6The Daily Tar HeelWednesday, November 9, 1983
Si)? iatlg (Ear Bwl
9s .year o editorial freedom
KEKRY DeRoC HI, EJiwr
Alison Davis, Managing Editor
CHARLES ElLMAKI.R, Associate Editor FKANK BRUNI . Associate Editor
KELLY SIMMONS, University Editor
KYLE MARSHALL, State and National Editor
MICHAEL DESlSTI, Sports Editor
Melissa Moore, News Editor
No nerve gas
The Senate Tuesday narrowly
"binary" nerve gas weapons, capping off the last element of the largest
and perhaps most controversial military appropriations bill in history.
TJie Senate was deadlocked until Vice President George Bush cast the
deciding vote to approve the new breed of gas weapons that President
Reagan has said would be used more as a bargaining lever than as a
military deterrent. No amount of ostensible bargaining power, however,
can offset the grave error of producing a weapon known more for killing
civilians than soldiers. Nerve gas is barbaric and unneeded; it has not
been used by this country since World War I.
Arguments for producing the weapons are weak, at best. Reagan
claims that the new weapons will act as an effective tool in negotiations
with the Soviet Union for an ultimate ban on all nerve gas weapons. The
threat posed by these new gas bombs will supposedly make the Soviets
think twice. But the United States already has 200,000 tons of chemical
weapons at its disposal. Even Pentagon officials have admitted that this
stockpile is enough to ward off any serious threat to U.S. security.
This hasn't stopped the Reagan administration officials' claim that the
'old' nerve gas is not as safe, endangering civilians because the shell con
taining the gas corrodes over time a claim refuted by tests which show
little or no shell deteroriation. Officials say the new nerve gas, then,
would be more "safe" because the binary shells would contain two inert
gasses that by themselves are harmless. When the new shell explodes,
however, it's another matter; the two explode to produce a gas lethal even
in small proportions.
If Reagan officials are concerned about the safety of the U.S. civilians
during times of peace certainly the threat to others during war also should
be considered. During a military strike using such bombs, innocent
civilians living miles from an explosion could be killed by the nerve gas.
Infact, it has been predicted that for the death of one protected soldier,
20 civilians would be killed. Certainly there is something morally wrong
in the production of a war weapon more effective at killing civilians than
soldiers.
When the House-Senate conference committee meets to hammer out
the differences between their versions of the new $253 billion defense ap
propriations bill, serious consideration must be given when weighing the
benefits and detriments of this new breed of abhorrent chemical
weapons. If the Reagan administration seriously wants a ban on such
weapons, it should use the stockpile when bargaining with the Soviets,
not complicate and increase this barbaric threat.
Relentless runts
You're alone. It's almost midnight, and you hear him walking behind
you, gaining ground on you with each step he takes. You can almost feel
his warm, erratic breath on your back.
You turn the corner. So does he. Your apartment is only two blocks
away, and you still pray that maybe, just maybe, he won't follow you
that far. You pray that when' you finally reach your apartment door he
won't be right behind you, staring at you with feral eyes, salivation
drenched jowls.
You fumble in your pocket for the key. Only three or four steps
separate you and the safety of your living room. But as you insert the key
in the lock and frantically turn the door knob, he does it. He brushes
against you and he... whines.
Each of us dreads this situation a stray dog at our doorstep. Because
it looks at us with such sad, hopeful eyes. Because we don't know whether
to stroke or hose down its matted, muddied fur. Because we know that if
we shut the door and trot off to the kitchen, our sleep will be hindered by
overwhelming feelings of guilt.
Strays don't deserve it. They have no pride. And, boy, do they know
how to pass the buck. They're all too ready to grovel, to transform their
own miseries into a luckless person's crisis of conscience. They're never
satisfied. Stoop to pet a lonely cat and he'll soon begin to set up camp
outside your bedroom window, periodically pawing at the glass and
pathetically leaping at insects in an ail-too obvious display of hunger.
They're there when we least expect them. Waiting for us outside the
glass doors of Burger King while we eat our Whoppers. Standing in front
oi our cars while we unlock the doors. Creeping up behind us while we
read The Daily Tar Heel... uh, oh.
