The Daily Tar HeelMonday, December 5, 19889
Watereate's lesson -foir
TTf the 1970s were accurately known
as the "Me Decade," then I'm here
JXto make a case for naming the
1980s the "It Wasnt Me Decade."
We are preparing to wave goodbye
to Ron and Nancy, but the Reagans
will remain with us in spirit. The
Reagan legacy is a much-discussed
topic these days, as pundits try to
establish which Reagan policies will
have the longest-lasting effect on us.
Contrary to opinions I have heard,
the greatest effect of Reagan on
American is not a rebirth of conser
vatism, but is instead the establish
ment of deniability as an essential
part of the president's repertoire.
Deniability is the word for the
1980s. It isn't a new concept, just a
rejuvenated one. If you are still
among the uninitiated, allow me to
explain: The deniability concept
holds that a president should have
the freedom to do whatever illegal
thing he wishes, and that it is the
responsibility of the president's men
to insulate the president from accoun
tability for his actions by taking the
fall for him should these actions
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t is obvious that the statement
ignorance is bliss" still holds true
ULin J. Christian's case. His editorial
cartoon ("A Trivial Pursuit") of Nov.
28 showed not only ignorance about
fur products and animal experimen
tation but also a great lack of
humanity. Maybe some facts would
help to change his mind.
In the United States, over 17
million wild animals are trapped and
killed each year for their fur. In
addition, five million pets and non
target species are accidentally killed.
Almost all of these trappings are done
with steel leg hold traps. These traps
Palestiraaos not terrorists but victims
read with perturbation Andy
Taubman's letter ("Education not
Ji.propaganda," Nov. 16) criticizing
the Nov. 14 Palestinian Human
Rights evening sponsored by the
Campus Y and the Carolina Asso
caition of Palestinian Human Rights
(CAPHR). It is sad that Mr. Taub
man resorted to a knee-jerk attack
to misinform your readers of the true
content of the program.
To take Taubman's misinforma
tion point by point:
He accuses us of presenting a
program that "was one-sided, polit
ically oriented and presented in a non
academic fashion." The Human
Rights Week 8 brochure indicates
that all the programs were also one
sided the sides that were repres
ented were those of the oppressed.
The panel on racism did not include
the voice of a white supremacist or
any other neo-fascist group. Sim
ilarly, the one on life in South Africa
did not allow a member of the ruling
white minority to voice its justifica
tion of black oppression and apar
theid. The pro-Israel lobby has done
an excellent job of exposing the U.S.
public to Israeli propaganda since the
creation of Israel. It is only fair and
very educational to show the Pales
tinian side of the issue.
His claim that our program was
"politically oriented" is misleading
and shows ignorance on his part.
Israeli soldiers' breaking of children's
bones, torture and seizure of territo
ries are, of course, political acts.
Mr. Taubman charges that "anti
Israeli" petitions were circulated at
the event. In fact, the petitions called
Daniel Conover
Staff Writer
become known.
Deniability, the ability , of the
president to deny any knowledge of
illegal activites, is an idea as old as
covert actions. It began in the
intelligence field, and for years that
is where it stayed. In the early 1970s,
when Nixon was trying to establish
a Republican dynasty to last the rest
of the century, domestic policy and
covert actions became entwined;
deniability became the cornerstone of
Nixon's defense in the Watergate
scandal.
In the summer of 1972, few
believed the Watergate break-in
would ever be linked to the president
not because Washington insiders
believed the president was innocent,
but simply because the chances of
extracting evidence of complicity
were deemed very slim. Had it not
been for some extraordinary events,
Gina Noto
Guest Writer
grab the animals with steel jaws not
only on their legs but sometimes on
their faces and bodies. Many animals
chew off their own legs to escape these
traps. Often the animals die painfully
from thirst, hunger or blood loss
before the trapper returns. For those
who contend that most of these
animals are specifically raised for
their fur: Only 23 percent of the total
Jimmy Bishara
Guest Writer
for ending the occupation of the West
Bank and Gaza and for the U.S.
government to stop giving Israel ,
nearly $5 billion per year of uncon
ditional aid American tax dollars
that are literally financing the occu
pation. Anti-occupation was never
synonymous with anti-Israeli.
