Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / May 26, 1977, edition 1 / Page 10
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Carter administration and its human rights paradox It is admirable that President Carter should consider human rights a high priority. When, for example, Vladimir Slepak, a Jewish dissident was jailed in the Soviet Union during October, presidential candidate Carter wrote Slepak a letter regarding his "deep personal interest in the problems facing Soviet Jews who have sought to emigrate." Moreover, Patricia Derian, Carter's Coordinator for Human Affairs, was recently quoted by Newsweek as saying that "the only reason we have governments is to protect individuals." With such spirited American crusades occurring elsewhere in the world, one inevitably wonders what the U.S. government is doing to protect individuals in the U.S. Ironically and paradoxically, the answer to this question is less than comforting. Consider, for instance, the plight of the Wilmington Ten. Time reports black activist Angela Davis as terming the infamous case (which stems from the 1971 bombing of a Wilmington grocery store) as part of a national conspiracy of racism. Amazingly, sentences averaging 28 years were passed upon the nine black men and one white woman in a trial in which the chief prosecution witness had spent time in a mental hospital prior to his testimony and another witness was given both a job and a minibike by Prosecutor Jay Stroud. The recent courtroom hearings involving the Wilmington Ten ended as defendant Ben Chavis had predicted: Pender County superior court Judge George Fountain did not vacate the convictions rendered in the first trial. In the meantime, the President seems preoccupied with human rights in the Soviet Union, Rhodesia, and South Africa. And as real as the denial of human rights in these nations may be, America can ill afford to point "holier than thou" fingers of blame at other countries when its own closet of skeletons is filled with ugly reminders that the U.S. itself has some serious moral housecleaning to do. The summer season Although we have no official statistics on hand, summer enrollment at UNC seems to be brimming with both "oldtimers" and newcomers alike. When students arrived on Sunday afternoon University Housing rushed to open some dorms which weren't even scheduled for occupancy to accommodate the masses. And why shouldn't it be this way? Summers in Chapel Hill offer a memorable respite from the rigors of the regular school year. During the summer, a bustling college town with Fuquay Varina streets and Los Angeles traffic mystically transforms into a sleepy hamlet. Student politicos usually vanish from sight (they're plotting for the fall, we're told),;he weather is generally good, South Campus and North Campus residents along with visiting students mingle and live together, the tennis courts become crowded with . novices, and. self-proclaimed "pros," and. thpse; of us who can't . afford apartments during the regular school year often sub-lease for at least three months of off-campus luxury. Cyclists cycle, swimmers swim, frisbee throwers throw frisbees, and girl-watchers watch girls during the summer months. As for school work well, we manage to squeeze that in somewhere along the way, too. Indeed, the charm of Chapel Hill is never as evident as in the summertime. Unfortunately, summer lasts only so long, and when the full throng of 20,000 return, when wandering bands of curious freshmen and parents speckle Franklin Street, when traffic mercilessly pours in from every direction imaginable, when the spectre of The Long Line returns to irritate and perturb us, we long for the tranquil July afternoons that have so quickly passed. Wmr M22l Joni Peters: Editor Nancy Oliver: Managing Editor Allen Johnson: Associate Editor Sara Bullard: News Editor Karen Oates: Features Editor Jeanne Newsom: Arts and Entertainment Editor Will Wilson: Sports Editor Joseph Thomas: Photography Editor me i am m?mmmtS) m-M-m ... " Carter energy plan Some steps in the right direction such an idea, but perhaps a more realistic approach to the energy crisis is to begin a serious, government-supported drive to create alternative sources of energy. To use a worn-out example, any country that can put men on the moon has the intelligence and money to develop a solution to such a serious need. Put to work the minds that were idle when the space program disbanded and workable alternatives could probably be found. This solution makes more sense than just turning a valve to cut the flow to a trickle, when everyone knows the trickle will inevitably end. Steps should be taken now to create alternative energy sources before what little energy America has runs out and a genuine panic begins. Something had to be done, and President Carter has taken a brave step toward energy conservation and delaying the day when energy will at last run out. Another proposal should be added to his plan a proposal that would create new energy sources so that no one ever sees a day when the lights flicker out and never come on again. Gene Up church is a senior journalism major from Durham. A lack of compassion in students? I merely mention this as a rather heart-breaking incident and express some deep pity over the callousness shown by some of those students to a human being in need. Thomas N. Ingram About letters. . . The Tar Heel welcomes letters from its readers. We require that these letters be typed, double-spaced, on a 60 space line and that they not exceed 45 lines in length. We also reserve the right to edit letters for distasteful or libelous content. Letters should be mailed to the Tar Heel in the Carolina Union or submitted in person to the DTH office. By Gene Upchurch The battlelines have been drawn for yet another skirmish in the long war over energy conservation. And the battle that President Carter has begun with his energy plan could be one of the biggest and most serious of the war so far. Carter told Congress and a national television audience April 13 that lawmakers and the nation support laws that will be designed to conserve energy. He said the alternative could be a national catastrophe. The major thrust of the new energy plan is to cut down on waste. This would be accomplished by taxing automobiles that use too much gas and by offering a rebate to cars that save significant amounts of fuel. Tax credits would also be given to persons whose homes are heated and cooled more efficiently through the use of solar heating and more effective insulation. Carter's program is a far reaching one and is designed to be effective through 1985. Carter's plan could save as much as four million barrels of oil per day by 1985, reducing oil imports. A list of the major points of the new proposal looks like a grocery list designed to affect every American's life. It includes a gasoline tax that will raise the price of gasoline, the requirement of new cars to meet higher fuel efficiency standards and removal of a 10 per cent tax passengers pay to ride city buses. Carter's popularity will certainly not skyrocket because of the new plan, and most likely it will drop to the lowest point of his still-young administration. People will say it is inflationary, and it is. The new plan will add four-tenths of one per cent to the annual inflation rate. Environmentalists will criticize the plan because it shifts emphasis from protection to conservation. The plan calls for mandatory conversion of industries from natural gas to coal by 1990. Carter's plan will face great opposition because it requires a change in a lifestyle Americans have become accustomed to and are unwilling to alter. For too many years fuel was so cheap and too available that people thought there would never be an end to it. They continued thinking this until the oil industry concocted a plan to run the price up by cutting off retailers' supplies. And it worked. The price went up it almost doubled and availability went down and Americans were slapped in the face with the wet towel of reality. Oil might someday run out. It might be simplistic to suggest To the editor: You hear a great deal this day and time about the academic world being so interested in sharing the wealth and sharing with mankind, and I find it a little difficult to equate that with what happened to my daughter at Chapel Hill yesterday. She slipped on some steps and tore a tendon loose out of her ankle and was in considerable pain and anguish. Students were passing by and she was saying "please help me -please help me." No one would. Finally she started yelling and one of the coaches came by, lifted her up and carried her a considerable distance to an area at the moment I cannot identify. She told me that Phil Ford, the basketball player, was having his elbow treated in this room to which they took her and she said that nobody could have been kinder or more solicitous of her than young Ford. This coach that carried her was also as kind as he could be. Maybe this story will evoke no interest whatsoever, but it does seem to me to be a very sad commentary when some people just have no compassion or feeling for their fellow human being. A lot of them are more than willing to share the wealth and that sort of thing but they won't even share the time to help somebody in trouble. Fortunately, there are many many extremely decent and compassionate people to make up for that small group, but it might be worth some sort of consideration of an article. I am sure my daughter would not like to have her name mentioned nor would I.
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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May 26, 1977, edition 1
10
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