Editors note
In the past few weeks, The Daily
Tar Heel has been criticized heavily
for proposed changes to the Campus
Calendar, our daily schedule of cam
pus events. There have been idle
threats. There have been concerned
letters. Perhaps it is now time for an
explanation.
First I'd like to say that the new
calendar will run twice a week, on
Mondays and Thursdays, instead of
just Thursdays as was previously sug
gested. This was a move I had intend
ed to make later when the paper had
more money to absorb the cost. The
Thursday calendar will include all
events from Thursday through and
including Monday. Monday's
schedule will list Monday's events
again and include those through and
on the following Thursday. This will
ensure that events on Mondays and
Thursdays can receive adequate
ipublication before the event is held..
Forms must be filled out and returned
to the Carolina Stund Fund in South
Building by 5 p.m. Tuesday for
Thursday's publication and on 2 p.m.
Sunday for Monday's.
If you've made it this far, you are
probably still wondering why a
change was needed in the first place.
One reason is space in the paper. The
DTH simply cannot handle the
cumbersome schedule everyday given
our high costs that result in small
papers. And, I'd like to add that the
twice-a-week listing will be presented
in an easily-read form that can give
John Conway, City Editor
Karen Fisher, Features Editor
Jeff Grove, Am Editor
CHARLES W. LeDFORD, Photography Editor
approved the production of new
groups better promotion. Students
will be able to cut out the calendar
and have a complete listing of the next
few days events at his or her finger
tips. Surely that's a benefit.
Another reason for the change is
the coordination that will occur when
the events are published through a
central group, the Carolina Student
Fund. The group, located in South
Building, is relatively new to campus
but holds great promise in its efforts
to promote the campus groups' ac
tivities. They can help by warning
groups of days where a great number
of other meetings may deter people
from attending theirs. And they can
serve as the center from which all
groups can operate, perhaps sug
gesting at times a merger of activities
to increase participation.
Now, let me finally say that the new
format will not exclude groups from
publicizing last-minute events in the
DTH, just as the old form did not.
On most days there is the space for us
to run short announcements from our
news desks. It's true that the new for
mat will ask a little more from the
groups, a bit more organization. But
it will return much more an easy-to-read
and comprehensive look at
the week's events. That was the pur
pose behind the paper's first beginning
the campus calendar as a free service,
and that certainly is its purpose now.
Kerry DeRochi
editor
SOME SUV WANTS TO KNOW IF YOU'VE HEARP ABOUT A
NEW AHTI-HERPES VACCINE THAT WORKS ON MICE ?
LETTERS
Reverse Ragland decision
To the editor:
It is a shame that the UNC School of
Medicine administration has turned its
back on gay medical students and the
medical needs of the gay community by
refusing to accept the Ragland scholarship
("Officials refuse scholarship for gay
medical students," DTH, Oct. 31); a
double shame, in fact. Not only has Dean
Stuart Bondurant exposed his ignorance
of gay people's difficulty in finding ade
quate, informed medical care by refusing
to accept medical students' voluntary
clarification of their sexual preferences,
but he has also made clear that he would
prefer not to know.
It is impossible to work for long in the
area of sex counseling without discovering
how hard it is for lesbians and gay men to
find good doctors. Very many of the in
quiries the Sexuality Education and
Counseling Service receives from gay
people are calls from people who feel
unable to disclose important personal
facts to the doctors they see, or who have
been rebuffed by their doctors and do not
knpw where they can go to avoid re
peated insult.
When one thinks about the reasons,
this is not so surprising. Gay people have
frequently been victimized by segments of
the medical profession. Doctors and psy
chiatrists have used their authority to turn
a personal difference into a so-called
pathology, and to bolster prejudicial and
persecutory laws which turn this so-called
pathology into a crime. Although the
American Medical Association and the
American Psychiatric Association remov
ed homosexuality from their classifica
tions of diseases in the 1970s (an action
which continues to be challenged by vocal
conservatives), North Carolina remains
as one of 15 states which still classifies
homosexual acts as felonies.
Dangers
To the editor:
We thank the editorial staff of The
Daily Tar Heel for their thoughtful and
courageous stance on the issue of "a mo
ment of silence" in our public schools
("The silent treatment," DTH, Nov. 2).
