(Hie laily (Ear Hrri
Death Row Inmates Treated In Too Humane Manner
Bones chiseled from the friction of an
asphalt road ricocheted in unison with the
torque of an old pickup truck. As blood
gushed from his severed limbs, James Byrd, Jr.,
probably prayed to God for death to come
quickly.
Several months later, John William King was
tried in the dragging death that occurred in
Jasper, Texas, laughing and smirking about his
deeds days prior to his sentence of death by
lethal injection.
This horrific tragedy has caused me to won
; der if, at times, our death penalty is too
humane.
The question of whether or not the death
penalty should even exist is not an issue in my
moral playground. It is simple for me - any
body who takes a life forfeits the right to his or
hers, of course unless it is in self-defense.
It seems simple - an eye-for-an-eye attitude.
Some, particularly people of faith, questidn
the morality of capital punishment.
But how about the morbidity that courses
through three young men’s synapses as they
gleefully drive a pickup truck dragging a
respected man- is this humane?
I do not believe that unadulterated hate
toward a different race lessens the malevolence
2000 Elections Prove It's Time
To Buck the Current System
I didn’t vote for the president. In fact, I
don’t have any intention of doing so
until my vote really matters.
What?
y In light of this historically tight race?
*. Let me explain.
I don’t like either candidate, and my disgust grows with
them each day.
* The two good things that have come out of this mess are
the realizations that the Electoral College system doesn’t
work and that neither Bush nor Gore displays the sufficient
wisdom and character I’d like to see in a president.
" In both the debates and in the ongoing election fiasco,
their true colors have shone through. When having to
respond extemporaneously to questions, Bush doesn’t seem
to have any intelligent answers, while Gore gets rattled too
easily.
Neither has probably come up with an original thought in
years, given the huge corporate and private influences, advi
sors, spin doctors and reliance on the latest polls.
In the post-election days, both have resorted to mudsling
ing and using every available lawsuit and injunction.
And don’t think it’s over after Florida has counted every
ballot. Both have shown that their need and desire to be
president far outstrips displaying any character.
Of course, I do have a few suggestions...
1 1. Campaign finance reform
" Forget complicated formulas and defining “soft money”
versus “hard money,” etc. Any party candidate should only
be able to spend up to $1 million, period. The rest of their
campaigning can be done via television, radio (see below)
and the Internet, with hard-copy information available at
public libraries and post offices.
2. Media reform
As part of their public service duty, television and radio
stations and newspapers should be obligated to carry plat
fqrms, addresses and true discussion panel shows (no
rehearsed “debates,” please) of all major party candidates.
This includes the Green Party, Libertarians, etc.
■< Polls to show “who’s ahead” should not be released by
the media.
3. Election reform
Forget the Electoral College. Once upon a time it was a
necessary convenience; now all it does is ensure that a
bought puppet ends up in the White House.
Parade Revelers Should Consider
Implications of Their Actions
On June 7, 1998, a 49-year-old
African-American man, James
Byrd, was dragged to his death
behind a pickup truck driven by three
white males injasper, Texas.
Unfortunately, it seems as if this
event failed to make a lasting impres
sion on some thoughtless members of
the UNC and Chapel Hill communi
ties, as evidenced by a parade down
Franklin Street on Nov. 17.
I caught sight of several young men
hanging off a Chapel Hill fire truck,
chanting and laughing. Clearly, this
was no emergency. Rather, these vehi
cles were being utilized to escort UNC
fraternity members as they stopped
traffic parading down Franklin and
Golumbia Streets, espousing their
hopes that the UNC football team
would triumph in Saturday’s game
against Duke.
The fact that these official emer
gency vehicles were being used to
accompany such an inconsequential
activity was infuriating enough.
However, what upset me the most was
the scene that I witnessed next: A
young, white male clad in a royal blue
jumpsuit wearing a football/crash hel
met being dragged by a rope behind a
pickup truck driven by white men.
I racked my brain trying to under
stand why these young men would
of this crime.
