Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / April 1, 1998, edition 1 / Page 10
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10 Wednesday, April 1,1998 ©lp Satlg (Tar ~i\n\ Erica Bailors editor Office Boon, 12-1 p.B. Fridays Lain Godwk and Lcsfie Tilkmson MANAGING EDITORS r | Worid Wkk Web Ekctronic Edition I ill http://vrww.unc.edu/dth JL Established 1893 105 Years of Editorial Freedom BOUD EDITORIALS Broken promises H Residents living near the landfill in Chapel Hill have been promised water and sewer lines for 20 years, now is the time for the LOG to deliver. The Landfill Owners Group, has swept so much dirt under its carpet that even the center is bulging. In the distant past —the early 1970s —town and county officials promised residents near the proposed landfill site that water and sewer service would accompany the project. The Chapel Hill Town Council has finally approved the plans for the project, decades after the promise was made to the residents. If ground gets broken on the site, and the pipes pump water in and sewer out, then the residents of the area will be able to say they were not literally lied to. But the delay amounts to nothing less than lies in the eyes of many. People have the general tendency to disre gard waste after putting it into a trash can and local officials have done the same thing with the county’s garbage. Apparently, after Waste Industries collects their trash, they don’t think about it again, or the area where it will be taken, until the landfill is nearly full. The compensation offered to the area’s resi dents for decades of living near a landfill has been neglected. Providing these people with water must have slipped off the agenda. The area could be the home of an expand Expand your mind The N. C. Literary Festival, to be this week end on the UNC campus, is an incredible opportunity to celebrate the works and talents of writers from North Carolina and beyond. While many famous Southern writers will be in attendance at the conference, the weekend offers many opportunities to experience the works of lesser known Southern writers as well. In addition, students from universities across the state will have the chance to showcase their works. The highlights of the week will include an address by Margaret Walker on Friday evening, a public reading by John Grisham in front of South Building at 11 a.m. Saturday, and an address by former U S. poet laureate Rita Dove. While students are encouraged to take advan tage of the chance to interact with these celebri ties, the weekend will be filled with other activ ities which should prove as worthwhile. Of particular interest to the UNC commu nity should be a presentation by UNC creative writing students Saturday morning, a panel focusing on issues affecting the Sonja H. Stone BAROMETER Final Four Although the basketball team lost in San Antonio, the thrills of the 97-98 basketball season will live with us until UNC begins another trip to the Final Four next year. -%t Mo 'money The Kenan Trust gave SIOO,OOO to the Sonja H. Stone Black Cultural Center, another step in the right direction for this massive project. Mfr Kerin Dwyer EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR NaU Tooo university editor Sharif Durham* university editor Jor (keidorir OTY EDITOR Rob Nd* CITY EDITOR Jonatbu Cox STATE 8 NUIONAIHXTDR Vicky Eekearode STATE 8 national EDDDR Airoo Bexrd SPORTS EDITOR Ton? Metis SPECIAL ASSIGNMENTS EDITOR Mary-Kathryn Craft FEATURES EDITOR JraMulm ARTS 8 DIVERSIONS EDITOR April Siam COPY DESK EDITOR Carolyn Haynea copy desk editor Cara Briebun photography hxtdr Jennifer Gntbrie PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR Katie Mnrcbiaon design editor MkheOeLaPierre DESIGN EDITOR Jake Zanwgar graphics editor Robin Kohli editorial cartoon editor John Sweeney writing coach ed landfill, because closing the current landfill and locating the new one in a different area is no longer an option. Area residents can expect to face another 20 to 30 years of living near garbage. Has bureaucratic red tape held up the bring ing of water and sewer lines to the area? Have local officials not been able to reach a consen sus amongst themselves because they can’t deal with garbage any better than the general public? Many Orange County politicians are elected again and again, because issues like this hard ly affect anybody other than area residents. Most voters just don’t know these elected rep resentatives fail to make good on such heavy promises. The construction of these sewer and water lines should begin no later than the construc tion of the new landfill. Even though local offi cials have had more than 20 years to examine the problem, they probably would like another 20 to figure out a solution that is deemed agree able to all members of the respective govern ments. If these officials table the zoning debates and put a deliberate cap on development for a meet ing, they might figure out a way to uphold exist ing p. omises and take care of local residents. Black Cultural Center, ceremonies honoring the winners of the Independent’s poetry contest and the Self Knowledge Symposium’s essay contest and performances at Swain Hall of “Good 01’ Girls” by Paul Ferguson. Exhibitors at the festival will include many publishers, historical groups and literary orga nizations. From the State Library of North Carolina to Harper Collins publishers, these exhibitors will certainly have something to add to the festival’s activities. The festival will also include book signings and other chances to per sonally encounter the hundreds of authors who will be present on campus this weekend. In return for a little chaos and a little crazi ness, members of the UNC community will have free and convenient access to some of the nation’s best writers. It is a chance which no