The latent dangers of quiet time are
callously ignored by the proponents of "a
moment of silence," and the DTH has
done well to remind us of the frightening
"potential for a threat to the constitu
tionally mandated separation of church
and state" inherent in silence.
On more than one occasion in grade
school, I was cruelly ridiculed and abused
by my classmates "during the kickball
game at lunchtime recess" for refusing to
join them in silent prayer. Since there was
"no way to sufficiently monitor the an
nouncement of the quiet moment," my
Not just
To the editor:
I don't mind being persecuted for my
beliefs when you take a stand you've
got to expect opposition. But how can
you degrade our university and The Daily
Tar Heel by attacking me or any other
CARP member for our religious beliefs
because you also oppose our support for
America and democracy as expressed in
the Pit? ("Students rally in reaction to
This side of
By MARYMELDA HALL
College students represent a strange breed of almost
adults. Society assures these pseudo-scholars that the
college years are carefree wisps of Fitzgeraldian imagery
and intellectual excitement. Obviously, neither society
nor F. Scott has recently sampled collegiate life. Today's
college student is a frustrated, overwhelmed human be
ing, struggling with independence and lint-filled laundry.
College students encounter many pitfalls in their land
of independence. They get hooked on junk food and
afternoon soaps, staying up late and sleeping through 8
a.m. classes on rainy days. College students drink beer
for breakfast, eat crackers in unmade beds, leave dirty
clothes in piles on the floor and never ever dust. They
go to class wearing torn blue jeans and a ragged sweat
shirt they know would flunk maternal inspection, as
would their language, which increasingly resembles that
of a sailor's.
Unfortunately, financial worries hover over this new
found personal freedom. A college student is shocked at
paying $142 for one semester's books. And when did
pencils get so expensive? College students dread the
ominous phone bill, especially after receiving a $72 de
mand from Ma Bell ten days after hook-up. College
students love check books, hate bank statements and go
into withdrawal if they misplace their Teller II cards.
.College students are always broke, and letters home are
As late as 1966, state laws encouraged
courts to prescribe "cures" for homo
sexuality, consisting of aversion
"therapy," electro-convulsion, and lobo
tomies techniques originally developed
on unwilling homosexual prisoners by
members of the medical profession. Even
though extreme situations of medical mis
treatment may have involved only a small
number of health professionals and a
relatively small number of lesbians and
gay men, continuing mistrust and misin
formation remain a widespread problem.
This problem is compounded by the con
tinuing existence and sporadic, discrimi
natory enforcement of anti-gay laws and,
further, by commonplace, traditional
anti-gay prejudice, ridicule and rejection.
While unjust laws may be addressed
through many sorts of political activism,
the medical issues confronted by the les
bian and gay community demand very
particular solutions:
Working to define objectives and
methods for provision of care which en
courages patient confidence and open dis
closure of all relevant medical facts, free
from any fear of ridicule, freakish curio
sity or ignorant malpractice;
Working with individuals and groups
within the lesbian and gay community to
relay sources of acceptable health care,
and emphasizing both the importance of
such care and the drawbacks of receiving
treatment from unqualified doctors;
Fostering mutual support groups for
gay people who may be chronically ill, or
panicked by individual problems or by
common, perceived threats such as AIDS.
Brian Richmond
Acting Director
Sexuality Education and
Counseling Service
of silence
teacher Irequeniiy mauc ine trunk about
God during the moment of silence,
though I begged her not to do it. Silence
must therefore be forbidden.
Unfortunately the editorial did not
confront an even more insidious threat to
the Constitution: By giving its employees
Sunday off, the federal government is
forcing them to go to church. This is an
intolerable violation of the separation of
church and state even though the pressure
to attend a worship service is merely tacit.
Perhaps the courts could address this
issue next: Government employees should
be given a seven-day work week. Sunday
is another form of a "moment of silence"
that must be eliminated.
Kevin Wolf
J.B. Howard
North Street
bigotry
Grenada," DTH, Oct. 27.)
You can be a religious bigot as well as
anti-American, but you shouldn't try to
discredit those who would stand in de
fense of their country because of their
race, creed or color.
Jack Ashworth
Director of CARP
Chapel Hill
paradise?
