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November 30, 1984/The Maroon Tiger/Page 9A =FEATURES= No Thanks To Give By William Dean Special To The Maroon Tiger President Abraham Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Day Proclamation for 1863 begins, "The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies.” As the United States observes its national holiday, 120 years later, it should be mindful that 22 drought-stricken coun tries in Africa have enjoyed neither fruitful fields nor healthful skies. Reports of the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Program, both agencies of the United Nations, are warning of intense human suffering across the African continent, west to east, and in the south. Drought conditions in Senegal will reduce agricultural produc tion by 85 percent in large sections of the country. Food, feed and seed reserves are depleted in Mauritania. Crop losses could reach 50 percent in the northern and upper regions of Ghana. Food shortages and famine exist in parts of Chad. Three million Ethiopians are affected by drought; in Mozam bique, four million. Lack of irrigation water has resulted in a 50 percent drop in wheat plan tings in Zimbabwe. Botswana, Swaziland and Lesotho have had only one-half of their normal rainfall. Behind each of these figures lurks a world of suffering. The drought is one problem among many pressing down heavily on these countries: pop ulation growth outstripping the growth in food supply; inade quate programs to promote domestic food production; wars and the influx of refugees dis rupting farming; heavy insect infestation of crops; widespread outbreaks of rinderpest, the infectious disease affecting cat tle; a reduced capacity, because of the scarcity of foreign ex change, to cover food deficits by commercial imports. The result is that significant numbers of the 150 million people living in the 22 countries face, in the words of the Food and Agriculture Organization’s Director General, Edouard Saouma, “the most serious economic distress and shortage of food, which may reach proportions of hunger and malnourishment on a massive scale.” A great human drama is un folding in our midst and we in the Western world, whether we like it or not, are key participants in the outcome. The Food and Agriculture Organization is requesting from donor nations $76 million to provide seeds fertilizer, tools and vaccines for control of animal diseases, and 4.2 million metric tons of food for the drought-stricken countries. To date, far less than the amount of aid needed has been pledged. The consequences of the wealthier nations’ failture to help avert such suffering would be awesome: starvation, Dean is a lawyer in New York City. malnutrition and hunger for the people of some of the poorest countries in the world, and same for those who could help but did nothing. I shudder to think of the judgment that future generations would pass on our moral stature if we callously ignored this unfolding tragedy. In 1973 and 1974, the drought and accompanying famine in West Africa and East Africa claimed several hundred thou sand lives and caused lasting injury to many others from malnutrition. The response today from the world community must be that of the Flolocaust survivors: Never again! The Trials Of Becoming A Young Adult By Steven R. Lee Special to The Maroon Tiger There were 64 million babies born in the U.S. between 1946 and 1961 who are now between the ages of 23 and 38. This group now represents one-third of the nation’s population. Young adults represent one of the most rapidly growing populations of psychiatric patients in America. For a moment, consider the “plight” of the young adult. Separation from home must occur. It is a time of new beginnings and of establishing identity. The young adult faces career decisions, and begins the task of developing intimate relationships built on trust. Imagine that people around you, even those closest to you, seem rigid, self-centered, un willing to communicate or argumentative. What would it be like to feel “stuck” with nowhere to turn and to feel like the situation will never change? Would alcohol or drugs become a way of coping or escaping? These are the kinds of concerns that young adults often have about themselves or their parents. These are also the concerns parents sometimes have about their young adult children. If someone is in this situation, it may seem hopeless and un changeable. But change is possi ble, although it may not be easy. Change in the young adult requires the ability to evaluate several different developmental stages since anger, depression and frustration are derived from many different sources. Generally, towards the end of high school and after gradua tion, young men and women begin the process of leaving home — of separation and independence. One factor in successful separation from home is the establishment of intimate •relationships. Intimacy develops through self disclosure which requires risk-taking and basic trust in oneself and in others. Without consistency in the abili ty to trust others, the young adult will have a disregard for rules and authority. Another factor necessary for separation is develpment of a sense of identity. Young adults must feel capable of mastering changes in their lives; that they are competent and adequate in the most basic sense. The process of finding one’s own identity is also built on basic trust. A person’s identity develops over time by their identification with different traits from different types of people. If trust has developed with authority