Page 2
The Banner
February 19,1998
Opinions
The Banner
Editorial
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes
Put humanity in HUM
The new changes to the humanities program that are currently
under consideration will most likely not affect the majority of
UNCA students. The class offerings will not be changed, only
the course descriptions that appear in the UNCA Course
Catalog. The Academic Policy Committee (APC), the group
responsible for making suggestions as to what about the hu
manities program should change, proposed that the sentence in
the catalog that reads, “The four-course humanitites sequence
follows the development of human civilizations,” be omitted
entirely. This sentence describes what the humanities program
should be striving to achieve, the fundamental basis for why the
humanities arc taught at UNCA to begin with. Changing
course titles and implementing new textbooks are not the
answers to the problems ficing the humanities program. The
answer lies in mcorporating those non-Western groups that
thus far have been forgotten in the humanities courses.
Instead of changing the course descriptions to fit the humani
ties courses, the APC should strive to make changes to the
courses so they will fit their course descriptions. As Dwight
Mullen, department chair of political science, so aptly put it,
“We need to change...the humanities program so that it in
cludes all of humanity.” Changing the titles of the humanities
courses ignores the real issue—the exclusion of many non-
European groups from the humanities curriculum. The course
descriptions and titles of the humanities classes can be changed
a dozen times, but no progress will be made until the program
moves away from its Eurocentric viewpoint aijd attempts to
integrate those groups whose voices.are, at present, virtually
unheard.
The fee also rises in the West
As Ronald Reagan said to Jimmy Carter during a famous
exchange, “There you go again.” Once again, our student fees,
already the highest in the 16-school UNC systerm, are on the
rise for the 1998-99 school year. But this time, the fees are
going up to protect the interests of average UNCA students:
public safety, the Justice Health and Fitness Center, the
Highsmith Center, and education and technology needs. So
we cannot argue with this year’s increases, but we can still
remember what made our fees so high in the first place.
Our financial commitment to Division I athletics also con
tinues to rise, with a 2. 3 percent increase for 1998-99, which
completes a steady increase, for the six-year period, 1993-99,
of over 31 percent. The fresh increase for 1998-99 brings our
student contribution to the Division I athletics program to 34
percent of all of our fee money.
Students, that’s a lot of our money going to a department
that most Division I schools fund with outside help, in the
form of alumni and corporate contributions, in addition to
student fees. As we have said many times before, we are trying
to do too much in athletics with too little money.
If any budgetary situation cries out for a fundraising cam
paign, it’s our current athletics quagmire. We urge the admin
istration, in its quest to raise money for the future, to keep the
$500, 000 for athletics scholarships in its campaign plans;
furthermore, we urge the administration to consider using the
campaign to take the burden of athletics from our wallets. It’s
that simple: the more outside money we receive for athletics,
the less we should pay for athletics via student fees.
Afresh look at child care
Once again, SGA presents a new plan to bring child care to
the UNCA community. The “Family Friendly Week” prom
ises to bring more child care options to light, such as vouchers
from the Buncombe County Office of Child Development
(BCCD). Instead of aiming for an on-campus child care facility
to be installed immediately, an impossible feat thus far, SGA
has taken the initiative and looked outside of UNCA for help
concerning this issue. We at The Banner applaud SGA for
finally proposing a realistic solution to the child care dilemma
that faces so many full- and part-time UNCA students. SGA
should not give up on petitioning for on-campus child care, but
by calling on its immediate resources and offering a way for
students to obtain affordable child care now, instead of spend
ing time trying to find it on their own, our student government
appears to have scored a victory for the little guy (and woman).
Affordable child care will definitely benefit UNCA, but only if
SGA commits to seeing through their plan for either an on- or
near-campus facility. It would be too easy to allow these efforts
and goals to go unfinished once the information week ends.
Having outside sources come to the campus to distribute
information is a strong beginning, but SGA should make sure
they finish what they start.
The SGA’s action, not just talk, is exactly the kind of service
that we expect from our elected student leaders. Now that
David Marshall has resigned from the senate, someone else
needs to step forward and help Senators Doug Jones and Jim
Lackey lead the way to better child care for UNCA students.
Would Jesus be a Qiiistian?
Let me make this very clear right
away: I dig Jesus. Seriously, no joke,
I do. The scary thing is how many
Christians I meet whose faith in
God and Jesus 1 doubt. Of course.
I’ve met many people who follow
the basic precepts in the words at
tributed to Jesus in the synoptic
gospel (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and
John) but they tend to more often
be Jews and Buddhists.
