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8The Daily Tar HeelTuesday, September 29, 1987
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95th year of editorial freedom
Jill Gerber, Editor
Amy Hamilton, Managing Editor
SALLY PEARSALL, News Editor
JEAN LUTES, University Editor
DONNA LEINWAND, State and National Editor
JEANNIE FARIS, City Editor
JAMES SUROWIECKI, Sports Editor
FELISA NEURINGER, Business Editor
JULIE BRASWELL, Features Editor
Elizabeth Ellen, Am Editor
Charlotte Cannon, Photography Editor
CATHY McHUGH, Omnibus Editor
board
opinion
Boycott uninformed protest
stores.
But the BSM had all but ignored
these channels before it announced a
boycott of Student Stores.
Rutledge Tufts, general manager,
said the first he had heard of the issue
was when BSM President Kenneth
Perry came to see him for 25 minutes
the day the boycott was announced.
Perry said that the threat of a
boycott put the issue in the public eye.
The threat produced new information
from Student Stores, he said.
But the BSM could have gotten the
information if it had gone to the
advisory committee, which it is now
doing.
Students dissat- -isfied
with bureau
cracy often seem to
think that there is
nothing that they .
can do as individuals. They are wrong.
The Black Student Movement was on
the right track when it decided to
tackle the perennial problem of high
textbook prices this semester.
But the BSM's initiative turned into
a case study in how not to approach
student activism.
There are ways that students can
make their feelings known on this
issue. They can visit Student Stores
and talk to the managers. They can
go to the Student Stores Advisory
Committee and ask for action.
If that fails, they can appeal to the
University administration through
Student Government.
And precedent demonstrates that
they would not be wasting their time
following this process.
In 1981, Student Government and
the Student Stores Advisory Commit
tee formed a task force that compared
textbook prices with those at other
campuses. The task force suggested
that Student Stores cut prices by
selling more used books.
In 1981, 16 percent of books sold
by the textbook department were used.
Today, 31 percent of them are used.
Student Stores, the sixth largest store
of its kind in the nation, sells more
used books than the top nine other
If students overuse their extreme
measures, they will lose their impact
and the administration will become
better at fighting them.
The end result? Relations between
the administration and students
already strained worsen. A major
campus organization loses some
credibility.
The moral is that students must be
aware of the issues that surround them.
They should take part in the decisions
made about those issues, using every
channel available to make their
feelings known.
But they must be informed. It is
wonderful to have the freedom to
make decisions. It is mature to look
for the knowledge that will yield
responsible ones.
Hedging will hurt peace plan
Despite homespun presidential
rhetoric, Ronald Reagan has paid little
more than lip service to the prospects
of a peaceful solution for Central
America's troubles. Just as Nicaragua
is now beginning compliance with the
peace plan it signed last month with
four neighboring countries, Reagan
has already labeled the agreement a
failure and asked Congress to increase
aid to Nicaraguan contras.
After a recent request to give
diplomacy a chance in Central Amer
ica by President Oscar Arias of Costa
Rica, the author of the peace plan,
Reagan said he saw "inevitable com
plications" in the plan and predicted
its ultimate failure. As far back as
1983, Reagan has called for diplomatic
agreements in dealing with Nicara
gua's Sandinista regime. Even last
month, he stamped his seal of approval
on the diplomatic approach when he
teamed with Democratic House
Speaker Jim Wright to endorse the
peace plan signed in Guatemala City.
That agreement, signed by Nicara
gua, Guatemala, Honduras, Costa
Rica and El Salvador, calls for a
regional cease fire, democratic reforms
and amnesty for the contras to be
carried out by a Nov. 7 deadline.
Compliance will be monitored by a
commission headed by a leading
opponent of the Sandinista regime.
The agreement has already begun to
show signs of progress, as symbolized
by Nicaragua's agreement to allow the
opposition's newspaper and the
Roman Catholic radio station to
resume operations.
The Sandinistas have said they will
comply 100 percent with the peace
efforts. But instead of waiting until
Nov. 7 to see if they do, the Reagan
administration has resorted to the
mentality that peace negotiations will
not succeed unless the United States
continues the threat of more contra
aid.
