North Carolina Newspapers

Pdge2 The Blue Banner September28,2000 Seii Opinions WeBlueBdnner Letters to the Editor tditoridls Sticks and stones A recent incident involving the alleged harassment of UNCA- OUT students should make us, as a campus, reexamine our own attitudes tov^^ard intolerance. Two young men, freshmen Alan Lovett and Billy Allen, alleg edly used derogatory phrases towards UNCA-OUT students, such as "faggot," a word, like many others, that should have died after leaving the small-mindedness of junior high. One of the worst elements of the incident is Lovett's comment that he did not "disrespect any group on campus." Since when was calling someone with a different sexual preference a "fag got" not considered disrespectful? Our new athletics director, Joni Comstock, is currently decid ing what action to take against the players if the allegations are proven to be true. There is nothing to decide. People who are intolerant of others' lifestyles should not be allowed to play for a university that is supposed to represent diversity. Another basketball player comments that "It is hard for any one in the sports world not to be homophobic." Well, it's good to know that this one player is assuming that the entire sports- participating world is as intolerant at UNCA's representative athletes appear to be. This is certainly not to say that all UNCA athletes are intoler ant, but it is hard to ignore the evidence presented in verbatim quotes. Those athletes out there in the UNCA community who disagree with this generalization, please make yourself heard. We need some positive reinforcement. What kind of an example is this setting for our campus com munity? Athletes are representatives of our university both on and off the field, and this kind of behavior reflects an air of hypocrisy on UNCA as we strive to be one of the most cultur ally aware universities in North Carolina. Cultural diversity does not only refer to diversity among races, but social, economic and sexual diversity as well. Why do we allow the latter to be pushed by the wayside? These incidents are an attack that obviously is an insult not only to the homosexual community of UNCA, but to Asheville as a whole. Such a matter should not be dealt with lightly. Celebrating the music We all breathed a collective sigh of relief this summer when it was announced that Napster would not be taken off the Internet until after its upcoming trial. Imagine the joy of Geor gia Tech students at the news that their college had recently denied a request to block students' access from the site. Heavy-metal giant Metallica and rapper Dr. Dre, who had fans banned from the site for downloading their music, appealed to the college in hopes that all Georgia Tech students would have access blocked from downloading mp3s. Officials at Georgia Tech denied the request, saying that their status as an Internet service provider, just like America Online or CompuServe, prevents them from making a sweeping state ment on the issue or blocking such a site. OK, so we were annoyed that our usernames were banned after we downloaded "Enter Sandman," but to ask our college to ban us as well? Aren't a couple of overinflated recording artists asking a little much? Georgia Tech officials also stated that if they were to ban stu dent access to Napster, there would be nothing to stop them from banning student access to other sites as well. Can't you see it now-ydur mom's desperate phone call to the chancellor begging that her baby's eyes be shielded from www.porn.com? We're grown-up boys and girls now, and we're old enough to decide whether or not we can handle consequences. If the com puter center, the chancellor, or Dr. Dre himself wants to get upset with us for downloading music, then we know it's our fault for downloading the music in the first place. Cheers to Georgia Tech for giving their students a few more months of unlimited, un-computer-center-recommended Napster access, but we'll see what happens when the big boys decide to crack down on the little people. Gas price war Dear Editor, I would like to respond to Kay Alton’s article in the Sept. 14 issue of The Blue Banner concerning the rising gas prices. With all respect, gas prices are artificially deflated, not inflated. We should look at the real costs ofoil extraction. In Burma, an oil pipeline project is being fueled by forced labor (also known as slavery). The corporate sup ported military junta, which is responsible for countless brutal human rights abuses, keeps the people of Burma working through blood, sweat and tears at gunpoint. What a nightmare, and yet we unwittingly demand the continuation of such atroci ties every time we fill up at the pumps. Burma is just a drop in the bucket. This is business as usual around the globe in order to support America’s thirst for petro leum. Another cost of gasoline. Complaint filed Dear Editor, Merianne Epstein is incor rect with her quotation in the Sept. 21 issue