10The Daily Tar HeelWednesday, April 1 1 , 1990
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98 th year of editorial freedojn
Jessica Lanning and Kelly Thompson, Editors
JENNY CLONINGER, University Editor
Jennifer Wing, Forum Editor 1
Cameron Tew, City Editor ,
MYRNA MiLLER, Features Editor
Jamie Rosenberg, Sports Editor
EVAN ElLE, Photography Editor
Steve Wilson, News Editor
MeLANIE BLACK, Layout Editor
NANCY WykLE, University Editor
Lynette BLAIR, Opinion Editor
STACI COX, State and National Editor
CHERYL ALLEN, Features Editor
AlISA DeMao, Omnibus Editor
PETE CORSON, Cartoon Editor
JoAnn RODAK, News Editor
ERIK DALE Fuppo, Design Coordinator
James Claude Benton, Ombudsman
Spotlighting the arts
Festival highlights importance of expression
Jesse Helms may be alive and well in
North Carolina, but that hasn't slowed
down expression of the arts at UNC-CH.
Students concerned about art awareness
brainstormed to create the first Student
Fine Arts Festival, which will happen this
week in a theater, gallery and hall near you.
. .The performing arts committee of the
Carolina Union Activities Board came up
with this idea last year, and dozens of
Organizations expressed interest in partici
pating. As a result, since Sunday, almost
every performance hall on campus has
been buzzing with activity ranging from
art exhibits to a cappella singing. This
massive collaboration not only gives art
lovers a chance to indulge for a week, but
more importantly, it highlights the impor
tance and diversity of the art world
Creating awareness of the necessity of free
art. . - ;
; UNC can boast of several highly re
spected fine-arts departments. The gradu
ate art history and studio programs rank
among the national top 10, while the music
library collection is one of the most exten
sive in the United States: But this informa
tion often is only publicized among fine
arts majors the general student body is
bften unaware of the high caliber programs
at UNC The Student Fine Arts Festival
places a complimentary spotlight on these
departments and the quality productions
that originate from them.
: The festival not only shines on the arts,
but it also illuminates social, cultural and
political issues. Art exhibits traditionally
reflect thg: concerns of the day; they are
elastic, ana they can spread to all aspects of
life. The Ebony Readers plan to dramatize
the life and times of Nelson Mandela, a
highly prevalent political and social topic
today. The Lab Theater performed Chris
topher Marlowe's "Dr. Faustus" earlier
this week, focusing on both gender and
spiritual issues. Art is more than appealing
to the senses it has the capability to
make strong statements.
Although the festival is still in its in
fancy, there are several suggestions to
consider for next year. More dance per
formances could be scheduled for the week.
Malini Moorthy, originator of the festival
idea, recommends adding more culturally
diverse programs. Doing this would obvi
ously improve the quality of the festival, as
well as join different cultures for one cause.
Also, holding more participatory programs,
such as discussions on art issues or even
dance and art lessons in the Pit, might
increase student interest in the festival.
This is not to say that this year's festival
is anything close to a disaster. The Union
Activities Board has proven that it can
easily administer such an extensive pro
gram. Although Student Body President
Bill Hildebolt campaigned to create an arts
council made up of students and represen
tatives of art organizations in order to
increase arts awareness, this festival would
not have been the same under such a sys
tem. The Union committee has more time
and is more focused on the arts than Stu
dent Government, although government
can still get involved by ensuring that such
a production occurs for years to come.
The Fine Arts Festival proves that stu
dents can work together for a worthy cause
rather than for personal gain. Recognizing
student organizations for their excellence
can only lead to more improved programs
in the future; this support is crucial to the
survival of free arts. This is a festival for all
students take a seat and enjoy it for a
while. Jennifer Wing
ICICK strikes out
Ignoring group may force it to leave
y . The most exciting news has been re
leased for people of color in this state and
those who detest racial and religious hatred:
the imperial wizard of the Invisible Em
pire, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, decided
to pack up his bags and leave his Connecti
cut home behind. Any' wild guess as to
where his new stake out is?. You've got it
North Carolina, the southern part of
heaven. -
" Imperial wizard James W. Farrands just
.moved to a farm near Sartford. Several
weeks ago, he and other Klan members
went to Biscoe and handed out copies of
the Klansman, the group's newsletter.
