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Saily (Ear Heel Making the Earth a Better Place, One Step at a Time A couple of years ago, I kept see ing this car on campus that con stantly drew my attention. It was a Ford Excursion - the colossus of sport utility vehicles. On the Excursion’s back window was a sticker that advised people to “Keep Tahoe Blue.” Now, I’m sure the owner of the car meant well. He was probably a real cool kid. But environmentally charged bumper stickers don’t cancel out the negative effects of an Excursion on the environment. It still keeps on being an inefficient and wasteful ride, no matter how many Chief Seattle stickers go on the back. Considering that a majority of Americans align themselves with the environment politically yet most refute those ideals in practice, this is a lesson from which most of us could benefit. As people bom into a capitalist system PayW Pewe Peace PEftce- J (! /) feftcg A Quick Report From the Front Line This is an unofficial, informal “report” on the march that took place this weekend in ,u "" Washington, D.C. I place “report” within quotation marks because I know I am writing only it as a human witness and no mainstream media in this coun try will have the guts to confront the historic significance of what more than 100,000 people collectively witnessed this past weekend. A report on counterpunch.org quotes Washington, D.C. Police Chief Charles Ramsey Rashmi Varma Guest Columnist placing the number well above 100,000 people, and informal estimates now suggest that there were probably a quarter of a million people. It was a march that brought together the first signs of a true mass movement that is gaining ground in this country and around the world against racism, eco nomic exploitation and the endless war and occupation that is being heaped on the world’s disenfranchised. North Carolinians against the war decided we were not to be left behind. So hundreds of us woke up on the morning of April 20, groggy but deter mined, to board our various buses and vans for the five-hour trip to Washington. As we approached the city and crossed the Pentagon, marked by a gigantic crane near where a part of it had been destroyed on Sept. 11, we wondered if the officials planning our fives inside would care to look out side to see what the world is telling them in no uncertain words - no destruction in our name, no “not in our name!” Business and Advertising: Janet Gallagher-Cassel, director/general manager; Chrissy Beck, director of marketing; Melida Heien, classified/customer service manager; Lisa Reichle, business manager; Nicki Davidson, retail sales manager; Nichole Campbell, business assistant. Customer Service: Kristin Chamblee, Holly Herweyer, Susan Ricker, Amanda Taylor and Nora Warren, representatives. Marketing Group: Courtney Carrillo, Lauren Goodson, Josh Hall, Shannon Watson. City: Jonathan Chaney, columnist Matt Viser and Kathleen Wirth, senior writers, Chris Blow, Ben Brooks, Michael Chen, Daniel Cho, Adrienne Clark, Katie Davis, Nate DeGraff, Erika Heyder, Jenny Huang, Jennifer Johnson, Tom Kingsley, Scott LaPietre, Jocelyn Oberdick, James Russ, Colin Sutker and Scott Warfield. Copy: Brenner Allen, Lindsay Apple, Lisa Giencke, Peter Gilchrist, Kristal Jones, Hester Kast, Laura Mayhew, Laurie Osborne, Meghan Tepas, Jennifer Williams and Jordan Williams. Design: Winna Bridgewater, Randi DeMagistris, Michelle Kuttner, Nicole Neuman, Justin Osborne, Tiffany Pease and Audrey Wilkinson. Editorial: Niel Brooks, Amy Dobson, Cate Doty, Daniele Eubanks. Jon Harris, Pat Hogan, Matt Minchew and Mark Seeley, editorial board, Kenneth Chandler, Johanna Costa, Ben Dickens, Eugene Kim and Travis Raines: colum nists. Assistant Editors: Brooks Firth and Nick Parker, arts & entertainment, Jon Dougherty and Lauren Ritter, city; Meghan Greene and Amanda Walther, copy; Whitney Freeman, Jaime Schumaker and Lauren Sumner, design; Mark Slagle, editorial page; Lauren Rippey, features, Mary Stowell, graphics. Adam Snupe, online. Sara Abrons and Kim Craven, photog raphy; Jamie Agin, Ben DeSantis and Aaron Fitt. sports; Elyse Ashburn. Lucas Fenske and Jennifer Samuels, state & national; John Frank, Daniel Thigpen and Karey Wutkowski, universi- Arts & Entertainment: Michael Abernethy and Ashley Atkinson, senior writers, Shellie Byrum, Trafton Drew, Elliot Dube, Aaron Freeman, Jenise Hudson, Michelle Jarboe, Harmony Johnson, Caroline Lindsey, Evan Lucas, Graham Parker, Joanna Pearson, Allison Rost, Jill Spivey and Kristin Williams, Cartoon: Kristen Beckett, Leigh Fox. Adam Hall, Matt Purdy, Karen Spencer and David M The editorials are approved by the majority of the editorial board, which is composed of the editor, editorial page editor, assistant editorial page editor