one should pass up. We encourage everyone to take advantage of the festival’s many events. Further information about the N. C. Literary Festival, including a complete calendar of events, can be found on the Internet at: http://sunsite.unc.edu/litfest. Freedom to compute People for Computational Freedom is holding a rally on Thursday to protest the CCI. It is a good start, but more organization is needed. m Tragedy Students at Grey Culbreth Middle School are trying to pick up the pieces after Monday's tragic death of a sev enth-grade student. fp EDITORIAL Separate good from bad in multiculturalism I’ve never visited New York City, but I’ve heard it’s terrific. It’s supposed to be a gastronome’s dream, featuring every sort of ethnic cuisine imaginable: Cambodian, Hungarian, Moroccan, Pakistani, Polish, Thai, Vietnamese you name it. And the culinary variety is equaled by the diversity of cultural offerings. Forms of art representing artistic traditions from around the world, appealing to the whole gamut of aesthetic tastes, are constantly on display. In the eyes of many, multicultural New York City (minus the crime, poverty, and pol lution) represents the ideal society: people with diverse beliefs and traditions living together in harmony, even celebrating their differences. I can’t deny the attraction of this picture. My worry is that, as a window onto multicul turalist thought, this picture is crucially incomplete. A complete picture would come into focus only after the essence of multiculturalism had been identified, but it is extremely hard to pin down any such essence. There may be as many different understandings of multicul turalism as there are self-described multicul turalists. Nevertheless, there are at least some common currents of thought, and some of them are worrisome. Recently Steve Phillips, a Self-described multiculturalist and member of the San Francisco school board, expressed his confi dence, in the wake of the school board’s vote for increased multiculturalism in readings for high school literature classes, that San Francisco schools “will respect and value and promote all the cultures in this country.” Sounds innocuous enough at first hearing. And I suspect it’s a sentiment that most mul ti culturalists would echo without a second thought. But taken to its logical conclusion Phillips’ vision has some disturbing implica tions. For a commitment to “respect and value and promote all the cultures in this country" is a commitment to respect, value, and promote, among other things, America’s white supremacist cultures, youth gang cul tures and sexist Muslim cultures. If we reject these cultures, or at least certain aspects of them, as morally insidious, then we must reject the pure multiculturalism that would Bp? >^nt of. s v IxAwu 10 Critical UNC fans must show better support for athletes TO THE EDITOR: This past weekend I had the opportunity to watch the Tar Heels in their Final Four appearance. We joined a multitude of other UNC fans at one of the Franklin Street estab lishments. It was initially fun and exciting to partake in the festivities. However, as UNC began to have difficul ty on the court, I was amazed at how quick ly fan support dissipated. Cheers changed to jeers and verbal attacks were launched against players and coaching staff alike. I understand that sometimes fans get out of hand, but I was taken aback by the degree of hostility displayed. It is called “sport” for a reason. I am one of the sports medicine physicians for our student athletes and I am unfailingly impressed by the effort and attitude that they put into representing UNC. When we think or talk of student-athletes, we often think of the glamour and privilege of the high visibil ity scholarship athletes on campus. However, they are just the “tip of the ice berg”. UNC has over 700 varsity athletes. Most of these athletes will never get their pic ture in The Daily Tar Heel and many don’t have the benefit of an athletic scholarship. However, the hours and effort that they put into perfecting their sport and representing this university is astonishing. There is inher ent value in unequivocally supporting these athletes who serve as ambassadors for UNC. They do it for themselves, but it benefits all of us. Their achievements and composure both on and off the playing field enhance the visibility and reputation of our university. We spectators should not detract from their efforts. TAYLOR STUDENT HEALTH . “ir~ have us respect and promote them. Hence the need for a restricted mul ticulturalism, a society that respects cultural differences, but within limits. So murder is out although in cer tain youth gang cultures it is some times the only ANDY JOHNSON DON’T U SO SURE acceptable mode of response to violence or insult. Laws discriminatory against women and religious minorities are out although they exist in many Islamic countries. Female genital mutilation is out although it is widely practiced in Africa. Discrimination against ethnic minorities is out although it exists on every continent in the world save Antarctica. A proposal for restricted multiculturalism may seem blandly uncontroversial. Whether it is will depend on the extent of the restric tions. What I have just listed are only some of the more egregious examples of objectionable cultural artifacts. But the list of restrictions could be extended significantly to include a number of multiculturalist sacred cows. To take an example close to home, consid er the pervasive demands for greater multi culturalism in University curricula. Now there is nothing wrong with requiring college stu dents to learn something about alien cultures. Such requirements can be viewed as part of a liberal education that seeks to broaden stu dents’ intellectual horizons, prompting them to critically reflect, perhaps for the