The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 71, No. 16, Ed. 1 Friday, January 20, 1984 Page: 2 of 24
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Take me, I'm yours for the semester
If you are consulting this, the first editorial of the fabled 1984,
in expectation of snide, sardonic, political comparisons between
members of the Rice administration and characters or institutions
from George Orwell's 1984, you will have to peruse elsewhere. To
implement those (or other) recently popular relational
constructions would be the height of journalistic trendiness—I'd
sooner go out and purchase a 'cabbage patch doll,' or a personal
computer than hurl Big Brother accusations or start a column
with a whining "didja ever wonder..."(Not that I didn't consider it;
1 just reasoned that the parallels were easily drawn and needed no
clarification.)
We at The Thresher do not cater to the most glamorous news,
the latest reportorial fads, or the most psychedelic layout
techniques. There is no way we can afford to. (This is not to imply
that we set trends—hell no! When we're stuck for an idea we just
go back a couple of years and rip something out of a yearbook or
cannibalize another university's newspaper.) To subscribe to one
wire service would cost more than most of the staff spends on
recreational substances in a week. And carrying Bloom County
(for those who thought Doonesbury was too political) means we
are unable to run those free beer coupons you've probably heard
rumors about.
However, The Thresher can still afford to throw a party once a
semester (ostensibly a recruitment party—this Sunday, at 8:00
p.m. on the second floor of the RMC). All members of the Rice
community are welcome and I urge everyone who has ever been
interested in, wondered at, or angered by The Thresher to stop by
and kill some brain cells. Politics will probably not be discussed,
unless we have to.
In any case, working for a university newspaper can help to
develop talents many people never thought they possessed.
Without calling it a learning adventure or a growth experience, I
am sure most contributors consider themselves better-rounded
individuals, due to the time they spent at the newspaper.
My journalistic dedication and responsibilities have been a
direct result of this on-the-job training. Having never even read a
book on journalism, my education in this area has been a m elange
of rules and customs from previous editors and writers.
Fortunately they were all very gifted and I will try to continue
their traditions.
Occasionally in my last two years at Rice I have heard repeated
grumblings, allegations and slanted charges of'yellow journalism'
directed towards The Thresher and members of the staff. What
most complainers are overlooking is the necessity of the paper's
diversity in writers. Only when an open forum is maintained on
the editorial and letter pages has The Thresher done its job.
Columns and editorials must by definition be opinionated.
Charges of yellow journalism are also off-target because we are
not dependent on sales or subscriptions, nor do we live in fear of
our advertisers. There is very little incentive for us to attempt to
boost our readership through lewd or outlandish statements; at an
academic institution we would only come off looking immature
and foolish. There is, however, every incentive for The Thresher to
strive for informational accuracy and clean objective reporting.
I am excited about this oppurtunity to serve as editor of The
Thresher. Hopefully, if I recognize my limitations and apply
myself effectively I will be able to uphold certain minimum
standards of quality which editors in the past have impressed
upon me.
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THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE HEDGES by Tom Morgan
Instead of going backpacking in
Mexico over vacation, I decided to
visit Detroit. Yes, it was cold, and
yes, there are poor people there.
On the drive through Michigan, we
passed the Huron Federal
Correctional Facility, and I want
you to know, gentle reader, that
the federal government is
prejudiced against hitchhikers.
By the shoulder of the highway
next to the Huron Federal
Correctional Facility there are
signs which read:
up
The Rice Thresher, January 20, 1984, page 2
Caution: Do not pick
hitchhikers.
Federal Correctional Facility
Nearby.
Now, one of our best customers on
the Rice campus is a young fellow
with longish hair who periodically
finds himself hitchhiking. Just
imagine if some thoughtless driver
left this poor fellow next to the
Huron Federal Correctional
Facility. What could he do? These
prisons stretch for miles, and it
could take a hitchhiker hours to
escape the burden of these
ominous signs.
I should think that the average
motorist should be able to
distinguish a hitchhiker with long
hair, patched clothing, and a
backpack from an escaped federal
prisoner with a shaved head, white
clothing, and no luggage. These
signs represent an oppression of
the hitchhiker by the federal
government, and as sych, they
should be removed forthwith.
Let's talk about prisons in
general. Did you know that the
United States incarcerates more
people for a longer period of time
than any other country on earth?
Yes, we are a violent nation, but
are we that violent?
