Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / Oct. 26, 1987, edition 1 / Page 16
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16The Daily Tar HeelMonday, October 26, 1987 Sty? Glar 95th year of editorial freedom Jill Gerber, Editor DEIRDRE FALLON, Managing Editor SALLY PEARSALL, News Editor JEAN LUTES, University Editor DONNA LEINWAND, State and National Editor JEANNIE FARIS, City Editor JAMES SUROWIECKI, Sports Editor FEUS A NEURINGER, Business Editor, JULIE BRASWELL, Features Editor Elizabeth Ellen, Am Editor Charlotte Cannon, Photography Editor CATHY McHUGH, Omnibus Editor EleadersForoinni Help students make the grade board opinion On Friday, three decades after sold iers turned them away from all- white Central , High School in Little Rock, Ark., the "Little Rock Nine" returned to com memorate their shared battles in integrating the school. The hardship in getting an equal education is not so great for blacks today, but it is still an uphill battle. Universities like Chapel Hill remain predominantly white campuses. This situation results from faulty preparation at the elementary school level. A recent Duke University study criticized North Carolina public schools for their laxity in monitoring the work of black elementary school students. The study found that schools did not encourage blacks to strive for high standards. The repercussion is that black high school seniors apply to colleges with SAT scores and grade point averages lower than whites. The low scores present a problem to highly selective schools such as UNC, which face the dilemma of either lowering the admissions standards for blacks or preserving low minority enrollment. The long-term solution rests with the state, which should take immediate steps in raising the standards of public education to increase the pool of qualified black applicants. North Carolina's national rank of 49th for high schools indicates that the lack of quality education is not an issue limited to minorities. Meanwhile, if UNC is to reach its goal of a white-to-black student ratio proportionate to the state's popula tion, it will have to act now to attract the best and the brightest of Carolina's minority. Such action is already underway. On Saturday, 70 black honors students and their parents attended a day of information and workshops about UNC. The programs ranged from a welcome by Chancellor Chris topher Fordham and Harold Wallace, vice chancellor of University Affairs, to short skits by students about the balance between academics and social life. The high school students said the event helped answer a lot of their questions about college. And although concerns about the size, work load and cost of an education at Chapel Hill were still common, UNC became a more favorable option for most. Ideally, such concerted University and student effort should be taken to attract all honors students. But with UNC's racial ratio as daunting as it is for blacks, and with the relatively small pool of qualified black appli cants, they deserve extra attention. Education is more accessible for blacks today than it was for the "Little Rock Nine," but disparities still exist. Monday, bloody Monday After a rollercoaster week on the stock market, Friday's closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange was greeted with a sense of relief that the crisis might have been over. After the Dow Jones Average plunged 508 points on a day already referred to as "Black Monday," it bounced back to regain more than half that loss by mid week. Still, the closing average on Friday was almost 300 points lower than where it started the week. Although the economic consequen ces of last week are not yet clear, the tailspin is clearly another blow to the Reagan administration. Already wea kened by the failure of the Bork nomination and questions about the Persian Gulf, the administration must now accept blame for the bull market's collapse. During Reagan's reign, the United States has accumulated as much national debt now running about $200 billion a year as in its entire history. With low taxes and costly defense policies, the administration has treated the economy as if it were a credit card for unlimited consuming and borrowing. But while the president has been glad to accept credit for the market oriented policies that brought nearly five years of unlimited economic growth, created more than 13 million jobs and slashed inflation, he has so far denied any responsibility for the recent downturn. "I don't know what meaning it might have," Reagan absently told reporters last week. "There's nothing wrong with the economy." With Reagan appearing out of touch with reality, it is questionable whether his lame-duck presidency can provide the necessary leadership to restore confidence in the market. A compromise between both parties is needed. To start with, the president and a Democratic-controlled Congress should reduce the deficit by comprom ising their respective aversions to tax increases and cutting expenditures. If Black Monday does prove less staggering than the crash of 1929, a