first time, on the norms of their own culture. But academic multiculturalists typically call for more than this. They seem to be ani mated by a conviction that texts not authored by members of a student’s gender, race or eth nic group don’t “speak to” that student. Multiculturalists exhort college instructors to select authors and issues that “reflect the diversity” of their students; otherwise, say the multiculturalists, minority students will justi fiably shrug off course material as irrelevant to them. This demand conflicts with the legitimate HEADERS’FORUM The Daily Tar Heel welcomes reader comments and criticism. Letters to the editor should be no longer than 400 words and must be typed, double-spaced, dated and signed by no more than two people. Students should include their year, major and phone number. Faculty and staff should include their title, department and phone number. The DTH reserves the right to edit letters for space, clarity and vulgari ty. Bring letters to the DTH office at Suite 104, Carolina Union, mail them to P.O. Box 3257, Chapel Hill, NC 27515 or email forum to: dth@unc.edu. Posing nude personal choice; Playboy more than just porn TO THE EDITOR: Yes, I’m a guy, but don’t judge me yet. I am not a giant raging hormone with thoughts of sex constantly running through my head. Nor am Ia celibate monk whose favorite article of clothing is a chastity belt. I’m sim ply a teenager in college, which many of you can relate to. I’ve seen the Playboy ads in the Daily Tar Heel, and I’ve seen the uproar they have caused. Would I be seeing the same reaction if Playgirl was coming to campus instead? There is nothing sexist about the human body. If you don’t want to pose, that’s a choice you make, but let others make their own deci sions instead of running a legitimate business into the ground. And if you are one of those that regard Sip Bally (Tar Heel pedagogical aims of many courses. When I teach a class in bioethics, my concern is to get students immersed in and thinking critically about the central ethical questions involved in issues like abortion, euthanasia and genetic engineering. These are issues that are relevant to us, at least in large part, as human beings. There is not, for instance, one problem of abortion for whites and a completely distinct problem of abortion for blacks (which is not to deny that the debate over abortion policy has any racial dimensions). And whether an author should be included in my reading list depends on the caliber of his or her arguments, not on the author’s gen der, race or ethnicity. Were I to accede to a student’s expectation that he or she be presented with authors of the same gender/race/ethnic group as him- or herself, and with issues peculiar to members of that group, I would be acceding to the view that the student’s identity resides primarily in being a woman, or an African American, or a Hispanic, etc., and that the student is at most secondarily a human being. This view privileges group identity over human identity (or sentient being identity), and is thus a prescription for sexism, racism and ethnic strife. It promotes the cultivation of an “us-them” mentality that corrodes the moral ties we ought to feel for each other as human (or sentient) beings. Do not misunderstand: my rejection of multiculturalism in its predominant current form is by no means a call for cultural homo geneity. John Diefenbaker, prime minister of Canada from 1957-63, articulated a splendid vision of a Canada which is not “a melting pot in which the individuality of each element is destroyed in order to produce anew and totally different element. It is rather a garden into which have been transplanted the hardi est and brightest flowers from many lands.” This is a worthy ideal for America as well. But we must not let our fervor for a garden of diverse cultures blind us to the difference between bright flowers and odious weeds. Andy Johnson is a graduate student In philosophy. He welcomes your feedback at abjohnso@email.unc.edu. Playboy as “absolute smut,” then you’ve never even read the magazine. In every issue, there Eire at most 15-25 pages of nude or semi nude women. Heck, March’s issue even had a nude man. I always keep in mind that most of these models are mEdring more money for an issue than I’ll see in my life (you remember Jenny McCarthy and Pamela Anderson, right?). Those who label Playboy as a pure skin magazine could not be farther from the truth. Let’s look at one issue as an example. Of the 176 pages, about 25 of them are models. Everything else in the magazine is dedicated to movie and book reviews, health news, dat ing tips for men and women, short stories which have nothing to do with sex and fash ion tips. If you bought the issue for those 25 pages, you just wasted your five bucks, especially with Internet access around every corner of campus giving you free reign over every mag, azine in the world. To everyone who reads this who hates me now, don’t. This is purely opinion and it’s not supposed to reflect the views of everyone else on cam pus. And there’s nothing stopping you from writing in your own opinion. To everyone who thinks I’m a womanizer and a pervert, don’t. I have the utmost respect for women. One rtused me for sixteen yesirs and that’s no slouch. To every girl on campus who is going to submit that application and photo, more power to you. You are backing your own beliefs and not falling victim to propagsinda. And to everyone who agrees with me, e mail me (your name is sufficient, but com ments are great) at mangum@email.unc.edu. I m curious to see what the majority reEillv thinks. Phillip^Mar^m UNDECIDED
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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April 1, 1998, edition 1
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