While it is not right, hanging a man from a
tree is more of a humane death than chaining a
man to an axle for a joyride.
Allowing King human rights, even though he
is sentenced to die because of his horrendous
crime, civilizes society. Our benevolence is
apparent in the appeals process King will be
allowed to participate in which ultimately adds
a decade, if not more, to his life. The humanity
in his death process will be noted in the man
ner in which King is gendy put to sleep by
lethal injection.
This offender of humanity will be treated in
a fashion that is not due to him. He will be
treated humanely.
Why not take Mr. King and his accomplices
to that backdoor Texas country road, chain
them to a pickup and drag them three miles
until their insides are visibly seen staining the
road left behind?
The only humane thing that we can offer to
Robert Byrd is the desperately hopeful thought
that his mind was in too much shock to grasp
the horror of his reality.
According to Jefferson County forensic
pathologist TommyJ. Brown, however, the vic
tim was not even allowed this paltry reprieve of
MARK VITALI
POINT OF VIEW
House of Representatives. That was the true genius of the
founding fathers, not the Electoral College.
Assuming that there are no faithless electors, the popular
winner in a state (like California, and by even one vote) gets
all the electoral votes of that state. This results in millions of
voters stripped of their voice in government. One who
voted for a losing candidate in a state represents a wasted
vote, since it means nothing to the Electoral College.
Election Day is not a “holiday,” it’s a day of voting. And
on this day, polls are open for the same long hours relative
to all time zones.
Therefore, exit polls should not exist, and the media
should not be allowed to cover one shred of the entire
process, or make misleading “projections.”
A national announcement would be made the next day at
a specified time. Imagine the excitement, the anticipation,
the turnout, the patriotism and the feeling that one’s vote for
the presidency does indeed count.
We’ve learned that the country still runs without net
works projecting a winner with 0.001 percent of the
precincts in Maine reporting.
4. One term per president
It’s been said that the first job of an elected politician is to
ensure re-election. Let’s make the president’s first and only
job running the office.
5. Revote
Given the current situation, let’s have a nationwide
revote to determine the next president. In six months to a
year, polling places will be equipped with computers with
simple touch-screen instructions. For those uncomfortable
with new technology, the day before can be used for people
to come in and become familiar.
How is it all paid for? I can’t imagine a better way of
using the enormous surplus to finance this long-overdue
technological advance.
It’s about time.
MarkVitali is a teaching fellow in the Department of
Romance Languages.
FIONA MILLS
POINT OF VIEW
symbolically reenact such a brutal hate
crime. I thought not only ofjames
Byrd, but of the coundess other
African Americans whose bodies have
been similarly mutilated and destroyed
in our nation’s history. Not only that,
but I also struggled to make sense of
how local law enforcement officers
could not only take part in, but implic
itly condone, such an activity.
Try as I might, I have been unable
to come up with an alternative inter
pretation of this scene. Maybe, and I
fervendy hope this is true, these young
men did not mean for that event to be
understood the way I interpreted it.
Maybe, just maybe, they were unaware
of the cultural and racial implications
inherent in that particular act.
However, whether they intended
their actions to carry a specifically
racist message or not, certain acts are
racially symbolic in our country. Those
young men would not include a burn
ing cross in their parade due to its
inescapable racist implications, yet
they felt free to drag a body down a
main street.
Not only do these young men need
Viewpoints
JON HOFFMAN
EDITORIAL WRITER
humanity.
“While being dragged, Mr. Byrd was con
scious and was attempting to relieve the pain
and injuries he was receiving,” Brown said. “He
would probably swap one portion of his body
for the other, toying to get relief as he was being
dragged.”
If somebody in our society with power, like
the president or a governor, could determine
punishment on an individual basis, crimes of
this magnitude might end. After all, a defiler of
humanity should not legally be allowed the
right to humane treatment just as a “reformed”
child molester is not allowed the legal right to
be around children.
