8
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 14, 2004
BOARD EDITORIALS
MAKE NO EXCEPTION
Anew Department of Homeland Security requirement places unfair
restrictions on foreign visitors coming from certain parts of the world.
Almost anyone who’s traveled abroad in the two
years since the Sept 11 terrorist attacks knows
that going through U.S. customs can be an
aggravating, time-consuming experience.
Now, in what seems to be an unfair requirement,
many foreign visitors have to jump through one
more hoop.
Early last week 115 airports and 14 seaports across
the United States began photographing and finger
printing incoming foreign visitors with nonimmi
grant visas as part of the Department of Homeland
Security’s US-VISIT program.
Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said the
program is the first in a series of steps to keep our
“borders open, but our country more secure.”
He added, in comments made to The Atlanta
Journal-Constitution, that the new system will be
“easy for travelers to use but hard for terrorists to
avoid.”
The system will be easier for some more than oth
ers, as travelers from 27 nations, mostly West
European and a handful of Asian nations, are
exempt from the procedure. The exemptions are
questionable at best.
Officials for U.S. Customs and Border Protection
said the exempted countries already have in place
strong screening and security procedures.
But US-VISIT already has faced a significant
amount of international criticism.
A Brazilian judge has ordered Brazilian customs
officials to start fingerprinting U.S. visitors in
response.
POLICY OR POSTURE?
President Bush’s new immigration proposal is good in concept, but it
comes at a bad time and the political motivation behind it is dubious.
In a recent White House ceremony, President
Bush unveiled a sweeping proposal to create a
legal temporary work program for undocument
ed, illegal immigrants.
Under Bush’s general plan, undocumented work
ers living in the United States with clean criminal
records and a source of employment could apply for
temporary worker permits, allowing them to con
tinue working in the country for three years.
Earned legalization, at least conceptually, has a
great deal of merit. Workers who contribute vital
low-cost labor and tax revenue should have the
option of pursuing citizenship after demonstrating
the ability to live lawfully and retain employment
The president’s plan does not go this far, offering
only “temporary worker status.”
Additionally, removing workers-from the shad
ow-filled world of cash payments and nonexistent
labor standards would represent a substantial blow
to the fear-filled system many hardworking illegal
immigrants face today. An earned legalization pro
gram could accelerate the cultural assimilation
process greatly, especially in terms of learning
English.
The Center for Immigration Studies estimates
almost 200,000 undocumented workers reside in
North Carolina.
So even though Bush presented this program in
the broadest of terms without focus on policy
specifics, such a sweeping immigration reform could
have a huge impact on North Carolina.
While many on President Bush’s conservative
flank questioned the potential homeland security
danger of “earned amnesty,” documenting these
workers in an official capacity gives both employers
and the government a greater ability to keep track of
their whereabouts.
But the plan’s conspicuous lack of detail raises
suspicion about its timing and President Bush’s
motivation for its announcement
Even in broad terms, implementing this program
will require a “bureaucratic explosion.”
With the federal deficit on track to continue grow
ing, this plan carries a massive potential cost, along
with taxing an already overworked Bureau of
EDITOR'S NOTE: the above editorials are the opinions of solely Hie Daily Tar Heel Editorial Board, and were reached after open debate. The
board consists of seven board members, the editorial page associate editor, 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 editoriajs.
READERS FORUM
Protest was effort to gain
elusive media coverage
TO THE EDITOR:
For the second time now, I am
writing in defense of our actions at
the UNC vs. Virginia basketball
game based on the board editorial
in The Daily Tar Heel.
However, it seems that last
year’s board editorials were much
more balanced and reasonable.
This year’s editorial contains
false information and a generally
hateful tone. It is saved from this
tone only by its own hypocrisy
rendered too unclear by statements
made unknowingly in our defense
like, “War issues are certainly more
important than a game of basket
ball.”
It seems that most detractors
take issue with the venue at least, if
not the message. Asa solution, the
editorial.proposes the Pit as the
haven for free speech.
I say: Get your head out of the
sand! Those of us who have organ
ized or at least participated in anti
war activities know how frustrat
ing it can be to have your voice fall
short at a time like last year, prior
to the war in Iraq.
As we know now, we were con
sistently misinformed in the media
about the threat Iraq posed to
Americans. Meanwhile, protests
around the world were misrepre
sented, or ignored on the major
media channels.
What our actions were about was
In this time of heightened domestic security con
cerns, it is reasonable for our government to take
extra precautions to safeguard the well-being of U.S.
citizens.
But the US-VISIT program looks suspiciously like
favoritism toward U.S. allied nations and ignores the
fairly well-documented presence of terrorists that
possess European citizenship.
Richard Reid, the notorious “shoe bomber” who
attempted to blow up an airliner carrying 197 pas
sengers in December 2001, was a British citizen.
Many grounded or diverted flights, particularly
the two Air France flights grounded Dec. 24 because
of terror fears, have been European in origin.
That being the case, Ridge’s explanation that US
VISIT exemption stems from the effectiveness of these
nations’ security procedures seems to lose credibility.
