8 The Daily Tar Heel Tuesday, September 5. 1978
Qjppeah Judge rw aeTOe ment selection
N.C. Court of Appeals Judge Richard C. Erwin
recently said "changes will have to be made" in the
state judicial system in the near future.
Erwin said he hopes he will constitute the first
change.
If successful in November, Erwin will become
the first black elected to a statewide office in the
history of North Carolina.
Gov. Jim Hunt appointed Erwin to fill the newly
created 12th seat on the state Court of Appeals,
effective Jan. 4, 1978. Under state law, appointed ,
justices must face the voters in the next regular
election.
In general, appointed justices run unopposed,
but Erwin had Democratic primary opposition in
May and faces Joe N. Cagle, a Republican lawyer
from Hickory, in November.
"In the history of the court there have been only
three sitting judges a woman and two blacks,
including myself that have had opposition,"
Erwin said.
"Gov. Hunt appointed four persons to the
(appeals) court. It is not coincidental that I am the
only one opposed," he said.
Erwin did not wish to elaborate at this time on
specific changes for the judicial system, stating
simply, "I think we have a fairly adequate system,
although this court (the Court of Appeals) is the
workhorse of the judicial system."
With his primary victory, Erwin said, he has
opened the floodgates that . have held back
potential black candidates for office.
"Basically, I'm a pioneer," Erwin said.
"In my campaign, I want to run a reasonably
successful operation, pay my bills, and have
enough people supporting me that any other, black
person who wanted to run could look at my
campaign and say, Mt can be done."
Erwin pointed out the debt he and all future
black candidates owe to former Chapel Hill
Mayor Howard N. Lee and his unsuccessful 1976
campaign for lieutenant governor.
"Mr. Lee's campaign gave legitimacy to a black
candidate. However, there is a difference in
running for one of 12 (appeals court) judgeships
and running for lieutenant governor.
"I think a conservative person will be thinking it
is not unusual for one of 12 judges to be black. If
there were only one judicial position, however, I
think I would have some problem."
For a black candidate to be successful, he must
have contacts across the state, and have been
"tested and proven" in some other state office,
Erwin said. The 54-year-old former Winston
Salem attorney served two terms in the House of
Representatives of the N.C. General Assembly in
1974 and 1976. He served on the state Board of
Education for six years, appointed by Gov. Bob
Scott in 1971 and resigned when appointed to the
Court of Appeals.
Although experienced and well known, Lee
failed in his bid for office because he was only the
second black person to run for a statewide office,
Erwin said.
"It's hard for me to say exactly why he lost, but it
would depend on the events at the time and the
mood of the state" whether or not a black person
could win in a bid for a major state office, he said.
Erwin's victory in the May 2 primary against
challenger Austin B. Campbell of FayetteVille
'IN QUOTES'
By KATHY CURRY
"just occured at a time when all the circumstances
and events were in their proper places," he said.
During the primary campaign. Gov.' Hunt
publicly supported Erwin. breaking with
traditional party leaders' policy of non
intervention in primary contests.
"Without the governor's support, I would have
been seen as a black person running against a white
person. I don't believe he wanted it boiled down to
black vs. white, and it wasn't," Erwin said.
Judicial races, with their traditionally lackluster
campaigns, often go unnoticed by the public, and
many have raised the question of the necessity for
the election process for judges at all.
While in the General Assembly, Erwin chaired a
subcommittee that sponsored an unsuccessful
move to establish a system of merit selection of
appeals court judges, rather than the present
system of elective selection. The merit-selection
system would involve initial selection of judges by
the governor on the basis of their credentials. The
system would eliminate situations where persons
unrelated to law or the legal- system would run
against appointees in partisan contests.
The governor would select appointees from a list
of names submitted by a special commission.
"I think it will be quite some time before North
Carolina will pass a constitutional amendment
favoring merit selection," said Erwin.
