis is, essentially, that
the combining of high-technology
with what he calls the Opportunity
Society will ensure a bright future
for coming generations. The opening
chapters ramble with possibilities.
We are shown through a dizzying,
rapidfire description what
technology will do for America and
the world as high-tech makes quan
tum leaps to improve life on earth
and in space.
The jobs of the future will be less
physical, less monotonous, and more
home-centered. Raw materials will
be provided from space; the disabl
ed and retarded will be helped; the
problems of the Third World (like
hunger) will be answered. All the
while, decentralization of the dread
ed large combinations (government,
corporations, etc.) will take place.
It’s all there, described like some
magic elixir that will cure all pro
blems if we have the self-descipUne.
Newt has read Toffler, Naisbett and
other futurists, and he knows
NASA’s speil well; however, he
presents his case like a “true
believer” with nary a cautioning
word.
It’s all too simplistic. It ignores the
considerable debate on impending
problems of the Computer Age as
suggested by Sherry Turkle in The
Second Self: Computers and the
Human Spirit and J. David Bolter in
Turing’s Man: Western Culture in
the Computer Age. Turkle and
Bolter raise serious questions about
the genius of humankind being
West Georgian Policies
Letters
Letters are welcome from readers concerning topics of
generaf and campus interest. In order for a letter to be published,
however, it MUST be signed by the writer. Under certain cir
cumstances, names will be withheld by request, but the letters
still must be signed.
Letters should be typed, double-spaced if possible, and must
include a valid mailing address or phone number for verification
purposes.
Letters are not to exceed 300 words and are subject to editing
for length, libel, clarity and/or style.
at the expense of others.
And in shorter than short, he has
to some extent admitted it. But
whether or not that charge is wholly
true will perhaps forever remain the
privy opinions of his closest friends
and enemies, both past and present.
In any case, it will always be subject
to personal opinions.
The fact still remains, though: he
is now in the limelight, a man of the
moment adversary to the entire
Democratic party, champion of far-
Right Wing politics, the man who has
moved a white-haired sluggish Tip
O’Neal to verbal battle within the
hallowed halls of the House of
Representives...someone, in fact,
who has stepped beyond his present
self and come vis-a-vis with his past.
I saw Gingrich in Carrollton last
Friday. Like most politicians, he
was still walking and talking fast.
But he wasn’t the same Gingrich I’ve
known in the past...not the man who
so smoothly spews forth with vigor
his ultra-idealistic views of how the
United States and the world should
function. Yea, he was walking and
Guest Editorial
John Gay
reduced by the machine and about
the tendency of technology to en
courage centralization and
bureaucracy.
Like Newt, I too have hopes for
what technology can mean to
humanity’s future. But, while Newt’s
vision is grand, his case to support it
is ever so superficial. He speaks of
work stations at home for many but
does not specify the work. What kind
of industries will exist in these home
work environments? Other questions
spring to mind about such things as
the operation of heavy industry, of
agriculture; on environmental
safeguards. They go unanswered in
Newt’s blueprint for the future.
He suggests that Third World food
problems can be answered by the
coming biological revolution and
adaption of policies to encourage far
ming. But again, he gives no
specifics, outlines no policies. With a
wave of the wand all is well —a
Bangladish’s food problems are
anwered. Like the marxists who are
so vague on exactly how the “state”
will “wither away” and leave a
paradise, Newt is also hazy on the
process of reaching his utopia.
Newt can be forgiven for some of
his stumbles on American history
since he was a “European
historian”, but to picture the Vic
torian Age as one of morality and
stability is to see only the bourgeois
veneer.
Some points are supported by il
lustrations that are just plain silly.
For example: On p. 76 Newt explains
how a home video-computer system
can aid a golfer’s swing as an il
lustration of “the way in which a
number of needs come together with
a number of different technologies to
provide for real changes in the way
we live.”
Huh?
‘‘When people cheat on their taxes,
on food stamps and on drug laws, it
is little wonder that we see examples
of cheating in government con
tracts” (P. 106).
We humans are a selfish and im
perfect lot. Thomas Hobbes knew
this and so do Newt’s fundamentalist
Don
Stilwell
talking fast as always, but he looked
like a worried politician, like a Ted
Kennnedy revived, like a Bert Lance
worrying that his hands would be
caught in the till, like a Richard Nix
on pleading with the American peo
ple that he has done no wrong.
There were other allegations out of
his past: he is not so nearly religious
as he claims; he has been tolerant of
drugs and alcohol; he had an affair
before his divorce from his former
wife Jackie; his campaign against
Sixth District congressman hopeful
Virginia Shepard was deliberately
misleading; he left Jackie, a victim
of cancer, in financial straits; he
preaches traditional values but does
not live them; he is a man of the mo
ment, giving people what they want
to hear and not necessarily what he
himself believes.
