6The Daily Tar HeelFriday. April 8, l9o
Playing politics with the trump card
n
9 1st year of editorial freedom
Kerry DeRochi. Editor
ALISON DAVIS, Managing Editor JEFF HlDAY. Associate Editor
LlSAPULLEN, University Editor JOHN CONWAY, City Editor
CHRISTINE MANUEL, State and National Editor KAREN FISHER, Features Editor
MIKEDeSISTI, Sports Jor , , J EFF GROVE, Arts Editor
BILL RlEDY, News Editor CHARLES W. LEDFORD, Photography Editor
Erasing history
A bill currently under consideration in the N.C. General Assembly
would expand the rights of adults to have their arrest records erased. The
bill is intended to help clear the reputations of innocent citizens who
might otherwise have trouble getting jobs, says Sen. Robert W. Swain,
D-Buncombe. Swain is sponsor of a bill to let adults without criminal
convictions erase any record of their arrests. That bill won tentative state
Senate approval Thursday after heated debate.
As first introduced, the bill stated that adults could have their arrest
records cleared when the arrest had been a mistake, but only in cases of
mistaken identity or where it is shown there was no probable cause to file
the charges. The bill also gave the courts discretion in ordering the erasing
of a record. Since then, the Senate Judiciary Committee has changed all
that. Now, the bill would allow a person's record to be cleared if charges
against him were dismissed or he was acquitted. Also, if a person has no
previous convictions, the court could nqtstop a record from being cleared.
Senate committee members had good intentions, but they failed to
recognize the importance of documentation. If a person is mistakenly ar
rested, and is able to prove so in court, the record of his acquittal will
stand as adequate evidence of his innocence. Besides, if a person's record
is expunged, and rumors of an arrest get around, he has no proof that he
was acquitted. Conversely, according to the bill, a person whose record
has been expunged can legally testify in court that he has never been ar
rested even if he had been. There wouldn't be any proof.
Critics of the amended bill argue that it would allow, too many people
in different cases to have their records cleared. As Sen. Garry Hancock,
D-Durham, said, the bill would remove records of some who are
repeatedly arrested. He compared the situation with that of gangster Al
Capone, saying that while Capone was widely known for his illegal ac
tivities, his only conviction came for income tax evasion. In addition,
Hancock asked whether John Hinckley Jr., who was found not guilty by
reason of insanity in the assault on President Reagan two years ago,
could have his record cleared. "You cannot erase history, you can only
distort it," he said.
Sen. R.C. Soles, D-Columbus, said inconsistencies in the wording of
the bill would let someone clear an arrest record despite a drunken driving
conviction in another state but it would not allow clearance if the person
had a prior conviction for littering in this state.
Swain, who backs the amendments, has argued that a person could go
through life being innocent and still have the "blight" of an arrest on his
record forever. However, under current law, a person could have his ar
rest records erased after three years without criminal conduct.
Swain's bill is up for a final reading in the state Senate today. Before it
is approved, senators should consider the bill's potential for misuse and
the broad powers for cleaning arrest records that it creates. It is true that
model citizens are sometimes arrested mistakenly and deserve to have
their records cleared. However, the committee amendments as they now
stand are too broad, allowing too many people to have their records
, cleared and virtually eliminating the importance of documentation.
THE Daily Crossword by May Mannlx
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34 Observance
38 Numerical
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43 Beautiful
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"1 1 1 1 I i" 1 I 1 I Mt
By KERR Y DEROCHI
When Phil Painter was first elected to the Campus
Governing Council in 1981, he was the only conservative
member; as he said, he became a Don Quixote fighting
windmills.
A year later, Painter helped six other conservative
candidates get elected. Together, they formed a new con
servative coalition, Painter earning the name Mr. Helms.
In his two years on the council, Painter brought more
than a different philosophy. He introduced a new style of
politics: a style of knowing the rules and how to use them.
Singlehandedly, he tried to deny funding of long-existing
campus organizations and purposefully delayed action on
bills by leaving a meeting to kill quorum. He challenged a
fellow CGC member in the Student Supreme Court.
All with a smile.
"I didn't want to cause trouble," he says, laughing. "I
love a good fight, as long as you are fighting to gain con
trol. It's a lot of fun."
