"The word on the street is disrespect," Daily Tar Heel, 3/1/89
By DANA LUMSDEN
It used to be that people could insult each other, even have fistfights, without a weapon of some sort being produced. As access to the very weapons that the president promotes increases the amount of thought urban teenagers spend before pulling the trigger decreases.
Some of you may ask what the president's hunting hobby has to do with the amount of gun deaths. Believe it or not, the president is a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association, an organization that not only promotes the freedom of Americans to hunt but opposes any restrictions on guns. Eager on the campaign trail to prove his opponent's guilt-bv-association as a "card carrying member of the ACLU," George should be held accountable for his membership in the not quite one man one vote NRA.
The president is fond of talking, and specifically, "talking tough" on drugs. He supports using the military to stem the drug traffic and a mandatory death penalty for "drug kingpins." If there were tougher gun control laws, the police wouldn't be outgunned (most police departments don’t have Israeli assault rifles or Chinese AK-47s) and we wouldn't have to use the military.
This new image, the image of the masculine president, is not really George's at all. (Does George have an image that is uniquely his? Rhetorical question.) Reagan started this image eight years ago when he decided it was essential that the American presidency appear masculine. Although there were reports of Reagan's sleeping through Cabinet meetings, we knew he was alert on the hunt. Besieged by accusations of wimpiness, George started early in the campaign creating the image of "Sport Poppy." As far as the American public was concerned, "Sport Poppy" was raised up among guns and fishing. We were led to believe that gun handling was an everyday thing at Andover and Yale.
As George promotes this new image, there is another sort of hunting going on in America's big cities and suburbs. People are killing each other. Most of these urban crimes are not the result of drugs (newspeople are fond of blaming drugs for every death among minorities) but rather of "dissin'" or "disrespect." In Boston, for instance, a student at MIT was shot two times at a party. When asked the motive, the assailant replied, "He was dissin' my girlfriend."
Certain changes come with a new presidency. Most of these changes are to be expected. Usually they consist of various ceremonies, the swearing in of new Cabinet officials, some scandal, ridicule and a lot of promises. Lately, though, presidents have left much more of a personal image on the tapestry of American life. Some presidents try to define themselves during the first month. Jimmy Carter, who was buried in the "energy crisis" and "the oil decade," chose to turn off all the lights. Ronald Reagan peddled his gung-ho image and the importance of being earnest; now we must assess George.
I call the president George not for lack of respect but because I believe he wouldn't have it any other way. Charming, funny, smart (Phi Beta Kappa from Yale ain't bad), he's everybody's Uncle George. Lately though, George has taken to huntin', and it is the rage of his new cabinet. Suddenly all Washington's power brokers are putting on their gear, packing toilet paper and heading for the woods in pursuit of wild game. Secretary of State James Baker owns his own turkey hunting land in Texas, where he invites all his political buddies and even an occasional reporter to partake in such macho activities as shooting at birds. Studying top-secret documents, making analogies between turkey hunting and Washington politics, he's James Baker, high-level Cabinet member, millionaire, scholar and good ole' boy. George should spend less time killing wildlife and more time saving human life.
Dana Clinton Lumsden is a freshman political science / journalism major from Boston, Mass., and yes, he is a guy.
