Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / Oct. 7, 1977, edition 1 / Page 10
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10 Tht Daily Tar Heel Friday. October 7, 1977 Greo Porter Editor Ben Cornelius, Managing Editor Ed Rankin, Associate Editor Lou Bilionis, Associate Editor Laura Scism, University Editor Elliott Potter, dry Editor Chuck Alston, State and National Editor Sara Bui lard Features Editor Chip Ensslin, Arts Editor Gene Upchurch, Spnrti Editor Allen Jernican, Photography Editor' iaiUj (Ear Hwl S5lrt year ot editorial Ireadom Supreme Court ruling due soon Bakke victory would be loss for all minorities Biko death final catalyst? The death of Steven Biko, the nonviolent man who led the opposition to apartheid in South Africa and a founder of that nation's black consciousness movement, may prove to be the final catalyst for a violent black rebellion there. After all, now that the foremost nonviolent blaclk leader is dead, a new milit.ancy seems inevitable. In fact, his funeral Monday was reported to be as much a p rotest rally as a commemoration for the dead leader. The anger of black Africans is wholly justified. According to the government, Biko died in a jail after a week long hunger strike while he was being held for questioning. Of course, as many blacks noted, it usually takes several wee'ks for a person to die from fasting, not a mere week. In fact last week officials repor ted that he may have been beaten or tortured to death. Furthermore, Biko was the 20th black known to have died in security dietention during the past year. The reasons for the other blacks' deaths, accordi ng to the police, included slipping in a prison shower and falling against a chair. Tensions were heightened at Biko's funeral when police forbade hu.ndreds of blacks to attend by blocking roads and stopping buses en route by asserti ng that the buses did not have the proper permits to travel. Moreover, the crowd of lO.OOOthat did attend the funeral heard several speakers warn the government that it had only pushed blacks further toward violence by its actions. In many ways, a comparison can be drawn between Biko and Martin Luther King. Both were nonviolent reformers. Both were harassed by the .'government. Both may have died at the hands of the government, although this will probably never be certain. Finally, as the civil rights movement became increas ingly militant and violent after King's death, it seems likely that the same will occur in South Africa. In fact, this rebellion seems more likely in South Africa, considering that blacks form a five-to-one majority over whites. Indeed, the repressive white government of South Africa deserv es this fate if it continues to hold fast to its inhumane and archaic policy of racial 'segregation and oppression. The South African government cannot say it has no t been warned. Blanket Hill: Kent State gym must not mar memory The trustees of Kent State University these days have been trying to raise a building on the campus. Meanwhile, the students are raising hell about the building. And we hone the students continue. 'The trustees want to build a $6-million gymnasium annex ne;ar Blanket Hill, the site where four students were killed and nine others wounded d'uring a campus anti war rally in 1970. The students, murdered by National Guardsmen, are rerwjmbered by the May 4th Coalition, a group opposing construction of the facility. The coalition wants the site declared a national historic landmark. This group and others feel so strongly about the siUiatio n that about 1,500 of them last Saturday tore out a 250-foot portion of a fence sur rounding the site. One demonstrator stepped in front of a truck but was moved a;iide by campus police. Two females buried themselves horizontally in a hole workers had dug to transplant a tree from the construction site. The two women la ter were uncovered and pulled from the hole. Although the new president of the university fav ors the construction of the gym he stands to lose his job if the facility is not buUt said he feels that the killing seven years ago was unjustified homicide. Kent S tate is already a monument. It is a monur nent to the mistake of the V ietnam war a conflict that resulted in the deaths- of 56,886 Americans. It is also a monument to the war's opposition a movement led by the nation's youth that finally spread to the rest of the country. It w.'as a war tha'i America lost. It was a travesty and an embarrassment, and it shoul d not be forgotten. The protestors at Kent State call Blanket Fall sacred. Building a gym on it would be the same as covering up what happened that tragic day more than seven years ago. Build the gym somewhere else. Designa' ting the ground as a national hisotoric landmark would be beneficial to the studen ts, Ohio and the rest of the country. That way, we would never forget the battles oft) ,ie Vietnam war, both in Indochina and in the United States. By ROGER LANCASTER In a few days the U .S. Supreme Court will begin reviewing the Bakke case. Its decision may prove to be the most important civil rights ruling since the 1954 Brown decision that banned segregated public schools. At stake are two decades of social and educational progress for blacks, women and other minorities. Allan Bakke. a white space engineer and former Marine, applied to medical school at the University of California at Davis twice, both in 1973 and 1974. He did not pass the general admissions qualifications and was rejected both times. When Bakke learned that a special admissions program for underprivileged applicants in 1974 had admitted a few students with lower college grades and aptitude test scores than his, Bakke claimed he was a victime of "reverse discrimination." Bakke sued the university. In September. 