12
Thursday, April 11, 2002
Opinion
Wkp ular BM
Established 1893 lO9 iron of Editorial Freedom
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Readers' Forum =
Night of the Divas
Planned for Great Hall;
Five Acts to Perform
TO THE EDITOR:
Loreleis. Opeyo. Carolina Style.
Kamikazi. Mezmerhythm.
Tonight at 7 pm in the Great Hall, each
of these groups, together with other talent
ed Carolina women, will perform on one
stage for one cause - the prevention of sex
ual assault.
(And tickets are only $4!)
Clearly, the lineup is amazing. But the
Night of the Divas has more to offer than
simple entertainment value. It also has
heart. Every dollar raised will go directly to
the Orange County Rape Crisis Center, an
organization that provides everything from
counseling to elementary school education
programs, all free of charge. In order to
continue this work, the center needs your
help -and your money.
Recent events on this campus have high
lighted the prevalence of sexual assault,
and facing this reality can be frightening.
But we aren’t trying to frighten you; we
want to tell you that you can help. You can
come to the Night of the Divas, bring a
friend, enjoy the show and know that you
are doing your part to help end sexual
VAJSOCCSSE.FOL WJ ATWMPT 10 SAVJC U/jiL
VtWf ***** IN OW*S,*Je, _ _
\>6CTV4C KAriTW e*CM A 3tfT... -YYW>
Board Editorials
Renting Rules
The passage of rental licensing is key for student renters, but students still need to understand terms of leases
Like a bunch of small-town vintners, the
Chapel Hill Town Council carries a philos
ophy that seems inherent to the way it con
ducts business - all good things come with
time.
But instead of yielding a product that
time makes more enjoyable, the Town
Council’s delays usually produce some
thing that is simply late.
In typical fashion, the Town Council
finally passed a rental licensing ordinance
Monday night.
But the ordinance, which is preceded by
more than two years of work, will be a good
step to ensure landlord accountability.
Under the specifics of the ordinance,
landlords will be required by the town to
possess a rental license. At the small cost of
$ 10 per year, purchasing the license should
not represent any problem or threat to local
landlords, nor should the cost be passed on
to renters.
The ordinance will go into effect this
year and will be evaluated after two years
Unlikely Solutions
Drilling in the Arctic is not going to help the nation's dependency on foreign oil
A single drop can produce great ripples,
especially when that drop is in the Middle
East.
As the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict continues to spiral
downward, Iraq’s Saddam
Hussein has temporarily halt
ed oil imports to America to
punish Washington for its support of Israel.
Although it probably won’t lead to a
change in foreign policy, Hussein’s decision
to turn off the spigot has already affected the
lives of many Americans. Gas prices began
to rise precipitously after the announce
ment, causing Americans to once again
reflect upon their reliance on foreign oil.
After Sept. 11, Americans began to seri
ously consider the ramifications of obtain
ing most of their oil from a region that is
often mired in conflict and many of whose
leaders and citizens don’t like them much.
President Bush and congressional leaders
rightly have identified the nation’s failure to
assault.
Imagine enjoying some of Carolina’s
finest entertainment and working to end
sexual assault - all for only $4?
Shaina Vatz
Junior
Peace, War and Defense
Theresa Chen
Senior
Journalism and Mass Communication
Tickets Can Be Bought
Online, at Alumni Center
For Senior Ball Event
TO THE EDITOR:
We would like to invite each and every
senior to the Senior Ball, to be held on
Saturday, April 20 from 9:30 p.m.to 2 a.m.
The ball will be held at Michael Jordan’s
23 so we can celebrate the last month of
our senior year!
Tickets are $lO each and can be pur
chased in a variety of ways. First, you can
buy them at the front desk from noon to 4
p.m. at the Alumni Center from April 8-19.
You may also purchase them online at
seniors.unc.edu.
Lastly, if you know a marshal, you may
get tickets from them as well.
of practice.
When experiencing problems with off
campus housing, many students find that it
is nearly impossible to get in touch with
their landlord to voice a complaint. And to
make matters worse, oftentimes problems
go unaddressed.
The ordinance will help to make situa
tions of absentee landlords less common
because it holds landlords more account
able. It also includes access to an online
database containing all landlords in violation
of town housing codes - an invaluable
resource for those looking for a place to rent
Contact information and complaint
records also will soon become available to
the public through the database, which will
be maintained by the town.
