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,y,July 17,2000
Page5
THE BATTALION
iving fans the red card
lots by English soccer fans easily prevented with crowd control, alcohol consumption limits
Lgjump,
ner-
rsee fail
aze into the frac
tured looking
glass, gentle read-
|ind see... Oct. 28,
The undefeated and
ranked Texas A&M
tall team continues its
t for a Big 12 South ti-
f defeating 4th-
\MENTO, Calif. (AP)-i
s' drive for five is alive, Jack'
Kersee's is not.
rrepressible Jones
it on making the final ofth
a in the U.S. Olympic that
hen rebounded with son*
.imps to win the competition
;ed Kansas State 24-13 at Kyle Field. Ag-
ians celebrate the victory by trampling
sas State backers to death and burning
Dixie Chicken to the ground,
he odds of this happening, of course, are
it as great as those of A1 Gore taking
id Duke as his vice-presi-
tial nominee. Unfortunate-
irge riots have become
imonplace in Great Britain,
near; » r e soccer matches are used
excuses to break
igs. England's national em-
intact her bid to becometk ^h national team goes
and field athlete to win
als in one Olympics,
-year-old Joyner-Kersee.tk
npic gold medalist and m
Olympic medals — mon
emale track and field athletf
in her attempt to maki
ng fifth Olympic team,
after fouling on her fitsl
npts in the preliminaries
feet, 1 3/4 inches to read
After leaping into the lead
jrth try with a wind-aided
being overtaken by Dawn
22-10 later in round four,
assment becomes an inter-
onal debacle whenever the
iad, since its fans take their
nebehavior with them.
English hooliganism first
ame an issue in 1985,
en40 Italians were killed
English fans during a
ne in Belgium between
erpool and the Italian team
entus. Fifteen years later,
arseven straight days of ri-
agby English fans at last month's Euro
10tournament (again in Belgium), Prime
nisterTony Blair decided something had
ie done.
I Blair condemned such actions, saying they
ponded with the winniuj Ibarrassed the whole nation and must stop.
3-0 1/2, her best in a year. |t how? The easiest solutions would be im-
ook her first step towardthr wing crowd control and limiting alcohol
esongame days.
Some members of the English upper crust
inkamatch played in the United States
rould cure their problem. Then, if the bad
l eds from England tried to cause trouble
dthbdftles and sticks, they could be con-
ented five-gold medal haul
g Saturday's 100meters.Sk
• complete a trials trineh
ae 200 next weekend,
games, her five-even/^/#
j would include
fronted by people with guns. Stacking drunk
en vandals up like cordwood outside of the
Los Angeles Coliseum is hardly an appropri
ate solution to a domestic problem.
Most soccer stadiums in the United King
dom are small by U.S. standards, seating be
tween 35,000 and 45,000 people. Not surpris
ingly, the demand for tickets outweighs
supply and people try to break in. The result
usually has stadiums filled to twice the ca
pacity, and people are crushed to death year
ly trying to get in or out.
It is plain to see that this is not acceptable.
Instances of people — including pregnant
women — climbing over razor wire to get
into a stadium are not only humiliating to the
nation, but they put great
numbers of people at
risk.The English govern
ment must take steps to en
sure that, when the stadi
um is filled to capacity, no
one else can get in. If the
government must station
riot police or armed guards
around the outside of the
stadium, so be it.
Alcohol consumption
must also be controlled.
Many riots in England take
place before the games be
cause fans are already more
bombed than Baghdad.
While there is no way to en
sure everyone comes to the
game sober, closing pubs and limiting alco
hol sales on the days of matches could cut
down on the number of drunks. While
throwing back a pint or 10 is a time-
honored English tradition, the danger
caused by such rabid drunks at
matches merits a reassessment of al
cohol sales. It would probably not
be difficult for the House of Com
mons to agree to a measure that
would subsidize pubs and al
cohol distributors for the
losses accrued being closed
on game days — especially if
Countries in
Europe and
around the
world are
afraid to play
England, and
it has nothing
to do with the
talent of the
English teams.
such measures cut down on damage and loss
of life.
Of course, the most obvious thing to do
would be to remind fans that soccer is merely
a game, even when the national team is out
on the field playing against what fans consid
er some good-for-nothing Eurotrash. Howev
er, it would appear that such logical measures
would not get through to people who show
their joy by burning down their own
houses. As a result, it has been left up to
others to protect society from such
stupidity.
Countries in
Europe and
around the
world are
afraid to play
England, and it
has nothing
to do with the talent of the English teams. It has
everything to do with the fact that nations do
not want unruly English fans on their soil. The
best way for Great Britain to ait down on such
national embarrassments would be pre
venting hooligan behavior at soccer games in
England. Then England can once again be
known for its great soccer play and not for the
actions of its fans.
Mark Passwaters is a senior
electrical engineering
major.