and eight editorial writers. The Daily Tar Heel is published by the DTH Publishing Corp., a non-profit North Carolina corporation, Monday- Friday, according to the University calendar. Callers with guestions about billing or display advertising should call 962-1163 between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. Classified ads can be reached at 962 0252. Editorial guestions should be directed to 962-0245. that implores us to consume rather than reduce, it’s sometimes hard to question American values. But often, those values don’t make much sense. Take a closer look at America’s love affair with the SUV. America is an oil-poor country, yet our most popular cars are gas-guzzlers. We freak out if gas prices get above a dol lar fifty, but scarce oil doesn’t stop peo ple from buying Suburbans. The tech nology exists to create cars that get 60 miles to the gallon on the highway, but people instead choose to purchase vehicles that get ridiculously low gas mileage. Why is this the case? Perhaps SUVs are practical invest ments for those living in mountainous terrains but that would hardly account for the prevalence of these cars As we approached the first of sever al rallies going on simultaneously, the 'Collet tii-efrife of, “Wig are all Palestinian” rent the air. People said, “Free Palestine” and, “No more war.” People from around the world and around the United States (We heard over 70 buses had come from New York City alone) were there to break the silence. One Jewish woman we met had just taken a plane up to Washington from Nashville, Tenn., simply to look for other Jewish people who would oppose the occupation. Another wrote, with tongue in cheek, on a banner, “One Jew for Palestinians." Some of us tried talking to the police about Monday’s pro-Israel rally that had been graced by several Washington politicians and Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu. Two didn’t want to com ment, but the third, a black woman, said to me: “No way, this is much bigger! If I was to give a number I would just say, there are zillions and zillions of you.” It really was a collective coming together of oppressed people from around the world, as even the National Public Radio admitted on Sunday’s morning edition. We saw and met Venezuelans, Colombians, Cubans, Canadians, Brits, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Indians, Filipinos, Koreans, Algerians, Sudanese, Palestinians, Jewish rabbis, Chicanos and white and African-American allies - the Green Party, the global justice people, the Raging Grannies, school children from inner-city New York and veterans of U.S. wars. I had never seen such a ®ljp Sailg (Tar llerl Professional and Business Staff Plumber and Zedekiah Worsham. Display Advertising: Erica Lundberq, senior account executive; Georgia Boklage, Candace Doby, Heather English, Sarah Mobley, Andrea Sarubbi, Amy Scharf and Eryn Wade, account executives, Emily Editorial Staff Features: Heather Apple, Jennifer Drye, Kirsten Fields, Emily Fleming, Veneta Georges, Kristen Heflin, Andrew McGlaughon, J.F. Scarbrough, Maggie Shepard. Scott Sutton and Kristen Valle. Graphics: Gary Bairier, Beth Galloway, Adam Geller, Erica Keppler, Josh Stalford, Brian Wasson and Helen Yu. Online: Valerie Aguirre, Lorraine Buchanan, Shaun King, Sarah Givan, Rachel Gurlitz, Gloria Holt, Jessica Lindsay, Kristen Oliver, Mary Patterson and Jessica Shellhamer. Photography: Laura Bernard, Patty Breneman, Brian Cassella, Brent Clark, Mallory Davis, Erin Escarsega, Victoria Frangoulis, Josh Greer, Jon Kirby, Greg Logan, Anne Meadows, Kate Mellnik, Jessica Newfield, Rebecca O'Doherty, Katie Riggan and Jessica Wooten. Sports: Rachel Carter, James Giza, Owen Hassell and Mike Ogle, senior writers, David Andrukonis, Ben Couch, Brandon Coward, Chris Gilfillan, Adam Hill, Gavin Off, Chris throughout America. And anyhow, a person can get the benefits of an SUV in a Subaru Outback, so the “I five in the mountains” excuse isn’t even a good one. The truth is, most Americans buy SUVs because most Americans value fashion more than Ashley Holmes Guest Columnist the environment. Obviously energy conservation just isn’t in vogue. Sadly, most Americans don’t consid er the environment at all in their daily actions -but that’s just the place where a strong earth consciousness should exist. People associate environmental ism with frivolity and hippies, but there’s actually nothing whimsical about it. To be a true environmentalist, con servation and prudence are the main gathering of white people and people of color anywhere, not to mention the age range - from infants to'the really elderly. Children, Palestinian and otherwise, were shouting slogans such as, “Sharon, Sharon, what do you say? How many children have you killed