14
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2006
u ei 3a@l^^^MGdWM
JASON ROSE
ROSE POINT BLANK
Jason Rose is a second-year graduate
student studying education.
E-MAIL ROSEJC@EMAIL.UNC.EDU
Don’t
miss the
Triangles
fall lineup
This week marks the begin
ning of the most important
season in the American
cultural calendar. No, not holiday
season or hurricane season or even
hippie-hunting season. I’m talking
about the new fall TV season!
What you may not realize is
that our own little section of the
Triangle has been really catching
heat (as we insider-types like to
say) over the past year as a prime
new production hub. Something
to do with tax breaks, I think, or
maybe union laws. I don’t know,
stop being so nosy.
Because I have nothing better
to do than spend my time making
sure you have something to read
on the toilet
every Tuesday,
here’s a quick
AT-LARGE
COLUMNIST
guide to help you find some of
the local flavor coming to your
television this week.
Durham District Attorney
Mike Nifong stars as a hardhead
ed local prosecutor, taking on only
the most high-profile, emotionally
manipulative cases in his deter
mined pursuit of sympathetic
press and voter-base support in
the latest spinoff of one of NBC’s
longest-running franchises: “Law
& Order: Re-election Unit.”
Ty Pennington and company
are back for another season to
face some of their biggest chal
lenges yet. This week, the design
team has seven days to take a his
torically beautiful university and
turn it entirely into a permanent
recreation of an abandoned con
struction site on ABC’s newest
edition of a hit show: “Extreme
Makeover: Campus Edition.”
CBS comes out swinging this
fall with the most anticipated
—and controversial season of
“Survivor” in years. As reported,
the contestants will be divided
into four separate camps by
race (“African-American, Asian-
American, Hispanic and White”)
to compete against each other for
one ultimate prize. Each group
will live, work, eat, socialize and
compete only with members of
their own race and face the other
groups only during the confron
tations. Don’t miss a minute
of the newest season of the
grandfather of all reality shows:
“Survivor: Durham.”
Regis Philbin joins the prime
time game show front once again,
looking to recapture some of
that ol’ ratings gold. This season,
Philbin sits down each week with
group of UNC students, all hop
ing to earn a degree in philoso
phy, art or political science, to ask
them the question, “Who Wants
To Bea Hundredaire?”
HBO takes a wild look behind
the scenes at what can happen
when an overflow of alcohol and
hormones collide on a college cam
pus. Each week one young couple
will be reunited, nine months
after their first encounter, to try to
retrace their steps through stair
wells, bathrooms, dorm rooms and
bars to piece together the story
of what really happened on that
first, fateful night they met, in the
adults-only comedy: “How I Met
Your Mother.”
ESPN spent all last year tap
ing the trials and tribulations of
a local star athlete, and is set to
air the never-before-seen footage
of former Duke star J. J. Redick
attempting to navigate his car
from Franklin Street back down
Tobacco Road in a special edition
of their new daily series: “Outside
the Lines.”
For the busy Tar Heel fan, catch
up on all you need to know every
week with the new, more concise,
postgame wrap-up show set to air
immediately after most UNC foot
ball games this season: “Lost.”
And be sure to catch the
beginning of one of HBO’s most
popular returning series, in which
a mouthy local columnist acciden
tally ends up in the middle ofTar
Heel Town one Saturday afternoon
and is finally made to answer
for his smarmy insolence, in the
shockingly graphic, yet oddly sat
isfying, season opener of the hit
series: “Six Feet Under.”
I imagine some of you might
want to TiVo that last one.
EDITORIAL CARTOON By Doug Marlette, Tribune Media Services
Fisherman
No point in trying
While a noble idea, a giving kiosk just isn’t feasible
Not all noble ideas turn
out to be practical. The
recently ldlled plan fora
giving Wosk on Franklin Street
is a case in point.
The plan, conceived last fall
by an anonymous donor, was
for a Wosk to be set up down
town, perhaps near the Bank of
America building. People walk
ing from shop to shop could drop
in their spare change, or maybe
even a bill or two, instead of giv
ing money to panhandlers. By
putting their change in the Wosk,
they would know that the money
would help a worthy cause.
The Wosk idea sounds great,
especially when you consider
that the anonymous donor was
willing to pay the entire cost of
construction and installation.
The only problem is that, well, it
wouldn’t solve the panhandling
problem. That’s the reason the
Giving Kiosk Task Force gave
last week for turning down the
plan, and unfortunately, the
Stand up for yourselves
If you don’t speak up, the administration won’t listen
College students have a
long history of protest.
Students of decades past
have protested against war, for
civil rights, for workers’ rights
or, more recently, for higher
teacher’s assistant wages. What
do we have?
About 25 yes, 25 people
showed up to the Pit for Friday’s
scheduled protest of the new
online basketball ticket distribu
tion policy, in a move intended
to show campus athletic officials
that students wouldn’t just take
the change lying down.
The problem is that even if
500 students had shown up
to protest, it wouldn’t have
changed anything. Faced with
constant ill-informed, knee-jerk
reactions from a vocal minority
of students —and total apathy
from the rest the administra
tion has decided that getting our
input on things before they’re
decided is a waste of time.