JEFF SMITH/The Battalion
ie reason I'm
disappointed
l/ve been to
r Olympics. I
hoping to go
five, but it
n't pan out"
— Jackie Joyner-Kersee
)ic track and field hopeful
Apologies blur history of US slavery
k/c
Id not cope with the sapping
er two years of inactivity,
n a king the final in
njuly 4, the Hartford Courant, one of the
largest newspapers in Connecticut, dedi
cated its top story not to the celebration of
fc nation's independence, but the lamentation of
lividuals' captivity. The paper published a
)nt-page story apologizing for its practice of run-
jig personal ads for the sale and capture of
Jrican-American slaves from the paper's found-
;in 1764 through the early 1800s.
This story was front-page news for the Hartford Courant, but it is just
latest example in a recent trend of apologizing for the sins of the fa
r's father's father's father. In March, Aetna Inc. issued an apology
ones appeared fullofenergvl| writin § insurance P olices to cover slaves as property prior to the
yner-Kersee, the sentimental fil Wan Likewise, President Clinton has said that he would consider
the capacity crowd of aboul kin § an official federal government apology to the descendants of
rican-American slaves.
While Clinton said such an apology would help bring closure for
i entire nation, the push for the Aetna Inc. and the Hartford Courant
ClJN-lllg llic 1111CU 111 luuiw r J
10 3/4 Joyner-Kersee did 11 Sorry"s has a distinctive New England accent. Spearheading the
lose to duplicating thatdis- es tigation into several companies' backgrounds with slavery is
ner first attempt in the final ac i r * a Farmer-Paellmann — a 34-year-old law school graduate from
10-11 1/4, then passed and I w York who is descended from a South Carolina slave who escaped
her fruitless comebackbf ree dom. Farmer-Paellmann started investigating corporate archives
rough the pit on her finalW ' nc ! out: what happened to the "40 acres and a mule"
t discomfort. She woundup >™se made to freed slaves.
J! [But Farmer-Paellmann has turned her investigation
ason I'm not disappointed* | 0 a witch hunt, trying to shame corporations into
to, four Olympics," Joyner- ffuating money to a restitution trust fund she
1. "I was hoping to go to five |pes to establish for all African-Americans.
't pan out. a11ner-Paellmann and the companies from
ight we could do it ...Il'ich she has managed to extort an apology are
ve could give it one morel m g the wrong approach to dealing with
ildn't afford to take all tWerica's history with slavery and its Un
as taking but I needed telling effects on society,
the next round. Beforetlie|Americans must never forget his
empt, I felt something ie»'' s u gly lessons and should let
r." i>se lessons guide the present
Kersee apparently wasbof ,rii; fhe future. But digging
lamstring injury. lough companies' trash cans
middle of the (sixth) runl past mistakes merely throws
in't there, so that was it it’d at the corporation's name and
xplaining her run throu/lputation. Nobody wins, and nothing is
■ned from proving what common sense
1 Johnson, attempting ■| t) uld already prove: The businesses of yesterday conducted their af-
ry like Jones, won the men as the economy dictated.
1 seconds, the world's fast4| As Ira Berlin, a professor of African-American history at the Univer-
ear, meaning he will have of Maryland, said, "I don't know of any newspaper which took a
:ome the first Olympian trend against taking advertisements for slaves unless they were [aboli-
r ent twice. papers that were committed to ending slavery." Pointing out
also the world record tpit the Hartford Courantnan personal advertisements for slaves is not
1 200, will go for a sweeps If prising or racist — it was the norm.
:s at the trials. If he winstl 1 ? I Slavery was so ingrained into the national economy and social at-
Iso would have the oppe-N^phere that slave advertisements were probably no more controver-
in both at the games, soi^
ie ever has done.
ELSEY ROBERTS/Tm: Battalion
sial than advertisements for tobacco or flyers for gun shows are today.
Just because something is deemed wrong now does not mean that
those standards applied 200 years ago. Companies like the Hartford
Courant and Aetna Inc. should not have to, nor feel obligated to, apolo
gize for conducting the business of the day, even if that business was a
horrible wrong that only a few private sectors spoke out against.
Pointing a finger at two Connecticut companies, Aetna Inc. and the
Hartford Courant, shows slavery was part of the entire nation's econo
my, the North's and the South's. Accordingly, singling out jut one or
two companies at a time as promoters of the nation's slave economy is
a gross misrepresentation of history. Farmer-Paellmann has dug up
slavery dirt on a number of other companies, many of which no longer
exist. Aetna Inc. and the Hartford Courant simply have the misfortune
to continue to be in operation and are therefore targets of demands for
coerced apologies.
Both these institutions have since evolved with the times and have
fully adopted the cause of fighting racism. Aetna Inc. followed its apol-
ogy by stating its commitment to equality in
the workplace and listing anti-racism com
munity projects it supports. Likewise, the
Hartford Courant now advertises local
anti-racism events and serves as a pub
lic forum for reporters and editorial writ
ers of diverse racial backgrounds.