today?” Yes, “We are all Palestinians” - by virtue of being occupied by a media that distorts the pain and suffering of people around the world; “We are all Palestinian” because no politician or public official has the courage to stand up and speak on behalf of those of us who oppose the system on moral and ethical grounds, and we don’t have the money to buy influence either; “We are all Palestinian” because we still have humanity left in us. But we are not all Palestinian because we can only shed tears for them when they are shedding blood (as Robert Jensen, quotingjose Marti, reminded us at the teach-in on “New War Economy”), and we are not all Palestinian because we have comfort able homes to go back and sleep in at the end of a long day. For us North Carolinians on the bus, the day ended with our African- American bus driver Mike congratulat ing us for having made the trip and wish ing that all of this should have been done a long time ago. He ended by thanking us for traveling with “American Classic!” I think that sums it all up! For it was in America that the world’s conscience was finally making itself visible. Rashmi Varma is an assistant professor of English. Reach her at rvarma@email.unc.edu. Cartensen, Tiffany Flomo and Annie Godwin, assistant account executives. Advertising Production: Penny Persons, manager; Kathryn Klein and Karen Stone, assistants. Classified Production: Cindy Henley. Richter, Will Small and Randy Wellington; Sarah McConnaghv; sports copy. State & National: April Bethea, columnist, Dan Blank, Christen Broecker, Emma Burgm, Nathan Coletta, Michael Davis, Chase Foster, Mike Gorman, Dara Gould. Amanda Her, Julia Lamm, Rachel Leonard, Sara Longenecker, Jamie McGee, Michael McKnight, Wes Misson, Nathan Perez, Emilia Reita, Russ Thompson, Lindsey White, Creed Wood and Cleve Wootson. University: Katy Nelson, columnist, Will Arey, Jordan Bartel, Joy Buchanan, Tina Chang, Rachel Clarke, Brook Corwin, Philissa Cramer, Ben Davidson, Jamie Dougher, Kara Eide, Krista Faron, Erin Ganley, Jenny McLendon, Meredith Nicholson, Eshanthi Ranasinghe, Joelle Ruben, Jeff Silver, Jessica Sleep, Addie Sluder, Ruthie Warshenbrot and Nikki Werkinq. Editorial Production: Stacy Wynn, manager. Printing: Triangle Web. Distribution: Triangle Circulation Services. ISN #10709436 Office: Suite 104 Carolina Union Campus Mail Address: CB# 5210 Box 49, Carolina Union U.S. Mall Address: P.O. Box 3257, Chapel Hill, NC 27515^3257 Viewpoints requirements. It’s simple: We live on . an earth; we should try our best to pre serve it Environmentalism shouldn’t be a political theory but instead a way of fife. This preservation of our planet can occur in many simple but painless indi vidual lifestyle changes. For starters, try to purchase a car that gets good gas mileage and emits fewer fiunes. Or bet ter yet, ride a bike or walk if you don’t have to use a car. Or use public trans portation. This is especially easy to do in Chapel Hill since busing is free for everyone. Even if you decide that you must use your car, try to be considerate of those who don’t As someone who bikes everywhere, I understand that many don’t consider a Schwinn the hot vehicle that I do. In fact, I get a lot of hell for it - people yell at me to get a Bombers, Terrorists and Prime Ministers: A Brief History Lesson We are often reminded that if we do not remember history, we are doomed to repeat it. These days prove that point. The horrifying actions by both sides in the Middle East have led to a terrible cycle of terror, with each action and reaction more devastating than the last. The two sides each label the other the aggressor and their own actions as simply self-defense. Our government demands that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat denounce the senseless violence of the suicide bombers. International pressure mounts on Israel to back off from its violent and destructive reoccupation of the West Bank. Who is right, and who is wrong? History may not answer that question, but it provides an interesting perspective. Turn back the clock 54 years, and you will see a strikingly similar picture to today’s situation -with the roles ironically reversed. The Israelis, blinded by fear and anger, seem to have forgotten that their nation was bom in a struggle that has striking similarities to that which is now under way to create a Palestinian state. The Arab nations have likewise forgotten their role as sometimes allies of the colonial occu piers at the time. If you picked up a newspaper on July 23,1946, you would have seen a headline that could have been yester day’s. In retaliation for escalating violent resistance to British occupation in Palestine, the military sealed off the headquarters of the Jewish resistance leadership