Pa 9* 2/The BattailonAVednesday. January 7,1987
i
Opinion
=
is a big part of American history
Loren
Steffy
Kurt Waldheim m
president of Aus-
tria. despite
charges by Jews
that he partici
pated in Nazi atro-
cities during
World War II.
Forty years ago.
such accusations
would have been
enough to get him
out of the country
—- or worse. But as years pass, so do our
vivid recollections of what comes to be
known as history Individual accounts
may remain intact, but overall, time
dulls tile memory of past events. When
it comes to accurately recording the
past, time is not on our side.
While visiting my grandparenu-in
law over the holidays. 1 saw an article in
the Tulsa World about a book pub
lisher’s request for * color transparency
of Sequoyah from the Gilcrease Mu
seum. which is the primary source of In
dian art for textbooks. Although the
publisher wanted the painting repro
duction for a spelling book, a pipe that
appears in most paintings of the Chero
kee scholar was not welcome The
World article quoted the publisher’s
representative as asking: “Can we air
brush the pipe out of the picture? We
don’t want to show anyone smoking in a
textbook."
Apparently such requests are not un
common to the museum. Another pub
lisher wanted a transparency of some
cowboys in a corral touched up to re
move the cigarette one of them was
smoking in the original painting The
assistant museum director. Tom
Brayshaw. was quoted as turning down
requests on the grounds that the mu
scum isn’t going to “airbrush history ."
In this case, parts of our national her
itage were protected from mindless al
teration in the name of the latest na
tional concern. But the publishers’
attitude represents a dangerous senti
ment that threatens to permanently dis
tort our interpretation of history
It is becoming socially unacceptable
to smoke in our society. While I'm not
sorry to see the change in national atti
tude, it doesn't mean that smoking al
ways was viewed with such contempt
Yet publishers are afraid to portray Se
quoyah. regardless of his true smoking
habits, with a pipe in his mouth It’s as if
they believe a picture of a long-dead In
dian will override the peer pressure
children face every day. Few kids are
going to base their decision to smoke on
a picture of Sequovah in a spelling text
Unfortunately, smoking is part of
American history . Tobacco was one of
the nation’s first cash crops and was
practically the sole economic base for
the southern colonies The tobacco in
dustry is still a major n onomic and po
litical force in this country. If publishers
are worried about promoting smoking
among the young, they should start by
combating the efforts of the tobacco
companies that use the power of peer
pressure to their advantage in smoking
advertisements. These tactics certainly
have a larger influence on children than
references to tobacco use — written or
illustrated — in textbooks.
The publishers' concern abqut print
ing what is considered inappropriate be
havior is nothing new I extbooks have a
way of glossing over the elements of his
tory that our society doesn't teel com
fortable with, anti at the same time, per-,
petuating untruths that may elevate
national heroes to near godhotxl Many
thildren graduate from high school not
realizing that the tale of George Wash
ington and the cherry tree is a myth and
oblivious to the fact that our first presi
dent owned slaves. Having a leader who
cannot tell a lie would be nice, but hav
ing a history test that doesn’t tell or sup
port one should be imperative.
In Alabama, fundamentalist Chris
tian groups are waging a court battle
over the absence of religion in school
books. While the groups obviously
would like to see their beliefs reflected
in the books, their outrage uncovers an
area of deeper concern. Faced with the
fear of violating church-state separa
tion, many textbook authors and pub
lishers are hesitant to mention the role
religion played in our history. But advo
cating religion is not the same as ac
knowledging it as a major influence in
this country’s social and political back
ground.
Individual religious convictions don't
change the fact that the Pilgrims were
devout Christians fleeing persecution
Similarly , individual yirws — or even a
national attitude — against smoking
don’t change the fact that Sequoyah en
joyed a pipe
Sequovah was a great man. and his
place in history is duly deserved. He de
veloped a system of writing for his tribe
and became a representative of the In
dians to Congress. He was respected by
the white man as well as his own people
Ironically, he also was a liistoriaq, «ied-
Scated to recording and preserving his
tribe's culture.