Also suspect is the presence on the exemption list
of several nations with questionable security prac
tices, Monaco and Brunei in particular, and the
omission of Israel, whose El-Al airline has what
many consider to be the most stringent, thorough
security screening procedures in the world.
If DHS is serious about safeguarding national secu
rity, we need to monitor all possible sources of threats,
even if that means registering foreign visitors from
traditional allies such as Great Britain and France.
While such precautions would place huge
demands on labor and time, the extra effort is nec
essary to eliminate favoritism and enhance safety.
For the program to work, the DHS must eliminate
the exemption list.
Citizenship and Naturalization..
In fact, the National Border Patrol Council, an
organization representing the Border Patrol’s 9,000
nonsupervisory agents referred to Bush’s plan as a
“slap in the face.”
The president might never give us the opportuni
ty to judge this policy on anything but broad sense of
principle. In all likelihood, the American people
won’t get the chance to analyze specifics of the plan
because politically, Bush’s immigration reform rep
resents a ticket to nowhere.
This plan has no legislative future. In the U.S.
House of Representatives alone, almost 50 conser
vative Republicans would oppose the plan, backed
by Democrats unwilling to hand an opposition pres
ident a major election-year victory.
Given that political reality, Bush’s plan constitutes
little more than political posturing.
In an administration in which political guru Karl
Rove has perfected the art of sacrificing policy for
short term political gain, this proposal seems to have
at its base the desire to acquire Hispanic support.
Asa president who appears absorbed by the 2004
re-election effort, Bush floated a proposal that could
offer a brighter future to many struggling and fright
ened families, yet likely did so with the knowledge
that it had zero legislative potential.
Instead of supporting this program out of a gen
uine need to account for vast numbers of undocu
mented agricultural workers in this country, the
Bush administration saw an opportunity to gain
quick political capital in states with large Hispanic
populations and shaky prospects for a Bush victory
in 2004, namely, California, Arizona, New Mexico
and Florida.
While the principles behind Bush’s immigration
proposal are sound, the plan offers little hope to
undocumented workers living in the United States.
Whoever occupies the White House in 2004
whether it is Bush or one of the myriad Democratic
hopefuls should develop a comprehensive pro
posal to deal with the issue of illegal immigration
in a manner based on feasibility and a genuine
desire to assist hardworking immigrants to earn
citizenship.
access access to the media ABC,
NBC, FOX and others all have
refused to air any free speech adver
tising or public service announce
ments. In fact, they consider any
advertising of this nature, even if it’s
paid for, too controversial to air.
What this means is if an ad is.not
selling anything, then no one will
air it (except on occasion by CNN).
The media has shut out any public
use and betrayed its own viewers.
We cannot rely on major media
any more to inform us truthfully.
However, we can rely on their
faithfulness to their sponsors.
Free speech is meaningless if
you can’t be heard above the din of
major media.
Scott O’Day
Senior
Music
Men's basketball team,
foes deserve more respect
TO THE EDITOR:
TVvo minutes to go in the victory
over Georgia Tech on Sunday, the
crowd began to chant “overrated.”
As soon as the crowd started, coach
Roy Williams turned to them and
yelled, “Shut up.”
And why not? That chant does
not have a purpose in the course of
the game. If your primary goal is to
heckle the opposing team, then you
succeeded, but at the same time,
you are taking away from the
accomplishments of our team.
Editorial Page
Don’t get me wrong, I love to
heckle opposing teams, but I refuse
to do it at the expense of the Tar
Heels. The men’s basketball team
fought incredibly hard in their vic
tory and played better Sunday
night than they have thus far this
season.
Georgia Tech, whether ranked
Bth or not, is still a very good bas
ketball team, and it took a great
UNC team to beat them Sunday
night.
Don’t take away from the great
accomplishments of our athletic
teams. Let’s take the “overrated”
chant out of our heckling vocabu
lary come game-time.
Jon-Michael Bolding
Senior
Chemistry
Students should see past
present biases on campus
TO THE EDITOR:
I have read with interest the
article written by Brentley Tanner
(“Liberal students, professors bully
conservative minority,” Jan. 8), as
well as the two responses to this
article.
I think one has to focus on the
main point of the article that
there is a bias against conservatives
on this campus.
It appears to most that the
Department of Political Science is
overly liberal, which may not reflect
directly in the classroom in open
ON THE DAY’S NEWS
I ‘America is a large friendly dog in a small room. Every time it
wags its tail it knocks over a chair.”
ARNOLD TOYNBEE, BRITISH HISTORIAN
EDITORIAL CARTOON
§
i YOUR POOR, 1
COMMENTARY
Indie record shops among
casualties of giant chains
Mom called from Charlotte
with some sad news the
other night, and I’m still
reeling.
“Guess who is going out of
business?”
The words barely left her
mouth before I shot back in
response.
I had a hunch my favorite
mom and pop record store was
closing up shop.
Hue, ffie announcement wasn’t
quite as painful as hearing about a
death or some other tragedy, but it
was pretty close. The news dip
pings she’ll save will serve as obit
uaries for a fallen friend who
passed well before his time.
I’m talking about Manifest
Discs & Tapes, a rock enthusiast’s
haven and a well-established
music chain in the Carolinas.
