Thursday, August 31, 2000
14
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comments about
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Contact tin
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or call 933-4611.
Kelli Boutin
EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR
Kim Minugh
universitv editor
Ginny Sciabbarrasi
CITY EDITOR
Board Editorials
No Free Ride
Students purchasing parking spaces from Tar Heel Parking Services
learned a valuable business lesson: Look before you buy.
“Buyer Beware” should be the warning
issued to parking-deprived students by UNC
and Chapel Hill law enforcement officials.
After this week’s fiasco involving Tar Heel
Parking Services, several things are appar
ently clear: Students are not displaying a
whole lot of common sense and law enforce
ment officials are not doing everything pos
sible to weed out shady “businessmen.”
It recently became apparent, at the
expense of several UNC students, that Tar
Heel Parking Services, a company owned by
Gus Mueller, was suspect.
Students complained about parking spaces
purchased from the business after noting that
the parking lot was nothing but “tom down
buildings” and was “filled with rabble.” In
addition, students were told they could not
receive a refund.
How does the old saying go? “I hate to say
I told you so, but ...” Perhaps students
shouldn’t expect too much from a service
that prefers doing business from the tinted
window of a BMW. Giving suspicious-look
ing persons hundreds of dollars in cash is
simply not a wise move.
To be sure, parking is a valuable com
modity in Chapel Hill. And to that end, stu
dents, especially freshmen, need to realize
that there will be people in the area looking
to take advantage of the fresh crop of stu-
High Hurdles
North Carolina's elections laws are too biased against third-party
candidates and the restrictions should be lowered.
The excessively stringent nature of North
Carolina elections laws create a hostile polit
ical environment for third parties and are in
need of retooling.
Current laws require that a candidate from
an unrecognized party must turn in a petition
with the number of signatures equal to 2 per
cent of the votes cast in the last gubernatori
al election.
That measure, however, only ensures that
a candidate receives recognition for the cur
rent election. In order to remain a recog
nized party within North Carolina, the
party’s candidate must garner 10 percent of
the vote in that election.
While these laws are necessary, they are
stacked against alternative parties. The 2 per
cent signature is reasonable enough. After
all, the law ensures that a large number of
North Carolinians desire having the chance
to vote for a certain party, preventing fringe
candidates from clogging up the ballot.
But demanding a 10 percent return from a
third party candidate is excessive, unrealistic
and should be lowered to 5 percent. For
instance, in the 1992 presidential election,
Ross Perot only received 13.7 percent of the
votes in North Carolina. Though it was
above the required 10 percent, one must also
consider that Perot spent more than S6O mil
lion of his own money on his campaign and
Readers' Forum
Senior Class Officers
Pledge to Include All
Seniors in Future Events
TO THE EDITOR:
This letter is in response to the concerns
expressed by Sheryl Freedman in her letter
to The Daily Tar Heel concerning the two
Senior Class parties thrown during the first
week of classes and their lack of access to
underage seniors. While the second party
was restricted to seniors who are 21 and
over, the senior class administration did
make arrangements to allow underage
seniors into the first party. A number of
seniors under 21 were admitted to the party
early in the evening. Unfortunately, under
age admission was limited later in the
evening due to the management’s concerns
over the large number of non-seniors who
took advantage of the underage admissions
policy. We apologize for any inconvenience
that was caused to any underage seniors
who were denied admission to the party,
and we are currently working on ways to
verify upperclassmen status to avoid simi
lar situations in the future. Our administra
tion is very interested in including all
seniors in our activities and we are very
eager to get any feedback that can help us
Matt Dees
EDITOR
Office Hours Friday 2 p.m. -3 p.m.
Kathleen Hunter
STATE & NATIONAL EDITOR
T. Nolan Hayes
SPORTS EDITOR
Will Kimmey
SPORTSATURDAY EDITOR
dents who arrive every August.
Before simply purchasing parking from a
business, it would be wise for students to
investigate the available spaces for them
selves, while at the same time asking any
questions possibly pertaining to the lot’s
security and distance from campus.
Chapel Hill and University police would
also do well to crack down on possible park
ing scams. Apparently, Tar Heel Parking
Services fell through the cracks. Fliers adver
tising the parking service, which were not
approved by the University, were slipped
under doors in many residence halls.
Residence Hall Association officials finally
got the hint and posted warning fliers about
the company, but it was too little, too late for
the students who had already shelled out a
couple hundred dollars for a parking space.
This raises several security questions about
who placed the fliers and how they got into
the residence halls.
Students should remember not to admit
strangers into their residence hall without a
key.
Until a solution is reached, two things
should happen: Mueller should refund the
money of any student who doesn’t want the
parking service.
And students should be wary of BMWs
offering the promise of parking
participated in the national debates.
Other third party candidates usually do
not have access to such funds or media atten
tion. So the laws create a vicious cycle - gath
ering enough signatures to earn a place on
the ballot, only to have to start all over again
when the candidate does not meet the steep
10 percent requirement.