Like the online ticket system,
the printing limit and the new
class registration system were
both introduced with little input
from students outside of the
James Allred administration.
Mind your manners
The line judges mom doesn’t actually do that
Many thanks to our foot
ball team for finally
pulling out a win last
Saturday against Furman. The
Tar Heel boys played hard, and
although it was barely a three
point win against a lowly I-AA
school, we’re still kind of proud.
And while our defense still
needs work actually, it would
be nice if our defense existed
what really sucked was the
behavior of some of the fans at
the game.
So it’s time for a quick lesson
in football etiquette.
■ When you’re angry at the
officials and letting the exple
tives fly, be creative. There are
only so many four-letter words
you can repeat before you start
to get on everyone’s nerves.
■ As you’re yelling, keep in
Opinion
task force is right.
It would be great if panhan
dlers would see the giving Wosk
and decide, all of a sudden,
“Look at that! I guess I don’t
need to ask for money anymore,”
but the presence of a metal box
on the sidewalk would not keep
people from asWng for money.
The type of person who asks for
money isn’t the type of person
who would be just as happy if
you decided to donate to the
Inter-Faith Council instead.
Chris Moran, executive direc
tor of the IFC which runs
a soup kitchen and a men’s
shelter told the Downtown
Partnership that he knows
one panhandler who lives in
a house in Hillsborough. That
fellow definitely wouldn’t want
to see money redirected away
from him and toward a worthy
cause.
The task force decided that
a public education campaign
about panhandling would be a
That’s not to say that Allred
and company aren’t looking out
for student interests they are
—but it’s still a sad statement
when the University treats the
rest of us like children.
It makes sense from the game
theory point of view: They know
that, no matter how common
sense a proposal is, there will
be about 10 to 20 percent of
the student body who will vehe
mently oppose it either because
they suspect the administration
of having a secret plan to screw
students or because it’s not the
way it used to be.
They also know that the rest
of the students will be apa
thetic. Short of student govern
ment leaders who eat, sleep, and
breathe University policy —and
a few people who actually read
the news —most people won’t
take the time even to find out
what’s going on.
The students eventually will
go along, so there’s no point in
talking to them.
That’s not the way things
should be. As the Great Leap
Forward taught us: No mat
ter how smart or well-inten
mind that no one cares. That’s
right: no one. John Bunting
can’t hear you. The ref has
heard it before. The only per
son you’ll get to is the person in
front of you, and that’s because
you’re spitting nacho cheese
into her hair and spilling beer
on her seat
■ Yes, the pompoms are
there —and free —but please
use them with caution. A fun
afternoon of football can quick
ly turn into an ugly affair when
someone loses an eye during
the fight song at the hand of
an overzealous fan.
■ The fight song ends with
“Go to hell, Duke!” unless
we’re playing N.C. State. Yes,
we know the football tradition
is to say “State.” But it’s time for
a change.
better idea than a giving Wosk.
It’s true that incoming col
lege students could always use
information about the realities
of panhandling and about local
organizations that deserve then
money, but there are bigger
concerns than the public per
ception of panhandling.
For one thing, perhaps
Chapel Hill, Carrboro and the
IFC should come together to
find a solution to the problem
of where to put the homeless
shelter. Talks have been going
on forever, with sites being pro
posed and then shot down on a
monthly or bimonthly basis.
The communities claim to care
about their homeless popula
tion indeed, they care enough
to seriously consider erecting a
giving Wosk. But where’s that
care when the IFC wants to put
its homeless shelter down the
street?
What’s that we hear?
Crickets?
tioned decision makers are,
they can’t make the best calls
without input from people on
the ground.
If there had been more stu
dent input into the ticket dis
tribution system, for example,
the athletic department
wouldn’t have been caught
off-guard by the issue of group
seating.
There are other issues
coming up that need stu
dent input, like fee increases.
Unfortunately, the few stu
dent voices tend to be limited
to either the Allred admin
istration camp or the “all fee
increases are bad” camp.
If the UNC administration
can’t trust ordinary students to
understand nuance, then we’re
failing in our mission.
While we’d love to see the
University soliciting informed
student opinions, we’d also like
to see more than the dozen or so
of the usual suspects giving it
The Allred administration
and Student Congress don’t have
a monopoly on ideas, after all.
They shouldn’t have a monopoly
on interest, either.
■ Be nice to the Boy Scouts
who run the snack and bever
age bars and sell drinks in the
student section. They’re nice
boys and they’re out there
every Saturday in the hot
sun, all game long which is
more than we can usually say
for most student fans.
■ Finally, don’t get too angry
at the team. Sure, they mess
up, but don’t we all? And if you
were down there, you wouldn’t
be doing any better.
No, you really wouldn’t Hate
to break it to you, brah.
We’re really glad there was
such good turnout at Saturday
night’s game and that every
one stayed until the end. But
now that we have attendance
under control, let’s work on
our manners.
