12
Wednesday, November 1, 2000
Concerns ot
our coverage?
Contact the
ombudsman at
ombudsmaneiunc.edu
or caß 9334611.
Kdli Boutin
EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR
KimMinugh
UNIVERSITY EDITOR
Ginny Sdabbanasi
OTY EDITOR
Board Editorials
Vote for the Bond
The $3.1 billion higher education bond is needed to bring
UNC-system schools and community colleges into the 21st century.
On Nov. 7, as residents of North Carolina
select the next batch of elected officials, their
most enduring decision might not involve
the names Gore, Bush, Vinroot or Easley,
but could instead be their choice as to
whether to support a $3.1 billion bond for
the UNC system.
Simply put, the issue before the state’s vot
ers is whether it is worth doubling the state’s
debt to gready improve our public universi
ties and community colleges.
In the view of The Daily Tar Heel, it is,
because the bond addresses the urgent need
to expand and update embarrassingly out
dated facilities on every public campus of
higher learning statewide.
But the bond has a few potential drawbacks.
Most notably is that bonds are borrowed
money. North Carolina enjoys a strong repu
tation on Wall Street for paying its debts. But
the size of this bond package could jeopardize
that, especially considering the perennially tight
state budget That could mean higher taxes, as
state leaders righdy would rather make the
politically unpopular move than lose our sound
financial reputation. Anyone supporting the
bond should be aware of this possibility.
And this bond must not become a prece
dent for UNC-system funding. The “inde
pendent overseers” of the money should
make sure there are frequent audits to curb
wasteful spending, preventing another bond
proposal a few years from now.
Kelli Boutin Editorial Notebook
Time Off
The Durham County jail's policy of giving offenders credit
for time spent waiting is a miscarriage of justice.
Americans are taught from an early age to
trust in the fairness of their justice system. In
other words, most of us assume that once
convicted, the “bad guy” gets locked away.
Usually that’s true - unless you happen to
have been convicted in Durham County.
Our neighbor to the east apparently consid
ers showing up to be equivalent to actually
serving out a sentence.
Alan B. McKoy, who was sentenced to 30
days in the Durham County jail for choking
and beating his girlfriend, told The News &
Observer that he came to the jail for 12
straight days to turn himself in and was
turned away each time because jailers did not
have the proper paperwork to lock him up.
As if it wasn’t bad enough that a convicted
abuser was out on the streets for those 12
days, once he was taken into custody, he was
given credit for serving every day that he had
shown up at the jail.
Jailers justified the decision by saying that
it is common for paperwork to be missing.
Often, the problem occurs when probation
officers fail to turn in the documents that give
the jail the legal right to hold an inmate, said
Readers' Forum
DTH Readers Speak Out About Third-Party Candidates’ Views and How Voting for Them Will Affect the Future of National Politics
TO THE EDITOR:
While not as enthusiastic about A1 Gore
as Matt Jones, I too believe that progressive
voters in North Carolina should vote to
“Beat Bush,” which of course implies vote
Gore.
Although Nader has a seemingly more
progressive stance on some of the issues
(definitely not all), it would not be progres
sive (nor strategic) to vote for him. The
word progressive inherently reaches for
“progress.” A vote for Nader will not bring
progress. To the contrary, a vote for Nader
will bring G. “Dub-yah” Bush, who will
naturally “regress” national policy. But I
won’t ramble on about why we should fear
Bush, although I think it marginalizes a lot
of good working class people to base this
fear solely in democratic propaganda. I will
address two main points.
1. Nader is not the Great White Hope
that the Green Party depicts him to be.
His positions within many crucial areas
of gender, sexuality, domestic labor and the
issues of people of color lack the progres
sive interpretation that he applies to the
corporate world and the environment This
brings to question why progressives should
vote for Nader even if he did stand a
chance of winning.
To vote for him based on his progressive
Matt Dees
EDITOR
Offict Hour Friday 2 p.m. • 3 p.m.
