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High ekioa Today's high will bo a sgnny 82, today's low a dark 55. Copyright 1 985 The Daily Tar Heel Ah, autumn. . . , ' Actually, autumn begins Sunday at 10:08 p.m., but who's counting? Serving the students and the University community since 1893 Volume 93, Issue 65 Friday, September 20, 1SS5 Chapel HIH, North Carolina NewsSportsArts 962-0245 Business Advertising 962-1163 (B)W(ff n i, a u (D) (0) ? (D)(0) lk nimn?(S3 By MARK POWELL Business Editor Duke Power Co. customers will pay about $6.75 more for their monthly bill because the North Carolina Utilities Commission approved a $164.9 million rate increase Tuesday. The increase was less than half of the $340 million rate increase Duke Power had sought, company officials said. The commission granted a 9.52 percent increase because of costs of a nuclear power plant in Rock Hill, S.C., and inflation. N.C. Attorney General Lacy Thornburg said in a Wednesday news release that he was shocked by the commission's decision. "Last night when I studied the rate increase, I was not surprised, I was shocked," Thornburg said. "The commission ignored the evidence presented by my staff." Thornburg said the commission had given in to all of Duke Power's requests. He said Duke Power eventually would get the entire rate increase it had requested. The rate decision was wrong," Thornburg said. "If it is allowed to stand, Duke Power customers will be paying for this decision into the next century." Thornburg opposed the rate increase on the grounds that the South Carolina nuclear plant was not necessary, said Mary Boyd, spokeswoman for Duke Power. "The attorney general made some very strong statements, particularly in saying that the Catawba plant was not needed," Boyd said. "His original concerns were not in the best interest of consumers. "The rate order allows us a little less than half of the revenue we had requested," she said. "We don't feel it will cover the full cost of providing services." The commission turned down Crafitf assaolk wwnnieini's pcrDiffeayall doh media By GRANT PARSONS Staff Writer People think of violence when they think of sex in today's society and they shouldn't activist and feminist Nikki Craft told about 50 people in the Student Union Thursday night. "Violence in media equals violence in society equals violence in media," said Craft, standing in Room 210 before a crowd made up mostly of women. Craft presented a slide show, "In Defense of Disobedience, " illustrating her efforts to stop the institutionaliza tion of sex and violence. Craft wore a button that said "I'm a shameless agitator." Showing slides of pictures from Penthouse and Hustler that showed women bound, gagged and dominated by men, Craft told the crowd that these types of pictures help to reinforce the social values of our society. Craft leads the Praying Mantis Women's Brigade, an activist women's group that protests the exploitation of women. "If you see any magazine that advocates that women enjoy rape and subjugation, we are advocating that you do this," she said, ripping up a copy of Penthouse. Any groups of individ uals who accept this set of beliefs are bigots. "These values are being institution alized into our society," she said, showing more slides of bound women. "These are only mainstream magazines, not the X-rated undergroud porno graphy showing women's breasts being torn off with pliers in real rapes. These are only from the mainstream magazines. "We are not telling you what to do. We are telling you to go out and look at Penthouse and Hustler and decide for yourself. "We do not oppose nudity and sexuality," she said. "In fact we want Bob Guccione to pose nude in his own magazine Penthouse). Violence and the marketing of women, we oppose." Craft has been arrested 38 times for offenses ranging from ripping up copies of Penthouse and Hustler, taking off her shirt in public, to throwing ham burger on the stage at the Miss Cali fornia Pageant. "I got into activism 15 years ago," she said. "But I decided to approach politics creatively and with a sense of humor. Our first action was to protest the manufacture of the B-l bomber by Rockwell International." Illustrating her story with slides, she told of handing out "bloody dolls with no arms and legs" to the major stock holders at a meeting. If you irsiues Duke Power's request to regain about $1 1 million lost in the sale of the company's Eastover coal mine. The commission also rejected the company's request to charge custo mers for the cleanup of Three Mile Island. But the commission ruled that the decision to build the Catawba nuclear plant was justified and that Duke Power was justified in selling ownership in the plant. Thornburg said his office would act to stop the rate increase within 30 days, as prescribed by state law. "I have instructed my staff to thoroughly review the decision and begin taking steps to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court of North Carolina," Thornburg said. The attorney general's staff was upset