Another of Farmer-Paellmarui's targets,
FleetBoston Financial Corp. has since proven its
worth outside of the issue of slavery. Farmer-Paell
mann said she found evidence that a predecessor
bank of FleetBoston's was founded by a man who en
gaged in slave trading in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and
Connecticut. John Brown may have earned his wealth
through questionable means, but what he did with his
wealth cannot be overlooked. Brown founded Brown Uni
versity, the prestigious Ivy League university that is cur
rently giving students of all colors the best education
money can buy.
Condemning corporations for participating in a na
tional economy that included slavery is a fruitless and
outdated witch hunt, especially when those corpora
tions have since gone on to further the causes of diver
sity and equality.
Robert P. Forves, executive coordinator of Gilder
Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance
and Abolition, at Yale University, put it best when he said, "The nation
as a whole is responsible, all of us." The Hartford Courant and Aetna
Inc. are not to be singled out and made to feel culpable for a problem
that belonged to an entire nation.
Farmer-Paellmann needs to stop issuing guilt trips and adjust her
goals. The war against slavery is long over, but the war against racism
and inequality is still raging. Farmer-Paellmann should fight the one
still worth fighting.
Eric Dickens is a senior English major.
Bush plays to NAACP crowd
L ast week. Republican presidential
candidate George W. Bush spoke
before his tqughest crowd yet. Go
ing where most Republicans fear to tread.
Bush delivered a short-but-sweet sermon
to the annual NAACP convention, in
which he trumpeted his "compassionate
conservative" theme.
African-Americans and Republicans
have generally been at odds since the '60s
civil rights era, when many Republicans
stood as roadblocks to progress in the
fight against racism. Since then, most Re
publicans have regarded the black vote as
a lost cause — Bob Dole, for instance, re
fused to speak at the NAACP’s annual
meeting during the 1996 presidential elec
tion, fearing he had been "set up."
In fairness to Dole and his fellow Re
publicans, though, the NAACP has sel
dom offered them a sympathetic forum. In
fact, the organization has become more
blatantly partisan of late, even excommu
nicating certain members for their support
of Republican candidates. George Bush's
appearance at the event was, at least on
the surface, an attempt to mend these
long-broken fences.
His speech was 15 minutes of ear can
dy — sugar-coated, but free of substance
designed to disprove the common stereo
type of the Republican as hard-hearted
and insensitive to minorities' concerns.
This tactic has brought Bush success be
fore with Latino voters in his home state of
Texas, but likely failed to gain him any
new converts at the NAACP conference.
Attendees noted that his speech, full of
"syrup and religion," was heavy on rhetor
ical flourishes but light on specifics.
But Bush’s goal for this event was more
far-sighted than just mollifying the
NAACP crowd; this was a subtle state
ment to the voting public at large —
black, white, or otherwise — that he is a
moderate, and not a puppet of the extreme
right wing of his party.
He has got a lot of convincing to do.
Few who pay attention have forgotten
Bush’s visit to conservative Bob Jones Uni
versity, one of the most intolerant campus
es in the nation, during his Republican pri
mary fight with John McCain. Bush's ap
pearance there was designed to solidify
support among a voting bloc located at the
exact opposite end of the political spec
trum from the NAACP — white Christian
conservatives of the Jesse Helms variety.
So is Bush a hypocrite and a panderer,
willing to adapt his message to placate
whatever crowd he happens to be speak
ing to? Yes. But that is what successful
politicians do.
It has long been known and demon
strated that, to win an American presi
dential race, politicians must cater to
their party's most extreme, die-hard
wing during the primary battle that de
cides who will be the candidate for the
general election.
These party stalwarts are the key to
primary victory — they are the ones who
actually show up at the polls during
these initial contests, while the rest of the
voting public starts getting interested
much later in the game.
Now that the primaries are over and
Bush is the nominee, he is wise to try to
broaden his message and appeal with the
less-partisan public. A1 Gore has been do
ing the exact same thing, metamorphosiz-
ing from the ultra-left-wing New Dealer
he was during his primary battle with Bill
Bradley to a more moderate New Democ
rat for this general election contest.
It is a quirk of the American political
process that causes this kind of see-saw
pandering, and, despite the apparent con
tradictions in the candidates' positions,
they well know that a consistent message
can be their undoing.
Bush's decision to speak before the
NAACP was well-considered. Even
though the speech may have fallen upon
deaf ears at that convention hall, word of
his appearance there will resonate, at least
subliminally, with a large section of the
American public. All this is evidence of
Bush's political maturation — from Bob
Jones to the NAACP, George W. Bush has
come a long way.
James Minton is a columnist for The Reveille
at Louisiana State University.