Unfortunately, capital punishment is aimed
Sorry, but the Electoral College does
n’t exist to give voice to people in less
populated areas; that’s already covered
by this thing called the Senate. And to
cover the voice of the more populated
areas, we have this other thing called the
to think more carefully before they
engage in certain acts, but they also
must become aware of the cultural and
racial import that such actions carry.
Last Friday’s parade also calls into
question the sense of entitlement and
privilege accorded to these young,
white men by the UNC and Chapel
Hill communities due to the presence
of law enforcement officials at this
event. Not only should these young
people be made aware of and held
accountable for their actions, so should
the members of the police and fire
departments who escorted and sup
ported this parade. Their overwhelm
ing presence at this event leads me to
question whose laws they are enforcing
and just whom are they protecting.
I do not think that there is anything
that can be done to erase the impact
that Friday’s parade had on me and the
myriad other persons who witnessed
this sickening spectacle. However, I
sincerely hope that, in the future, those
persons involved will examine their
actions and analyze the implicit and/or
explicit racism inherent in them.
With such actions, perhapsjames
Byrd’s death won’t have been in vain.
Fiona Mills is a teaching fellow in the
English department. Reach her at
fmills@email.unc.edu.
to be a deterrent. Currently, it is not serving its
roll.
Justifiable punishment for King is obvious.
He should be dragged down a road in chains.
Fortunately, most of society cannot even imag
ine inflicting this kind of torture on another
human being.
So I suggest that “the person with power” be
allowed to remand hate-mongers, serial killers,
repeat rapists, child molesters and terrorists to a
facility without cable television and a furnished
recreation room. Isolation in a dry, warm room
is too generous.
These criminals should be housed in a sterile
environment where they are given limited
rights. They are no longer civilians. They are
confined, reckless beasts.
And these criminals should work for their
subsistence, not be given it. They stole the
rights of their victims - why should they be
allowed to revel in their own?
As long as potential criminals and convicted
offenders know that their punishment will con
sist of cable television on death row, craft pro
jects to wile away their time and a cocktail of
drugs that induces sleep before death comes,
they will continue to have absolute disregard
for humanity.
hi
’ J (jjwiUiTAWcwjnTS 5 WJsr *
A White House' Thanksgiving:
Football and Other Manly Rituals
This past holiday weekend, I did
as most Americans do for
Thanksgiving and spent time
with the good ol’ family.
My Thanksgiving was very typical:
turkey, dressing, pumpkin pie,
mashed potatoes and football game
after football game on television.
Traditionally, however,
Thanksgiving at the White house (not
the White House) involves, at least for
the males, a ritual practiced since the
dawning of age, since cavemen first
painted on walls and Strom Thurmond
was but a young lad.
That ritual: the annual Thanksgiving
Deer Hunt
It takes a certain personality, a cer
tain breed, if you will, to be a deer
hunter.
A deep appreciation for the out
doors, wildlife and nature is a must.
The deer hunter must go a step fur
ther, however. He must be dedicated,
have strong endurance and, above all,
patience, for the deer hunter must
face hardships unknown to the layper
son.
Probably the most difficult aspect of
deer hunting is the very first thing that
must be done at the start of the hunt.
Indeed, it is beyond difficult, reach
ing levels of impossibility at times,
making one ponder the meaning of
life.
I am writing, of course, about get
ting out of bed before daybreak. To be
sure, most college students are used to
getting out of bed at the crack of noon,
not the crack of dawn, and I am no
exception.
So, as I rose from underneath the
warmth and joy of my bed covers at 4
freaking a.m., I found it to be sick irony
that my father was complaining about
getting a late start.
But I slowly came to comprehen
sion and began the second hardship
faced by deer hunters the world over:
dressing for the hunt. Late November
in the foothills of North Carolina is
home to some pretty damn cold
weather, so layers of clothing are an
absolute must.
After putting on thermal underwear,
two pairs of pants, a T-shirt, sweatshirt,
thermal fleece, wool-fined Gortex jack
et, three pairs of socks, two pairs of
gloves and one of those Russian-look
ing fur hats, I looked like Rosie
O’Donnell after an all-you-can-eat buf
fet at Denny’s.
