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8 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2003 BOARD EDITORIALS ONE CAN AT A TIME The Beat Hunger, Beat Duke food drive offers the UNC community a great chance to serve the needy and compete against a longtime rival. The Carlyle Cup isn’t the only thing up for grabs this year in the ages-old rivalry between UNC- Chapel Hill and Duke University. On Wednesday, leaders from UNC-CH and Duke kicked off a canned food and monetary drive to ben efit the Food Bank of North Carolina and the Inter- Faith Council. Many of the cans collected will go to helping res idents in the northeastern portion of the state who were affected by Hurricane Isabel. The drive will end Nov. 21, one day before the UNC football team takes on Duke in its season finale. The winner of the drive will be announced during halftime of the game. UNO’s campaign, appropriately titled “Beat Hunger, Beat Duke,” is a good way for members of the University community to become involved and lend their support to an important cause: helping those in need. To drum up support for the drive, leaders from both campuses have placed wagers on whose uni versity will win. Last year’s contest pitted UNC-CH against N.C. BACK TO THE TABLE Local educators, politicians and parents must refocus their efforts on deciding a possible merger of Orange County’s two school districts. f | lack of support behind a district tax for I Orange County Schools is likely yet another sign that the long-running debate on spending disparities between that school system and Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools will end without a tangi ble resolution. However one feels about the specifics of this plan, which members of the Orange County Board of Education failed to approve Monday, the lack of progress should spur local officials to shift their focus from the highly politicized debate to providing the best education for all local students. The plan would have increased property taxes for residents of Orange County living outside of Chapel Hill and Carrboro in order to supplement funding for the county schools. Residents in Chapel Hill and Carrboro already pay a special tax for the area’s school district, which some have argued leads to a great discrepancy in funding for the two districts. It was presented as an alternative to merging the two districts, a plan advocated by County Commissioner Moses Carey and opposed by many A WORTHY CAUSE Members of the University community should work together to fight a current shortage of blood platelet donations at UNC Hospitals. Members of the University community now have a great opportunity to give back to a noble cause by rolling up their sleeves literally. Officials at the UNC Hospitals Platelet and Plasma Donor Program recently announced that they are experiencing a shortage in platelet dona tions this year. Hospital officials say that are in need of more than 15 platelet donations every day to serve patients. Before the shortage officials normally counted on 10 to 12 donations daily. Although drives for platelet donations often do not receive the same publicity as blood drives held on campus, the need for these donations is just as important. Platelets help to control and regulate blood clot ting and are extremely important in treating some types of cancer, sickle cell anemia and a host of other ailments. Each platelet usually has a shelf-life of only five days making it crucial for hospitals to receive a EDITORS' NOTE: The above editorials are the opinions of solely The Daily Tar Heel Editorial Board and were reached after open debate. The board consists of eight board members, the editorial page editor and the DTH editor. The 2003-04 DTH editor decided not to vote on the board and not to write board editorials. NOTABLE QUOTABLES “It wasn’t an ordinary g0a1. ... / jumped off the bench and almost herniated myselfl’ ANSON DORRANCE, WOMEN'S SOCCER COACH ON THE TEAM'S SECOND GOAL DURING WEDNESDAY'S GAME AGAINST N.C. STATE. “Things went from bad to worse to even worse. What’s a worse word than worse? Disaster? It went from bad to worse to disaster?” JOHN BUNTING, FOOTBALL COACH ON THE TEAM'S LOSS SATURDAY TO MARYLAND. “Everyone just comes out, dresses up, has a good time. That ain’t no jibba jabba.” LAMONT GREENE, BAR MANAGER AT W.B. YEATS IRISH PUB ON LAST FRIDAY’S HALLOWEEN CELEBRATION ON FRANKLIN STREET. State University, and Chancellor James Moeser was forced to wear that awful brick-red State parapher nalia for a day. Student Body President Matt Tepper could suffer a similar fate this year should the University lose. Let’s not allow history to repeat itself. Members of the Campus Y, student government, the Carolina Center for Public Service, the Residence Hall Association and several other student organi zations should be commended for their hard work in organizing the campaign. However, the success of the drive largely depends on student participation. Chances are, you have one or two (or more) canned foods lying in your room or apartment right now. Why not donate it to the drive? Donations may be dropped off in several locations across campus, including inside residence halls. Lending support to the drive will help to show that students, staff and faculty at the University truly care about helping and serving the community. Plus, the bragging rights a win would bring aren’t too bad either. vocal parents in Chapel Hill and Carrboro. The district tax idea was an interesting alternative in the merger talks. However, with the proposal out of consideration, only the large move of merging the districts remains an option. All signs point to the merger seeing the same fate as the district tax. Speculation aside, it is most important for all local leaders with jurisdiction in the matter to tackle the disparity issue immediately. Especially when dealing with matters of primary and secondary education, officials