p , I m.i.iip , nil , ,, p. wm:f.mrmmflm,f,,mr. yi . i n y-'H"!! y II ,i in p.. i f ipi pin. , in i rii.i m in ly y. n f , r mrp m vn m , i pill i I II. it pmmm . r ir yii ya.iy
10The Daily Tar Heel Tuesday, November 3, 1987
Satlg
Ular Bwl
95 th year of editorial freedom
Jill Gerber, Editor
DEIRDRE FALLON, Managing Editor
SALLY PEARSALL, News Editor
JEAN LUTES, University Editor
DONNA LEINWAND, State and National Editor
JEANNIE FARIS, City Editor
JAMES SUROWIECKI, Sports Editor
FEUSA NEURINGER, Business Editor
JULIE BRASWELL, Features Editor
Elizabeth Ellen, a m Editor
Charlotte Cannon, Photography Editor
CATHY McHUGH, Omnibus Editor
Eteadeirs' Foranni
Vote today, and bring a friend
If registered stu
dents don't vote bOcUXl
today, they can't
complain next upJliUn
week if their frater-
nity houses are leveled or their band
parties have to end at 8 p.m.
Although these things aren't likely
to happen, now more than ever
students need to make sure their
feelings are known to local govern
ment. Issues directly concerning
students include condemned fraterni
ties, the noise ordinance, new road
plans that might demolish some
fraternities and a proposed entertain
ment tax that could raise ticket prices
for Smith Center events.
Students have shown their desire to
be involved in the local political
process. Student leaders have
endorsed candidates. There are even
two students on the ballot.
Yet students' voting record is not
good. Nationally, only six million of
the 26 million people between the ages
of 18 and 24 voted in the 1986
senatorial races. On campus, fewer
than 10 percent of students bothered
to vote on a referendum that could
have abolished the drop-add lines of
Woollen Gym forever.
This apathy is not restricted to
students. The United States has the
worst voter turnout of any democracy
in the world. Fewer than 50 percent
of its citizens vote in national elections.
It took only one-third of them in 1984
to give President Reagan one of the
most overwhelming victories in Amer
ican political history.
Only registered students can vote
today. Here lies the key there's a
good chance that many will vote. In
other words, registered voters are more
likely to exercise their rights. The
problem is getting students registered
for future elections, such as the
upcoming presidential election.
Some argue that registration is the
biggest hurdle to voting. The Univer
sity could make it easier for students
by following the lead of the City
University of New York, which makes
voter registration part of each semes
ter's course registration.
Meanwhile, registered students
should vote today and show the town
that they want a constructive say in
its affairs. They do, after all, represent
about one-third of its population.
Balance adds royally to life
Speculation about the solidity of
England's Prince Charles and Princess
Diana's marriage is running rampant
these days. The two have been seen
together rarely in the past couple
months, raising not only British public
interest in their official visit to West
Germany this week, but that of much
of the world.
There are many circumstances that
may have created rifts in this fairy
tale marriage. Charles' 12 year
seniority is one factor. But the most
significant reason is their lack of
common interests.
Charles, a graduate of Cambridge
University, is interested in philosophy,
literature, classical music, architecture
and the problems of inner cities and
the environment. For relaxation, he
hunts and fishes, gardens and farms.
Diana is a high school dropout who
seems the picture of charm and grace
at every function she attends, yet
recently described herself to be "as
thick as a plank." She likes parties,
discos, rock music and the company
of young socialites.
Neither Charles nor Diana lives a
life real to most of the world. Not many
people can identify with royalty and
the strain of living in front of ubiq
uitous, unblinking cameras. But the
unhappiness resulting from a lack of
balance is something to which all can
relate.
The semester is almost over, and the
speedy downward course through a
maze of tests and papers is underway.
Some students have succeeded so far
by taking the Diana-ish attitude of
enjoying the extra offerings of a
university this size the friendships,
parties and late night talks. Others
have done it in a more Charles-ish vein
immersion in books, intellectual
questions and classroom discussion.
For either type, a lack of wholeness
now may be tugging at the heart. As
the festivities of Halloween fade into
the past, one side finds itself wondering
what it has been missing, while the
other is sobered by the inescapable
portents of the future. But what is most
important about college? Is it the deep
and the practical, the positioning and
goal-setting? Or is it the fun of the
moment, the smile and good feeling?