and arrest ed 3,000 members of its military and political leadership. In reaction, the Irgun, a militant faction of the resistance, set off a massive bomb blast that destroyed a wing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem. Ninety-one people were killed, including government and military officials and ordinary civilians. International outrage led to intense pressure on the political leaders of the Jewish resistance to denounce the vio lence and break ties with more militant factions. What can we learn from this history? First, our govern ment should think carefully about refusing to negotiate with Palestinian leaders who have any ties to violent acts. The Jewish resistance in the 19405, like the Palestinian leadership today, comprised a spectrum of individuals from those who sought solutions through political action to those who led the military resistance. However, all were finked by formal and informal ties. The Jewish resistance leaders included The Myths of the American Anti-War Movement Today The Virginia Military Institute is a small state-supported college that lies tucked away in the val leys of western Virginia. The student body is composed of 1,300 hard work ing young men and women from over forty different states and 20 different foreign countries. And unlike the scores of other colleges and uni versities in America, this small campus never sees a student out of uniform, never sees a wild frat party gone out of control and speaking specifically to the turbulent international incidents of last few months, never sees a large number of students rallying outside in protest of various government policies or actions. Naturally, most of us were pretty shocked to hear that students from col leges around the nation were openly and vocally protesting the war on ter ror. To me it came as no surprise. Every time we go to war, there is immediate and unyielding dissent to whatever crisis we may be facing. Regardless of the specifics of what ever military action we’re taking, this vocal opposition usually comes from liberals who seem to have recently dis covered the fact that wars do kill peo ple. Generally, once alerted of the mili tary action, the proper left wing authorities come up with several folk tales about the United States govern ment and military in hopes that politi cal pressure will force them to stop bul lying whatever innocent terrorist or dictator we’re focused on at the time. Although these accusations have about as much truth in them as a Disney movie, their popularity in many car, dudes heckle me nonstop just for being a girl on a bike and drivers offer me the evil eye for daring to ride on the road. And sometimes, yes, I feel like a tool rolling up to Players on my Trek, but, to me, being a loser on a bike is better than needlessly using a car. Eating less animal products is anoth er way to positively impact the envi ronment. Since two thirds of the earth’s arable land is devoted to growing ani mal feed rather than food fit for human ingestion, animal consumption repre sents another inefficient allocation of resources. Furthermore, animals are often raised in factory conditions, with little regard to the health of the animals or the environment. As North Carolinians, we should all be concerned about the effect the hog industry has on our air, land and water. Mark Peifer Guest Columnist protest circles deems them worthy of addressing. The first is that the United States military kills thousands of civilians every time we engage in armed con flict. Right. It is, after all, common knowledge that our soldiers can’t wait until the next war just so they can get the chance to kill a few innocent women and children. They actually train John Noonan Guest Columnist extensively for this right next to the hanger that holds the UFO from Roswell, N.M. The fact is, U.S. soldiers, sailors and airmen are average, industrious, church-going Americans, not evil mur derers part of a faceless military machine. In war, they are generally too preoccupied fighting the armed oppo sition that is trying to kill them to go out looking for a few babies to annihi late. And from a military standpoint, it doesn’t make too much sense to use a million dollar smart bomb to take out a group of people that pose no tactical threat to our forces. The second claim 1 often hear is what I call the wishful thinking com plaint. I know you have heard these people too, they’re the ones who sug gest if we bum all of our sophisticated weaponry, appease every dictatorship and military regime and dissolve all the armed forces on earth, we could all five in peace and loving harmony. Sure. If we did all that, we would be subject to the whim of whichever group of people who came up with the most creative and effective