The Blue
Banner
Editorial
Who’s really in control?
Basic morality implies a respect for truth, something which
seems more and more rare in our leaders, our media, and
ourselves. Of course, one thing about truth is that leaders set the
example, even though we think we no longer need someone to
show us how to act.
If our administration is not willing to tell the truth about what
happens in student court, or what decisions are made concerning
students with criminal records, why should we expect them to
tell us the truth concerning anything else?
And why are they the ones in charge? And why is the student
court acting as though the administration is dictating their
thought?
Student court is for students to evaluate and judge their fellow
students who have broken university laws or federal laws. Stu
dent court is not a puppet for the administration to use.
Student court and student government are, as the names imply,
student entities. They are run by students, for student affairs,
accountable to students.
If a student organization will not answer questions that stu
dents have, then it does not fulfill its function.
So the questions remain, who told student court to stay quiet?
If they can't say anything because of closed seesion, arid Reid was
judged to be harmless, why don't they want that feet published?
If he is not harmless, why the overwhelming concern for the one
against the many?
Wouldn't the prudent course of action include at least inform
ing the university population of the matter so that students can
use their own judgement in how to respond?
We do not advocate infringing on his right to privacy, but we
do ask that a matter of such grave import be opened to public
knowledge, so that each and every student may do what he deems
best in this situation.
Hopefully, we can act grown-up enough to know when to be
kind and forgiving, and when to be cautious, but please, we ask
that we be given the whole truth, in order to makean informed
decision.
Why was this closed, if Reid is innocent, (or at least, barely
guilty), and who, if anyone, is behind administration's reluc
tance to speak on the subject?
Let's act like thetruth has some relevance for our lives, and free
the student court to make their own decisions, based on evi
dence, not on some misguided utopian view of UNCA.
We should keep in mind what Oscar Wilde said, "The pure and
simple truth is rarely pure and never simple."
Editorial Board
Catherine Elniff
Andrea Lawson
William Davis
Anne Kuester
Jeannie Peek
Editor-in-Chief
News Editor
Features Editor
Sports Editor
Copy Editor
Staff
Gretchen Brooks, Kenneth Com, Shawn Culbertson,
Marissa DeBlasio, Nick Foster, Troy Martin,Wendy McKinney,
Susan Sertain, Denise Sizemore,Michael Taylor, Jennifer Thurston,
Christine Treadway, Jack Walsh, Jeanette Webb
Karen Brinson
Alice Hui
Greg Burrus
Advertising
Business Manager
Circulation
Mark West, faculty advisor
The Blue Banner is the student newspaper of the University of
North Carolina at Asheville. We publish each Thursday except
during summer sessions, final exam weeks and holiday breaks. Our
offices are located in Carmichael Hall, Rm 208-A.
Our telephone number is (704) 251-6586. Our campus e-mail
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Unsigned editorials reflect the opinion of a majority of the Blue
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represent only the opinions of their respective authors.
The Blue Banner welcomes submissions of letters and articles for
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ture, classification, major or other relationship with UNCA.
Interporn; The demise of Big Brother
James Hertsch
Columnist
There is no Internet pornog
raphy problem.
The media are lying to us
about it. They’re looking for a
story. It’s the minority who
run around with pornorgraphy
rings.
There is no Internet pornog
raphy problem.
There are some scum out there
who exchange this stuff regu
larly, child pornography rings,
etc. They can be arrested, tried,
and sentenced under existing
law. Such people should go to
jail, and they do.
There is no Internet por
nography problem.
The knee-jerk reaction to all
the hype has been to write
legislation about it...totally
outlaw “indecency” on the
Internet, or any computer net
works. To prosecute not only
those who distribute it, but
those who are the providers
for those who distribute the
dirty pictures. We would as
soon sue the phone company
for somebody making an ob
scene call.
There is no Internet pornog
raphy problem.
Finding publications like
Playboy and Penthouse on the
Web is not that hard. It’s also
not that hard to get hold of
them in a bookstore; indecency
hardly began on the Internet
There is no Internet pornog
raphy problem.
Where are the parents? Why
don’t they supervise the kiddies
on the computer? Why don’t
they turn the computers off?
There is no Internet pornog
raphy problem.
The Internet, a decentralized
group of computer networks,
is the ultimate expression of
free speech. You can say any
thing. Do anything. You flame.
You get flamed. And all Big
Brother can do is watch.
Officials at the Simon
Wiesenthal Center have sent
notes out to Internet provid
ers, asking that content which
would spread racism, anti-
Semitism, or general mayhem,
be censored. Be removed. That
ideas be destroyed. That ideas
be restrained.
Providers, as a general rule,
state that they’re not respon
sible for their users. And well
they should say this, for we
need this freedom to exchange
ideas. We need the ability to
discourse, without having to
hide behind the veneers of po
liteness we use in real space.
For the human species, there
can be nothing more'valuable
than this communications me
dium. In cyberspace, everybody
can hear you scream—and
multitudes will scream back.
It sounds like the main “prob
lem” is free speech.
The Internet is the ultimate
expression of the “free market
place of ideas.” As it stands
now, the Internet is not peace
ful, but it is a hubbub of activ
ity. It is freedom, it is liberty.
The Internet is home to every
body and nobody.
There is no problem on the
Internet.
