Opinion
Editorial
Communications Problem
Its been called to our attention that we may have mistakenly
mislead some people.
When we reported the university was imposing enrollment
controls in the School of Communications, we ran a headline that
read " Communications Program Closes its Doors." While the story
went on to explain that Behrend majors will not be effected by the
change, we realize our headline may have been misleading. For that
we apologize.
Let us say again, the Behrend Communications Program has not
closed its doors. It is the the University School of Communications
which is being reduced.
Except for a misunderstanding with the headline, the information
contained in the story was accurate to the best of our knowledge. No
doubt we would have been wise to make the state of Behrend's
Communications Program more readily apparent. Hopefully we'll be
able to avoid such misunderstandings in the future.
GOP Goes KKK
by Pete Weichlein
Collegian Staff Writer
David Duke is seeking a
legislative seat in Louisiana. If
you have no idea who David
Duke is, this will not be
shocking news. The whole
picture changes tremendously,
though, if one is made aware of
the fact that up until 1979 David
Duke was a national leader fo the
Ku Klux Klan. There should be
no ,objection, f in. Mr. Duke
running for dtci; since tl is is a
cipmocracy,ancl..emy citizen has,
the. top icipa e n s th e
government. The problem is that .
David Duke right now holds first
place in a seven-candidate field for
one vacant House seat.
Pete's
Perspective
So a man who up until ten
years ago was grand wizard of the
KKK, a man who is now
president of the National
Association for the Advancement
of White People, a man who
advocates "Aryan preservation"
and racial separation, such a man
might in the near future be a law
making part of the state of
Louisiana. Nice.
But why is Duke winning so
much support? The reasons are
both economical and social.
Louisiana has had the nation's
highest unemployment rate for
quite some years now, and
loosing more then 100,000 jobs
since the oil bust hasn't improved
mailers either.
The number of black-on-black
crimes has soared in New
Orleans's public housing projects
and if Louisiana voters were to
look for a scapegoat for their
economic and social plight, the
state's blacks would present an
easy target. But it is incidents
like a much publicized attack by
black youths on white spectators
during a parade celebrating Martin
Luther King's birthday which
earn the black community a bad
reputation.
This is how Mr. Duke wins
his supporters. There have been
major efforts to educate the voters
about David Duke, yet the
number of his supporters seems
to grow and grow. Is this a
white community's statement
about racism, or just the normal
support any young Republican
candidate with new, radical ideas
would receive?
Duke would certainly bring
non-conservative ideas to the.
office. He plans a welfare reform,
which includes monetary, public
housing, and other "bribes" for
welfar,e, mothers who consent to
skk'Sfrietresthicilig;lndthers
pledge . never . to,, have children
Diikei'pfan abo includes
less public support for those who
don't. He embraces such
traditional Republican causes as
an end to affirmative action and
less taxes.
His opponents are worrying
that his election would cause the
rebirth of all-out racism and of
violent anti-Semitism. Not to
mention the bad public relations
across the nation Louisiana
would receive with a Duke
victory, Louisiana isn't known as
the least racist state in the Union
in the first place.
So what can be concluded
from the political happenings in
the state of Louisiana? Public .
racism is on the rise again and its
acceptance in society is
worrisome. Discrimination has
also found new victims. Sex or
race are no longer a factor
determining one's safety from
racism. Anybody might be
discriminated against. Sometimes
the sufferer is white, sometimes
black.
It would seem that in this
country, where everyone is so
fast to state that racism is a thing
of the past, an old problem which
has caused a civil war over a
hundred years ago still exists.
Racism is a definite part of our
lives, influencing our thinking in
unimaginable ways. And racism
goes both ways. We have reached
a point where instead of
eliminating racism out society
has created even more
discrimination. White hates
black, black hates white, and
David Duke might someday join
former Klan member Robert Byrd
(D) in the Senate.
LOVE
Nervous News
by Rob Prindle
I was having this discussion in a taxi
heading downtown. And, to borrow some lyrics
from Paul Simon (the singer, not the guy who
ran for president), I was rearranging my position
on this friend of mine who had a little bit of a
breakdown. You probably all know that I'm
talking about my buddy Butch.