major reason will be the economic cushions that have since been estab lished to absorb reverberations from Wall Street. Although such products of the era of New Deal liberalism have become unfavorable during the recent years of bull market optimism, they have largely prevented the Reagan revolution from ending on a disastrous note. Mike Mackay The Daily Tar Heel Editorial Writers: Jim Greenhill, Mike Mackay, Brian McCuskey and Jon Rust. Editorial Assistants: Julia Coon and Sharon Kebschull. Assistant Managing Editors: Cara Bonnett, Melissa Daniels, Peter Lineberry and Mandy Spence. News: Kari Barlow Jeanna Baxter, Lydian Bernhardt, Matt Bivens, Brenda Campbell, Staci Cox, Meg Craddock Sandy Dimsdale, Carrie Dove, Laurie Duncan, Mark Folk, Gerda Gallop, Alissa Grice Lindsay Hayes, Kyle Hudson, Michael Jackson, Kelly Johnson, Michael Jordan, Helen Jones, Susan Kauffman, Sharon Kebschull, Hunter Lambeth, Will Lingo, Barbara Linn, Brian Long, Mitra Lotfi Lynne McChntock, Brian McCollum, Leigh Ann McDonald, Justin McGuire, Stephanie Marshall' Laurie Martin Myrna Miller, Smithson Mills, Lee Ann Necessary, Rebecca Nesbit, Susan Odenkirchen' ?r ,ryl f ' my PWdI' Charla Price' Andrea Shaw- Mandy SPence wiiam Taggart, Clay Thorp' Nicki Weisensee and Amy Winslow. Brian Long, assistant business editor. Kimberly Edens and Krister! Gardner, assistant university editors. Sports: Mike Berardino, Patton McDowell and Chris Spencer, assistant sports editors. Robert D'Arruda Steve Giles, Dave Glenn, Dave Hall, Clay Hodges, Brendan Mathews, Jim Muse, Andy Podolsky and Langston Wertz. J' Features: Hannah Drum Carole Ferguson, Laura Jenkins, Corin Ortlam, Lynn Phillips, Leigh Pressley, Karen Stegman, Kathy Wilson and Julie Woods. Arts: James Burrus, Scott Cowen, Stephanie Dean, Kim Donehower, David Hester, Julie Olson, Beth Rhea, Kelly Rhodes, Alston Russell and Richard Smith. Photography: Tony Deifell, David Minton, Matthew Plyler and Julie Stovall. Copy Editors: Karen Bell, Cara Bonnett, Carrie Burgin, Julia Coon, Whitney Cork, Laurie Duncan Bert Hackney, Lisa Lorentz, Toby Moore, Rachel Stiffler and Kaarin Tisue, assistant news editor. Cartoonists: Jeff Christian, Bill Cokas and Greg Humphreys. Campus Calendar: Mindelle Rosenberg. Business and Advertising: Anne Fulcher, general manager; Patricia Glance, advertising director; Joan Worth fltoiA coordinator; Peggy Smith, advertising manager; Sheila Baker, business manager; Michael Benfield, Lisa Chorebanian, Ashley Hinton, Kcllie McElhaney, Chrissy Mennitt, Stacey Montford, Lesley Renwnck, Julie Settle, Dave Slovensky, Dean Thompson, Amanda Tilley and Wendy Wenger, advertising representatives; Stephanie Chesson, classified advertising representative; and Kris Carlson, secretary. Distribution Tucker Stevens, manager; Production: Bill Leslie and Stacy Wynn. Rita Galloway, Leslie Humphrey, Stephanie Locklear and I ammy Sheldon production assistants. Rmimiiig with the tails at Pamplona I he leaves have already turned here. The air feels newly scrubbed, and Ji each breath you take sears your lungs, sears them so breathing becomes a conscious act. Excision, exorcism, the words flash through your mind without leaving a signature. Maybe it's really just a process of purification, maybe you come back to cleanse yoursell ol the responsi bilities and the pressures, to lose the baggage college burdens you with. You tell yourself you're writing in the second person again, and wonder why. You realize you need something, some one, some feeling that isn't part of your life at school. YouVe seen too many jaded people, too many cynical emotions, not enough joy. To even use the word joy sounds strange, as if it describes something mature college students aren't allowed to feel, or maybe are too cultured to feel. You tell yourself there are too few epiphanies at college, too few moments when things are suddenly clear and the mere fact of living that moment becomes something to hold onto forever. People don't care about epiphanies. They care about the cars they drive, and what they're going to do when they graduate. You think about a conversation you will have in a few days with someone whose opinion you value. You will talk about the process of learning, the process of living. You will talk about how the experience of process is inherently valuable, regardless of the ultimate goal. So now you think that the recognition of process, the understanding of process while taking pleasure in it, constitutes an epiphany of sorts. Obliga tory reference to Joyce crosses your mind. But it's not so much the sanctifying of the trivial, of everyday existence, as it is the sanctifying of a certain way of existence. Hemingway and your conversation replace Joyce. It doesn't have to be mundane to be sacred, nor must it be extraordinary. What is done matters less than how it is James Surowiecki Sports Editor done. If the moment is lived well, is lived in the right way, it is worthy of reverence. You get up and brush off your pants. You walk down the steps, refrain from too much description, try and give the story a nice minimalist