Newspapers / Meredith College Student Newspaper / Dec. 10, 1980, edition 1 / Page 2
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PAGES THE TWIG DECEMBER IQ.-IMO J'5 r THE MEREDITH tWiG COLLEGE Editor iSonya Ammons Managihg Editor Deborah Bartlett Assistant Editor Ann Stringfleld Reporters Nan Davis, Maresa Firtli, Wendy Fischer, Beth Giles, Shirene Hrltcko, Maynell Johnson, Susan McDonough, Heidi Ntlt, Kathy O’BAen. Cindy Rinker, Linda Sellers. Sandra Vail, Cynthia Washington Cliidy Rinker Ann ^ringfleld Terri Hoffman, Jackie Dumg, Kelly Sullivan. Lory Whittemore Darla St^henson Mary Jacque Peterson Terri Hoffman, Susan McDonough Susan Jones Maresa Firth, Maynell Johnson AlUson Honeycutt. HeMi NUl, Linda SeUers. Cynthia Washington WendyFlscher Columnist Features Photographers Sports EdttM* Business Manager Circulation Layout Editor Layout Staff Cartoonist Advertising Manager Exchange Editor Faculty Advisors CarolynJ)unn Ann Stringfleld Dr. Donald Samson, Mr. Bill Norton. Dr. Thomas Parramore Reagan’s new challenge by Cindy Rinker How oblivious to reality one can be in a small stnicbired community such as that of a small Baptist Women’8 college. The reality of the job market and what to expect once in it are key issues, and the reality of the high women achievers is a point often pressed to increase motivation. But there are further realities that are not as impressed on our minds as students. Perhaps we have not been encouraged to delve into current events while in college^ or maybe we feel we have enough to cope with in college without trying to think upon world iraues. Whatever the reason, the importance (k theorises which are occurring today and will occur tomorrow are not making the impression on our minds that perhaps they should. Our awareness and our un derstanding of what is hap pening in the world may help us to anticipate, prepare for and even prevent future crises. The conflicts in Poland, Iran-Iraq, Afganistan, Israel-Egypt, are Politics ’80 crises which indicate the movement of the world toward a major world conflict. Looking at the early months of the United States’ involvement in World War II, we can see how dramatically a people, a government, were jarred into an active awareness of the world crises surrounding them. The United States unreadiness at Pearl Harbor was a dramatic failure of a government was ‘‘well-informed”. Respon sibility was so proudly xlefined at that time or so ambiguously delegated that acticm got lost. But - just six months after the bombing and tragedy of Pearl Harbor came one of the U.S., and perhaps the world, greatest naval victories -• Midway. By get ting down to business and doing careful and serious thinking, Uie military, out numbered as they were, succeeded in pulling off a most unlikely and fantastic victory off the island of Midway. Such a victory in dicates the superb way in which the United States handled themselves in such a crisis. The Midways will happen only if we learn the lessons of Pearl Harbor - but such hard lessons they are. The Pearl Harbor of today is almost upon us, if not already here. Anticipate and be aware. by Daniel J. Popeo (Mr. Popeo, a former Federal Trial Attorney, is the founder of General Counsel of the Washington Legal Foundation, a non profit public interest law firm.) The Republican victory of 1980 will have a major effect upon the American political system for years to come. Liberal, anti business legislation, like Ralph Nader’s Corporate Democracy Act, are dead for this Congress and probably for the rest of the decade. But while the McGovern brand of liberalism may appear to have been firmly trounced in the Republican Senate and the conservative Democratic House of Representatives, we may expect to see it rear its head through that fourth branch of government often overlooked by political reformers, the in dependent regulatory agencies. Regulations issued by these agencies have the binding force of law and can only be revoked by theagencies themselves or, in rare cases, by a court. As President, Ronald Reagan will quickly learn that con trolling the independent regulatory agencies is no easy task. Creations of Confess, these agencies are responsible directly to that body, but even then only marginally. Like profligate children, they return yearly to Congress for additional funding and, like the busy but saddened parent it is, Congress reaches deep into the taxpayers’ pockets to reward its offspring. With their funding thus secured, the agencies are then free to direct their own regulatory politices and prosecute whom they please. Particularly aggressive agencies like the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission can execute wide ranging guidelines that force businesses to go absurd lengths to avoid appearing the slightest bit discriminatory in their employment practices. Like many of the other independent regulatory commissions, the EEOC can choose which regulations it will enforce vigorously and which it will leave on the back burner. In short, the independent regulatory agencies draw up their own legal agendas and need answer to no one. Regulations handed down by the independent agencies have the same force of law as federal statutes passed by the Congress and signed