WESLEY WHITE
EDITORIAL WRITER
I began to wonder if I would be able
to move my gun up to my shoulder
and shoot in the event that I actually
saw a deer.
After dressing, we loaded up the
truck and drove a few miles down the
road to rendezvous with several other
hunters bound for the woods. This
involves a moment where patience is
indeed a virtue.
Instead of
greeting each
other and being
on their way, deer
hunters must
stand around their
trucks at 4:30 a.m.
in the freezing
cold and show off
their deer-hunting
equipment
you hear a rustling in the
bushes. The sound gets closer,
and finally, miraculously, a
deer steps out into the clearing.
You get the deer in your sights,
but alas, it is a doe. ”
There’s always the guy with the lat
est innovation in hunting technology.
This is the high-tech redneck, the guy
with the laser-guided deer rifle, capa
ble of killing a buck at more than 1,000
yards.
This also is invariably the guy who
covers himself with female deer urine
in order to attract the monster buck
he’s been after for years.
He figures the male deer will be
lured in by the scent of a female deer
but reasons it is still OK to chain
smoke Marlboro Lights, because the
deer won’t smell that, even though I
can smell him 20 feet away.
Atop ATV four-wheelers, we finally
began our trek into the woods, bound
for our tree stands.
After being dropped off near my
hunting spot I stumbled along in the
pitch-black woods for 20 minutes look
ing for the tree that held my stand and
mumbled something about my warm
bed back home.
I finally found it and now faced the
arduous task of climbing 40 feet up a
tree, in the cold and dark, without
killing myself.
Monday, November 27, 2000
These people should know that horror will
be the reward for their crimes.
The sickening thoughts of imminent death
after the governor refuses to pardon them for
their crimes are not haunting enough. These
people, especially King, should know the hor
ror of consciousness as their body is josded
down a bumpy road only to have a reprieve
from fife when their head is no longer attached
to their body.
I am not sure why I write on this topic,
almost two years after this heinous crime.
Maybe it stems from Thanksgiving conversa
tion or my constant battle with condoning capi
tal punishment
All I know is that I have no sympathy for
heathens such as King and the murderers of
Matthew Shepard, and the rest responsible for
the hateful slayings that happen across
America.
Those that commit these horrid acts must
realize they will five out the rest of their days
without comfort or compassion and ultimately
pay for their crimes with their own fives.
Jon Hoffman is a sophomore political science
and history major from Stamford, Conn. Reach
him at jthoff@email.unc.edu.
I slowly ascended the tree, using
the steps I had installed in the tree a
few days earlier. I made it up to the
stand and immediately attached my
safety belt to the tree, so if I acciden
tally took a little nap, I wouldn’t fall to
an untimely death.
So I was there, ready, finally hunt
ing. This is where most deer hunters
are tested to the full measure. One has
to sit there, in a cold, metal chair,
attached to a tree, from sunup to sun
down. There is no talking, no moving,
no interaction.
The hunter has a lot of time to think
in this situation.
The hunter does as the cowboy in
James Taylor’s song and thinks not of
deer, but about women and glasses of
beer.
Then, just when you think you can’t
wait another
minute in the
cold, you hear a
rustling in the
bushes. The sound
gets closer, and
finally, miracu
lously, a deer
steps out into the
clearing.
You get the
deer in your
sights, but alas, it is a doe, a female
deer.
Only male deer, the illusive buck,
can be hunted.
As she walks away, you return to
boredom, to freezing, with only the
thought of grandma’s turkey in the
oven, waiting for you, keeping you
going.
Wesley White is a senior economics
and history major from Lenoir who
will be asleep at 4 a.m. this weekend.
Reach him with questions, comments
and hunting strategies at
wsw@email.unc.edu.
OPEN TR AIL:
®ar Heri
welcomes reader submissions.
Their opinions do not
necessarily represent the
opinions or views of
the DTH or its editors.
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