tone. Sweaters and skirts rush past you on the way to class. The sight of high school kids makes you smile, even though you know youVe romantic ized this place, taken it and fashioned for yourself an illusion of youth and idealism and hope. The cold cuts you, and it's fall. The minimalist reference bothers you, and you wish you could take it back, because it makes all you're saying walk too close to satire. The path you're treading is already narrow enough. You imagine a meeting of you the writer with you the critic, and wonder if the critic would see in the writer anything more than anomie. For the difference between decrying the absence of epiphanies in life and illustrating that absence is a subtle one, and you may get lost in the confusion. But you hold on to that difference, just like you hold on to the experiences that are pure, because you know if that difference vanishes, so do the things you value most. Literature becomes meaning less if the search for self, the search for experience, is the same as merely existing. Criticism becomes more futile than it already is, for the critic's contribution is to the means, not the end. The quest, and the transformation it works upon the individual, is what matters. You wish for more sacred experience, and do not despair. You work to create, or perhaps discover, those moments of transcendence. Seymour Glass walks ahead of you, and you think of the fat lady. You know how exalted this sounds, how pretentious, but you know at the same that it really isn't. Leopold Bloom is fond of cheap paper backs, and Molly is less than an intellec tual, yet both live well, both rejoice in their being. But perhaps it is not the Blooms who truly rejoice, but rather Joyce who creates their ecstasy. Maybe Seymour is able to cut through the surface, get at the heart, where faith and romance and joy are intertwined, only because he is, in the end, brilliant. He speaks in parables because they are the purest expressions of his intellect, but he needs that intellect as a means of understanding, of reveling in the world around him. You frown at that thought. Your elitism tends to be overt, and the bluntness of your attitude softens its effect. But an elitism which would embrace Seymour is at once more subtle and yet far more powerful. For if only those who understand process can experience it, then those who do not never fully live life. ,You realize that you think of yourself as one of those who do, and find the realization saddening. You think of Carver, giving a voice to those whose emotions remain inarticulate, and you think that it is Carver, not his characters, who is blessed by the epiphany. He allows, or rather compels, them to speak, and yet inside they remain silent. You shake your head. The tone of this piece seems too heavy. Too much talk about experience, and not enough of it. You walk along the paved black path, and then you see her. You wonder if she belongs ' here, if she belongs on the page. But you know she does, because romance is part of what keeps you going. It's not sex. It's romance. And she has something powerful in her eyes, and no bitterness in her voice. And suddenly, she's something to hold on to. James Surowiecki is a senior history major from Cheshire, Conn. Travis is tremendous To the editor: This is not one of those usual letters criticizing someone's opinion. I am only writing to thank James Burrus for his review "Randy Travis may be new sex symbol of country music" (Oct. 22). It was an encouraging possibility that there are others besides me who like country music. . I am one of those "unfortu nate ones that did not make it inside the arena." Instead of crowding around Travis' bus, though, I ended up in the basement of Dorton Arena listening, but not being able to see. Surrounded by other unfortunate ones, I had to join in their crying when the fans above went wild, and we knew he had appeared on stage. Maybe it was a silly occasion for shedding tears, but it was quite depressing to stand in line for two hours only to be shoved away only 10 feet from the door. For me, the diehard Randy Travis fan, the only purpose in going to the fair was to see him. I suppose I was lucky to be so close. Oh well, 111 catch him in Charlotte next month if I have to walk. Again, thanks for the article. AMY CASE Freshman Education Save the free world To the editor: I am in shock. I just finished reading Sally Pearsall's column ("Time to stop stock market madness," Oct. 21). I have never read a more ridiculous article in a newspaper. The DTH's credibility is on thin ice when its own news editor is responsible for such a ludicrous essay. I realize that everyone is entitled to his opinion, yet how any college student could even conceive of such an idea is totally unbelievable. Pearsall definitely does not realize the absurdity and far-reaching consequences of her solution to abolish all stock markets. Let us assume that her solu tion is used. Since all equity markets are abolished, all bond and debenture markets would be extinguished. If not, the craziness would just transfer to these