Page 2
The Banner
February 12,1998
Opinions
The Banner
Editorial
Hit the showers
Liberal arts, UNCA-style
If only Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had Hved to see the state of
UNCA in 1998. If he were alive today, he would see that we
have come so far since the civil rights movement of the 1960s—
so far that now we have people of different races and back
grounds joining together in school spirit at one of the nation’s
premier institutions of liberal arts education.
But wait—just what is it that is bringing these students to
gether? It’s not school spirit; it’s the spirit of racism. The Dog
Pound, a particularly rabid group of UNCA students that
regularly comes together to add its own special brand of may
hem to men’s basketball games at the Justice Center, has
stepped over the line of decency in our campus community. As
Banner columnist Nate Conroy noted in his column last week,
when students chant epithets at a basketball player because of
the color of his skin, they go way past simply trying to rattle and
intimidate the player. By directing hate speech at an opposing
player of a non-white ethnicity, they are saying to Charleston
Southern University, the Big South Conference, and the
Asheville community, “Look at what I learned at ‘North
Carolina’s Public Liberal Arts University’— ‘Green card! Green
card! Where’s your visa?’”
Well, these bigoted few don’t speak for all of us at UNCA- We
commend Student Government Association President Adrian
Latum for his unequivocal condemnation of the racial epithets
and the students who chanted them at the Charleston Southern
game (see Letters to the Editor on page three)i In writing his
letter, Tatum has demonstrated that he has a firm grasp of what
being a leader is all about - action. Silent disagreement is no
disagreement at all.
Big dogs not in the house
In the course of discussion about the “green card” contro
versy, many comparisons have been drawn between the Dog
Pound to the fans of Duke and Carolina, who are known to be
some of the most spirited and at times meanest fans in college
basketball.
Indeed, we should follow the examples set by these ACC
giants. While Duke fans set the standard for college
basketball’s atmosphere, their coach sets the standard for what
are acceptable cheers and taunts, and what are not.
During one game years ago, Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski actually
called a timeout, got the microphone, and demanded Duke
students stop chanting, “You suck, Dick,” at referee Dick
Papparo. As Coach Krzyzewski later explained to the students
of Krzyzewskiville (the line of tents in which Duke students
camp out in order to get tickets to the games), the chant did
not help the team, but in fact hurt it.
Similarly, Carolina’s Dean Smith understands the line be
tween acceptable and unacceptable fan behavior. ESPN re
cently presented Dean Smith with the Arthur Ashe Award for
Courage. The profile did not focus on Smith’s numerous on-
the-court achievements, but rather the story of a then un
known coach, who put his career on the line for the civil rights
movement. Along with his pastor and a young black student.
Smith entered a diner that refused to serve blacks - but the
three men were served that day.
The profile also told the story of Carolina’s first black player,
Charlie Scott, and how Smith kept his cool amidst a hostile
crowd, imtil he heard someone call Scott a “black baboon,”
which finally caused him to lose his temper, hollering at the
fan that it was wrong to say such a thing.
It’s time that the UNCA faculty, administration, and stu
dents commit themselves to these principles of racial under
standing - inside and outside the world of sports.
The road to redemption
Monday’s men’s basketball game began with a quiet crowd
watching a first half that left the Bulldogs trailing Liberty 35-
30. But although the game began lackadaisically, it ended with
a bang. »
When the second half began, the silence disappeared as the
senior players stepped up. Robert Stevenson, Josh Pittman, and
Jeff Coble put on a slam-dunk show, and Vincent Krieger sunk
a momentum swinging three-pointer during the crux of the
comeback.
The Bulldogs’ run never stopped and when the game finally
ended, Pittman had scored a massive 31 points and the final
score was a decisive 75-59.
The sweet thing about this come-from-behind victory was that
as the team got hyped up, so did the crowd. Most of the fans in
the student section were on their feet and making noise and the
Justice Center rocked with energy.
For those of us who remember Bulldog basketball four years
ago, when the biggest thrill of the season was last minute
victories over Montre’at and Mars Hill, the 1997-98 season is a
dream come true. The team is headed for a conference champi
onship and has a good shot at making the NCAA tournament -
let’s help them get there with class.
When language blurs the meaning
Robert
Strott
columnist
Folks, our dialogue is rife with
misconceptions. Words with vastly
different meanings are used inter
changeably and, as a result of our
sloppy diction and lazy language,
confusion abounds.
