The Tar HeelThursday, May 19, 198817
OpBOIOBI
Boy preachers lose youth
When the three Strode children
leave for elementary school, they
take ordinary textbooks in their
backpacks with one difference.
They also carry their Bibles, so
they can back up their sermons
with Scripture.
Duffey Strode, 10, was sus
pended from his school in Marion
again last Friday. For Duffey, this
was the fourth in a series of
suspensions, including one for
fighting and three for failing to
enter school.
Duffey refuses to enter school
because he is busy giving his fire
and brimstone sermons. In his
latest speech Friday before he was
suspended, he preached to the
arriving cars and teachers: "Thou
shalt not take the name of the
Lord thy God in vain. Thou shalt
not commit adultery! You're
guilty! Even your eyes are filled
with adultery! Men can't keep
their eyes off women, and women
can't keep their eyes off men.
Adulterers shall be put to death
and their blood shall be upon
them!"
Now, how many 10-year-old
boys even know what "adulterers, ,
fornicators or whoremongers'"
are? And how can Matthew,
Duffey's 5-year-old brother who
has three preaching suspensions
to his name, know what the
theological implications of adul
tery are?
The boys are supported by their
parents in their preaching. Their
father, David, also a street
preacher, says the problem is not
his children but that "this country
No faith left
In the first aftershocks from
Donald Regan's recent kiss-and-tell
book on the First Family,
Nancy Reagan's influence over
her husband was scrutinized and
soundly denounced.
But the next wave of reaction
held that we should pity Nancy
for the bashing she's received. A
column by Sen. Alan Simpson of
Wyoming portrayed Nancy as
simply an equal partner in her
marriage, a loving and devoted
wife who gives her husband the
same support as any other good
wife. Nancy should be respected
for standing by her husband and
helping him in difficult decisions,
he said.
Sorry, Senator, but that won't
wash. Certainly other first ladies
have given their husbands support
and offered advice when they
needed it, as was the case with
Bess Truman or Rosalyn Carter.
But the ultimate decisions and
power resided in their husbands,
and the country counted on that.
After all, it elected Harry and
Jimmy, not Bess and Rosalyn.
But now it appears likely that
Mrs. Reagan has been the "ulti
mate power" and that the deci
sions her husband makes, he
makes because she told him to.
The decision to force the resig
is gone.
But the bigger problem is that
of the childhood these boys are
having, that their parents encour
age them to have.
The Strodes seem unconcerned
about the self-righteous anger
they are instilling in their children
as they support the preaching and,
presumably, warn their children
of the evils within their teachers.
And they seem unconcerned with
how this affects their children
socially and emotionally. Duffey
says he has only two friends, but
that is of no concern to David
Strode, who says it doesn't matter
"he never had friends before."
Worse yet, they appear uncon
cerned that the young children
walking into school every morn
ing are forced to have those hate
filled messages streaming into
their ears.
It's true that the world is not
perfect, and children will eventu
ally have to learn that. But at 5,
or even 10, the world should still
seem pretty darn near perfect, and
children should be allowed to
realize its imperfections slowly.
The Strodes, though, are hurling
the world's problems at their
offspring faster than the children
can interpret them.
Most of us can look back at
our childhoods fairly fondly. But
it'll be a wonder if the Strode boys
will have fondness left in their
hearts with which to look; they
seem destined now to grow up
only with anger and hatred, rather
than with the love that usually
comes from childhood.
in Reagan
nation of a dying CIA chief, for
example, or to kick out Cabinet
members before their agreed
upon resignation date seems to
have come straight from the First
Lady's lips to her husband's.
That's not likely to instill a real
sense of faith in the president
(especially when that advice may
have been heavily influenced by
astrological garbage.)
It has been inspiring to see first
ladies taking on specific causes
and working hard for them it's
good to have first ladies with
minds of their own. "Say no to
drugs" was a good cause for Mrs.
Reagan it's hard to fault
anyone working for a cause that's
as in the public interest as stop
ping the flow of drugs to
schoolchildren.
