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Scott Hicks
EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR
Katie Abel
UNIVERSITY EDITOR
Jacob McConnico
CITY EDITOR
Board Editorials
Victory for Victims
If former Virginia Tech student Christy
Brzonkala has her way, the U.S. Supreme
Court will uphold the Violence Against
Women Act, a 1994 federal law aimed at
improving justice for female victims of rape.
The law, which allows victims to sue their
attackers in federal court for monetary com
pensation, is a step forward in protecting
rape victims’ rights.
But opponents of the law say it is an intru
sion into matters that should be handled by
state governments.
Regardless of who should be making such
laws, raping a woman is essentially a hate
crime and, as such, should be considered a
civil rights violation. The Violence Against
Women Act recognizes the unique problems
faced by a female rape victim.
While men also can be raped, the problem
is especially significant for women. For
instance, men on college campuses can usu
ally walk alone at night without fear that
someone will attack them, while women find
themselves constandy fearing for their safety.
And rape’s effects are many and long-last
ing. Women have long been suffering more
than just the physical and mental conse
quences of rape, and the Violence Against
Women Act can help ease some of those
problems.
Brzonkala became the first person to sue
under this act in 1995. She claims that foot
ball players Antonio Morrison and James
Dot-Commercialism
Tucked away amid the snowy peaks of
Oregon’s Wallowa Mountains, the tiny, pic
turesque village of Halfway hardly seems the
likely subject of an Internet advertising cam
paign.
However, that is just what the mountain
community has become.
Recently, the city council of Halfway, an
economically challenged town of 362, agreed
to change the community’s name for the year
2000 to Half.com, after the Internet compa
ny of the same name.
The Philadelphia-based company sought
the name change as a publicity stunt prior to
launching its Web site.
Exactly what’s in it for Halfway remains
unclear. However, it appears that the town
has been offered several perks, including
computers for the schools and free or dis
counted Internet access for residents.
On one hand, the situation is quite amus
ing: City-folk whiz-kids want to promote
their Web site with Oregon residents, many
of whom wouldn’t know a modem if they ran
over one with the family tractor.
On the other hand, this seemingly harm
less advertising gimmick inevitably leads one
to wonder if there remains any person, place
or thing not considered potential advertising
space by corporate America.
Can corporations be blamed for finding
new and exciting media to promote their
Barometer
Suck 'Em Dry
Not to be outdone by the Board of
Trustees, which recommend a hefty
tuition hike in October, UNC-system
President Molly Broad recently introduced her own
increases. At least she's not asking for $1,500.
Changing Tastes
Wicked Burrito closed its doors for
good, ending an era of fine pseudo-
Mexican food. Fortunately, the Rat, a
Franklin Street bastion of cuisine, reopened.
Tar Heel Quotables
“Everybody always knows where Chapel
Hill is. People who don’t know where
Raleigh and Durham are know where
Chapel Hill is.”
Downtown Commission Executive
Director Robert Humphreys
Commenting on Chapel Hill's possible removal from the
Triangle metropolitan region. Who wouldn't be able
to locate the southern part of heaven?
“If we’d kept scoring there, we’d be in good
shape.”
UNC Basketball Coach Bill Guthridge
Generally that's the way things work, Gut.
Rob Nelson
EDITOR
Office Hours Friday 3 p.m. - 4 p.m.
Matthew B. Dees
STATE & NATIONAL EDDOR
T. Nolan Hayes
SPORTS EDITOR
Leigh Davis
FEATURES EDITOR
Crawford raped her in a residence hall room.
She did not report the rapes for several
months, and the men were never charged
with a crime.
The former Virginia Tech student says she
suffered such psychological damage it forced
her to eventually drop out of school. She
now works as a waitress.
If she had completed college she could
have ended up in a better paying job, she
contends.
And that is why she, and other women in
a similar position, have a right to compensa
tion under the Violence Against Women Act.
Long after any physical wounds heal, a
victim may be afraid to trust any man (in the
case of date rape in which the woman knew
her assailant) or even to leave her house (in
the case of a random attack).
These psychological effects can take an
even greater toll when an attack results in a
pregnancy and subsequent abortion.
And psychological problems can become
financial problems resulting from the high
cost of therapy or not being able to work.
Asa result, rape victims should be able to
sue their assailants.
If the Supreme Court strikes down the
Violence Against Women Act because it vio
lates states’ rights, states must pass their own
similar legislation.
It is imperative not to keep victimizing the
victims.
products? Of course not. And while it may
be slightly irritating to watch college football
teams with Nike swooshes all over their uni
forms gathered in the FedEx Arena to play in
the Micron PC Bowl, such sponsorship poses
little serious threat to established institutions
and traditions.