Deciding that one style is better than
the other would be like judging the
lives of Charles and Diana. What is
important is realizing that parts of
both are necessary if a fulfilling college
life is to be achieved.
If Chuck and Di are going to
persevere through this trouble in their
marriage, it will take an effort by both
of them to reach out. Only in balance
is there hope. Jon Rust
r non sequitur
Following what was in our time
Nick wandered ?long the river bank. It
was a dark night, but the light of the moon
shone on the slow-moving water. Bill was
back at camp. Nick thought of Bill in his
bed roll, sleeping. He wished he could sleep.
He had been awoken earlier that night
by a dream. He had dreamed of a man
he did not know, a sallow-skinned youth
who drank and smoked too much. Nick
knew the man was a writer, or at least that
others thought of him as a writer.
But the man never talked of his writing,
only of himself. He had a crowd he spent
time with, other young writers, who
believed they were living the good life. They
fancied themselves a new generation. Nick
didn't know why that thought made him
doubt himself. He had nothing in common
with the man in his dream.
The man made money from his writing,
but he did not care about it. The craft meant
nothing to him. Writing was not a way of
showing the hidden. It was a way to make
money. It kept him in the public eye.
Nick felt violated by the dream. He did
not understand, but he felt as if part of
who he was had been stolen by the man.
The sky had begun to lighten, and Nick
could see more clearly the path he was
walking on. He carried a fishing rod in his
hand, and he was comforted by its presence.
He knew inside that the man from his dream
would not understand what he was doing.
Then he thought of Bill, and he thought
of Bill talking about Marjorie, and he was
glad that he was alone.
He followed the river bank around a
bend, and stopped. He had found the place
he was looking for. Part of the river broke
away here, and fed a long, wide pool. The
water was still. Its surface was broken only
by insects landing on its surface.
The air was cold on Nick's face as he
took his fishing rod and baited the hook
and waded into the pool. He made his first
cast. He liked the way the line vanished
in the shadows of early dawn.
Every so often, Nick thought of the man
from his dream. He tried not to think of
him, but the man kept coming into his head.
And when he was there, the fishing wasn't
as good. So Nick concentrated on the trout,
swimming in the darkness of the pool.
He cast again, and the line landed soft
on the water and then the bait tumbled to
the bottom. Nick clicked on the reel, and
thought he heard the satisfying click echo
across the river, it was that quiet.
He waited, and realized he pitied the man
in his dream because he wasn't where Nick
was, because he would never be where Nick
was. Pity was a strange thing to feel, he
thought. Then the trout struck the bait,
struck it hard so Nick could feel it in his
chest, and Nick let the line out and forgot
all about the dream. He could feel the trout
run. But Nick knew it couldn't run far
enough, and so he let it run.
Of a death in a Durham County jail
Any man 's death diminishes me,
because I am involved in Mankinde.
John Donne
The odds were that I should never
have crossed paths with Earl Can
ady. I was everything he wasn't:
young, healthy, in jail for the first time,
and able within two days to post a property
bond and get out; able at leisure to follow
the trail of paperwork that followed his
body from Duke Medical Center and the
state medical examiner's office to a town
near the coast where his next of kin were
eventually found; able later in 'the week
to find and read his booking sheet, filled
in by the magistrate and arresting officer:
Earl Canady, age 49. Brown hair, blue
eyes, 5 feet 6 inches tall, 115 pounds. No
driver's license, no address, no occupation,
$400 bond. Even the spelling of his name
was uncertain. And near the bottom of
the blue form, in the box reserved for the
name of the releasing officer, someone had
written "The Almighty."
The last time I saw Canady, he had made
his way across Cell Block 1 1 and tried again
to vomit into the toilet. In the breast pocket
of his orange jailsuit he had arranged his
possessions his toothbrush, a small
comb, a bit of soap swaddled in toilet
paper. He stood at the end of the cell for
another moment, touching gingerly at his
behind he had defecated in his pants
then lay down on his pallet against the
bars and began to die in earnest while we
watched.
Counting Canady, there were 20 of us
in Cell Block 11, a holding tank on the
Sean Rowe
Staff Columnist
top floor of the Durham County Judicial
Building intended for a dozen inmates.
There on the northeast corner of the jail,
men are confined who are waiting to post
bond or go to court men in a legal
netherland, convicted of nothing, many
suffering from alcohol withdrawal.
