Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / July 20, 1995, edition 1 / Page 11
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Poll: Most OK interracial dating by Elizabeth Dorr and Bill Reiter Register staff Eight out of 10 people surveyed in Chapel Hill and Carrboro June 30 said they approve of interracial marriage, but only seven out of 10 people would marry someone of another race. Students at a University of North Carolina journalism program ques tioned 181 people at shopping cen ters, on the UNC campus and on Franklin Street about issues rang ing from inter-racial relationships to the legality of marijuana. Eighty-one percent of people sur veyed said they would date some one of another race, while 16 per cent said they would not. Forty-three percent of people sur veyed said they disapproved of the Supreme Court ruling limiting af firmative action, while only 33 per cent supported the decision. Forty-seven percent of the people interviewed by white pollsters said they supported the decision, com pared to lower percentage support from those interviewed by minori ties: Twenty-seven percent of those interviewed by Hispanics said they supported the decision, while 31 percent interviewed by blacks and 31 percent interviewed by Asian/ Pacific Islanders said they sup ported the decision. An even split occured between support and opposition for a con stitutional amendment that would make burning the American flag a crime. Legalization of marijuana was supported by 35 percent of those questioned, while 56 percent said they believed the drug should re main illegal. When asked about the government’s role in limiting abor tion, 45 percent of those polled said that abortion should be legal under Public Opinion On Abortion 50 r~ ■ HBM Refused to answer For in some circumstances • •• ■ I 1 For in all circumstances HI Against in all circumstances Stereotypes of his friends was “walking on Franklin Street with some friends who weren’t even gay and these (other) guys said ‘you fu—ing fags! We’re gonna track you down!’ Saying my friend was uncomfort able wasn’t the word.” The violence that pursues the paranoia of homosexuality isn’t al ways directed at homosexuals them selves . “Queer bashing happens to people even if they aren’t gay be cause people ‘look gay’ or because their friegids are gay.” Wienants remembered the first time he saw someone humiliated because of their sexual orientation. He also remembered being too Homeless at the House, said the IFC Commu nity House is a place established to help the homeless get back on their feet, not simply a place to house them. “We let them stay two weeks at first, if they find a job or are looking for one, then we might ex tend their stay, usually a week at a time.” Among the methods used to help the residents in the shelter are drug rehabilitation, computer training, legal help, and incentive to find a job. “I feel the only way we can really get to meet (the residents’) needs is by getting to know them.” He said the relationships in the House are “like a big family.” The house capacity is about 60 people. However, “If the weather’s bad, we go way over our limit. We have been known to go up to 163,” Norwood said. Money for the House comes from Chapel Hill and Carrboro, churches, individuals, and United Way. Norwood said the shelter takes “cash, food, blankets, pillowcase sheets, anything.” Thirteen people are on the pay roll, but Norwood estimated that about 1,000 volunteers help. For example, he said, local doctors and nurses give physicals in the clinic, and local restaurants donate left over food. Social workers and counselors What will people do for $1 million? by Jennifer Zeis and Amina Akhtar Register staff “Indecent Proposal” poses the question, “Would you sleep with someone other than your spouse for a million dollars?” Consider this question: “Would you run down Franklin Street naked for a million dollars?” Sixty-one percent of the people polled in Chapel Hill and Carrboro said they would risk the charge of indecent exposure for a million. One example of the light hearted questions asked, “Do you think Elvis is dead or alive?” “He i6 six feet under,” one re spondent said. Eighty-one per cent of those interviewed said they believe that the King is dead. Fourteen percent said he lived. People were also asked, “Do you think aliens visit North Caro lina?” Fifteen percent said they believe that they are among us occasionally, but 50 percent said they think aliens have not picked North Carolina as one of their hot spot 6 to frequent on vacations. all circumstances, while 44 percent favored abortion only under some circumstances. Only nine percent said they felt abortion should be illegal under all circumstances, while two percent either didn ’ t know or refused to answer. When asked if they were person ally in favor or in opposition to abortion, 59 percent of those sur veyed said they were in favor of afraid of that discrimination to stand