8 The Daily Tar Heel Thursday, November 29, 1979
David Stacks. Editor
Michael Wade; Associate Editor
Gary Terpening, Associate Editor
Melanie Sill, News Editor
Eddie Marks, University Editor
Carol Hanner, City Editor
Kathy Curry, State and National Editor
Reid Tuvim, Sports Editor
Michele Mecke, Features Editor
Ann Smallwood, Arts Editor
Andy James, Photography Editor
Dinita James, Weekender Editor
Sailg
QJar mnl
87th year of editorial freedom
No alternative
Town councils and bond referendums may come and go, but the
painful parking situation in Chapel Hill's downtown business district
seems permanent. When the new council takes the helm Monday night,
the parking problem will not have changed and will be one of the
stickiest issues on the agenda.
The outgoing council obviously thought it had solved the problem by
putting a $2.6-million bond referendum on the Nov. 6 ballot. In fact,
council members were so confident the referendum would pass that they
authorized the expenditure of $205,000 from the town's general fund for
a recently completed surface parking lot on West Franklin Street, one of
the new facilities the Bond money would have financed. But the council
members like many other local observers failed to foresee the anti
tax sentiment that led to the defeat of all but one bond issue put before
Chapel Hill voters, and the money for proposed new parking facilities
was denied.
The new council will have to find a way to repay the $205,000
borrowed from the town's general fund, which probably will not be too'
much of a problem. But the question of solving the downtown parking
crunch is more difficult.
Most of the parking bond referendum $1.8 million would have
paid for a four-level parking deck which would have been built on a
municipal lot downtown. The deck, which eventually would pay for
itself through parking fees, would serve visitors to the business district.
Ideally, the parking fees would be high enough to discourage downtown
employees from driving to work and using the deck instead of
carpooling or using the bus system.
The idea of a parking deck in downtown Chapel Hill is not
immediately attractive, and concern over the preservation of the town's
village atmosphere probably contributed to the defeat of the parking
bond referendum. Any four-level parking deck downtown would be
somewhat obtrusive, but the plans designed by a Charlotte architectural
firm and approved by the council in September are for a structure
consistent with the rest of the downtown buildings. The deck would not
be visible from Franklin Street, according to the plans.
The council could approve the deck by using revenue bonds to finance
it. Such bonds are based on a pledge that the deck would pay for itself.
But, as Mayor-elect Joe Nassif has said, the council will have to consider
very carefully the message of the 2,969 people who voted against the
bond referendum. Council members who voted to fund the deck now
obviously would undertake some political risk.
Extensive study of the downtown parking problem has shown a
properly designed deck to be the least disagreeable solution. Whether
the need for a deck now is the result of poor planning in the past is
another issue; the growth of the business district and the fact that most
downtown visitors insist on private transportation, unfortunately, have
left the council with no realistic alternative.
Plenty of time
Never do today w hat you can put off till tomorrow. Delay may give
clearer light as to what is best to be done.
Aaron Burr
Even if you're on the right track you'll get run over if you just sit there.
Arthur Godfrey
There are a lot of very good reasons for putting things off until the last
minute, and the one cited by Burr above is among the most popular.
Many of us subscribe to that view; there seems no reason to rush willy-
nilly into a term paper or project not due until some obscure future date.
It certainly is best to take a few days more to assess the situation, to think
through calmly the proper course of action. Such a strategy works best
when the necessary planning or thinking is done over a cold beer in a
favorite bar or while watching evening television, since relaxation best
stimulates those creative juices.
But time marches on, and the clock keeps ticking. (Cliches work best
for describing time, since time in itself is also boring.) And many of us
begin to consider seriously Godfrey's view of what some people
professors, for example crudely term "procrastination." The yet
untouched work grows roughly by the square of the deadline date. The
frantic last week of class beckons ominously; but there's certainly no
need to be hasty about anything yet.
The Bottom Line
Spit and polish
Chewing aficionados, get out your Levi
Garrett and Red Man because here's
something worth spittin' about.
For the past two years a group of
Wabash College men have donned three
piece suits and gathered once a month to
recite poetry or discuss contemporary
philosophy. They also bring spittoons.
The group makes up the college's
Tobacco Chewing Club, an organization
which claims to have been the first of. its
kind.
"We're trying to bring elegance back to
chewing," said John Price, president of
the club. "This is a gentlemen's club."
