8
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2005
KEEP IT IN THE LIGHT
The community should know about eveiy sexual assault that takes place
on campus, because sometimes public safety isn’t the only real concern.
Every 2 1/2 minutes, according to some rape
crisis groups, someone in the United States is
sexually assaulted.
And it’s not just women. Children and, yes, men
are also at risk of becoming victims; sexual assault
is an issue that affects everyone and that needs to be
at the forefront of everyone’s mind.
It’s a shame, then, that the Department of Public
Safety doesn’t publicly notify the campus about every
rape that takes place on our grounds. The University
might be right that not every sexual assault is a threat
to public safety —but safety concerns are not the
only reason to arm Tar Heels with knowledge.
Unless you’re new to the University community,
you probably know that DPS e-mails inform the
campus about public safety issues such as instances
of sexual assault, mugging or meningitis outbreaks.
They can be a real service.
And just as importantly, they raise awareness
about key issues. If students see a letter about a sexu
al assault on campus, they might give the issue more
weight in their minds —and, perhaps, take steps to
remedy the situation by raising awareness or keeping
A TAXING PROBLEM
The Town Council did right by local business owners when it rolled
back the tax hikes they would have had to pay to keep their doors open.
Many Chapel Hill residents appreciate the
unique way in which we ask our local
mom-and-pop shops to do business. We
ask them to take care of their workers, for example,
and we want them to make sure they’re contributing
to a thriving, multifaceted downtown.
Those aren’t unreasonable concerns. They’re
shared by many municpalities looking to retain a
small-town feel, and besides, they’re responsible for
a big chunk of this area’s spunk.
Occasionally, however, Chapel Hill leaders can get
carried away with their efforts to regulate business,
no matter how well-intended.
That’s what happened this year, when the town
budget included major hikes in the “privilege license”
tax essentially, a levy local businesses pay to Chapel
Hill to stay open. Under those proposals, a business
taking in more than $500,000 saw its payment jump
to $750 from $75.
Now, journalists aren’t quite math geniuses, but
even we realize that’s a big jump. And that’s just a
little bit silly especially when many businesses
that take in $500,000 are still mom-and-pop affairs
whose profit margins are slim.
DOWN IN THE DUMPS
Local leaders should look into a potential trash swap with Alamance
County —and at environmental concerns that could derail the idea.
Here’s the situation: Our neighbors to the
west need cash. And we need to get rid of
our trash.
So Alamance County recently made Orange
County an offer it can’t —and probably shouldn’t
refuse.
The News & Observer reported this week that
Alamance’s landfill, which isn’t scheduled to close
until about 2045, could use a little bit of money.
Orange’s landfill which gets the trash from the
University and Chapel Hill is looking to close in
five years, and it’s not likely that the area will build
another one before that happens.
So it seems like a good idea to at least consider
Alamance’s proposal, under which Orange County
would pay for its neighbors to pick up its trash and
put it in their landfill. It would provide cash for peo
ple who need it, and it also could be cheaper than
building another landfill in Orange County if the two
counties can reach a long-term agreement.
Put more succinctly: They want our money, we
don’t want our trash. Sounds good.
In addition, a deal would help keep those poplar
trees around future landfills, after all, would take
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.
Columnist was offensive,
inaccurate, disrespectful
TO THE EDITOR:
The Muslim Students
Association wanted to respond to
Jillian Bandes’ piece “It’s sad, but
racial profiling is necessary for our
safety.”
We find it extremely counter
productive as Muslims to attack
Bandes’ opinion about racial pro
filing because we recognize that
sadly enough, this is a prevalent
sentiment echoed even through
the hallowed halls of the most lib
eral elite.
After all, you know you’ve hit
a relatively widespread opinion
when Bill Maher, the leftist man
on television, admits to the neces
sity of racial profiling. It’s a sad day
when Ann Coulter and Bill Maher
finally find a point of contention
that doesn’t make them want to
hurl knives at each other’s aorta.
Our main criticism of Bandes’
article is not in what it argues but
the way that she argues her point
so disrespectfully. : “I want all
Arabs to be stripped naked and
cavity-searched if they get within
one hundred yards of an airport.”
Although we appreciate the jour
nalistic hook, it was an attention
grabber, sensationalistic and forced
us to read the column; however, it
offended us all within the same sen-
themselves out of potentially harmful situations.
That’s why it’s so confusing to hear from Leslie
Strohm, the University’s legal counsel and chair
woman of the campus’s Emergency Warning
Committee, that DPS issues public warnings only
when it perceives an ongoing threat to the campus
community.
In other words, we’re not likely to get told about
sexual assaults if the victim knew the suspect —as
was the case in an on-campus assault last week.
That just doesn’t make any sense when simply
acknowledging that a crime has taken place forces
the entire campus to think about the risk of sexual
assault in their own lives.