To echo Carl Sagan, I think the
sermon on the mount is one of the
best moral statements ever created
and an incredible bit of oration. I
think that the primary message of
Jesus was love, pacifism, and kind
ness: “But 1 say unto you, Love
your enemies, bless them that curse
you, do good to them which de-
spitefully use you, and persecute
you; (Matthew 5:44)”
Waitacottonpickin’ minute?Jesus
taught to love those that do you
harm, to turn the other cheek to
your oppressor (sounds like Ma
hatma Gandhi, doesn’t it?), but
throughout recorded history, more
and bloodier atrocities have been
committed in the name of Chris
tianity than any other ideology
(Bear with me, I promise this is
going somewhere beyond
‘Christian-bashing’). Since the es
tablishment of the church, it has
visited violence and oppression on
others. Charlemagne’s execution of
4500 Saxons who wouldn’t con
vert, the crusades, the Inquisition,
the burning of ‘witches’, the de-
David
Roth man
columnist
struction of native peoples all over
the world, the Holocaust. .. YES,
the Holocaust. Hider didn’t create
his brand of bigotry in a vacuum.
“If I had to baptize a Jew, I would
take him to the bridge of the Elbe,
hang a stone around his neck, and
push him over with the words, ‘I
baptize thee in the name of
Abraham’” (From Martin Luther’s
The Jews and Their Lies). They
didn’t tell you that in Humanities
214, did they?
The Nazis were a Christian army
who, in the name of God, killed
millions who were doing them no
harm except by not being the right
kind of Christians. “The
anti-Semitism of the new move
ment was based on religious ideas
instead of racial knowledge” (From
Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf). The
swastika was the “crooked cross”
and Hider believed they were “. . .
acting in accordance with the will
of the Almighty Creator: by de
fending myself against the few, I
am fighting for the work of the
Lord.”
Let me be clear: I’m not suggest
ing that all Christians are danger
ous bigots or tha.t today’s Chris
tians need feel responsible for the
horrors perpetrated by their spiri
tual predecessors (or that Chris
tians have done all the world’s op
pressing, that would be silly). What
I’m saying is that the rest of us have
good reason to fear you. Even to
day, Christianity is used as an ex
cuse for many people’s irrational
bigotry. A taste of contemporary
Christian bigotry from Pat.
Robertson:
-“Many of those people involved
with Adolf Hitler were Satanists,
many of them were homosexuals-
the two thi ngs seem to go together. ”
—“The feminist agenda is not about
equal rights for women. It is about
a socialist, anti-family political
movement that encourages women
to leave their husbands, kill their
children,practice witchcraft, destroy
capitalism, and become lesbians.”
-“I’ve been to South Africa. . . I
know we don’t like apartheid, but
the blacks in South Africa, in
Soweto, don’t have it all that bad.”
-“God does not 1 isten to the prayers
of the Jews.”
-“You’re going to hell for being a
lew.” -The Baptist jackass that came
to my door.
Now, the REALLY scar)' thing
about Pat Robertson is his views on
religion and government: “The
Constitution of tlie United States,
for instance, is a marvelous docu
ment for self-government by the
Christian people. But the minute
you turn the document into the
hands of non-Christian people and
atheistic people they can use it to
destroy the very foundation of our
society. And that’s what’s been hap
pening.” Or, Pat’s insistence that
“There is no such thing as separa-
rion of church and state in the
Constitution.” Just in case you’re
curious, checkout theFirst Amend
ment. Having limited space, I can’t
go into the details of the Christian
Right’s efforts to Christianize
Americangovernment, but I en
courage all of you to educate your
selves on the topic.
I posit here that the Christian
Right’s effort to legislate their reli
gious beliefs down America’s throats
is not only un-American, but un-
Christian. What real faith do you
have in the power of the Gospel if
you don’t trust God and appeal to
people’s min slant consciences but
try to impose what you believe to be
gospel truth in the form of statu
tory law?
Okay, okay, Castle keeps me to
1,000 words, so I’ll wrap it up with
a few suggestions for Christians in
following the teachings of their
messiah and helping the rest of us
fear them less. Never push your
views on another person.
Never tell another person that his
or her views are wrong simply
because they conflict with yours.
Christianiry is the most well-known
religion in the world. Even those
heathens in other countries are well
aware of it, and if they want to be
Christians, they can find you or
figure it out for themselves.
Allow your children to be aware
that other views exist. 1 t’s fine to say
that you disagree with them, but
expand your children’s faith by al
lowing them to judge for them
selves.
Do not push your religion on pub
lic policy.
Allow yourself to think that people
of other faiths, who do not accept
Jesus as their personal savior, can
avoid hell by being good people in
the manner of their own faith. Isn’t
your God supposed to be loving
and benevolent?
Do not destroy, hide, or alter in
formation about other religions in
order to make them seem frighten
ing or evil. Do not create lies about
other religions.
Do not interfere with the practice
of another persons’ faith unless it
interferes with basic human rights.
Do not kill people because they
are not Christians,
Lastly, if you think any particular
behavior (i.e. homosexual sex) is
immoral, don’t do it.