When speaking of Painter, fellow council members
would mention his complicated strategies, how he knew
when to compromise. They'd speak of the way he joked
through a meeting, while cutting a budget or vetoing a
bill. He was the CGC version of a Southern politician,
polite and well-mannered, yet carrying with him a shrewd
political determination. A council member may have
laughed at Painter's jokes or agreed with his arguments.
But if he made a mistake, Painter would catch it.
Hardly a day would go by when Painter did not spend
the afternoon in the CGC office. There, he'd sit behind
the large desk, debating a bill with another1 council
member, or comb through the files, looking for the
history of a group's funding. He memorized parliamen
tary procedures and could recite a bill's past with ease. He
never missed a meeting.
"If you're going to do something, you might as well do
it right," he said. "Most people in the CGC don't know
what is going on. If you know Robert's rules, you have
the advantage."
On Feb. 2 Painter made sure he had the advantage.
Tired of the endless debate on the proposed student fee in
crease, he left the meeting, killing the council's quorum
and temporarily delaying action on the bill. He left
because his amendment to decrease the student fee had
been defeated. "I won't be a part of this," he told the
other members as he gathered his books and jacket.
Late that night, the council met again and approved a
fee increase referendum. Painter didn't attend. Instead, he
started motions to take former CGC speaker Bobby
Vogler and the council decision to the Student Supreme
Court. Vogler had moved out of his Granville district in ,
January, violating the CGC bylaws and throwing council
decisions into limbo. That night, Painter decided to
challenge him.
The court put a restraining order on the fee referendum
and a week later threw out the election, saying the council
had not allowed enough time between authorizing the
referendum and the vote.
"It was a strategic move," Painter said. "In absolute
principle, it was not the thing to do. I don't necessarily
subscribe to winning by any means.
"I had a point to get across, and that was the way to do
it," he said,
"He made the mistake; it was there for me to use to my
advantage."
But Painter's success proved to be his council's biggest
disappointment. "I'll always think back on the time he
walked out on the meeting," CGC member James Exum
said. "I'll remember it as a reminder of the 64th session
and the way it failed."
Exum is now speaker of the new set of council
members; Painter is busy rushing to job interviews. Look
ing back, he grimaces over the 12-hour stints as a budget
financier and laughs when he remembers the faces of
group leaders when he had threatened to deny their fund
ing. He still opposes funding to groups such as the
Association for Women Students and the Carolina Gay
Association and thinks students should have a choice of
which groups their fees go to.
"Groups, then, would be required to work with stu
dents," he said. "I really think that they work for their
own selves. I won't go as far as to say they're resume
filling politicos. They're doing a lot for the 'good of the
students' when it's really for the good of themselves
alone."
Two weeks ago the fee increased was voted on in a
special election and killed because of a low student turn
out. "I'm glad that while I was here, there wasn't a fee in-
, I . n
Phil Painter
crease," Painter said. "I did all I could to prevent it. I feel
like I might have had something to do with it."
In the final round, Painter had won. And as Exum
said, it shouldn't be a surprise. Painter always had the
trump card. ,
. "He would do what he thought was necessary within
the rules to get across what he wanted," Exum said.
"There are a lot of things to learn from that guy. No mat
ter where you are on the political spectrum, there are a lot
of things to learn from Phil Painter."
Kerry DeRochi, a senior English and journalism major
from Greensboro, is editor of The Daily Tar Heel.