But now publisher* want to alter — or
conveniently ignore in their own at
tempt to preserve the past, a side of the
man that they deem inappropriate. The
problem with great men of history,
though, is that they can’t be forgotten
for their bad habits. Perhaps it’s unfor
tunate that Sequoyah smoked a pipe,
but that doesn’t lessen his accomplish
ments Instead, it shows that, like most
human beings, he wasn’t perfect.
If we attempt to record historv in a
less thin objective framework, in
fluenced by the mores of the day, then
we are not recording what happened,
but rather what we wanted to happen.
We need to leave intact what few re
minders of the past we have left. As we
saw with the Waldheim election, time
will distort our recollections soon
enough.
Loren Steffy is a journalism graduate
and editor for The Battalion.
Condoms making
a big comeback
Condoms.
OK, now that I
have everybody’s
attention, let me
say that if the
mention of that
particular product
embarrasses or in
furiates you, you
are going to be
embarrassed and
infuriated a great
deal in the future.
Lewis
Grtzzard
Get ready for. “The Return of the Con
dom."
Condoms, long <ft>solete as a means of
preventing disease and pregnancy be
cause of the development of penicillin
and the pill, began their comeback
alongside the rise and awareness of
AIDS and teen pregnanes.
Several months ago, one company
even began advertising condoms on bill
boards in certain American cities. 1 got
phone calks and letters.
"How dare they put something like
that on billboards," was the prevalent
theme of the calls and letters.
That is nothing compared to what is
about to happen. In its November issue.
Fortune magazine featured a detailed
study of the sudden surge of condom
sales.
Cxmsider this:
*' • Said New York's health commis
sioner, at a conference dealing with the
threat of AII^» to heterosexuals, "The
day of the condom has returned.”
• The National Acadeim of Science
is advising the use of condoms
• The surgeon'general has endorsed
the use of eon*'oms. X
• Condoir ties currently are up 10
prrceMt, and *tey are expected to climb
even i .ghe.. And you can expect more
adcan paigns.
• ' >tm n account for 50 percent of
con ioKt sales. One company’s expected
to lacw.rt women with billboards featur
ing a voman saying. “I like sex. But I
don’t want to die troixi it."
Abo, according to Fortune, there will
be y ven days of on-campus festivities at
a number c»r< olleges and universities as
a means ol heightening the awareness
o! condoms in students. Call it National
Cond«>m Week. ,
\o< ording to Fortune. “. . . In addi-
t. it to tossing water-filled condoms
around, the events will include the dis-
t it button of free cbndoms, condom mo-
ffl T-shirts and posters . and free con
dom -promoting literature "
A pin-the-condom-on-the-man con
test mirrors pin-the-taii-on-the-donkey
with obvious differences,
v One of the schools where such is sup
posed to take place is strait-laced Meth
odist Emory University in Atlanta. Saul
George lz>wrey. asstxiate dean of cam
pus life at Emory : "Our students can do
something independently if they want
to, but the school can’t be involved in
something like this It just wouldn’t do
for our reputation It’s too sensational."
But isn’t it important for Emory stu
dents to be aware of condoms as a
means to protect themselves from
deadly disease and pregnanc y ''
"Done right." Lowrv continued, “it’s a
good thing to get the message out. but
the mam intent of the campus activities
seems to hold the idea up to public ndi
cule rather than the sensible approach "
The use of condoms might very well
save a lot of lives in the future, so any
methods of making people use them
seem sensible enough to me
National Condom Week It begins on
Valentine’s Dav
Copyright 1986, Co«rir* Svndicmt*
THADE DEFICIT*
•- 1
’"HU"
National troubles good news for press
sdk
R'Chard
Corien
The plate where I
work is excited
M v colleagues
scurry about,
some of them
working mcied-
ibly long houi s.
most of them will
ing to work even
more if anyone
asks. We smile, pat
ourselves” on the
back and can
hardly await each day’s developments
In the news business, we are havmg. as
thev say in New York’s garmet district, a
very good season This fail, the public is
buying scandal.
