Page 2
The Banner ■
April 13, 2000
Aipr
Opinions
The Banner -
Editorial
Breakdown
Landslide
What? Could the Internet actually have drawbacks? Talk to
anyone on a college campus, and the answer would probably be
no. But if you ask many of the exclusively-online small busi
nesses that are now facing a market that is too big, and their
answers might surprise you.
According to a recent study by respected consulting firm
Forrester Research Inc., most of these businesses will fail by
next year. Since the onset of the Internet shopping boom,
around 30,000 retailers have sprung up, causing an already
overwhelming market to become so weighted down by small
businesses that more and more people are relying on the larger
retailers like Amazon.com and Wal-mart, probably more out of
a sense of familiarity than an appreciation of their products.
So for one of the first times since its titanic growth, the
Internet does not seem to be fulfilling its percieved role as an
accessible market for all.
An April 12 Associated Press article called the coming land
slide of small business deaths a “bloodbath.” Mergers and buy
outs will cause a frenzy among the businesses vying for a place
on the over-crowded Information Superhighway, leaving many
to go under and simple disappear.
Are we seeing the same tren^ with online commerce that we
have in the world of super-stores? As the majority of small
town businesses board up after the new clothes-food-garden-
toy-shoe-photo-doctor centers spring up, Internet business is
beginning an eerie echo of their physical counterparts, ■
enterpreneurship becoming dangerous in a world of Mac-truck
sized corporations.
The question is, where do we go from here? If even a virtual
market is essentially based on who can have the most stuff in
the same place, will the Internet become just another commod
ity controlled by a few choice (or not-so-choice) companies
that will use their pure monetary power to sway consumer
“needs” and form our opinions about ourselves?
We’ve seen it already in the corporate world and, as a result,
soon after in the consumer world. Now, the one thing that
people thought might escape that trend is proving subject to
the same capitalist limitations. And another one bites the dust.
Due time
On April 12, the Energy Department urged congressional
approval of over $300 million to compensate government
workers who have cancer and other afflictions that resulted
from building nuclear weapons over the past 50 years.
For years, the government repeatedly denied compensation
claims of workers in nuclear weapons labs, which appears to be
their standard policy on all controversial issues.
More than 3,000 workers would be compensated if the bill
passes, either in lump sums of about $100,000 each or more,
depending on their medical needs.
When the government can finally admit publicly that they
are wrong (and pay an exorbitant amount of money to prove
it), America as a whole is moving in the right direction.
The unfortunate aspect of this situation is the suffering that
went unacknowledged during the decades of omission. If the
government had revoked its policy of opposing legitimate
claims, a large amount of workers could have been helped
financially with their illnesses.
This bill needs to be approved by Congress so these citizens
can get the appropriate, most likely expensive, medical atten
tion that they deserve. The plan is expected to cost $120
million a year for the first three years of the program, but hey,
America owes it to them.
Bringing down the house
After months of debate, the South Carolina Senate finally
voted 36-7 to lower the Confederate flag flying over the state
capitol building. However, the senate bill, which proposes
moving the flag to a Confederate monument in front of the
statehouse, may face opposition from members of the Republi
can-controlled House of Representatives.
Enough already! Supporters of the Confederate flag suggest it
symbolizes heritage and not hate. In fact, supporters also say
the flag is a source of southern pride.
S6rry, but any symbol that is a constant reminder of decades
of bigotry, racism and intolerance doesn’t sound like anything
to brag about. When a symbol represents one person’s pride
and another person’s pain, the argument to fly it high over a
state capitol building seems unjustifiable.
Afi:er 38 years. South Carolina should take the flag down.
Maybe then our society can finally heal from the wounds of a
war that divided a nation and symbolized a legacy of struggle,
degredation and oppression of a people.
Charity not just for holidays»
—III! ■■1110 t_!J_ 1 1^: cii/~K rmrnoiirincrs nf love and rar. ■
Andrew
Thomasson
columnist
kids, and their kids’ kids. They:
working as hard as they know how,
but it really isn’t enough.
Also, since many 6f them grew up
; kind of situation, they
Workmg for and alongside the
poor and homeless population has
been something I have loved to do
ever since the first time I went to
downtown Charlotte with myyouth
group to feed and socialize with the
hungry people walking down the
street when I was twelve. We would
take coolers of sandwiches, hot dogs,
chips, desserts and drinks in the big
white church van and pass then out
5 hungry passersby.