His double-talk reactionism is
typical of many Zionists who, with
attitudes that "Israel can do no
wrong," cannot accept even construc
tive criticism of the brutal Israeli
occupation, much less of the Jewish
state itself.
The fact is that U.S. federal law,
under the Foreign Assistance Act,
prohibits U.S. military and economic
aid to countries that commit human
rights violations. Israel is an excep
tion to this law, receiving almost one
half of all U.S. foreign aid, at a rate
of $8 million a day. And to this day,
Palestinians are being beaten, shot,
imprisoned, held under curfew, killed
while our tax dollars keep rolling
into Israel.
Mr. Taubman's charge that "vio
lence on the West Bank and Gaza
Strip was advocated" is false and
intentionally scandalous; it has no
basis in the contents of our program,
nor in the tenets of our organization,
and serves to do nothing but perpet
uate racist attitudes that Palestinians
(or any other persons from the
Middle East) are warmongering
Reagan
the link between Nixon and the
plumbers might never have been
known.
The downfall of the Nixon presid
ency began when a young Republican
campaign official named Hugh Sloan
refused to comply with activities he
knew to be illegal that one missing
brick in the facade of presidential
deniability was like a tiny leak in a
dyke which eventually erodes the
whole structure. Nixon resigned in
the face of impending impeachment,
and the country believed it had sent
a message to future presidents: Do
not betray our trust.
But Reagan and his patrons
learned a very different lesson. The
great lesson of Watergate for the
Reaganites was not adherence to
, ethics but the importance of protect
ing the president. Carter told the
American people, "I will never lie to
you," and he tried to live by that
statement. Reagan responded with a
snicker. He didn't get rid of the
Liddys, the Hunts, the Colsons, the
Erlichmans hie got rid of the Sloans
and Deans those who could not
-our fine fu
furbearing animals killed are
"ranched."
As for animal experimentation, an
average of 71 million animals are used
in research every year. This figure
does not include the 25,000 primates
used (and some of them on this
campus). There are many alternatives
to animal experimentation, such as
tissue cultures, computer models,
bacteria cultures and mechanical
models. Unfortunately, the life of an
animal is still the cheapest and the
easiest to obtain.
These millions of lives, to me and
terrorists. "Terrorist" is a term that
has been used against the people of
the region, defaming them for the
purposes of appealing to the base
emotions of xenophobes and Amer
ican and Western supremacists alike.
His charge is a disgrace and is
patently offensive.
The speaker did not, as he accused,
quote members of small, right-wing
factions intending "to represent the
majority of Israeli officials.? Ms.
Muth quoted none other than Yitz
hak Shamir, who suggested that
Palestinians 'under occupation had
better behave or "be crushed like
grasshoppers" under an elephant's
foot. Shamir heads the Likud bloc
of the Israeli parliament, which
garnered the most votes in Israel's
recent elections. This is the prime
minister of Israel talking, the opinion
of the governing faction of the Israeli
government. To know that there are
even more hardline views (such as
mass expulsion of Arabs) to the right
of Likud is doubly disturbing
There is no historical dispute to the
fact that the human rights of Pales
tinians have consistently , been vio
lated since Israeli occupation of Arab
land. Besides, our program was
designed to address the violations of
today, as witnessed by Ms. Muth on
her human rights observing mission
sponsored by the American-Arab
Anti-Discrimination Committee's
"Eyewitness Israel" program. She was
there; she felt life as the Palestinians
normally live it.
Her speech was also filled with
statistics illustrating the inhumane
situation in the territories. The
was the power of deoiabi
be trusted to pledge their allegiance
to the president before pledging it to
the flag.
As more and more evidence of just
what had gone on during the Iran
contra affair came to light in 1987,
there, was a certain amount of aston
ishment in Washington. No one
realized prior to the time the extent
to which rank amateurs had run the
nation under Reagan. With so many
qualified experts to fill government
positions, how did a field-grade
Marine officer with a dubious service
record come to wield so much power?
The answer was simple and unavoid
able despite Oliver North's lack
of credentials, he demonstrated the
ultimate qualification for service in
the Reagan administration: unques
tioning loyalty.