But the allegations are vague and
commonplace. They could be said,
for the most part, of any politician.
How many other politicians have
suffered the same kind of charges?
Believe me, you couldn’t count them
friends who so frequently remind us
that humankind is born into a fallen
state.
“By bringing together public hous
ing, food stamps, and free health
care, liberals created an environ
ment in which young girls would be
rewarded for getting pregnant... The
result has been a nightmare. White
illegitimacy has sky-rocketed 300
percent in the last twenty years, and
in 1982 some 55 percent of all black
children were bom illegitimate” (p.
134).
That seems a rather shallow ex
planation for the complexities of
human sexuality, sexual promiscui
ty and illegitimacy in our society.
Window of Opportunity has good
points: Our major bureaucratic
structures are indeed bloated,
wasteful and often inefficient; the
national deficit must be brought
down by eliminating waste; and the
president should have a line-item
veto. However, these and other wor
thwhile views, are impaired by an
underlying far right-wing tone that
permeates the book. Elements that
Newt variously refers to as liberals,
the left, the welfare state, and
Democrats (sometimes even
moderate Republicans) are indicted
for causing every problem in socie
ty. They are pawns of special in
terests, wasteful habits and the need
to maintain the status quo. These
elements, he insists, oppose
technological innovation (Lud
dites?). They have caused the value
of the dollar to decline and the na
tional debt to rise, while fostering
corruption and cheating through the
welfare state structure. The charges
go on and on sometimes ascribing
everything but Original Sin to this
left wing establishment.
Newt’s biases run out of control.
He advances the standard right-wing
myth that left wing lean of academe
prevented an intellectual debate on
such topics as historical revisionism
on the Vietnam War. Newt seems to
be unaware that historical revi
sionism on the Vietnam War is alive,
well, and growing on the college
campus. Fox Butterfield, “The New
Letters should be addressed to the following: The West
Georgian, Student Center, West Georgia CoMege, Carrollton
Ga. 30118.
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on the circles that underline the eyes
of politicians in total.
And so, Gingrich is passing from
starry-eyed innocence to steely-eyed
politician. He is learning, for the
first time, that aU the grand ideas he
has for so long nurtured can poten
tially be torn down in the quick with
the swift stroke of a nasty pen.
As for the writer of the Mother
Jones article, he has stooped to
ground level and defamed what I
think of as the sacred end of jour
nalism - to report to the reader
facts that are relevant to the issue.
The allegation that 10 years ago
Gingrich had an affair before
separating from his wife is of no in
terest to me; and all the other allega
tions seem relative and little more
than vague charges.
No, I wouldn’t vote for Gingrich,
but it has nothing to do with the
Mother Jones article.
Neither would I cast a vote for the
writer of the article for a journalism
award...and that decision has a lot to
do with the article.
The Eye Of Newt
Vietnam Scholarship”, The New
York Times Magazine, Feb. 13,1983,
addresses this question of growing
interest and openness in studying the
Vietnam War. Last spring a course
on Vietnam was offered and taught
by professors representing the
various views on our own campus. If
anyone is out of touch with ideas, it’s
not the academic community.
While he charges that liberals are
tools of special interests (labor
unions, certain industri's,
bureaucracies), he praises Politic
Action Committees (PAC’s) as effec
tive devices for self-government in
an Opportunity Society.
Few would argue with the book’s
approval of traditional values of
work and thrift, or its vision for a
more people-oriented democratic
structure; however, the path to all
this is vague and strewn with in
tellectual potholes.
The “Star Wars” agenda that
Newt advances with Dr. Strangelo
vian ardor is a strategy doomed by
the obvious that the superpowers
will simply match and counter each
other as potential disaster continues
to hover over the world. Jeff Hecht,
Beam Weapons and Ashton B.
Carter, Directed Energy Missile
Defense in Space are both skeptical
of the claims of “Star Wars” sup
porters. Unfortunately, a nuclear
strategy of mutual assured destruc
tion, while scary, is not bankrupt as
Newt says. MAD is probably a fact of
life, unalterable, regardless of what
technological avenues we may
follow. It is necessary for us to con
tinue to put priority on new offensive
and defensive weapons; however,
why doesn't Newt suggest a parallel
discussion on the facets of a
verifiable nuclear freeze and
verifiable arms reduction program?
In summary, the main disappoint
ment with Window of Opportunity
arises from its combative instead of
persuasive character. A more objec
tive, thoughtful, reasoned presenta
tion of the views without vitriol
would make the book more credible.
As it is, the eye of Newt is
astigmatic.
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Turning the Corner