Newspapers / Elon University Student Newspaper / March 23, 1995, edition 1 / Page 2
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Editorials Viewpoint March 23,1995 iThe sacking of Newt Gingrich I —1 noi^nnal nresidential ca For the past month. The Pendulum has pubhshed a bi-monthly }lumn for homosexual students and faculty to express their oncerns and answer any questions. The newspaper staff believes m free speech and free expression nd hopes the editorial will give people a chance to feel comfortable bout themselves. However, it's occurred to the editorial staff that there are a lot f people on campus who feel isolated. It’s not just the homosexual talking to and from class who may feel like they don t belong. Many individuals at Elon. even the world, feel stuck “in the loset." What about the girl with the nose ring and combat bools? )o you think she feels comfortable on this campus? What if a tudent walked around with a Bible in hand, preaching the Word to ill the non-believers passing by? Would he feel at home at Elon? Vhat about the black student, being taught by white professors? Vhat about the interracial couple holding hands taking stares by jvery person that passes? There are a lot of groups on this campus who don’t fall into A'hite. upper-middle class society. There are even some who are in :hat category, yet choose to stand up for themselves. If you can’t stand up for who you are and what you believe, you liave no nght to complain that you do not feel comfortable. Learn who you are, and be proud of it. At Elon we are supposed to be tommorrow's leaders. In every segment of society, it is the leaders who stand up and say with pride, “1 am who I am.” Tommorrow’s leaders will not be hiding “in the closet," no matter how different they are Off The Record "He wants a shoehorn, the kind with teeth. People should get beat up for stating their be liefs. He wants a shoehorn, the kind with teeth, because he knows there is no such thing. - They Might Be Giants "Shoehorn with Teeth" THE Pendulum Informing the Elon College Community Kditor in Chief EncW P Gill Rob Mancuso As&ijiUitt MMna|{inK Kditor Amy Logcrwell A &k.V: Kdilor Shaimoi) Praier Sports Kditor Apnl Perkins Opinion Kditor Scoll Miller Copy Kdilor Traccy Siark Photo Kdilor Tonya Huhart Advertlsinft Michcllc Kiley SlafT Reporters Andrea Schinidi Jon Campbell JcH Wtnck Slacey Ward Sports Reporters Bob CniniUK Jcfl Dunlop Colleen Herndon \&E Reporters Chns Adams Enc K Sailer (■raphii Artut> Andrea Schniidi HeaiherColtcy Adviser Joey Senai The Pendulum, founded in 1974, is published by Elon students. Single copies of The Pendulum are free. If extra copies are needed, they can be purchased at The Pendulum office. Address; Campus Box 2800, Elon College, N.C., 27244. 584-2331. I have a slight confession to make. I have been under the serious influence of acid in the past I, for a little while, was leaning towards the irrationally liberal. Let’s take the example of Newt Gingrich I thought, because of a lew soundbites and the very vocal opinions of some other individu als, that Newt was actually a bad man. The other day 1 was walking down the hallway and C-Span was on. 1 was kind of tired of the book I was reading, “Why Gorbachev Hap pened," so 1 sat down and watched. Newt Gingrich was speaking. He spoke about the crisis of ur ban America. He discussed the concept that there was an impover ishment of value and morality throughout this nation. He did not spout off about a religious war. He said very simply that there was a dearti of values in the country. He suggested that we use shame to try and get people to conform. Common sense stuff, not anything based on biblical verse and chap ter. Simply put, "don’t gel drunk and boat your wife, don’t smoke crack and contribute to violence, and don't cheat on you partner." PcopI; who are deviant should not be coddled by society. Sure, lake care of individuals who have fallen upon hard times. But forgiving people who screw around by saying thai it's OK if you wrap Scott Miller 11 up in latex is simply wrong. It’s not Christian thought that says that. It is not some moralistic prude on some talk show. It is common sense. That’s what Gingnch has been advocating. A return to comnion sense. He advocates tolerance for homosexuals. He said that he had concerns about the raise in the mini mum wage, “because it might cost minority teenagers in the inner-city jobs.” Ooh, what a cold-hearted bas tard! There