Kathleen Hunter
STATE St NATIONAL EDITOR
T. Nolan Hayes
SPORTS EDITOR
Will Kimmey
SPORTSATURDAY EDITOR
The bond, if passed, will provide $2.5 bil
lion to the 16 campuses of die UNC system
and S6OO million to the 59 N.C. community
colleges. This money is especially crucial now,
as the two already overcrowded systems are
expecting an enrollment increase of 100,000
students during the next decade. At a time
when public universities are bracing for pos
sibly having to turn away qualified applicants
because of a lack of space, the bond will allow
state schools to serve all interested students.
Another positive for the bond is the fact
that the schools will be given the funds in one
lump sum to spend as they see fit Because all
the money is coming in at once, large projects
such as anew undergraduate science labora
tory at UNC would come to fruition, setting
the stage for a future influx of research money.
The last, but certainly not least, reason for
voting for the bond is that it will provide the
funding that the state’s historically black col
leges desperately need. Decades of ignoring
these institutions have taken a toll on their
campuses, and the bond money will help
bring their facilities into the 21st century.
Although the bond isn’t as perfect as many
in the UNC-system community make it out to
be, it is for the most part a sound solution to
many glaring problems at our state’s schools.
Go out and vote “yes” for the bond on
Tuesday and then demand that the powers
that-be keep their promises on how the
money will be spent and supervised.
Lt. Col. George Naylor, who runs the
Durham jail.
Jail policy permits offenders to get credit
for the time they waited to get in the jail.
Jailers say this problem of missing paper
work has been going on since the 1980 sand
the policy usually has been applied to people
who have been convicted of misdemeanors.
Regardless of whether most of the people
who have benefited from the policy are mis
demeanants or felons, it is absolutely ridicu
lous. Hangin’ at home is not the same as serv
ing a 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week sen
tence behind bars, and it should not be treat
ed as such.
While it certainly is not the offenders’ fault
that the paperwork was not filed correctly,
the fact remains that they are criminals and
therefore deserve no breaks. What they do
deserve is to stay in jail for the full duration
of the sentence that was deemed appropriate
in a court of law.
Counting time spent out on the streets as
time spent in jail is equivalent to commuting
a prisoner’s sentence, and it is a gross mis
carriage of justice.
stance on two basic issues is very danger
ous. In fact, voting for anyone based on sin
gle issues is quite self-absorbed. It plays the
game of “Oppression Olympics,” placing
one or two issues as priority above all oth
ers. The fact that Nader is good on the envi
ronment but bad on hate crimes does not
make him any more progressive than the
other candidates. It just makes him good on
the environment
2. Asa .progressive, I’ve found myself in
the uncomfortable position of defending A1
Gore, dearly not a favorite.
But when it is guaranteed that either he
or Bush will be elected, it doesn’t take
Democratic National Committee propa
ganda to know it’d be easier to work with
Gore. Though the candidates might seem
to be the same to upper-middle-class white
students, others have legitimate grounds for
fearing Bush.
Asa progressive, I am convinced and
newly motivated to democratize our coun
try’s electoral and overall decision-making
processes. There are strategic ways to go
about doing this. Voting for Nader simply
isn’t one of them. Aside from making a
statement (we can debate exactly what that
statement is), a vote for Nader will not do
anything concrete in promoting this soci
etal change. Such statements lead one to
Opinion
lattjj Sat Mttl
Established 1893 • 107 Years of Editorial Freedom
Jermaine Caldwell
: FEATURES EDITOR
Ashley Atkinson
jfe § ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR
IWE VNiv&esi ry
T+AKf ANiy yjrfi
fbUAN AND M
l*T C*O~T IT £ HANU?£
I Tfrg NEXT "in Un£ fop.
Presidential Candidates Revealed
Another Happy Halloween has come to
an end. I can only hope that you ate
enough candy to make yourself sick
and that you sported something wild, outra
geous or skimpy. But for two people,
Halloween isn’t over yet because they’ll still
be pretending next Tuesday to be someone
they’re not.
