12
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2005
BOARD EDITORIALS
COURAGEOUS CHOICE
California legislators were right to pass a bill legalizing same-sex
marriages. Perhaps one day, North Carolina will follow their lead.
Last week, while the nation’s attention was
squarely on Hurricane Katrina relief efforts
and the nomination of John Roberts as chief
justice of the United States, California legislators
did something extraordinary: They became the first
group in the country to pass a law legalizing same
sex marriage.
It wasn’t an easy choice. It might not even have
even been the choice of a majority of Californians;
recent polls show residents split about evenly on
the issue. And it’s a choice that’s unlikely to become
law, as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has said he’ll
ahem terminate the bill with his veto.
But it was the right choice, and those of us here in
North Carolina should think closely about the way it
could affect the Tar Heel state. ,
This page feels strongly that same-sex couples
should be afforded the same legal rights as any other
couples. We respect religious opposition to such a
move, but we also hold firm to our belief that it is
not the place of the state to legislate the faith-based
convictions of a dwindling number of Americans.
Our leaders must be guided by principle, religious
beliefs included, but they mustn’t use that ideal to
trample citizens’ fundamental civil rights.
And make no mistake about it: Same-sex unions
are a fundamental civil right.
So, too, are same-sex marriages.
The issue of marriages versus civil unions is a
tricky one that divided this editorial board as much
as it divides the country. Opponents of gay marriage
include proponents of same-sex unions, many of
whom argue that marriage is a uniquely religious
institution that the state ought not regulate. Unions,
they say, are a legal matter; marriages are not.
But that argument ignores the role government at
all levels now plays in marriage. There are millions of
heterosexual couples across the nation who never gave
vows in a church. Is their matrimony illegitimate?
Some would say “yes.” But most reasonable U.S.
THE TUITION TANGO
As students begin their yearly battle to keep costs low, there are certain
things they ought to keep in mind if their lobbying is to be successful.
The Tuition Task Force had its first meeting
of the year Tuesday, kicking off the lengthy
process that ultimately will decide how much
students pay to attend UNC.
So far, things look OK.
For example, the task force has pledged to pay
more attention to graduate students -a pleas
ant deviation from the past, when leaders in the
Graduate and Professional Student Federation felt
as if they didn’t have a voice at the table.
But there’s an even larger issue at stake: A process
that will produce only reasonable increases'that address
our needs as a first-rate university —and as a major
asset for North Carolina.
For those students who have been around for the
last few years, that probably sounds like a pipe dream.
Every year, the Ttiition Task Force comes up with an
appreciated, moderate tuition request Then the Board
of Trustees goes its own, out-of-touch way and OKs
a huge increase. Then the Board of Governors of the
UNC system kills the prospect of any hike at all.
But there are ways to break the cycle.
■ Students should work early with the Board of
Trustees to push their ideas.
Too often, it seems, the tuition battle begins in
earnest after the trustees come up with a proposal
that almost entirely ignores the reasoned ideas of the
Tuition Task Force. But why wait that long? All the
members of the Tuition Task Force, but especially
students, should start talking to trustees now.
Getting them on board with a task force led by
important students and key faculty members could
be a godsend.
That goes for average students, too: Get off - your
duff and try to go to one of these meetings. If 10
students showed up to each discussion, they’d
likely constitute half the room.
■ People shouldn’t be afraid to point out the fact
that the emperor has no clothes.
Let’s be clear: Trustees love the University. But
EDITOR’S NOTE: The above editorials are the opinions solely of The Daily Tar Heel Editorial Board and were reached after open debate. The
board consists of four board members, the associate opinion editor, the opinion editor and the DTH editor. The 2005-06 DTH editor decided
not to vote on the board and not to write board editorials
BatU} (Ear Htfri
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citizens would say otherwise.
In short, the word “marriage” despite its strong
religious roots is not exclusively for the faithful. It
is accessible to everyone in American society— except
same-sex couples.
To continue to deny it to those couples on religious
grounds is both disingenuous and discriminatory. It
creates a second class of citizens who, based solely on
their choice of date or sexual partner, are not given an
opportunity to express their love in a way they see fit.
In a perfect world, the state would give out “union
licenses” and churches would get the choice to “marry”
whoever they wanted. But our world isn’t perfect, and
so we must reach the best imperfect solution.
Tar Heel tragedy
Of course, here at home, a majority of the state’s
voters don’t think same-sex marriage is right. And
their elected officials backed them up a few years
ago by passing a bill that defines marriage as a union
between a man and a woman.