exchanges. Just imagine all corporations in the western industrialized nations and Japan without any debt or equity financing. First, most corporations would eventually discontinue operations. The remaining corporations would halt all research and develop ment and expansion activities. The days of most companies using their own profits to expand and grow are virtually extinct. Pearsall's Utopia would not only bring industry to a grind ing halt, but it would also have far-reaching consequences on other aspects of our lives. Our own college endowment funds would dry up. Retirement and pension plans -would perish. Mutual funds and other invest ing activities would cease. Insurance would be wishful thinking at best. I think Pearsall may be joking. I hope so. If her plan did come into existence, the fate of the free world would really be at stake. JOHN INABNIT Senior Business Administration Reporting rape takes courage To the editor: We do not know what hap pened at the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity house on Aug. 20 of this year, and cannot, therefore, determine if the two men charged with second-degree rape are guilty. We do know, however, that one woman felt violated enough to seek legal redress as a rape victim, and we strongly support her in this decision. In deciding to press charges, this individual risks further humiliation criticism and harassment, and prolongs an already painful ordeal. We imagine that her decision must have been difficult, even fright ening, and therefore consider her action a courageous one. This woman's example should serve as a source of strength for other women who have endured similar experien ces. As a community, we should support women who express concern over their victimiza tion and should encourage others to do the same. Further, we as a society must consider of highest priority ending phys ical and sexual abuse against women. Because men commit almost all rapes, they must be espe cially conscious of the clear message this case sends: Men must act on the wishes of women or face serious reper cussions. Women are fighting back against rape and sexual assault. PATRICIA HURST Senior Interdisciplinary Studies JAYE SITTON Senior Political Science Parking policy works for most students To the editor: Despite the hassles it creates for some people, the parking policy is obviously the best solution to the parking shortage. There is no way a plan could be imple mented that could appease everyone and not cost a tremendous amount. Many people do not realize the com plexity of trying to provide the fairest policy possible. As it stands now, juniors, seniors, graduate students and employees are allowed to obtain parking permits. Upperclassmen are exactly that there fore, they deserve the spaces. It is like a father giving his favorite jacket to his eldest son. While the younger brother is probably jealous, he realizes that it is a question of seniority, not favoritism. He also realizes that the jacket will better fit his older brother. The policy also says that freshmen cannot park their cars on campus. The proposed Craige parking deck could be an alternative. Yet even this large deck could not provide enough space for everyone to have a car. It would also be very expensive, costing millions. One must remember that students would be assessed the bill for the deck in the form of higher costs for permits. Another alternative would be to allow a certain percentage of each class to receive permits on a first-come, first-serve basis. If this policy were in effect, a good many people would wind up having the spaces needed more by others. Also, most freshmen live on campus and are within walking distance to classes. Plus, they eat most of their meals on campus and have laundry services available. It is clear that neither of these alternatives is feasible because of cost or impracticality. The most recent complaints about the parking policy have been over the ticketing of students who walk or ride a bus to class during the day but need to drive when they come to the library at night. They cannot drive to campus without fear of being ticketed until 9 p.m. Granted, the ticketing poses an unreasonable inconvenience to many people, sometimes even resulting in a car being towed. However, one must realize that the people who do have parking permits have paid for them, and therefore it is the Traffic and Parking Office's responsibility to make sure that those with permits have spaces available in their assigned lots. The parking policy is clearly fair and reasonable for the majority of the student body. The suggested alternatives have drawbacks and, therefore, cannot be implemented. There will never be a policy that will please everyone because factors of cost and lack of space must be con sidered. We must accept the policy which does what it is designed to do. JAY ROBBINS Freshman Business Administration
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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Oct. 26, 1987, edition 1
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