up for a friend. “One of my friends from high school was also gay,” Wienants said. “He was caught in the act, ousted, and people who were his so called friends made fun of him and ridi culed him. Out of fear I silently went along with it. Now that I’m here I regret it, but I can’t do any thing to change what happened in the past.” Knowing he can’t change the past, Wienants works on improving life for homosexuals today. “I try to explain (to non-homo sexuals) how difficult thr discrimi nation against homosexuals is and are also available. Lawyers from the University of North Carolina law school provide their time to help the residents with any legal problems that they may have. “They don’t give them ad vice, they just point them where they want to go,” explained Norwood. Drug counseling is a large part of the community house program. “Many people that come here have an addiction,” said Norwood. The house holds regular Narcotics Anonymous meetings and other pro grams. Tirrince, like other residents, must wake up at 6 a.m. He is served three meals a day, seven days a week. Unless he is sick, Tirrince is not allowed to go back downstairs, but he can stay on the main floor or play on the playground. Evening check in begins at 7 p.m., and lights go out at 11 p.m. Raney said most people think the shelter is a dark, gloomy place full of mean people.“ These are people just down on their luck. If I miss two or three paychecks, I could be here, too,” he said. Raney said, “my intentions were to stay about a month. Ten years later I’m still here. I really feel like I’m helping people. Whenaperson’s down and out, and I see them get ting back to independent living, I NEWS Known as the “Forrest Gump” question, those polled were asked, “Would you walk from the West Coast to the East Coast for a mil lion dollars?” The results: 54 per cent said yes, and 46 percent said no. Playboy might be surprised at how many people would an offer to pose nude for their magazine. A reported 50 percent of those sur veyed accepted. Other interesting tidbits in clude: • Of those asked about running naked down Franklin Street for a million dollars, 69 percent of men compared with 51 percent of women they?d do it. • People in the 20-30 age group are also more daring: 69 percent agreed to take the birthday-suit jog •As for posing nude in a maga zine, 60 percent of men compared to 37 percent of women would pose naked for a magazine for a million dollars. • The2o-30 year-olds weremore unrestricted: 61 percent would pose naked for a magazine for a million dollars. abortion, with 35 percent said they opposed abortion. Of these polled six percent either didn’t know or refused to answer. Of those polled 48 percent had no moral objection to abortion, while 44 percent of those surveyed did have a moral or personal objection and seven percent either didn’t know or refused to answer. Showing the clear difference of that it’s not funny. I say what if they were gay? Of course the first thing they say is ‘l’m not,’but that’s not what I asked them. (That re sponse) is just as rude as if they laughed at a racist or religious j oke. ” When dealing with people who are just beginning to understand their homosexuality, Wienants said: “I would not tell them to come out unless they were absolutely com fortable with themselves and their sexuality. I would tell I understand what they’re going through, and that there are other people in the closet too. They are not alone. Tell ing another person is the first and strongest step they could make.” get gratification from that.” He said the most difficult thing about being manager is “seeing a family come in, especially with chil dren.” Shina said it’s “fun” at the shel- Students should fight for press rights: Stone by Jacqueline Mann Register staff “You should not abstain” when it comes to censorship hatdes with high school principals, said Profes sor Chuck Stone during a talk with budding high school journalists. “You have an ombudsman in Washington, D.C.,” he said when speaking about the Student Press Law Center which provides infor mation about First Amendment rights to students. Stone, who described himself as a “First Amendment Absolutionist” on the first day of the program, said the three significant cases for stu dent journalists are “From Tinker to Bethel to Hazelwood.” In the most recent and most rel evant case, Hazelwood versus Culmar (1988), the Supreme Court upheld the rights of principals to veto articles in a high school news opinion between the younger gen eration and the older generation, 64 percent of those surveyed under the age of 19 had a moral objection to abortion, while 36 percent of those age 19 and younger had no objection. A clean split surfaced on the issue of abortion for adults ages 20 to 31: In that age group 45.6 percent said that they had a moral objection to abortion, and 45.6 percent said they did not. Nine percent either didn’t know or refused to answer. Sixty-two