However, the name of a town is different.
If Halfway can be bought, what’s stopping
some Internet start-up from turning San
Francisco into SanFran.com, or New York
into NY.com?
How long will it be until the people in
these dot-com cities and towns are individu
ally bought out as well? Is it that ridiculous to
imagine motorists converting their cars into
mobile billboards and millions of dot-com
commuters going to work each morning?
Heck, if the price is right, perhaps people
will begin naming their firstborn children
after Web sites.
Then, these dot-com families can load
Junior.com into the family minivan and take
him to the Ebay.com Arena to watch the Tar
Heels with their Nike uniforms... which can
be purchased at mj.com, of course.
Perhaps Half.com’s gimmick is just that -
a gimmick -and does not indicate the begin
ning of any disturbing trend.
However, the possibility still exists.
And ChapelHill.com sure sounds pretty
lousy.
Shooting Bricks
After impressive wins over Clemson
and N.C. State, the Tar Heels lost to
Wake Forest on Wednesday,
shooting a dismal 38.2 percent. The object is to get
that little orange ball into the net, guys.
Goodbye2K
Come out of your bunkers: We
made it to the year 2000 safely.
Thankfully, we won't have to utter
- or hear - the m-word for another 999 years.
“The only question before the board is how
much (money for financial aid) to request,
when.”
Student Financial Aid Task Force
Chairman Gary Barnes
We thought the BOG was also considering the question of
how much money to take from the students, when.
“Without class rank, you don’t lose
anything.”
East Chapel Hill High School
Principal David Thaden
That might be true, but you sure create problems for
college admissions officials who then have to calculate it.
Opinions
ultr iailg (Tar Hn'l
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Robin Clemow
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR
Carolyn Haynes
COPY DESK EDITOR
Miller Pearsall
PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
Soft Rock: Simply an Oxymoron?
“All l can remember about the last two months is
giving a guest lecture at Villanova. Or maybe that
was a street corner. ”
-Barney Gumble
It’s a 16-hour drive from Lawrence, Kan. to
Chapel Hill. Somewhere just east of
Nashville, I began to sober up. The
demons of four weeks oozed out of my pores
and circled around the inside of my Jeep
before being sucked out the 1 -inch crack in
the window.
Just when 1 was beginning to enjoy eastern
Tennessee, a giant billboard smacked me in
the face and hurled me back into the month
long endless night at the Bourgeois Pig. The
sign said, “See Rock City.”
Among all our barstool attempts to save
the town, save the world and save our friends,
the only conversation 1 remember from the
last four weeks back home is a conversation
about rocks.
“It's like a soft rock." my friend muttered
one night at the Pig. We were quick to correct
her.
“There’s no such thing as a soft rock,” we
argued.
And the Great Rock Debate had begun.
Now, I’m not a geologist. Nor am Ia
genius. I’ve often been accused of having
rocks upstairs. But let’s examine some differ
ent rocks and put an end to the Great Rock
Debate once and for all.
Gravel immediately comes to mind. Fiver
removed pieces of “soft” gravel from parts of
your body?
Diamonds. Despite their beauty, there’s
nothing soft about their price.
Molten lava. You check if it’s soft.
Salt. Is salt a rock? It’s mined, isn’t it?
Even a brimming bowl of Quarry cereal
doesn’t go soft in milk.
Mythologically speaking, there’s no evi
dence of soft rocks. Hercules either split one
mountain into two or built two separate
mountains, which are called the Pillars of
Hercules and lie on both sides of the Strait of
Gibraltar. The pillars are still there.
Biblically speaking, Acts 7:59, which says,
Readers' Forum
Fennell’s Column
Had No Factual Basis,
Was Hypocritical
TO THE EDITOR:
Asa graduate of UNC and an
alumna of a sorority, I am absolutely
appalled by the lack of intelligence
and integrity that was displayed by
The Daily Tar Heel and columnist
Josh Fennell in his illogical and base
less column Dec. 3.
Fennell’s attitude and position not
only have no factual basis but also
make him a hypocrite. Fennell labels
fraternity members as perpetrators
against outsiders. It appears to me
that it is Fennell who is paranoid
against outsiders and makes the quick
assumption that anyone who is dif
ferent from him is wrong and worthy
of judgment.
Did Fennell ever talk about the
contributions the fraternities and
sororities make to the community?
Did he ask about the fund-raisers, the
volunteering and involvement frater
nities and sororities have in their sur
roundings outside of Fraternity
Court?