ETTERS
TO THE EDITOR
No country faultless
1983 Tribune Company Syndicate, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
4883
To the editor:
This letter is in response to Carlos
Martin-Gaebler's column ("The
I-don't-give-a-damn syndrome," DTH,
April 6). I am a student at UNC. I do give
a damn. I do not watch soaps, I detest beer
and I don't play video games. But I think I
know why some people do spend so much
time with soaps, beer and video. People
feel powerless, overwhelmed, scared and
in despair. Students know when they finish
their education : an education which for
some has been devoid of inspiration, ex
citement or purpose they will have to
find a job in a country which has no jobs
for them except jobs as meaningless as
the education those students have just en
dured. They know they will face a society
of scarcity, where machines and bombs are
deemed more important than people,
where the government intrudes even into
your bedroom, where you are free to wor
ship "as you please," so long as you are
Protestant. When I see all these things, I
grow sad and angry, and I want "revolu
tion" but I know that unless we very
radically change our entire consciousness,
it will become another Animal Farm, with
the pigs being more piggish than the op
pressors they overthrow. I am angry at dic
tatorships, right or left; at poverty; at the
bureaucracies that manipulate, alienate
and fragment us, and direct our lives into
narrow channels. I am so sad sometimes
that I understand why people watch soaps
they hope to see good triumph over
evil. I understand why people drink so
much beer: to forget the injustices right
here at UNC. We all want to forget that
this university has holdings in an apar
theid regime. This is a place where a pro
fessor is being dismissed, and no one will
say why, but many of us think it is because
he isn't afraid of questioning the
sacrosanct FBI; because he dares to assert
that concern with civil rights is what
education is all about. And even his col
leagues don't have the courage to uphold
his academic freedom. This University has
authorities in the financial aid department,
who by virtue of their perspective should
know better, nevertheless do nothing to
protest the "big brother" leanings of the
Solomon Amendment, by which poor
males are forced to register for the draft or
else receive no federal funds for school.
(The poor are always the first to have to
fight the wars engineered by the rich.)
But some students aren't doing any of
those things. Some students are involved in
political activities designed to correct the
injustices Martin-Gaebler named. We have
all kinds of folks here in the United States,
just like in Spain. During Franco's regime,
some Spaniards sat around drinking beer,
too, while others joined a resistance move
ment, and still others came here seeking
refuge. I am no blind patriot, and J could
probably compile a longer list than
Martin-Gaebler's of all this nation's in
justices. I am poor and black and female,
and I have seen some of those injustices
first hand. But I am here, and Martin
Gaebler is here. He could have gone to
school in any nation, but he came here.
Why?
Even Spain has its sins. In addition to
Franco, there is more to Spain's history
which is shameful. Remember that it was
the Spaniards, among others, who
financed huge ships full of white "ex
plorers" (i.e., invaders) who came here
uninvited and destroyed the native
American population as much by forc
ed religious conversions as by direct an
nihilation. In other words, we are all in this
together: Spain, the United States and
every other inhabited nation. The way to
stop student apathy (fear) is to keep on
writing about political insights, but not to
scapegoat one nation over another, and
not to stop at writing but to become ac
tively involved in changing things no mat
ter where. Whether communist or fascist
or monarchic or "democratic," no one,
no nation, is clean, not anywhere on this
Earth. So let's stop scapegoating each
other and work for change in both our
, behavior and in our consciousness.
Alethea Brown
Carrboro
Rallying in Raleigh
To the editor:
With the state of our economy, it
becomes increasingly important to
- prioritize government spending. As a sign
of the times, more concerns are being ex
pressed in fiscal terms, and within one
week, two expeditions will reach beyond
our campus to influence views where they
count. On Tuesday, April 12, Students
Taking Action for Nuclear Disarmament
will enable anyone concerned about the
arms race to lobby in Washington for
budget cuts in nuclear arms spending. On
Thursday, April 14, a broad coalition
from all 16 state universities will travel to
the N.C. Legislature to rally against
budget cuts in education. We are facing
possible hikes in tuition and cuts in faculty
mostly blacks and women.
The last of five goals expressed by the
Coalition for Education says it most suc
, cinctly: place priorities on human needs.
As students, faculty members or ad
ministrators, we have chosen to place
education as a priority in our lives. On
April 14, buses provided by the Coalition
for Education will be leaving the campus
at 2 p.m. Since the trip is free, fiscal con
sciousness should tell us that rallying in
Raleigh costs far less than the $36.6 million
we might lose.
Andrea Stumpf and Ken Smith
Campus Y, co-presidents
Letters?
The Daily Tar Heel welcomes letters
to the editor and contributions of col
umns for the editorial page.
Such contributions should be typed,
triple-spaced, on a 60-space line, and
are subject to editing.
Column writers should include their
majors and hometowns; each letter
should include the writer's name, ad
dress and telephone number.