percent of those polled between the ages of 31 and 45 had no moral objection to abortion, com pared to only 30 percent of those between 31 and 45 finding a moral problem with abortion. Eight per cent of those surveyed did not know. Fifty-nine percent of those above the age of 45 had no moral objection to abortion, outweighing 38 per cent in that age bracket wbo had a moral objection and nine percent who either did not know or refused to answer. The survey clearly defined that the majority of those surveyed would fall in the pro-choice cat egory, while few of those surveyed could be considered pro-life. Although 89 percent of those sur veyed said they felt the woman should be able to choose abortion either all of the time or in certain situations, 44 percent of respon dents still have a moral objection to abortion. The survey also pointed out that the up and coming generation seemed more opposed to abortion while those under the age of 19 were most opposed to abortion. Those aged 20 to 31 split on the issue, and those over the age of 30 were more inclined to support abortion. The survey, conducted by stu dents participating in the Freedom Forum Rainbow Institute, had an 8 percent margin of error. from page 1 Wienants continued: “If they’re confident or even if they’re reason ably sure (that they’re gay) they need to talk to someone, whether it be you, a counselor, a psychiatrist or a hotline. Humans are innately, by birth, very sensuous creatures, very sexual beings, and to be con fused about or be unsure about their sexuality is very scary. “However, what’s most impor tant is that more straight people start participating in the gay move ment because it shows that not ev eryone connected with the gay move ment is gay. It’s not their special rights (we’re working for), it’s their civil rights.” from page 1 ter. She and Tirrince slept on a mattress on the floor, but they said if they had their own home it would have “Santa Claus, a bed, a chim ney, two stoves, two refrigerators and a closet to keep our clothes in.” paper. “This is the final decision on the censorship of the (high) school newspaper,” Stone said. “Different people have different perspectives” on what is offensive and needs to be banned or cen sored. “My class has to read 18 court cases about libel, pornogra phy, and other expressions that of fend people,” Stone said. “Thefirst day I have my students write the three dirtiest words they know and show them how males and females differ on what offends them.” Stone said sometimes people are against things they don’t under stand. To prove his point, he read the last sentence of Charles Darwin’s book “Origin of Species”, a book some people think should be banned because they say it teaches against creationism. Stone said the sentence proves Darwin actually believes that God is the Creator and all things evolved from what God created. Rainbow Register/Thursday, July 20,1995/ Respect protects officers Almost 800 women confined on 10-acre site in Raleigh by Mallory S.E. Floyd Register staff Imagine being surrounded by dozens of the worst criminals in your state. You have no weapon, no real escape, no help in sight. The only thing keeping you alive is re spect. Correctional officers at the N.C. Correctional Center for Women face similar situations everyday, yet “no fear” seems to be their motto. The center covers more than 10 acres and is surrounded by a spiral razor wire atop a chain link fence to prevent prisoners from harming people in society. However, few interior barriers keep the inmates from harming each other or worse, a correctional of ficer. Correctional officer Patricia Chapman said she is safe because the inmates respect her and she can use self-defense techniques. She said, “I give respect and I demand respect.” Several of the physically larger women seemed to be friendly and respectful of her while we were there. Inmates don’t seem so lucky. Chapman said: “There are loan sharks in here. A girl borrows $2 and if she doesn’t pay it back it goes to $4, then $8 and after awhile it gets to the point where she can’t pay and they would go out and beat her up.” Little protection exists for inmates in prison except moving them to a separate part of the center (C build ing)- Security at the Correctional Cen ter seems more a philosophy than a reality. From observation, the cen ter seems ill-prepared to handle a serious disturbance from the in mates. Being in the prison felt like being in a room with a bomb that could go off any second or never. But whatever the fact, the feeling was unavoidable. The prison capacity is 684 pris oners, yet more than 800 prisoners are in the center. Some officers carry mace and handcuffs for protection from the overcrowded prison. The armed officer can do little with that gun in an emergency because it is against regulations to shoot women inmates. In 1975 a riot broke out because of tension and inmate protest at the center. At that time 150 out of the 435 