No, Fennell made judgment calls
Vicky Eckenrode & Cate Doty
MANAGING EDITORS
Thomas Ausman
DESIGN EDITOR
Megan Sharkey
GRAPHICS EDITOR
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ONLINE EDITOR
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mmKk IH
BRIAN FREDERICK
ON TAP
“While they were stoning him, Stephen
prayed, ‘LordJesus, receive my spirit,’” might
instead say, “While they were stoning him,
Stephen prayed, ‘Throw the soft rocks,
please.’” And David would have received a
quick burial had he thrown a soft rock at
Goliath.
Ireland has the Blarney Stone, which was
once hard, but may be softer after years of
being kissed/urinated on.
1 never really learned the story of
Plymouth Rock, since these days we hold the
Pilgrims in contempt.
But I believe the hull of the Mayflower
smashed into Plymouth Rock (it must have
been hard), spilling the Pilgrims’ luggage,
cured meats and slaves.
Crack rocks. I can’t speak from experience,
but there seems to be nothing soft about these
white rocks, except the people who smoke
them.
Pop Rocks. One might be fooled into
believing that these are soft because they dis
solve in your mouth, but don’t forget they
killed Mikey from the Life cereal commer
cials.
Rock candy. There’s nothing soft about this
sugar on a stick. I ate some in third grade and
it’s still in my teeth.
Rock lobster. “It wasn’t a rock. It was a
rock lobster.”
Alcatraz, a.k.a. The Rock. Like the crimi
nals that once lived in it, this structure is
tough. Soft, however, are the Russian Hill res
idents with a view of Alcatraz.
The wrestler known as The Rock. You go
and placed outrageous stereotypes on
a small group of men and decided
that they were the cause of all evil in
society.
I must have missed all of those
gang rape invitations and been total
ly oblivious to all the fraternity mem
bers getting women high and raping
them when I attended fraternity par
ties during my four years in Chapel
Hill.
Has Fennell ever attended a fra
ternity party? Does he even know
anyone in a fraternity? He asserts
himself as the authority on sexual
violence and society’s ills, and his
conclusion, based on preconceived
notions, is that upper-class white men
in fraternities are to blame.
This type of behavior only sup
ports hatred and discrimination,
dividing the community. Fennell is
not the solution, he is part of the
problem. His failure to make any
attempt to get to know or become
familiar with something that is obvi
ously outside his environment or
realm of reality displays his igno
rance and unwillingness to accept or
understand the diversity and differ
ences between all individuals.
In addition, Fennell, where were
Whitney Moore
WRITING COACH
Terry Wimmer
OMBUDSMAN
ahead and tell the World Wrestling
Federation’s poster boy that he’s soft.
Ad-Rock. OK, so he’s getting softer in his
later years. He was hardest on “Licensed to
111.” But he’s still much harder than ...
Kid Rock. The best argument yet.
Rock V roll. There’s no such thing as soft
rock ’n’ roll. Ah, ah, ah. Think Stones. Think
AC/DC.
Now tell me that there’s such a thing as
“soft rock.”
Billy Joel? Damn right he’s soft. But he
ain’t rock.
Now, lest you think I am content wallowing
in my ignorance, and since you might be, too,
I have consulted Kevin Stewart, assistant pro
fessor of geology.
“Geologists use the term 'soft rock’ infor
mally. It refers to sedimentary rocks,” Stewart
said. Examples of sedimentary rocks are sand
stone and shale. And I thought Shale was the
name of an American Gladiator.
“'Hard rocks’ are igneous and metamor
phic,” he said. Igneous rocks form when
molten lava solidifies.
Metamorphic refers to rocks that change
under intense pressure or heat. Weren’t
Igneous and Metamorphic failed grunge
bands from Seattle?
“But no rocks are really soft in the sense
that non-geologists use the word,” Stewart
finally conceded.
And that is victory enough for me.
My friend Angela has just informed me
that talc is a soft rock. Fellas, talc is used in
facial pow'der and on babies’ bottoms. She has
probably just defeated my argument with that
example. If it’s worthy of a baby’s bottom, it
must be soft. And since I’m having drinks
with her tonight, I’ll admit she’s right. I’m not
made of stone after all.
I need a drink. Make it a scotch. On the
rocks.
Brian Frederick is a graduate student in jour
nalism and mass communication from
Lawrence, Kansas. He can be reached at
brifred@yahoo.com.
you that Sunday in May 1996, when
families and students were told the
devastating news that five people
were dead? Fennell might not have
been there, and he might not care
about that day because it doesn’t
affect him, but 1 was there and I cer
tainly do care.
These were people’s children and
friends. Fennell’s lack of respect for
the memory of human beings whose
lives were innocently and tragically
cut shfirt is offensive and completely
tasteless.
Jacqueline Fields
Class of 1996
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