6 The Daily Tar Heel Tuesday, September 9, 1986
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For stability, try democracy
In reconvening Monday, Congress
began debating an array of sanctions
against South Africa. Given the dual
considerations of preserving U.S.
interests in South Africa and changing
that nation's repugnant domestic
policies, Congress should choose with
caution.
There is little point dwelling on the
racist unfairness that pervades South
Africa apartheid has been decried
as an evil system. Similarly, faulting
apartheid without doing anything to
eradicate it is useless, a point well made
by former Secretary of State Henry
Kissinger in a column in Sunday's
Washington Post.
Kissinger envisions, and rightly so,
a great danger of South Africa being
consumed from the fringes as extrem
ists of all races and viewpoints react
more and more violently to "non
solutions." This is what the United
States cannot afford, and what Con
gress must work to prevent.
According to Kissinger, the only
way the United States can hope to
ameliorate the South African struggle
is to guide it toward an American-style
democracy. He wrote that a true
democracy in South Africa must meet
three principles:
Apartheid, with its unequal
sharing of political power and sepa
ration of races, must be abolished;
The elective process must rely on
the one man, one vote tradition, and;
The establishment of a system of
representation and checks and balan
Paragons of public service
There is no higher religion than
human service. To work for the
common good is the greatest creed.
Albert Schweitzer
If ever there were two men that lived
by that credo, it was Hargrove
"Skipper" Bowles and Dan Moore.
With unbounded passion for cultivat
ing the religion of human service, these
UNC alumna greatly enhanced the
University and the state they dearly
loved. Their deaths this week, each
after bouts with lengthy illnesses, call
for reflection on their
accomplishments.
Saturday's formal dedication of the
Dean E, Smith Student Activity
Center was the culmination of years
of dreaming and hard work, much of
which Bowles spearheaded. As direc
tor of the fund raising drive to erect
the center, Bowles silenced cynics who
didn't believe that more than $30
million could be collected. The center
stands today as a testimonial to his
determination and direction.
But the center is just one of many
contributions Bowles graciously made
to the University. He served two
consecutive terms on the University's
Board of Trustees including a stint
as chairman in the late 1970s, a
time of explosive growth for the
University. He also gave of his time
Color Yambo confused, cowardly
The King Kongs of the world's jungles
and zoos those bellowing, breast
beating, mighty gorillas of movie screen and
"Tarzan" rerun fame have been put to
shame by a 5-year-old British boy.
Levan Merritt, lifted up to the wall of
a gorilla pit at an English zoo, fell 20 feet
into the anthropoid apes pen when Dad
(Steve is his name) turned away. The
patriarch of the clan (Yambo is his name)
soon approached the boy. The other gorillas
followed.
As Levan's parents waved for help and
yelled for their son to remain still (which
should Ve been easy, since he'd been knocked
out by the fall), Yambo began petting him.
But when Yambo's gentle backstrokes
brought Levan to consciousness, the boy
howled in terror and pain.
Startled, the gorillas fled to their shelters
at the far end of the pit. Meanwhile, rescue
Jim Zook, Eiior
Randy Farmer, Managing Editor
ED BRACKETT, Associate Editor
DEWEY MESSER, Associate Editor
Tracy Hill, News Editor
GRANT PARSONS, University Editor
Linda Montanari, City Editor
JILL GERBER, State and National Editor
Scott Fowler, sports Editor
KATHY PETERS, features Editor
ROBERT KEEFE, Business Editor
Elizabeth Ellen, Am Editor
DAN CHARLSON, Photography Editor
ces similar to that in the United States.
With these three concepts, so fun
damental to the nature of true demo
cracy, should be included another that
might easily be overlooked. The
United States should take the greatest
care to prevent those same groups now
demanding political power from
creating a new monopoly. For
although a new government that
would oppress the white Afrikaners
might be deemed apt vengeance, it is
merely another form of the same scar.
To prevent this, Kissinger says whites
can give up no more and blacks can
demand no more than would suit
democracy.