People believe that judicial election brings the
justices closer to the people, Erwin said.Those
opposed to the merit-selection system feel the
country club group would comprise the
commission that would make judicial selections,
he said.-
"Merit selection cannot be considered until it is
decided which body will do the selecting," he
concluded.
Throughout his legal career. Erwin has been an
active champion of black advancement, having
served on the N AACP Board of Directors and on
the Forsyth County Citizens Coalition, formerly
the Winston-Salem Urban Coalition. In 1968,
Erwin served as president of the panel, made up of
administrative and executive personnel, both
black and white, of prominent Forsyth County
corporations.
"My job (on the Coalition) was to supervise the
corporate distribution of money to programs
designed to make improvements in housing,
welfare and medical care for blacks." Erwin said.
Erwin's immediate concerns and plans revolve
around the crucial November date. Judicial races
traditionally are overshadowed by senatorial
races, and his race is no exception, Erwin said.
"While campaigning. I'd sing my little song, but
no one ever asked me to sing again," he joked.
"People are really not interested in th judicial
races."
Richard C. Erwin
Erwin admitted that a judges' inability to talk
about issues while campaigning is a major cause of
the lack of interest.
"I'd go to rallies where other candidates would
be present, and people would ask me about tne
Wilmington 10 case and busing. I'd spend the
whole time saying 1 couldn't talk about such issues.
People want to hear about issues.
Kathy Curry, a journalism and political science
major from Charlotte, is a staff writer for the Daily
Tar Heel.
Lou Bilionis, Editor
Chuck Alston, Managing Editor
Don Woodard, Associate Editor
David McKinnon, Associate Editor
Bernie Ransbotto, University Editor
Mary Anne Rhyne, City Editor i
David Stacks, State and National Editor
Jaci Hughes, News Editor
Betsy Flagler, Features Editor
Mark Scandlic, Arts Editor
Lee Pace, Sports Editor
Allen Jernigan, Photography Editor
Hatlij
(Ear linl
86th year of editorial freedom
U.. Senate race teio into center rin,
By DAVID STACKS
The summit: not a finale
The hopes of a world weary with strife in the Middle East are focusing
on the private meeting of three men at Camp David, Md., today. And
while the three men do not deserve the singularly awesome challenge of
reversing the course of years of history, they are the only human beings
who can call an end to hostility and deliver a humane peace.
It is a political drama; a session sure to feature captivating characters
and unresolved conflicts. No answers, no firm solutions will result. But
if the commitments that bring these three to Camp David sincere
desires for sure and lasting peace between Israel and Egypt can be
cemented, the goal will be one giant step closer to realization.
Egyptian President Anwar el Sadat already has expressed that
commitment clearly; his bold announcement that he would journey to
Jerusalem last November inspired millions around the world while
alienating many of his allies in the Arab community. The drive for a
settlement has become a matter of personal conviction for Sadat, and
failure ultimately could doom his political future. He must maneuver
gracefully to ensure Palestinian security an issue of prime importance
to Arab nations and coax away land Israel seized in 1967 on the West
Bank of the Jordan River to save his political stock at home.
Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin will not move easily to
Sadat's overtures; he is reluctant to accept a Palestinian homeland and
sees the West Bank as essential to Israel's security. But Begin, who has
taken no steps as dramatic as Sadat's initiative last fall, as of late is
issuing just as loud a call for peace. His public statements indicate he is
willing to work with the Egyptians toward a settlement and if the Camp
David summit proves unfruitful, he will undertake a different route.
President Carter, the host, raised many an eyebrow when he plunged
into the Middle East controversy and suggested a Camp David summit.
His political standing at home and abroad is noticeable shaky, and
observers warn that anything short of success this week only will weaken
his position. But Carter recognizes the Israeli-Egyptian talks as crucial
to relations with all nations, and, more important, notes that he alone
can serve as the mediator between two determined and steadfast leaders.
Compromises must be granted; an intermediate solution must be
hammered out on the Palestinian and West Bank questions, and Carter
Cin present the compromise Sadat and Begin cannot dare to initiate.
