University of Houston - Houstonian Yearbook (Houston, TX)

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plot. Television is clearly the major source of information in this Country — that's nothing new. The print media hangs on for the fact that it doesn't offer music videos, making it acceptable for waiting rooms and public transportation. And radio survives, fearful of the day when automobiles can steer themselves, leaving the driver free to watch TV on the way to school or work or to visit relatives in Oregon. But even as everything adopts itself to television (big screen movies on VHS for example), television is continually evolving. Now, when the President addresses the nation on the major networks, people can turn to a channel that offers music videos, a channel that offers Jesus, or even a channel that offers commercials (home shopping network). For the most part, people don't want to see the President on TV. People consider politics to be deceptive and. while television is only as deceptive as the audience allows it to be. they expect TV to be safe and noncommittal. When CBS aired 'Our World , a program that chronicled the events that have led up to the world we live in, the program which featured Linda Kl-lerbe could not stand up against the fantasy-like ''Cosby Show''. But safe television programming dates back to Father Knows Best and Leave It to Beaver. The difference being that in the sixties, people placed more value on their own individual thoughts and attitudes and weren't afraid to deviate from the traditional TV roles. People demonstrated against Vietnam and the drSft, while others gladly went to war in patriotic style. Even while the masses of that generation were screaming for the Beatles, they were more self-aware than the Madonna generation of today, of which one young Madonna (fan) said, We want to express our individuality. On college campuses in the sixties, students took action against things they didn't like, and strongly supported things they did like. Today, people even seem apathetic towards their own interests and values. Where people used to protest the demoralization of their values, or stand up for their beliefs, they now hide out in fear that someone will point a Finger at the quasi-liberal minds. For better or worse, society is more tolerant of things like living together, inter-racial relationships and divorce than it was in the sixties. Not that people have become more open-minded, but certainly more submissive. People are less likely to speak out against actions they dislike. Most people don't bother to involve themselves in a political or social conversation. In order to spark a small amount of interest in a discussion, political science professors generally begin with, Did you see on TV ... Television seems to dictate the topic of the day. And even then a large amount of students would just assume watch it on TV and sleep through it in class. So political science professors have a difficult time raising any interest in subjects that aren't in the media. While there are many concurrent issues, the media has to be selective. Some issues sell better than others. Some issues are technical and boring. And some issues are distasteful to the general public. The media will thrive on an issue only until the sellable angles are exhausted and people begin to lose interest. President Nixon was probably more heavily scrutinized than any president of today will be. certainly for his role in Watergate. President Reagan has gained very little recognition for his role, or lack of, in the similar Iran-Contra Affair. Issues which arc complex in nature have very little audience. Even as the public has been presented with an entire slate of issues which arc directly or indirectly related — Afganistan, F.l Salvador, Nicaragua, Cuba, South Africa, Phillipincs. Bcr-uit. Iran. Iraq, and so on — the scope is too broad for most to bother with. It is easy to get an impression through the media, and accept that the United States government is working for the good of us all. And at the same time it is easy to overlook the humanistic issues and practicality behind nuclear arms, imperialism, investments in businesses that exploit people around the world and so on. Oddly enough, as people in this country feel they have achieved a free and liberated society, where people are free to chose their practices, people neglect to understand the implications of the future, the weakening class structure, the steadily rising poverty line, the endless wastefulness and the lack of hope for a large portion of our population including many college graduates. It seems as if history is working in reverse. Rights for individuals have taken the place of two cars in every garage, we are leaving behind a political scandal, going into a war and slipping back into a depression. So. while it is important to enforce individual rights for all across the board, the right to be free from political thought is actually a denial of freedom — if not for today, then for the future. — Mark Lacy is

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 It is the prescription for anarchy in a democratic society.” Louis Stokes Senator, Ohio A Student's State of the Union Address. Today's col lege generation will probably be remembered by political historians as the passive generation. The generation that grew up watching television through the late seventies and early eighties offers little in political motivation. One obvious reason for the great drought of political awareness is that this generation developed on the heels of a most embarrassing fiasco — Watergate — that is best remembered for having crowded out daytime TV programming for months. With the networks airing the Watergate hearings, and no cable TV to turn to, children of the seventies developed a great frustration with politics. Most of them have little or no rcmemberancc of life before Watergate. The turbulant sixties is dry-textbook material for most college students who not only take for granted, but cannot possibly remember the intense changes of that time period. While nearly everyone feels they have the right to observe a holiday in honor of Martin Luther King, most fail to recognize the value of the Civil Rights Movement. In only a few short years in history, the American public has gone from civil rights marches to the assassination of Martin Luther King, and from the assassination of Lee Harvey Oswald. the John F. Kennedy assassinator, to protests of the Vietnam War, and from Watergate to an obsession with Arbi-tron ratings. In a crucial time period when world affairs are esculating at a dangerous rate, college students u limes are likely to remember the changing of the Coca-Cola formula or the entangled lives on Dallas as the issues of our time. Coca-Cola received more media coverage as people became angered over the elimination of the original formula Coke than the U.S. government did when the military overran the tiny island of Grenada. Public protest was able to bring back a worldwide commercial product, but it is very unlikely that the public could detour U.S. involvement in a global conflict. That is evident by the public attitude towards the Iran-Contra hearings. People were disturbed. mostly because the hearings interrupted the afternoon soaps. But the American public soon found an American hero in Oliver North for his noble television presence during the hearings. And even with such blatant foreshadowing, the American public generally accepts. without question, our role in the Persian Gulf. The American people hesitate to make any connection between the six percent of our oil that we defend as it is shipped through the Persian Gulf, while other countries relax, and the unemployment in our own oilfields that contributed to our weak economy. Another major oversight on the part of the American people is FI Salvador. While a military advisor was killed there in April, a scene reminesccnt of Vietnam. the American people were preoccupied with Jim's sexual preferences and Tammy's makeup obsession in the PTL scandal. The people once again went with the best television

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The Black Student Union and the Students Association collaborated to build this town house. Mandela Hall. Although originally scheduled to only be up during South Africa Awareness Week, the structure lasted much longer. Photo by Kim Card. 16