14AThe Daily Tar HeelFriday, September 2, 1988
96th year of editorial freedom
Karen Bell, News Editor
MATT BlVENS, Associate Editor
KlMBERLY EDENS, University Editor
JON RUST, Managing Editor
Will Lingo, city Editor
Kelly Rhodes, Am Editor
CATHY McHUGH, Omnibus Editor
Jean Lutes, Editor
KAARIN TlSUE, News Editor
LAURA PEARLMAN, Associate Editor .
KRISTEN GARDNER, University Editor
SHARON KEBSCHULL, State and National Editor
MIKE BERARDINO, Sports Editor
LEIGH ANN McDONALD, Features Editor
DAVID MlNTON, Photography Editor
Starting a new league Tradition
A lot changed in Teague oyer the
summer.
At the end of the spring semester
last year, Teague residents held an
outdoor party to celebrate the last day
of classes. When the party got out of
hand, the area director in charge of
Teague moved the party inside, and
some resentful partiers made racial
slurs toward her.
After the party, the harassment
continued. Obscene drawings and
profanity were scribbled on her
apartment door. She received threat
ening phone calls and people pounded
on her windows at night.
While school was still in session, the
housing department called a meeting
of all student leaders in Teague to ask
for help in tracking down those
responsible.
In a perfect world, the people
responsible for harassing the area
director would have .been caught,
criminally charged and expelled. But
they weren't. So the University decided
to move everyone out of Teague.
The new dorm would be co-ed, in
the hope that women would exert a
maturing influence on guys predis
posed to activities such as "swirling"
the Teague initiation in which
freshmen have their heads stuck , in
toilet bowls and then flushed.
Throwing 72 residents out because
of the actions of a few is hardly fair.
Even worse, it's a simplistic solution
to a complex problem. Those respon
sible are still at UNC, just living
elsewhere on campus.
Since then, 14 of the 72 former
Teague residents have been moved
bacK into the dorm nine on appeal
and five at random. For all anybody
knows, those five random students
could have been the very heart of the
Teague Star Chamber that started this
mess.
Administrators did get, rid of what
they viewed as a problem dorm, while
sending a message that racial harass
ment will not be tolerated. But the
swift action excluded students from
' planning Teague's future.
Remember those Teague leaders
who were asked to sniff out the
responsible party? After they turned
out to be poor detectives, the students
weren't really consulted again. They
should have been included in the
decision-making.
Luckily, Residence Hall Association
President Jimmy Randolph and Stu
dent Body President Kevin Martin
were in Chapel Hill over the summer,
although neither learned of the inci
dent until after the spring semester was
over. Officials told Randolph he
hadn't been contacted earlier because
they didn't want to bother him during
exams. That's a pretty weak excuse.
The University did take Randolph's
and Martin's advice on relocating
students. Rather than giving the
.students rooms wherever space
allowed, the housing department tried
to grant them the second or third
choices listed on their contracts.
The housing department made
mistakes in its handling of the situa
tion. But it was a few Teague residents
with hateful minds and idle hands who
created the problem; and who should
be blamed first.
The racism that caused the Teague
incident is still around, but the new
Teague residents have a clean slate to
work on. Sappy as it sounds, it's time
for a new Teague Tradition. Matt
Bivens
Circles in the sand of a Delaware beach
Racism need not apply at BIN
Several freshmen have wandered
into The Daily Tar Heel office this
week, wanting to know how to join
staff. One such freshman had a
disturbing story to tell, one that
demonstrates just how much racial
attitudes on this campus need to
change.
She said she had been told that black
students were not welcome on the
DTH staff. She didn't think that was
true, she said, but that's what she had
heard.
This was a new student, who hadn't
even visited the newspaper office or
met any staff members yet, and she
already , had a negative perception
about getting involved at UNC. Her
story was frustrating and
disheartening.
Some people will say that the
perception is negative, about black
students working for the newspaper or
getting involved anywhere else on
campus. If so, that perception must
be changed.
Black students are welcome at the
DTH, as they should be at all other
student organizations. Jean Lutes
Bush makes wild promises
The Republican party has recently
begun an advertising campaign in
support of its presidential nominee,
George Bush. The campaign lends new
meaning to the Orwellian term
doublespeak.
