4 The Daily Tar Heel Wednesday. November
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By MARTHA WALLACE
Sun Wat
Working and reworking his worry beads.
Lawrence l.au looked calm as adoring fans fired
questions.
"What -arc F.rica and Jeremy going to do?"
"Do you miss Jenny?"
These people aren't real; they're characters on
the soap opera "AH My Children," where Lau plays
the innocuous character of young Greg Nelson.
Lau, doing promotional visits in North Carolina,
met fans Sunday in Soap's. Yes, the Laundromat!
The soap star at Soap's sat in the front room amidst
MTV and wash-dry-fold. .
"Are you married?" asked one fan swinging a
camera. Lau looked perplexed. Maybe he was
reflecting on his two previous ill-fated marriages.
Was the question directed to his character or
himself? In either case, the answer was no.
In a black, leather jacket and cap, faded T-shirt
and boots, Lau hardly looked older than the 22-year-old
character he plays. Actually, he is 31 and
professes to live a very quiet life."
That contrasts with the publicized accounts of
Lau as an angry troublemaker.
"Before 'AH My Children,' I was always in a race
for survival," he said. "Now I don't have to worry
about paying the rent, affording classes ...
desperate for a job. (Now), well, I've slowed down."
Lau landed the Greg Nelson part when his agent
discovered him on a late-night movie. Soon after,
he was asked to test for the part.
He said his job was fun, but also hard work.
"I know what my character is going to be doing
about two weeks in advance, but we don't get our
lines until 12 hours before taping," he said. "That's
12 hours to learn an 85-page script."
The work may be hard, but it has advantages.
"Each story line for a character has a build-up period
and then a resolution phase," Lau said. "During
the build-up period it is hard work, but then you
can get a two-week vacation during the resolution."
Lau works an average of three days a week.
On his days off, he said, "I never watch 'All My
Children' because we see it all the time on the
moniters at work.
"I'm a big 'One Life To Live' fan," he said, adding
that he "never watches CBS."
The former business major said he hoped to be
on a ranch with horses in five years . "I hope to
be raising babies by that time," he said.
That may sound idealistic, but Lau admitted he
was a romantic.
"If a romantic is someone who thinks about what
idealistically 'could be' as opposed to 'what is' then,
yeah, I'm a romantic," he said. "I guess the term
'romantic' bothers me on a personal level. It becomes
lots more troublesome in relationships."
Lau has had his share of troublesome relation
ships. Within a short time, two marriages, ended
in divorce. Then he broke up with actress-girlfriend
Dona Petrucci. Now he is not dating anyone, which
adds to his on-screen mystique.
Besides answering questions about himself, Lau
told fans what their other show favorites were like.
For example, Erica is a "real sweetheart," a great
contrast to her on-screen image, Lau said. And,
yes, on the show Lau would love to kill his evil
mother, but off-set she is quite nice.
Lau would not, however, disclose any future plot
developments. So tune in today, when the character
of Greg Nelson returns.
Twksy 'Mires' ' dir;iuip holiday tirmel
hly ounems
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By SCOTT LARSEN
Stan Writer
Students without airline reservations
for Thanksgiving may find an early
Christmas present in the form of
reduced air fares. The reduced rates,
however, do have some strings attached,
said area travel agents.
Many major airlines are offering
"turkey fares:" round-trip fares of $58
for flights up to 500 miles; $98 for flights
from 501 to 1,500 miles and $158 for
flights over 1,500 miles.
To qualify for these reduced air fares,
travelers must fly out Thanksgiving Day
and return Saturday, Nov. 30
Dale Alexander, of Continental
Travel Agency on East Franklin Street,
said procrastinating travelers would
find very limited availability on the days
they wanted to travel.
Students should look to flying out
on Tuesday Nov. 26 and arriving back
in Chapel Hill on Monday December
2 because those two days offer more
availability, Alexander said.
Sandy Cole of Cole Travel said, "The
reduced rates are about the only thing
left for these people."