Thus far, it only has been a beginning the first scene in the first act.
The numerous talks since last November have been supplemental scenes
and the summit this week is not the finale, but merely a necessary
development of the plot. The last act can be triumphant, but only if this
unraveling story is accepted with concern and patience.
If you are one of the unfortunate few whose
grandparents never treated you to a day at the circus,
take heart. ,
One of the greatest shows on earth shifts into high gear
this week, and you have a front-row seat for the nine
week, three-ring traveling show. f
The week of Labor Day is the traditional start of the
arena event commonly -known as general election
campaign season. The main event this year is a U.S.
Senate election.
And the 1978 version promises to be a classic. This is
one of the few election years'since Reconstruction w hen
Democrats have been on the outside, hoping to oust a
Republican incumbent.
Richard Nixon carried the Tar Heel State as did.
Sen. Helms and former Gov. Jim Holshauser in 1972.
In the 1976 elections, Jimmy Carter and Jim Hunt re
established control in the White House and the State
Capitol. Now only Helms stands in the way of what loyal
Democrats consider a "return to normalcy."
And with almost $5 million stashed away in his
campaign war chest. Helms has attracted Democratic
criticism much the same way old butter attracts flies.
Even Gov. Hunt, a Democrat whose differences with
Ingram are well-known, -has appeared 'with the
candidate at rallies across the. state.
A major campaign issue this fall likely will be which of
the two candidates is more familiar with the ins and outs
of legislative haggling. !i
Ingram has lashed out at Helms for his spendthrift
stands in Congress, but Helms has said nothing about
Ingram's inability to persuade state legislators to vote
against House Bill 658.
Elected the state's insurance commissioner in 1972
and 1976, Ingram chastised Hunt last summer when the
letters to the editor
governor refused to speak out against House Bill 658, a
General Assembly measure that took away much of
Ingram's insurance rate-setting power and gave it
.instead to the insurance industry.
Legislative know-how was again the issue last month
when Ingram accused Helms of trying to deceive
tobacco farmers by taking credit for a bill Helms voted
against.
The accusation drew a countercharge from Helms,
who said Ingram does not know how the Senate works.
Helms was one of eight senators who voted against a
$23.4 billion appropriations .bill for the U.S.
Department of Agriculture. Among the items in the bill
was a $3. 1 million appropriation for continued funding
of the Tobacco Production Research Station at Oxford
and similar facilities in three other states.
On the day he voted against the bill. Helms campaign
headquarters issued a statement claiming victory for
tobacco farmers in the funding of the research facility.
The release did not mention that Helms had voted
against the measure.
In response to Ingram's accusation. Helms said he had
led the fight to assure funding of the tobacco research
center.
The Republican said he voted against the bill because
it included several unnecessary programs and did not
maintain support to the tobacco station. But the
legislation is now in conference committee, where the
tobacco-research funds likely will be included, he said.
Another hard-to-get-a-fix-on piece of campaign
rhetoric is the matter of special interests. Both
candidates have said the other represents only a small
segment of the population, and both claim to be best
able to carry out the interests of a majority of North
Carolinians.
Ingram, has said Helms is against educational
programs and assistance for the elderly, but Helms has
declined to respond to the Democrat's special interest
charges.
"Well bless John's heart.'" Helms said in a recent press
release. "Apparently he has decided to set up a straw
jnan everyday so he can get a headline
"1 believe the taxpayers of North Carolina expect me
to oppose wasteful and unnecessary federal bureaucracy
that duplicates itself and drives up inflation every day," -Helms
said.
Helms' political war chest has brought in almost $5
million, giving both Helms and Ingram something to
talk about.
Despite a report showing his campaign treasurey is
nearly empty, I ngram has rejected a $5,000 contribution
from the political action committee of the national AFL
CIO. .
Observers said Ingram refused the help for fear of
giving Helms more ammunition in his effort to link the
Democrat with organized labor.