Hours before, we had beaten on the steel
walls of the shower cubicle and called in
vain to sheriffs deputies while another
man, Odell Washington, went into con
vulsions. The jailers never responded. Now
we kicked at the door and shouted for more
than 15 minutes as Canady 's face turned
a sickening crimson and his pulse slowly
disappeared. When it was too late, we
heard the jangle of the turnkey's belt.
In the evening after the body had been
removed, we sat around in the timeless
stupefaction of the cell, playing cards. One
of the run-arounds came and brought an
inmate named John Owens the cardiac
medication he had several times requested.
The rest of us got individually wrapped
bars of soap, lavender-scented.
I dragged my rubberized mattress over
to the spot on the floor where Earl's had
been. It was a better place to sleep,
sheltered a bit from the glare of the lights
overhead. He had left his shoes behind and
when I woke in the morning, they were
there before my eyes like a clear halluc
ination: mock leather Florsheim Imperials,
size 8-C, black high-tops with little silver
buckles, the inch-thick heels fantastically
worn on the outer edges.
When I got out, I went for a walk
downtown past the considered elegance of
Brightleaf Square. Canady and three
friends had been arrested there on Satur
day night. It was now Monday. Farther
on, I came to more of Canady's haunts:
the A&P on Broad Street, which occasion
ally puts out TV dinners and buttermilk
for street people; St. Joseph's Episcopal
Church with its shade trees and playground
and free bag lunch; the woods behind
Andy's Handy Mart where John Owens
and his wife, Faye, sometimes make their
home. I had believed Canady's life was
evanescent, but here were people who knew
him well, a whole ragged community
momentarily astounded by the news of his
death. .
Had he held on until Wednesday
morning, he would have been released. Out
beyond the walls of the jail there would
be the hardness and warmth of the city
streets. There would be time to roam Perry
and Ninth and Main and breathe the fresh
air, rich with the summer fragrance of
tobacco. Time amongst the bean cans and
empty bottles of the West Pettigrew train
line to lie back on a cardboard bed beneath
the autumn sky and wonder at the pain
and the excruciating joy of what it is to
be alive.
Sean Rowe is a senior journalism major
from Douglas, Ga.
Ignorance fuels
funding debate
To the editor:
As I picked up copies of the
DTH last week I noted that,
once again, the debate over
funding for the Carolina Gay
and Lesbian Association was
raging on campus. As an alum
nus, this wouldn't normally
bother me. But as a member
of the gay community, I am
troubled and angered. The
statements made by David
McNeill and H.F. Watts in an
Oct. 27 story, and the editorial
of Oct. 28 "CGLA gets what
it deserves" are ridiculous,
oppressive and ignorant.
McNeill, one of UNC's lead
ing "non-homophobes," stated
that the CGLA promotes
breaking the N.C. sodomy law.
This is incorrect. The CGLA
supports freedom of sexual
expression for everyone, gay
and straight, and the right to
privacy for any two individuals
who want to express their love.
Watts, another "non
tiomophobe," said he doesn't
support "any organization
where the majority of members
promote the spreading of
AIDS." The fact is, though,
that no group has done more
to educate the public, protect
its members, and try to stop the
spread of this terrible disease
than the gay community, which
includes the CGLA.
As for the editorial, I appre
ciate the support given by the
DTH editorial board. How
ever, the position you took,
that the opinion of the majority
is always right, is a bad one.
I think democracy is great, too.
But the tyranny of the majority
should always be guarded
against. That is why the Bill of
Rights was created. Just
because the larger group of
people thinks a certain way,
their majority does not make
them right; nor does it mean
that their wishes should be
carried out.
Defunding the CGLA would
be oppressing homosexuals. It
would be an overt slap in the
face to over 2,000 students and
a gross injustice to the student
body as a whole. But most
importantly, it would condemn
numerous young men and
women to a longer, painful,
closeted existence and their
peers to continuing ignorance.
DON SOLOMON
Class of 1986
Raleigh
Make student
opinion count
To the editor:
Can you imagine the Univer
sity without the town of Chapel
Hill? UNC students are fortu
nate to reside in this town of
beautiful neighborhoods, vil
lage churches and lovely trees.
But this relationship has
another dimension. Who could
imagine Chapel Hill without
the University? As students, we
cannot pretend that our cam
pus is an island, ambivalent
about what lies offshore. UNC
students, as Chapel Hill resi
dents, should vote in today's
town elections.