must recognize that not everyone can be pleased with the ultimate decision. Dragging out the decision-making process will only make residents angrier. It is in the best interest of everyone for the matter to be resolved quickly. After all, every minute they spend debating this political issue, they have less time to discuss how to improve legitimately the education of Orange County students both in Chapel Hill and Carrboro and out. steady stream of donations. The requirements for giving platelets have some similarities to donating blood, but there are several differences as well. For starters, it takes roughly two hours to donate platelets. You also must be at least 17 years old, weigh at least 110 pounds, be in good health and have not gotten a tattoo during the past 12 months. In addition, it is suggested that you don’t take aspirin for 72 hours before your appointment. You can donate platelets up to 24 times per year. For more information or to set up an appointment to donate platelets on campus, call 966-2370 or send an e-mail to platelet@unch.unc.edu. You can also visit UNC Hospitals’ Web site at http://www.unchealthcare.org. University students, staff and faculty should be encouraged to contact UNC Hospitals to volunteer to donate their plasma. If you don’t meet any of the requirements to give, then recruit one or two people to give to the cause. Every drop helps. READERS’ FORUM Partial-birth abortion ban a major setback for women TO THE EDITOR: On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruling Roe v. Wade suffered another crippling blow. President Bush signed into law the so-called “partial-birth” abor tion ban in an effort to impose his personal beliefs on all American women and their doctors. This marks the first time a president criminalizes a safe medical practice. With this bill, doctors, nurses, and women will commit a federal crime for deciding to perform a medically safe procedure. Alarmingly, the statute to save a woman’s life is conspicuously absent, a measure the Supreme Court has judged unconstitutional. This bill will invariably endan ger the lives and reproductive health of women. It severely limits their safe options in a high risk pregnancy that will risk her life and/or fertility. Today, Bush has taken us back to the intolerable era of illegal abortion. Do not be fooled by this bill’s inflammatory rhetoric. “Partial birth” is not even a recognized med ical term, but rather anti-choice propaganda aimed at sensational izing this procedure and turning women and doctors into criminals. With this bill, Bush and his political allies brazenly assume to make personal medical decisions for women. They further place pol Editorial Page itics ahead of the lives of women. By signing this act, our govern ment places our personal privacy that is central in a democratic soci ety in precarious uncertainty. This inherent right must be recognized and permanently protected. Since 1973 we have seen restric tions on reproductive rights. Each one is aimed at carving away at a woman’s right to control her body. Beware; this is one more danger ous step toward completely strip ping away a women’s right to make individual choices about when, how and why to become a parent. Join other pro-choice Americans as we March for Choice in April 2004 to demand our rights. Visit http://www.march4choice.org for more details and contact Emily Johnson at emijo@email.unc.edu Becky Kooistra Co-chairwoman Choice USA Erica Robinson Publicity Voices for Planned Parenthood Former candidate Bachman defends campaign ads TO THE EDITOR: As my integrity has been ques tioned, I must respond to Chapel Hill Town Council member-elect Cam Hill’s brazen disregard for the facts in his letter to the editor in Tuesday’s The Daily Tar Heel. ON THE OUT’S NEWS ‘7 find life an exciting business and most exciting when it is lived for others ” HELEN KELLER, AUTHOR AND LECTURER EDITORIAL CARTOON By Andrew Stevens, crazyaj@email.unc.edu UNC/S BASKETBALL FORTUNES TAKE A MYSTERIOUS TCJKNI THE STATE S NATIONAL Phipps scandal leaving a black eye on state s politics My only personal run-in with Meg Scott Phipps was almost three years ago, at the 2000 Election Candidate Forum at N.C. State University. At the time Phipps was campaigning for the post of N.C. Agricultural Commissioner, which she won in the November election that year. The forum was one of the first stories I ever covered for a publi cation that wasn’t my high school newspaper the first political story, I think, that I ever wrote. I was nervous, didn’t really know the issues that well and was still making the rookie mistake of interviewing politicians with stars in my eyes. I was in awe. Phipps spoke before a room filled mostly with local communi ty members —very few students save for a handful from N.C. State’s political science club and a reporter and photographer from The Daily Tar Heel. Her speech was unremarkable and, without digging through my archives to find my notes, I couldn’t begin to remember a word of it. Phipps stuck around until the end of the forum, and she took the time to give me a few good sound bites. I was so proud of myself. I thought I’d hit a gold mine. I remember she smiled at me, thanked me for coming out and turned away to talk to one of the other forum participants. Her father, former N.C. Governor Bob Scott, was there for support. I remember him being tall, unintimidating and wearing, I think, a blue sweater. He told me how proud he was of Meg and the work she’d done and how he thought she’d make a wonderful addition to the state’s govern ment. Naivite on my part won out. His letter accuses me of misrep resenting his position in the politi cal advertisement that I ran on conflict of interest. My ad stated, “Cam Hill has said that Chapel Hill citizens who work for the University should not serve in town elected office.” The ad is accu rate, not even an exaggeration. This is not a “he said-she