Thus, much of the manpower these small
er parties expend is devoted to recognition
by the N.C. State Board of Elections and not
campaigning, a hurdle that Democrats and
Republicans are able to easily bypass.
By enforcing laws which are so stacked
against third parties, the North Carolina
Elections Board robs its citizens of true
democracy and new ideas.
And although third party candidates, such
as Pat Buchanan and Ralph Nader, might
lack a real chance of winning a presidential
election, their views and policies deserve to
be considered by North Carolina voters.
In order to better uphold democratic
ideals, North Carolina elections laws should
lower the required 10 percent of the vote to
a realistic number, such as 5 percent.
By enforcing the current laws, the Board of
Elections is denying North Carolinians a rich
and varied political climate and precludes
North Carolina residents from truly making
up their own minds.
accomplish this goal. If anyone else has any
comments, suggestions or questions, feel
free to contact us at cowley@email.unc.edu
or sjblack@email.unc.edu.
Jason Cowley
President, UNC Class of 2001
Senior
History and Political Science
Sherilynn Black
Vice President, UNC Class of 2001
Senior
Psychology
Stereotypes, Sexism
Rampant in Old East,
Old West Column
TO THE EDITOR:
Upon reading the article “UNC Officials
Should Leave Dudes Alone” by Ashley
Stephenson, we momentarily hoped that it
was a satirical piece.
Reading further we realized that the
writer was rhetorically unskilled and
showed a rather phenomenal inability to
understand the importance of context when
using slang in writing (“stoopid-fresh
wardrobes” ... what?). Her inability to
Opinion
fflp Satlg (Tar KM
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www.unc.edu/dth
Jermaine Caldwell
FEATURES EDITOR
Ashley Atkinson
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR
Carolyn Haynes
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Sick <*■ seu iwb jdiTfSni.*. mere L ncßßfivc+Roalft.
Fanning UNC’s Intellectual Flames
I know that a good number of you have
been waiting for the insider’s guide to The
Daily Tar Heel, a behind-the-scenes tell-all
about a student newspaper like the show
“World’s Greatest Magic Secrets Revealed,”
but involving newspapers.
While I wouldn’t place an order for it yet, I
would like to tell you about the relationship
between a writer and his editor.
In many ways the relationship is a partner
ship like Simon and Garfunkel and Cousin
Larry and Balki Bartokomous from “Perfect
Strangers:” We work together.
When I finish writing something, I give it
to the editor, in this case Jonathan. Jonathan
then works his editorial magic and turns
something that I say, like, “Thor eat meat
from fire pit” into something more pre
sentable like, “The new menu at the Carolina
Coffee Shop strikes a perfect balance between
the heart and the palate.”
Actually, it is quite a sight to see Jonathan
and myself together during our shared
moments of editing. Jonathan looks like a guy
you would see selling trinkets on Venice
Beach to pay for his collections of surfboards
and Pokemon cards. He is thin, with bleached
blond hair, and wears a T-shirt and shorts; I
look like I just got out of class at a boarding
school in New England: khakis, collared shirt
tucked in and decidedly uptight.
1, looking like the stodgy goody-two-shoes,
advocate the liberal point of view, and
Jonathan, the surfer/transient, is on the cutting
edge of conservatism.
It’s a lot like that Nicholas Cage/John
Travolta movie “Face Off,” where the charac
ters switch bodies and then try to hunt each
other down, except with less ballet-like vio
lence and dove motifs.
Not surprisingly, Jonathan wrote in an edi
torial that the summer reading program at
UNC, and the book chosen for it,
“Confederates in the Attic,” were both silly.
Jonathan said these programs to enhance the
intellectual climate at UNC were “insulting to
incoming freshmen, and the student body as a
whole "Jonathan ended his column by sug
gesting that the people involved in the
refrain from referring to women as “chicks”
simply reinforces her disrespect both for
other women and for herself.
Stephenson displays an obvious con
tempt for other women, stereotyping them
with sexist language and asserting that they
should be disallowed from participation in
the University tradition that she claims to
hold so dear.
Further, she seems to ignore all aspects
of the “tradition” of Old East and Old West
that do not concern the gender of the occu
pants.
Should residents of Old East and Old
West be only white males from the richest
families in North Carolina?
If, as Ashley asserts, the women should
n’t be there, then all of the black, Asian,
Hispanic, Native American, gay and poor
men who happen to have made the mistake
of living there should pack their bags as
well.
The tradition that we should be focusing
on as the first public university in the
United States is one of academic excel
lence, a tradition of being a place of dynam
ic change where the past is seen as some
thing to learn from, not something to hold
onto blindly.