A freshman 's views
of first-year blues
sure to include a desperate "send money." r
While money matters are a problem, academics also
provide ulcer material. College students face critical pro
fessors, arrogant TA's, incredible geology exams ("rocks
for jocks" is not what it seems) and endless labs. They
must fight to gain recognition in a class of 400 equally or
overly intelligent fellow students. They learn to love a
study hour's silence in an otherwise stereophonic resi
dence hall. College students force themselves to read
eighty-seven pages of abnormal psychology. They dis
cover that all tests and quizzes inevitably occur during
the same week, if not on the same day.
College students seldom have agreeable schedules.
They wade through the dropadd ocean, searching fran
tically for an opening in Econ 10 or any 9:00 class. Their
math professors don't speak English, and their English
professors speak it too well. One course always mutilates
an otherwise presentable QPA.
U.S. wrong
on Nicaragua
By LOREN HINTZ
In spite of growing opposition to the.
U.S.-supported attacks on Nicaragua, ,
the Reagan administration continues to
support covert activities in that Central
American country. These activities
have killed many Nicaraguans and have
impeded efforts to reconstruct a nation
ravaged by the 1979 civil war between
the Sandinistas and the U.S.-supported
Somozan dictatorship.
Many people, such as House Majori
ty Leader James C. Wright Jr.,
D-Texas, continue to make accusations
against Nicaragua that are better ap
plied to its neighbors. They accuse
Nicaragua of violating human rights,
failing to improve the standard of liv
ing of its people, being a threat to
neighboring nations and opposing
traditional American values.
In general these accusations against
Nicaragua have no merit. The accusa
tions also make the United States a
hypocrite since the Reagan administra
tion supports many governments in
Latin America which violate human
rights and pose a threat to peace in the
region.
After spending three and a .half of
the last five years in Centxaf America
and after visiting Nicaragua several
times, I am aware that the current
governments of Honduras, El Salvador
and Guatemala are more harsh and
barbaric than the Sandinista govern
ment has ever been. Secret cemeteries
have been found in Honduras and El
Salvador, not in Nicaragua. Priests and
religious workers have been murdered
in Honduras, Guatemala and El
Salvador, not in Nicaragua. El Salvador
destroyed its own university and has
killed scores of students.
The June visit of a U.S. trade union
delegation made it very clear that El
Salvador severely represses its unions.
In Nicaragua the unions play an active
role in governmental policy. Some anti
Sandinista unions, however, have com
plained in the local press of govern
ment harassment.
Throughout Central America, In
dians have been repressed. Guatemala
seems to kill Indians on the mere sus
picion that they support the guerrillas.
In the Honduran valley where I lived,
Indians who claim lands that ranchers
have taken from them are shot. During
an interview with Miskito members of
the Nicaraguan Indian Committee, I
learned that the Nicaragua government
has worked to improve the quality of
life in the Mosquitia.
Treatment of the opposition differs
greatly in Nicaragua compared with
other Central American nations. In El
Salvador, the perceived opposition is
. tortured and assassinated, and those
who march in protest are shot. Hon
duras has begun to "disappear" oppo
sition leaders. In Nicaragua, those sus
pected of violating the security laws are
tried. The trials are not a farce, since
even some of those accused of being
counterrevolutionaries have been ac
quitted. The Somozan National
Guardsmen captured by Sandinistas
after the 1979 revolution were not ex
ecuted. Instead, they were tried for war
crimes, and those convicted were usual
ly given relatively short sentences.
A unique play
To the editor:
Arts editor Jeff Grove failed to appre
ciate the simple beauty of the musical
Pump Boys and Dinettes (" 'Pump Boys'
promises more than it delivers," DTH,
Nov. 7). No one promised that Pump
Boys and Dinettes was going to be replete
with plot and pageantry. It was a deftly
crafted insight into rural Southern living:
not a revue, but a revealing, humorous
description of plain, everyday life. To use
the pejorative term "plotless" is thus un
fair. No plot was needed; no plot was
wanted.
