Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / Jan. 11, 1985, edition 1 / Page 8
Part of Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
8The Daily Tar HeelFriday. January 11. i985 jEFFHlDAY,or Joel Broadway, Managing Editor Mark Stinneford, Associate Editor Ben Perkowski, Associate Editor Kelly Simmons, University Editor Vance Trefethen , State and National Editor Melanie Wells, aty Editor DAN TILLMAN, Business Editor Lynn Davis, News Editor Frank Kennedy, Sports Editor Jeff Grove, Am Editor Sharon Sheridan. Features Editor JEFF NEUVILLE, Photography Editor Fighting fire with fire If the evening news is any indication of the direction law and order are taking, today's society is heading back into the past. Two recent incidents come to mind the abortion clinic bombings and the New York City subway shootout. Both are examples of people taking the law into their own hands, only to prove that they had no business doing so. While some may justify the intentions behind the two incidents, the vigilante acts themselves cannot be excused. c The abortion clinic bombings in Florida and Washington, D.C.j as well as other places, do not demonstrate to society a desire on the part of the bombers to have the existing abortion laws changed. Rather, they demonstrate the guerrilla mentality of people unable to work along the lines of the law in a peaceful fashion to achieve what they want. The bombings do not show any detrimental effects of an act that anti abortionists oppose instead, the bombings just condone violence. Not only is the act of bombing a building illegal, but it endangers the well being of all those in the area, many of whom have nothing to do with the abortion issue. Regardless of one's position on the abortion issue, and especially if one is anti-abortion, the abortion clinic bombings should make people angry. The bombers are threat ening the safety of everyone, and are threatening the values upon which society rests. Equality and fairness for everyone is all but forgotten when people have to worry about being blown up When Jesse talks, people listen? Stockbroker Jesse? yhat will he think of next? Who else but Jesse Helms. America's best-loved conservative Senator wants control, it seems, of America's most popular information source namely, CBS News. Raleigh's News and Observer reported yesterday that a letter signed by the Tar Heel Republican will soon be sent to nearly 1 million conservative disciples urging them to buy stock in CBS Inc. The Daily Assistant News Editor: Steve Ferguson Editorial Writers: Dick Anderson and Karen Youngblood Assistant Managing Editors: Amy Styers and Elizabeth Huth News: Mike Allen, Lisa Brantley, Richard Boyce, Tim Brown, Matt Campbell, Joan Clifford, Tom Conlon, Katy Fridl, Mike Gunzenhauser, Beth Houk, Catherine Kury, Guy Lucas, Sallie Krawcheck, Georgia Ann Martin, Dora McAlpin, Andy Miller, Morris, Brian Mullaney. Kathy Nanney, Janet Olson, Beth Ownley, Ruthie Pipkin, Mark Powell. Robbin Robertson. Karen Rogers, David Schmidt, Rachel Stiffler, Kevin Sullivan, Jim Suroweicki, Lisa Swicegood. Ray Tingle, Andy Trincia, Jennifer Trotter, Laura Van Sant, Kevin Washington. Leigh Williams. Lorry Williams, Laurie Willis and Jim Zook. Sports: Scott Fowler and Lee Roberts, assistant sports editors. Tim Brown. Mike DeSisti. Paul Ensslin, David McCulIough, Mike Persinger, Kurt Rosenberg, Mike Schoor, Mike Waters v . and Bob Young. f, J Features: Marymelda Hall, assistant features editor. Mike Altieri. Nancy Atkinson. Tom: Camacho, Vicki Daughtry, Loretta Grantham, Bryan Hassel, Jennifer Keller, Anjetta McQueen, Mary Mulvihill, Darian Marbry, Tom Rose, Liz Saylor and Sonya Terrell. Arts: Ed Bracken, Frank Bruni, Steve Carr, Elizabeth Ellen, Ivy Hilliard, Eddie Huffman, Steve Murray, and Virginia Smith. Photography: Larry Childress, Nancy London, Jamie Moncrief, Stretch, and Lori Thomas. Copy Editors: Angela Gunn and Carolyn Wilson. Business and Advertising: Anne Fulcher, general manager; Paula Brewer, advertising director; Tammy Martin, student business manager; Angela Booze, accounts receivable clerk; Terry Lee, student advertising manager; Alicia Susan D'Anna, Greg Goosmann, Patricia Gorry, Melanie Parlier, Stacey Ramirez, Doug Robinson, Amy Schutz and Scott Whitaker, ad representatives; Patti Pittman, classified advertising manager, Laura Bowen, assistant; Jim Greenhill, office manager; and Cathy Davis, secretary. Distributioncirculation: William Austin, manager. Production: Brenda Moore and Stacy Wynn. Rita Galloway, assistant. Printing: Hinton Press, Inc. of Mebane Satig 92nd year of editorial freedom because someone doesn't like the law the way it is, and has neither the patience nor the good sense to attempt to change the law through conventional means. The recent subway shootings, where a man shot four youths he claimed were threatening him, raises the question of where to draw the fine line between self defense and taking the law into one's own hands. Some have praised Bernhard Goetz, the man on the subway, as an honest citizen protecting himself from hoods trying to rob him. Others claim that the youths, despite their carrying sharpened screwdrivers, were not threat ening Goetz when he gunned them down. Whichever, the