Some organizations fear that he is trying
and will continue to work to unify racists.
These organizations feel that he will be
successful because the Klan hasn't had a
leader in this state for several years.
Of course, the initial response to such
news is alarm and concern. The thought of
the head hancho of the "white sheet wear
ers" residing in this state is not by any
means pleasant. But there is no need to
blow the situation out of proportion. After
kll, Farrands has the right to move to any
state he desires. Obviously, North Caro
lina has problems of its own to worry
about. In many cities and towns, busing
and integration in the schools are still
problems. And the state's SAT scores are
a concern as well. To be truthful, there is
just no time to waste on trivial matters.
And Farrands, at this time, is a trivial
matter.
If Biscoe is any indication, there is little
reason to fear that Farrands will come in
and destroy the area. When Farrands and
his supporters went to the town, they got a
very indifferent reception. True, no one
threw things or heckled them, but no one
joined their efforts either. The police chief
said the town just didn't seem interested.
Perhaps that is the best way to deal with
this. If we act as if the Farrands of the world
do not exist, they have little chance to
advance their causes.
After all, who's to say he'll be success
ful here anyway? The reason he left Con
necticut was never disclosed. As distress
ing as his move may be to some North
Carolinians, it may have made an equal
number of Connecticut residents happy
those who were glad to be rid of him. -Lynette
Blair
Editorial Policy
. y The Daily Tar H eel's board opinion editorials are. voted on by the board, which is composed of
the co-editors, opinion editor, forum editor and three editorial writers. The opinions reflect the
board's majority opinion. Signed editorials do not nepessarity reflect the entire board's opinion.
The "How to Write a Column" column
W
hether anyone likes it or not, the
days are getting longer, the shadows
are getting shorter and the weather
fluctuations are getting totally out of hand
combine this with enough testosterone and
estrogen in the air to power a small southeast
ern city and you've found yourself right in the
middle of April here in the Southern Part of
Heaven. Which not only means that there are
hordes of barely post-pubescent high school
kids out wandering the quad with name tags
and drooling parents all searching for the best
possible picture angle of the 01' Well, but that
a good many of us old farts are gettin' the hell
out of school while the gettin's good.
So here I am on one of the last columns I'll
be writing for this paper, and someone out
there is going have to get off his or her keister
next year and start columnizing on Wednes
days. If you don't mind having a goofy-looking
caricature of you staring everyone in the
face in Econ class, if you can cope with meta
phorically pulling your pants down in front of
campus every week, and you can deal with
tons of hate mail from someone whose autistic
brother you've offended, then waxing philo
sophic here on the back page can be pretty fun!
Like anything, though, there are problems
you'll run into sometimes it's hard to tell
what everyone will find interesting (a good
story about the cruel injustices of Campus
Cops testing their virility on us poor college
kids makes for interesting reading; my prob
lems with flossing, conversely, do not) and
sometimes an idea you'll have will be awe
some in real life but look like Adventures in
Romper Room when you try to put it on the
back of a newspaper. With that in mind, here is
a little guide to writing these things, a sort of
set of stereo instructions to steer you straight
here.
Choose your runway. There are three basic
types of column the Pseudo-Intellectual
List, the Meandering Story, and the Other. The
"List" can comprise everything from your
most hated song lyrics to Fifteen Reasons Why
Eggplants Make Better Conversational ists than
Carolina Guys. Putting things in list form not
only makes it look like you know what you're
talking about, but it also makes it easier to read
on the page for those folks with gerbil-like
attention spans. The "Meandering Story" is an
irony-filled recollection of some recent event
that explains why you're such a tortured artist
in the first place, and the "Other" is just that
Ian Williams
Wednesday's
Child
some weird way to screw up the back page
with goofy stuff like fake tests, talking pets
and ink blots.
