The Daily Tar HeelMonday, October 30, 198911
Opinion
Aoimeoica caomiot afford
I have looked in'vain for any signs of
the much,-heralded War on Drugs here
in our little village and major univer
sity. Perhaps it's already won! All of
the Pell Grant recipients at Carolina
this fall, as a condition for receiving
these federal funds, signed a statement
that they will not make, sell, have or use
"controlled substances." In this con
text, too, the chancellor has signed a
statement that the campus is "drug
free." Unlike Wake, Durham or Alamance
counties, there is not a single substance
abuse treatment center, private or pub
lic, that offer extended primary care for
Orange County residents - students or
non-students. Indeed, until last year,
there was not a drugalcohol detoxifi
cation facility in our county that as
sisted both men and women. Our Stu
dent Health Services must need only
the one substance abuse counselor who
was hired last year. Evidently, unlike
Duke Power, Southern Bell and most
Research Triangle corporations, the
University does not need an employee
assistance program to help faculty and
staff members to identify, treat and
begin recovery from substance abuse.
But is the war won or merely ig
nored? Ask that question to the staff of
the Orange-Person-Chatham Mental
Health Center. There, hundreds of
substance abusers from our commu
nity, many of them University students,
faculty or staff, or their family mem
bers either volunteer or are assigned by
our court system for education, coun
seling and treatment. Ask that staff if
there is a substance abuse problem, in
their jurisdiction and if they have the
finance's or personnel to wage war
against it. Ask our campus or town
police, the dean of students' office, the
Orange County courts, the staff of the
N.C. Memorial Hospital Emergency
Room or South Wing if we are free of
the drug problem in our "Southern Part
of Heaven."
Probably no one knows the extent of
the drug problem in Chapel Hill; appar
ently not too many care. Of course we
are spared the horrors of the drug in
fested streets of D.C., L.A. or New
York. Further, the tyranny that reins in
Colombia seems to be in another world
from Franklin Street, UNC. But this
distancing and safety is merely relative
and may be only temporary. We do
have our victims - those addicted to
Mew jpf. Hugo's wrath brings
understanding of suffenn
I spent part of my fall break tearing
down an elderly woman's home. Actu
ally, Hurricane Hugo didn't leave much
to tear down. It was my first' trip to
Charleston since the massive storm had
hit the East Coast late in September. I
was amazed at the damage that Hugo
had left behind in the city but at the
same time was surprised at the clean-up
that had already been accomplished.
Virtually all the trees that I had grown
up taking for granted were gone, but
much of the debris the storm left behind
had been cleared and now lay in ten
foot high "walls" on the sides xf roads.
On Sunday morning, my mother and
I rode out to McClellanville, a rural
community about an hour north of
Charleston that depends primarily on
shrimping for its livelihood. McClel
lanville was where Hugo's storm surge
the huge wall of water that is pushed
ashore by the hurricanes's winds
landed. In contrast to Charleston,
McClellanville's clean-up was seem
ingly just underway. We rode into town
just as many churches were getting out
most had planned lunches for volun
teers and residents but had to hold them
outside due to damage to the churches.
We spent the day helping Lilly Page,
a small, gray-haired woman of 65, tear
down the sheet rock walls of her home.
When we first met "Miss Lilly," as she
was referred to in the village, she was
wearing a purple Furman Palladins
sweatshirt, which we learned was do
nated by a local church, as was most of
wec--
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mm
1 WORKERS
J
Thomas Langston
Guest Writer
alcohol and other drugs, the battered
wives and abused children, the DWI
casualties. Some of these victims make
the news, and the public reacts with
horror and indignation. But the vast
majority of victims never make head
lines the missed classes of students
and instructors, failed marriages and
broken homes, discontinued degree
programs, shortened academic careers
and lives.
What makes our drug problem all
the more insidious is that, overwhelm
ingly, our drug choice is alcohol. That
the drug is legal, socially accepted and
used moderately by a majority does not
mitigate the total effect its use has on
our community. Experts tell us that
about one in 10 alcohol users are ad
dicted; we don't need experts to prove
to us that even casual use can be abu
sive and destructive. So we have a
major battlefield here, before we add
coke, crack or pot.
Although the chancellor's support
of "Zero-Proof Day" is an interesting
and useful symbol, especially since it
focuses attention on alcohol as well as
other drugs, it is hardly a battle cry. If
our school is to jon the fray, even at the
infantryman level, there are certain basic
conditions that must be met:
1. We must catch up to other corpo
rate and governmental employers and
meet state-mandated provisions by
providing a comprehensive employee
assistance program for faculty and staff
members.
2. We should review the available
resources and personnel not only in the
Student Health area but also through all
aspects of student life with the goal of
having quality professional and peer
assistance to all students who may have
a problem with alcoholdrugs. The
Student Assistance Program, already
endorsed by the N.C Department of
Public Instruction, which is providing
training for teachers, counselors and
other public school personnel in the
drugalcohol abuse prevention area, is
a possible direction the University could
take.