And there’s also the hope that more open dialogue
about sexual assault will make reporting a crime of
that nature less intimidating —a major problem on
a campus where a majority of rapes likely never get
reported.
DPS’ safety notifications are a necessary service to
the campus when there is a public safety threat. But
they are just as important as a way to keep people
aware of a serious ongoing issue.
Taking an extra $675 from the owners of those
businesses isn’t extortion, but it’s also not a good idea
or a fair one.
So the Town Council is to be commended for its
Monday night decision to retroactively roll back
a large chunk of those tax hikes, a decision that
came after the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of
Commerce justifiably raised Cain.
The money to repay the businesses about
$53,000 will have to come from the town’s
reserves, but it’s a small pittance when you compare
it to the world of good it could have for individual
households.
It’s also an important lesson in what can happen
when local leaders get carried away in their zeal to
regulate businesses. Particularly in the downtown
sector, where everyone agrees that more practical,
locally owned business would be a godsend, a few
hundred dollars in extra taxes might have convinced
some potential entrepreneurs to stay away.
We can’t encourage local businesses to come
downtown while approving policies that would keep
them far away. And the council is to be commended
for recognizing that; better late than never.
up space.
That being said, it is imperative that local offi
cials vet any possible trash swap for its environ
mental impacts. The Alamance landfill is rather
close to the Haw River, and environmental groups
in the area are concerned correctly, we think
about the potential impact of hazardous runoff
on the area.
To be sure, the Alamance landfill eventually will
fill up regardless of whether Orange County agrees
to this deal. In fact, it’ll probably be cleaner if the
swap goes through because Orange County has tough
standards for its trash.
But that doesn’t mean local leaders should throw
caution to the wind.
Still, assuming the greenbacks spent on hauling
garbage are roughly comparable to using our own
home-grown landfill, Chapel Hill and Orange County
should take its neighbors up on their offer. It looks
like a win-win situation.
And who knows? Maybe success in this project
could spur other profitable ventures between Orange
and Alamance counties.
It could even be the start of a beautiful friendship.
tence. The image of naked Arabs in
a public airport is not only truly hor
rifying, but it is also reminiscent of
the Abu Ghraib photos where Iraqis
were also “stripped” down for infor
mation about terrorists.
Considering the negative reac
tion to those distant images, are
we ready to see them every day at
the airport?
Not only that, but there is an
inherent contradiction within the
article itself. Bandes writes that the
United States can implement a large
scale profling policy “without going
down the slippery slope of pointless
and disrespectful encroachment on
the livelihood (of Arabs).”
However, one wonders, is
“Arabs sexed up like nothing
else” not “disrespectful encroach
ment?” How is this a “profession
ally conscientious manner” of dis
cussing the issue?
If a mere Daily Tar Heel col
umnist can “encroach” upon the
self-respect of Arabs within the
span of a 750-word column, then
what can be said about the entire
bureaucratic infrastructure of the
United States?
Our qualms with journalistic
language aside, we take offense
to the manipulation of the quotes
from Arabs to support Bandes’
limitedly researched article. After
we spoke to both Muhammad
Salameh and Professor Nasser
Opinion
Isleem, we realized that they were
outraged at having their views on
racial profiling misrepresented.
For example, Sajameh’s response
to the use of his statements was
“Quote me as I say!” ,
His quote from Bandes’ article
that “I can accept it, even if I don’t
like it. I don’t want to die” is an
example of the journalist’s cut
and-paste method. In actuality,
Salameh said to Bandes, “I’m not
comfortable with it, I’m not happy
with it, but I can accept it.”
The “I don’t want to die” part
of the statement was given much
later in the conversation in refer
ence to Salameh’s Islamic stoicism
in accepting his fate if he died in the
World TVade Center not Arab strip
searches at airports. Salameh is, in
fact, infuriated at the way he was rep
resented in the article, considering
his involvement in diversify activities
and clubs (such as Psi Sigma Phi, a
multicultural fraternity).
Interestingly, a similar story
emerged when the MSA contacted
Sherief Khaki, who told us that he
was misquoted and misled. Khaki
said that he “felt as if he was used
for 30 minutes just so (he) could say
one line about racial profiling.”
Similarly, Professor Isleem was
approached by Bandes under the
guise of writing about Arab reaction
after Sept. 11. After speaking with
Isleem personally, we discovered that
“Being taxed on (gross receipts) when you’re losing money is a
real stinger”
AARON NELSON, director, chapel hill-carrboro chamber of commerce
MHißStrh
Better buses are no substitute
for parking at Carolina North
Local transportation offi
cials recently received
the results of a study on
upgrading the Chapel Hill area’s
mass transit system. The report
released last week by John
Bonsall, a former transportation
planner from Ottawa, Canada,
outlined several different options
that included buses that run on
tracks and light-rail cars.