of The Blue Banner in the “Rathburn guilty of assault” article. There was, in fact, a com plaint registered against Of ficer Darrell Rathburn on Oct. 13,1999. The complaint was given to Jerry Adams, public safety investigator, by me, Eric Winters, for Rathburn’s actions on the evening of Oct. 9. On this particular evening, Rathburn made an appear ance at my room in Scott 208 and proceeded to tell every one in the room, a middle room in the Governer’s Vil lage in which four people can comfortably stand, that they were going to have to submit to a breathalyzer test. The only evidence that Of ficer Rathburn had, which was in plain view, were the two empty beer cans sitting on my desk. I was 21 years old at the time, and I informed Rathburn that I would sit as many empty beer cans on my desk as I pleased, and I also told him what he could do with his precious alcohol screening machine. I take great pride in the fact that, after a week of main taining a 3.5 GPA, I can still drink a few alcoholic bever ages as the week winds down. I don’t trust a zero-tolerance policy as far as I can throw it, and if a 21 year old decides to drink and play his stereo in his room, then this does not con stitute a SWAT team entering Clarification Dear Editor, I j ust wanted to clarify a small part of Sanna Raza’s article regarding UE 150 in the Sept. 21 issue of The Blue Banner. The United Electrical, Ra dio and Machinists Workers of America is the large na tional union. UE 150, which is part of the national union, is the North Carolina Public Service Workers union. UE 150 was initially orga nized at UNC Chapel Hill over unfair wage and labor practices regarding house keepers at that campus. The besides the blood of our fellow human beings, is the rising temperatures worldwide. The North Pole is melting, yet no one seems worried. Asheville has some of the worst air qual ity in the nation, yet traffic piles up every day. America has a very serious car addiction, and our entire infrastructure is being built more and more towards cars. What will we do when we run out of oil in the next 50 years? It will be up to the next gen eration to deal with the mis takes we are making today, unless we decide to act right now with foresight. Instead of dwelling on how bad it is to pay a higher ^as price, lets work towards a sus tainable future for all of our grandchildren. Perhaps Sum mer Starling’s article “Alter native commuting to change transportation needs” offers more hope to us than Kay Alton’s article “Traveling to ward broke.” It is time that we traveled towards the future. Arthur vonLehe Senior, environmental science his residence and attempting to trick him into submitting to an illegal search and seizure. Rathburn perhaps didn’t re alize he was messing with the wrong weekend warrior, as I spend the majority ofmy week working for a local attorney. A suggestion for the screening of a new public safety director might be to do a background check. It is inexcusable that Rathburn was allowed to work as an officer of the law on this campus. His violent history, and also his histoxy of harrasment — if you did not know, he was also charged with a number of harrassing phone calls to his former girlfriend — created a extremely volatile situation on a campus that prides itself on its liberal at mosphere. Shame on you, UNCA. Stu dents have rights too, and if the administration feels that they are going to write letters to students’ parents for under age drinking, students who, by the way, can vote in the upcoming elections and die for their country in battle, then they should take a long look at potential consequences. This, however, is content for a later column. The above cor rection is an attempt to point out the circumvention of a student’s constitutional rights by bull-headed, violent, over ambitious police officers such as Rathburn. In summary, there was, in deed, a complaint filed against Rathburn during his stint at UNCA. Eric Winters Senior, political science and history disaffection those workers felt towards their employers soon spread to other campuses and other groups of workers. This core group aligned with UE, and soon began organiz ing on other UNC campuses. I would not necessarily say the UNCA campus organized as a frustration towards our admin istration, per se, but rather over arbitrary shift scheduling of housekeepers, low pay for housekeepers, maintenance employees and most staff em ployees; and area disagree ments and grievances with su pervisors. Jay Gertz Library technical assistant Napster conflict Dear Editor, This letter is in response to Jason Moore’s letter on Napster in the Sept. 21 edi tion of The Blue Banner. The courts will resolve the le galities of Napster, and, in the macro view, I welcome the de bate. The Internet will force us to re-examine our concepts of right and wrong, and such discussions are central to our mission as a liberal arts uni versity. Unfortunately, the computer center can’t just deal