incident points to a potentially dangerous phenomenon when people feel they are doing the World a favor by stalking down crim inals, all for the sake of "law and order." Unfortunately for the world, these would be Supermans and Perry Masons do not carry out the law, but instead intimidate the actual carriage of justice. No one likes to feel, that they can't get on a subway without getting mugged; on the other hand, no one wants to worry about being shot by a militant citizen. The Wild West 'system of vigilante warfare as a means of stopping or preventing crime, or as a way of showing dissatisfaction with the law, has no place in the society of the 1980s. What worked for establishing law in the frontier years ago will not work today. Rather, these vigilante actions threaten to tear down all the law and order that so many have worked so hard to build. in an attempt to, "if necessary . . . take control of that network." We're talking big stuff here bigger than Helms beaming editorials over the Channel 5 airwaves. Helms wants control of Dan and Diane, of Mike and Morley maybe even control over our beloved Charles Kuralt. The letter cites a 1983 TV Guide survey that found 52 percent of CBS's stories "anti-Reagan," compared with 10 percent of NBC's and 12 percent of ABC's. By controlling CBS stock at about 20 shares per addressee Helms aims to "have enough votes to end CBS bias forever." Helms declared his November victory a triumph over the media, but this battle seems out of his league. Despite all his considerable power, Jesse Helms is no Joseph Granville when it comes to Wall Street mailings. Right-wing Reaganites may be bullish on America, but not so bullish on free, unsolicited advice. Helms' "national crusade" may serve his interests, but isn't putting a billion dollar price tag on ending anti-Reagan bias a bit steep? It would be more economical to buy the N&O or, cheaper still, arrange a coup de Tar Heel. For Mr. Helms, certainly a tempting thought. Sorry, Jesse, but we cant be bought. Tar Heel No more Mr. Bad Club for the Bv PA UL PA RKER On Dec. 8, 1984 at 2:30 p.m., Carolina Athletic Association President Jennie Edmundson and I met with members of the Steering Committee of the Student Activities Center to discuss a Student Government-Carolina Athletic Associ ation proposal to reallocate student seating to areas other than those which had been proposed previously. An hour later, we left the meeting with the agreement that students would exchange 351 of their seats behind the basket for seats in Section I of the SAC arena. Instead of being behind the baskets, students will now be courtside, behind the UNC bench. The media and certain individuals have often pitted students, the faculty, and even the integrity of the University against the Educational Foundation, or the Rams Club. Many will wonder what could have forced such an outcome. The fact is, the outcome of that meeting was the result of a great deal of research, discussion, patience and compromise by all parties involved. If "triumph" must go somewhere, then it should go to the whole University community since the meeting of Dec. 8 brought together, in a harmonious fashion, sectors of the University community which are often perceived as competitors and thus has made way for a positive era of cooperation and community between athletic and academic spheres of. the University. I write this not only to explain the details surrounding the decision and to publicly express sincere appreciation to the individuals involved, but, also, to bring to light information which I believe can dispel some unfortunate, but common, misperceptions about the Educational Foundation and its relationship to the University. First, the event: The Student Activities Center is a multimillion dollar facility which will be donated by the Educational Foundation to the University upon completion. The foundation was given a leading role in determining how the funds could be raised because the previous attempt by the University to raise the money was unsuc cessful. The foundation was not given full control, however, as a steering committee was established to set policy and make decisions in areas such as seating assignments. In 1983 several agreements were made with then Student Body President Mike Vandenburgh and the Steering Committee with respect to student seating. Students were grouped together and the seating distribution was defined as requested: 1,600-plus seats would be on the lower level and the remaining 6.000-plus would be located in the upper level of the Center. The only issue that remained unsolved concerned the most sought after seating in the place: behind the bench. This is what we requested. The Steering Committee is made up of various Educational Foundation officials and University officials as well, including Chancellor Chris topher C. Fordham III, Athletic Director John Swofford, Coach Dean Smith, three members of the UNC Board of Trustees, and a represen- READER MAIL Democracy shouldn't stop at the border To the editor: In his Dec. 5 column ("Infamous date shouldn't go unnoticed"), Vance Trefethen expressed his dismay that Russia's five-year-old invasion of Afghanistan has been so easily forgotten. I share his regret