The ideals of the Wabash tobacco
munchers seem to be spreading. In the
past few years a number of colleges have
spawned such clubs, with more than 30
chewing clubs now found across the
country. Geographic location doesn't
appear to be a factor, since schools
boasting a chew club stretch all the way
from Dartmouth College to Washington
State University, where they mix their
tobacco with pine cones. All it takes is a
pinch between the cheek and gum, and a
few people with a stong liking (and
stomach) for tobacco, to form a club.
As yet, no such club exists at UNC.
The Division of Student Affairs is
waiting - bring your Beech Nut.
Who does the walking?
They almost were searching for Dixie
cups and a string at the Waldorf-Astoria
hotel in New York this past weekend, and
it wasn't because of any strange requests
made by an eccentric guest. A $2-milfion
computerized telephone system crashed
at the posh hotel, one day after it was
installed.
"New York Telephone installed this
wonderful $2-mi!lion system at 2 a.m.
Saturday, and 24 hour later at 2:30 a.m.
Sunday it went down," said hotel
spokewoman Frances Borden.
For nearly 15 hours, until telephone
service was restored at 5 p.m., the hotel
staff scrambled to keep operations intact.
With the customary wake-up call out
of order, hotel security personnel found
themselves paying personal visits to
guests to shake them awake. What's
more, serveral hotel employees were
sent running about the 1.852-room hotel
delivering hand-written messages
throughout the day.
Apparently, though, the system wasn't
a total loss, as the Waldorf found when it
received a number of outside calls from
the police. Seems a few patrons were
more than slightly alarmed when a
prodding hand stirred them from their
slumber as they caught a few extra winks
while waiting for their calls.
But then, th.r's what happens when
you let M:i Rell'sfingciN jotho walking
everyone gets stepped on.
And that's the bottom line.
letters to the editor
Stone's tenure
To the editor:
We the members of the Student Task
Force for the Retention of Black Faculty
have united to study and confront the
injustices that have been brought upon
Sonja Haynes Stone. We deplore the
manner in which she has been denied
tenure. Stone's presence is necessary as a
tenured professor and director of the
Afro-American studies curriculum for
the continued growth and permanence of
that curriculum. Stone provides an
important role model as the most visible
of all black faculty members at Chapel
Hill. She- is vital to black and white
students, many of whom will never come
in contact with a black instructor during
their stay at UNC. The negative tenure
decision in regard to Stone was not only
unjust, it also has been a prime example
of the University's insensitivity to the
needs of the black UNC community. If
the University does indeed have a genuine
commitment to increasing the minority
presence, then this is an opportune time
to take affirmative action in that
direction.
Stone's record speaks for itself. She is a
well-respected teacher, scholar and
administrator on both the local and
national levels. She was a major
developer of the National Council for
Black Studies and she has twice been
named teacher of the year by the Black
Ink. She has also received a grant from
the Rockefeller Foundation to establish
the Southeastern Black Press Institute.
Her qualifications are impeccable, and
denial of her tenure can be termed
nothing less than a crime.
Stone has fallen victim to a growing
trend. Across the country more and more
qualified black professors are being
denied tenure at institutions of higher
education. This trend is not only a slap in
the face to black scholars, but in the long
run it will be a severe constraint on the
quality of education available to the
youth of this nation. The time has come
to take a stand against this despicable
practice!
We support Stone in the struggle
against the tyrannical forces that have
deemed it necessary to stifle her efforts to
become a full professor. Our
endorsement of Stone is also an
endorsement of the well-being and
improved condition of the University. We
are tired of the University's insidious
promises of increasing the black
presence; we want to see action. By
retaining Stone, the University would
have at least some similitude to an
institution committed to increasing
minority presence.
The Student Task Force
for the Retention of Black Faculty
To the editor:
The black students at this University
are gradually losing the rights they once
labored for in the late 1960s and early
1970s.
The denial of tenure to Sonja Stone is
just one case in point. Not only is she one
of the best and most popular instructors
among black students, she is also in the
vanguard of the Afro-American studies
curriculum. The strategic move to dismiss
her would undoubtedly threaten the
survival of the curriculum that she, with
the help of black students, founded.
The University's denial of tenure to
three members of the black faculty seems
to me systematic. I personally have
known few if any instructors that have
shown more concern for students' welfare
in her department than Bishetta Merritt
Williams. Yet, strangely enough, she too
is being ostracized.
The coincidences go on. It is obvious
that the University's strategic moves do
d
eniai provost e criticism
PAKISTAN GITS M BOMB!
not and will not stop with the denial of
tenure to quality black faculty.