When the crunch came, North
served his master well. He and
Admiral John Poindexter claimed
full responsibility. Reagan's defenses
held there were no defectors, no
leaks, no Deep ThrOat as there had
been in 1973. The president claimed
rry f friends
I hope to others, are not "trivial." If
we do not curb our habits we could
be losing one species per hour by the
end of the 1980s. God may have given
man dominion over animals but we
have skewed this to mean torture,
cruelty and destruction. In conclu
sion, human intelligence does not give
us the right to exploit and kill another
life.
Gina Noto is a junior biology
major from Asheville.
following are indeed shocking: since
Dec. 8, 1987, the day the intifadah
erupted, over 370 Palestinians have
been killed, tens of thousands have
been beaten, and nearly 20,000 have
been imprisoned. Sixty-five to 70
percent of Palestinians in the terri
tories are under age 21, thus having
known no life other than that under
military occupation. Taubman's
assertion that "little objective evi
dence was presented" is incredulous.
To clarify in one sentence, CAPHR
is against any violations of Palesti
nian human rights, and it works to
educate the public about those
violations with the hope that Amer
icans will pressure the federal govern
ment to abide by its own Foreign
Assistance Act.
CAPHR was well aware of Human
Rights Week's stated purpose: "to
provide an educational forum which
will both increase awareness of and
incite action on issues of basic
violations of human rights." Palesti
nian human rights cannot be
excluded. By presenting objective
evidence, an eyewitness testimony to
life under occupation and a grass
roots appeal to the local public, our
group worked well within the perime
ter set by the Campus Y. We com
mend the Campus Y for a very
successful and educational week, but
regret Mr. Taubman's distortions
that serve only to create an air of
intimidation and mistrust of groups
addressing Palestinian issues.
Jimmy Bishara, a senior psychol
ogy major from Chapel Hill, is vice
president of CA PHR.
to have forgotten those actions which
could be linked to him and denied
knowledge of those could not. He did
not look good while doing it, but he
avoided something worse: Had he
been connected to the scandal,
Reagan would have faced impeach
ment. Far better to look senile.
This is the legacy which Reagan
leaves with us. As a nation of
charming hoodlums, we admire his
chutzpah, his con-man skill at avoid
ing responsibility for his factions.
Reagan's legacy is proof that you can
get away with murder if you ignore
the rules and create your own.
But Reagan is not to blame for the
abuses of the power in the last eight
years, and neither should we blame
the people. The press is the culprit
here. Presidents will always try to
stretchthe limits of their power '
our forefathers understood this when
they created the system of checks and
balances. They also created the novel
idea of a free press, committed not
to a political ideology but to ferreting
Defense of
Dixie spawns debate
The South: A cultural wasteland
Ellen Stretcher, as a fresh
man, has a great deal to
learn. Her letter to the
editor in the Dec. 1 DTH concern
ing an earlier complaint of Jeff
Kosty's letter is Southern national
ism at its worst. She says that
"Dixie's music stemmed from a
true loyalty to, love of and pride
for the South." But the question
is what is there to be proud of or
loyal to? Granted, there have been
advancements, but singing "Dixie"
just shows that some people have
not grown conscious of the offen
siveness to others of their so-called
"innocent" pan-Southernism. I
suppose rebel flags are also just
an old sign of Southern pride?
The South, for the larger part,
is a cultural wasteland. Often it
is hard to see that while one is
ih CKaptf Hill,-but allow me to
take 'you to1 a small town I know
of iuvitheocduntry about 40 miles
southeast of here. A place where,
until just five or six years ago, the
Ku Klux Klan had a sign welcom
ing you to the county seat. A place
Dixie a reminder of slavery
TT am glad that Ms. Stretcher,
author of "Dixie celebrates
JULSouthern pride, not racism,"
can support the doctrines of the
antebellum South, because I, as a
black person, see nothing good in
the song "Dixie." While the
masters were singing this song
about the "land of cotton," my
ancestors were the ones actually
picking it. For blacks, this song
brings to mind just how oppressed
we were. To hear someone sing
it makes me think just how far we
have yet to go to achieve equality
on all levels.
