OCR Text |
Show r W jPPSlv SOUTHERN UTAH STATE COLLEGE, CEDAR CITY THE THUNDERBIRD PAGE 4 MONDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1989 WE ALL MUST ACT TO CURB DRUG USE It is no coincidence that in his first formal address to the nation, President Bush equated the drug problem in the U.S. to nothing war. short of a In a speech charged with dire military metaphors, the president outlined his strategy for spending almost eight billion taxpayer dollars on anti-dru-g programs next year, targeting everyone who uses drugs, sells drugs, or looks the other way as the enemy. It has been suggested, however, that Bush s blueprint for the interdiction of drug abuse has failed to provide insight into the nature of the drug problem, and that he was doing nothing more than redeclaring a war against drug abuse that has been perennially proclaimed since the Kennedy administration. Be that as it may, theres no denying that the disease of drug abuse captures the publics attention as being the single most serious problem today, or that millions of Americans have been affected, either firsthand or indirectly, as addiction moves out into the backyards of small of the concrete jungle of the inner-cit- y town America. of drug Recognizing that Cedar City is not new to the problems abuse, and could, if not arrested, gain unmanageable proportions, full-sca- le Associated Students of SUSC, Iron County School District and Southwest Utah Mental Health have pulled out the biggest guns in their arsenal education in an attempt to bombard the ignorance about drug abuse. will deliver to the public Drug Awareness Week, December the positive message that it is possible to have a purposeful, fun life without complicating it with drugs. 4-- 8, We endorse Drug Awareness Week wholeheartedly, discounting the evaluations of some critics who contend that such drug all prevention programs actually convey the message that its right to use drugs as long as its done responsibly. Such a mentality fails to consider the fact that education the provides individuals with an informed choice by weighing health and safety consequences of drug abuse. Nor does this shortdeclined over sighted attitude recognize that casual drug use has the last few years, but has witnessed an marked increase among the impoverished and undereducated. We cannot subscribe to education with planting the seeds of antia philosophy equating social behavior. With this thought in mind, we believe that the first step toward combating drug abuse is gaining the support of the public not is geared toward always an easy task. Drug Awareness Week before the bringing both student and citizen to the problem problem has the chance to visit them. Above all, we must remember that fighting drugs may prove to be a long war, but together, united and educated, it s not a futile one. 7 The Thunderbird VOLUME 84, NUMBER 20 Editor Rachel Talbot Associate Editor Kathleen Midgley Opinion Director James Spainhower Photo Editor Jeff Dower Arts &. Leisure Editor Lisa Keene Sports &. Outdoors Editor Brent Richey Senior Staff Writers Heather Cox Jodi Reinard Photo Technician Jerry Whittemore Production Manager Lynn Dennett Ad Manager Michelle Jensen Faculty Adviser Larry Baker and for The Thunderbird is published each Monday and Thursday of the academic year by the with affiliated in is way and any not the student body of Southern Utah State College views and opinions expressed in The Thunderbird The of communication. College's department reflect the views are the opinions of the publication's individual writers and do not necessarily editorial directly of the institution, faculty, staff or student body in general. The unsigned be typed above is the opinion of The Thunderbird as a single entity. Letters to the editor must will not Names will be the name number. printed. and Only and include the name phone be withheld under any circumstances and the editor reserves editing privileges. Letters must editions. be submitted bv noon Fridays for Monday editions; 5 p.m. Tuesdays for Thursday 102. Mail at in Library The Thunderbird: editorial offices in SUSC Library 103; advertising or SUSC Box 9384, Cedar City, UT 84720. Phone (801) 586-775- 556-775- 8 586-77d- 0 Accessends Europes unity Access is a recurring column through which members of the campus community may address themselves to topics of concern andor interest. Todays column is by Larry Ping, an assistant professor of history. the last fragments of Adolf Hitlers Germany surrendered. Many years earlier Hitler had remarked: We may be destroyed, but if we are, we shall Hitler drag a world with us a world in flames. of with the aim of his war embarked on conquest a to design remaking the European continent according to be determined by Germans alone. His New Order would assure a Europe under German political and economic domination for the next thousand years. If will Germany does not win this war, he predicted, it the but France by not be won by Britain or was entirely Hitler In this at least, powers. correct. The WWH was the war that Europe lost. The ultimate result of Hitlers war was the end of the period of European primacy that began with the Renaissance and the Age of Exploration. The physical destruction could be repaired, the dead buried and mourned, but Europes place in the world could not be restored so On May 8, 1945, non-Europe- easily. After the second World War, it was almost nonsensical to speak of victors and vanquished. If every European nation can be said to have lost the war, only one nation the United States can be seen as the victor. As the old colonies asserted their demands for independence, a world centered on Europe and defined in terms of its far geographical relationship to Europe (near east, east) ended and the Age of the Superpowers began. Europe became the instrument of two flanking superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union. In political terms the most important result of WWII was the division of Germany. A divided Germany solved the problem of how to create a European balance that Germany would not dominate or try to overturn. It has provided a satisfactory solution to the dilemma first posed a century ago when Otto von Bismarcks diplomacy and Prussian bayonets created the Reich. The balance has been maintained at the cost of swollen defense costs, Age of Superpowers nuclear warheads in their thousands and the loss of European political independence. The successor powers, the U.S. and the USSR not only gained control of the continent, they developed a vested interest in the continued division of Europe into two wary military alliances, Nato and the Warsaw pact. A unified Europe, allied to either superpower would represent an enormous political threat to the other. A unified Europe standing alone and independent between the two superpowers of the worlds represents an equally decisive reshuffling political balance. It is this latter possibility that seems to be happening now. As we applaud the events of this remarkable year in Eastern Europe, it is well to remember that what is really Malta passing is the age of the superpowers. This weeks American when an last time Summit might well be the President and a Soviet President will sit down to settle the affairs of Europe. A number of European leaders already have objected to the very idea of Soviets and Americans settling European affairs. In the future, summit conferences will become multi-laterwhich the West German Chancellor, al affairs in the French president and representatives of the reformed States of Eastern Europe will expect to participate. As the Soviet threat subsides, American influence must also wane. A number of questions and problems remain. Will old European rivalries and nationalities problems settlement thaws? We already see tension as the post-wa- r developing between Hungary and Rumania. Will the new a Europe be stable, peaceful and unified? Will we see Kaisers the return to the old Europe before 1914, Chancellor Helmut Kohl of West Germany proposed a plan for a new German Confederation this squarely on the veek thus placing German that it indicated has table. The American government new the if that would not support unification it meant Germany would not have strong ties to the West. The Soviets have already criticized the idea. Whatever the short term controversies, whatever the specific form that German confederation takes, the time when American presidents and Soviet premiers can confidently expect to settle the affairs of Europe is drawing to a close. |