The reason for Reagan's impatience
with the peace plan lies not with his
concerns for political freedoms in
Nicaragua, but with Soviet influence
in Central America. A primary con
cern is that the plan permits continued
Soviet aid to the Sandinistas. If left
unchecked, Soviet influence in Central
America would present a genuine
concern to U.S. security. Still, Soviet
influence has never risen to the point
that it poses a legitimate threat. Under
the peace plan, that influence is likely
to become even less ominous. ,
Rather than resorting to threats that
give the Sandinistas reason to abandon
'the peace plan, the Reagan adminis
tration should give the peace process
a chance to work. After Nov, 7, the
prospects for a diplomatic solution in
the region can then be reviewed. If the
plan is honored, it stands to promote
democracy and peace in Central
America. Mike Mackay
rnon seqtfitur
The ads make TV what it is today
Anyone who watches television has to
be familiar with this commercial:
Two men dressed in business suits walk
through a corporate office.
"Southern Bell provides us with the
ability to communicate and expand our
business," says the first.
"And expansion and communication are
important in business," says the second man
knowingly, as the camera focuses on his
scraggly four-foot long beard. The voice
over says, "John Naisbitt, author of
'Megatrends.' "
Gee, John, thanks for the brilliant insight.
No one ever would have guessed that
communication is important in business.
No doubt a lot of small businessmen who
had been striving for mass confusion and
hysteria took notes. "
Southern Bell must consider John
Naisbitt to be a minor god or something,
because he seems to be the crux of their
ad campaign.
The next time John Naisbitt appears on
television, everyone should call the phone
company and ask for Mr. Bell. Tell him
that you're all sick and tired of John
Naisbitt, and maybe they'll yank him for
good.
Hopefully, Mr. Megatrends himself will
catch wind of the Megatrend of disgust he's
generating and disappear for a while, before
he dries up from over-exposure. After all,
he can only milk one book for so long.
If the Naisbitt-Bell commercials were
finally yanked, then we could see some real
quality advertising, like the commericial
where Joe Isuzu goes to England, or where
Bill Cosby talks to little kids about Jell
O. But without a doubt, the greatest
commercials are those for new Broadway
musicals, where theatre-goers are inter
viewed as they leave the theatre. They all
speak mechanically, with glazed eyes, and
they all say the same thing, in the same
hypnotic voice:
"Much . . . better . . . than . . . 'Cats. "
Headers' Foramm
The challenge of mastering the self
The last time I saw Al Palacio he was
standing naked on a set of scales
in the midst of what looked like an
indoor slave auction. It was last winter,
the morning of the ACC wrestling cham
pionships at Duke, and Al was ranked first
in the nation at 118 pounds. The locker
room was more than warm, but Al was
shivering. Incomprehensible, unless you
know that Al's normal weight is 150. One
byproduct of wrestlers' weight loss is an
inability to keep warm, and concomitant
dehydrated shakes.
Another consequence is nightmares.
Here is one from my own experience: You
find yourself in a nocturnal shadowland.
The mat is rolled out in a circle of light.
A man appears, your opponent, wearing
the plastic face mask favored by injured
wrestlers. Your reason for being there is
understood; you square off with him and
first contact is made. He seems to antic
ipate your every move, the skill and
cunning of his body is a perfect match for
your own. At some point blood is drawn.
You become more desperate. And just
when you believe you are about to lose,
he pulls back. He removes his mask. You
look at his face and it is your face. He
is you; and the struggle has been
inconclusive.
The desire for a conclusion to that
struggle is part of what wrestling is about,
what wrestlers mean when they say their
sport is intensely personal or "90 percent
mental." To the wrestler, the opponent is
always an image of himself. His struggle
with the opponent is a classical dialogue
with the self carried on in the language
of the flesh. It is, even in the estimation
of other athletes, the most grueling sport,
Sean Rowe
Staff Columnist
the worst to lose and the best to win, a
fanatical subordination of the self to a
wished-for destiny: self-knowledge.
