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Convention Center
Referendum On Met
Following a public hearing, the
Raleigh City Council voted to
place the $95 million convention
conference center improvements
program on the November 3
ballot. This gives the voters the
final say on the major capital
investment program.
Mayor Avery C. Upchurch said
the sustained interest in this
initiative and the involvement by
the citizens “reflects concern for
a primary element of the Raleigh*
Wake economy, which is the
convention, conference and
tourism business.”
The Convention Center
Improvements Program is the
culmination of over five years of
study, research, comment, and
involvement by civic leaders and
citizens. The program includes
retaining and upgrading the
existing Civic Center and
construction of a new convention
cento*, located adjacent to the
existing center, directly across
the street on the west side of
^lisbury Street.
“The pians for refurbishing the
existing Civic Center and
construction of the Convention
Center offer Raleigh the
opportunity to have Class A, top
quality convention and tourism
facilities, compatible with the
quality of this community and its
emphasis on education, research
and development on the national
and international levels,” Mayor
Upchurch said.
Hie plan calls for costs of up to
$95 million, based on detailed
analysis by architectural
consultants. Land acquisition
would involve approximately
330,000 square feet of property in
the downtown area. Land costs
estimates are based on a detailed
analysis by an independent expert
land appraiser. Acquisition of
land for the new facility is
pending the outcome of the Nov. 3
vote.
A public information program
will be undertaken to further
inform the citizens of Raleigh
about this program, prior to the
Nov. 3 vote.
For more information on the
Convention Center Improvements
Program, contact the City of
Raleigh Public Affairs office at
890-3100.
Back To School
Guest Editorial
BY RUTH HEINER
August beings fair time, hot
days and street sidewalk sales for
going back to school.
By permission I have excerpts
from a talk given at a recent new
grade school dedication.
“Students, I fear I have some
disturbing and alarming news to
bring you this evening. I fear that
your school board is cracked!
They’ve gone bonkers! You don’t
believe me? Then let me inform
you of some facts I was doing on
my trusty calculator and I reckon
that for the price of this building,
each one of you could have
received almost 25,000 Snicker
candy bars instead, lliat would be
enough to hold even the boy who
loved to eat 12 bars a day for over
6 years!
“Or each one of you could have
received an Nintendo with at least
50 game cartridges, plus a new
bike, plus a new motorbike, plus a
snowmobile.
“Or consider this: Instead of
building this new school building
the school board and your parents
could have taken each one of you
to Disneyland — not only the one
in California, but also the one in
Florida and in France and even
the one in Japan.
“I don’t know about you, but it
would be my suggestion that come
next school board eletion, each of
you strongly advise your parents
to vote for the pro-Disneyland
candidate.
But alas, it is too late to do
anything about it now. The school
is already built and we can only
dream of Nintendos never to be
ours. But have any of you stopped
to wonder why the school board
and your parents would make
such a blunder? Tonight I want
each of you to ask your parents
why. Ask them why they built this
school instead of buying you all
those Snickers and listen to their
answer.
I suppose your parents might
give one of many different
answers, but I want to talk about
one they might give. A school is a
place when we go to learn from
other people. A school is a place
we can learn relatively painlessly
the wisdom, knowledge and
experiences of people from all
over the world.
With computers, videos,
records and a good library, you
can learn from people living in
Irkutsk, to Timbuktu. Moreover,
you can also learn from people '
who have lived at different times
whether it was yesterday or four
thousand years ago. You can
learn from King Tut and Caesar
as easily as you can from George : /
Bush and Garth Brooks.
Now some of you are probably
saying tp yourselves why is it so
things for ^yseJT aiui*^ides,
experience is the best teacher.
To enjoy ail these things and
more we need to learn from other
people’s experiences. Because we
are not immortal, schools are
absolutely essential for our living
a full and rich existence.
Perhaps your parents built this
school because they understood
this and they wanted our life to be _.
a happy, exciting and spacious
one. Perhaps they built it because
they love you.
Politics of ‘double consciousness’
By Chack State
For the put two weeks, only the
most passionate political Junkie has
preferred the mind-numbing rhetoric
of presidential Lilliputians over the
exhilarating feats of Olympic Titans.
That’s because there is a quintes
sential difference between applaud
ing the quartet of George Bush, Dan
Quayle. Bill Clinton and A1 Gore and
chewing the quartet of Magic John
son, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Gail
Devers and Mike Conley.
As Olympics-watchers, we cheer in
unison u Americans. “The Olympics
is the only time Fm patriotic,’ says
my irreverent wife, Louise.
As political animals, we also ap
plaud, but we do so in separate
groups.