So now that you’re all going to vote, I feel
it’s my civic duty to help you plow through
the mud of the presidential candidates on this
historic occasion.
The “choices” at the beginning of this year
were a lot of interesting people who didn’t
have enough money or famous relatives even
to be considered (because God forbid we
should have a president who wasn’t bom with
a silver spoon in his mouth). With the choices
now, it’s like choosing between a fraternity
brother and a brown-noser.
Before I go on about this year’s election, I
think it’s important to look at the gentlemen
who carried this nation through its 200-plus
years of democracy to help determine what
type of leader we need for the present
Thomas Jefferson reminds us of the promi
nence of hypocrisy. The man who said “all
men are created equal” was a slave owner.
It’s too bad we can’t go back in time.
Maybe we could have taught Jefferson more
about the meaning of equality, and who
knows what politically incorrect conversation
could’ve taken place between Sally
Hemmings and Monica Lewinsky.
Moving on, we have good ol’ Andrew
Jackson, who spent his life fighting “those
people” off “his” land. Surely the new
Sacajawea dollar coin now in circulation will
rectify Jackson’s tragic actions, which led to
the Trail of Tears.
Nixon got a big fat tap on the hand for tap
ping phones. But William Jefferson Clinton is
the Mack Daddy of them all. Smiling and
playing his saxophone into the White House,
he told us, “If I could’ve inhaled, I would
have.”
Let’s face it, we’re one of the most desensi-
question exactly what Nader and the Green
Party have done outside of election years to
“progress” toward a more democratic elec
toral system.
The Green Party has made its statement,
and it has legitimately shown how corrupt
our electoral system is. However, at this
point the party is only acting to divide pro
gressives. They have even gone so far as to
endorse Bush over Gore if it came down to
it! This is not progressive. There are, how
ever, coalitions establishing themselves to
prepare for this struggle of democratizing
the system regardless of who is elected, the
Green Party being merely one of the third
parties represented. Progressives should
focus on this as a national agenda after the
election; after voting for A1 Gore.
Erica Smiley
Junior
Math and Political Science
The length rule was waived.
TO THE EDITOR:
If students are wondering whether they
should vote for A1 Gore or Ralph Nader,
they need to realize that in North Carolina,
you cannot vote for Ralph Nader in this
election. He is not on the ballot and is not
Sefton Ipock
PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
Cobi Edelson
DESIGN EDITOR
Saleem Reshamwala
GRAPHICS EDITOR
■
ANNE MARIE TEAGUE
GLAMOROUS TRASH
tized nations in the world, and the Clinton
scandal provided the news media with some
thing to write about that people would actual
ly read. It also provided drama better than
“The Young and the Restless” with its stained
dresses, recorded conversations and old fogies
trying to oust our valiant love machine, Bill
Clinton.
From these men, we’ve learned to be sly,
lie if we have to, have sex with anyone but
our spouse and infiltrate others’ secret infor
mation. Because the next president will have
to be something like a morph of a cartoon
superhero and a VHI fashion model, I’m just
happy that the “contestants" are more preoc
cupied powdering their noses rather than
repeating the political follies and tragedies of
the past.
The October issue of Cosmopolitan asked
1,000 women who was more of a babe in col
lege: A1 Gore or George W. Bush. Bush won
with 79.4 percent Naturally, these are the cru
cial statistics, because Hollywood glamour is
omnipotent.
Gore says he’s for the environment. The
important question to ask is “which one,”
because his family owns some $500,000 worth
of stock in an oil company planning to drill
on Colombian sod, the third most biodiverse
region in the world. My bet is that Gore
dressed up as a hippo for Halloween, uh, I
mean “hippo-crit.”
George W. Bush, who should’ve dressed up
as the Joker, isn’t much better with his intel
lectually empty glances and plans to plow up
a qualified write-in candidate. Votes for
Nader will not be counted this election sea
son.