But the large sum collected by Helms from out-of-state
contributors has put Republican workers on the
defensive. Ingram has speculated that Helms is unable to
raise sufficient funds from contributors in North
Carolina.
According to his last campaign report filed June 30,
Ingram has spent about $75,000 since he announced his
candidacy. As of that date, he had $3,000 in cash and an
estimated $3,000 in unpaid bills, excluding a $20,000
loan he advanced himself.
As of J une 30, Helms had raised $5.65 millionnd had
$90,000 cash on hand.
Campaign financing, legislative skill and special
interest charges are some of the more interesting issues
and questions raised by the two candidates during the
slow campaign season this summer. Campaign rhetoric
should become even more plentiful with both
Republicans and Democrats moving into the center ring
as November draws near.
David Stacks, a junior journalism major from
Blowing Rock, is state and national editor for the Daily
Tar Heel.
Truffic Off ice f mis to inform customers
The Bottom Line
Equalizing
Granted this is an all-too-male world,
and Title IX justly demands equal
treatment of the sexes in all programs.
Still, men aren't always handed the better
end of the deal.
Three stalls, two wall fixtures, three
sinks, three mirrors. One large, dismaf
room. For the guys, these constitute a
restroom. And the women? All of the
above conveniently separated into
quaint, private chambers. Plus a
lounge padded chairs, a couch or two,
and a small but baroque end table.
Why are men denied these physical and
aesthetic comforts? Surely it cannot be
the old Victorian belief that women are
more prone to fainting spells.
Far be it from this column to take the
"resfout of restroom; humankind must
recognize a good thing when it appears.
All things being equal which they
generally are not one would do well to
adorn the male facilities as well. If not,
some buildings (e.g. the Carolina Union)
will undoubtedly fall under the all
encompassing disgression of Title IX.
Dear beer
The party's over.
We should have expected it long ago,
of course. We were given all the signs.
First to go were the cigarettes. But little
did we realize just what kind of terrible
harbinger that surgeon general's report
would become.
Hard on its heels came the awful truth
about saccharine. And then, it was Katy
bar the door, it seemed that every
substance that ever entered our persons
was crammed with chemistry
guaranteed to make our cells turn black
and grow sideways. We were breathing,
"eating, drinking and absorbing
carcinogens like they were candy.
Meat was out. To say nothing of the
sodium nitrites, there was the stuff they
were using to fatten the animals.
We gave up shellfish. Among other
things, they lived too close to the rivers
that carried the stuff they were using to
fatten the animals.
And fish went. We figured we needed
mercury about like we needed a hole in
the head, which we understood was what
mercury would give us anyway.
Fresh vegetables were out, of course.
To our increasingly suspicious (and
suspect) minds, what was bad for the bugs
was bad for us. And with the
preservatives and additives and
colorings, the stuff that got beyond the
fresh stage was out too.
But there was always (always) beer.
The College lifestyle tends to discourage
eating and encourage beer drinking, of
course, but with our, knowledge of
chemistry we figured we were doing
ourselves a real favor all this time.
Then along comes the news this week.
Beer, too,--dear beer contains a
cancer-causing substance. Nitrosamines.
to be specific, although we personally are
too morose to care, really. The party's
over. And that's the bottom line.
To the editor:
Last April wecontracted with the UNC
Traffic Office for an academic year
parking sticker. We listed our preferences
as N-4 and S-5, in that order. We had an
N-4 sticker last year and. found it quite
suitable to our needs, and we felt that as
senior carpooling commuters we had an
excellent chance of receiving our first
choice (N-4).
The sticker we received this fall was
marked N-4-B. Nobody informed us that
the B meant anything, so we naturally
assumed it was all right by the Cobb
tennis courts, as all maps, signs and
traffic office regulations books indicated
(and still do), and as we had done before.
We did not, however, count upon the
logic of the University bureaucracy.
