The Red & Black devotes too much space to football

I am absolutely disgusted with the waste of space that is football coverage in The Red & Black these days. Don’t get me wrong, I love our Dogs and support them at every game like most other students.

But with a school of more than 32,000 students, why is it that 100 of them monopolize the newspaper?

Isn’t the newspaper supposed to cover first and foremost news?

The redundant articles portraying the opinions and predictions of various athletes are absolutely painful to read.

I support the Dogs in their attempt to pick up the shattered pieces of a once hopeful season, but I don’t need to read about it on a daily basis.

The headline Friday said it all, dreams of a National Championship are out the window. Then why is it still front page news?

With the University master calendar full of events going on everyday campus-wide, I find it hard to believe there is not something far more interesting to cover than an event that happens once a week for three hours.

This University is exactly that, a university. It is not a sports commune. There are tons of events year-round worthy of coverage that seem to be pushed aside as we glorify the almighty athlete. With a capella concerts, Miss Sorority Row, guest lecturers, exhibits and events done by other student organizations abound, I don’t think it’s hard to find something more worthy of coverage than events that give students a reason to start binge drinking at 9 a.m.

If I want to get sports news, I’ll seek a more educated source such as ESPN. At least it is educated enough to realize that more than 24 inches of coverage is a waste of Web space.

PHILLIP HENRY
Junior, Douglasville
Biology

Lack of Dogs’ swim meet coverage ‘disappointing’

Although I realize it doesn’t compare to many other sports on campus, I was very disappointed to find not a single word about Friday’s men’s and women’s swim meet between the Bulldogs and the Auburn Tigers.

Upon turning to the back page, where all the sports that lie in relative obscurity seem to dwell, it was unfortunate there was no mention of arguably the biggest swim meet in Athens in four years. With the four-time National champion women’s team as well as 2008 Olympians competing on Friday, one would think that it would at least garner a single sentence of publicity in a publication that prides itself on covering on-campus events.

In my four years here at the best University in the country, the coverage of one of the best sports on campus has been utterly abysmal at best. I only hope the next four are better.

SEAN McDEVITT
Senior, Austin, Texas
History

Obama’s race irrelevant, his policies important

I don’t know if everyone else is as relieved as I am, but I’m sure glad we’re not going to have a black president. For a minute there I thought that black guy was going to win, but then I realized there wasn’t even a black candidate running. Boy, was I relieved. Now that the word is out, maybe the robberies will cool down too.

Barack Obama has a Kenyan father and a white mother which makes him – you guessed it – both black and white. Ding, ding, ding!

So, all of the people who didn’t vote for him because he is black, well you didn’t vote for him because he is white all the same.

Then all of you who voted for him because he is black, well I know that’s a sore subject for you now too. To everyone who didn’t vote for him because you thought John McCain was a better choice, you tried. But, don’t get upset and throw down the paper just yet. Hear me out.

The fact is, Obama is going to be the next president and his race should be the last thing anyone is, or was, concerned about.

So, please stop jumping up and down and telling me we’re going to have a black president. We’re going to have a Democratic president. His policies, and if he can change our struggling economy, should be the first of anyone’s concerns. He can’t tax the rich if everyone is poor.

If our country does see an economic recession, it won’t matter what color our president or anyone else is, just like it doesn’t right now. The point is: We’re all Americans, and it’s time we start going by that.

The day we lose the hyphenated African, Asian, Indian, Caucasian or whatever you like to place in front of American is the day race will no longer be an issue in this country.

I might not have voted for Obama, but I’ll support him because he’s our president and that’s what Americans do.

And, I’m sorry Jeezy, your president is not black. But I do think “My President is Both” would be a good song for your next album.

Drew Hall
Senior, Bainbridge
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