The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 70, No. 17, Ed. 1 Friday, January 21, 1983 Page: 2 of 16
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The Thresher needs you
(here this Sunday, 8 p.m.)
In my election statement in the November 12 Thresher, 1
made the comment, "The more student help, the more the
Thresher can do." Similarly, my opponent Chris Ekren stated,
"Encouraging more people to participate is an important step
in improving the paper." We weren't shooting the breeze, folks.
The Thresher currently lacks an assistant news editor and an
assistant production manager. The fine arts staff could use a
few more regular contributors of dance, music, film and drama
reviews. The news staff lacks feature writers to interview
professors, attend lectures and study Rice issues in an in-depth
manner. The sports staff needs writers to cover every sport, and
the production staff — well, there is no production staff.
Although attrition was high between semesters this year, the
paucity of Thresher workers is chronic. Chris Fkren and 1
speculated production night why people are motiv ated to work
for the Thresher. Disdaining "innate goodness," we postulated
that those who are not as challenged by their classes as they
would like to be turn to the Thresher, or one of the few
organizations like it on campus, for extra stimulation.
Why don't more people work for the Thresher? After all, our
hours are anytime anyone can work. Typesetters and
production workers can earn pocket money, not for large
pockets but enough to buy dinner on weekends. Members of
the editorial board earn enough not to have to eat dinner in the
colleges during the week. You can choose your area of interest
from the technical to the creative. It doesn't hurt your resumd.
Perhaps the average Rice student shies away because of the
word "work." Yes, most students do have a lot of it already, but
a few individual man-hours contributed by a number of people
can mean the difference between publishing a good paper and
just being able to put a paper out.
With only a handful of full-time contributors, t he Thresher is
sometimes slow to respond to those who express a desire to
participate. We're sorry. We are very busy.
To expedite joining the staff, the Thresher will hold a a get-
together-and-don't-go-away for all those who have ever been
interested in working, oops, having fun, on the newspaper this
Sunday at 8 p.m. in our second-floor RM(" office. We're
throwing in refreshments as an added lure.
We want to exchange ideas and get you started as a
contributor pronto. We'll have specifics. Just bring yourself.
Maintenance maintenant!
Jones has unbearably hot water. Wiess has rats. Baker has a
leaky basement. Lovett is too hot/too cold/too ugly. Every
college has its complaints. They make ready commons
conversation, can be the source of endless hyperbolic metaphor
in personal correspondence, and add the ambiance of the
"pauvre dtudiant" studying in a garret for the Quadrivium to
one's scholastic life.
It's time to take the maintenance of the colleges more
seriously. With the limited off-campus housing in the area
charging record-high rents and offering little security, on-
campus housing is a must for many students. The university,
however, seems committed to a "take it or leave it" attitude.
Even student maintenance representatives have no motivation
to report problems to Physical Plant.
That's their profit-oriented prerogative. My prerogative, and
that of all on-campus students, is to disseminate to as many
people as possible the reprehensibly poor physical condition of
residences at Rice. I suffer now in a room whose AC has been
blowing chilly gusts since August; the university will suffer later
if it cannot convince students to live in the shoddy buildings it
offers.
—Jeanne Cooper
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NUKING THE HEDGES/by David Curcio
The religious New Right is
slowly dying. Its power peaked in
1980 when various factors resulted
in the election of numerous
candidates endorsed by the New
Right. Riding the wave of dissatis-
faction with old inflationary
libeml policies, the New Right
candidates acquired power
exaggerated by sensationalism,
the force of the pulpit, and the New
Right's uncanny ability to raise
and target money, lots of money.
The money was not given to the
poor and needy, as one would
expect from the Christian
teachings that the New Right
claims to follow. Rather, it was
given to candidates who would
vote to reduce government
assistance to those in need. They
may have spread their interpre-
tation of the word of God, but they
demeaned that word by placing it
in the realm of politics. By
confusing morality with legality
and religion with politics, they
have further succeeded in
weakening the institution of
religion.
Divine or natural law is indeed
the highest form of law on the
planet and, in our nation, each
individual has the constitutionally
guaranteed right to guide his or her
life by accepting and interpreting a
version of higher law. In order to
protect this free expression, the
state must be bound by the lowest
form of law, that created by
humans. These laws arise out of
compromise and dabnte over what
is needed to preserve social order,
they are not necessarily moral.
Divine law, however, is a rigid
interpretation of what one believes
to be morally right. It cannot be
compromised and there exists no
universally acceptable version.
Thus it cannot be used as a basis
for government policy.