is a reason for this mislabeling of Mr. Gingrich. Lib erals, in the political sense that we use today, want to paint every mem ber of the Republican Party as be ing a Jesse Helms or Pat Buchanan clone. It IS simply not true. Liberals have been moaning and groaning about how the Republican Party is controlled by racist, sexist and gen erally intolerant individuals. Let’s look at the best example of that in the GOP. Pal Buchanan is the farthest right out of any of the potential presidential candidates. In New Hampshire, he will get no . more than 10 percent of the vote in the opening primary. Control? Hell no. Here is a candidate who exemplifies intoler ance of every sort and every poll indicates that my 10 percent figure will hold up. The only reason that Phil Gramm, the next man on the rightward scale, will get more than 10 percent is because of his enormous war chest. Between Buchanan and Gramm, they might get 30 percent. The better that Lamar Alexander does in getting out his federalist principles, the more Gramm’s sup port will wane. The fact of the matter is that that segment of the party controls things in the Carolinas, Texas and no where else. They are an influence, but most definitely not in control. Liberals try to make everyone on the right appear to be evil right wingers. In achieving that goal, they make themselves look moderate and rea sonable. Sorry Mr. Gingrich, 1 guess that if everyone would just sit down and listen to the facts you would not be as demonized. My apologies for contributing to that misconception. In the case of facts versus emo tion, the mistake is to not know your enemy. If you get to know him/her, they might turn out to be your friend. Buchanan: Right-wing fossil or... E. Neil Callis Guest Columnist On Monday, the political cloud I around the 1996 Presidential race reached a new level of darkness as Patrick Buchanan, conservative I commentaior and columnist, olfi- cially entered the iray for the Re- ] publican nomination. Buchanan is best known to my I generation as the intellectual right- I winger on the CNN show "Crossfire.'' Mr. Buchanan was an I adviser to Presidents Nixon, Ford, and Reagan. It is his stance on foreign policy that concerns me I today. Actually It should be termed a \lack o/foreign policy, but out ot I delerencc to Mr Buchanan I will 1 frame the debate as he would. Mr Buchanan tells us that he wants to make America great again. his slogan is "Take Back America”, I one he trumpcis on "Crossfire" I week alter week. He wants to put America and American interests at home above all else. He is radi cally opposed to any kind ot for eign intervention, whether under the auspices of the United Nations or not. He IS, rather he defines. Isola tionist The danger in isolationism IS inherent, and we have seen the results time after time after time in ourcentury. If Mr, Buchanan were to be elected to the Presidency it would be a disaster for our country and the world. li was the isolationists, specifi cally the Republicans, who opposed the League of Nations that Presi dent Wilson proposed and that the rest of the world ratified. It was the isolationists who kept our country out of Europe in World War II; they turned public sentiment against participation in the war, and mil lions in Europe suffered because of It. It took the destruction of the world’s most powerful naval sur face fleet at Pearl Harbor to galva nize the country to war. Indeed. had It not been for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, our country might never have intervened. What of the Jewish Holocaust? When Allied troops arrived at the death camps in Europe, they were shocked at what had taken place! Why? That was not in their mis sion description. They were there to "liberate” Europe, not to stop the senseless Holocaust which con- sumed 6 million Jews, Ourgovern- ment COULD have stopped it. SHOULD have stopped it. but we did not because sentiment was against involvement early in the war. Isolationism has been the cause of countless deaths in history, and we are about to make the same mistake again in former Yugosla via, Radicals like Mr. Buchanan should be kept away from any of fice. Right-wing isolationist atti tudes have caused nothing but suf fering in the 20th Century; it slime to learn from their mistakes.
Elon University Student Newspaper
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March 23, 1995, edition 1
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