figures, (parents, teachers), then traits from these various people will be selected and incorporated by the young person as their own. If an iden tification with authority figures has failed to occur, the young adult will either fail to form an identity and be bland and withdrawn, or will form an identity with people who are divergent from our cultural norms. Once young adults have begun to establish their identity, they can begin to develop life goals. Having a sense of one's interests and needs enables us to cultivate friendships with people who have similar interests and goals. Iftheyoungadultisableto develop the tools necessary to function in society — trust, identification, and intimacy — then he or she will be well equipped to meet the challenge of independence in adult life. Sometimes professional help is required in order for the young adult and the family to move through these developmental stages. Different events throughout a young adult’s life can leave a stage incomplete, preventing progression to the next stage. Outpatient psy chiatric treatment and, oc casionally, inpatient treatment in a special unit designed specifically to deal with these developmental issues may be necessary. Charter Peachford Hospital is the only facility in the Southeast that provides a specialized program for young adults. Young adults or parents of young adults that wish to talk with someone about the issues facing people in this age group should contact the Young Adult Psychiatric Unit at Charter Peachford, 455-3200 ext. 534. Dr. Lee is a Service Director, at the Young Adult Psychiatric Unit, Charter Peachford Hospital. SGA; A Shame. . . (Continued from Page 8) Government Association’s Con stitution by the first Thursday of October 1984 or consider themselves non-existent. We have seen an SGA that has operated without the open-door policy that we were promised. We have seen an SGA that constantly criticizes the ad ministration of this College for its flaws but has failed to do its part to keep the flaws out of the running this great College of ours. Vice-President for Academic Affairs Philip Redrick finds it difficult to get SGA nominees for the standing committees of the College. Vice President for Business Affairs Wiley Perdue cannot get any financial state ment from the SGA after the homecoming activities. Vice President Raymon Crawford finds it extremely difficult to reach the president and if he’s lucky enough reach him and makes an appointment for a conference, the president arrives late. One person that we sympathize with is Public Relations Director Allen May who also serves as advisor to the Student Government Associa tion. He is said to have made 15 telephone calls in one day to the Office of the SGA President without any response. With all these problems un solved the SGA President had the guts to mount the stage of Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel amidst parents, alumni, friends, staff and faculty during the most boring homecoming week ever to ask some of our most respected faculty members to get out of their seats because those seats were reserved for his staff. And to add insult to injury, he was not going to start the program unless they got up to find seats in the already packed chapel. We take it upon ourselves to apologize to Dr. J.K. Haynes, director of the Honors Program who had to leave the chapel to avoid Perry’s embarrassing behavior and Dr. Marcellus Barksdale, professor of History and alumnus of the College, for this childish and unfortunate situation. Now that we have done this in behalf of the 2,000 or so students of this College, we expect Perry to follow suit since we think the great leaders whose spirit he always invokes in his speeches could be ashamed to be associated with this rude behavior. We have been in formed that the Officials of the SGA had expressed concern about the exodus of faculty from this college. Maybe, we should ask them this question: If you were a faculty member and were look ed down upon by a student during homecoming or another day and later were offered a job by some other organization, what would you do? We are aware that the student body is at this time fed-up with rhetoric and want a more effec tive and respectable student government that would work closely with the administration to better the conditions of this college instead of creating con frontations; an SGA executive that would be a lot more open to all students not selected few; an SGA that would be accountable to its obligations and respect authority but the same time not sacrificing the plights of its constituency and an SGA that would respect and abide by the mandate of the people give us a constitution on the first Thursday of October 1984. The Perry administration has outlived its usefulness, and it’s time for them to account for their lack of leadership. A better leader may be hanging in the skies waiting to assist in the restratories of Morehouse College that the Perry Ad ministration has torn down into pieces. Now is the time. STOP PRESS: LEADERSHIP BY EXAMPLE? At the time of going to press, the SGA Vice President Kevin Ross had been ticketed by the Chief Of Campus Police Jeff Whatley for driving his car through the gates between the Office of the Superintendant of Buildings and Grounds and the Danforth Chapel and on the green lawns to the SGA Building between Sale and Robert Halls. According to Chief Whatley, Ross said he did not have a current campus sticker and he thought he would be punished for coming through the main entrance of the College. Ross was not available for comments.