In carrying out all this, Congress will
also consider U.S. interests in South
Africa. A prime exporter of resources
crucial to the Western economy, South
Africa is of strategic and economic
concern to the United States. A related
focal point is protecting these interests
from the Soviet Union, which also
covets South Africa's natural resour
ces. Many a senator, congressman and
South African has captured the
attention of the media with conjurings
of the Soviet threat.
While it should keep these peri
pheral concerns in mind, Congress
should first be concerned with the
more concrete issue of ending apar
theid. For it is by establishing demo
cracy that South Africa will become
more stable, which, in the end, will
secure the interests of both nations.
to numerous charitable organizations,
working for improved treatment for
victims of such hardships as alcoho
lism and physical disabilities.
While Bowles has been remembered
by those who knew him as "exuber
ant," Moore has been .recalled as an
effective leader through a more delib
erate, scholarly style. A Phi Beta
Kappa graduate of UNC, Moore came
from a long line of leaders in the
political and judicial fields.
During his term as governor, Moore
faced a time of tremendous unrest on
college campuses with affairs such as
the Vietnam War and civil rights. This
was compounded by N.C.'s Speaker
Ban Law (a law that banned speeches
on state university campuses by
avowed communists), an emotionally
charged issue that peaked during his
administration. Moore showed the
savvy to settle the issue in the public
forum, allowing for valuable student
input. His term brought other strides
for education, including the establish
ment of UNC at Charlotte and pro
viding the initial funds for the N.C.
School for the Arts.
The legacies left by Bowles and
Moore provide UNC students and all
North Carolinians tremendous role
models as alumna, leaders and
people.
The Coaom Line
workers who'd run to the scene figured
things were safe, so they climbed down and
retrieved the lad.
Four burning questions remain from the
whole sordid affair.
One: What would Freud say about the
father putting his son in a precarious
position in the proximity of potentially
perilous primates?
Two: Why would Yambo, a member of
a typically aggressive species feared the
world over, treat Levan as gently as a weeble
and then run when the the boy cries?
Three: What kind of name is "Yambo"?
Four: Is this kid related to Bobby Knight?
Democracy
t has been asserted by some members
of the UNC Student Congress that the
JJL Carolina Gay & Lesbian Association
does not deserve to receive funding from
the student government, that a minoritv
organization of homosexual students does
not deserve official recognition from the
University. It seems to me that there are
two issues here: the legality of homosexuality
and the rights ot a minority.
The question of legality is a dynamic,
powerful thing in a democracy. Our system
of federal and state laws is constantly subject
to review and interpretation. Laws are
subject to change; what remains constant
is the commitment of the United States
Constitution to protecting individual
freedoms.
At one point in our nation's history, it
was thought by our judicial system that the
phrase, "All men are created equal . . .," was
not meant to include members of the
enslaved African race. At a later date, our
courts contended that the same phrase was
meant to exclude women from constitu
tional privileges. It is my belief that both
women and Afro-Americans were worthy
of the privileges of citizenship before the
courts decreed that this was so. Claiming
that homosexuality is illegal because of the
existence of laws like North Carolina's
"unnatural acts" law is as ridiculous as the
19th century contention that a free African
American is illegal because a slave is not
a human.
Relearn defense
To the editor:
On Aug. 25, an article
appeared on the front page of
The Daily Tar Heel concerning
the death of Sharon Stewart
("Campus death leaves lasting
scar"). For those of you who
don't know about the case, it
concerns Sharon Lynn Ste
wart, who was abducted and
murdered by 16-year-old Max
well Avery Wright, a confused
and apparently violent young
man.
In this article, a number of
statements were made which to
us seem incredible and, at best,
thoughtless. Specifically, twice
in the article it was stated that
nothing could be done that had
not been done to assure the
security of Stewart. In one case,
the article stated that "little
could be done to prevent the
same thing from happening
again." In the other case,
Frederick Schroeder, dean of
students, was quoted as saying
that "Miss Stewart wasn't
doing anything that anyone
could look back and say. 'Gosh,
if only ....""
We very strongly disagree.
First of all, one of the basic
facts that is often overlooked
is that Stewart was not alone.