Bern' totally and unadulteratedly wordy.
This is another fun thing to do that not only
lets you use every word you've ever dreamed
of saying in front of 20,000 people (minus a
few genitalia-related verbs) but also lets you
purge yourself of all the excess verbal bile that
builds up in your system. The basic rule is to
never use one word when seven would sound
stupider. Instead of saying, "so I walked back
to Hinton James," say "I traddled, coma-like,
back to the penitentiary-influenced testament
to 60s architecture that housed my few pos
sessions and my labotomized suitemates." I
tell you, it's a wonderful release. If I didn't get
to use all those excruciating adjectives and all
that anal imagery, I'd be out back with a
sawed-off shotgun huntin' squirrels for din
ner. Great Useless Graphics of the 20th
Century. Nothing livens up a column more
than slapping some artwork down on the page;
that and it may offset any negative effects
your caricature may have on the words sur
rounding it. If you find one of the master
cartoonists here at the paper in time, you can
have a key point in your essay brilliantly
drawn out. Even if you don't, do what I do
slip the ol' time zone map up there no matter
what you're talking about, and it will look like
time zones in the conterminous United States: A Pacific
time. B mountain time, C central time, D eastern time
you got something pretty important to say.
Mad about Italics and Bold. If you want
something really stressed, and don't want to
bother setting the entire scene, just italicize!
Italicization gives you a real grimace when you
write, and it's kind of wonderfully fruity, so just
go with it and italicize until you just can't stand
it anymore!!!
And if you really want to impress the
ladies, begin each important thought
with one of these grade-A extra-large
U.S.D.A. choice "drop-caps." Just a
few of these here and there and you'll be
wearing the Pulitzer sash in no time.
Verily, I say unto thee ... The most impor
tant thing about writing these things is to lend
biblical importance to everything you say or
everyone and their dog will think you are full of
crap. Imagine this, if you will:
"Although men have all the titles, are taller,
much stronger and seem to dominate the planet
in every way, women are in fact the true rulers
of everyone's soul, and therefore the universe.
Men try to pigeonhole women as emotional,
erratic and illogical, but this is just the most
pitiful of defense mechanisms for the little
insecure boy that lies behind every macho
muffinhead. The World itself is emotional, er
ratic and illogical, and only women have the
true means to cope with this Carowinds ride we
call life."
Now if you make a huge, gross, sweeping
generalization like that, the only way you're
going to get away with it is if you sound like you
could never dream of being wrong! Another
good trick is to lend the same biblical impor
tance to things that really don't deserve it:
"I parked my car in the great amphitheater of
parking, where thousands of such battles had
taken place strolling up to the great entrance,
every step hanging heavy with my heaving
heart, I paused in front of my market Messiah;
the electronic doors parted like the Red Sea, in
front of Moses, and I warily stepped inside. I
was in Harris Teeter and I was there to make a
bundt cake."
And then comes the strangest part, the Neth
erworld of the back page, the magical "blurb"
section. No one is really sure who writes these
things, the columnist, the editors or a mystical
leprechaun figure that skips in here singing an
ancient song about columnists of yore, but
suffice to say that all he wants to get across is
that Ian Williams is a senior music and psy
chology major from Los Angeles!
m
Anti-abortion misses
feasible solutions
To the editors:
Thank goodness that there are
people like John Ellis who can
give us his well-thought out views
on abortion and life ("Anti-abortion
arguments justified by life
saving alternatives," April 9).
"Bush would understand if he were
a woman," is part of what some
pro-choicers say, yes, but Ellis
nicely deletes the other part which
states that since Bush is not a
woman and therefore cannot
understand the quantum leap that
separates the physical and mental
states of the men and the women
having the children, why should
he have the right to make a deci
sion about something which he
cannot understand? Because he
should not have to make this deci
sion, each individual mother
should.