3. We could join other state univer
sities by providing degree programs in
Trey Loughran
Guest Writer
her current wardrobe. Miss Lilly lived
in a small box home whose frame had
somehow survived Hugo. She showed
us the water line of the surge on her
wall s the dark 1 ine marking the he ight
of the water was about five feet on the
wall. "At least it didn't hit me as hard as
it did my children's home the one we
used to live in," she said. Later in the
day her grandson John took me over to
see the remains of his home a pile of
smoldering ashes. His house had been
knocked about 10 feet off its founda
tion, and his family consequently had
no choice but to burn their home. He
later showed me the boards left from a
treehouse he had been building for his
brother a few days before Hugo hit.
Despite the loss of their home, John
and his family were lucky. According
to him, his father's shrimp boat was the
only one in the village not damaged by
the storm. Many were left stranded in
the middle of roads or wedged in be
tween trees, damaged beyond repair.
The storm left many local residents
facing great economic hardship in the
near future. Most everybody had wind
insurance, but, according to Miss Lilly,
only one person she knew of had flood
insurance. Despite the fact that the surge
was wind-driven, insurance agents
OF THE WORLD,
lecnwhUeii'h
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substance abuse counseling. At the very
least, we should provide substance
abuse education to all students. As of
now, we limit that education to our
athletes, a practice that defies logic and
equity: surely no one feels that athletes
are more at risk than other students to
problems of substance abuse; surely all
students deserve the same quality in
struction and attention to this important
health issue.
The above suggestions are only a
few efforts that the University must
make if she is to be even a soldier in the
could only compensate those who were
specifically insured against flood
damage. Consequently, Miss Lilly and
many others are left to cross their fin
gers and hope that their applications for
FEMA assistance grants are accepted.
When I went to grab a Coke at the just
re-opened general store, I asked the
owner if they had been busy. "Not at
all," he said. "No one's got any money."
Mother Nature hasn't been kind
lately. For many of us, it is easy to
watch the reports of disasters in South
Carolina, San Francisco and Texas with
a detached concern. But when I saw
Miss Lilly removing the last surviving
remnants of her home, I understood her
complete devastation. "That was the
last Christmas tree your grandfather
ever saw," she told her grandson, pull
ing a white aluminum tree off the top
shelf of the closet. She was reminiscent
when John found a small purse contain
ing two-dollar and silver mint one
dollar bills. But despite her severe
losses, Miss Lilly's spirit remained
buoyant and gracious. As we began to
leave, she gave my mother a crocheted
doll she had made, one of her few
surviving possessions. Having helped
her finish Hugo's destruction, we left
her sitting alone on her stairless door
way, only to wait and wonder when she
can begin again.
Trey Loughran is a senior political
science and economics major from
Charleston, S.C.
U NEVER VINP
r
to lose
e Wr cfsiVrtsgs
battle. If the University is to provide the
leadership in this area that should be
expected of a nationally ranked and
regionally superior institution, as we
often and loudly declare, we must go
beyond what is expected of and being
done by other institutions. We need to
develop innovative and imaginative
programs in both the areas of instruc
tion and research as well as service to
our University family as well as the
community around us and the state for
which we are the chief educational
entity. We could have a state-of-the-art
Off! ces coy rageau , f m
actios asaimist racism
LJ
I am writing to pay tribute to a
tremendous lady and a wonderful
teacher and role model; I refer to
police officer Keith Edwards. I met
Officer Edwards on Oct. 1 1 , and I
find her to be a lady who bears a
wellspring of wisdom and an indi
vidual who is deeply concerned with
the subtle and often overt forms of
institutionalized racism that affect
African-American men and women
daily regardless of our position in
life. I consider Officer Edwards a
friend, a mentor and a teacher. The
African-American community on the
UNC campus should honor and sup
port her for she stands boldly in speak
ing for herself and others of her people
who may be afraid to point out the
wicked, racist and corrupt policies of
the state of North Carolina and the
campus at Chapel Hill.
I state unabashedly that I love
Officer Edwards. I love her because
when she speaks to me and advises
me on life, and encourages me to
keep on pushing, and assures me that
I can and will make it, I feel as though
I am finally getting an opportunity to
meet Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tub
man, Ida B. Wells and many of the
other sisters whose names we never
knew -r- women who demanded that
their sons and daughters remain stead
fast and strong in the wake of slavery
and Jim Crow. I feel as though I am
Threshold, TAs an
"It' s starting out with so much power,
so many people and so many students,
there's no way it can't have a long
lasting effect." Tony Deifell, Cam
pus Y co-president, commenting on
this past weekend's national Threshold
conference, sponsored by the Campus
Y's Student Environmental Action
Coalition. The groundbreaking student
environmental action conference, which
ended Sunday, included more than
1 ,300college students and featured such
speakers as N.C. Sen. Terry Sanford.