said” situation. His position is a matter of public record, so stated at the public forum sponsored by The Chapel Hill Herald on Oct. 13. That forum was shown on Time Warner Cable, and simulcast by WCHL. The record exists. In addition, in an Oct. 19 article in the Herald, council member Dorothy Verkerk responded to Hill’s statement as follows: “I think to say that nobody who has a pay check from UNC can run for polit ical office, it’s unconstitutional, and a breach of the integrity of the peo ple who run and the people with the University.” Council member Pat Evans was quoted as follows: “I’m appalled that anyone would think that UNC employees would be disqualified.” In a staff editorial on Oct. 22, the Herald states “To not understand the signal contributions University employees make and have made to Chapel Hill and its government is to simply be blind to the town’s his tory and dynamics. That’s why it would be pure fool ishness —and downright harmful to say that University employees MIKE GORMAN FOR THE PEOPLE Political charm had worked its magic, and I voted for Phipps that year. I felt confident about it too, more confident than anything I’d done in my voting career to that point. I, like so many other people, had the wool pulled over my eyes. On Oct. 30 a jury convicted Phipps on four felony counts: lying under oath to the State Board of Elections, encouraging an aide to lie to the board, covering up her campaign’s misdeeds and conspir ing with an aide to hide her crimes from investigators. State prosecutors convinced the jury that Phipps took tens of thousands of dollars in illegal contributions during the 2000 elections from vendors hoping to secure work at the N.C. State Fair, which the agricultural commis sioner oversees. She has yet to face 30 federal charges of extortion. Federal prosecutors have accused Phipps of using her position to extort money from carnival vendors. In a very short period of time, Phipps has gone from being the proud standard-bearer of the next generation of the Scott family to, potentially, a scuzzy shakedown artist. This kind of scandal doesn’t happen very often in North Carolina. According to a report by The (Raleigh) News & Observer, this is the first time in our state’s political history that a politician shouldn’t run for or serve on the Town Council, as some, including one candidate, have recently sug gested.” That candidate was Hill. Neither the Herald, council mem bers Verkerk and Evans, nor myself have misrepresented Hill’s posi tion. Rather than an attack, my ad was in defense of the right of University employees to serve in elected town office. I am one such employee. The ad was in defense to the statements that Hill made in the course of the campaign, statements that he now has cynically attempted to deny. This episode is an example of political manipulation of the media versus the facts. I recommend it as a case study to the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Dianne Bachman Former candidate Chapel Hill Town Council TO SUBMIT A LETTER: The Daily Tar Heel welcomes reader comments. Letters to the 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 num ber. The DTH reserves the right to edit letters for space, clarity and vulgarity. Publication is not guaranteed. Bring let ters to the DTH office at Suite 104, Carolina Union, mail them to P.O. Box 3257, Chapel Hill, NC 27515 or e-mail them to: editdesk@unc.edu. Slip Hatty Sar Mppl ‘7, like so many other people had the wool pulled over my eyes” has been convicted of a major crime while in office. If she’s con victed of the federal charges she could face a maximum of 250 years in prison. It’s unlikely that will happen. Analysts are predicting that she might plead guilty to the federal counts in order to avoid further prison time. I suppose I take cases like this very personally because for a long time I’ve been an unabashed defender of the integrity of politi cians. During the time I covered the state politics beat, I got to spend a fair amount of time with a lot of our politicians and, on occa sion, their friends and families. What I’ve taken from the expe rience is the genuine belief that a lot of our politicians, especially our state politicians, really are in the game not because of a drive for money or power but from the honest desire to do something for the people of the state. Every time someone makes a crack about how all politicians are corrupt, I’ve tried to to argue them down. Now I’m not so sure. This scan dal hits very close to home for me and, I hope, the thousands who voted for Phipps. So thanks, Meg. Thanks for taking my expectations down a notch or two. Contact Mike Gorman atjhgorman@email.unc.edu. Established 1893 110 years of editorialfreedom Slip Oaiitf Sar Uppl wwmdaiiytarheei.com ELYSE ASHBURN EDITOR, 962-4086 OFFICE HOURS 2:15-3:15 PM MON.. WED. DANIEL THIGPEN MANAGING EDITOR, 962-0750 JENNIFER SAMUELS PROJECTS MANAGING EDITOR, 962-0750 APRIL BETHEA EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR, 962-0750 BROOK R. CORWIN UNIVERSITY EDITOR, 962-0372 KATHRYN GRIM CITY EDITOR. 962-4209 CLEVE R. WOOTSON JR. STATE & NATIONAL EDITOR, 962 4103 BRIAN MACPHERSON SPORTS EDITOR. 962 4710 MICHELLE JARBOE FEATURES EDITOR, 962-4214 NICK PARKER ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR. 962-4214 ALEX OBREGON COPY EDITOR, 962-4103 BRIAN CASSELLA PHOTO EDITOR, 962-0750 MICHELLE KUTTNER DESIGN EDITOR, 962-0750 MICHAELA IDHAMMAR GRAPHICS EDITOR. 962-0750 KRISTEN OLIVER ONLINE EDITOR. 962-0750 BEN COUCH SPORTSATURDAY EDITOR, 962 4710 JOHN FRANK PROJECTS TEAM LEADER, 962-0246 ERIC GAUTSCHI OMBUDSMAN If you have any concerns or comments about our coverage, please contact Ombudsman Eric Gautschi at gautschiOemail.unc.edu or 918-1311.
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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Nov. 7, 2003, edition 1
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