European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 25, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse Sidelights presses paper Thi Clarence Page to dents at the University of Maryland woke up one Day this past fall to find at least half the copies of their College Park Campus newspaper the Diamondback were gone. In their place were leaflets saying a due to its racist nature the Diamondback will not be available today. Read a with that the University of Maryland joined about 20 campuses where student newspapers have been trashed in retaliation for perceived insults. Student journalism has been offending somebody or other Ever since students got their hands on a printing press. But the trashing of Campus papers has become a new and pernicious form of student against student protest a troubling trend that generally speaking pits Freedom against Equality. Prom the Days of Frederick Douglass an escaped slave who became a Diplomat and Pioneer Black journalist through the heyday of Martin Luther King jr., the equal rights movement viewed free expression As its Friend. It was after All just about the Only thing that protected their right to protest and get their message out past a Wall of police dogs fire hoses cattle prods and powerful segregationists. But Many of today a advocates for minorities and women Are As Likely to View unfettered expression As an enemy not an ally. Instead of allowing Good and bad ideas to be expressed freely to live and die under their own moral or rational weight today a inertia is moving toward More constraints including Campus speech codes a hate crime Laws for cities and states and a double Standard that gives More License to women and minorities to express themselves freely than it does to a Beth powered groups like White men. The most famous episode involved Black students who were accused of trashing student newspapers at the University of Pennsylvania an incident that became an Issue in the confirmation hearings Otna tonal endowment for the humanities head Sheldon Hackney who was Penn s president at the time. Blacks weren to the Only aggrieved group. Asians were offended by a cartoon in the Johns Hopkins University weekly that used the word a chinks a and the diamondbacks coverage of an anti rape Art display offended some feminists while some of its political cartoons offended arabs. The Diamondback s most serious offences May not sound very serious to most students on the mostly White Campus it showed Only White models in a fashion supplement it misreported Frederick Douglass first name As a a Franklin and mistyped . Dubois classic the souls of Black Folk As the sales of Black Folk. But students who showed up for a forum organized by the Campus chapter of the National association of Black journalists complained More generally about what the 1967 Kurner commission said of major Media they reported Black life through a White perspective. Even so much has changed since the 1960s, the Diamondback for example has Black writers but not enough in management positions although it has had a Black editor in chief As recently As 1991. There arc better ways to influence a newspapers coverage than to trash it. Like other such conflicts one finds around the country the newspaper and its errors of omission arc a lightning Rod for larger problems particularly this colleges like the rest of american society,.arc becoming More diverse and student newspapers like alas major Media in the big world have been slow to respond. Fortunately As near As i can Tell most minority and female students at the University of Maryland. Are thoroughly embarrassed by the vandalism. Unfortunately i done to think we have seen the last of such trashing. Too Many students encouraged sometimes by faculty members who should know better have come to see Freedom of expression As a Barrier instead of a vehicle to Equality. They have been spurred on by a new generation of a critical race Legal theorists who see the first dictionary of american portraits Frederick Douglass pushed free expression. Amendment and the rest of the Bill of rights As some kind of insidious plot created by dead White male slaveholders to perpetuate the subordination of women and Quot people of color a not provide a vehicle for their eventual liberation As Legal warriors like Thurgood Marshall eventually prove lobe. A to these new overseers of thought women and minorities arc sensitive souls so easily badgered by negative ideas that they must have the special protections like speech codes or they will run from Campus moaning in the agony of their Hurt feelings. With society s deep thinkers surveying such thoughts and with courts giving it a serious hearing no wonder some self styled thought police Lake mat tors into their own hands. Well thanks but no thanks. Some universities Waffle badly on the Freedom is. Equality debate but the University of Maryland a student approved policy on Freedom of expression stands As one Model others should follow. It cautions that everyone should a consider the Hurt which May result from the use of slurs and epithets a but it docs not Sanction speech. Instead it says the educational Mission of the University re. Quires a the need for Freedom the right to think the unthinkable discuss the unmentionable and dial in go the quite right. Without it Campus would be a pretty Dull place a that would Breed some very Dull minds. A Tho Chicago Tribune becoming Cool to breakfast in hotel room Sandy Rooney you re taking a Chance when you re travelling and decide to have breakfast in your hotel room. The luxury of having breakfast sent to your room is one of the Good things in life but like most things that can be very Good breakfast in your room can also be very bad a not to mention expensive. The obvious advantage to breakfast in your room is that you can hang around in your pyjamas until after you be eaten it to go to the bathroom shave Shower and dress. Its a civilized Way of starting a Day away from Home. I am at the moment of writing in my hotel room in Washington . There is a strange odor emanating from the table across the room because for some reason i can to imagine they served Fried onions with Margie a poached egg on Toast. There a no convenient place to eat in a hotel room. If they Roll a table in its too big and too High. The chairs Are Low and the table comes to your Chin. If they bring breakfast on a tray you have to sit on the Couch and eat bending Over the Coffee table or eat it in bed i hate to eat in bed even when in a sick. Especially when i m sick. Of All the things that have gone up in Price i done to know anything that has gone up higher and faster than the Cost of breakfast in a hotel room. This morning our breakfast Cost $27.58. This included a 17 percent tip. I m not used to paying that much for a room yet. Margie ordered a half Grapefruit and the poached egg on Toast. I had Orange juice a toasted English muffin and Jam. We had a six cup pot of Coffee my Jam came in three Nice Little Glass jars. I ate the Jam from one Jar and put the other two in my suitcase. Even though i took the extra Jam Home it was a very expensive breakfast and Only fair. \ besides the onions we did t like my English muffin was poor. There a no Way to serve Toast or English muffins in a hotel room and i done to know Why 1 keep ordering them. If they re covered with those Silver domes they re soggy. If they Arentt they re cold. Some hotels have tables on wheels that have Small sterno warn cd ovens underneath. They help. Breakfast in a hotel in any european country is always better than breakfast Here. In Europe they assume you re going to have breakfast in your room. It s part of your Bill and they do it easily. Here in the states its often done awkwardly As if it were a big Deal. In Many Paris hotels for example there is a pantry on every floor and your breakfast is prepared and served from there. When you Wake up and want it you cull and it comes. Here you hang the marked menu on your door before you go to bed. You Check the 15-minute parameters of the time you think at night that you la want it in the morning. If you Wake Early or sleep late your breakfast comes when you ordered it the night before not when you want it in the morning. The Best thing about a european breakfast is the bread and Rolls. They Are always better than anything we have. Even the Best of our hotels to have worked out a system for removing the debris when you re finished. That accounts for All the unattractive trays of half eaten food outside hotel rooms All across America. Next time i plan to stay in a hotel in a going to remember that $27.58 Bill and pack a Box of cornflakes half a pint of milk and a howl. A Tribune Media services. And Rooney is a former slats arid stripes reporter december 26. 1903 sunday Page i