All of Butch's friends have come to know
him as a staunch liberal. Under normal
circumstances Butch would never be caught
with anything but a 'save the world' message on
his lips. Unfortunately, these are not normal
conditions. Things have gotten pretty strange
lately.
The Russians don't act like Russians
anymore, they act like liberals. That would be
strange enough by itself, except it is made
stranger by the fact that our conservative
president gets along just fine with them.
Gorbachev has turned into some kind of ruskie
flower child telling everyone that he wants
world peace and free 10ve... well, at least he
says he wants the peace.
The strangeness of the world doesn't stop
there. Just a few weeks ago, Pennsylvania raised
its minimum wage. And can you believe that
Oliver North is finally going to be tried?
Everyone figured the old war-monger would get
a presidential pardon, right? The world was
starting to look like a really good place.
Can` you belieVe that this is
the same liberal •Yvho- said that
if Supremd Court ever
outlawed abortion, he would
personally impregnate all of the
Justices' Granddaughters?
Butch may not be eloquent, but
he is nothing if not liberal.
So you can see how Butch may have been
shaken, up. Everything was going his way.
Everything was going great, until a couple of
days ago. I think that what happened last week
finally make Butch snap. He started taking all
the terrible news that was flooding CNN and
Nightline and he twisted it into.... Well I'll just
tell you what he has been saying.
When Butch heard about the controversy
over the book "The Satanic Verses" he started
talking crazy. The book was written by a man
living in England named Salman Rushdie. It
seems that Rushdie's book was somewhat
upsetting to followers of Islam. Iran's Ayatollah
Khomeini promptly ordered the author killed
and offered to pay the lucky marksman 5.2
million dollars for ridding the world of the
fiction writer.
As soon as people heard that the Ayatollah
didn't want anyone to read the book, it turned
into a best-seller. You would think that
Khomeini would have learned something from
the Last Temptation of Christ incident.
So, Butch snapped when he heard this. He
started humming Islamic hymns and lighting
incense to honor Mohommed. He cursed
Rushdie for ever having tried to write fiction
about his prophet. He said that Rushdie should
be tortured for having thought he could write a
book that would upset Moslems. Rushdie,
according to Butch, is a troublemaker.
Can you believe that this is the same guy
who called George Bush the Antichrist? Can
you believe that this is the same fellow who
called organized religion a good way to make a
The Collegian Wednesday; Eebinary 22
ROB
Breakdown
living if you can't do anything better? Can you
believe that this is the same liberal who said
that if the Supreme Court ever outlawed
abortion, he would personally impregnate all of
the Justices' Granddaughters? Butch may not be
eloquent, but he is nothing if not liberal.
So . he was obviously in the middle of a
breakdown when he said that an author had
. to
answer to fanatic religious leaders for
- pablishinga work of fiction. Butch's - madness
'didn't stop with that piece of disturbing news,
though. When Butch heard about David Duke he
almost turned into a racist.
Duke is a former KKK Grand Wizard who
recently won a seat in the Louisiana Stfte
House on the RePublicanticket. He is a devout
White supremacist and a staunch anti-Semite.
and apparently, in Louisiana that is enough to
get elected. Butch saw the lighter side of the
travesty. He said that it was abourtime that
Republicans finally come out of the closet and
admit what they really are.
The bad news just kept flooding in and
Butch just kept rationalizing it. When he found
out that African human rights activist Winnie
Mandela's body guards were actually a bunch of
thugs who's main job was to beat in the heads
of people who disagreed with her, he said that
he thought it was good news. He said it showed
that Mandela was finally assimilating into the
Apartheid state of mind.
I am happy to say that Butch finally got
back to normal. I am, however, sad to say that'
it took a truly terrible piece of news to bring
him back. He heard that in Africa, people were
killing helpless elephants and cutting off there
tusks with chain saws. At first Butch tried to
rationalize by saying that the elephants
probably deserved it, but once he saw a picture
of one of the dead pachyderms he started crying
and screaming that the world was a cruel,
terrible place.
It is good to have my friend Butch back to
normal, but it is terrible to see that the world is
also back to normal.
410
Rob Prindle