Still, students should not be fully assured
by the passage of this ordinance. Although
it will give students the means to research
on their landlords, students will still need to
take certain responsibilities that the ordi
nance will not provide.
reduce this dependency as a serious prob
lem and have vowed to rectify it. But their
cure, unfortunately, might be worse than
the disease.
As the Senate hashes out a
new energy bill meant to
reduce America’s dependen
cy on foreign oil, the Bush
Mark Slagle
Editorial Notebook
administration and its allies in the Congress
are pushing a shortsighted agenda that
rewards the oil industry without in any way
improving the long-term energy situation.
Bush’s forces already scored a victory in
the House, which passed an energy bill
larded with incentives for the oil, gas and
coal industries while paying little attention
to conservation and fuel efficiency. The
House also has resurrected an idea that
Bush has been pushing since before the
election - opening the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge to exploratory oil drilling.
Letting oil companies sink their rigs into
ANWR is a bad idea, for several reasons.
The ball will be semi-formal attire, and a
date is not required. They will be checking
IDs at the door (you can be marked under),
and any non-senior may attend with a
senior.
If you have any questions, feel free to e
mail Brooke Roper, the coordinator, at
broper@email.unc.edu. Thanks, and please
come out to enjoy an evening to remem
ber!
Ben Singer
Senior Class President
Brooke Roper
Senior Ball Coordinator
Graduate, Professional
Students Speak Out
About Commencement
TO THE EDITOR:
Attention graduate and professional stu
dents - it is already time to begin thinking
about next year’s Commencement speak
ers!
This includes graduation ceremonies in
December 2002 and May 2003. This is
your opportunity to request individuals
whom you would like to hear at your
Commencement.
Nomination forms can be found on the
Students need to take the time to under
stand the details of their lease agreements
and utilize sources on campus like Student
Legal Services to be familiar with the oblig
ations and liabilities of living off campus.
The Town Council passed the ordinance
with one amendment aimed at protecting
those responsible landlords in Chapel Hill
who have not received complaints.
The amendment will make it so that only
landlords with violations will be on the
database.
The ordinance will force landlords who
have been negligent toward the needs of
their renters to become more accountable
for their property.
Basic problems that inevitably occur
with housing will be addressed more easi
ly with access to landlords’ contact infor
mation and history.
For a university like UNC where close to
70 percent of students live in off-campus
housing, such an ordinance is long over
due.
First, most experts believe that there is only
a modest amount of oil beneath the refuge.
Second, it could take years for that oil to
reach the market. Tapping ANWR to
address a short-term energy shortage would
ultimately be futile. The bottom line is that
drilling in ANWR won’t end America’s
reliance on foreign oil.
Rather than viewing the energy problem
as a question of supply, politicians and pol
icy-makers should instead consider ways to
decrease demand. The Senate bill is an
excellent opportunity to do that.
Senators need to take the long view and
consider how they can encourage
improved fuel efficiency and research into
different forms of energy. Scientists have
already made great strides in fuel technol
ogy in past few years; imagine what could
be accomplished with government support.
America’s policy-makers have reached a
crossroads; they can continue to perpetuate
harmful trends or embark on anew future.
GPSF home page (http://www.unc.edu/
student/orgs/gpsf/) or by e-mailing me.
We are asking that all submissions be in
prior to Friday, April 19.
Please e-mail completed nomination
forms to sschmitt@email.unc.edu. You can
also find blank copies and a drop-off spot in
my box in the GPSF office in Suite C of the
Student Union.
Stephanie Schmitt
GPSF External Vice President
Article on Williamson
Gives Him Legend Status,
Deaths are Footnotes
TO THE EDITOR:
The Daily Tar Heel, as the campus news
paper, undoubtedly plays an important role
in shaping how the “history’’ of UNC is
chronicled.
While it is certainly a good thing that
Wendell Williamson is getting the treat
ment he needs to fight his internal battles,
there is no reason for the DTH to elevate
him to a higher place in history than he
should be entitled to.
More than seven years after
Williamson’s long-planned deadly rampage
on Franklin Street, I was disappointed to
Leading Into
Phase 2, No
Progress Seen
Seven months ago today, the World Trade Center and
the Pentagon were attacked. We don’t really know by
whom, and we certainly don’t know why, though we
try to act like we have definitive answers to both of these
questions. What we do know is that America is not the safe
haven we always thought it was.