I have since done work at Crisis
Assistance Ministries (CUP) in
Charlotte, where my father and I
learned many of the skills we would
need to run the food and clothing
ministry that he is the director of the time they
At CUP, I also worked along- and they don’t
a Long Island native
puertorriquena, from whom I
learned to speak Spanish reason
ably fluently.
My father is now director of CUP,
and I have worked there for the past
summers and after school dur
ing my senior year in high school,
doing about every job there was to
do at one time or another. I inter
viewed clients, managed the food
inventory and picked up food from
the Second Harvest Food Bank. I
did much more, but I don’t want
this to be a “ look-how-great-An-
drew-is” column.
However, during my work with
this population, I have noticed
many negative stereotypes and trou
bling things coming from the “rest”
s that
of the population.
One of these stereotypes
people who are homeless or are
right at the poverty line are lazy
drunks who drain the taxpayers’
hard earned money with their wel
fare Cadillacs. Granted, there are a
few people who abuse the system
badly to their benefit, but such is
the case with any system, especially
one that involves government.
There are always loopholes, and
there will always be people who live
to find and exploit these holes, but
the greater percentage of the popu
lation consists of the working poor.
These people bust their butts from
about 16 or 17,
etire sometimes
until their failing bodies stop allow
ing them to, when they are in their
mid- to late seventies.
They basically live from paycheck
to paycheck, having enough to pay
rent every month, and then decid
ing which bills are critical to pay
this month (e.g. which utility is
about to be cut off), then having
maybe fifty dollars left over to buy
food and other such necessities.
Unfortunately, when you have
five, six, ten people to feed on that
fifty bucks a month, it just isn’t
enough. I have given food to fami
lies of eight that have a combined
total monthly income of around
three hundred dollars. Many are
single mothers taking care of their
sickly mother or father, their three
don’t have the same concepts of months
things like “saving money for a They
rainy day,” as most middle class
individuals have in today’s society.
When you’re living paycheck to
paycheck, there isn’t any margin
for error. If the breadwinner gets
hurt, or has to go to the hospital for
three weeks,
then the fam
ily may very
well be out on
the street. It’s
that, immedi-
such outpourings of love and car
ing in November and December,
However, I must make the point
that the homeless and hungry popu
lation does not solely exist for two
I would like
to shift my fo-
specifically do
nations of
food. Canned
food and non-
perishable
food products
are always in
need at places
like CUP.
Even though
CUP gets
USDA (De
partment of
Agriculture)
surplus food
from the food
bank, it still relies on food dona
tions from churches and benevo
lent individuals to help sustain its
inventory and feed the people who
come in hungry.
It has always been a topic of inter
est to me that around Thanksgiv
ing and Christmas, donations of
food skyrocket. Yes, that is the time
of year when the emphasis is on
giving, and that is the time of year
when most canned food drives take
place. And I am truly grateful for
It has always been a
topic of Interest to
me that around
Thanksgiving and
Christmas, dona
tions of food sky
rocket... And I am
truly grateful for
such outpourings of
love and caring in
the months of No
vember and Decem
ber. However, I must
make the point that
the homeless and
hungry population
does not solely ex
ist for two months
out of the year.
of the year,
human beings, just like
and they do need that food,
however they can get it, and subse
quently, ministries like CUP need
your donations of food year-i
Since 1 have spent most of this
column complaining, I would like
happy not
have made
eral very good
friends that
members of the
working poor,
and I have
learned a lot
about perspec
tive from them.
Although they
where close tc
financially
cure as my fam
ily and I are, 1
still see them
being happier
with their lives
than many ob
scenely
people. I believe
this is because
they have been
forced to strip
their lives down
to the bare essentials, and they
see how trivial and unnecessary it is
to have that summer home in tl
country or the swimming poo!
their backyard. They havewhat they
need to survive, and I have
many people in that situation com
plaining about not having this thing
or that thing.
It puts a great deal of perspective
on my life, and on my decisions.
Happiness comes first, material
wealth a very distant last.
th(
trying I
hat do
safe.
Movif
pthec
ilaying
fpapi
3nieth
The Mardi Gras experience
IPN
Mark
Ebert
columnist
officer of the law, on the area below
his belt that he had moments
ritual of drunkenness and irrespon
sibility called Mardi Gras?