Today, each of thou separate
groups commands a dual loyalty — or
what a brilliant scholar 89 years ago
called our “double consciousness.*
When W.E.B. Du Bois wrote these
prophetic words, he only had blacks in
mind: “It is a peculiar sensation, this
double consciousness ... this sense of
always looking at one’s self through
the eyes of others. One ever feels his
twoneu — an American, a Negro;
two souls, two thoughts, two unrecon
ciled strivings. ...*
Eighty-nine years later, that double
consciousness hss multiplied tenfold
to encompass not only Macks, but a
majority of women, Latinos, Jews,
pro-choicers, pro-lifers, corporate ex
ecutives, gays, Perotistas and South
ern white males (euphemistically
known as “Bubbas*).
i Perjoratively dubbed “special in
terest groups,’ these groups some
times have had to prove they, too,
were American. But "double con
aciouanen* la aa American as pirn,
grits and apple pandowdy.
So are women, especially those
aroused by the U.S. Senate’s Arlen
Specter-led inquisition of Professor
Anita F. Hill.
Increasingly, they are resolving
their double couciousness by choos
ing gender conviction over political
ideology. Ethnic groups, especially
blacks, Latinos and Jews, often have
done the same.
Jewish double consciousness has
oscillated between historic liberalism
and profound concern for Israel.
A former colleague, Jill Porter of
the Philadelphia Daily News, ana
lysed this dilemma in a soul-opening
May column:
"For some Jewish liberals, the U.S.
Senate contest between (Republican
incumbent) Arlen Specter and (Demo
cratic challenger) Lynn Yeakel has
become a matter of putting first
things first
"Jewish first? Or liberal first?"
Ordinarily, that would not cause a
conflict but "Specter is not only Jew
ish, but a devout champion of Israel."
Porter concluded the column with
Du Boisian honesty. "As a Jew and a
feminist — the two most dominant
parts of my identity other than moth
er and journalist — I share the con
flict While my heart is thoroughly
with Yeakel, my ethnic instincts, I
must admit give me pause."
A month later, she resolved her
double consciousness — or triple con
sciousness (woman, liberal and Jew)
— with a resolution that “haunts me
still, but I’m lor Vbakel, a leap of
faith, but a leap of faith worth
taking.”
During the Senate hearings on the
Supreme Court nomination of a black
arch conservative, Clarence Thomas,
blacks wrestled futilely with their
double consciousness — their loyalty
to a brother vs. their historic liberal
ism. The moment Bush’s Judicial wa
terboy declared he was a victim of “a
high-tech lynching,” blacks closed
ranks around him with unthinking
ferocity.
Today, young ghetto blacks are
murdering each other with —plating
rapidity. But many middle class
blacks committed a more sophisticat
ed form of political suicide by sup
porting Thomas.
Henry Cabot Lodge once lamented
the existence of hyphenated Ameri
canism; urging others to deny the pull
of ethnic considerations comes easily
for WASPS who control the power
structure.
But 'double consciousness” will
continue to thrive as long as the pow
er structure of American society ex
cludes those whoee emotional hyphen
ation is denied the opportunities
provided by the Olympics.
The Conservative Advocate
So-called innocents on death row
By William A. Raaber
By now we have had enough experi
ence with the death penalty under the
the techniqoei that the Americiiifciv
11 Liberties Union and the criminal
bar have developed for combating it.
They are as rigidly ritualised as a
Japanese tea ceremony.
First and foremost, of course,
there's the contention that the defen
dant didn’t do it — it’s all a gross mis
carriage of justice. There are well
over 2,000 people awaiting execution
in various states around the country,
and it beggars belief that all of them
are as innocent as new-born babes,
but that is usually the contention
whenever one of them gets danger
ously close to the death chamber.
Topically, it will he charged that
the real killer was the defendant’s ac
complice, who turned state’s evidence
in return for a life sentence. Not infre
quently some convict in for a long
stretch elsewhere will confess to hav
ing committed the crime himself, in
the hope of a little welcome attention.
Invariably, as the execution date
approaches, there will be discoveries
of “new evidence* — allegedly pro
viding the prisoner with a cast-iron
alibi, or exonerating him by virtue of
newly developed blood teste, or dem
onstrating that the prosecutors sup
pressed vital facts. Frequently, some
member of the jury that convicted
him, or even the judge or prosecutor,
can he persuaded to announce that, on
this or some other basis, the execution
should be blocked.
Equally predictably, it will be ar
gued that all of the defense lawyers
involved in the trial and the endless
appeals (some going on for 10 or IS
years) were incompetent
But what if, as often happens, there
is simply no doubt that the Individual
in question committed the crime?
What if dozens of people saw him do
it, or he managed to make a confes
sion so persuasive as to eliminate all
uncertainty? Then we will be told that
he has the IQ of a borderline moron,
and was clearly incapable of knowing
that what he did was wrong, or of as
sisting in his own defense, or of com
prehending the reason for his execu
tion if it occurs.