James Parker
Durham
of the United
support Sonja
for tenure. We
of Dean Sam
To the editor:
We, the members
Christian Fellowship,
Stone in her struggle
deplore the actions
Williamson, Provost John Morrow and
Chancellor N. Ferebee Taylor, who for
the last 18 months have harassed and
treated her in a manner unbecoming
respected and responsible academic
administrators.
We denounce the arbitrary and
discriminatory method in which
University tenure regulations were
applied in Stone's tenure review case. We
know her to be a competent, capable and
conscientious academician who has a
special gift for meeting the needs of black
students. Her involvement in and
identification with the unique struggle of
black students at Chapel Hill has
stimulated the academic and social
development of those students and has
made Chapel Hill a more attractive center
for higher learning. Stone has made
superior contributions to the community
at large which are noteworthy for their
depth and long-range implications. To
separate her from the University and
community, of which she is so vital a part,
would be detrimental to both. We believe
Stone's presence as a tenured professor
and director of the Afro-American
studies curriculum is essential to the
continued growth and stability of that
curriculum as well as to the needs of black
students.
United Christian Fellowship
To the editor:
There is a significant number of
students who would like to express their
dissatisfaction with the racist, sexist and
prejudicial manner in which So'nja Stone
has been denied tenure. I speak
personally and also as a representative of
students when I say we are very much
disturbed with the discriminatory fashion
in which Dean Samuel Williamson
applied regulations in Stone's tenure
review case.
We wonder if Chancellor N. Ferebee
Taylor has found himself a hatchet man
in Williamson. He seems to have an
irresistible urge to chop the necks of black
faculty members when they are on the
tenure block. We understand very well
that University officials have gone
hunting to see how many black faculty
members they can bag and, if successful,
will declare open season soon afterward.
Those black faculty members, Stone in
particular, whom black students
struggled and fought so hard to bring
here are being dismissed at the fickle
pleasure of University officials.
To Dean Williamson directly, we say
that we resent your actions very much
and we refuse to allow them to continue.
The University is lying when it claims the
increase of black faculty at Chapel Hill is
one of its top priorities. Dean
Williamson, if you should continue on
your wild hunting spree, do not be
deceived; we, the students, will not be
ridiculed.
Arlee Griffin Jr.
233 Nature Trail
Rate increase
To the editor:
.Regarding telephone service and rate
increases in the Chapel Hill area:
When the dorms opened in August, I
$ut in a card to have my phone
connected. When it was still not working
a week later, I called the office. The phone
was in order the next day.
Everything was OK. for awhile. When
everyone else received phone bills, I was
left out. I thought this unusual but lost
little sleep over the matter. When the
second and third bills came and I still had
not received one, I was sure that Southern
Bell liked me.
They do not.
Last week I got a call from Ma Bell.
The lady said she had a list of calls, but no
name or address. I didn't see that this was
my problem, but she insisted so I gave her
my roommate's name. She explained that
the phone company had lost my card and
then asked why I hadn't called to tell them
I had no bill. 1 told her that the thought
had never crossed my mind.
About then the nice lady got upset and
said they were billing me for four months
and also for the connection charge. I
pointed out that the phone was obviously
working because we were talking on it,
but she said I would be charged anyway.
I was pretty sure my dealings with the
phone company were finished. I sat back
in anticipation of a $500 phone bill and
the effect it would have on my financial
situation. I canceled a trip to Europe I
had planned with the surplus funds in my
budget, and informed my roommate that
the party was truly over and soon the
huge men from the collection department
would call to collect from him.
Then, yesterday, they called again. A
lady (a different one, 1 think) asked the
very same questions. I answered as
politely as possible for someone whose
windfall has just been blown away. Then 1
asked her why we needed to do all of this
again. Guess what? Yep, they called
because they had lost the records.
I tell this story not to gain sympathy. I
believe in paying my bills, even when
there is no competitor to take my business
to. I will render unto Ma Bell what is hers.
But maybe this explains the real reason
behind the latest requested rate increase.
With all of their sophisticated equipment
and cute blue phones, Southern Bell still
depends on people, which is kind of nice.
Frank Weils
104 Teaguc
Letters?
The Daily Tar Heel welcomes
columns and letters to the editor.
For prompt publication,
contributions should be triple
spaced, typed on a 60-space line
and signed. The writer's address
should be included and each
column should be accompanied by
the writer's year, major and
hometown.
