'"'-u 4' m. u 1 c1' " a" n' t" " ij'i"1" n i 'ii1 "
8The Daily Tar Heel Friday, September 9, 1988
P5i .year of editorial freedom
rhe clay the ga
Jean Urns, Editor
KAREN BELL, News Editor
MATT BlVENS, Associate Editor
KlMBERLY EDENS, University Editor
JON K RUST, Managing Editor
Will Lingo, Editor
Kelly Rhodes, Eteor
CATHY McHUGH, Omnibus Editor
KAARIN TISUE, News Editor
'"UiVRA. VEARLMAN, Associate Editor
KRISTEN GARDNER, University Editor
- SHARON KEBSCHULL, State and National Editor
MIKE BERARDINO, Sports Editor
LEIGH ANN McDONALD, Features Editor
KlM DONEHOWER, Design Editor
DAVID MINTON, Photography Editor
Hey! Don't
Education through participation.
The words neatly describe the goal of
"Tarheel Aluminum Recycling Pro
gram" (TARP), sponsored by Stu
dents' Environmental Action
Coalition.
Throwing an aluminum can into a
bin may not sound much like partic
ipation, but that's all it will take to
make TARP a success.
When students use the bins marked
"aluminum only" that coalition
members have placed in residence
halls, theyll be participating in a
recycling projects and, group members
hope, learning a lesson about envir
onmental awareness.
The University accounts for 20
percent of the waste sent yearly to the
Orange County solid waste landfill,
which officials predict will be filled in
nine years. Officials give the Durham
landfill only five years before it, too,
reaches capacity.
The University. can do its part to
conserve landfill space if students use
the large bins marked "aluminum
only" that coalition members have
placed in residence halls.
If more people volunteer to be
responsible for the bins, SEAC can
trash th
ose cans
place them in the Pit, Lenoir and other
highly accessible campus locations.
A 200-acre joint landfill site, which
would be accessible to both Durham
and Orange counties, is now being
sought.. With the new federal laws
regulating liners for landfills, the cost
for this project will skyrocket.
A comprehensive recycling program
will save tax dollars in the years to
come, but projects like TARP can do
more than that. They also can help
clean the air and preserve natural
resources.
Recycling an aluminum can con
sumes 9C(-95 percent less energy than
it takes to mine the ore that produced
the can in the first place. According
to a study by World watch Institute,
"Throwing away an aluminum bever
age container wastes as much energy
as pouring out a can half-filled with
gasoline."
SEAC members say they are more
interested in j-aising campus environ
mental awareness than in filling bins
with aluminum cans. So next time you
want to toss out that Diet Coke can,
head toward the "aluminum only" bin,
and stop for a second to think about
the difference you can make. Laura
Pearlman
Fugitive should face justice
Campus activist Dale McKinley has
been subpoenaed to testify before a
grand jury investigating the disappear
ance of federal fugitive Eddie Hatcher.
But McKinley shouldn't be in such a
situation in the first place, because
Hatcher should have already turned
himself in.
McKinley had met with Hatcher the
day before Hatcher's bond was
revoked and he was declared a fugitive.
Hatcher and Timothy Jacobs, both of
Robeson County, were scheduled to
stand trial Sept. 19 for taking hostages
at The Robesonian newspaper in
Lumberton about six months ago. The
two have said they seized the news
paper to protest corruption in local
law enforcement and violence directed
at the Tuscarora Indians and black
citizens, who make up two-thirds of
the county's population.
Hatcher's attorney said he is
shocked at the amount of energy being
expended to find Hatcher, especially
since very little is being done to correct
the problems in Robeson County.
The attorney is right, to a degree
Hatcher is serving as a scapegoat
and a distraction. He could quit
wasting time by turning himself in and
Spike
this
kill
A year after Reagan proclaimed the
so-called war on drugs an "untold
American success story," illegal traf
ficking continues to increase.
Rather than admit defeat, the State
Department has come up with a novel
proposal to destroy the true source of
cocaine the coca tree.
Government researchers have
recently discovered an herbicide,
appropriately entitled "Spike," that
will poison the plants, which form the
basis of South America's economy
and, most importantly. its
environment.
Presently, "manual eradication"
destroying the plants by hand is
the only method used by Americans
and local authorities to combat the
spread of the coca plant. Yet this
method has been largely unsuccessful.
Although narcotics agents destroyed
record numbers of plants last year, the
amount of coca produced rose by an
estimated 10 percent.