Until a few years ago the audience at
UNC home wrestling matches consisted of
the janitor and his wife. The crowd has
grown, but wrestling at UNC still lives in
the shadow of football and basketball, and
probably always will. It is not designed
for the uninitiated spectator. It is not a
game, not really even a sport; there is
nothing in it that seems to belong to
daylight, to pleasure, nothing about it that
is playful. And although the wrestler in
training shares the central obsession of the
artist the discovery of the self, perceived
by others as narcissism what he does
in competition is not art, not theater, but
a heightened vision of life itself, painfully
real, a strange compound of lucidity and
madness. .
Some women enjoy watching wrestling,
but most do not. It is a purely masculine
activity conducted in a purely masculine
world. As author Joyce Carol Oates writes,
"Men fighting men to determine worth (ie.,
masculinity) excludes women as com
pletely as the female experience of child
birth excludes men." Wrestlers are prac
titioners of a lost religion of masculinity,
an ethos of physical courage almost
completely unrequired by the modern
world. Within the male tradition of the
warrior there is no separation between
beauty and morality; beauty is strength,
and nobility is achieved through action and
physical triumph.
Casual observers of a wrestling match
often comment on the sport's apparent
eroticism. The hyper-masculine display of
control and domination is immediately
disturbing; the unusual spectacle of two
semi-naked men in intimate physical
contact leads some people to construe the
underlying motive as homosexual. Wres
tling is indeed erotic, but in the broadest
sense of the word. It is the old Greek sense
that the Western world has lost and longs
for, the sense in which erotic experience
involves the loss of individuality through
direct participation with the physical
world, a merging with nature that verifies
the existence of the individual as part of
the larger group.
At the far end of the wrestler's self
control lies intoxicating abandon, the
chaotic thrill of violence. The goal of the
wrestler's self-conquest in training is the
loss of self in the moments of final action.
The "narcissism" of the wrestler is a
technique, a means to an end. It is when
two opponents are well-matched, when
differences of individual sensibility are
restricted to an absolute minimum by a
common set of physical terms, that
wrestling approaches its perfection, and the
wrestler himself experiences the essential
pathos of the doer. In those moments the
wrestler is able to identify finally with the
other, the opponent that is life itself, and
perceives the universality of his own being.
Sean Rowe, a senior journalism major
from Douglas, Ga., spent three weeks last
winter traveling and training with the UNC
wrestling team.
Don't criticize
authors
To the editor
This letter is in response to
the letter "Thumbs down to
letter writers" (Sept. 28) by
Heather Shuler. It seems that
her article, to use her words,
was a "smart aleck's grotesque,
critical overview" of the editor
ial page. By labeling those
people who are inspired enough
to respond to contoversial
letters as "couch potatoes," is
she not falling into the same
category?
Rather than a slap on the
wrists, these writers deserve a
pat on the backs. Most people
just read the letters to the editor
and voice their objections to
themselves. But these honora
ble authors take the additional
step of putting their ideas forth
on paper, thus receiving either
criticism or praise. Is it fair to
tell one side of a story and not
expect the other? We dont live
in a one-dimensional world.
And Heather, if you still abide
by your disgust and anger with
the editorial page, then let me
be the first to congratulate you
you are a couch potato!
MINDY DAWN
FRIEDMAN
Freshman
Education
Send Tristam
to the library
To the editor
As Pierre Tristam attempts
to argue every week, perhaps
we illiterate Tar Heels need a
well-read intellectual to grace
the pages of the DTH as some
sort of cultural instructor.
Please inform Tristam, how
ever, that he has been deemed
unqualified for the position.
"Love and courtship, Amer
ican style" (Sept. 22) is a good
example of his pseudo
intellectual pretension. The
piece starts with a clumsy
allusion to 19th century writer
and composer Frederic
Chopin, though obviously Tris
tam was a bit careless in retriev
ing details from his cultural
grab-bag. George Sand was
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born a female, not a male, in
1804 and was still a female at
the time of her death in 1876.
Tristam would do well to read
some of Sand's beautiful
accounts of the love affairs she
enjoyed with Alfred Musset.
Perhaps Musset's name could
be recycled for use in Tristam's
next column.
