A
10Ttie Daily Tar Heel Thursday, March 17, 1988
Wst laily (Har Hn
96 th year of editorial freedom
Jean Lutes, Editor
Kathy Peters. Managing F.Jitor
Karen Bell, News Editor
MATT BlVENS. Associate Editor
KlMBERLY EDENS, University Editor
SHARON KEBSCHULL, State and National Editor
MIKE BERARDINO, Sports Editor
Kelly Rhodes, Am Editor
MANDY SPENCE, Design Editor
JON RUST, Managing Editor
KAARIN TlSUE, News Editor
AMY HAMILTON, Associate Editor
KRISTEN GARDNER, University Editor
Will Lingo. City Editor
LEIGH ANN McDONALD, Features Editor
CATHY McHUGH, Omnibus Editor
DAVID MINTON, Photography Editor
Teaching a lesson in oppression
Last Friday at Durham's Chewning
Junior High School, 14 students and
three bus drivers wore rebel emblems
to celebrate what they called "South
ern Pride Day." The students were sent
home and suspended from school for
up to 10 days; the bus drivers were
fired.
David Pruitt, whose 12- and 14-year-old
daughters were both sus
pended after the incident, has filed suit
against the Durham county school
board and five school officials. The
suit charges that his daughters will
"suffer irreparable harm to their
constitutional rights and their right to
receive education from the public
schools" if they are not allowed to
return to school immediately.
To many, the Confederate flag is
a symbol of hatred, a bitter reminder
of an era of slavery and oppression.
A father who encourages his children
to wear such a symbol probably
deserves to be criticized. However,
Pruitt's attempt to protect their right
to freedom of expression is on target.
By suspending the students and
firing the bus drivers, school officials
have sent a stifling message to stu
dents: maintaining order and avoiding
confrontation is more important than
freedom of expression.
Larry Coble, superintendent of
Durham County schools, said wearing
rebel flags would offend black stu
dents. But the students who wore the
flags insist that they wore the Con
federate emblems to display pride in
their heritage, not to cause trouble.
They say they don't see the "stars and
bars" as racist. If those students had
been allowed to wear the flags to
school, a confrontation with black
students could easily have occurred.
Perhaps listening to a black person's
objection to the flag would have
opened their eyes to its oppressive
implications.
Superintendent Coble has said the
students were suspended because they
are not allowed to wear "anything that
is offensive or potentially disruptive."
The question remains: offensive or
potentially disruptive to whom!
In this case, the Durham school
officials have demonstrated a com
mendable sensitivity to a racist sym
bol. But they have set a dangerous
precedent. Tomorrow, they could
decide that "Black Power" T-shirts,
Star of David emblems or other
symbols are offensive as well.
An educational system that forces
students to give up their right to
freedom of expression is hypocritical.
Sheltering students from potentially
painful views teaches a dangerous
lesson. The open exchange of ideas is
an integral part of the learning process.
Jean Lutes
Veto shows Reagan's true colors
President Reagan vetoed a major
civil rights bill Tuesday, on the
grounds that it grants the federal
government too large a role in the
protection of rights. Instead, he
proposed an alternative with a much
narrower scope.
t The Civil Rights Restoration Act
that Reagan vetoed reverses the effects
pf the 1984 Supreme Court decision
TGrove City v. Bell. The decision
restricted application of antidiscrim
ination laws to specific programs that
deceived federal funds, rather than to
jjjtn institution as a whole. The Res
toration Act would force the entire
institution to comply with federal civil
Sights laws.
jj However, the Reagan administra
tion has foreseen great evils the
Restoration Act would cause. While
he president does not object to
overturning the Grove City decision,
he feels that the act "dramatically
texpands the scope of federal jurisdic
tion over state and local governments
"and the private sector." This may be
true, but the federal government
already has its meddling little fingers
nil inese areas, since n lunus inuiviuual
h programs. Congress is correct when it
r stated that an institution whose
programs accept federal aid must, as
an entity, obey federal antidiscrimina
tion laws.