In addition, the work is hazardous
for the agents. The fields are often
heavily protected and the traffickers,
many of whom are much' Better funded
than the local police, arc not reluctant
to kill intruders.
Yet the disadvantages of extensive
"Spike" spraying would outweigh the
benefits.
insisting something be done.
Sometimes civil disobedience is the
only way to bring change. Without the
brave men and women who have dared
to buck the system, schools would still
be segregated, and this country would
still be a British colony.
Living in the midst of the injustices
and confusion in Robeson County, it
must have been easy to get black and
white permanently muddled. But
Hatcher's and Jacobs' actions are not
something to be brushed aside, no
matter how commendable their
motives.
In taking hostages, they endangered
the well-being of innocent victims,
causing crimes as serious as the ones
they were protested. Their actions
went beyond civil disobedience and
denied others' constitutional rights.
Hatcher should turn himself in and
face the consequences of his actions
last spring if he wants the credibility
that will truly make his message heard.
He is obligated to fight the injustices
in Robeson County, but he must fight
them on legal grounds. Otherwise, the
important points he has to make will
go unheard or ignored by those with
the power to make changes. Sandy
Dimsdale
er chemical
The herbicide was developed in a
laboratory, under controlled circum
stances that are unlike those found in
a tropical rain forest. Many are
concerned about the potential destruc
tion of one of the world's key ecolog
ical subcontinents, fearing that the
chemical will remain in the soil, move
to other areas of the rain forests or'
"drift" during aerial drops.
Critics also point out that as the land
is destroyed, farmers will simply
migrate to new areas and grow new
plants, eventually forcing officials to
destroy more land.
And the economic impact of such
a program cannot be understated; coca
is the cash crop -of most South
America. The destruction of the plant
would create a huge political backlash
and lead to a massive economic
collapse.
That the State department would
consider such a proposal, much less
actually put it into action, shows how
futile and desperate the war on drugs
has become. Tossing aside more
serious issues, such as the world's
economy and the environment, the
tfdmmistration has resolved to stamp
out the drug traffic regardless' of the
effect. One can only hope that the next
administration will put the issue into
better focus than this one. Dave
Hall
A ndrew Podolsky's column of Sept.
ZU 7 ("A tale of two baseball parks")
JLiXrekindled some painful memories
in at least one loyal Cubs fan on campus.
The article was a tribute to the beauty
of Wrigley Field " and to the Chicago
tradition of "keeping baseball that lazy
summer game it has always been."
Podolsky heaped nothing but praise on the
Chicago ballpark, citing its natural turf,
its ivy-covered outfield walls and its fans
as proof that it is one of a select few "rear
ballparks left in existence. However, I can
only Jbelieve that Podolsky's recollections
.of baseball at Wrigley Field are from a
time in the distant past, a time when,
Wrigley Field was alive with passion and
, excitement, a time when Cubs baseball was
a daytime delight, a time before August
8, 1988, the day the ballgame died.
For roughly a century, Chicago baseball
has been a daytime sport (of course, the
White Sox have played at night for many .
years, but Chicago's true baseball baby has
always been the Cubs). Some teams have
played under the lights since the '30s and
'40s, when night baseball first became a
popular attraction. Other teams, such as
the Mets and the Blue Jays, have known
nothing but night baseball. But Wrigley
Field remained a moonlit ballpark. Then
the tragedy began. In the winter of ,1981,
Herman Franks, then general manager of
the Cubs, was replaced by a man named
Dallas Greene, a Phillie in Cubs' clothing.
Greene made massive changes. First of
all, he brought half of his team with him.
There were ugly rumors that the team
would have to change, its name to the
Dave McCollum
Guest Writer
Chicago Phillies. But the Cubs did
improve, slowly. In 1984, after two years
of work on the Cubs farm system, Greene
lost patience and decided that if he couldn't
grow a contender, he'd buy one. He
brought in the likes of Rick Sutcliffe, Ron
Cey, Dennis Eckersley and Steve Trout
from various teams and thus bought the
team a pennant.
But the Cubs went no further. The San
Diego Padres, another team born under
the lights, served the Cubs a humiliating
playoff defeat and went on to lose the
World Series. Dallas knew the reason; he
decided that if the Cubs were ever going
to win it all, they could only do it at night.