But staff, domestic and foreign
policy issues should be left to the
president, simply because he, and
only he, is the country's elected
official. Mrs. Reagan should back
off and, with only a few months
left, prove to the country that the
president really is capable of
making decisions. More and
more, even with the dozens of
learned advisers Reagan has at his
fingertips, that's looking
extremely doubtful.
Blue heaven is not black heaven
In my endless search for the
appropriate college to attend, I
managed to narrow my choices
down to two schools, UNC and
Howard University. I chose UNC
simply because I realized that attend
ing a predominately white college
would better prepare me for the
predominately white world. But UNC
is not completely blue heaven. For
it to be that, UNC administrators and
white students need to concern
themselves with the feelings of
inequality experienced by their black
students.
Initially, Carolina manifests social
inequalities. For the white student
there are several avenues for social
pleasure. First, there is Franklin
Street with all its predominately white
bars. When you are tired of barhop
ping Franklin, there is always the
opportunity to invade a fraternity or
sorority house party.
On the contrary, Carolina offers
few social outlets for its black
students, who consider themselves
very fortunate if there is a dance in
Great Hall once every two weeks.
Their only other alternatives for
entertainment are to go to the movies
or to go out of town. Many blacks
often travel to black colleges in
Durham, Greensboro and Winston
Salem just for social encounters.
After evaluating the situation, I
decided to take the initiative to mix
socially with some of the whites on
campus. First, I attended Purdy's, a
mostly white barclub where a few
blacks occasionally go. In Purdy's,
lar Seel
Debbie Thompson
Guest Writer
whites assembled on one side of the
room and blacks on the other. I could
have thought I was back in the 1940s
or '50s where total segregation
existed, except for the interaction of
the popular, black athletes with
several white females.
The University is also limited in
facilities available to black students.
Upon the opening of Upendo
Lounge, black students were guaran
teed use of the lounge at anytime.
Now the University has gone back
on its word and black students have
to make reservations to use the
lounge.
After countless years of fighting,
the Black Student Movement finally
was given a Black Cultural Center.
Ideally, this is supposed to be a place
where blacks can go to find a sense
of identity and fellowship. Disap
pointingly, the room donated for the
BCC is only slightly bigger than a
dorm room and is very plain.
The University also exhibits prej
udice in its selection of performers
at the Student Activities Center. Of
the few black performers who have
. come to the SAC, even fewer are truly
black groups. Officials refused to
book hard-core black groups like
RUN-DMC or LL Cool J. Their
reason was that that they disapprove
of the wild crowd associated with
Editors Sharon Kebschull and Nicki Weisensee
News Editor Julia Coon
Photography Editor David Minton
Design Editor Mandy Spence
Assistant Editor James Benton
Staff Francine Allen, Kari Barlow, Frank Bragg, Beth
Buffington, Shelley Erbland, Jeff Eckard, Nancy Fister, Susan
Holdsclaw, Anne Isenhower, Michael Phillips, Christopher
Sellers, Chris Sontchi, Mary Turner.
such groups. Yet they booked Pink
Floyd, which has been known to
carry a wild crowd. Does this not
seem to be some form of discrimi
nation or stereotype?
Academically, the black student
feels at a disadvantage with his white
colleagues. White students come from
better-educated and economic back
grounds than do most black students.
But many black students are the first
generation to have the opportunity
to seek a college education.
Also, white students who come
from economically stable families do
not have the pressure of working
while attending school that many
black students have. This pressure
often poses a threat to the black
student's study time and, conse
quently, his grades.
UNC needs to concern itself with
the social and academic problems
facing its black students. The decrease
in the enrollment of black students
could be the result of black students
going home to tell potential students
of their feelings of inequality. For
Carolina to solve its racial problems,
people should work to understand
and respect others' beliefs and prac
tices. They should rid themselves of
the prejudices and stereotypes of
yesteryear and take advantage of the
different cultural exposures that
Carolina has to offer.
Debbie Thompson is a junior
psychology and communications
major from Burlington.