We don’t agree with that, but we begrudgingly
accept it as the will of the voters.
What we will not tolerate, however, are politicians
who use the issue as a wedge who tap into anti
gay sentiment the way Jesse Helms tapped into racist
sentiment in many of his old campaign ads.
Many of those people seek an amendment to the
N.C. Constitution that would serve the same purpose
as the current Defense of Marriage Act on the books.
Some of them are merely afraid that a court might
overturn DoMA; they are within their bounds,
though they are wrong. For them, an amendment
is a political tool.
For others, though, it is a political crowbar. And
many of those people are sure to run for office again
in next year’s midterm elections.
We encourage you all to start early in defeating them.
They don’t deserve to serve the people of this state.
that love is often misguided. Few of the 12 Board
of Trustees members have demonstrated that they
understand the perspective of students, or even the
daily workings of the University.
Students shouldn’t treat any campus leader as evil
or conniving. But they also mustn’t be afraid to tell
people that they know more about a student’s daily
life because they do. It’s a good argument. And put
politely, it could have a major impact.
■ Students should support reasonable increases
—and raise hell about unreasonable hikes.
11 would be great if there were no increases this year
for 1 any students. But barring a miracle, that outcome
seems less than likely, especially in light of the recent
spat over tuition that almost drove UtyC-Chapel Hill
to escape the Board of Governors’ authority.
Given that we have genuine needs to be addressed
faculty retention, helping teaching assistants and
reducing class sizes, in particular money will have
to be raised from somewhere. But if it comes from
students, it shouldn’t break their backs.
That means increases for both in-state and out-of
state students, though not necessarily equal ones. It
means hiking costs at a rate people can afford. And
it means not changing a proposal at the last minute
to divert money to athletic fees exactly the kind of
shenanigan pulled by campus leaders last year.
Finally, it would be exemplary if the General
Assembly remembered its constitutional mandate
to keep tuition as low as possible. But we’re not
holding our breath.
■ Everyone should remember the greater good.
Higher education is necessary to the future of
North Carolina, and it is not something that should
be skimped on. As the old economy tobacco and
textiles —of North Carolina wastes away, education
will become even more important to our state and
whatever prospects it has to thriving in tKe future.
What good does it do, then, to price people out of
the University?
READERS* FORUM
Americanization of words
should not be half-baked
TO THE EDITOR:
It is time to head off another
assault on the American language.
I refer to the insistence on the form
“Latino/a” in all references to the
new academic minor, there are
several reasons why “Latino/a” has
no place in English.
We have just gone through sev
eral decades of purging our lan
guage of sexism. We have learned
to replace “policeman” and “fire
man” with “police officer” and “fire
fighter.”
I still find it awkward to attend
an event presided over by a
“chair.”
In many gases, the simple plu
ral solves the problem: “he and
she” awkwardness disappears with
“they.”
Pity this Germans. All nouns
have a gender. “Student” and
“Studenten” mean male student,
male students. The feminized ver
sion not even possible in some
European languages becomes
“Studentin” and “Studentinnen.”
“She is Latino” may be bad
■Spanish, but it’s good English. On
one hand, we continue to comb
the language for remaining gender
distinctions, even now replacing
“freshman” with “first-year stu
dent.” On the other, we insist on
creating problems that only add to
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Opinion
FROM THE DAY’S NEWS
“When our two crazy, left-wing towns make (controversial or
unique) stands... it lets other municpalities not be the first.”
JACQUIE GIST, CARRBORO ALDERMAN, AT A CANDIDATE FORUM FRIDAY
EDITORIAL CARTOON
COMMENTARY
Its sad, but racial profiling
is necessary for our safety
I want all Arabs to be stripped
naked and cavity-searched if
they get within 10D yards of
an airport.
I don’t care if they’re being
inconvenienced. I don’t care if it
seems as though their rights are
being violated.
I care about my life. I care about
the lives of my family and friends.
And I care about the lives of the
Arabs and Arab Americans I’m
privileged to know and study with.
They’re some of the brightest,
kindest people I’ve ever met.
Tragically, they’re also mem
bers of an ethnicity that is respon
sible for almost every act of terror
committed against the West in the
recent past.
And in the wake of the anniver
sary of 9/11,1 think it’s important
to remember not only those who
died, but how they died, why they
died and where we stand now
compared to where we stood then.