Finally, there will be the pleas
made to the governor at the clemency
hearing. This is the point at which we
learn that the defendant’s mother
drank during her pregnancy — thus
afflicting him with fetal alcohol syn
drome. Invariably, his father was a
beast. If by any chance the prisoner
served in Vietnam, he will be por
trayed as the hapless victim of poet
traumatic stress syndrome, even if he
never got within earshot of military
action.
On execution eve, after these and
still other contentions have all been
sifted by the state and federal courts
and rejected repeatedly, some federal
judge appointed in the Carter years
can almost always be found who will
issue as many stays of execution as
necessary, on the basis of “new* con
tentions however flimsy, to boot the
legal football down the field and
launch a whole new round of hearings
and appeals.
If even this fails, thanks to a vigi
lant and determined Supreme Court,
the liberal media will indulge in one
last orgy of exculpation. If the defen
dant is by any chance personable and
articulate, an effort will be made to
run him around the Donahue-and
CNN circuit, on the theory that no
body that nice could be guilty. If he is
a malevolent hulk without any re
deeming qualities whatever, the state
will be accused of wanting to fry
senseless, inert meat.
The wonder is that anybody, howev
er guilty, ever gets executed at all.
• NOTE: Due to a typographical er
ror, Ed Rollins (Roes Perot's new Re
publican adviser) was slightly mis
quoted in one of my recent columns,
what he actually said was, "I carried
49 states for Reagan in 1984." That
claim deserves to be quoted accurate
ly, in all its manic grandeur.
Q im newspaper BvmnuK aisn.
THE CONSERVATIVE
ADVOCATE
Miller Says
BY 8HERMAN N. MILLER
A HISTORICAL LOW VOTER TURNOUT
H. Ron Perot's pullout from the 19M Presidential
campaign officially ended the primary season.
Independents lost their major candidate without casting a
vote for or against him. But why did Perot choose the day
that Democratic Presidential Nominee Bill Clinton would
make an acceptance speech to announce Us withdrawal?
The timeliness of Perot’s announcement suggests that
he relished upstaging Clinton in the media. This
announcement forced a rewriting of preaidential election
campaign strategies leaving Perot with political leverage
in both camps. We ought not let this sort of wheeling and
dealing occur without our trying to understand if there is
an underhanded political gamoafoot here.
We must decipher the campaign premises that drive the
deal making and pmmnun«wr Consider that a
President George Bush re-election victory will require a
historical low voter turnout. The Republican Party can ill
- Afford to have African-Americans, Hispanics, the working
poor, the down-classed, women groups and so on,
motivated enough to vote.
The ballyhoo surrounding former Ku Klux
member and Neo-Naxi David Duke’s gubernatorial Ud
suggested the existence of an illusion premise to nullify
the African-American vote. Hie national African
American community felt good when the Louisiana
African-American community dealt Duke a smashing
defeat in his run against Governor Edwin Edwards. There
was no real joy for the African-American community
because while they focused on Duke they failed to see the
destruction of progressive thinking underway in
Mississippi Governor Kirk Pordice (R) owes the
Mississippi African-American leadership a debt of
gratitude for his victory. They didn’t rally the African
American vote, so they shouldn't be surprised by Fordice
regressive policies. The Fordice victory confirmed that
the Republican Party can manipulate the African
American vote into staying home, thereoy negating its
impact in the general election.
The Democratic Party is also working hard to insure
that the African-American community doesn’t vote in the
general election. They relegated Rev. Jesse Jackson to
the second team where his eloquent and liberal speeches
will not hamstring Gov. Clinton’s election effort. Further
Clinton’s quasi-Republican Party campaign style carries
the taint of assuming minimal need of African-American
voter assistance in a victory equation.
The re-election bid of U. S. Senator Bill Bradley (D) in
New Jersey offers insight into how one can handle
massive ovter discontent. Bradley’s tough victory showed
that incumbents can still win in an anti-incumbent
aumosphere. But one can also infer from this campaign
that political pundits must devise schemes to manage
frustrated voters—keep these people away from the polls
venting their anger.
The Bradley inference suggests the incarnation of H.
Ross Perot. Perot offered frustrated voters an illusionary
champion to carry their banner. It was like the rebirth of
the fervor surrounding Third Party candidates John
Anderson and George Wallace.
Once Perot’s name got on the ballot in many states, be
could pull out of the campaign shafting these frustrated
voters once again. These battered voters must now either
eat their pride and crawl back to the major candidates
like the Biblical Prodigal Son or stay home election day.
Either way this massive voter block disintegrates before
it can cause serious damage.
Thus I ask you, “Did H. Roes Perot spread
disinformation to pave the way for a successful George
Bush reelection bid? Will the Republican Party campaign
make a conscious effort to insure a historical low voter
turn out? Has Democratic Presidential Nominee BUI
Clinton turned a deaf ear to minorities because he Is now
more Republican than President George Bush?’’