It sounds exactly like the intro to
every campaign speech that Heir Bush
has given. "Seven continuous years of
jobs, peace and unprecedented eco
nomic growth." How can this country
have it any better?
Yet, if one ignores the rhetorical
subterfuge, it becomes quickly appar
ent that there is little truth to Repub
lican myths.
Jobs. In his acceptance speech
before the Republican convention,
Bush claimed that 17 million jobs had
been created over the past seven years
and said he hoped to create an
additional 30 million if elected.
This is an awesome claim. The latest
unemployment statistics place the
number of unemployed at approxi
mately 6 to 7 million and forecast
perhaps an additional 1 1 million new
jobs would be created in the future.
Creating 30 million jobs would require
the "importation" of at least 19 million
foreigners, impossible under the recent
landmark immigration bill of 1986.
Growth. For years, Reagan and his
henchmen have been spitting into the
. fan of reality by celebrating the largest
post-WWII period of prosperity in the
history of the nation. Long forgotten
is the menacing recession of 1982, the
most frightening period of economic
stagnation since the Depression.
Reagan, along with his esteemed
Attorney General Edwin Meese,
claims that there is no poverty in this
country. Apparently he has yet to walk
a mile from his palace in D.C., where
he could find many who are poor and
much PCP. How easy it is to ignore
the troubles of others.
Peace. Only in America, in the
1980's, can an administration that has
been involved in a multitude of
embarrassing military expeditions, in
such locales as Grenada, Lebanon, the
Gulf of Sidra, Libya, El Salvador and,
of course, Honduras, claim to have
had seven years of peace. This claim
would perhaps be excusable if our
military had performed up to par.
Instead, the assorted generals and
admirals have managed our defense
with all the subtlety and competence
of a Klansman at a Black Panthers'
convention. In addition to botching
scores of clandestine missions, the
Department of Defense has clearly
defrauded the public of hundreds of
billions of dollars by procuring wea
pons which were originally unnecces
ary and are now worthless. Many
claim that our armed forces are a mess,
at their lowest readiness point ever.
Jobs, Peace and Growth.
Remember this on election day.
Dave Hall
r"lour children were having relay races -H
along a beach in Delaware the other
JjL night. They ran between the dunes
and the surf under an almost full moon.
They knew it would not last. The moon
would have to set.
I was one of those four reveling at the
water's edge that night. Even at 21, there
is something about this particular place
that makes me forget that I only have one
more year of college and tough decisions
to make about the rest of my life. Those
things just don't seem to be that important
at the beach.
At the beach I am just one of the
Yelverton kids. We play with the Green
Kids, the Autry kids and the Pope kids.
That is our job for a week in August, just
as it was the previous generation of
Yelverton kids responsibility to play with
the Wood kids, the Radigan kids and the
Shefnockers. This is what we do, at least
what I have done for the past 18 years
that I can remember.
Things really don't seem to change from
year to year. A winter storm may take away
some of the sand, crowding the families
on 3rd Street Beach a little closer, only
to find the umbrellas as far apart as ever
the next year. The Greens' umbrella, two
to the right, the Popes' in front of ours,
closer to the water.
The beach itself doesn't change, but the
people passing through do.
Andy Green and I have been friends for
11 years now. We met as my family was
evacuating in the face of a hurricane, while
Bill Yelverton
Editorial Writer
the Greens were calmly moving in to the
apartment next to us. We survived and
so did they. Andy and I are roughly the
same age, so it came as a shock to me
two years ago when he announced he was
getting married. This year I showed his
son, Morley, how to build drip castles. He's
almost one and a half now. .
The McNeals passed away over the
winter. They owned the cottage that our
family has rented for the past 40 years.
Mr. McNeal taught me how tosurfcast
and took me clamming in the inlet. Mrs.
McNeal was famous for her clam chowder
and tropical fruit freeze that she made
specially for my sister and me, who are
allergic to eggs. Mr. McNeal would Jail
asleep during Scrabble games that lasted
past 9 o'clock while his wife racked up
points by strategically placing "quiz" on
a triple-word score. We would wake him
up when it vas his turn.
The Scrabble board stayed in the
cupboard this summer and there was no
tropical fruit freeze.
I was lucky to have known the McNeals.