There are more people in jail in
the United States right now than in
the history of this country. The
crime rate has also been falling for
the last two years. The FBI and
Ronald Reagan swear that these
two figures are directly tied, but in
truth and in fact they are not. The
reason for the falling crime rate is
simple demographics. You all
know how violent young men can
be. The most violent and crime-
prone segment of American
society are males between the ages
of fifteen and twenty-five. The fact
that as the American population
grows older, the number of violent
young males grow fewer, thus
there are fewer criminals.
Does it really make sense to put
a twenty-three-year-old male in jail
for ten years for armed robbery
when it is statistically unlikely that
he will repeat the crime after he
turns twenty-five? The fact is that
we are wasting billions in public
funds by housing people who
would otherwise be productive
citizens.
We are a schizophrenic nation in
that we love violence but despise
criminals. The Texas Department
of Corrections plans to move their
deathchamber from Huntsville
because there are so many pro-
execution protests. Clarence
Darrow argued in his address to
the inmates of the Cook County
jail that the jailers should be the
jailed and vice-versa. Generally, I
think that the people outside of
jails are as criminal as those behind
bars; it is just a matter of degree. If
you are white and specialize in
stealing money from the
government by income tax fraud
or defense contracting, you will
usually escape punishment. In fact,
some of our most consistently pro-
law and, order politicians prove to
commit some of our worst crimes
(I would mention Richard M.
Nixon here, but he was pardoned,
so he must have been innocent.).
We are all human, and prisons
result from the seamier side of our
humanity. With a little more
compassion, we could reduce that
seamy side, and prisons, to a bare
minimum.
Mark M. Mitchell
Editor
Todd A, Cornett
Business Manager
Dave Collins News Editor
Ian Hersey Fine Arts Editor
Tony Soltero Sports Editor
Hal Wiedeman Back Page Editor
Jeanne Cooper, Robyn Klahr .... Production Managers
Jeanne Cooper, Tom Morgan,
Chris Ekren Senior Editors
Jay Grob : Senior Editor, Copy Editor
Deborah Knaff Associate Editor
Jason Binford Advertising Manager
Chip Clay Photography Editor
Assistant Editors Melissa Cox, Frances Egler, David
Friesenhahn (News) Steve Mollenkamp (Sports),
Bob Terry (Copy), Pam Truzinski (Photography)
Graphics Ian Hersey, Lynn Lytton
Contributing Editors John Cunyus, A1 Eynon, Jonathan Berk
News Staff Patty Cleary, Scott Snyder, Rebecca Monroy,
Becky Basch, Cheryl Smith, Scheleen Johnson,
Mark Benningfield, Brock Wagner, James Greenlee III,
Melissa Durbin, Earl Peterson, Shelina Shariff,
Patty Baron, Ian Davidson, Paul Havlak
Fine Arts Staff Harry Wade, Geoff Spradley, Michael Manson,
Kathryn Tomasek, Greg Holies, Theresa Brown,
Carrie Blum, Vincent W. Uher, Karin Murphy,
Cheryl Smith, Wiggy Martin, Albert Throckmorton,
Jennifer Cooper, David S. Teager, Kathleen Robertson,
R. Michael Hunt
Sports Staff Sheri Rieke, Lisa Widner, John Lane, Art Rabeau
Production Staff Melissa Durbin, Susan Bologna, Sarah Jordan
BusiiMM Staff
Assistant Business Manager Susan Brown
Assistant Advertising Manager David Koralek
Circulation Jay Grob, Tom Morgan
Student Staff Assistant Mark Benningfield
Subscription Manager David Steffens
The Rice Thrabcr, the official itudent newspaper at Rice University since 1916, is
published each FfQttay during the school year, except during examination periods and
holidays, by the students of Rice University. Editorial and business offices are located on
the second floor of the Rice Memorial Center, P.O. Box IS92, Houston, Texas 77231.
Telephone <713)327-4801 or 327-4802. Advertising information available upon request.
Mail subscription rate: $20.00 domestic, $40.00 international, (via first class mail). The
opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of anyone except the writer. Obviously.
*1984, The Rice Thresher. All rights reserved.
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Mitchell, Mark M. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 71, No. 16, Ed. 1 Friday, January 20, 1984, newspaper, January 20, 1984; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245548/m1/2/?q=%22%22~1: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.