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■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 X wsnt pßospeßiTV j Have NOT au. CHaRiSMa, Too. §ußSTaNce.^jJjpJ 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 ICHOpmfaJR CWWSWINtuVat fcR\H NOJBtBER j 5 9K. v ... &&&& k : * Bp 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. Advertising The West Georgian is a full-size newspaper published every Wednesday during fall quarter. Ad rates are *2.50 per column inch for local advertisers. The West Georgian reserves the right to refuse any paid space due to content or in the school’s best interest. Deadline for ad space is Friday, 5:00 p.m., before the next publication date. 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. L L I ... ./ if i i : *" ’ Turning the Corner