Some of the ideas seem like
effective ways to improve service
and reliability. Ideas like designat
ing a lane strictly for buses could
help ensure that they run on time.
But all of those ideas —and
the parking battles that might
be motivating them should be
explored with caution.
That’s because transit officials
have the potential to undermine an
important part of the University’s
future. They should be especially
careful about planning for mass
transit to replace parking spots at
Carolina North, the University’s
proposed research campus.
The satellite campus would
help the University attract impor
tant scientific and technological
talent creating opportunities
for students, the state and the
community.
But Mayor Kevin Foy noted
the potential for conflict when
he spoke about anew transit
system’s impact on Carolina
North. He seemed to suggest
that if the town upgraded tran
sit, it could present the new sys
tem as a reason to challenge the
University’s proposal to include
a substantive number of parking
spaces in its biggest develop
ment.
“This is an opportunity for us
to say, ‘lf we don’t want 17,000
parking spaces at Carolina North,
how can we have a transit system
in place that makes sense as.an
alternative to the single-occupan
cy vehicle?’” Foy said, according to
The News & Observer.
The question is: How much of
someone else had been misrepre
sented through Bandes’s faulty jour
nalistic endeavor. Their conversation
had been cut and pasted to fulfill the
expediency of her article.
Had Isleem known the true
subject of the article, he would not
have chosen to be affiliated with
the piece. Isleem is a distinguished
member of our faculty and would
never agree to be “stripped naked” if
he got within 100 yards of Raleigh-
Durham International Airport.
Though we appreciate Jillian
Bandes’ faith in the “imperfect
but steadfast law enforfeement
systems,” the faith of one does not
provide comfort to those being all
“sexed up like nothing else.”
Also, quotations from two sourc
es that were misquoted does not an
argument make.
And so, as an addendum to Bandes'
allusion to Ann Coulter in talking
about racial profiling openly, we ask
her to argue and discuss to her heart’s
content, but to do so respectfully.
We encourage open debate.
Please email Jillian Bandes at
jillianbandes@gmail.com and
MSA@unc.edu for comments.
UzmaKhan
Bushra Bhatti
Muslim Students Association
(Editor’s note: The length rule
was roaived.)
Ki
JEFF KIM
NO LONGER A VILLAGE
an “alternative” are Foy and town
officials seeking to force upon
future Carolina North commuters?
It would be great to see local
governments upgrade the transit
system as a voluntary alternative
to single-occupancy vehicles.
But transit officials shouldn’t
demand that new researchers
give up their cars before going
into work. Doing so would
undermine Carolina North’s
ability to attract the talent it is
capable of bringing in.
Candidates for this year’s
municipal elections are monitor
ing the Carolina North situation
carefully, and several have cited
transportation as the key issue
in its development. Many of
them know many local residents
just don’t like the idea of bigger
roads, parking lots or more cars
in general.
And there’s merit to those
concerns. Chapel Hill has a
great environment to preserve,
and improving the town’s public
transit system is a worthy goal.
But transit officials should be
careful about bogging down
Carolina North’s future.
We’re not talking about trans
porting students from their
apartments to their classes. We’re
talking about recruiting research
ers and professionals people
who have already experienced life
in the residence hall and don’t
need to be reminded of it. It’s not
unreasonable for them to get a
parking spot.
Chapel Hill enjoys a high stan
dard ofliving, but it’s unlikely
that prospective tenants will want
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By Evann Strathern, evann@email.unc.edu
a long and cumbersome commute
on a light rail system. Chapel
Hill isn’t New York, and it’s not
Washington, D.C.
To put it frankly: The best new
transportation system can’t make
up for a shortage of parking at
Carolina North. Regardless of any
improvements to the current sys
tem, buses and trains will always
require much more time than a
car ride to get from point A to
point B.
UNC already has enough
trouble recruiting and retaining
its faculty. The town shouldn’t
blunt Carolina North’s competi
tive edge by wresting away its
parking capabilities.
Bonsall’s suggestions might
make Chapel Hill’s system faster
and more reliable, and that’s
great.
When I lived on campus, get
ting a few snacks at the grocery
store was often an undertak
ing that took several hours at
a time. The safest bet that my
roommate and I went with was
to take the V bus to the Harris
Teeter at Meadowmont and to
get all of our shopping done in
10 minutes between its arrival
and departure.
But I put up with the rushed
grocery shopping because I knew
the situation was temporary. If
I were seeking a place to settle
down with my business or my
research, the lack of parking
would be on my checklist of con
cerns about Carolina North.
Chapel Hill and its neighbors
shouldn’t jeopardize the poten
tial for growth and innovation
that Carolina North represents.
Studying transit upgrades is
a good idea, but town officials
should avoid the temptation to
overreach in its traffic control
efforts.
Contact Jeff Kim,
a senior economics major,
atjongdae@email.unc.edu.
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