with the abstract parts of Napster. In stead, we have to be concerned with the network performance and copyright issues that ac company these types of pro grams. Napster files tend to be large, and an easy way to see how they clog the network is to compare them to e-mail. The size of one mp3 file from Napster is as large as 4,000 normal email messages. Parking dilemna Dear Editor, I had occasion this morning to ask one of the Blue Banner staff about why there has not been an article on tlje “No Thur Street” and when it would be opened. I was told that the story is done every year, and it is only redundant. Isn’t this like saying that politics, the economy or taxes suck and, using the same ar gument, should not be cov ered by the media? I had no idea that the park- mg issue was the cause of the closure of the street that would make my trip to campus shorter and more convenient. Program survey Dear Editor, In The Blue Banner on A\x^. 31, Joni Comstock com mented about a “performance feedback system” and “senior exit interviews.” Why wait until the athletes’ senior year to get exit inter views with respect to feed back on the athletic programs’ Punishment Dear Editor, I would like to say congratu lations to public safety for helping stop the young Greensboro man from what looked to be an attempted suicide. I would also like to say thanks to the friend of the man who alerted public safety. He is a real hero. However, I would like to complain about the events af ter. The man was sent to a psychiatric institution for help, which he needs, and, at the same time, charged with a felony for bringing a gun on campus. This young man is in very serious trouble mentally, and should not be sent to prison for a long time for having a mental problem, if thats what the doctors find out. Our mental patients should As other universities have found, it doesn’t take long for the network to become slow and unresponsive when even a small percentage of the cam pus community uses Napster. There is also the issue of copyright. Exact numbers are impossible to find, but I esti- , mate over 90 percent of the ! files you see on Napster are ' copyrighted and cannot be shared without the owner’s permission. More precisely, what would your favorite artist say if you asked “Do you care if I give away your music to anyone on the Internet who wants it?” The Internet has changed many parts of our lives, and Napster is just one of many challenges we’ll face. The com puter center would welcome the chance to discuss this is sue with student groups or classes. Mike Honeycutt Computer center, informa tion center manager I agree that parking on cam pus is terribly inconvenient, but restricted entrance to the campus is also an inconve nience. I also think the joke of the misspelled sign at this former entrance to a university is more of an embarrassment than a joke. Before the powers-that- be get the street opened, couldn’t they, at least, replace the sign to reflect a more cor rect message? I suspect it would have been changed by now if Chancellor Mullen had to drive by it ev ery day. Anybody have some extra paint? Lynne Fox Senior, mass communications effectiveness? Questionnaires given to lowerclassmen would provide a more accurate and timely measure of immediate issues. The senior exit provides long-term trends, but ideas taken from the present-player viewpoint will provide a true pulse of the program’s state. Alan Beal Father of UNCA volleyball player be cared for and helped in every way, and sending them to prison for crimes that they may have had no control over should be illegal. No person needs to take the punishment he or she is already receiving at the hands of his or her own darkness inside. We all have problems in our minds, and most of us will never go to prison for having a disease. That’s what this per son could have — a disease that makes them not compre hend ordeal with reality. This, of course, all comes down to what the professional doctors say about this guy, since their opinion will be used in the court trial. To me, bringing a shotgun to school with the clear intention of shooting yourself is clear indication of mental instabil ity in itself Jason Moore Freshman, undecided In tl perc( chos for 1« our c Mai disci parti For CO no Eartl there Wha men cand ties? als b( Ge Ralp ally T Letters for publication must include the author’s signature, class standing and major or other relationship to UNCA. All submissions are subject to editing for length and content. The deadline for Letters, to the Editor is noon on Tuesday. Please send letters tO! The Blue Banner, Karpen Hall 244, One University Heights, Asheville, N.C. 28804, submit a letter via the Blue Bonner Online, or e-mailbanner@unca.edu. Wh Ame juan; poth mari I’m dope don’ you 1 able long viole anyo is yo myf It is seem thinj Du liferj ishec ots.” To, ria(a like plac; that dishi peof youi day, whii have To poli( com Ifw( don’ lack we a all tl Tc and a CO eteri well