that not only the American public but the world community as a whole seems able to dismiss the violence and blatant violation of human rights embodied in that invasion. We cannot afford to have such short memories. But Trefethen and the unnamed cartoonist go on to imply that activists who are trying to stop U.S. intervention in Nicaragua (and elsewhere) are inconsistent and even hypocritical, since they ignore the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. I cannot agree. Trefethen fails to make a crucial distinction between these situations; the U.S. is commit ted to democracy, while the Soviet Union makes no such claim. The very foundation of demo cracy is the idea that people have a right to determine what form of World and Nation "We can't be sure where these negotiations will lead, and. clearly, we have a long road ahead of us. There are many complicated issues still to be resolved, but we have here in Geneva agreed on the objectives for new negotions on nuclear and space arms. " Secretary of State George Schultz, announcing Tuesday that the U.S. and the Soviet Union had reached agreement on resuming arms limitation negotiations. The new talks were announced follow ing two days of meetings in Geneva. Under the agreement, the two countries will hold separate talks on reducing strategic nuclear wea- ii TJk pa.& V ll m JLim J Kmjf ff ' m, HAW-HOUR EAJ1 MUST pIBffmfMlllWFHMIIMMMWllMIMTlMMWIim Kerr tfofcf CfcmclSa . TAKE IT AAlA ! TAKE" tTAHAV M tative of the faculty. It was to the Steering Committee, then, that we made our proposal. Initial difficulties arose because of irregularities in projected fund raising that kept any seats from being assigned. Once those difficulties had been worked out, the proposal was endorsed and, in fact, passed by consent. What was learned? The above scenario is familiar to most as it has spanned quite a length of time. During that time, through many meetings, phone calls and letters, we have had the opportunity to see far beyond the surface appearance of the Rams Club. Admittedly, the reputation of the Rams Club has been less than stellar; foundation officials are the first to acknowledge that. What could be so wrong with an organization that provides academic scholar ships to athletes of revenue and non-revenue sports and gives the University a $35 million activities complex? Is it because they get tickets to football and basketball games, parking spaces, and their name sounds like an oxymoron? It shouldn't be: They have the option to buy tickets and, frankly, they ensure that we have supporters even when the teams' records aren't so good. Furthermore, those who do have parking spaces pay $750 a year for them and only get them for six days; that averages to be quite a bit more than what we pay for an entire year. No, the problem stems more from perception problems than it does from actual problems. People see big money and athletics together and the worst images spring to mind: Could we be another Clemson or Florida? Big money is only bad depending on how you use it. We should be thinking less of the likes of Charlie Pell and more of people like Chancellor Fordham, John Swofford, Dean Smith and Dick Crum. These are individuals who have lead the charge, at home government they want and what policies they want that government to enact. American democracy makes public protest an appropriate and often effective act. At the same time, it makes our intervention into the affairs of sovereign nations hypocritical and deplorable. All U.S. citizens have a right and a responsibility to affect the policies that our government carries out in our names. When American advi sors foment violence in Central America, you and I, who pay the taxes and elect the leaders that make such involvement possible, must accept responsibility for those acts. Those of us who cannot accept U.S. sponsored violence in Central Amer ica speak out because we believe that Americans need to understand what our government is really doing in Central America and that our representatives will respond to a public outcry against such interven tion. Because it is our leaders' job to represent the will of the American people, we must make our will known and we can have some faith that American citizens can change our government's course of action. This is a crucial difference between U.S. involvement in Cen tral America and the Soviet inva sion of Afghanistan. I know of no effective way to protest the Afgh anistan invajsion, which I, like Trefethen, must condemn. Even Russian citizens cannot do much, since they lack the freedom to speak out which Americans value so highly. But the U.S. government cannot condemn Soviet aggression on one hand and wage a secret war in Central America on the other. Such national hypocrisy is unbearable. If we truly value our right of self determination, we must allow the people of Central America to exercise the same right. We should not interfere with the Sandinistas, who were recently elected by the Nicaraguan people. As Lars Schoultz, associate chairman of the UNC political science department, pointed out after observing the Week In Review pons, limiting medium-range mis siles and keeping arms from space. State " What we 're doing is going through the trash that has been dumped im this department for the last week. We 're just trying to find out what 's missing. " New Insurance Commissioner Jim Long, charging that his prede cessor, John Ingram, trashed stacks of important documents before leaving office. Long said he found six laundry carts of materials waiting to be destroyed on the loading dock of a state building. He said the trash included about 10 inches of documents on the Beacon Insurance Co., a Winston Salem firm the state is reorganizing because of financial problems. 