They are a part of the 3rd Street Beach
that I know. Morley Green will never know
them, except through the stories I will tell
him. I hope he finds some people who are
as important to him as the McNeals were
to me.
The beach I go to is fairly typical. There
is plenty of sand, a boardwalk that runs
for six blocks, and a main street complete
with an ice cream parlor, cute gift shops
and places to buy rafts and trashy
paperbacks. It is the people that come back
every August that make it a unique place.
Carolina is a place very similar to my
beach. There are people here that I will
remember long after I have left the
University. Some of these people ' are
permanent fixtures here, others just
happened to be passing through at the
same time I was. The people I meet today
may become the important people I will
remember tomorrow. Bringing these
people together is the reason for the
University's existence; the buildings
themselves are not all that important.
The make-up of the University commun
ity is constantly changing. As the class of
1992 enters the University today they will
hear stories about the last game in
Carmichael Auditorium, but wont really
understand. Just like Morley Green will
never be able to play Scrabble with the
McNeals. I sometimes catch myself feeling
sorry for the people who missed these
things, but then I wonder what 111 miss
when I'm gone.
Bill Yelverton is a senior English major
from Darien, Conn.
Meaiclleirs9 Foram
Machines
magnify
human error
To the editor.
An estimated 300,000 people
watched the air show at a U.S.
Air Force base at Ramstein,
West Germany. Almost one
third of a million people, with
eyes lifted towards the heavens,
witnessed the ability of technol
ogy, especially military technol
ogy, to magnify human error.
But, as was the case with the
downing of an Iranian airbus,
there will be no significant
change in policy.
German Defense Minister
Rupert Scholz's ban on future
air shows is ineffectual, only a
public relations move. Tech
nology, our unholy fascination
with it, the power structures 1
which determine its develop
ment and the placement of
blame for misuse and error,
remain taboo. These questions
become particularly acute
when the machinery is military
equipment designed to protect.
. While U.S. officials quickly
pointed out that a similar '
disaster would be impossible
given our guidelines for such
demonstrations, other hazards
and potential hazards exist. In
what are surely misuses of
military license, we have sup-
L
ported South African apar
theid in exchange for strategic
minerals, and we currently
maintain nuclear reactors, vir
tually identical to the one at
Chernobyl, for the production
of plutonium. And in the worst
abuse, we employ over 25
percent of our country's scient
ists and spend billions of dollars
in a sector of our economy
replete with inefficiency and
corruption. The results of this
grand human error are pollu
tion, death, hunger, inability to
compete economically and
potential nuclear annihilation.
Much was made earlier in
this century of the barbarism
that had returned to warfare.
Unfortunately, just as the dis
tinction between soldier and
civilian is no longer extant, our
Cold War has smeared the line
between war and peace. This
is the context in which the
disaster in Ramstein must be
understood.
The planes that crashed last
Sunday were in the process of
transcribing a heart. Ironically,
the plane which caused the
disaster was supposed to fly
through the heart's center,
completing the picture. Instead,
it plunged into the spectators
below. In the horror of the
moment I am sure its symbo-
lism was missed. But perhaps
upon reflection we will all
become witnesses to the failure
of the world's military establishments-
to provide true
protection.
THOMAS BEESON
Graduate
Education.
Smaller military provides best defense
ith defense spending such an
important issue in the 1988
election, isn't it strange that the
only cost cutting measure which has not
been suggested is a reduction in the size
of our military force?
Democrats and Republicans both want
to make defense their issue. For Demo
crats, it is an economic issue. Republicans
have done their best to make it an
emotional issue. Democrats are for saving
money, which is good, but they don't offer
a more inexpensive defense concept, which
is not so good. What they do propose
amounts to merely under-funding the glut
of military might which they would inherit.
Republicans claim to have made America
strong again, but offer purchase orders for
expensive weapons systems as evidence.
Despite all their concern over communist
threats, they never explain exactly how
their purchases address those threats. This
is akin to a businessperson up to the neck .
in debt taking out a loan for a boat-load
of widgets and saying to the investors,
Dont worry, boys. These are the best
widgets in the world. Well figure out what
to do with them later."
The nation agrees on the principle of
national defense, but cannot decide what
the expression of that principle should be.