Nicolette Larson certainly did not bring
the self-confidence and starfire of a Patty
Lupone or a Betty Buckley to the stage of
Nicaragua has been called a threat to
her neighbors, but the reverse seems
true. Although Honduras complains of
Sandinista attacks, it is Nicaragua that
can show the bodies of children,
workers and soldiers killed by invaders
from Honduras. A month before my
last visit to Nicaragua, a German doc
tor was killed by a group of "freedom
fighters." Incidents like this happen all
the time in Nicaragua. If there is any
pattern to the civil wars and revolutions
in recent Latin American history, it is
that this violence is preceded by
U.S.-supported dictatorships.
Nicaragua has implemented many of
the same values the United States
claims as its own. For instance,
Nicaragua practices the tradition of ac
cepting refugees. Most recently, the
United States has begun to deport Sal
vadoran refugees, some of whom have
been murdered upon their return.
Nicaragua emphasizes helping the poor
rather than the wealthy or the middle
class. During Nicaragua's current eco
nomic crisis, those with cars are only
allowed several gallons of gas a week,
but bus transportation for the poor is
greatly subsidized. Basic foods are
cheap and necessarily rationed, while
imported luxury goods are expensive
and scarce, but not rationed.
Both the United States and Nica
ragua denounce foreign intervention
and oppose tyranny. The United States
emphasizes Soviet intervention in
Europe, Asia and Africa, but turns a
blind eye at home. In contrast, the
Nicaraguans emphasize U.S. interven
tion in Mexico, Honduras, Grenada,
Guatemala, Cuba, El Salvador, the
Dominican Republic, Chile and Nica
ragua. Because of U.S. intervention,
Nicaragua must spend scarce resources
on defense while scores of Nicaraguans
die on their own soil defending them
selves from an invasion. Meanwhile,
the powerful United States is able to
fight its "wars of national security"
overseas.
The United States and Nicaragua
both support democracy. The United
States equates democracy with elec
tions, but ignores the many farcical
elections held by Central American
governments. (Of course, the United
States has been in the bad habit of sub
verting freely elected governments it
did not like, such as in Chile and
Guatemala.) Nicaragua equates demo
cracy not only with elections, but also
with public participation in the govern
ment and is beginning to give power to
student, woman, worker and peasant
organizations.
Five years ago, the Sandinistas over
threw one of the worst dictatorships in
Latin America. Since then they have
tried to improve the lives of their poor
and to guarantee fundamental human
rights. For many reasons, including
U.S. intervention, they have not ac
complished all that they set out to do.
However, Nicaragua's record of re
sponsive government is much better
than that of any other Central
American nation over the same period.
Nicaragua deserves our help, not our
bullets. Congress would be completely
justified in its efforts to prevent the
Reagan aclrninistration from attacking
Nicaragua.
Loren Hintz is a graduate student in
education from Tiffin, Ohio.
Memorial Hall, but a slick performance
was not required. What it took was the
understanding to play a rural Southern
woman that one could meet serving up
hashbrowns in a truckstop on a mythical
Highway 57, and Larson performed ad
mirably. Each piece of drama is unique and
therefore requires a fresh effort on the
part of the viewer. Preconceived ideas as
to how a show should look and sound
will often leave the theatergoer disap
pointed. Joey Hall
Cameron Avenue
Social life, or the lack of it, is of colossal concern to
college students. They nap in the afternoons, recovering
from or preparing for late-night partying. They drink
too much, too fast and spend the next day wondering
why. Some choose Greek life and rush from house to
house in search of the perfect brothers and sisters, while
others claim that the siblings back home are more than
enough. Beginning their weekends on Thursday after
noon, college students survive on football games, court
parties and hall mixers. They spend hours on the phone
making plans to attract the opposite sex. Dreading nights
alone in a dorm room, college students drag themselves
from party to party, convinced they are having a won
derful time.
This frenzied hustle of everyday life challenges the un
suspecting students. They flounder in a sea of anony
mity, reciting endlessly their Social Security numbers.
College students scan the crowds at fraternity parties in
search of just one familiar face. Struggling to cope with
roommate skirmishes, personality conflicts and coin
operated washing machines, they survive on care
packages, telephone calls and weekends at home.
College students hunger for life, but they hunger even
more for Domino's pizza. The child in them clings
tighter as the adult fights to emerge. Today's college
students bend rules and break hearts a they haltingly
fight their way to maturity and the showers.
Marymelda Hall, a freshman journalism major from
Fayetteville, is a staff writer for The Daily Tar Heel.