1 976 the California Supreme Court ruled in Bakke's favor and the university appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. The main argument in the case is whether special admissions programs constitute reverse discrimination against white males. But just what is reverse discrimination? Does the term have any relevance to the Bakke case or to American education in general? Though the term reverse discrimination has been widely used as the battle cry among racists and reactionaries, few have expounded on its actual meaning. It is doubtful that blacks, who constitute only 2.7 per cent of the students in state university systems, are in a position to practice any form of discrimination. The word "quotas" (as opposed to "goals") has been closely associated with the concept of reverse discrimination. Some consider thai the use of quotas as a means of redressing social, sexual and racial inequities of the past is reverse discrimination. Some maintain that the same criteria should be applied to all university admissions applicants, regardless of past discrimination. Such a course of action, which almost seems fair at a casual glance, would actually serve to reinforce centuries of racism. In filing the minority opinion of the California Supreme Court, Justice Matthew O. Tobringer said of the Bakke case: 'Two centuries of slavery and racial discrimination have left our nation with an awful legacy, a largely separated society in which wealth, educational resources, employment opportunities indeed all of society's benefits remain largely the preserve of the white-Anglo majority. As a practical matter, racial classification frequently must be employed if the effects of V rV 2 v ( ( v. r r r r . if J3.1W past discrimination and exclusion are to be overcome. Some people pretend that they've never heard of special considerations or quotas. They ignore the fact that special considerations have long been employed by colleges and universities in selecting veterans, children of alumni, financial contributors and others. Only when quotas are applied to the deprived and to victims of prejudice as a temporary means of adjusting for past social injustice does an outcry arise against special considerations. Of the attack on racial quotas, Jesse Jackson has pointed out that "there has always been a quota system for blacks. Historically that quota has always been zero. Only now when it is used in a positive way to measure our progress does it come under attack." If the Bakke case is upheld, we can expect the death of affirmative action. Desegregation will be left up to white administrators, who' have not shown themselves to be reliable at recruiting minorities. The continued attack on minorities' and women's rights as epitomized by anti-abortion, anti-gay, anti black and other right-wing groups -r will gain momentum. Blacks, women and other minorities will be denied special consideration at universities and colleges while quotas will be maintained for children of alumni, children of financial contributors and other wealthy groups. The Supreme Court's ruling on the Bakke decision will undoubtedly have a major impact and far-reaching consequences on public education and employment in this country. What are the future prospects for minorities and women in the United States? Dismal, considering some recent Supreme Court rulings. A rightward trend in the court's philosophy could conceivably erode almost all the civil rights gains of the '50s and '60s. New decisions against gays, abortions and desegregation programs could set the pace for i stepped-up attack on minorities. If the court decides against special admissions for the underprivileged, then women, blacks and other minorities will suffer even more serious setbacks in all areas of society. Roger Lancaster, a freshman, is a sociology and anthropology major from Goldsboro, N.C. . Southern Bell should take back goodies and give us service By ZAP BRUECKNER "My son, what is your wish?" "A telephone directory. Father Bell." "A directory?" "Yes, my father, so I can call my friends without paying f-. r directory assistance. I have already used my five free assistance calls for the month, and the student locator is always busy." "Here, my son, have a pencil holder with a Carolina football schedule engraved on the side." "But, Father..." "Do not thank me, I know you are grateful unto me." The above conversation sounds a bit like the old question posed in the Bible: if a son asks his father for a fish to eat, what should a father give him? A snake? Of course not; the answer is a fish. But in the case of Southern Bell as a surrogate father for students, it is the former case. On Wednesday, Sept. 28, the phone utility began distributing packets to dorm residents labeled: Collegiate Communications. Inside the student discovers an amazing set of trivia. There is a three-sided pencil holder, a little booklet, two bookmarks, a wheel chart and two postcards. What about the student directory? Don't be a loon! The student telephone customer expects Southern Bell to provide service every month. This should mean basic repairs and free directory service either by paperback form or over the phone. But Southern Bell refuses to answer with decent directory service. Instead they deliver students a packet full of nonsense. Students have paid to be served fish in a restaurant and are given a snake at the back door. In this silly bundle is a pencil holder with a blue Tar H eel ram on one side. The next side holds yet another 1977 Carolina football schedule an item most students are swamped with already. The last side says "Keep in Touch." No corporation. institution or utility in Chapel Hill could be more out of touch with student concerns. Students would much rather have an . efficient and free directory service than a pencil holder. The next ditty in the packet is a booklet entitled ' Your Collegiate Personal Telephone Directory.' This provides empty space to be filled in with phone numbers and names. Instead of Southern Bell producinga student directory, it allows students to make their own. Creative Phone Book Making 34. No prerequisites, no experience, no credit. But wait, the booklet is not a total waste. It inf orms the student that 82 countries around the world will honor his or her Bell System Credit Card for calls back to the U.S. or Canada. Next weekend since students have many opportunities to go overseas during school when you are picking poppies in Turkey or herding reindeer in Siberia, give Ma and Pa a call and charge it. Two more items in the package are postcards meant to be sent away to parents or folks outside Chapel Hill. The cards indicate the student's name, residence, phone numbers and the best time to reach