French government expels Soviets
By KELL Y SIMMONS
In what some political observers have labelled "the big
gest spy sweep in French history," 47 Soviet diplomats
and journalists were expelled from France Tuesday on
charges of espionage.
The Interior Ministry claimed that the gravity and ex
tent of their activities, which centered on high technology
and the armed forces, was the reason for the expulsion.
These expulsions follow the recent removal of Soviets '
from Spain and Britain, but officials said the incidents s
were unrelated.
Relations between France and the Soviet Union have
been strained recently because of President Francois Mit-'
t errand's decision to condemn Soviet nuclear weapons.
Now the relationship is expected to be even colder.
No one seems to know why the French made such a
hasty decision, but sources claim that several activities,
rather than one isolated case, caused the incident.
Blast off!
The space shuttle Challenger blasted off Monday after
noon, manned by four astronauts who will make the first
American space walk in nearly a decade.
The shuttle mission, which is two-and-one-half months
behind schedule, will last for five days and will include
several scientific experiments. The Challenger is lighter
than the previous shuttle, Columbia, and is more power
ful. "
The mission of the shuttle is to deploy a 5,000-pound
Tracking and Data Relay Satellite, which was launched
from the cargo bay of the Challenger Tuesday.
However, the satellite is now cruising thousands of
miles from its planned position it is somewhere above
the equator near Brazil. The National Aeronautics and
Space Administration expects the missile to wander back
on course during the coming weeks.
The TDRS is equipped with the most extensive com
munications antennae ever lifted above the Earth's surface
two 16-foot gold-coated antennae, three small dish
antennae .and 30 helix antennae. It is powered by two
57-foot-wide solar arrays which convert sunlight into
1,700 watts of electricity.
Hungry like the Wolfpack
About 14,000 Wolfpack backers were on hand to greet
the new NCAA champions as they returned from Albu
querque Tuesday afternoon. Cheering their "Cinderella"
team, which won the game on sophomore Lorenzo
Charles' breathtaking final shot, red-and-white clad fans
packed themselves into Reynolds Coliseum.
the Legislature has decided to postpone the decision until
the 1983-85 state budget is finalized. (The bill is in a
legislative subcommittee; however, the committee has
made no plans for discussion of it.)
Plans to cut the UNC budget have not been finalized
either and probably will not be for another month.
Both bills are being held in order for state tax returns to
make their impression on state revenues, and the final
budget forecast should be set sometime between May 15
and June 15.
One bill calling for a tuition hike would increase out-of-state
fees on the Chapel Hill campus by $3,400, a substan
tial increase. Out-of-state students now pay only 45 per
cent of their costs in the UNC system.
the we:
EK IN R
EVIEW
Followed by his team, coach Jim Valvano walked
through the crowd first. The jubilant victor compared col
lege athletics to sex "When it's good, it's very, very,
very good. When it's bad, it's still good."
About 2,000 people met the players at Raleigh-Durham
Airport earlier Tuesday. The crowd of fans included peo
ple from nearby towns as well as N.C. State students.
The state Legislature also honored the champions. The
House Finance Committee opened its daily session with a
banner from the 1973-74 national championship, which
State won, draped across the head table. And Sen. Robert
Davis proposed that Congress name the next three
bomber squadrons after Whittenburg, Lowe and Gan
non. Sen. William Redman proposed that they add a
fourth squadron to be named after Valvano.
No money handed out
Out-of-state students anxious to find out if they have to
pay more for tuition will have to wait a little longer, for
However . . .
Some appropriations were made this week, however.
The Campus Governing Council approved a $3,000 loan
for the Carolina Concert Committee Tuesday night. The
Committee has already received $100,000 from the CGC
for the April 23 concert. t -
The reason for the' needed extra money was because
costs were running higher in security, program printing
and talent and promoter fees. The requirement for obtain
ing the loan calls for it to be repaid before any of the con
cert's profits are donated to charities. ,
The CGC also appropriated money to the Student
Government Executive Branch for bus rental to transport
students to a pro-education rally in Raleigh on April 14.
The rally is being held to protest the increase in out-of-state
tuition.
Kelly Simmons, a sophomore journalism and English
major from Reidsville, is an editorial writer for The Daily
Tar Heel.