What is the role of the military? What are
its goals and missions? What is being
threatened? Who is doing the threatening,
and where? What is required to meet that
threat? It seems logical that we should
attempt to answer these questions thought
fully before even beginning to think about
allocations. -
I offer the opinion that what serves us
best is a smaller, better trained force.
I do not base this opinion on idle
speculation. The last four years of my life
were spent in the U.S. Armored Cavalry.
During that time I learned a lesson about
size vs. skill. That is, a smaller, better
trained, better led force is superior to a
larger, poorly .trained, poorly led force,
even when assuming similar technical
capabilities. Third Cavalry learned this at
the National Training Center. Israel has
proved it in every war they've fought since
1948. Good leaders apply it in their tactics.
When offered a second-rate unit to add
Daniel Conover
Staff Writer
. to his defenses, the insightful commander
holds it off the line. It is better to defend
with two units you can trust than with two
units you can trust and one unit you can't.
When a weak unit disintegrates under fire,
good units supporting it are put at risk.
In the rush to buy the best weapons, we
have forgotten that people fight battles, not
weapons. A tank is simply as good as the
tank crew,.
Reagan has rebuilt the armed forces, but
the restoration is full of holes. Reason?
Whenever a choice had to be made between
funds for training and funds for weapons
procurement, training lost. There's an
understandable side to this syndrome; with
just a little shoe polish and starch, even
the worst unit can impress a senator. No
amount of paint, however, will make an
old M-60 tank look like a new M-1 Abrams
tank. New weapons are tangible assets to
report to constituents.
Our tax money bought thousands of
high-tech tanks. And . half of those tanks
are wandering around lost in maneuver
drills because the budget to train tank
commanders went to buy the tanks.
It's all about goals, and the problem is
that our goals are murky at best. A lot
of money is disappearing into .this fog.
Defense spending literally chokes our
economy. Consider it this way: for $2.4
million you can buy your own tank, and
that will be the last you see of your $2.4
million. Invest that same money in a
business or in education and that $2.4 '
million will keep coming back in the way
of jobs, profits, services, etc. In other
words, a tank is nothing more than a
, monetary exchange. The government
collects your share of the tank at tax time,
then gives it to the people who make the
tank. No real money is produced. Times
like they are, few people feel cavalier about
throwing away a few billion dollars a year.
Or is it trillions? Who can keep track?
Obviously, we just cant afford this kind
of spending. Most Americans now agree
on this point.
The problem is that everyone's for
cutting the budget, but no' one is for
reducing the force. Simply cutting funds
Democrats refuse to touch this issue
because it invites attack, not from abroad
but from the Republicans. The GOP owns
the rhetorical high-ground on this issue
because, simply put, Reagan' made the
entire country paranoid about the vague
"communist threat." Average citizens are
not sure how the Sandinistas plan to invade
Texas, but they know Uncle Ron sure is
worried about it.' v , ?
If Reagan is most worried about this
hemisphere, he certainly doesn't put his
money where his mouth is. The admin
istration is fixated on Europe, at least when
judged by what they went out and bought.
Every significant weapons program of the
last eight years has been designed to fight
Russians in West Germany.
Why are we arming to fight the Russians
in Europe at a time when military analysts
are discounting the likelihood of an attack
on nrtiu: us particularly coniusing in.
light of Reagan's policy objectives in
Central America.
I can't read the President's mind, but
I really don't need to. The fact is, you fight
in a jungle with lots of rifles and grenades
and mortars, aided by a few helicopters.
Relatively speaking, these are pretty
inexpensive items. But you fight the
Russians in Central Europe and now we're
talking financial opportunity. World War
III requires tanks, armored personnel
carriers, infantry fighting vehicles, self
propelled artillery, ground-to-air missiles,
air-defense guns, fighter planes, stealth
bombers, satellites, aircraft carriers,
guided-missile destroyers, Cruise missiles;
strategic bombers, chemical weapons and,
finally, tactical and strategic nuclear
weapons. These are the high-dollar items.:
It's time the nation sat down and figured
out just what we are defending ourselves
against. The unfortunate aspect of all this
is that we probably never will. With current
political rhetoric in place, it is much easier
to spend than it is to think.
Daniel Conover is a junior jburnalism,
major from Carrboro.