Women: the first educators
Justin
Stein
In the history of this nation it has
been implicitly, if not explicitly,
frowned upon for girls to be edu
cated. Supposedly it was more to
the benefit of everyone involved
that girls learn to do only “girl”
things and leave the real learning to
the boys. What is so confusing to
me about this is the fact that,
whether you agree with it being
right or wrong, women the world
over are the first educators. It is from
our mothers that we receive the
majority of our initial care and guid
ance, and it is thus these human
beings who are instilling the moral
and rational frameworks from
which children grow. If this is the
case, which it most certainly is, how
can there be any justification in
keeping women from being edu
cated?
Women are in many ways the
bricklayers for the foundation of
each generation, and to keep girls
from being educated impairs their
ability to be rear others. In fact, it
seems to me that if one had to
choose for some reason between
being able to educate their daugh
ter or their son, the daughter should
be first. It is important to be clear
that I am not arguing that women
should solely be educated so that
they can be good mothers. Woman,
just like any human being, has the
essential right to learn, develop,
and be educated, regardless of
whether or not anything ever pro-
columnist
ceeds from their womb. Mypoint is
that in addition to this argument, it
only becomes more insane to bar
education from women consider
ing that many women do go on to
the elevated station of motherhood.
None of this is to disparage the
importance of fathers in child-rear
ing, but to only emphasize the long
omitted.
The necessity of allowing women
to reach the height of their capacity
is crucial to every person. You are
either lapping up the privilege that
being male affords, or you are on
the disadvantaged end. I would like
to quote excerpts from the Na
tional Spiritual Assembly of the
Baha’is of the United States from
their statement on the equality of
women and men. Two Winvs of a
Bird-
“The emancipation ofwomen, the
achievement of full equality be
tween the sexes is essential to hu
man progress and the transforma
tion of society. Inequality retards
not only the advancement ofwomen
but the progress of civilization it
self. The persistent denial of equal
ity to one-half of the world’s popu
lation is an affront to human dig
nity. It promotes destructive atti
tudes and habits in men and women
that pass from the family and ulti
mately to international relations.
On no grounds, moral, biological,
or traditional can inequality be jus
tified. The moral and psychologi
cal climate necessary to enable our
nation to establish social j ustice and
contribute to global peace will be
created only when women attain
full partnership with men in all
fields of endeavor.
“Systematic oppression of women
is a conspicuous and tragic fact of
history. Restricted to narrow spheres
of activity in the life of the society,
denied educational opportunities
and basic human rights, subjected
to violence, and frec]uently treated
as less than human, women have
been prevented from realizing their
true potential. Age-old patterns of
subordination, reflected in popular
culture, literature and art, law, and
even religious scriptures, continue
to pervade every aspect of life. De
spite the advancement of political
and civil rights for women in
America and widespread acceptance
of equality in principle, full equal
ity has not been achieved.
“The damaging effects of gender
prejudice are a fault line beneath
the foundation of our national life.
The gains for women rest uneasily
on unchanged, often unexamined,
inherited assumptions. Much re
mains to be done. The achievement
of full equality requires a new un
derstanding of who we are, what is
our purpose in life, and how we
relate to one another-an under
standing that will compel us to
reshape our lives and thereby our
society.
“At no time since the founding of
the women’s rights movement in
America has the need to focus on
this issue been greater. We stand at
the threshold of a new century and
a new millennium. Their challenges
are already upon us, influencing
our families, our lifestyles, our na
tion, our world. In the process of
human evolution, the ages of in
fancy and childhood are past. The
turbulence of adolescence is slowly
and painfully preparing us if the
age of maturity, when prejudice
and exploitation will be abolished
and unity established. The elements
necessary to unify peoples and na
tions are precisely those needed to
bring about equality of the sexes
and to improve the relationship
between women and men. The ef
fort to overcome the history of in
equality requires the full participa
tion of every man, woman, youth,
and child.
“The elimination of discrimina
tion against women is a spiritual
and moral imperative that must
ultimately reshape existing legal,
economic, and social arrangements.
Promoting the entry ofgreater num
bers of women into positions of
authority is a necessary but not
sufficient stepin creating a just so
cial order. Without fundamental
changes in the attitudes and values
of individuals and in the underly
ing ethos of social institutions, full
equality between men and women
cannot be achieved. A community
based on partnership, a commu
nity in which aggression and the
use of force are supplanted by coop
eration and consultation, requires
the transformation of the human
heart. ■
“Men have an inescapable duty to
promote the equality of women.
The presumption of superiority by
men thwarts the ambition ofwomen
and inhibits the creation of an envi
ronment in which equality may
reign. The destructive effects of in
equality prevent men from matur
ing and developing the qualities
necessary to meet the challenges of
the new millenium. It is essential
that men engage in a careful, delib
erate examination of attitudes, feel
ings, and behavior deeply rooted in
cultural habit that block the equal
participation of women and stifle
the growth of men.