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Page 3 Clark Atlanta University Panther April 1, 1991 Editorials I Was Thinking... By WILLIAM H. BLACKBURN Staff Writer As I was thinking about ways to write this editorial, I was trying to find a new twist. I needed to find a way to get some things off my chest about the roles and attitudes of our professors. So this editorial note is dedicated to all the instructors within the AUC. Dear Instructors, I am so sick and tired of hearing you all complain about how unmotivated students are today. You sit up in your offices and lounges and lash out at how the students of yesterday were so much better than the students of today. Well, when are you going to realize that maybe it is not the students, but you the instructors who should take the blame for the so-called lackadasial attitude of the students. You come here with your Ivy League degrees and expect us to conform to your image of what you think a college student should be. Why not deal with what you have instead of what you want? You're constantly telling us what we don't do and overlook the things that we are good at. You use the excuse that you are helping us to become better people, but I don't buy that. No, you come here on a ego trip and find joy in seeing us go through hard times. You say we have it easy, that the real problems occurred when you were going through college. So you punish us with your dictatorship mentality, and then you expect us to respond favorably. Maybe we do have it easier than you, just like I'm sure you had it easier than the generation of black college students before you. Things get better as time moves on. Maybe it's time that you come to school to help us instead of criticizing us all day long. We face long enough odds as it is, without some ego-tripping disciplinarian throwing more hurdles at us. The students are prone to take on the same attitude as the teacher. You come strolling in like you don't care and then want us to bust our butts. Maybe we should go to a system where you are paid according to how well you teach and how well your students comprehend. Just like our grades are based on our work, I think your pay should be based on your work. What's fair is fair. Well, now that I've gotten that off my chest, Have a Good Day. Teacher Applauds CAU Players By AMARYLISS HAWK Mass Media Arts Professor What would Clark Atlanta University and the Atlanta University Center community be without theatre? Charles Fuller's "Zooman and the Sign", an excellent production by the CAU Theatre Players, brought this question to mind. How often do we take for granted the richness of the Arts, our Black experience and our escape from or, in Zooman's case, involvement in, the drama of life. Could we imagine a college community where there is no theatre, no art, no music, no debate and no stimulating public discussion? We would surely exist as a mere imitation of an academic community. Hats off to the CAU Players and their Director, J.W. Lewis, for a job well done — a tribute to the entire CAU community. What would Clark Atlanta University and the Atlanta University Center community be without theatre? Well ... we really don't want to know. PANTHER April 1, 1991 The articles on the editorial page are the opinion of the writers. They are not necessarily the opinions of the student body, faculty, staff or administration. Editor-in-chief Paulette V. Walker News Editor Tonya Latimer Lifestyles Editor Sheryl M. Kennedy Sports Editor Anthony George Photographers Derwin Ross Keith Neal Staff Writers William Blackburn Veronica Fields We welcome our readers' views in the form of letters to the editor or guest editorials. The Panther office is located in the Communication Arts Center, room 120. Address all correspondence to the Panther Newspaper, Clark Atlanta University, James P. Brawley Drive at Fair Street, S.W., P.O. Box 329, Atlanta, Ga. 30314. The telephone number is 880-8309. The staff meets Tuesdays at 11 a.m. in room 120 of the Communication Arts Center. Tips On Cramming by ERIK ANDRESEN HE Vti BEFoRE THE EHK.TW W£0 $AM£5 FoR THtl/E HOURS. HiS WiU. SET You <N THE PROPER Votl MAVEMT THE TO MEMORIZE EVERY WoRp IN HE BOOK. (NSTfcAfc TuST MEMORIZE Every hire worp. UKfctt UETrERMMi M CASE HEY PlSOJSS WHAT YouTcE SWAM* BY E<AM TiME, YWJ WiU. BE AS KNOWLEDGEABLE amp coherent as he ice president or the UNITE? STATES/ (V tocfoaoHoMics T5uT Aqp jogp FTsHr F7 5 Hf r.sM/ Another 4 Years of Bush By PIERCE W. HUFF Staff Writer Ah, the Persian Gulf War. Just the thought of it brings oil to my eyes. President George Bush. Saddam Hussein. Desert Shield. Desert Storm. The allies crush the Iraqis, scene at 11! Unfortunately the biggest winner in the aftermath of the war isn't America. Oh sure, the country did suffer a "minimum" amount of casualties. And yes, there will be plenty more welcome home celebrations. People will even say "America is No. 1!" and start believing it for a change. But the biggest winner is President Bush. Thanks to the war, the 1992 Presidential Election is over. I'm bracing for another four years of the "George and Dan Show." Recent polls have listed the President's popularity at a staggering 90 percent and as more and more troops come home, that figure experts