4 Campus "I don't think we've been co-opted or placated. They (the Rams Club) took worse seating. We have plenty of seats. It 's the quality we wanted. " Student Body President Paul Parker, commenting on an agree ment that will give students 350 seats behind the Carolina bench in the new Student Activities Center. At the urging of Parker and Carolina Athletic Association President Jennie Edmundson, the SAC steering committee agreed to trade the prime seats for student seats located behind one basket. "The financial laws are vague; they're not very good guidelines, but we can handle any problems with them. " Elections Board Chairman Edwin Fountain, discussing prob BB IN EFFECT,,, foundation ) nosir.twis Vs, I : IS A THANK- ) (A ' and abroad, to bring back the idea of the "student-athlete." We have successful sports programs, athletically and academically, which we wouldn't have if we had to pay for it ourselves. We also have a foundation whose sole charge is to solicit alumni support for the athletic program, a responsibility which they have adroitly carried out. The point is that the existence of the Rams Club does not compromise the academic integrity of the University, but rather the contrary is true. Well, what do you know, an article that says the Rams Club isn't so bad after all. I realize that skeptics are likely to wonder how good our seats are; sorry, no luck. In fact, as graduating seniors, well probably never even see the inside of the SAC. No, it's just that, like many others, I have held a relatively negative view of the Educational Foundation and now that I have, had the opportunity to take a closer look, I realize that most of these perceptions were wrong. At the same time, this isn't a carte blanche endorsement for the Rams Club to run amok. We reserve the right to criticize and complain if things aren't just right; but, we believe that criticism can now be given and received in the way that it should be, constructively and to the problem, not to the perception. I hope that this recent event will serve as a watershed to encourage others to look closer at the positive, while monitoring for the unfortu nate. In this day and time where universities are threatened on all fronts, as long as there is unwarranted tension and suspicion between members of the University community, then we are all the worse for it. Paul Parker, a senior international studies and French major from Jacksonville, Fla., is student body president. elections, the balloting was the first Nicaragua has seen for many years, and the voting process was quite fair. There may still be valid objec tions to the elections since Arturo Cruz chose not to participate, but there is much speculation that Cruz withdrew in order to discredit the elections, not because they were unfair. Even if these elections were not as open as they could have been, which may be the case, they still represent some expression of the will of the Nicaraguan people and they are far better than violence. It is time that the U.S. stopped supporting the war the contras are waging against the Nicaraguan government and started finding peaceful ways to further the pro gress that country has made towards true democracy. And it is time for Americans to speak our against violence and violation of human rights, all over the world whether the perpetrator is a foreign govern ment or our own. Laurie Tyler School of Law lems with the elections laws as he prepares for the Feb. 5 campus elections. The deadline for submit ting candidate financial reports has been moved from election day to the day after to avoid problems encountered last year. Sports " was just so open, so I took it. As soon as it left my hand it was either going in or going out. " UNC sophomore Dave Popson, describing his 15-foot jump shot that put the Tar Heels ahead of Maryland in their heart-stopping contest in Carmichael Auditorium Thursday night. Helped by ice-cold free throw shooting by Maryland, the Heels rallied from a three-point deficit in the last 20 seconds to snatch victory from the Terrapins. "The Super Bowl is something I never really think about. We just work hard and we've worked hard enough to get there and now we're there. " Miami Dolphin quarterback Dan Marino, talking to reporters after the Dolphins bombed the Pittsburgh Steelers, 45-28, to earn their way into Super Bowl XIX. Marino passed for 421 yards and four touchdowns, both American Conference championship game records. Miami will meet the San Francisco 49ers, who defeated the Chicago Bears 23-0 in the NFC championship game.
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Jan. 11, 1985, edition 1
8
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75