The New Right fails to
understand this concept and so
steps over the fine line of the First
Amendment's separation of
church and state. The New Right
claims to be the voice of the "most
dynamic new force in American
politics — the politically aware
Christian." They are, in fact, a
small minority who nonetheless
pose a great threat to individual
liberty in this nation. When the
state allows its destiny to be guided
by divine or natural law,
persecution and doctrinaire
policies inevitably result. Since the
higher laws are inviolate and an
expression of what is "right,"
anyone who disagrees must be
wrong and is therefore a threat.
Many of the issues raised by
sanctimonious groups such as the
Moral Majority have tied up the
court systems over serious, but
easily resolved constitutional
questions. Laws in Louisiana and
Arkansas requiring creationism to
be taught as a science have been
successfully challenged and will, of
course, be ultimately struck down.
Creationism may be a valid topic
for religious curricula; however, as
science it is a joke. Claims that the
earth is only 6,000 years old, and
that all species, including man,
were created instantaneously, are
contradicted by testable and
explanatory scientific fact. The
banning of books from school
libraries has also been successfully
challenged in court. The public
schools should not be a
battleground for religous crusades,
nor should valuable court
resources be wasted to decid(
something as simple as the
separation of church and state.
The New Right will continue,
however, to challenge basic consti-
tutional freedoms on a number of
K
issues, ranging from abortion to
gay rights.
Religion has been a fundamen-
tal American institution since the
creation of the first New World
colonies. Supernatural explana-
tions have a legitimate function in
helping each individual deal with
the meaning of life and the reality
of death. Religion and morality
though are subject to individual
choice, and are governed by
certain societal restrictions which
prevent harm to others. Chief
among these is the prohibition
against using the authority of the
state to impose one set of moral or
religious beliefs on all members of
society. The government now is
not immoral, as the New Right
claims; rather, it is amoral as the
founding fathers intended.
The American constitutional
framework provides effective
protection against the threat of
religious imposition, something
the religious New Right can never
do away with. Thank God.
Jeanne Cooper
Editor
Sandra Wasson
Business Manager
Patty Cleary News Editor
Deborah Knaff Fine Arts Editor
Mark Mitchell Sports Editor
John Krueger Back Page Editor
• * •
Lorraine Farrell Managing Editor
■< Conrad Reining Photography Editor
Matt Petersen Copy Editor
Jay Grob Senior Editor
Todd Cornett Advertising Manager
Contributing Staff
Assistant Editor* Gwen Richard (Fine Arts),
Alan Mathiowetz (Sports), Ray Isie (Photography)
Contributing Editors Michele UiUespie,
Harry Wade, Chris Ekren, David Curcio
Graphics Lynn Lytton, John Lemr,
Debbie Toletovich
News Staff Paul Havlak, Bob Terry, Larry Lesser
Sumit Nanda, Chris Dieckmann, Ian Davidson,
Brad Sevetson, Joseph Halcyon
Fine Arts Staff Chris Boyer, Geoffrey Westergard
Andrew Tullis, Barry Watkins, Geoff Spradley
John Krueger, Ray Isle, Paige Pool, Reeta Achari
John Svatek, Allison Kennamer, Rick Hunt
Sports Staff Steve Bailey, Carolyn Burr,
Heather Gillespie, Ed Brittingham, Ed Swartz, Genie Lutz
Kay Abrahams, Mike Friedman, Steve Corbato, Joseph Halcyon
Production Staff J°hn Krueger
Photography Staff Tom Cassidy, John Gibson
Mike Gladu
Bus inns Staff
Assistant Business Manager Susan Brown
Circulation -Matt Petersen
Subscriptions David Steffens
Staff Michelle Grant, Jane Mitchell, Kay Gratke
The Rice Thrcaher, the official student newspaper at Rice University since 1916, is published
each Friday during the school year, except during examination periods and holidays, by the
students of Rice U nivertity. Editorial and business offices are located on the second floor of the
Rice Memorial Center, P.O. Box 1892, Houston, Texas 77251. Telephone (713) 527-4801 or
527-4802. Advertising information available upon request. Mail subscription rate: S20.00
domestic, $40.00 international, (via first class maij). The opinions expressed herein are not
necessarily those of anyone except the writer. Obviously.
•1982. The Rice Thresher. All rights reserved.
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The Rice Thresher, January 21, 1983, page 2
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Cooper, Jeanne. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 70, No. 17, Ed. 1 Friday, January 21, 1983, newspaper, January 21, 1983; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245519/m1/2/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.