Four years and two days ago, •
we stood somewhere between
apathy and ignorance. Sure, there
were heinous acts of terrorism
being committed in far-away
lands, and sure, there was always
the threat that some psychopath
might do something.
After all, we’re the gen
eration ofTimothy McVeigh, the
Unabomber and Columbine. The
news was littered with coverage
of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,
nerve gas on Japanese subways
and terror in the Balkans.
But those attacks weren’t in the
same buildings we toured on our
eighth-grade class trips.
They didn’t kill 3,000 of our
relatives.
They weren’t in our face.
So Bushie waged war on ’em. He
set out to knock the evil off its axis,
and we’re still there, duking it out.
And for good reason. You can
debate a lot of things about post
-9/11 foreign policy, but one thing
you can’t debate is that taking out
terrorists or blatant human-
the confusion.
We could go after some of the
linguistic fossils left over from
Latin. I am hdppy with “sylla
buses” and “curriculums” and will
accept reluctantly “media
is” and “medias are” along with
“data is” and “datas are.” And
let’s call any former student just
an “alum.”
Robert L. Stevenson
Kenan Professor
School of Journalism
Campus should continue
giving to hurricane victims
TO THE EDITOR: *
We would like to send out a brief
thanks to all who have been help
ing in the hurricane relief effort of
Yes You Can.
We only let people know that the
door to giving had been opened,
and they responded creatively and
without hesitating. Thanks to all
who gave and are still giving.
Your actions were felt and are
still needed.
Madison Perry
Senior
Political Science/Spanish
Stockton Perry
Junior
Spanish
JILLIAN BANDES
LICENSED TO JILL
rights violators is a good thing.
You also can’t debate that of the
19 hijackers on those planes, all 19
were Arab.
And you can’t debate that while
most Arabs are not terrorists,
sadly, most terrorists are indeed
Arab.
Given this combination, I want
some kind of security.
Done in a professional, consci
entious manner, racial profiling
is more likely to get the bad guys
than accosting my 12-year-old
pipsqueak of a brother on his way
to summer camp.
When asked if she had a boy
friend, Ann Coulter once said
that any time she had a need
for physical intimacy, she would
simply walk through an airport’s
security checkpoint.
I want Arabs to get sexed up
like nothing else.
And Arab students at UNC
don’t seem to think that’s such a
bad idea.
“(Racial profiling) really doesn’t
bother me,” said Sherief Khaki,
a first-generation Egyptian-
American and representative of
the UNC-CH Arabic Club.
“So a couple of hours are wasted.
Big deal.”
Said Muhammad Salameh,
a junior biology major: “I can
accept it, even if I don’t like it. I
don’t want to die.”
Professor Nasser Isleem, a man
for whom I have complete and
utter respect after merely two
weeks of sitting in his Arabic 101
class, said, “Let them search.”
“It depends on how I’m stopped,
but if it is done in a professional
Speak Out
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©p fla% @ar
By Philip McFee, pip@email.unc.edu
manner...”
Then he nodded.
“There were Muslims in those
buildings, too.”
Some people say that racial
profiling will make terrorism a
self-fulfilling prophecy, or that
it’s somehow unfair to designate
certain individuals as being more
likely to commit an act of terror
than another.
They’re wrong.
If 19 blond-haired, blue-eyed,
Caucasian Jews had plowed into
the World Trade Center with two
jumbo jets, I would demand to be
interrogated every’ time I browsed
Cheapflights.com.
After each interrogation, I
would offer the official a cup of
joe, then heartedly thank him
for his efforts. And I would not
be any more inclined to blow up
innocent civilians as a result of it.
Neither would Sherief Khaki.
Or Muhammad Salameh. Or
Nasser Isleem.
Nearly every Arab American
I’ve spoken with has done noth
ing but condemn the evil that was
done just four years ago, and at
least tacitly recognize that some
profiling is necessary.
I have enough confidence in
my country’s imperfect but stead
fast law enforcement systems to
carry out such profiling the way it
should be done: in a professional
and thorough manner, without
going down the slippery slope
of pointless and disrespectful
encroachment on the livelihood
or decorum of everyday Arabs and
Arab Americans.
Stop, as Coulter advises,
treating racial profiling like the
Victorians treated sex by not
discussing the topic unless you’re
recoiling in horror at the practice.
Embrace the race.
Contact Jillian Bandes,
a junior majoring
in international studies,
atjillianbandes@gmail.com.
www.dailytarhßel.com
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