The phenomenon to which I’m
referring, treating distinctly differ
ent words or concepts as if they
were synonymous, occurs fre
quently, in many ways, and with
tragic results.
rhere is a primary example that
consistently pisses me off: pagan
ism is not Satanism. In fact, the
word “pagan” is used too often, and
in reference to too many belief sys
tems, to have a clearly discernible
meaning at all.
it might refer to those who wor
shipped the Olympic pantheon, the
ancient followers of Baal, or Ameri
can Indians.
1 suppose it means anyone who
doesn’t subscribe to one of the “big
three” monotheistic traditions
(which, amusingly, all worship the
same “God” but don’t appear to
love, trust, or even like each other
very much).
For our purposes it will suffice to
have it refer to the neo-pagan or
Wiccan traditions, which are closely
related.
However we choose to define
pagans, there is one definition that
does not fit - and that is “those who
worship Satan”.
Satan is, according to the cosmol
ogy of the monotheistic traditions,
“God’s” diametrical opposite, al
though, interestingly, created by
“God”.
Let’s narrow the focus here and,
because it appears to play most the
most prominent role in the Chris
tian tradition, begin referring to
Satan in the context of Christian-
ity-
Thus, those who worship Satan
give their energy to the Christian
belief system.
In the same sense that subtrac
tion is really addition (the addition
of the negative), Satanism is really
inverted Christianity (worshipping
“God’s” reversed or mirror image).
This is born out by an examination
of truly “satanic” rituals and sym
bols, which include the black mass
(defined by The American Heritage
College Dictionary as “a travesty of
the Roman Catholic mass”), dis
playing crosses or crucifixes upside
down, and saying the Lord’s Prayer
backwards.
Sounds pretty literally like inverted
Christianity to me.
Most pagans, on the other hand,
don’t believe in one “God” or ulti
mate source of “good,” and, there
fore, they don’t believe in one “bad
deity” or ultimate source of “evil”.
So, they aren’t, and couldn’t be,
“Satanists”.
Which leads me to wonder why so
many Christians consistently call
pagans “Satanists”.
Could it be that those Christians
fear theunknown,and seek to make
it less so by casting it in self-referen-
tial terms that they understand? Or
could it be they are unwilling to
acknowledge that others might have
a spirituality which is completely
outside of the Christian belief sys
tem, and seek to negate that spiritu
ality by drawing it into the Chris
tian sphere?
Perhaps it is unmotivated igno
rance, ignorance without an
agenda...just plain ignorance.
Whatever the reason, equating
neo-paganism or Wicca with
Satanism is unfortunate and simply
wrong.
Folks, our mutual, consensual
world is made of words. So it is
crucial that we use them accurately
and in the spirit of truth.
The results, when we do not, are
very real and often very frighten
ing.
Now, onto some other instances
of tragic synonymy. These are all
examples ofa psychology, or way of
perceiving, that 1 find deeply dis
turbing, perhaps even outright
pathological.
Fear \snot respect. When people
beat their animal companions, beat
their children, and systematically
(with the use of police, banks, and
other social institutions) abuse their
fellow human beings, the result will
always be fear.
Yet the desired result of these ac
tions, as stated by countless par
ents, pet owners, politicians and
police officers is to engender re
spect. Why?
Patriotism is not nationalism.
When most people speak of patrio
tism in this country, they are really
referring to nationalism.
Sticking blindly to a “my country,
right or wrong”, “USA# 1 ” or “crush
whoever stands in the way of our
national interests” way of viewing
the world is nationalism.
In the spirit of our nation’s his
tory, acting on your conscience and
criticizing your country when you
truly believe it is following the
wrong course, is patriotism. Thus,
those who are accused of being
“anti-American” are often, in real
ity, the most patriotic citizens in
our midst.
And finally, and perhaps most
importantly, loving is not owning
or having. And yet, so many people
seem to think that loving some
thing means possessing it when,
veryoften, attempting to own some
thing will lead to the destruction of
its essence.
Witness the beauty of the moun
tains in which we are so blessed to
live.
Attempting to own that beauty bv
buying land and building a house
on the top of a mountain leads to
the desecration of the beauty one is
trying to own. Funny how that
works, huh?
Witness so many marriages and
mutually committed, monogamous
relationships.
By attempting to own or possess
each other, usually because we are
afraid of losing each other, we often
destroy the beauty we might have
shared with each other. Funny how
that works, huh?
Let’s face it, the things and beings
we love, we usually love for their
beauty (remember, there are all
kinds of beauty - not just visual).
But we can’t own beauty. Even if
you own the phattest house on
Town Mountain Road, even ifyou
own an original Van Gogh, even if
your beautiful child would never
disobey you because they are so
afraid of what you might do - you
still don’t own beauty. And you
never will.