Many of the issues addressed
by the town directly affect
students. The proposed enter
tainment tax on Smith Center
events, such as concerts, would
be paid primarily by those who
use the building most: the
students. Also, decisions on
Chapel Hill's noise ordinance
may threaten many students'
favorite social and entertain
ment events. Related is the
future of Burnout, Pi Kappa
Phi's fund-raiser for the North
Carolina Burn Center, which
needs the town's approval to be
successful.
Students are affected by
these issues. As a result, our
opinion counts, and we will be
heard if we choose the right
candidates today.
More information about the
election and the candidates will
be available today in the Pit.
Students can find out where to
vote and receive rides from the
Union to the poll sites. In the
past few months, about 1,300
students have been registered to
vote in Chapel Hill. By voting
in the town elections, we will
show our concern for the town
we could not imagine being
without.
SHARON HODGES
Junior
English Political Science
SCOTT MORTON
Sophomore
History
America needs
Robert Dole
To the editor:
Watching the Republican
presidential candidates debate
on "Firing Line" reaffirmed my
support for Sen. Robert Dole.
With his usual candor, he
emphasized his abilities rather
than criticizing his opponents.
Dole has proven his hands
on leadership style. With 19
years of service in the Senate
and eight years in the House,
he has unique experience to
serve the nation. During that
time, he has been on the Agri
culture Committee and insti
gated programs to help Amer
ica's farmers. He also served as
chairman of the Senate Finance
Committee in 1982, when he
played an integral part in
saving the Social Security
system. We need this type of
leadership in Washington.
Dole has not been molded
by the Reagan agenda, but
would propose his own bold
ideas if elected. This was evi
dent in his tenure as Senate
majority leader, and in his
current position as a Republi
can leader who is able to work
out compromises when both
parties are deadlocked on an
issue. America wants and needs
an insider who can work with
Congress.
Even George Will has said
America is ready for a "fresh
face." America is ready for Bob
Dole.
JOYCE METCALF
Senior
Political Science
Industrial Relations
Homophobia threatens academic vitality
To the editor:
The recent frenzied attacks against the
Carolina Gay and Lesbian Association are
likely to have long-term effects on the
quality of the University. In contrast to
the opinions of certain tragically ignorant
undergraduates who have recently revealed
their identities in the Reader's Forum, I
believe most students indirectly benefit
from the gay population through its
intellectual, social and cultural influence.
I am tempted to compare the status of
the gays at UNC to the status of Jews prior
to and during World War II. For those
not familar with that scenario, a small
number of extremely prejudiced and
ignorant Germans, better known as Nazis,
persecuted and murdered over six million
Jews simply because they chose to practice
different rituals. Rather than admit they
were jealous and resentful of the fact that
the Jews were socially and intellectually
more advanced, the small number of Nazis
instead erroneously blamed the Jews for
many social and financial problems. The
persecution ultimately contributed "to the
Nazis' defeat in World War II, both by
depleting their scientific community and
by mobilizing world-wide support against
the holocaust.
The persecution of gays on this campus
by a small, homophobic faction is similar
to the Nazis and the Jews. Gays are
portrayed as purveyors of AIDS and acts
of sodomy on unsuspecting students. In
fact, it is the threat of not having to think
outside of their naive, fragile world that
terrifies the homophobes on this campus.
Rather than obtaining information
about AIDS and seeing how unwarranted
their fears of contracting the virus are, at
least from the gay population, these people
would rather eliminate gays from UNC as
the Nazis tried to eliminate the Jews. The
end result for UNC is likely to be as
disastrous as it was for Germany. A
campus where persecution is tolerated will
no longer attract diverse and talented
students, whether straight or gay. This will
leave close-minded, intellectually limited
individuals who will be incapable of
maintaining the reputation this institution
has established over the years. But it won't
have any discernible effect on the spread
of AIDS in the heterosexual population
or on other problems that are falsely
associated with the gay community.
UNC students owe it to themselves not
to let a few misguided individuals damage
the University's reputation as an academic
oasis. Carolina's loss may be Duke
University's gain in the competition for
quality students. Open your minds and
your hearts and don't let the CGLA
funding issue obscure the real issue the
unwarranted fears of a homophobic
minority at UNC.
ROBERT SLUGG
' Graduate
Physiology