Wright also recognized this,
and the first thing that he did
was to separate Stewart from
her companion, telling her to
drive off, which she did, giving
Wright the advantage. Sec
ondly, Stewart also followed
his demands, rather than fight
ing, which made it easy for
Wright to kidnap her un
noticed. The troubling thing about
this kidnapping and murder is
that it was, in fact, so easy. It
was later reported that Wright
had tried to kidnap another
woman at knifepoint, but had
given up when she resisted. We
wonder if Stewart would be
alive if she had resisted. In any
case, it could not have turned
out worse for her than it did.
Stewart, as the article points
out, was less than 75 yards
away from a police officer when
she was kidnapped. But he did
not know that she was in
danger, much less being kid
napped. Had she screamed and
fought, the officer's attention
might have been drawn.
Yes, it is true that Stewart
was not doing anything that
anyone could look back and
say "Gosh, if only." The prob
lem is what she did not do
she did not take an active role
in her own defense.
This is not to lay the blame
on the victim for the crime. The
assault on Stewart could not
have been prevented, since she
took all the proper precautions,
but it is clear, especially in this
case, that some resistance could
have led to a much more
positive end result. Unfortu
nately, in our society, women
are so often told that they need
someone else to protect them,
that very often they believe that
they are not responsible for
their own safety. This is pro
moted by statements like those
of the university officials that
say that nothing else could be
done.
Women themselves can take
an active role in their own
safety. Being assertive is one of
; the most important tools of
self-defense. Screaming, kick
ing, biting and running away
are all examples of effective
self-defense techniques. Unfor-
rui
lrSfyOD
Liu
no place for
inda Kolzcr
Guest Writer
Justice Harry Blackmun filed a dissenting
opinion in the Supreme Court's July ruling
on Georgia's sodomy law, excerpts of which
bear repeating here:
"This case involves no real interference
with the rights of others, for the mere
knowledge that other individuals do not
adhere to one's own value system cannot
be a legally cognizable interest, let alone an
interest that can justify invading the houses,
hearts, and minds of those citizens . . .,
"I can only hope that ... the Court soon
will reconsider its analysis and conclude that
depriving individuals of the right to choose
for themselves how to conduct their intimate
relationships poses a far greater threat to
the values most deeply rooted in our nation's
history than tolerance of a nonconformity
could ever go . ..." '
In crass disregard for the responsibility
of acting as elected officials in a democracy,
seven members of the Student Congress
signed a letter stating, "We ... do not want
the CGLA to waste student fees by sending
us unsolicited copies of their newsletter,
'Lambda.' " They implied that because they
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tunately, physical assertiveness
is a response which has been
so stifled in women by society
that, often, it must be relearned.
One way to learn or relearn
fighting defense is to enroll in
a self-defense course. Ironi
cally, the self-defense course
offered for women by the
Chapel Hill Police Department
was canceled because not
enough people signed up for it.
It is disturbing to see so many
people concerned about
assault, and so few actively
learning to help themselves.
Women must make an effort
to defend themselves rather
than depending on other people
to protect them. We were
informed that the police
department will give the course
if enough people call up asking
for it. It's cheap and only
requires a little time and a
phone call (968-2784). Take
any self-defense course. Don't
fool yourself, it might turn out
useful.
MINA CHOI
Class of 1986
MARTIN GONZALEZ
Graduate
History
human beings who were
burned at Chernobyl and those
projected hundreds of thou
sands who will die of cancer
from radiation exposure. I
worry about where CP&L is
going to dump the tons of high
and low-level nuclear waste
produced by the plant. I fear
the NRC's prediction that there
will be a major nuclear accident
in the United States within the
next 20 years. How does
CP&L's plan to operate a
nuclear waste factory just 22
miles southeast -f Chapel Hill
make you feel?
Some people feel like it's too
late to do anything now that
the reactor is nearly built. They
are wrong. The Coalition for
Alternatives to Shearon Harris
(C.A.S.H.) beliefs that we
students and citizens can do
something. Other plants in the
United States have been
stopped by citizens, students,
businesses and local govern
ments. We can do it, too.