Persecution mania part of. Ihoineini9 creed
By WILLIAM DURHAM
With the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in
Tehran, there has been much speculation as to the
nature of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's
government and the part Islam plays in it.
Awareness of Islam in the United States has
risen with Khomeini's star. Never before has the
West been as inundated with religious rhetoric
justifying a multitude of political actions which are
just as easily called crimes.
Khomeini, as well as a large majority of
it nians, is a member of the Shi'ite branch of
Islam. The split of Islam into the Shi'ites and the
Sunnis occurred in approximately A.D. 658 and
involved the passage of the imamate and
caliphate high offices in Islam. The group w hich
later became known as the Shi'ites believed,
among other things, that the office should be
hereditary and therefore should belong to Ali, a
relative of M ohammed. The opposition, consisting
largely of democratically minded rural Moslems,
managed to win out. This led the Shi'ites to
establish a tradition of reveling in persecution.
According to Professor Hamid Algar at the
University of California at Berkeley, the Shi'ites
are given to martyrdom. There is nothing they like
better than to defy the whole world. In the Shi'ite
mind there is no compromise.
The Shi'ite party consisted, at the time of the
great division, largely of converted Persians. In
converting, these Persians brought with them
many of the doctrines of their old faith, both
religious and political. Among these was a belief in
the divinity of the sovereign and the duty of
worshipping him. This belief is, perhaps, mirrored
in the reverence in which the rabble-rousing
populace of Tehran currently hold Khomeini.
Shi'ites, as do most Moslems, derive their laws
from the Koran. Does Khomeini, then, as a high
ranking holy man, have justification under Islamic
law for holding 49 Americans hostage?
Apparently he does not. Islamic scholars
virtually arc unanimous in condemning the seizure
of the hostages. The Shari'a (Islamic canon law)
clearly states that one person cannot be punished
for the crimes of another.
A ranking expert on law at Cairo's Al Azhar
University charges that Khomeini's "evil hunger
for the death of a sick man is a towering crime
under Islamic law."
Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, a devout
Moslem, said: "1 feel both angry and sad at what
Khomeini is doing in Iran, because he is in flagrant
violation of all Islamic principle. He is using Islam
to exploit himself. He hides behind the students.
He takes advantage of them and he deceives them
into committing crimes for which there is no
justification in Islam
LA
Khomeini's political maneuvering in the crisis is
consistent, however, with the Shi'ite penchant for
using their tenets to achieve political objectives.
This has been particularly true in Iran, where
ayatollahs and mullahs have a long tradition of
calling on faith as a weapon against secular rukrs
or unwanted foreign influences.
How great a role Khomeini played in the seizure
of the embassy is unclear. A short time before the
students swarmed the grounds, he had condemned
the embassy as a "nest of spies." Once they had
control, the students looked to Khomeini for
guidance. It has been suggested that he welcomed
the crisis as a political diversion he has done a
poor job of bringing the Iranian economy back to
pre-revolutionary standards. It is estimated that
industry in the country is operating at only 40
percent of its capacity. Inflation also is at 40
percent and unemployment is at 25 percent.
Tehran, an unlovely city to begin with, is swarming
with an additional 1.5 million people celebrating
the revolution. There are constant food shortages.
Meanwhile, State Department specialists are
uncertain about the degree of leftist and even
communist influence in the highly disorganized
Khomeini regime. The fall from favor of Ibrahim
YadzL, a naturalized American citizen acting as
foreign minister under the Bazargan government,
is a bad omen for those who had hoped to. re
establish ties with Iran after the revolution. The
resignation of Bazargan is a blow to the United
States; Secretary of State Cyrus Vance had
thought in September that the Bazargan
government was acquiring more authority over the
fanatical mullahs who swarm around Khomeini. It
is feared that, in light of the sudden decline of these
two figures, the more radical ayatollahs and the
leftist secular forces are using the embassy assault
as an excuse to push the country sharply to the left.
Despite the fact that Khomeini, somewhat
redundantly, denouecs the small but well
organized Communist Party as "godless atheisti,"
the view in Washington b that extreme leftists will
ride Khomeini's whirlwind to gain key positions in
the ruling 1 5-m3n Revolutionary Council. Once in
thetic positions, they eventually will brush aside
Khomeini in a final attempt for total power.
Brushing Khomeini aside may not be ncccsiary; he
b 79 years old and in poor health, and Allah may
brush him aside before the leftists have a chance to.
ll'illiam Durham, a sophomore English major
from Chapel Hill, is an editorial assistant for The
Daily Tar Heel.