Another well-thought out point
in Ellis' column was his opinion
which states, "I think the best al
ternative is to simply keep and
nurture the child." Well, unless
John Ellis has an unwanted preg
nancy, and I could be wrong, why
then does he have any more right
to dictate the lives of thousands of
women whom he does not even
know? But "lack of money is a
trifle reason" to have an abortion.
Who cares if it grows up living an
abused, unwanted andor de
pressed life?
Maybe education, funding for
clinics like Planned Parenthood
and a decent child care system
would help to cut down on the
number of abortions considerably.
However, since the pro-life activ
ists insist on having the govern
ment make our individual moral
decisions for us and have brought
abortion back into politics (which
costs money that could be put
toward something useful), of the
industrialized, countries the U.S.
ranks last in adequate child care
programs, is fifth in education (it
is probably lower now) and loses
money granted to clinics which
help the less fortunate masses.
If you want to save lives, why
are you not out protesting the death
penalty which, in legal terms, is
not abortion.
RICK FOSTER
Senior
Biology
Bombs, cigarettes also
undeserving of taxes
To the editors:
Jeffrey Simko poses some in
triguing questions concerning
abortion and his tax dollars
("Mistakes of few not responsibil-
ity of all," April 6). His feelings
open up a new way of tax payment
in America. To illustrate, I'd like
to address his questions with some
of my own.
For example, I have nothing
against the Soviet Union, I didn't
create any antagonistic climate
between the two superpowers, and
I find war reprehensible. Why am
I forced to subsidize death-dealing
nuclear missiles, life-extinguishing
bombs, guns and bul
lets? Another example: I don't
smoke and find the fumes from
cigarettes unpleasant. Why are my
tax dollars helping support tobacco
farmers and their health-destroying,
non-nutritive crops? Finally, I
am not in college, nor have any
children in college. Why am I
paying for someone else's learn
ing especially since the educa
tional system seems to be failing
in its endeavor to open and expand
young minds? The list goes on and
on.
The question is, do we all get to
target where our individual taxes
go, or is that a right reserved ex
clusively for anti-abortionists?
SOLOMON GIBSON III
Chapel Hill
Reports roundup facts
of incidents
To the editors:
While reading the DTH Mon
day, I came across a completely
unjustified letter to the editors.
The letter was in reference to the
Campus Police Roundup in which
a student was "adamantly opposed
to the printing of names and ad
dresses" of students who are ar
rested ("Names wrongly impris
oned in police reports," April 9). It
seems two of the author's friends
were arrested for assaulting an
other student and she felt that re
leasing their names was wrong
fully done, for the charges had not
been proven.
The student who was assaulted
by her friends was a close friend of
mine. They were blatantly violat
ing the security policy of a dorm.
My friend has had to deal with the
experience of being assaulted
while trying to do her job as a desk
attendant. ;
The fact is, the "Campus Police
Roundup" makes no judgment on
whether the person is guilty it
merely reports who has been ar
rested. ;
If people cannot act responsi
bly and learn to live by the rules of
the University, they will just have
to face the embarrassment that
results from their actions.
RACHEL DOWLING
Freshman
English
Letters policy
The Daily Tar Heel welcomes
reader comments and criticisms.
We will attempt to print as many
letters to the editor as space per
mits. When writing letters, please
follow these guidelines:
n All letters must be dated and
signed by the author(s), with a
limit of two signatures per letter.
UAH letters must be typed and
double-spaced, for ease of edit
ing. D Letters should include the
author's year, major, phone num
ber and hometown.
a The DTH reserves the right
to edit letters for space, clarity
and vulgarity. Remember, brevity
is the soul of wit.
B If you have a title relevant jo
the topic of the letter, please in
clude it.