him or her. This is a good idea on Southern Bell's part, but they shorld have sent about 100 more for people to send to friends on campus. This would also be another indirect directory. Far worse than any single item listed above is the cost of this nonsense. Those packages did not all from Blue Heaven as the little basketballs so in Carmichael. If this is what installation and monthly service charges finanace, then a refund is on order because students should get hard-core service and not trite and frivolous simmicks. Southern Bell is given students' money and confidence and returns these tokens with a viperous snake. This snake bears fangs of excess directory assistance charges and deceptive gimfrncks designed to mislead students. Southern Bell, take back your toys, give us the service we paid for. Zap Brueckner, a senior journalism major from Durham, N.C, is a staff writer for the Daily Tar Heel. Sirica's reduction of Watergate sentences highlights this week's stories It has taken five years and one month, but Judge John Sirica finally is finished with Watergate. In what Sirica termed his "last ruling" on Watergate, Richard Nixon's thn;e closest aides John Mitchell, H. R. Haldeman. and John Ehrlichman had their sentences of 30 months to eight years reduced to one- to fouir-year terms. The action came after Siri.ca listened to tape recorded pleas of "remorse" and "repentance" from each man. Mitchell, confined in a minimum security prison at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama, said he was "truly sorry 'for and regretted those actions of mine that resulted in my conviction. ... My reflections since the trial have led me to considerable remorse and distress." Ehrlichman spok'e of acting "without exercising my independent judgment Had I been wiser, I certainly would have checked out when I realized I was in a moral dilemma." Ehrlichman currently is confined in ai Sanford, Ariz., prison camp. Haldeman, however, appeared to make the greatest acknowledgement of wrongdoing. "I have the deepest personal regret for everything I have d one. I realize the dam age it has done to the nation, and I will carry for the rest of my life the burden of knowing how greatly my acts contributed to this tragedy," he said. Haldeman is serving his sentence in a prison camp in Lompoc, Calif. The beginning of the week was dominated by news of a hijack ing by members of the militant Japanese Red Army. The terrorists took control of a Japan Airlines DC-8 with over 150 passengers and crew members in Dacca, Bangladesh, and demanded a $6-million ransom and the release of several compatriots imprisoned in Japan. After securing the ransom and the release of the radicals, the hijackers freed all but 37 hostages and took off for Kuwait, where authorities first THE WEEK Bv REID TUV1M refused to permit the plane to land. Eventually the plane was allowed to land in Kuwait for refueling. When the craft next took off, it headed toward Syria and then Algiers, where the terrorists ended the six-day drama by releasing the last of the hostages and turning themselves over to police. Japan has asked Algeria for the return of the Red Army members and the $6 million, but it is thought that the terrorists surrendered with the understanding they would not be sent back to Japan for prosecution. The money, however, is expected to be returned. The political waters in the Middle East grew choppier this week as Israel rejected "with both hands" a U.S. -Soviet statement saying a Geneva peace conference should insure "the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people" and establish "peaceful relations" in" the region. The Arab states and the Palestinians, however, generally agreed with the joint statement. U.N. Secretary General K.urt Waldheim also applauded the agreemen t. Though the statement never mentioned by name the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), the implication was there. Never before had the U.S. accepted the concept of'Palestinian rights." Israel has stated continually it will not negotiate with known members of the PLO but apparently will accept PLO sympathizers as members of another delegation. Israeli leaders calle.d the statement a sign "of forcing an imposed solution on us" one the Israelis say cannot be accepted. Former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is in trouble again in her homeland. She was arrested without a warrant earlier this week on charges of corruption during her unsuccessful re-election campaign this year. Though the New Delhi chief metropolitan magistrate ordered her release after 16 hours of police detention, the government has not dropped the charges. Tuesday brought an end of President Carter's amnesty program for Vietnam veterans with "general" or "undesirable" discharges. Under the program a total of approximately 425,000 veterans were eligible. Only 36,826 applied 8.7 percent of the total. Critics call the program a disaster, and Congress has demanded the reopening of a majority of the cases. The Pentagon termed the program a success. And if you're the hunting type, there's bad news this week from Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. The period of Oct. 5 to 1 1 until this year has been the traditional hunting season for a very special animal. Henceforth, it shall be known as the questing season of the unicorn. "The difference is that in hunting, the object is to kill; in questing, the object is to look," explained Peter Thomas, chief herald of the society. The controversy began last year when several society members noted there had been no unicorn sightings for several centuries and determined that it therefore must be an endangered species. The Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) disagrees. David Jenkins, head of the DNR Wildlife Division calls the claims utter nonsense. "All of our research over the past year indicates a high reproduction output of unicorns and a high group survival rate." Reid Tuvim, a sophomore journalism major from Atlanta, Ga., is assistant managing editor for the Daily Tar Heel. .
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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Oct. 7, 1977, edition 1
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