prisoners were involved. With almost twice the amount of prison ers in the prison today, a repeat is always possible. From observation it looked like 30 prisoners for every one correc tional officer on duty. A public in formation officer for the Depart ment of Correction, Larry Ravelle, stated that there are about eight prisoners for every five staff mem bers, but a lot of the staff members are not correctional officers. Prison familiar to Rainbow teen by Jacqueline Mann Register staff After visiting the women's prison, some of my friends were overtaken by what they had seen and heard. I remember feeling, “It wasn’t that bad!” I had never toured the inside of a prison before, but maybe visit ing my brother in prison frequently had something to do with my com placent feeling. The prisons Buddy had lived in seemed strange to me at first. All those barbed-wire fences and even a 30-foot high brick wall around one building. We were allowed to walk into the women’s prison without a search, maybe because we were students, but my family has to walk through metal detectors when we visit my brother. Even my brother’s chil dren, ages 3,4, and 5, are used to the routine. I guess the women’s prison was just a different version of the same old thing. When I want to know about prison, Buddy openly answers my questions. Prison tour opens eyes of students by Serena K Custis and Jacqueline Mann Register staff They are murderers, prostitutes and drug addicts. They are women, many of them mothers, who are in prison. TheN.C. Correctional Cen ter for Women houses about 800 women who all have one thing in common. They are all women who have lost their freedom and their rights. Led by correctional officer Patricia Chapman, the students observed the women at their every day stations. They visited the sew ing room, living quarters, the up holstery workroom and the mater nity ward. “Don’t come here; it’s not worth it.” “I don’t know why they bring these children in here. All it does is bring them bad luck, and they’ll be back here in a few years,” were some comments heard. The prisoners can be easily dis tinguished by their uniforms. Safekeepers, those awaiting trial, and those who have not yet been assigned another color wear tan. Felons wear blue. Those who have committed misdemeanors wear green, and dining hall and cosme tology workers wear white. When a woman first comes to the prison, she has to strip, squat and cough to assure that contraband is not smuggled in. Inmates are sub ject to these searches before and after visits with their family any time a guard at the prison decides to search them. The toilets used by inmates are surrounded by half a stall, and four people at a time take showers in the shower room. Inmates rise at 6 a.m. and cannot return to their beds during the day unless they are sick. They are not to mingle with other inmates or lay their heads on the tables during the day. Melissa Hayes, a prison inmate, told of her crack addiction and the struggle of living with HTV in prison. She seemed nervous and spoke with a lot of hand gestures. Track marks were visible on her legs and arms as she shared her story of having to abandon her chil dren to serve her time in prison for drug use. “My goal is to encourage people with HIV to be honest with them selves and their sex partners to stop the spread of this disease,” said Melissa. Another inmate, Engress Harris, has served nine years for first-de gree murder. She murdered the husband of a couple who was keep ing her children. She said she felt they were trying to take her chil dren from her because they felt she was an unfit mother. Although the return rate for the women is high, people like Chapman aim to keep as many women on the outside as possible. “You don’t need to be afraid of these women. Some of them work right out in the community,” said Chapman. “These women need empathy not sympathy.” “Why does that guy have on an orange uniform?” ’’That means he’s new here.” “How much do you get paid?” ’’About 40 cents an hour.” The hardest things about Buddy being in prison are • knowing he’s lost many of his freedoms (not that lawbreakers shouldn’t be punished, but it’s still not easy to carry on life as normal without him), and • trying to make up for the role he should be playing in his children’s lives. When we take the kids to visit Buddy, we tell them, “We’re going to the place where your Daddy lives (or works),” although they know he’s “in jail.” When they get older, I’m sure they’ll wonder why he can’t live with them, why he wears the same clothes (a tan uniform) every time they visit, and when he's coming home. Fortunately, Buddy has a sup portive family waiting for him on this side of the bars, and his chil dren will never have to wonder, “Does Daddy love us?” 3
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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July 20, 1995, edition 1
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