Reagan has also stated that the act
"poses a particular threat to religious
liberty" by, forcing religious groups
that provide public services to adhere
to federal guidelines, rather than to
their own doctrines. The flip side of
this view is what the Restoration Act's
proponents fear that narrowing the
bill's scope would allow almost any
such religious group to claim exemp
tion from federal antidiscrimination
laws.
Since Reagan has consistently
maintained that he would veto the
Restoration Act, his alternative can be
seen as a last-ditch effort to limit the
act's civil rights guarantees. His
alternative is a sham that would allow
organizations with federally funded
programs to discriminate against
minorities in other areas. Reagan's
unjustified veto is a blow to the ideal
of equal opportunity.
A vast majority of both chambers
of Congress have voted in favor of the
Civil Rights Restoration Act. Reagan
is taking a stand on principle he
prefers a laissez-faire government to
one that assures equal rights. Fortu
nately, he is again in the minority.
Stuart Hathaway
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The balancing act of one cathedra
isgruntled voices began to echo off
J the massive limestone walls shortly
' after the new parish administrator
announced the renovation plans. Six
months later, after Thanksgiving and
Christmas dinners reverberant in conten
tious tones straight out of James Joyce,
the controversy rages. Not since local
favorite Monseigneur Hardy left the
Church to get married have Atlanta
Catholics had so much to talk about.
The 50-year-old Cathedral of Christ the
King was built in an Americanized version
of the European cathedrals' traditional
Gothic style. The simplified structure
articulates both the power of the sublime
and the value of a quiet, bare humility.
In that sense, the cathedral expresses both
the hopes and the inherent contradictions
of the 2,300-family parish, with its wealth
of the city's most prominent families.
But in half a century, a church weathers
much wear. So vhen the new administra
tor, Father Richard Kieran, heard calls for
long overdue renovations, he responded
quickly and to this nearly sedate parish,
surprisingly. For in addition to repairing
the roof, remodeling the basement and
providing better access for the elderly and
handicapped, Father Richard has pro
posed a full-fledged redesign of the
church's interior to improve the worship
service in accord with documents written
since the Second Vatican Council.
Ending in late 1965, Vatican II moved
the Catholic Church into modern times.
Stressing more involvement by the laity,
the Council both symbolically and tangibly
opened the Church by suggesting that
Mass be said in the local language rather
than in Latin. By recommending greater
community participation in the worship
service, the Council effectively called for
a new church architecture. In the tradi
tional cross-shaped church, with a long
narrow nave lined with pews facing an
elevated altar, the priest is separated from
Louis Corrigan
Straight from the Womb
the parishioners. Recent years have seen
the rise of suburban churches with semi
circular seating. But no one expected the
changes to come home to the cathedral.
Father Richard set out his plans a bit
too much like a professional duelist
throwing down his gauntlet, hardly a
prudent move barely three months in a
new parish. His plans call for moving the
altar forward and providing flexible
seating around the altar, and forming two
small chapels in the wings of the cross.
At an estimated some say underesti
mated cost of $1.5 million, the reno
vations would permanently alter what
revered Atlanta historian Franklin Garrett
calls "one of Atlanta's architectural
showplaces."
Aesthetic issues aside, many feel the cost
of this structurally unnecessary project is
ridiculous, even immoral, in light of the
needs of the 500-student elementary school
or the broader community. One longtime
parishioner even questions whether the old
families with the most financial resources
will support the project. Some have already
left the parish. Others have formed the
Save the Cathedral Committee.
In the first open meeting on the plan,
500 people debated for nearly three hours
in what The Atlanta Journal called "tones
usually reserved for zoning battles." The
Save the Cathedral Committee announced
the results of its survey, showing 350
parishioners opposed to the plan and only
43 for it. Scrawled on several question
naires circulated by Father Richard's
liturgical consultant from New Jersey were
the words, "Yankee, go home!"