over the decision and felt that the N.C. Utilities Commission had ignored the facts of the case, said Angie Maletto, assistant attorney general. "Everybody on staff was really dissappointed. We had worked so long on the case," Maletto said. "We haven't received any calls from Duke Power customers complaining about the rate increase, but they usually don't complain." Duke Power's Chapel Hill plant has received complaints from custo mers about the rate hike, said its district manager, Dave Maner. He said a few customers had called with questions about the rate increase and had been displeased with the increase. "I feel like we were justified in what we were asking for," Maner said. "We were a little dissappointed that we didn't get a little more." - Duke Power had filed its rate increase proposal Feb. 15, asking for a 19.65 percent increase. During five weeks of hearings in July and August, the company dropped its $340 million request to $292.8 million. "When I gave one to Rockwell himself, he just said 'thank you.' " she said. "When I read The Wall Street Journal the next day, they called it 'a bizarre event.' "When I saw The Wall Street Jour nal, I decided that's the way I wanted to go." Craft explained the reasoning behind taking off her shirt in public. "One day, I was walking by the Playboy Club, and I started thinking about what kind of statement I could make," she said as she showed a slide of herself standing, bare chested, outside the Playboy Club. The audience applauded. "Men can take off their shirts when it's hot and they're uncomfortable, so women should be able to also," she said. "And If you don't think it's uncomfor table, you should try standing in 100 degree heat wearing a shirt and a bra." Craft, who was raped at knifepoint when she was 15, said she had tried rape counseling to cope with her own rape. "But it came to the point where I was telling the victim to go out and kill her attacker. "That's not what rape counselors are supposed to do," she said. "I got tired of seeing the end result of a sick society, so I decided to do something about it," she said. Craft then started the Kitty Genovese Women's Project, a 25-page newspaper listing all the indicted rapists in the Dallas area. "We wanted to take the rapist out of anonymity," she said. "The rapist lives in a net of institutionalized protection." Craft said she then formed the Praying Mantis Woman's Brigade, named after the female insect, which holds out her 'arms' to the male during the mating ritual only after he demon strates that he means no harm to her. "I thought that was a pretty good ideal, so I named the group after the praying mantis," she said, sipping from a Sprite. The Brigade advocates better sex - education and open talk about sex. "We cannot get away from our sexuality," she said. After dedicating the slide show to her sister, Darlene, who killed herself when she was in her 20s because she wasn beautiful enough,' Craft broke down and cried. "We shouldn't spend our lives build ing illusions with products, trying to make ourselves beautiful," she said. "That makes us valued less as human and more as objects. "My purpose in this life is to quash the pornographers who reinforce this," she said. haven't struck oil in your first three minutes, stop By ANDY TRINCIA State and National Editor RALEIGH A strong candidate one who can reshape the Democratic Party once in office must emerge in the 1988 presidential race if Democrats are to have a brighter future, New York Times columnist Tom Wicker told about 600 people Thursday night at N.C. State's Stewart Theater. Wicker, a UNC graduate and author of eight books, spoke on "The Future of the Democratic Party." He said he believed no national political realignment had occurred and described the American presidency as a virtually Republican office. "But the Democrats still hold the House of Representatives," he said. "They even gained in the U.S. Senate in 1984. The Democrats have a good chance to take the Senate in 1986." Wicker said that 22 Republican senators were up for re-election next year and that 12 had been elected during Reagan's 1980 victory. "Twelve of those were elected in the first Reagan landslide, like Senator East, who will not run again," he said. "It is likely that they wouldn't have been elected had it not been for Reagan's landslide." Wicker credited the 1984 landslide to Reagan's strong leadership, a healthy economy at election time and the weaknesses of Walter Mondale. "Mondale had significant wea knesses," he said. "He was too closely linked to the Carter administration and special interests, notably labor unions." While the Democratic Party is one of access, "the Republicans have become a party of government," Wicker said. "Generally speaking, there is unity of interest, a coherent interest to govern with general effectiveness. "The Democrats . . . are a party of broad interests," he said. "The Demo cratic Party has not had the unity to govern once it has won." Wicker cited as one example Jimmy Carter's presid By CRYSTAL BAITY