Do yourself and UNC a
favor. Stop by the C.A.S.H.
table in front of the Student
Union and find out more about
the threat that sits in Chapel
Hill's backyard. Join us at the
Carolina Campus C.A.S.H.
meeting tonight at 8:30 in the
Union. Listen to the growing
number of people who are
realizing what a waste of money
and a threat to human lives
Shearon Harris represents.
Then help us in our protest and
effort to stop Shearon Harris
before it starts.
CINDY NEVILLE
Senior
Biology
Carolina Campus C.A.S.H.
Unconcern
To the editor:
Student Congress members
Dave Edquist, Dave Brown,
Rob Friedman, Lori Taylor,
Paul Winter, Chuck Brown
and Mark Gunter show the
extent to which they are con
cerned about student affairs by
refusing to read "Lambda," a
newsletter representing an
organization on our campus of
approximately 1 50 members.
By not reading this newslet
ter, they can remain oblivious
to the issues that concern
No to N-plant
To the editor:
Something very scary is
happening. Carolina Power &
Light Company (CP&L) is
planning on loading their Shea
ron Harris Nuclear Reactor
with uranium fuel rods some
time in the next few weeks.
Does the idea that a nuclear
power plant will soon be oper
ating just down the road from
Chapel Hill send shivers up and
down your spine?
It does mine when 1 consider
that the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission (NRC) gave
CP&L its lowest rating on
construction of the plant's
electrical equipment in January
of this year. 1 cringe when I hear
that during 1982-83, CP&L had
more worker exposure to radi
ation than any other plant. I
growl when I count the dollars
that I will be paying to CP&L's
stockholders when the cost of
power increases if Shearon
Harris starts up. I want to cry
when I think of my fellow
oppression
are not homosexuals, they need not be aware
of the concerns of gay and lesbian students.
I wonder if Gov. Jim Martin has ever written
a letter like that to the Affirmative Action
Council? After all, he is a male Caucasian,
not a woman and or a member of an ethnic
group and or physically challenged.
In our government of, by and for the
people, we are unique because we respect
the will of the majority, and we defend the
rights of the minority of our citizenry. That
is in marked contrast to some foreign
governments, where it may be a crime to
express or allude to ideas that are contrary
to the dictates of the ruling party and where
minority status in creed or race is grounds
for state persecution. Our elected officials
are responsible for being aware of and
responsive to their constituents. Represen
tatives in the Student Congress at UNC are
not exempt from that responsibility. If
representatives of this congress decide that
the rights and concerns of one segment of
the student population are invalid, they
belittle the significance of every minority
group in the student body; they demean
individual freedom.
To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln: As I
would not be oppressed, so would I not be
an oppressor. Whatever differs from this,
to the extent of the difference, is no
democracy.
Linda Holzer is a graduate student in
music from Chicago.
CGLA members. While repres
enting the student body, they
will remain ignorant of the
various views of the student
members within this particular
organization. They will easily
avoid the opportunity that a
university environment pro
vides, to learn about different
ways of viewing the world and
approaches to life taken by
people with a perspective on life
unlike their own. They will
represent us by refusing to
listen to (or read) voices with
which they may disagree.
Remaining uninformed as
they represent us, they heroi
cally combat the democratic
principles many of us hold so
dear.
CAROLE BREAKSTONE
Graduate
Folklore
Airwave sanity
To the editor:
In the Sept. 4 Omnibus
article about local morning
radio shows ("Morning shows
shake listeners out of bed with
variety of bells, whistles and
rattles"), the writer forgot to .
mention what should have been
an obvious inclusion in the list
of "wake-up programs." Yes,
it's one that's broadcast from
here on the UNC campus:
WUNC's morning news pro
gram, featuring "Morning Edi
tion," a product of National
Public Radio.
The show doesn't usually
include bells, whistles or rattles,
but it does feature some rea
sonably intelligent people
reporting the news, weather
and sports. They manage to do
this without annoying adver
tisements, "off-the-wall com
edy tapes" or a "Zoo Crew."
WUNC is located at 91.5 FM.
Check it out.
MICHAEL JOHNSON
Graduate
Speech Communications
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