And, boyl, do Ve have scandals lor
you. There’s everything from insider
trading on Wall Street to investigations
of influence peddling in Washington.
First and foremost, though, conies the
scandal involving Iran, the Nicaraguan
Contras and. of course, the White
House basement whence worked that
national hero and Fifth Amendment
anti-communist. Oliver North. Such a
scandal is rare indeed, and we are mak
ing the most of it. That you can count
on. m
If you detect a certain'glee in what 1
have said, you have read my mood accu
rately. That glee, however, has nothing
to do with seeing a president tn trouble,
an administration adrift or our national
credibility in shambles. It has |p do, in
stead, with what my colleagues and I do
■■■
for a living. Stories are our business,
and the Iretter the stories, the better our
business Journalists are similar to can
cer specialists who do not wish the dis
ease on anyone. Most people, neverthe
less. can appreciate the professional
challenge that patients represent And
take sausfaction in knowing that the
public benefit*.
Thai distinction — the difference be
tween not wishing the president ill for
any [rolitHal reason and vet enjoying the
professional challenge that his misfor
tune pi esents — has been misstated, in
advertantly or otherwise, by certain
coromentors and officials Foremost
among them is Patrick Buchanan who.
with relish, has often quoted the exec
utive editor of the Washington Post,
Benjamin C. Bradlee, as saying, “This is
the most fun we’ve had since Waterga
te."
The same quote was recently cited by
President Carter’* National Security Ad
visor, Zbigniew Brezmski. fie accused
Bradlee of “gloating" over the adminis
tration s troubles and c haracterized the
press in general of being in an unseemly
“frenzy."
(Xu extreme excitement (not frenzy)
is self-evident, no Fifth-Amendment
needed there But gloating is a different
matter It suggests-Jhat the press is
doing something that it ought not to do.
that it is being irresponsible And.
worse, it suggests the press is somehow
anti-American, indifferent to the secu
rity or welfare of our country. Bu
chanan and Brezmski imply that the
press ought to l>e more delicate and. at
the very least, not enjoy the feast before
it.
Both Buchanan and Brezinski suffer
from a bad case of Potomac Rot The
symptoms are the inability to distinguish
fret ween the press and the government
and theu two quite different functions
They seem to want a press that is quasi-
governmental whose responsibility is
not to inform the public hut share in the
governing of the nation. They would
perfer us captured, domesticated, a
somber adjunct of some worried think
tank at which everything is taken into
account hut the people’s right to know.
^ Just recently. President Reagan pro
moted Oliver North from light colonel
to national hero Whether North de
serves such accolade, I seriously doubt.
. but 1 do jhmk he would have made a
swell journalist. Here, after all. is a man
who made his rank in wartime — the
V ietnam War He showed bravery in
combat and for that he was both cited
and rewarded with promotions
Does that mean he loves war. that he
enjoys the killing of people, some of
them, inescapably, innocents? No. War
is the business of the military, the way
officers gam promotions. In theory, the
l»eiteT they are at killing, the taster they
will l>e promoted
Aside tiom the fact that journalists
are not in the business of killing people .
we too try to perform our best. A mur
der is tragedy, but is also a storv A train
wreck is a calamity, hut it. too, is a storv
A scandal can be both a tragedy and a
calamity, but it is nevertheless one hell
of a story. Like a war for soldiers, it is a
chance for promotion, for citation and
to make a name for yourself. A journal
ist who does not see that is in the wrong
business.
So, are we having a good time?’ You
bet we are Are some of us looking to Ur-
come famous? For sure- Is this a big
story, one that has captivated the pub
lic? Yup. But do most of us exult in a
distracted government and try to fur
ther some alleged political agenda? No,
not for a minute. Reporting and even
exploiting a scandal is just business. And
business — knock on wood — is just
great
Copyright 1M
Harsh Reality
i root Written Geoop
by Gish
The Battalion
fUSTSMSMO)
Mren Steffy Editor
Ivan. Optmon Page Edhor
. City Editor
News Editors
iSnry. Sports Editor
i a s ■MS-profit
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