Staff Writer DURHAM The Vietnam War meant different things to different people. The war was emotionally charged and fought by men who did not come home to waving flags or tickertape parades. It was ideological, not strategical, according to retired U.S. Army Gen. William C. Westmoreland, who spoke Thursday night in Page Auditorium at Duke to a crowd of about 1,500. Westmoreland commanded troops in Vietnam from 1964 to 1968, including those of the Tet offensive. He was .U.S. Army chief of staff from 1968 to 1972. He recently was involved in a $120 million libel suit with CBS over "The Uncounted Enemy: A Vietnam Deception," a television program , that charged he misled the government by distorting the enemy count in Vietnam. "I realized the court of law was no place to decide history," Westmoreland said when asked why he decided to withdraw the libel suit. Beetlemailia This Volkswagenesr picks up sunset Though the driver is in ency, which he said had been won on a Republican setback. Republican presidential candidates,1 he said, have won four out of the last five elections and six of 10 since World War II. "Had it not been for the Watergate scandals, it would have been 20 years with no Democratic president." Wicker said Reagan's second term was off to a bad start a phis for the Democrats in 1988. "The administration is not off to a rocketing start," he said. Wicker listed the president's health problems farm prble.iive',fj;tary buildrtrp, Central encrisis'.l,and- budget ' deficit as prominent problems. ' Wicker, a native of Hamlet, spoke with a slight Southern drawl in. a sarcastic tone, drawing laughs from the audience after numerous statements. But it was a different story when he picked Sen. Jesse Helms as a probable presidential candidate in 88. "I may be a maverick on this," he said. "But the senior senator from this state will probably run." Many in the audience hissed. "I'm not acting on this on any information from him.. It's just the back of my heck itching." Wicker said the Republicans prob ably wouldn't have a ticket in 38 with the appeal that Reagan and Vice President GeorgeBush showed in the last two elections. He listed Bush; Sen. Robert Dole, R-Kan.; and Sen. Howard Baker, R-Tenn., as possible Republican nominees. "Baker would certainly not encour age voters to beleive he's the kind of man who would organize and run a presidential campaign successfully," Wicker said, referring to Baker's attempt in 1980. Wicker said the GOP had won 77 percent of electoral votes in the last five elections. Each time, he said, the Democrats won the District of Colum- See WICKER page 5 He said he realized the importance of the media. "Any action of the government to restrict the media would be undesirable. But the media, like other institutions, is fallible," he said. "The problem is many in the media do not recognize they are fallible." Westmoreland proposed a National News Council, which folded in 1983 because top news agencies would not support it. The council tried to unite journalists and outstanding individuals committed to a respon sible press. "It would be one of the highest forms of public service," he said. Westmoreland said he believed the men who fought the Vietnam War gave one of the highest forms of service. "They are not the drug ridden or unwilling participants the media portray them to be," he said. "Vietnam veterans have a sad, unfair image." He cited a 1980 Harris survey that said 91 percent of the Vietnam veterans were glad they served, and two out of three said they would serve again. The average age of the soldier in World War II was 26, whereas the average age of soldiers in Vietnam was the daily mail as he heads off into the the right-hand seat the familiar state i v Tom Wicker, a New York Times the Democratic Party" at NCSU's license plate clearly shows that the overseas just out N.C. 86. boring! George Jessel -tic DTHCharlotte Cannon columnist, speaking on "The Future of Stewart Theater - r"Jr -Shu, m m - younger than 19, Westmoreland said. The United States was pulled into the Asian conflict during the Kennedy administration because of President Kennedy's concern about the U.S. army's readiness, Westmoreland said. "Kennedy increased the army size and personally sponsored the Green Berets to show his support," he said. "Kennedy thought the United States had a credibility problem, and Vietnam looked like the place to change that." After Kennedy's assassination, Lyndon Johnson had no choice but to continue the policy because "he could not risk to bug out." As the conflict mounted, the mood of Congress changed, public attitudes changed, and the daily television reports drew the American people further away from the government's policy. "The dissent against national policy began," Westmoreland said. Westmoreland's appearance was sponsored by Duke's Union Major Speakers Committee. i i Wit DTHLarry Childress photographer didn't have to travel Bp- f 1 ' ' f a!
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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