After hearing of another controversy
some say Father Richard instigated in
Athens, Ga., my own mother has taken
to psychoanalyzing him. She attributes his
actions to a need for turmoil, since he grew
up in Britain as the son of Irish parents.
But whether the controversy stems from
Father Richard's personal needs or from
his desire to do God's will, all agree the
issue has sparked life in a long dormant
parish. The ironies abound. The controv
ersy has indeed strengthened the congre
gation's feeling of community and
increased lay participation in Church life.
And in searching for arguments against
renovation, parishioners have also
stumbled upon the notion of social action.
Long content with the painless tasks of
contributing to semi-annual clothes drives,
periodic mission collections and occasional
sandwich-making for a downtown shelter,
cathedral members have now considered
the possibility of a more active and helpful
agenda for social programs funded by
$1 million in contributions.
The cathedral faces problems confront
ing many Catholic parishes as they attempt
to honor both the spiritual implications
of Vatican II and the Church's social
concerns as reiterated in Pope John Paul
IPs recent encyclical: "Faced by cases of
need, one cannot ignore them in favor of
superfluous church ornaments and costly
furnishings for divine worship; on the
contrary it could be obligatory to sell these
goods in order to provide food, drink,
clothing and shelter for those who lack
these things." Citing this encyclical, Bishop
Michael Murphy in Erie, Pa., recently put
a $1.1 million renovation project on hold,
suggesting the money might be better spent
on meeting social and educational needs.
At Christ the King, such a decision is
yet to be made. Let us all pray for it.
Louis Corrigan is an Evening College
student from Atlanta, Ga.
Readers' Foramm
Shultz plan
flawed
To the editor:
I find it deeply disturbing
that one of your editorial
writers, Stuart Hathaway,
didn't research the topic of the
Palestinian Israeli problem
fully before he had written his
editorial. By taking the side of
the Palestinians, he has failed
to see one major point: Yasser
Arafat does not control all the
factions of the Palestinian
dream.
Sure, the Shultz peace plan
is a start toward peace in the
Middle East, but it has that one
major flaw: there is still a large
minority of Palestinians who
believe that they will not be
satisfied until the state of Israel
is wiped off the earth. By giving
the Palestinians the West Bank
and the Gaza Strip, as the
Shultz peace plan proposes,
you will cut Israel in half at the
center.
The West Bank, as one of
the occupied territories, covers
almost the entire central area
of Israel. Included in this area,
if you go back before the 1967
war, is the eastern half of
Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the
capital of Israel. What country
would want to split its capital
in half and have its feared
enemy within miles of its
governmental power? The dis
tance from the Mediterranean
Sea to the far west border of
the West Bank is only 12 miles.
All the Arabs would have to
do is to travel 12 miles west,
'Colonise PERMITS 17-YAR-0LD SCHOOL BOS
DRIVERS UMffL JUE. 15
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and they would have control of
Israel's capital, major airport
and largest city. They would
have cut the country in two.
Secondly, you will be giving
the radical Palestinians a ter
rorist base in which they can
wreak havoc on the rest of the
world, especially on the sup
porters of Israel. Who do you
think was truly behind the
TWA hijacking? Who is behind
the kidnapping of U.S. and
European citizens in Beirut?
Who was behind the murder of
American University President
Kerr (Arizona's Steve Kerr's
father) in Beirut last year? All
of these questions have the
same answer: Arabs who sup
port the Palestinian movement
or the Palestinians themselves.
Even though I don't approve
of what Israel is presently
doing, these reasons make the
Shultz plan unrealistic. I do not
know a better way to solve the
problems of the Middle East.
But this plan would not do at
all.
IAN SCHILLER
Sophomore
Music Education
Create fund
to deter vandals
To the editor:
A month ago the Bell Tower
was vandalized. Have the cul
prits been caught and made to
pay for their actions, or has the
University paid approximately
$ 1 .000 for repairs out of its own
operating budget?