by the President. Furthermore, the scope of judicial review in determining the validity of these regulations is narrow since the Courts “defer" to an agency’s expertise in its own area of specialty. Regulations may be declared invalid only if the Courts find them “arbitrary and capricious,” a legal doctrine that effectively places the federal regulatory agencies beyond the law and makes challenging suits against them legally complex and expensive. The President’s only real control over this independent fourth branch of government lies in his authority to reai^oint or replace agency commissioners as their terms of office expire. In this area, however, President-elect Reagan will have a difficult time imprinting his own style and ideas. Average terms of service range between five and seven years, and in most cases President Carter has appointed the optimum number of Commissioners to ensure that no serious vacancies will occur the next few years. The Consumer Product Safety Commission, for instance, is headed by five Carter-appointed Commissioners. The earliest vacancy in that agency is not expected before October of 1982. Carter’s “packing” of such large agencies means that the big government philosophy of the Democratic Party will likely live on long after the Republicans have assumed their new seats in the House and Senate. Another roadblock President Reagan will have to surmount is the existence of an activist, liberal, federal judiciary, one that will lend a sympathetic ear to liberal complaints from the public interest law community outside of government and the well placed liberal bureaucrats within it. President Carter has ap pointed nearly 40 percent of this country’s 678 federal judges, and unlike agency appointments, these positions carry life tenure. (Cimtinued on Page 4) Letter to the editor To the Editor: The November iflth edition of The TWIG carried an article by Christopher Flannery entitled “UNESCO and the world information order” which I found ex-' tremely disturbing. It is not that I take issue with our national passtime (sic) of denouncing the Soviet, in cluding Pravda, for op pressive forms of social control. Rather, it is the arrogant and ethnocentric glorification of the press in our own society coupled with the total lack of respect for Third World nations which prompts me to submit a reaction. Ideological despotism is easy to recognize when “we” criticize “them” but they don’t criticize themselves in our terms. However, do we critique ourselves in their terms? Of course, we do not. We reject competing versions of global realities as “com- nist propaganda” while they reject “imperialist lies.” Pravda publishes the party line and the New York Times publishes “all the news that’s fit to print.” Let’s not be blind to the fact that what is fit for American readers is the result of decisions made by scores of editors, influenced by the prevailing ideological climate of the Free World. To call this an “unfettered collection, dissemination, and discussion of the ‘News’,” as Flannery does, is to pretend that the media does not package political candidates, that “media hype” does not exist and that news editors from the NY Times to the smallest town weekly have some special gift for selecting from tons of news bulletins exactly what their readers should know. Perhaps if all of us could read all the versions of any news item published in the United States we would have a full knowledge of events. Without that capacity, we are left with the knowledge that a true monopoly over in formation does not exist here, and that is the hallmark of our free press. It is up to us as individuals to seek out alternative accounts, as we can. Secondly, and more un forgivable in my opinion, there is the matter of Flan nery’s wholesale rejection of the Third World’s struggles to diffuse the excesses of militarism and economic exploitation in the world. He persistently places the term non-aligned in quotation marks, implying that such a posture is non-existent. Countries which are not align^ with “us” must be align^ with “them” as far as Flannery is concerned. Aside from the obvious and un fortunate cdntribution this makes to the cold war men tality and the escalating hot war preparations, it is of fensive to the very ideals of political independence which initiated the grand American Experiment with self- direction. Was our Declaration of Independence supposed to be the last one in history ? There is no doubt that both “we” and “they” are courting the Third World, but our designs on less powerful countries do not prove that the Third World is a collection of Soviet puppets! What kind of mind ex tracts evidence of a repressive conspiracy from the goal of countering racism, apartheid and incitement to war? Only someone who thinks that if you’re not with us, your’re against us. Do you suppose Flannery has read too many newspapers? Rhonda Zlngraff Department of Sociology and Social Work December l, 1980 The TWIG needs photographers for both part- time and full-time help. Anyone interested in taking pictures and-or developing, please contact Sonya Ammons (832-9948) or Deborah Bartlett {821-7027).
Meredith College Student Newspaper
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