The rest of the article is
littered with other bits of
carelessness. He goes on to
lament the speed at which
American couples proceed
from first contact to sexual
relations, compared with the
conservative courtships of their
"Old World" counterparts. He
is obviously attempting a swipe
at American morality, but
every account I have ever heard
of sexual customs has charac
terized Americans as puritans,
while Europeans get the nod as
the more promiscuous.
Tristam is advised to
remember that his brand of
pretension is reserved for those
intellectuals who have earned
the right of its possession. He
should go back and read a bit
more before assuming his posi
tion as dispenser of cultural
wisdom.
JERRY HORNER
Senior
History French
Join march for
freedom
To the editor:
UNC is one of the top-rated
universities in the United
States. Carolina students have
always been known for their
academic excellence and polit
ical activism. Yet the institution
that fosters these qualities and
ideals still financially supports
the apartheid regime of South
Africa. How can we as students
condone this?
Many of us are no longer
willing to passively allow our
university to support terrorism
and racism. Students have also
grown disgusted with the Rea
gan administration's illegal
terrorist activities against the
people of Central America by
funding contra terorism and
supporting military repression
in El Salvador.
On Saturday, Oct. 3, con
cerned citizens from across the
will converge on Raleigh to
march in support of freedom
on South Africa and Central
America. Sponsors of the
march include groups who
oppose apartheid and or are
concerned with Central Amer
ica Help free South Africa and
Central America. Join in the
freedom march. More informa
tion is available at the Action
Against Apartheid table in the
Pit.
STEVE SULLIVAN
Freshman
Music
MARY LISA PORIES
Junior
International Studies
Letters policy
The Daily Tar Heel
welcomes reader comments,
ideas and criticisms. We ask
only that you follow a few
simple guidelines in exchange
for access to this unique public
forum:
a When submitting letters
or columns, students should
include the following: name,
year in school, major, phone
number and the date
submitted. Other members of
the University community
should give similar
information.
All letters and columns
must be signed by the author,
with a limit of two signatures
per letter or column.
B The DTH reserves the
right to edit for clarity,
vulgarity, disparity and
verbosity.
Ticket writers uphold long arm of the law
To the editor:
This letter is in response to a letter
written by Michael Keaney on Sept. 25
"Ticket writers waste no time." He
complained about the ticketing policies of
police on Cameron Avenue around 9:45
a.m. His complaint was that citations were
being issued to cars parked in the bike lane
at 9:44 when the restrictions are removed
at 9:45.
Keaney apparently believes that his right
to a parking space in the bike lane before
the "established time" is more important
than the safety of the two-wheeled student.
His respect for the law prevents him from
parking in these lanes 10 or 15 minutes
early, unlike those "brave few individuals"
who wind up with $25 tickets. Yet he waits
in his car until the "bad man in blue" leaves.
Obviously, he is blocking the bike lane
before 9:45, presenting an obstruction to
bicycling traffic.
Any user of the bike lanes on Cameron
Avenue will attest that the presence of
those lanes increases the safety of two
wheel commuting. Any blockage of those
lanes, such as a parked car, results in the
cyclist having to enter the main traffic lane
and potentially creating a hazardous
situation.
The officer, observing which cars had
parked there before 9:45, was merely
enforcing the law. It is unfortunate that
there were so many violators that he had
to write a large number of tickets. If any
of those people wanted to appeal their
tickets, I am sure a process exists for them
to vent their grievances. If Keaney and
others feel that the 9:45 restriction is
inappropriate, they should approach the
city council with their reasons.
We feel that Keaney and others who
park on Cameron Avenue before 9:45 pose
a danger to bicyclists. The Chapel Hill
Police. Department should be applauded
for its efforts to keep the bike lanes open.
If Keaney wants a parking place that
doesnt have a time restriction, he should
consider obtaining an on-campus parking
permit. However, since his driving to class
adds to the traffic congestion in the Chapel
Hill-Carrboro area, we strongly suggest
that he take a bus or even ride his bike.
MICHAEL LEVY
Graduate
Biochemistry
SCOTT BREIDENBACH
Research Technician
. Biochemistry
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