The Decree
VOL. 6, NO. 9 North Carolina Wesleyan College, Rocky Mount, N.C. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 22,1991
Panelists say ignorance mars U.S. policy
By MARION BLACKBURN
In their Symposium discussicm
last week, “What You Don’t
Know About the World Can Hurt
You,” Allen. Johnson, Richard
WatscMi, and Ken Finney demon
strated how ignorance in high
places has carried this country
into messy foreign policies,
wasted tax dollars, and perh^s
invited the current war with Iraq.
“The history of our dealing
with other cultures is littered with
the corpses of policies based on a
lack of understanding,” Johnson
said.
Because people of other coun
tries and cultures, such as the
American Indians, the Vietnam
ese, or the Iraqis, aren’t predict
able by American standards,
Americans come to the craiclu-
sion that “the only good one is a
dead one,” he said.
“We got into the present
mess... by not understanding and
by pursuing policies not fitting to
the region,” he said. Iraq’s
Saddam Hussein probably
thought America would be neu
tral if he disciplined Kuwait for
pumping oil out of a well the two
countries shared, he noted.
“We didn’t have a policy on
Arab disputes over Arab bound
I
DAISY THORP USES ART TO DEMONSTRATE CHANGING VALUES OF SOCIETY
Symposium session examines
boundaries of ’acceptable' art
By MARION BLACKBURN
In a powerful examination of
“acceptable” and “obscene” art,
instructor Daisy Thorp last week
effectively captured the theme of
this year’s Symposium, “Chang
ing Times and Changing Lives.”
Her benchmark piece, Edouard
Manet’s “Dejeuner sur I’herbe,”
demonstrated how a work of art
once viewed as scandalous was
actually a perceptive signal of
changing values.
“Art had to be about distin
guished things, about gods and
goddesses,” Thorp said. “It should
not be about everyday, ordinary
people. It was supposed to be the
preserve of the elite.”
Manet’s work is a milestone,
she said, because it showed three
well-known Parisians sitting in a
park, and the central figure is
nude.
Not that nudes in art were
considered obscene, she pointed
out, referring to a Roman orgy
scene which was hanging in the
Louvre in Paris at the time.
Manet’s work was scandalous
because the nude female was
looking right at the audience, ab
solutely unashamed of her na
kedness.
“What was really disconcert
ing was looking at present-day
Paris. You were compelled to
look at it,” she said.
And the central figure was not
only an unashamed nude, but she
was also a recognizable prosti
tute, Thorp said. That Manet
dared consider a courtesan wor
thy of painting — and that she
seemed to show no embarrass
ment at her nakedness — was a
real challenge to society. Manet
was uncovering a subject better
left behind closed doors, Thorp
said.
Why was a Roman orgy scene
acceptable and Manet’s work not?
“Because audiences had the
pleasure of disapproving, and
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aries. He got the idea we wouldn’t
interfere,” Johnson said.
Turning the discussion to El
Salvador, Finney pointed out diat
“what you don’t know will hurt
you.”
U.S. involvement in that Cen
tral American country was based
on the idea that sending it money
would weaken the guerilla move
ment gaining support in the
countryside.
America’s rationale? “If we
didn’t prop up their military, the
guerillas would win. If we fi
nanced them, we could civilize
them,” he said. “Yet we have not
understood the structure of the
Salvadoran military.”
Because of strong fraternal
bonds between various soldi^’
groiq)s, “there is no system for
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Etheridge says
good education
critical to state
By MARION BLACKBURN
With the legislature safely re
cessed in Raleigh, state Superin
tendent Bob Etheridge traveled
to Rocky Mount last week, where
he urged persistent attention to
school reform despite this year’s
uncertain budget picture.
“If we give up on education
reform, the U.S. has said that we
give up on the 21st century, we
give up on our standard of living,
we give up on our role as a world
leader,” Etheridge said. “ If we
give up on education reform, we
will be giving up on the liberty
and democracy that makes the
United States unique in the
world.”
Appearing on the campus of
N.C. Wesleyan College as part of
its Spring symposium, Etheridge
told students, faculty, and area
public school teachers that “we
can’t turn back now.
“We’re playing in a fierce
game of catch-up, but we must
move up. We have no choice,” he
said.
When asked about Gov. James
G. Martin’s plan to eliminate new
funding for the Basic Education
Plan this year, Etheridge relied,
“It would be a lot easier if the
governor was out leading the
charge. We are in a severe eco
nomic crunch, and some want to
turn back on education reform.”
Last year the legislature dedi
cated 46 percent of the state’s
budget to education, with much
of that going to the BEP. The
state has a multimillion-dollar
commitment to the program and
to its sister reform. Senate Bill 2.
SB 2 gives each school control
over organization and course
structure, but requires proof that
it’s meeting higher standards.
If the state reneges on these
commitments, it will pay some
where else down the road,
Etheridge said. “Education is
expensive—you can’t deny that.
But corrections spending has
more than doubled since 1985.
You can spend on the front side,
or you can spend on the back
side.”
Not only will better education
keep young adults out of prisons,
but will also keep them fiom re
peating grades. Each time a child
repeats a grade, the state loses
money.
In the last five years, the BEP
has saved the state $500 million,
Etheridge estimates, through its
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