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The Red sod Black
Twrity, November*. IBM
THE RED AND BIACK
Established 1893 — Incorporated 1980
Harry Montevideo, General Manager
Melissa Jordan, Editor In Chief
Clarice Makemson, Managing Editor
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4" independent student newtpope' not affiliated tvifh the Cnivernfv «/ Ge«'«m
Opinion
The lesser of two evils is still evil
It v not too late
Amidst today’s voting polls, network predictions, victory par
ties and other political hoopla, we must take care not to let our ex
citement or disappointment over election results sway our convic
tions about important issues we face everyday — not just every
four years. We must not become desensitized to the value of
human life.
In the early morning Friday, Velma Barfield walked to her
death in a North Carolina prison. As procuronium bromide was in
jected into her arms, “her color changed from reddish to gray,”
the papers said. People outside the prison cheered and howled.
The 52-year old grandmother, a model prisoner who crocheted
stuffed animals for children and counseled other inmates, receiv
ed the death penalty for poisoning her fiance. During the time of
the murder, Mrs. Barfield was suffering from a 10-year addiction
to prescription drugs
Just how tenuously did Velma Barfield's life hang in the un
certain sway of personalities and politics? Her trial in November,
1978, which lasted only six days, including jury selection, was the
first time her court-appointed attorney had tried a capital case
The prosecutor, flamboyant Joe Freeman Britt, holds the honor of
being "the world's deadliest prosecutor,” according to the
Guinness Book of World Records. Her case reached its end in the
middle of a hotly contested Senate race between Gov. James B.
Hunt and Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.). Although politics surely was
not the sole factor in Gov. Hunt’s refusal to grant clemency, ap
pearance considerations no doubt had some influence as the
governor made his drive to unseat the arch-conservative Helms.
The state-sanctioned murder of Velma Barfield served no
purpose but to further degrade and dehumanize our society. This
brave woman, who had the courage to overcome rape by her
father at age 15 and the nightmare of drug addiction, could have
lived a meaningful institutional life.
She is remembered now as a gray body by those who watched
her die, and as the source of warm hugs, broad smiles and yellow
yarn Easter bunnies by her 4-year-old granddaugher, Wendy.
Perhaps the 15-year-old girls whom Mrs. Barfield counseled in
prison will remember how she sympathized with them, and took
the time to listen and understand Maybe they will remember her
words, “I know that feeling of not even wanting the daylight to
come.”
The daylight will not come for Velma Barfield again It is not too
late yet, though, for the daylight to shine on our society, so that no
politics can cloud the value of human life.
While the rest of us elect a president today, millions
of potentially eligible voters will neglect voting
And who can blame them' 1 Faced with what they
perceive as a meaningless choice ( “The Republicans
and Democrats are no different") or a distasteful one
("It's simply a matter of voting for the lesser of two
evils”), it is quite easy to stay away from the ballot
box altogether
But thett is a truly useful reform, already in effect
in Nevada and to an extent in Idaho, that could go a
long way toward remedying this situation The idea is
simple enough: If a voter believes that all the can
didates running for a given office are unnacceptable,
he should have the option of registering a vote for
“none of the above" (or NOTA, for short)
The concept of NOTA is not very new In the early
1970s, the League of Non-Voters promoted a NOTA
slot for beleaguered voters
According to Robert Bakhaus. director of the
National Coalition to Legalize Freedom, "One of the
subtlest deceits of the current electoral system is the
myth of the mandate People can vote against a
candidate only by voting for the candidate's op
ponent, who may be only slightly less obnoxious
Consequently, the winner's margin or victory is very
likely inflated by the votes from people who despise
him Yet there's no objective way of knowing for
sure "
Mr Bakhaus feels that NOTA would change this
By providing an alternative to choosing the lesser of
two evils, il would permit a message of voter
dissatisfaction to be conveyed to candidates and
observers
Even if a majority of voters chose NOTA. it
wouldn't determine the outcome of elections But
Charles Oliver
observers undoubtedly would pay attention to what
the new vote totals meant, and this would almost
certainly attract new voters who previously felt
alienated and believed they were denied a means of
expression under the previous arrangement
Another advantage of NOTA would be that it would
probably reduce the value to candidates of name
recognition and the "coattails” effect Most voters go
to the polls because of one or more campaigns they
are expecially interested; but while they are in the
voting booth, they often vote in other races for a
candidate with an interesting name, for a candidate
with the first position on a ballot, or for a candidate
riding on the coattails of a popular presidential or
gubernatorial candidate
With NOTA. voters could split their ticket and vote
for the candidates they truly supported, then vote for
"none of the above" in all other races The impulse to
express an opinion in every race could be satisfied by
voting for NOTA.
Yet another advantage of NOTA would be in
diminishing the advantage of candidates who run
unopposed As it is now. an enormous number of
political candidates have no opposition. For example,
looking at my absentee ballot, I noted that, of the 26
state and local offices I could vote on, 21 had only one
candidate
But with NOTA. every candidate wuld always be
opposed And the number of votes cast for NOTA
could serve as a signal to potential opponents of the
incumbent, letting them know when the time is ripe
for a challenge, according to Mr Bakhaus
The prospects of NOTA becoming accepted,
however, are not encouraging Most politicians would
welcome a “none of the above” slot on the ballot
about as much as they would welcome herpes In
fact, to my knowledge, the only political party to
endorse such a measure in its platform is the
Libertarian Party And in Nevada, where the
Legislature approved it in 1976. the idea hasn't quite
caught on yet: In the 1982 elections. NOTA didn t
even approach the vote percentages received by any
of the major party candidates
But in the age of Proposition 13, anything is
possible in politics And it is quite likely that, before
the end of this century. NOTA will be commonplace
In fact. NOTA could become a cherished American
institution second only to the right to vote in its power
to guarantee the continued rule of popular govern
ment
Charles Oliver is a junior in the College of Arts and
Sciences
Why can Y Southerners hear the doublespeak?