We seriously question the nature of
Ashley’s concern with this issue, when she
Sefton Ipock
PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
Cobi Edelson
DESIGN EDITOR
Saleem Reshamwala
GRAPHICS EDITOR
ikpl
-
■
WILLIAM MCKINNEY
CROSSWORD PUZZLE
Summer Reading Committee pick up “The
Complete Idiot’s Guide to Running a
University.”
This article was of particular interest to me
because I was on the Summer Reading
Committee, and in fact I recommended
“Confederates in the Attic.” After reading the
editorial, I soon felt as if I were in the World
Wresding Federation and Jonathan was “cut
ting a promo” on me. (For those of you who
don’t live and breathe wrestling, apparendy
that means criticizing the program.)
So here I was, ready to mount a vigorous
defense of my work in picking the book, when
some upstart “graduate student” named
Patrick O’Neil scooped me in Monday’s
paper. The book, he said, helped to give him
a holistic view of all his values, as a
Southerner and as a person.
Well, Patty, that’s just dynamite. You saved
me a column!
Actually, I heard similar stories around
campus when I talked to freshmen about their
summer reading.
And what Jonathan may also find disap
pointing is that many of these folks didn’t
mind reading the book and don’t mind the
program. Horrors! Frankly, there is no perfect
book, save maybe “How to Make a Great
Patty Melt,” which is more a great meal than a
great read.
Not everyone will like any book. So why
try to hide that? I think that is a good aspect
of the Summer Reading Program- it actually
does create discussion, in class, in the resi
dence hall and, crazy enough, in the discus
sion sessions.
clearly recognizes the apathy of many men
in Old East and Old West to the presence of
their female neighbors.
Finally, advocating vandalism as the
solution to the problem is the most ridicu
lous and immature suggestion that we have
ever read in an editorial.
Sorry Ashley, but your timing on this
issue is decidedly late and perhaps you
ought to find something more substantive
to investigate.
Liz Deans
Senior
Biology
Nora Wilson
Senior
Environmental Studies and
Anthropology
National Missile Defense
Too Costly, Fails to Live
Up to High Expectations
TO THE EDITOR:
It’s so easy to believe.
National missile defense sounds like a
good idea -and if you’re like Joe Monaco
and don’t know the whole story, it’s simple
Cate Doty & Lauren Beal
MANAGING EDITORS
Josh Williams
online editor
Brian Frederick
OMBUDSMAN
Secondly, Jonathan seemed upset that we
students at UNC should have to read a book
because we are the “best of the best in the
state of North Carolina.” But students from
Harvard to my hometown school, Furman
University, have books to read in the summer.
So what is it that we have learned that they
don’t know? The book ain’t meant to learn
you nuthin’. It is meant to be an introduction
to the idea that critical thinking is as key to
college life as eating in Lenoir Dining Hall
and sleeping in the library.
Jonathan wrote that on any given day at
UNC, the intellectual climate includes many
“lectures, seminars and symposiums.” (By the
way, boss, lectures and seminars don’t count -
they’re called classes).
So I decided to see what was going on
around campus by looking in the DTH. The
Campus Calendar includes “intellectual”
events such as a roller hockey meeting and
the Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies
debating the validity of the statement,
“Pimpin’ ain’t easy.” That’s right - the oldest
and perhaps most respected organization on
campus is debating song lyrics.
What’s next guys, “Oops, I Did It Again?”
This is not to say that there is no intellectu
al life on campus, and that there are no smart
folks walking around among us.
The rugby team, for example, has one of
the highest grade point averages of any group
on campus, all while they smash heads on the
field and sell T-shirts to the unsuspecting
masses. But still, they would be idiots, and so
would you, if you said this University is as
smart as it can be.
I am not talking about force-feeding fresh
men intellectualism instead of letting them go
to a football game, but reading a book over
the summer is not a bad way to start your col
lege experience.
William McKinney is a sophomore history
and political science major from Greenville, SC
who likes to wear berets and read in coffee
houses. If you would like to join him for a
mochaccino and talk about Plato or Play-Doh,
e-mail him at wmckinne@email.unc.edu.
to start singing the NMD tune
(“Cooperation Key to Missile Defense,”
Aug. 25).
But the truth is, national missile defense
will not work no matter which way you
look at it, and if we build it, they will come
- more nuclear weapons and lower nation
al security.
It’s crazy to imagine we would be willing
to spend between S6O and $l2O billion on
a system that has failed two out of three
tests and is way behind schedule.
Even if it did work, the greatest threats
facing the United States are terrorist attacks
-and missile defense does nothing to stop
those.
I could write a whole book on why
NMD would strain international relations
and hurt our national security and would
recommend that Mr. Monaco read a couple
of them to bone up on theory and not
rhetoric.
But for now, just hope that people look
past the simple mantra of “Our poor,
defenseless nation!”
That’s just not true, and national missile
defense cannot solve the problem.
Carrie Callaghan
Junior
International Studies and Spanish
(Thr Saily (Tar
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A
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