Yet, as we’ve seen above, some
say there is. Some ask that the
Internet be regulated. Some
believe the marketplace be re
stricted. Some would even re
quire that the Internet be
closed.
And, why should the govern
ment regulate the Internet?
The answer is that the govern
ment is here to protect as. To
shield us from the unknown.
To address our fears.
That’s the larger issue here.
Fear. Fear of change. Fear of
the unknown. The informa
tion Revolution is wonderful
and frightening.
With modern technology,
you can send a message from
here to the South Pole. Thanks
• to the miracles of e-mail, we
are coming closer to becoming
a true global village. Camara
derie, friendship, and under
standing across national
boundaries are more possible
' than ever before. With e-mail
, a person can get to know you
onadeep, personallevel...from
a thousand miles away.
With your Social Security
number, and some hacking, a
person can find out almost any
thing about you. Your name.
Your birthday. Your shoe-size.
Your credit rating. Anything
you say or do.
It’s like the ancient gods and
their priests, who saw all, knew
all, and, with a few words of
power, could strike you down
where you stood.
Today’s priests can sacrifice
you on the altar of technology.
Today’s priests, though ridi
culed, hold a certain mystical
power. They are the gate keep
Basketball, it’s not a game anymore
Nate Conroy
Columnist
Man, I hate people.
Particularly parent sports
“fans” at their child’s high
school athletic events. These
contests are low-profde games
with a few normal fans, but
abounding with “parent-fans.”
These overzealous moms and
dads eagerly pick up the slack
for the small crowd, screaming
and hollering about offense and
defense. Many even yell dur
ing time-outs and halftime
when the teams are in the locker
room.
Having escaped the ranks of
the participants in high school
athletics, I now grudgingly take
my place among the mob in
the bleachers to watch my sis
ter play... JV high school bas
ketball - the worst of parent-
fan hells.
On one particularly dark and
stormy January evening, my
seat choice landed me right
beside a lovely woman who,
for lack of a better name, we’ll
call “Bertha.” How shall I de
scribe this prodigious hulk of
woman? Just conjure up the
most hideous, obnoxious, re
pulsive, jackass of a woman of
which you could think. Next
picture her bellowing cheers
and jeers continuously for two
hours. Then put two little rat
tailed children scampering
around at her feet.
Imagine Bertha en
couraging them to
mock the other team
and make screeching
noises during free
throws. Imagine her
arguing with the other
team’s parents; imag
ine her arguing with
her team’s parents;
imagine her arguing
with the world.
One of Bertha’s
slams on her fourteen
year-old enemies (the
other team) was “We
got a sumo out there!”
When one of the larger
girls bumped into somebody.
Ironically, Bertha looked about
as close to a Sumo wrestler as
any woman I’ve ever seen, ex
cept she was much louder and,
much less attractive. Nonethe
less, Bertha’s children found
the remark extremely humor
ous, showing their approval by
with them.
By the time the game reached
halftime, hate and loathing had
filled the gym as if the pink
slime from “Ghostbusters 11”
was bubbling up underneath
the bleachers. Random parent-
fans (probably easygoing,
friendly people who could func
ers of the information super
highway. They sit,
huddledattiny keyboards...
who knows what they think?
Today’s priests mutter incan
tations under their breath,
chants as unintelligible as an
cient mystical verse.
WYZIWIG and GUI and
Source Code and Executable.
The Church on a Hill is a
Church in a Valley. Silicon
Valley. Bill Gates might as well
be the Pope. Some of us are
clergy. Most of us are the flock.
The congregation.
With the new technology,
we can move beyond this
physical world. Touch another
one. We can reach across the
planet to shake hands...or to
break them.
The only vi^ay to control this,
some people believe, is to
regulate it: You can’t say this.
You can’t say that. You can’t
do this. Meanwhile, the hack
ers, the devils and demons of
this new mythology, become
instead minor deities. They
thumb their noses at the au
thority which tould trap them
in the name of some “greater
good.”
It’s chaos in the midst of
ordered series of binary data,
zeroes and ones in perfect har
mony.
Internet pornography and
cybersmut and extremist po
litical rhetoric are only part of
the “problem.” Most of the
“problem” is free speech. Free
speech is only part of the revo
lution. The revolution is hap
pening all around us, awful
and glorious.
It’s coming.
It’s here.
It’s gone.
And we can’t even try to stop
it.
repeating the comment for the
next ten minutes. Bertha was
obviously pleased with herself
for having made the eight year-
olds laugh as she chuckled along
tion normally within society
during the day) were trans
formed into screaming, raving
lunatics. These people all had
jobs, friends, and families, but
the fact that their child was on
the court caused them to lose
all self-control.
I asked one piarticularly ruth
less fan, “Would your mother
like it if she saw you act like
this?”
“This is my mother!” she re
sponded, pointing to a lady who
was screaming twice as loud
and foaming at the mouth.
“AND THAT’S MY
GRANDDAUGHTER!”
granny roared, gesturing to
wards the girl on the court ar
guing with the ref.
Who was winning the game
on the court? I almost forgot.
Luckily, with a few minutes
left everyone realized there was
a good game going on! Even
Bertha quit stomping and
started supporting her Nean-
derthaloid daughter. The thun
dering fans quit yelling at ev
erybody and actually started
cheering!
copy
Due
Sven
and
both
* their
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