According to The Charlotte
Observer, stores in Charlotte,
Wilmington, Charleston and
Greenville, S.C., will turn the lights
off on worn but loved vinyl and
mother lodes of tapes and compact
discs in the coming weeks.
I’ve never been to the others,
but I know mine pretty well. It was
tucked away in a sketchy strip mall
in South Charlotte. You had to
want to drive there, but that was
the beauty ofit so many did.
This wasn’t the place to pick up
the new Hilary Duff CD or explore
the Van Halen catalog. ’Cause you
can go to the big box for that
And so many have.
Manifest founder Carl
Singmaster told the Observer that
growing competition from the
large music chains was one rea
son for closing down.
Those stores have flourished
because they can buy in great
quantities and then turn that new
album around often for $9-99
a whole $4 or $5 less than the
remarks but would still have an
impact on treatment outside of class
and selection of course content.
This is why we need more con
servative students in the political
science major, to bring balance to
the University environment.
I would agree that this bias and
treatment is present, even if not all
conservative students have a nega
tive experience. No one student is
a witness to every other student’s
experiences.
I have been in the University sys
tem, here or elsewhere, for about
30 years. Asa staff member, I have
seen this mistreatment in the work
environment and in other situa
tions. I have experienced it myself,
and it was completely unsolicited.
The Democratic vernacular typ
ically is caustic, sarcastic and accu
satory. As students back in the
19705, we falsely learned somehow
that being critical of others demon
strates our intellectual superiority.
Remarks like “Bush is Hitler” or
“Bush is a liar” are slanderous and
don’t perpetuate anything except
hatred and foolish recklessness, as
in the basketball incident. A more
accurate remark is “Saddam is like
Hitler,” since the evidence is over
whelming.
The educated way to present
one’s views is to state a position and
then give undeniably accurate doc
umentation to support that view.
Just because one “speaks out”
does not mean he or she is correct.
I think the responsible behavior
Mil
MICHAEL DAVIS
COUNTRY FEEDBACK
indie guys.
It’s the Wal-Mart dilemma,
’cept this time they’re not mark
ing down toy guns and strawberry
jelly, but instead Revolver and
Pearl Jam.
No matter how you put it, the
corporate takeover of U.S. com
mercial entities is leaving us with a
pretty bland, watei-ed-down selec
tion as consumers.
I know I’ve sure done my little
part to cause this, and I get the
same guilty feeling when I step in
Sam Walton’s American
Dreamland.
It’s almost an inevitable reality
of our free enterprise economy.
Bigger is better, and cheaper is
best.
And if I can save a few bucks,
what will I lose?
For starters I lose, and we all
lose the personal touch that you
get from a locally owned retailer
or small businessman.
My record store hosted album
signings and free concerts, which
is truly a rarity. A Fayetteville Wal-
Mart held a summer 2002 Def
Leppard concert, but I consider
that more pain than pleasure.
Plus these folks knew their
stuff. Try asking Circuit City
employees their opinion on the
best Springsteen album they
probahly only carry about five.
It’s the intangibles that we take
for granted but then long for
when we’re standing in line at
Dullsville Super Center, waiting
for mature students if they are
really interested in truth would
be to give both political sides the
chance to demonstrate true evi
dence for their views before form
ing an opinion.
When students then speak, they
can reflect an informed view, not
just emotions based on slander and
bias from one side. Students are
here to think with their minds, not
their emotions.
Marianne Tioran
Employee
. Dental Research Center
CORRECTION
In the Jan. 12 Viewpoints, Tom
Jensen is identified at the end of
his column as the chairman of
Students for a Better Carolina. He
is, in fact, chairman of Students for
a Progressive Chapel Hill, as is
stated in his byline.
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©!jp lattg sar Hwl
for the uniformed employee with
the pasted-on smile to ring us up.
Then we’ll yearn for the places
with the community character
and the workers who know what
they’re talking about and love it.
Some corporate megastores are
trying hard to spruce up their
images with slick ad campaigns.
Like there are really employees
who fulfill their sense of civic duty
by sending a shopper twenty aisles
away for a can of bug spray. *
Some signs suggest that small
businesses aren’t suffering as
much as all the boarded-up win
dows and clearance sales indicate.
Census data released last
September found that the num
ber of businesses with no paid
workers actually increased by 2.7
percent nationwide between
2000 and 2001, from more than
16.5 million to almost 17 million.
While these figures don’t really
take into account most locally
owned music stores, many of
which have decent-sized staffs, .
they do indicate that many small
er outfits whether print shops,
building contractors or family
burger joints are doing just
fine in the shadows of the giants.
But the economy’s still evolv
ing, and I guess it takes time for
some changes to hit us.
The departure of Manifest won’t
hit me until my next trip home,
when I’m smacked by the reality
that I can’t comb hundreds of used
CDs or sample some eclectic tunes.
So I suppose I’ll settle for the
big box, where the irony will hit
me right after the Blink 182
soundtrack reaches my ears.
After all, I’m to blame.
Contact Michael Davis,
a senior journalism and
political science double major,
at davismt@email.unc.edu.
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