The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 64, No. 21, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 18, 1976 Page: 2 of 12
twelve pages : ill. ; page 20 x 14 in.View a full description of this newspaper.
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guest editorial
Freedom of expression has always been an integral
component of our American system, and a vital ingredient
of our ability to maintain our freedom. But keeping this
basic liberty hasn't always been easy. Just the mere fact
that it was guaranteed in the First Amendment to the
Constitution and became the bulwark of the Bill of Rights
often was not enough to insure true freedom of expression
in the United States. Far from it.
Throughout American history, citizens have been
harassed, beaten, imprisoned, even killed, trying to guard
this liberty. Writer Thomas Paine, union organizer
Eugene Debs, abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe, biology
teacher John Scopes—the list of heroes is endless—are
people who caught hell because their expressions of belief
were unpopular or unusual.
And in this, our nation's Bicentennial Year, we can add
yet another name to this list of First Amendment
martyrs—Harry Reems, co-star of "Deep Throat," who
was recently convicted in Memphis on a pornography
charge carrying a possible 5-year sentence and $10,000
fine.
Reems made a national tour as the guest of honor at a
string of fund-raising cocktail parties, thrown by the
"beautiful people" of show business and all the rich
bleeding-heart liberals that can be torn away from their
Metro Arts Council and Common Cause meetings. And
the logic of those cocktail-party conversations is worthy of
repeating: that in order to guard the rights of Barbara
Walters, Mel Brooks, Norman Mailer and Kurt Vonnegut
to freely express themselves, we must first protect from
government interference the right of Linda Lovelace to go
down on Harry Reems about eight times nightly at
Houston's Main Street Academy Theater, and countless
other dusty, sweaty porno houses throughout the country.
In all reality, this publicity campaign is probably just a
ploy of the porn industry to loosen the present bonds of
constraint on them; for as soon as Reems' appeal takes the
case out of the Bible Belt, it will undoubtedly be
overturned. Reems, who made about $100 for his role in
the flick, will never step inside prison, but the questions
raised by the case are interesting.
For instance, in order to protect the rights of a Eugene
McCarthy to run for President, must we first protect the
right of Mary Hartman's grandfather to unzip his pants
at the elementary school? Or in order to insure that Walter
Cronkite can say each day, "And that's the way it is...,"
must we first shield from persecution those who dial up at
midnight to pant and mumble into the phone, or those who
draw phallic symbols on the inside of Fondren Library
elevators?
There it is—a Bicentennial Dilemma.
WILLY
—kim d. brown
4
■the urruE ihird-worujbs setting fire id-the wm #ainr
threshing-it-out
Teaching assistants thanked..
To the Freshman Class:
I would like to thank the
teaching assistants, who must
endure an intolerable amount
of hassle during tuto^als,
particularly physics and
chemistry. At times it is
impossible to hear the tutorial
leader, much less concentrate
on the problems, when the
people (?) around you are busy
commenting on the tutor's
dress, intelligence, parentage,
etc. These tutorial leaders are
not paid for their services, and
they'd probably rather do
other things than try to
explain redox equations or
angular acceleration to a
group of freshmen who think
they "know it all."
Freshman, don't you think
it's rather childish to shake
beer cans just so you can see
them explode when the tutor
opens them? For the sake of
your fellow classmates who
attend tutorials to learn
something: (1) If you feel like
hassling someone, stay home
and beat on your roommate; (2)
If you know so much, why
don't you lead the tutorials?
Deborah Sedberry
Hanszen '80
... Students attitudes decried
To the graduate students who
are subjected to the ordeal of
the tutorial:
Thank you and I sympathize
with you. As I sit in the
audience at a tutorial, I get
pretty pissed off at all of the
primadonnas who have no
courtesy for the tutor at all.
They go to these tutorials with
their preset ideas on how
things should be done and do
not seem to realize that you are
doing them a favor. You do not
have to do these tutorials, so
why do them if the people you
are trying to help act like
assholes and do not appreciate
the help? Maybe the graduate
students should strike against
giving tutorials until the
audiences reduce the size of
their egos and learn some
respect. People who act like
children should be treated as
such.
Patrick Condreay
Hanszen '80
by Jeff Kerr
I'VE GOT TO TH1MK OF A
SOPHISTICMto Olit-HtltB TO
LET HER KNOW SHt'b OUT WITH
A TRUE COLLtGlKTL TVPt.
WELL, HERE I Af1 IN THE
HYATT RE6EHCV ELEVATOR
H A TRIO CLAb^f DATE
TABLE fOR OMt,
PLEASE.
idOD?
I
CARLA McFARLAND
Editor
CATHERINE M. EGAN
Business Manager
Steven M. Setser
Advertising Manager
Barry Jones Sports Editor
Philip Parker Assistant Editor
Jim Fowler Humor Editor
Walter Underwood Photography Editor
Mark Linimon Continuity
Tom Brown Third Page Editor
Sports staff Philip Parker, Larry Nettles, Asuka Nakahara
Copy Editor Cindy Childress
Circulation Managers Butch Spaw, Bill Barron
Editorial Staff Jim Beall, Steve Sullivan, Matt Muller
Photography Staff Paul Fong, Mark Chatlett,
Rich Jensen
V "
Art Staff Jeff Kerr, Dale Charletta
Production staff Bill Studabaker, Belle Shepherd,
Lee Holder, Mark linimon, and Grungy
The Rice Thresher, the official student newspaper at Rice University since 1916, is
published semi-weekly on Mondays and Thursdays during the school year, except
during examination periods and holidays, by the students of Rice University, 527-
4801. Advertising information available on request, 527-4802. Editorial and
business offices are located on the second floor of the historic Rice Memorial Center,
P.O. Box 1892, Houston, Texas 77001. Mail subscription rate, $15 per year.
The opinions expressed herein, such as "You'd have to be pretty damn desperate to
look for typos in the staff box," are not necessarily those of anyone except the writer,
or perhaps of anyone. Obviously.
©Copyright 1976, The Rice Thresher. All rights reserved.1
the rice thresher, thursday, november 18, 1976 — page 2
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McFarland, Carla. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 64, No. 21, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 18, 1976, newspaper, November 18, 1976; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245312/m1/2/: accessed June 20, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.