Tuesday, Aug. 29, we received a
parking ticket that claimed we were in the
wrong lot. We had parked in the N-4 lot
by the Paul Green Theatre, so we went to
the Traffic Office to clear it up. We
discovered to out dismay that something
called the Vice Chancellor's Committee
on Transportation had decided last
spring to give the first 130 commuter
requests for N-4 an N-4-B sticker and
assign them all to the Park Place lot
behind Forest Theater, approximately
one-half mile from Hamilton Hall, the
nearest classroom building.
When we contracted for the N-4
sticker, we did it with the implicit
understanding that we had a choice of.
spaces anywhere in the N-4 sector. If we
had known we would be stuck one-half
mile from the nearest classroom, we
wouldn't have included N-4 as one of our
choices. The policy decision was made
last spring, but no one bothered to inform
us when we laid our money on the line.
We were not informed during the summer
so we could alter our choice, and no one
bothered to inform us when we received
our sticker this fall. We feel misled.
Not only misled, but unduly
discriminated against. The Traffic Office
and Craig Brown, head of Student
Governmant's Transportation
Committee, have told us the policy was
enacted to allow residents to park near,
their dorms, and to fill the Park Place lot,
which remained only partially used last
year. The logic eludes us. Dorm residents
have the convenience of being within
walking distance of their classes. We,
however, must travel into campus 45
minutes early each morning, and now
supposedly must walk an additional one
half mile to the nearest classroom.
Residents surely can find spaces in their
lots if they bother to park, the night
before, when the lots are only half full.
When we have parked in the tennis court
lots these last two weeks at 8:30 and 9
a.m.. we have found them half full. By
noon they're full. Somehow we believe it's
not the dorm residents getting up at 8:30
to move their cars into the lots in other
words, we've been taking commuter
spots, not resident spots. Besides, why is
it that commuters should be penalized by
having to walk the additional one-half
mile this winter?
One more point. The same Summary
of Regulations Governing Motor
Vehicles Parking at the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill July I.
1978 to June 30. 1979 that showed no
restrictions on N-4 lots summarizes the
sticker allotment priority system by
saving that "freshmen and students living
) )
1 I
f
within one and one-half miles of the Bell
Tower are ineligible for automobile
permits." Why then do residents of
Henderson, Joyner, Lower Quad and
Cobb get priority over us seniors living
three miles from the Bell Tower if that
statement is true?
The parking situation is poor at best,
and we cannot understand why the
U niversity bureaucracy decided to mess it
up more by altering our contractual
agreement while leaving us in the dark,
and by penalizing commuters. We can't
help being commuters we were forced
off-campus by University Housing. We
tried to do a' positive thing by carpooling
our sticker, and now we pay. for it in
inconvenience.
We hope this letter will inform those
affected by this situation of what's going
on, because the Traffic Office seems
unwilling to do so. And we hope it spurs
action, because something needs to be
done to straighten out this mess.
Keith Ripley
Stephen LaBelle
V-9 Kingswood
Offensive and perverse
To the editor:
Once again 1 am appalled at your lack
of discretion in the publication of the
article by Frank Moore in Thursday's
DTH, "In Search of (Sigh) a Woman." I
find Mr. Moore's analogy of women to
automobiles and spaceships highly
offensive, if not outright perverse. Mr.
Moore asks, "What more could Chapel
H ill women expect?" I feel confident that
I speak for a great number of women in
the Chapel Hill community when I
answer, "A hell of a lot more than you
have displayed in your recent decision to
publish Mr. Moore's article, fantasies, or
frustrations."
I agree in part with Mr. Moore's
analysis of the changes he has witnessed
in himself over the past four years of his
life in Chapel Hill, (from "optimistic" to
"burned out"), though I find it hard to
believe that he was ever a "neat guy."
Mr. Moore closes his article with the
mention of a less frustrating sport,
catching a Frisbee. With the attitude
expressed in his article, he's lucky that's
all he's caught.
Paula M. Needle
coThe N.C. Fellows Program
301 Steele Building