Dallas Greene is now gone. His miracle
team flopped in 1985, right after he signed
all his new veterans to jillion-dollar
contracts for five years apiece. The
management finally came to its financial
senses and canned him, but his legacy has
lived on. Though the Tribune (which
bought the Cubs from Bill Wrigley at the
end of 1983, and gave permission to Greene
to buy a pennant) may have liked little
else about the former general manager, it
decided that night baseball was a must. .
And so it happened. That fateful day
arrived at last. There were celebrations,
bands playing, everything but a tickertape
parade to celebrate the dawning of a new
era in Chicago baseball. Some old bugger,
claiming to have been a loyal Cubs fan
all his life came onto the field, and with
a 3-2-1 countdown, he threw the switch.
I couldn't watch. It was blasphemy.
The ballgame started. The field was
bright as the first Phillie' came up to bat.
The tension mounted. The pitch finally
came . . . Bang! The first home run under
the lights at Wrigley Field was hit from
a Phillie bat. I could barely contain myself
while watching this ludicrous mockery of
the tradition I held so dearly, so I went
to a movie with my girlfriend.
As we drove away, we hardly noticed
the clouds gathering above. Then suddenly,
ahead of us, a splinter of lightning blazed
down, as the sky exploded overhead. The
rain began to fall. I nearly cried with glee.
With the exception of the occasional
sprinkle every month or so, the Chicago
area had seen no rain since the middle of
May. Now it came hi buckets. Even the
gods did not approve! We quickly switched
on the radio to hear Steve Stone proclaim
ing that despite the rain delay, this
ballgame would be completed. It never
was. Tickets for the game had sold for as
much as $200 apiece, and those who paid
got what was coming to them. Beautiful,
beautiful rain. v
The next day, of course, the first night
ballgame was completed at Wrigley Field.
I hate to break it to you, Andrew, but
even in Chicago, "real" baseball is dying.
But dont lose hope, yet at least the
ivy is still, alive.
Dave McCollum is a junior chemistry
and English major from Naperville.Ml.
Parking not
an issue
To the editor:
Students' rights are impor-1
tant. However, there are some
that are more important than
others and some that I'm not
sure are really an issue at all.
This is true of the . so-called
parking issue. I cannot, believe
that students actually think
they should be allowed to drive
to class what an incredibly
arrogant thing to think.
Of course there are excep
tions, although I can think of
very few of them. If a student
lives five miles out of town, I
think it is reasonable to give
that student a parking permit.
However, chances are that the
student is not the average
Carolina boy or girl and either
will find alternate ways to get
to school or be dropped off by
a spouse or relative. Obviously,
this is a ridiculous case.
Unfortunately, I believe that
this issue is typical of the class
blindness that infects this cam
pus. As students, we are
extremely privileged. All jokes
aside, we have been given
opportunities that very few
others get, both in this country
and in the rest of the world.
That someone could actually
get angry that he or she cannot
drive to classes that their
parents are probably paying for
in the car that their parents
' probably paid for too is a little
too much, especially when
these same student "rights" are
held up to the rights of faculty
and staff.
Many professors live further
away than most students. And
many of the professors that I
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have had bicycle, take the bus,
or, "gasp, walk to school:
When Matt Bivens mentions
staff, does he include all of the
staff? It does pot all consist of
administrators and their secre
taries. Does he include the
housecleaning staff, which,
unlike the student population
and administration staff at
UNC, is all black, with one
exception? They are picked up
in airless buses somewhere up
Airport Road where I am
sure they do not park the
Hondas and BMW's that their
daddies bought them and
are brought to work at 8 p.m.
every morning to clean up after
us poor, students, who may
have had to take the bus, ride
our bike or walk to class. Give
me a break!
Yes, there is a problem with
student rights on this campus,
but please, next time pick a real
issue. "
MARGUERITE ARNOLD
Junior
International Studies
Defeat depends
upon the game
To the editor:
While Jon Rust's piece on
"The Last Temptation of
Christ" brought out some inter
esting and thoughtful observa
tions, there was at least one
misconception. The assump
tion that Christians, by vigor
ously protesting this film, are
"self-defeating" their purposes
is dependent upon the object
of defeat.
If the protesters are con
cerned with preventing box
office success, then Mr. Rust
is correct in his assessment.
However, if these protesters are
more concerned with uphold
ing the dignity and character of
Christ even at the expense of
a hit film, then its financial
success is a small price to pay.
What is central to their debate,
as they see it, is the denigration
and character assassination of
their Savior. Thus Universal
Studios is confronted with a
group of individuals who want
nothing more than their rights
as Christians to be respected.