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Animals not made for consumption
Krystal
Black
columnist
Uh-oh. Did someone say “animal
rights?”
Many of you are going to proceed
to the next column now. If there
was ever a topic that people would
automatically close their minds to,
it would be the issue of animal
rights. As one UNCA student
bluntly put it at the G.R.A.S.P
meeting last Wednesday night,
“You don’t mess with someone’s
food.” I am not talking about food.
I am talking about animals.
But please, give me and this col
umn a chance. What you are not
going to read here is a bunch of
multi-syllable mumbo jumbo that
is so often found in columns. I did
not write this to make myself look
like the intellectual of all intellectu
als. My motive is to make you think,
even if it is for the length of this
column only, about the welfare of
the thousands of animals that are
being harmed everyday. My goal is
to have you think of animals as
living beings. Not as food. Not as
clothing. Not as entertainment.
One could argue for hours about
the status of animals in comparison
to humans. We have the larger
brains and whatever else. My ques
tion is, do any qualities that we
have justify harming other species
that do not?
What’s important is that animals
feel pain. They do feel pain and
they can suffer.
Do we have the right to do with
animals what we please? Alice
Walker said, “The animals of the
world exist for their own reasons.
They were not made for humans
any more than black people were
made for white, or women created
for men.”
Suffering and pain is a reality that
animals have to face everyday,
whether it be in a slaughter house,
a lab, or in the circus.
Remember the books that you
read as a kid about Farmer Joe and
his cute, little farm where the ani
mals roamed free with giant smiles
on their faces? Forget it. It is not
like that.
Think overcrowded. Think con
crete. Think windowless. The farms
where animals are raised are more
like factories than they are farms.
They are corporation-owned facto
ries where animals are treated like
objects.
The animals are kept in cages or
pens, except for chickens who may
attempt to walk around with the
other thousands of chickens that
are kept in the same building. These
animals are overcrowded. Due to
the overcrowding, chickens often
attack one another. To stop the
attacks, they are debeaked and por
tions of their toes are cut off Due to
the overcrowding pigs often bite off
other pigs’ tails. To stop the biting,
their tails are cut off Thestproce-
dures usually do not involve anes
thesia.
Light and feeding schedules are
enforced to make the animals grow
as quickly and as large as they can,
which causes pain in their joints.
This way the farmers can make a
quick profit. ,
Egg-laying hens and milk-produc-
ing cows do not have it any better.
Four or five hens are kept in wire
cages that are about the size of this
folded newspaper. The cages are
stacked which allows excrement to
drop through one cage to another.
In order for a cow to constantly
produce milk, they are having to
constantly give birth. They are not
roaming lush, green fields either.
They are usually kept in cages.
So, what happens to the calves to
whom dairy cows give birth? The
Remember the
books that you
read as a kid about
Farmer Joe and
his cute little farm
where animals
roamed free with
giant smiles? For
get it.
males are sold into the veal market
and the females will become dairy
cows.
Calves raised for veal are kept in
tiny crates that do not allow much
movement. They usually cannot
even turn around. They are fed
iron-deficient formulas that cause
anemia. You see, an iron-deficient
calf that cannot move will produce
a pale and tender meat which veal-
eaters prefer.
So, what happens to the dairy
cows that can no longer produce
milk? They are slaughtered.
At this point I feel that it is neces
sary, because we attend such a sup
posedly eco-friendly school, to
mention that it is more environ
mentally degrading to raise animals
for a meat-based diet than to grow
crops for a vegetable-based one.
More tropical rain forests are being
cleared for grazing land.
Also, a vegan diet, one that is void
of anyanimal products, is healthier
You can prevent many health prob
lems, like heart disease and kidney
stones. If you are trying to lose
weight, try a vegan diet. Protein,
calcium, and vitamin B-12 can all
very easily be obtained from eating
the right foods.
Diet is but one issue involved in
animal rights. Animals, not only
rats and rabbits, but cats and dogs,
just like your beloved companions,
are having chemicals put in their
eyes while they are being
restrained.Chemicals that we al
ready know do not belong in eyes.
Chemicals like your shampoo and
toilet cleaner. They are slowly be
ing poisoned. They are given deadly
diseases that will not necessarily tell
us anything while there are alterna
tives to using animals that will tell
us the same.
Many animals used for entertain
ment are beaten and electrocuted
to learn tricks that are not natural
to them... just to make us laugh.
Why am I vegan? Simply, I love
animals. I love all animals in the
same way that I love my cats. 1
could not bare for my cats to expe
rience the pain that these animals
do. Think twice the next time you
tell someone that you love animals.
Think twice the next time you say,
“Look at that cute, little calf”
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