For the past two years, the intoxi
cating draw of New Orleans has
charmed me into gathering a group
of friends and enduring the 12-
hour drive south.
Somehow, for me, the trip has
become something of an annual
There are still glimmers of hope.
As the face of America becomes
more homogenized, with urban
sprawl, cookie-cutter housing de
velopments and countless Wal-
Marts littering the landscape, there
still remain American cities and
places with character, style and class.
New York, the Pacific Northwest
and San Francisco come to mind.
But, truly, the city that best denies
these recent homogenizing trends
sits in the Louisiana Delta, sur
rounded on all sides by water, wait
ing for the fateful day it washes
A strange and magnificent city.
New Orleans must constantly con
sider its own safety. The city has
sunk to below sea level. Passing
ships on the Mississippi are seen
above eye level within the city lim
its. This can’t be healthy.
Scientists have computed that if the police,
global warming continues, within We encountered many things
the next half-century the “Big Easy”
will become a sunken treasure de
stroyed by the tides.
Maybe this sense of fatalism ex
plains why the people of New Or
leans are so willing to have a good
memory I will remember the most
has to be the look of pure joy on my
other friend’s face as he stepped
aside, trying to dodge the projectile A quick note: the effects of pepper
vomiting of my roommate. spray are powerful, and
In his side step, he managed to even the most exhilarating drunken
land and slip on a collection of stupor. At least, these
human droppings left by some Other thoughts as I looked at the pained
Margi Gras reveler. His clumsy face of my afflicted friend,
mannerisms and exaggerated fall
looked just as if he had stepped on
a banana peel. Unfortunately for
him, he had not.
These hijinks are, in some way,
the heart of my Mardi Gras experi-
celebration. Not a celebration of all decided that it was time to travel
life or anything like that, but rather home. We all had received
an exercise of indulgence, debauch
ery and hijinks.
One snapshot memory I will al
ways hold from my first Mardi Gras
was of a deep, dark narrow alleyway
that my two friends and I decided
to use to paint the walls.
Cars were parked bumper to
bumper in this alley, and in the
back, an empty space provided re
spite from the hoards of people in
the streets and the prying eyes of
Again, back to year two. Nothing
bad had happened, but my intu
ition told me that surely something
would.
I won’t bore you with the ti
some details. But rest assured that
time spent at the New Orleans Jail
and Municipal Court House passes
slowly, and was the worst possible
way to spend a Monday afternoon
in a distant and unknown city.
In a city where the police had been
so impressive with their ability to
look the other way (most impres
sive was their ability to sneak up
behind and command a public
urinator to “STOP”), things I
than our fair share of beads and changed,
enjoyed the good-hearted give-and- Even after the pain-staking court
take dialogue from the women process (which moved with the
above. speed of pond water) and the ensu-
The time for lewd conduct and ing lightening of the wallet, I still
concentrated attention towards the adore New Orleans,
balcony admirers had passed. The spectacle of Mardi Gras of-
Unfortunately, at the last intersec- fers many treats that are becoming
before we reached our parked harder and harder to find anywhere
was led else in America. Every college st
dent, as a rite of passage, should see
parades, taste the jambalaya s
Flashback to year two. After three
days of debauchery, nothing tragic
had happened. I thought to myself,
“surely, something must be wrong.”
It was only the year before when
the last few hours of the journey
had produced an unfortunate twist.
As the midnight hour passed.
vehicle, one of my friends
astray by the cries of an admirer. He
began to look skyward and start the
gestures and shouts that identify smell the gutters full of the Mardi
What other city in America could
possibly condone a month-long
that back alley. First,
incalculable relief from our capaci
tated bladders. We also found a
circle of friendly pot smokers. My
roommate’s stomach began to boil,
and he felt the need to violently
stain the hood of some unfortunate
Volvo.
Most 6f all, in that alley, the
the game of bead bartering.
The transaction was successful,
and reasonably short. We would
soon be driving highway miles
again, away from the uncertainties
and screams that cloud Mardi Gras.
Things would not turn out so
simply. Along with the beads, my
friend had also just received a dose
of pepper spray, seemingly from an
Gras excesses.
A word of warning before I g
Although it can be a whirlwind
good times, beware and be aware o>
the pitfalls of the “Big Easy.
Don’t make the trip if you -
ready for the turbulence and trouble
that is easy to find in the fun and
excitement of this city of
I hope to see you there.
Wh)
^rt
Whs
tork