This perhaps, along with the
recent pro-life demonstrations
in Atlanta, may very well
signify the burgeoning of a new
civil rights movement.
HARRY BLEATTER
Senior
; History
Letters policy
All letters must be typed
and double-spaced, for ease of
editing.
a All letters must be signed
by the author(s), with a limit
of two signatures per letter.
Students should include
name, year in school, major,
phone number and home
town. Other members of the
University community should
include similar information.
Do 1 development ai ds Alaskans
ast spring I noticed an environmen
talist booth protesting oil develop
J ment in the Alaskan Arctic Wildlife
Refuge. As an Alaskan, I felt compelled
to inform them about the reality of the
situation. Now I'd just like to set the record
straight.
' Imagine a desolate landscape, a place
far above the Arctic Circle in the state of
.Alaska. In the winter, temperatures dip to
100 degrees below zero, and fierce winds
blow with a wind-chill factor of 200 degrees
below. Ice and snow stretch as far as the
eye can see, with no man or animal life
to be found, except for an occasional polar
bear. In the summer, this land comes to
life. Tundra stretches to the horizon, and
scattered plants and animals inhabit
thousands of square miles. This area,
known as the North Slope, is abundant
with natural resources, specifically oil. Oil
platforms and supporting structures co
exist peacefully with the sparse wildlife.
Millions of dollars are spent to prevent
oil spills and to contain them. The
environmental record for the Alaskan oil
industry is one of the best, many times
better when compared to the disastrous
spills caused l?y supertankers off the East
and West Coasts of the United States.
One area of the North Slope has been
reserved as the Arctic Wildlife refuge in
this beautiful but desolate land. This was
done during the 70s to appease environ
mental groups and to speed development.
At that time, few people believed there
could be any significant reservoirs of oil
in this area, at least nothing compared to
those at Prudhoe Bay.
However, geophysicists now believe that
this area of Alaska may contain the largest
Marcus Higi
Guest Writer
oil reserve in North America," larger than
all oil reserves in the continental United
States combined. This represents billions
of oil dollars, which are essential to the
failing Alaskan economy (of which 70
percent depends directly or indirectly upon
oil revenues), The .potential oil exports
could reduce the trade deficit with Japan.
As an Alaskan, I feel very strongly about
developing this area for the benefits of the
Alaskans and for the economic interests
of the United States. Alaska is suffering
from the biggest economic depression in
recent memory. Many families have gone
bankrupt, experiencing great economic
and emotional hardship. They can no
longer make ends meet, and alcoholism
and suicide rates are higher than ever.
I tried to explain this to some students
who were opposing oil development of the
Arctic Wildlife Refuge. They spouted off
the "latest" environmental figures, main
taining that there was only a 21 percent
chance of finding oil (which is in fact quite
good for the oil industry), and that the
wildlife was being placed at great risk.
These students have seen many of the
beautiful pictures of Arctic wildlife printed
by the Sierra Club.
Unfortunately, these pictures are mis
leading. In reality, the North Slope is a
barren landscape with little wildlife. My
father, who used to be employed by Arco,
is very knowledgeable about the region's
economic potential. As a geophysicist who
has studied the area, he believes that there
is a vast reservoir of oil that hasn't been
discovered. '
These well-meaning individuals con
tinued to maintain that I, an Alaskan, and
my father, a geophysicist, are wrong. They
cited a 1987 environmental study by the
Secretary of the Interior. The secretary
knows very little about geophysics, and he
is merely regurgitating information given
to him by others. Although I cannot
directly challenge his information, I
seriously question a Department of the
Interior that has proven incompetent with
Alaskan development concerns.
The environmentalists tried to accuse me
of having no compassion for animals,
which I found ridiculous and totally
irrelevant to the issue. The question is, do
they have any compassion for the 400,000
people who live in Alaska people who
know their state far better than environ
mental crusaders in North Carolina? :
Alaskans are suffering from financial
hardship, emotional stress, unemployment
and destitution that accompanies eco
nomic crisis. Many have seen their whole
life savings wiped out and their property
taken over by banks, which are also failing.
Outsiders have no business trying to dictate
what should be done ' about Alaskan
resources. Leave it to Alaskans, not to
misdirected bleeding hearts desperately
searching for a cause, , to decide what is
best for their state.
w r- t l .
Marcus mgi is a junior oioiogy mujur
from Anchorage, Alaska.
V;