way to murder their fellow citizens. It doesn’t matter if we have powerful aircraft car riers or boards with nails through Monday, April 22, 2002 Southeastern North Carolina is quickly becoming the pig cesspool of America. I understand that pork chops, bacon and barbecue are all blessings from God and that many people aren’t ready to put down the pork. But, the next time you bite into a barbecue sandwich, ask yourself if the delicious taste is worth North Carolina’s future. The point of this article hasn’t been to preach but rather to highlight the importance of an earth-friendly outlook. The actions listed above are small steps meant for individuals to incorporate into daily fife. But perhaps the most crit ical thing one can do to help the earth is to constandy recognize its utmost importance and behave accordingly. Ashley Holmes is a senior art history major from Creswell. Reach her at holmes@email.unc.edu. most of Israel’s future prime ministers. One of them, Menachim Begin, was a leader of the group that bombed the King David Hotel - he was viewed by some as a terrorist. When we brand all current leaders of the Palestinian people terrorists, we should remember that it was Begin who met Anwar Sadat, the president of Egypt in Jerusalem and signed the historic Camp David Accords in 1979. The international community also can learn something from that more recent history. The peace between Israel and Egypt was catalyzed by bold strokes in which Sadat made a historic trip to Israel and Begin responded with equal- ly dramatic moves. Last week, Thomas Friedman of The New York Times challenged President Bush to meet the cur rent crisis with bold action on that scale. For the past two years, the United States waited on the sidelines for the two parties to resolve the issue on their own, with its only role encouraging a cessation of violence. This policy has not worked, because it provides control over progress to the most militant elements on both sides, who derail peace by continuing the cycle of murder and retribu tion. Secretary of State Colin Powell’s trip to the Middle East was a beginning, but the United States must act more boldly. The war on terrorism will never succeed without progress toward a just peace in the Middle East. We should tackle this problem with different tools than we used in Afghanistan but with the same vigor. We must intervene immediately to broker a peace settlement based on the Mitchell accords, with both sides offered statehood and security in return for major concessions - the closing of the Israeli settlements on Palestinian land and the realization that Palestinian refugees will never be able to return to former homes in Israel, This must be backed up by a U.N. mandate and U.S. or NATO forces. We must then invest in both nations, not in military hard ware but in economic development, to make them show pieces of the rewards that peace can bring. This will be a dif ficult task, but it is an essential one- the only alternative is a devastating war that will destroy both nations and whose ripple effects will make terrorism the new world order. Mark Peifer is an associate professor of biology. Reach him at peifer@unc.edu. them, people will kill for the sole rea son of power and control over other people. Plato himself wrote: “only the dead have seen the end of war.” The third accusation is one that is specific to the war on terrorism today. This is that the U.S. military and the terrorists who attacked us on Sept. 11 are equally evil and corrupt. This accu sation isn’t just wrong, it is one of the most insulting things I have ever heard. Saying that the United States is no better than the terrorists who killed 3,000 innocent women and children, real innocent women and children that aren’t concocted in the minds of left wing critics, is like saying the right hook you gave a bank robber is the same as the bullet he just put into the vault clerk. Whether you want to believe it or not, Afghanistan after the liberation from the Taliban is leaps and bounds better than it was before. If you want to equate waging a military campaign against military targets to turning inno cent Americans into flying missiles tar geted at thousands of other innocent noncombatants, you seriously need to reconsider your logic. This doesn’t mean these folks have to become cheerleaders for the war on terror, all they have to do is research it a little. From a simple VMI cadet’s point of view, the fives of real innocent people, the American noncombatants who are under a constant terrorist threat, depend on it. Cadet John Noonan second class (junior) from Springfield, Va. attends the Virginia Military Institute. He can be reached at noonanjo@mail.vmi.edu. 9
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