And that’s OK with me. It is simply naive for us to think
that our country is indestructible or
infallible. Our acceptance of our mor
tality and vulnerability as a nation
can be a positive thing, despite such a
horrible means to this end.
Perhaps Sept. 11 can lead us to a
realization that we should stop our
imperialistic, blind attitude to the rest
of the world. We can use our
resources and power to make some
necessary changes in the world.
Maybe this horrific attack can
shake our values so strongly to force us to re-examine the
way we live our fives as Americans.
And this indeed did happen.
Seven months ago today, our core values of safety, secu
rity and freedom toppled with the fall of two massive build
ings and a strike on our nation’s capital. Our stability and
mortality were shaken at their very roots.
Before Sept. 11, Americans were like comets flying
quickly through fife.
But in the hours and days following Sept. 11, most every
one stopped for a moment to assess their own personal val
ues. Some people made major changes in the way they pri
oritized, and the issues of family, community and safety
became more important.
The thing is, we didn’t really change permanendy. Even
some people who re-examined themselves are already back
to normal today.
Living in the United States is a blessing. But it is far from
the reality the rest of the world faces.
I studied abroad in West Africa this past summer and
finally saw another perspective. For the first time, being
white was a burden. People harassed me and called me
names because I was different. I was seen as another white
person and not as an individual.
I realized that this attitude was how this entire nation
viewed the Western world. They saw whites and Americans
as sources of money, referred to the United States as “the
powerful U.S.A.” and had such a reverence for our way of
fife -a way of fife they didn’t even know.
People would call all the white females “Akosua,” which
means Sunday. In other words, they only understood white
people as being Christian missionaries there to “help”
change their society.
In reality, the Ghanaians couldn’t have been anything
other than bitter. How could they respect a group of people
swooping in with their money and their intractable ideolo
gy and merely interfering with their fives?
With this in mind, it saddens me more to reflect upon
what our nation has come to since September. We had a
perfect opportunity to change our “powerful U.S.A.” from
the world’s wealthy bully into the world’s enabler. But
maybe it’s not about what we give to them but how we are
perceived by them.
I keep thinking of the statistic that if all the world’s peo
ple lived in the same standard of living as the United
States, it would take six planet Earths to accommodate
these needs. That’s why the world hates us. We consume
and take whatever we want without a second thought.
It is easy for others to blame the United States because,
looking at the way we five - the way we so blithely go on
with our fives and take for granted even the core values
that we only recently re-examined - we are callous to
everyone else in the world.
The bottom fine is people still need help. We justify with
“American ethics” the continuation of our capitalism -
being competitive and ignoring the pleas of people who
need our help.
The attacks of Sept. 11 didn’t change America the way it
should have. We don’t need to increase airport security, we
need to make a permanent adjustment in American values.
Seven months have passed, and we have entered “Phase 2”
of our war on terrorism, but we are not attacking the root
of the problem that the U.S. faces - understanding different
perspectives and our place in the world community.
There is a Ghanaian proverb that translates to “with
patience one can successfully dissect an ant.” In other
words, with patience and understanding, America can
undertake anew role of promoting a world of co-habita
tion, respect and potentially peace.
Johanna Costa can be reached at costa@email.unc.edu.
read Kellie Dixon’s article that, while news
worthy, appears to portray Williamson as
merely a former UNC law student who
should be afforded legendary status by
virtue of his battle with paranoid schizo
phrenia.
Williamson is not a legend by any
means.
Despite the fact that Williamson’s story
is arguably as tragic as the chaos he perpe
trated on Jan. 26,1995, the UNC commu
nity should never forget that two individu
als - Kevin Reichardt and Ralph Walker -
suffered horrific deaths on that day.
Reichardt and Walker, like everyone
else who walked on the downtown Chapel
Hill streets that day, never imagined that
such a horrible event could occur.
Coundess individuals who were students at
the time will always remember where they
were and what they were doing when the
events ofjan. 26,1995 transpired.
It was a dark day in the history of this
University.
The DTH should not be giving
Williamson more notoriety than he is due
and, by the same token, should not be
referring to Reichardt and Walker as mere
footnotes.
Lonn Weissblum
Class of 1998
(Tfyf Baily (Ear Heel
JOHANNA COSTA
FLANK VIEW
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