Amnesty I
By LINDA SHEALEY
and CATHERINE COWAN
Staff Writers
: The "Conspiracy of Hope" concert
tour, a series of eight concerts
featuring such artists as U2, Peter
Gabriel, Lou Reed, Joni Mitchell and
The Police, has brought new atten
tion to Amnesty International, a
London-based organization whose
purpose is the protection of human
rights.
Local chapters of the organization
will also benefit from the tour, said
Jennifer Gold, president of Group 84,
the Chapel Hill chapter of Amnesty
International.
Amnesty International members
work to free "prisoners of con
science," people imprisoned by their
governments because of their reli
Professors
Editor's note: this survey was
conducted by several journalism
students as a special class project.
The majority of humanities pro
fessors at UNC are opposed to the
Shearon Harris Nuclear Power Plant
located about 20 miles southeast of
Chapel Hill, according to an informal
survey conducted the week of May
25.
Forty-two .faculty members in the
humanities and physical and life
sciences at the University partici
pated in a phone survey to measure
attitudes toward Shearon Harris.
Respondents were telephoned
either at work or at home over a
three-day period the week of May
25 and were asked two questions:
1) What do you think about the
Shearon Harris nuclear power plant?
Are you strongly opposed, opposed,
think it doesn't matter, approve,
strongly approve, or don't know?
2) Why?
The survey showed that 8 percent
of humanities faculty members and
Legal jargon needs to 'cease
and desist,' law professor says
From Associated Press reports
INDIAN APOLIS Indiana Uni
versity Law School Professor Joan
M. Ruhtenberg has a few words for
attorneys who cannot seem to write
a sentence free of legal jargon: Cease
and desist.
Ruhtenberg teaches a two
semester law course required of all
budding attorneys in which they
learn to write in legal language.
"But we tell students right away
that they need not to use all those
unneeded terms to sound like a
lawyer," Ruhtenberg told The Indi
anapolis Star. We try to break the
habit before it forms."
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nternational helps end torture globally
gious or political beliefs, but not
because they have committed or
advocated any violent act. Members
send letters to government officials
all over the world. Each of 300 local
groups is assigned two prisoners from
any of over 50 countries whom they
write letters for on a monthly basis
addressed directly to government
officials, said Amnesty member Tom
Rudin.
Gold said the "Conspiracy of
Hope" tour would not only raise
money for the organization but also
raise consciousness. The tour has
raised $3 million to $5 million for
Amnesty, she added.
"There was lots of publicity, so
people will get a chance to find out
what Amnesty International is,"
Gold said. "We've gotten about
in humanities, sciences oppose plant
43 percent of science faculty members
surveyed approved the plant:
Conversely, 61 percent of the
philosophy, political science and
English faculty members surveyed
strongly opposed or opposed the
plant and 37 percent of the physics,
chemistry and biology faculty
members opposed the particular site.
The Carolina Power & Light Co.
has invested 15 years and $3.6 billion
building the plant. The recent acci
dent at the Chernobyl plant in the
Soviet Union has sparked vigorous
opposition to Shearon Harris.
"If the Chernobyl incident had not
occurred, we wouldn't have all these
problems with the controversy at
Shearon Harris," said physics pro
fessor Earl Mitchell.
Yet biology professor J. Alan
Feduccia was convinced by reports
from physicists at Princeton Univer
sity that nuclear power is safe.
"Shearon Harris is not like a Cher
nobyl plant," he said. "People are
thinking the same thing will happen,
But one student, who asked that
his name not be used, said he received
a B plus on a paper written in an
easy-to-read style, then later received
an A for another paper pumped up
with lots of legal terms.
The EARRINGS everyone notices...
University Square
25,000 new members, and we are
asking people at each concert to send
five or six postcards on behalf of this
year's six prisoners of conscience."
Besides writing on behalf of pri
soners of conscience. Amnesty also
conducts drives to write letters to
governments which it feels violate
human rights on a regular basis.
Amnesty has just finished a four
month drive focusing on South
Africa, Rudin said.
Amnesty also carries out what it
calls Urgent Action Campaigns when
a person is arrested and threatened
with severe torture or execution,
Rudin said.
"Amnesty International is non
political," Gold said. "We work for
the release of political prisoners
but it won't."
Others are not so reassured.
"There's going to be, according to
CP&L's own statistics, an accident
every two or three years," biology
professor Darrell Stafford said. "It's
dangerous. The consequences of
accidents are too great."
Ten of the professors were not
opposed to nuclear power in general,
but expressed reservations about the
closeness of the plant to the sur
rounding community.
Political science professor Merle
Black said, "It makes me nervous.
I never trust these guys. I think its
crazy to put these things near pop
ulated areas."
English professor Robert B. Voitle
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throughout the world. Lots of people
think we are anti-South Africa or
anti-Soviet Union.
"We don Y go into the country
because we are against its govern
ment but because we are against the
human rights abuses the government
commits."
Gold said Amnesty was effective.
"Amnesty International does not
take credit for freeing prisoners, but
we know a lot have been freed, and
the prisoners seem to think letters
from Amnesty were involved," she
said. "One Russian prisoner told
Amnesty that he was freed when the
government got a certain bulk weight
of letters. Most of these came from
Amnesty people."
Group 84 was founded seven years
ago and has about 25 members who
agreed: "I hate to think of having
another Chernobyl in our backyard."
Recently there have been allega
tions of design flaws, drug use among
employees, huge cost overruns and
dismal safety records at CP&L's
Brunswick plants.
Questions about the safety of
Shearon Harris have raised doubts
in the minds of some of the professors
surveyed.
"I don't think there's been enough
research on that power plant in
particular," said biology professor
Lawerence Gilbert. "I'm not opposed
to nuclear power plants in general,
but I'm opposed to this one."
Maurice Bursey, professor of
chemistry disagreed: "I know a
number of nuclear engineers who
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meet monthly. The group is currently
working on two cases, a Syrian
prisoner named Halin Rumiah and
a journalist imprisoned in
Zimbabwe.
"We have been writing letters for
the prisoner in Syria for five years
but have not heard a response from
the government," Rudin said. "WeVe
also written letters to find out the
status of our prisoner in Zimbabwe,
and recently one of our members did
get a response. It's an indication that
government officials are concerned
when people from other countries
call attention to human rights
abuses."
The next meeting of Group 84 will
be July 7 at 8 p.m. in the Newman
Center on 218 Pittsboro St.
have worked on that plant, and I have
considerable faith in their skills."
The Nuclear Regulatory Commis
sion, an independent agency in
charge of regulatory functions,
requires CP&L to have an evacuation
route in case of an accident for all
areas within a 10-mile radius of the
reactor before it is licensed to load
fuel and begin low-power testing this
summer.
Wake, Harnett, Chatham and Lee
counties lie within this radius.
On May 27, the commissioners of
Chatham county voted unanimously
not to participate in the evacuation
plan in response to local opposition
to the plant and the efforts of the
Coalition for Alternatives to Shearon
Harris.
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