There is no way that I can listen
to that song with happiness. It is
not the words of the song; it is
the harsh reminder of the past.
Blacks had no freedom; we were
used and abused mentally and
physically for the white man's
gain. We were brought over to
America against our will. We were
forced to learn a new culture and
language to survive. Then, we were
told that we were inferior because
Confederacy not worth praisi ng
TTn her hackneyed apologia for
the South's heritage ("Dixie
iicelebrates Southern pride, not
racism," Dec. 1), Ellen Stretcher
attacks the belief that slavery was
the sole cause of the Civil War as
"ignorant." Slavery, she avers, and
"states' rights, economics and the
power of men versus the majority
in government" were the issues
that carried this nation into the
great internecine conflict.
Quite plainly, Stretcher is
wrong. Had the institution of
slavery never been entrenched in
this country, the Civil War would
not have been waged. .
These additional factors which
Stretcher enumerates are but
manifestations of the slavery issue.
What "states' rights" issue? Under
lying the South's espousal of
nullification, for example, was its
desire to veto any federal anti
slavery legislation. What "eco
nomics" issue? Lurking in the
midst of the tariff battles was the
South's incessant struggle to
bolster its slave-based plantation
system. What "men versus the
majority" issue? Ah, she must
mean the "rich, white, slave
owning men versus the majority"
issue!
Stretcher casually remarks that
it
y
out truth. There is no more deadly
weapon in the fight against corrup
tion than the truth, but the press
failed to provide the Congress with
enough truth to combat the hard-line
lies of Elliot Abrams . and Oliver
North. Whether or not this has
anything to do with the increasing
corporate control of media outlets by
Reagan supporters is a matter worthy
of study.
It will be interesting to see if Oliver
North shows the same willingness to
take the fall for George Bush when
he stands trial for criminal miscon
duct in federal court this year. North
sacrificed himself for the Reagan but
with the Great Communicator safely
out of range in California, Bush will
be the first victim of a firelight
between North and the prosecution.
Something exotic may come out
of that trial: The Truth.
Daniel Conover is a junior jour
nalism major from Carrboro.
Old South
Leon Lowder
Guest Writer
were a major textile company
"loves" the non-union labor force
that it pays dirt wages. Where my
friend's mother worked 20 years
receiving no benefits or pension
for her service just a nice case
of brown lung. A place run by a
small clique of "old families" that
prostitute the entire area for their ,
own benefit.
Yes, the South sure does have
a great deal to be proud of. I
certainly am indebted to you for
reminding me of our proud past.
Just for the record, I was born and
raised in the South. I am by.no ,
means any sort of "transplated
yankee.
Leon Lowder is a senior phi
losophy and history major from
Raleigh.
Kimberley Maxwell
Guest Writer
of our skin color and former
culture. We were in many cases
denied education and any oppor
tunity to improve ourselves. We
were beaten at the master or
overseer's , whim. Black people
now are trying to become true
equals in American society, and
part of the problem we still face
stems from post-bellum America,
both North and South. .
For these many reasons, I
cannot and will not support the
song "Dixie." I'm glad that you
can, Ms. Stretcher, but hell will
freeze over before I will ever
whistle "Dixie."
Kimberley Maxwell is a sopho
more journalism and political
science major from Marietta, Ga.
Kam Lee
Guest Writer
not all slaveholders were
"immoral, wicked thugs." I cannot
disagree more with her. All slave
holders, including those strangely
described as good or kind masters,
were evil. Can any man or woman
who "owned" another man or
woman not be the supreme trans
gressor of the laws of nature?
The too common tendency of
New Southerners to glorify the
Old South is disappointing. There
is little in the real Confederacy
worth eulogizing: Hospitality,
nobility, genteelness attributes
often given to that time and place
are illusions of the modern
Dixie psyche. Indeed, were such
characterizations extant, the
harshness of the region's racist
heritage is enough to bury them.
Therefore, the solitary fact about
the Old South Confederacy that
all Southerners should take pride
in, is that they lost the war.
Kam Lee is an evening college
student from Chapel Hill.
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