I propose a method of ensur
ing that this type of "prank"
does not take money from our
student needs again. Let's
charge a dollar per ticket
surcharge for basketball and
football games for all guest
tickets. This money could be
placed in a scholarship fund to
be given to the guest school at
the end of the year if and only
if no vandalism has occurred.
If there are acts of vandalism,
the costs of repairs would be
subtracted from "their" money.
Then, their student body would
be concerned and possibly
prevent vandalism from
happening.
ED TOSTANOSKI
Media Technician
Health Science Library
Female poverty is society's problem
Editor's note: This is the third in a series
of columns highlighting women's issues,
being printed in conjunction with Women's
Awareness Week at UNC.
conomics offers one reason why the
concerns of women should be the
concerns of society as a whole.
Terms such as "the feminization of
poverty" are frequently used among
feminists, yet rarely heard in introductory
economics classes. When women become
poor, it is a problem of society. Until
poverty is recognized as a women's
problem, attacking the problem effectively
will be impossible.
In 1980, half of all U.S. women aged
16-64 held full-time jobs. Of these women,
only half earned enough money to support
themselves and one child. Thus, if any of
these women had to support themselves
and a child, 75 percent of them would need
outside help.
Unfortunately, this outside help usually
comes in the form of welfare, rather than
alimony. In 1984, only four percent of
divorced wives in the United States
received alimony, and only 22 percent of
single mothers received child support.
During the 1970s, the sharp increase in the
divorce rate, the rise of teenage pregnancy
and the increase of children born to unwed
mothers caused a 50 percent increase in
the number of households maintained by
a single mother. Though these families
account for only 15 percent of all families,
they count for half of all poor families in
the United States.
Monica Riedy
Guest Writer
Race, which has long been acknowl
edged as a factor of poverty, also greatly
influences economic oppression. However,
in the last 20 years, gender has proven more
fatal than the color of one's skin. In 1981,
54 percent of all black families headed by
a single mother were below the poverty
level. Twenty-seven percent of white
families maintained by a single mother fell
below the poverty level.
These statistics were recorded in the first
years of the Reagan administration. Since
then, the economic situation of single
mothers has worsened. Reagan's spending
cuts have taken money from day care,
temporary shelters, job training and legal
aid. In 1982, Aid to Families with Depend
ent Children (AFDC) was cut by 18
percent. Since then, AFDC has received
further cuts. When women cannot receive
alternate funding, they become welfare
. mothers. If a welfare mother takes a job,
she faces cuts in benefits equal to every
dollar she earns, as well as a loss of
entitlements to free medical care and
reductions in child-care expense credits
and food stamps.
The feminization of poverty does not
affect only families maintained by a single
mother. Among people over 65, two and
a half times as many women as men live
in poverty. Without the benefits of a
previous job-or military service, many
elderly women are left destitute; a lifetime
of work raising children and maintaining
a household is not recognized as paid labor.
In a society that claims to value
motherhood, it is ironic that all work
involved in bearing and maintaining
children goes unpaid. When a woman with
a family goes on welfare, she is a siphon
who is accused of bearing children solely
to receive more money from the state.
Women's unpaid labor in and out the
home provides services and products for
which no economy is prepared to pay. This
phenomena is dramatically demonstrated
in developing nations, where an estimated
80 percent of all production is carried out
by women, while those women own less
than five percent of the wealth. When most
of the wealth is in the hands of a few,
the few reap the benefits of work supplied
by the many.
Poverty is a function of inequality. As
poverty increases, inequality increases. At
present, women are the ones becoming
poorer. Women and their children are on
the wrong side of an unjust inequality.
The problems of women are not and
cannot be treated as the problems of
feminists. They are the problems of
socially, economically and politically
unjust societies. Thus, the problems faced
by women should be realized and fought
by all who desire a just and equitable world.
Monica Riedy is a senior interdiscipli
nary studies major from Raleigh.