Students have problems getting
flights on the days they want because
the Thanksgiving holidays are over a
shorter period, Cole said.
If students can leave a day later than
they would like to and can return earlier,
then these reduced fares can be real
bargains, she said.
"For the student wanting to go on
short-distance trips like to Philadelphia,
Washington, D.C. and Atlanta, these
fares are working very nicely," she said.
Liz Parker of Triangle Travel said,
"To most people the reduced fares are
a bargain anyway."
Parker said that students should
already be planning for the Christmas
flights because many flights are already
booked up. The major airlines are
expected to offer reduced rates again
during the Christmas season, Parker
said, but it is wise to plan now.
"The further you plan in advance the
more money you save yourself," she
said.
Cole said scheduling flights at Christ
mas was easier for students because it
was a longer holiday period and allowed
more time to be flexible with making
plans.
By LIZ SAYLOR
Staff Writer
"Is the death penalty moral, and may
society take a person's life?" asked Joan
Byers, assistent attorney general in the'
N.C. Department of Justice, at a forum
on the death penalty in the Student
Union Tuesday.
Larry VeUani, co-director of the N.C.
Prison and Jail Project in Durham,
said, "It's just too grave a responsibility
to lay in human hands."
"This issue raises the ire of a lot of
people in this state and nation," Tom
Rudin, moderator, told about 30 people
in his introduction. Rudin also repres
ented Amnesty International, an inter
national human rights organization that
opposes the death penalty. The local AI
chapter sponsored the forum as part of
the Campus Y Human Rights Week.
Each speaker gave a 10-minute
introduction, then fielded questions.
Both agreed the families of homicide
victims often were neglected.
"We focus on the killer," VeUani said
in an earlier interview. "The survivors
of homicide victims are ignored by both
the criminal justice and social service
systems. Very few who commit hom
icide get away with it, but the survivors
are told, 'Perhaps well get the guy who
killed your husband or loved one.' "
Byers said the victims families often
told her they wanted the death penalty.
"It is a public policy decision that's
been made because capital punishment
re-affirms the moral sanctity of life,"
Byers said. "The death penalty is
nothing more than society's collective
right of self-defense."
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Long-term incarceration, and possi
bly longer sentences for convicted killers
before they can be paroled, are the
alternatives to the death penalty, Vellani
said.
"Swiftness and certainty are two
things that bring about deterrents," he
said. "Every instance of life-taking is
different."
Byers said, "Too many murders have
been dealt with too lightly. Perhaps if
we had swift and sure execution after
a sentence, it would be a deterrent.
"With due process of law, it is
constitutional to take life," said Byers.
"Since 1977 there has been no one on
death row whose guilt is not sure."
Vellani said in a previous interview
that the death penalty encouraged
violence in society. "Executions are
violent acts," he said. "They cause pain
and discomfort for the inmate, family,
attorneys and public officials, including
the employees of the Department of
Corrections who must carry out the
execution.
"It costs far more to convict a person
to death than to long-term incarcera
tion," he said. "I believe executions turn
up the volume of violence in our
society."
Byers, however, said any prosecutor's
expenses were high. She called the death
penalty a "specific incapacitator." In an
earlier interview, she said, "It's clearly
geared to stopping the 'mad dog' or
repeat offender. (Convicted and exe
cuted killer James) Hutchins killed three
people. If he'd been executed after the
first, he wouldn't have killed the other
two.
"But our laws don't allow the death
penalty if someone just kills a person,"
she said. "You have to kill in a really
atrocious way to get it."
Vellani said minorities received the
death penalty more often.
Byers disagreed. "Opinions differ,
and studies can be done to show
anything you want," she said. "Peniten
tiaries first began to make you penitent.
It didn't work then hasnt worked
since. Sometimes a life locked in a little
room with no chance of getting out is
worse than death."
Vellani said he had seen men on death
row change their attitudes and
behaviors.
"I've noticed people improve
markedly when they find out if they'll
live or die," Byers said. "IVe seen people
who have the possibility of change, but
they are the minority ... the vast
minority."
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