"I've been charged with disruption
of legitimate University activities, and
I wonder which is more disruptive
my actions or breaking up a class in the
middle of the semester." - Student
activist Dale McKinley questioning the
sentence he received for his Oct. 18
conviction of trespassing and willfully
obstructing the operations of the Uni
versity at an April 1988 anti-CIA pro
test in Hanes Hall. McKinley was placed
on definite probation, which prohibits
him from officially representing the
war odd
r3rsof ens'i -the user
drugalcohol treatment facility as a
companion to our Center for Alcohol
Studies. We could review and update
the curricula in Medicine and Public
Health, with regard to substance abuse
information and treatment, and make
Chapel Hill the place to study in the
area of chemical dependency studies.
The field is wide open for all the gener
als and admirals we wish to provide.
But don't the basic requirements,
not to mention the major problems here
suggested, cost lots of money? Not
really; probably not nearly as much, at
Bruce Karriem
Guest Writer
speaking with Queen Candace, our
African sister who lead armies and
frightened Alexander the "supposedly"
Great on the field of battle. In Officer
Edwards I see more than simply a
campus police officer, and you the black
community of UNC professors, admin
istrators and students should demand
that the charges of racism, sexism and
corrupt hiring practices on the part of
the campus police department should
be heard by whatever judicial board is
trying to evade these issues now.
I have had law enforcement experi
ence in the cities of New York and
Durham. I have had the opportunity to
dialogue with police chiefs, majors and
captains in both of these cities, and I
find Officer Edwards to be just as
knowledgeable of her field as these
other top police officers. In a recent
conversation with Mr. Lawrence Mor
risy of the Raleigh Office of Human
Relations he stated that, after 15 years
with all her expertise, Officer Edwards
should be no less than a captain. I feel
that it is an insult to the intelligence of
the African-American community of
UNC to be told that Keith Edwards
should remain in the same position of
Week in Quotes
University or from participating in any
extra-curricular activities, and which
may keep him from teaching his politi
cal science class of 50 students.
"I'm deeply sorry for those I have
hurt. I have sinned. But never in my life
did I intend to defraud." Jim Bakker,
speaking in the courtroom before being
sentenced for fraud and conspiracy
convictions. Bakker was sentenced last
week to 45 years in prison and fined
$500,000 for defrauding his PTL fol
lowers for his own enrichment.
" think Playboy believes, what's
wrong with being a sex object if that's
not all you are?' " Elizabeth Norris,
director of communications for Play
boy, explaining that Playboy recruit
ment on college campuses usually draws
a few protesters, but not enough to stop
interviews. Playboy has plans for a
dd
drags
least to get started, as the $99 million
dollar power plant now under construc
tion nor the $34 million dollar Smith
Center. Particularly in a "war-time
economy" the money can be there if the
will is strong enough, if the right people
want it. In the case of the War on Drugs,
this is one battle we can't afford to lose.
0
ii i a
Thomas W. Langston is the associ
ate director of the student aid office and
a board member of Freedom House, a
detoxification unit and halfway house
for women. ' '
patrol officer in 1 989 as she was when
she was hired as a patrol officer in
1974. This is at best disgraceful! .
I am somewhat familiar with the
old administration of the campus
police department. I have had conver
sations with Sgt. Ned Comar and
Major Parigga. Around March 19881
completed an application for the UNC
campus police department; I was not
even granted an interview. I am a very
mature and articulate 31 -year-old
college graduate with a B.A. in politi
cal science and a minor in sociology.
I have worked in the communications
section of the New York and Durham
police departments and I am a former
social worker, and I would be very
interested in knowing exactly why l
was not granted an interview.
To the African-American commu
nity of UNC and our people through
out the diaspora, we have a great
commission. It is time to take down
the false barriers that divide us and
realize that we are one people, we
have one God and we have one des
tiny. Marcus Garvey said, "Up you
mighty nation, you can accomplish
what you will." Remember our sister
Officer Keith Edwards stands for truth
and justice; she stands for herself;
and, most important of all, she stands
for her people. Let us all support her.
Bruce Karriem is from Durham. ,
oin
"Girls of the ACC" issue, and a photog
rapher will be at the Carolina Inn this
week to begin interviews.
"They need to realize they're living
in a college town. There need to be
compromises. Students should be aware
of the community, and the community
should be aware of the students."
Mark Smith, president of Lambda Chi
Alpha fraternity, responding to local
resident's proposed reduction in noise
levels permitted under Chapel Hill's
noise ordinance.
"President Bush may well have
stumbled on the one issue that could
cost him re-election." U.S. Rep. Bill
Green," R-N.Y., commenting on Presi
dent George Bush's veto of a bill that
would have provided abortion aid tor
poor victims of rape and incest. The
House fell 50 votes short of overriding
the veto last week. !
' 4
Compiled by Tammy Blackard, edi
torial page editor. I
g time