If you choose to vote for a third-party
candidate, you should not worry about
what it will do to the general election. Yes,
in many states voting for Nader might help
Bush (a fact the GOP obviously agrees with
because they are running pro-Nader ads in
many close states), but that should not nec
essarily factor into your decision. If you are
voting for Nader (or any other third-party
candidate), do so for the right reasons,
because you want to. Know that it might
hand the election to someone else, but if
you are indifferent as to the main candi
dates and don’t care who wins, go ahead
and vote for the third-party candidate of
your choice and send a message to the
main parties.
If votes for Nader do shift the election to
Bush, that might not be a bad thing. If you
believe that the Democratic Party has aban
doned its liberal base, maybe losing an
election will be just the thing to send them
a message. If you hold your nose and vote
for the main party, rather than the third
party your heart desires, you are doing
nothing to reform the system or let your
traditional party know how you truly feel.
If you support one of the main candi
Cate Doty k Lauren Beal
MANAGING EDITORS
Josh Williams
ONLINE EDITOR
Brian Frederick
OMBUDSMAN
Laura Stoehr
SPECIAL ASSIGNMENTS EDITOR
Alaska. (You know, it wouldn’t be prudent to
destroy the Earth.) But of course the only
thing that really matters is maintaining prices
on the 54 percent of our oil we import, even if
it’s at the stake of our national security.
But why make your choice based on
insignificant things like character? (Sarcasm.)
I’m making my choice on more random fac
tors like how many times a candidate can use
the word “Medicare” or which candidate can
slur his opponent with the most humorous
punch-line. (Sarcasm again.)
Before I wrap this up, I couldn’t possibly
go without giving a “subliminable” (Ralph
Nader) message myself. We all know Nader
isn’t going to win, so why does this man
evoke such controversy? Are they afraid he
might say something important? He’s on the
ballot in 44 states. Because we live in Hee-
Haw-ville, we aren’t one of them.
I recently read an article stating that if
Nader got 5 percent of the vote, tile Green
Party would get federal funding. Therefore, a
vote for Nader is not a throwaway vote or an
indirect vote for Bush. Only when people
vote for the “loser” can the “loser” one day
ever become a participant
The truth is, I’ve almost decided who I’m
voting for. Hmm ... will I choose the person
who invented the Internet and put it in a lock
box or the man who is rumored to have
enjoyed fine powder on a mirror and wears
cowboy boots?
The only reason I can see to choose the
cowboy boots is that I hope to be in the top 1
percent of the wealthiest people in America,
and I definitely want tax relief.
Who will you choose? The bottom line is
you should choose the candidate for president
whom “Saturday Night Live” makes fun of
the best, because isn’t having a sense of
humor all that really matters? (Sarcasm yet
again.)
Anne Marie Teague is a senior business
administration major from Lumberton. Reach
her at teague@email.unc.edu.
dates, vote for them. If you support a third
party, vote for it - the main parties need to
see that not everyone is happy with the way
they operate.
Just remember, in North Carolina, a
vote for Nader is not going to count either
way.
Daniel Meier
Graduate Student
Law
Sway the Vote
The Daily Tar Heel welcomes letters of
endorsement for national, state and local
candidates.
Endorsement letters must adhere to the
regular guidelines for submission.
Publication is not guaranteed.
If you feel that you simply cannot say
your piece in 300 words or less, however,
consider writing a guest column for publi
cation on Monday's Viewpoints page. Guest
columns must be less than 850 words in
length and written by no more than two
people.
Please send your elections columns to
editdesk@unc.edu or bring them by the
DTH office before 6 p.m. today.
Need more information? Call Editorial
Page Editor Kelli Boutin at 962-0245.
oaily (Bar Mrrl
j?j
The Daiiy Tar Heel wel- V*
comes reader
and criticism. Letters to tfie
editor should be no longer
than 300 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 vulgarity.
Publication is not guaran
teed. Bring letters to the
DTH office at Suite 104, *
Carolina Union, mail them
to P.0.80x 3257, Chapel 7
Hill, NC 27515 or e-mail
forum to:
editdesk@unc.edu.