to get even higher. What makes this worse is that most Americans are so high on the thrill of victory that they have failed to notice the ongoing recession and Bush's lackluster treatment of minorities. President should have been the first name on minorities "Most Wanted List" when he shot down the recent civil rights bill, but he isn't. That's not to say that I'm against winning the war. Even the staunches protestors of the war have to admit that Hussein had to be stopped and it is always better to win than lose. It's just that sometimes the fruits of victory can be rotten. I'm afraid that no Democratic combination will beat Bush and Quayle in 1992. The great slugger Reggie Jackson once proclaimed that "winning is better than sex," and while I come close to agreeing with him, I still have doubts. Just how great is winning when it brings another four years of Bush? U. S. Rejects Possible Cure By PAULETTE V. WALKER Editor-in-Chief In 1988, former President Ronald Reagan was instrumental in resolving a long battle between French and American scientists over patent rights to AIDS blood tests. The settlement cleared up friction among world scientists that may have been a deterrent in their search to find a cure for AIDS, but more importantly, it was hoped that the settlement would pave the way for a greater degree of cooperation between the U.S., France and researchers world-wide. The memory of this settlement came rushing back vividly as I read an article recently published in the January/February issue of HeaithNews; "African Scientist Discovers Cure for AIDS." I read with elation as the article told of an organization in Kenya, the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), that housed the discovery of a cure for AIDS. The hero: Kenyan researcher/scientist Dr. Davy Koech. As of February, 1,285 patients had undergone the treatment and 50 had been cured. The article even told of one young lady who received the treatment and was cured in less than two months. The new drug, Kemron, is inexpensive: $50 a month compared to the $2,000 to $10,000 a month it costs to used AZT, the treatment use in the U.S. I read on excitedly as the article unfolded a story of Kemron tests conducted in Texas and Japan, but then the roof fell in: the discovery Was made over a year ago! According to reports from the National Institute for Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Md., AIDS has killed more than 25,000 Americans since 1981, and more than 15,000 other Americans have the disease. Nearly 80% of the world's 159 countries have reported cases of AIDS and the disease is spreading in Third World countries like wildfire. Now, I know better than to jump on the band wagon of every claim without first looking further into facts, but with humans dropping like flies, I think it would be wise to investigate all options. In the U.S., the majority of research for AIDS cures is conducted at the NIH. I spoke with Ann London, an NIH public information specialists, about their efforts to incorporate Kemron in their research and was floored by her response. "We are not researching it (Kemron)," she said. "We have no information on it. It hasn't proved to be effective and it's not part of our planned studies." Her arrogance dumfounded me; I sought solace in the press. I thought to myself, "I know this oversight and arrogance has been recorded." Wrong Again! I checked the files of The New York Times, a Pulitzer Prize winning newspaper noted for its coverage of international events, and found that they had only published a 2-inch brief in April 1990 about Kemron. I spoke with a news assistant for the science and medicine desk at the NYT who did not wish to be identified; she said that there has been no confirmation from American scientists. At this point, not only was I disappointed, but scared for the welfare of a nation being ravaged by this virus. Why would the claims of an air-headed woman, claiming to have an affair with a priests in the Catholic Church be taken seriously and not the findings of an established immunologist. The author of the article, Bodioh Wisseh Siapoe, gives us an option to consider. His article implies that the Western mainstream media have continued to ignore the discovery because of racism. "This is an African discovery," he wrote. "Africans and African Americans are singers and dancers, hewers of wood, drawers of water and the white man's burden, not scientist." As one angry writer for the Amsterdam News aptly stated, "... the racist white press of the Western world ignored this amazing discovery because it was not created in the laboratories of Harvard, Johns Hopkins National Institute of Health, Mayo Clinic or any other research laboratory financed by Whites." Many feel that the U.S. is protecting it's billion dollar AIDS-treatment industry. "The American Medical Association and organizations like it, are making big bucks on the sick," said one student. "If someone were to discover a cure, they would lost billions of dollars!" The Panos Institute in London predicts that in the next decade at least 1 million Americans will die of Acquired Immune Deficiency syndrome. America got to be America by taking a chance. I say we risk the chump change and save valuable lives.