INSIDE
3
Ecusta can't afford
to clean up
6
Drinking water: looking
at new sources
7
High Quality waters
make big political waves
11
NO! Malvern Hills Mall
17
Czech president on de
mocracy
19
Good-bye Miles Horton
21
Westmoreland
remembers VietHam
22
Gardeners get ready
for spring
• and that's not all...
Young environmentalists
YIPPIEs,
YUPPIEs,
and now
YAPIs
by Bill Branyon
Twenty-one high school students have
stirred up controversy in Highlands, N.C.
They have climbed trees to prevent their
cutting; published an environmental call-to
arms newspaper and sent it to all N.C. high
■schools; and produced a traveling ecological
road show that has met with general
acclaim. Started in the spring of 1989, the
group calls themselves YAPIs — Youth
Advocating Planetary Improvement. The
YAPIs have also written and performed
ecological public service announcements on
the Highlands T.V. station and are negotiat
ing with Ted Turner’s stations for airings.
They have adopted a mile of highway for
cleaning and paving with wild flowers, tried
to get the earth flag flown underneath the
N.C. and American flags at their high
school, and started a junior high version of
their organization called Yaplings.
The YAPI quarterly newspaper, edited
by Erin Graves, is well written and left this
critic with a renewed vigor for advancing
environmental causes. Called Reflections
the paper’s dateline is “No Time Left” and
its cost is “Free But Not Easy”. It has
thorough articles on recycling, the effects of
styrofoam and auto emissions, the black
bear crisis, and acid rain. It also contains a
report on the destruction of wetlands at
Highland High School, poems and art, and
an action-inspiring page based on the
paper’s slogan borrowed from Margaret
Mead: “Never doubt that a small group of
thoughtful committed citizens can change
the world. Indeed, its the only thing that
ever has.”
Reflections stones often synthesize
diverse facts such as is done in one called
“Madness”, by Barry Watts, that notes there
are enough nuclear weapons to destroy the
world 27 times, while world military
spending is $1.5 million/second. Watts
contrasts these observations with the
assertion that six days of worldwide military
spending would end world hunger for a
year, and six hours of world weaponry
buying is more than has been spent on the
environment in ten years.
The YAPIs helped area garden clubs try
to stop the destruction of 50-year old
dogwood trees that stood in the way of a
parking lot on the main street in Highlands
on Nov. 17. YAPIs prevented the onslaught
for a while by climbing and leaning on the
trees while area garden clubbers barricaded
approaches. According to YAPI sponsor
Collin Paxton, chainsaws finished off the
trees that evening. Though unsuccessful in
stopping the cutting, the YAPIs noted that
the protest did cause many people to think
about whether they wanted their town to be
the next Gatlinburg. It also shook the ruling
What's wrong with this picture?
! *Ft>
*3
In large quantities, has caused
some cancers in mice and rats.
BANNED!
&V>
Known to cause 1,000 human
deaths daily in the United States.
Legal, Advertised,
& Taxpayer subsidized.
Can Helms be beaten?
One expert in
North Carolina
politics says
yes — but only
if the
Democrats
take on
“citizen power”
issues
powers of the town; the mayor said, “This
has been the sorriest episode in High
lands’ history”, and called for the
resignation of his tree-supporting Zoning
Board chairperson.
According to Paxton, the next day
there was a protest in which many YAPIs
and others marched. YAPIs were carrying
their earth flag when a local store owner
grabbed the flag, saying it was a satanic
symbol. _ see YAPIs page 11
by Barry Yeoman,
The Independent (Durham, N.C.)
Just as North Carolina was beginning to
forget the terrible U.S. Senate race between
Jesse Helms and Jim Hunt six years ago, the
time has come for our senior senator to seek
re-election.
Before the mud begins to fly, we
wanted to help set the stage for the 1990
race. So we turned to Paul Luebke, one of
the foremost experts in North Carolina
politics. Luebke, who teaches sociology at
UNC-Greensboro, has been active for many
years in efforts to set a “citizen power”
agenda in his hometown of Durham — a
political agenda that stresses such issues as
environmental protection and minority
empowerment.
Luebke is also the author of Tar Heel
Politics: Myths and Realities, fresh off the
presses and scheduled to reach area book
stores by next month. In Tar Heel Politics,
Luebke offers a major reinterpretation of
our political life, debunking the myth of
North Carolina as a “progressive” Southern
state.
Most pertinent to 1990, Luebke’s book
explains why Jesse Helms appeals to so
many white voters—even ones who don’t
share his conservative politics. He exam
ines why the senator came from behind to
beat Democratic opponent Jim Hunt in
- continued on page 12
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