QUOTE OF THE DAY:
“We need to arrive at a system
where on Election Day, the election
is over ”
ALEX ZAFFRON, CARRBORO ALDERMAN
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Due to space constraints, letters are sometimes cut Read the full-length
versions or post your own response to a letter, editorial or story online.
VISIT www.dailytarfteel.com/feedback
Controversial speakers
are worth inviting to UNC
TO THE EDITOR:
To respond to Noah Savage’s
letter on September 18th, asWng
who had the audacity to approve
SIO,OOO in student fees be spent
on John Ashcroft: That would be
Student Congress.
I once thought as Savage does.
In 2004, I wrote to the DTH
announcing that I would vote
against appropriating $7,000 for
the Federalist Society, which also
co-sponsored Ashcroft, to bring
Alan Keyes, another controver
sial right-wing speaker.
But then I learned two things.
One, $7,000 was a standard
amount which Congress set as an
informal ceiling for most major
speakers, and SIO,OOO isn’t out
of the question if other factors
increase the value of the specific
fimding request.
Two, Congress is required by
state law, federal case law, and
now the Student Code to be
content-neutral; that is, we can
not vote on appropriating public
money based on political whims
or other personal biases.
Like Keyes’ event, Ashcroft’s
speech ended up contributing,
both through his own words
but perhaps even more impor
tantly through the responses of
students to him, to the campus
political dialogue.
While I strongly oppose
Ashcroft’s record as Attorney
General and his general principles,
I was actually quite impressed with
both Ashcroft’s ability to respond
directly to hecklers and students’
creative protests.
It was certainly worth SIO,OOO,
or roughly $2.70 per student.
It’s up to the Federalist Society,
Young Americas Foundation, and
Committee for a Better Carolina
whether he was also worth the
balance of more than $15,000
they privately raised.
But I’d wager they’d agree that
events which only confirm one’s
own beliefs and which invite no
dispute or .controversy are the
least interesting and least worthy
of student fees.
Dustin Ingalls
Speaker Pro Tempore
Student Congress
Robinson pursues office
anywhere that'll have him
TO THE EDITOR:
An article in yesterday’s paper
correctly noted both that Vernon
Robinson lives in Winston-Salem
and that he is running for Congress
in North Carolina’s 13th District
What the article fails to men
tion is that Winston-Salem is not
in the 13th District Robinson has,
in feet, filed to run in three differ
ent Congressional districts during
the last two election cycles.
In 2004, he lost the
Republican primary in the sth
District. This year he filed to
run against Mel Watt in the 12th
District initially. Republican
higher-ups convinced him to run
in the 13th District.
In 2002, Brad Miller was ini
tially elected with only 51 percent
of the vote. In theory the 13th
could be one of the more com
petitive districts in the country.
The fact that the best
Republicans can put up is a nut
case carpetbagger bodes poorly
for their performance both
across the state and around the
country this year.
Tom Jensen
Class 0f2006
SPEAK OUT
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EDITOR'S NOTE: Editorials are the opinions solely of The Daily Tar Heel editorial board.
The board consists of five board members, the associate opinion editor, the opinion edi
tor and the DTH editor. The 2006-07 DTH editor decided not to vote on the board.
Ufyp Saily (Bar Hppl
Coach Bunting sends
thanks to Tar Heel fans
TO THE EDITOR:
On Saturday night our foot
ball team won a close, hard
fought football game versus
Furman. The support in the
student section was terrific.
I want to personally thank
the student body for coming
early, cheering hard and being
loud throughout the game.
Your support has been great
all year, and this team and I
appreciate it very much.
Singing the alma mater with
the team, the student body
and the band at the end of the
Furman game was an outstand
ing moment.
Go Heels!
John Bunting
Head Coach
UNC Football
UNC students historically
fought unfair legislation
TO THE EDITOR:
Imagine if it were an
avowed communist speaking
at Memorial Hall, rather than
former Attorney General John
Ashcroft.
What would student opin
ions be about protesting a com
munist speaker?
My guess is that these voices
crying out, saying “Ashcroft
deserves our attention because,
like him or not, he’s a part of
our history” would probably
be in the chorus of those who
would be crying to “shut the
communist up.”
Actually, I need not imagine
this scenario, because it hap
pened, right here on this very
campus.
In 1963, the North Carolina
General Assembly passed the
Speaker Ban law, an effort to
keep communists from speak
ing on state-owned college and
university property.
Student leaders stood up
and challenged the law, until it
was ruled unconstitutional in a
Greensboro federal court.
Many of the personal stories,
documents and photographs
documenting this period in our
history can be found at our very
own Wilson Library.
I agree that there are more
productive ways of opening a
dialog, but I think this time it
was warranted, because, these
voices were speaking up against
the chief shadow behind a bill
that was immensely more
intrusive on intellectual free
dom than the North Carolina
Speaker Ban.
A little disruption on the
man’s thoughts, a little intru
sion on the man’s time, even
imposing on him a little taste
of insecurity, is fine with me for
a man who engineered a regime
of sneak-and-peak that has no
qualms about a little disruption
on those subject to the long arm
of the PATRIOT Act.
The man has earned a bit
more than the brunt of a few
jeers.
Biff Hollingsworth
Graduate Student
Information Science
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