TO THE EDIItlK:
Much has been said and written lately
regarding the Republican Party’s
inability to attract black voters Aside
from a few anomalies, the Reagan
Bush ticket in 1980 had the support of no
black political leaders of any
significance Now even Hosea
Williams, having taken a sobering look
at the reality behind Mr Reagan's
rhetoric, has come full circle to support
the Democratic presidential ticket in
1984
In our time the Republican Party —
“Lincoln s party" as Mr Reagan is
wont to remind us — cannot cite the
support of the Americans Lincoln
helped to enfranchise The Republicans
have written off the black vote in 1984
At a time when the Republicans have
forsaken black voters, the Democratic
Party in the South is mysteriously
shrinking. Prominent "Democratic"
officials proffer various and sundry
excuses for their all too conspicuous
lack of support for the Mondale
Ferraro ticket Mr Mondale comes to
stump in Lovejoy, and our governor
“has previous committments ” When
Ms Ferraro addresses 20,000 people
just down the road from the Governor's
mansion we learn that Gov Harris
“was not invited.” President Reagan
and the Republicans are sitting in high
Southern cotton while many of the
South's nominal Democrats are sitting
on the fence of hypocrisy
What is to explain the shifting
political demographics which have the
once solidly Democratic South now
more solidiy behind Ronald Reagan
than any other region'’
Part of the explanation may lie in the
unfortunate fact that many Southern
voters view Mr Mondale and Ms
Ferraro as the far-out liberals of Mr
Reagan and Jesse Helms' portrayal
Somehow the “family man" image has
stuck to Ronald Reagan, despite the
fact that the former actor has an 18
month grandchild that he has never
seen
Be this as it may, perhaps there is
another reason why in the "New South"
so many Southern youngsters voting in
their first election consider themselves
Republicans, and why many old-line
bollweevil Democrats have been silent
this go round
The traditional single party South has
been and remains in some aspects (the
state legislatures) Democratic-
Republican Reconstruction burned into
the white Southern soul a deep
resentment for all persons Republican
Few self respecting Southerners would
have, until recently, admitted to af
filiation with the party of U S Grant
As for the black soul. 1 cannot speak
with authority As to the voting habits
of black Americans, however, it is
public knowledge that when first en
franchized, most blacks supported the
Republican Party then, the party of
Lincoln, and before Grant, the party of
moderation
Moderation and the principles of
Lincoln no longer coincide with the
character of Mr Reagan's Republican
Party And. no longer do any significant
numbers of black Americans vote
Republican
But why does Mr Reagan evoke such
strong support from many white
Southern voters' 1 Can it be that the
shrill voice of his radical admixture ot
church and state, his opposition to
virtually every piece of civil rights
legislation of the last two decades,
appointment of Anne Gorsuch to head
the Environmental Protection Agency,
his pandering to the repressive South
African apartheid regime — can it be
thai all of Mr Reagan s radical
rhetoric continues to appeal to the
constituency which gave its blessings to
Barry Goldwater in 1964 and to
Richard Nixon in 1968 and 1972’’
Are Southern voters so taken by his
rugged good looks that they don't hear
the Republican's double speak 0 Or is it.
just maybe, that those nominal
Democrats who now support the
Republican ticket, those bollweevils
who for so long fought against civil
rights, who fought long and hard to
forestall abolition of the poll-tax — is it
that these and the young neo-
Republicans have found their
spokesman in the wiley guise of racist
Republican. Ronald Reagan, the
selfsame Mr Reagan who opposed the
Voting Rights Act in 1964, and who
opposes it today?
Next time someone says to you. “I
used to be a Democrat." ask them why
PAUL R. I.OOPER
School of law
University lacks resources and dedication
TO THE EDITOR
President Fred Davison states the
University's competitiveness "has
made it one of the nation's finest " The
question is, one of the finest what 0 For
example, we now have the Cyber 205 on
campus, but does this make us the
finest computer science school 0 Of
course not, we still have a 103-to-l stu
dent/teacher ratio in that department
The equipment (Music. T1 990. etc ) is
both antiquated and overused And the
most relevant topics in computer
science are totally ignored in the pro
gram
There is not one computer on campus
giving students access to the UNIX
(tm> operation system, a knowledge of
which is nearly mandatory in the
"real" world The computer science
and management information system
departments also offer no courses in C'
language programing, no artificial
intelligence (LISP, etc ) programing,
no relational database programing, in
fact we offer very little to students in
the way of a modern prospective in this
field
I feel safe in saying this lack of
modernity is widespread throughout
the many departments on campus A
lack of resources and dedication to
educational competitiveness are the
contributing factors
This is not to say we lack com
pelitiveness it abounds a plenty on this
campus in the twisted form of in
terschool competitiveness through
athletics My question is how does
football contribute to education on this
campus" The athletic program has
recently acquired new lucrative
television contracts, but do the
educational services on campus
benefit 0 I propose the University's
educational pursuits are entitled to a
equitable share
When a department receives a grant
funding, nearly a third, and sometimes
more, goes directly into the Univer
sity's budget I insist the athletic
department have the same responsibili
ty with its most adequate funding, and
it must also contribute 30 percent of its
income to the University's more mean
ingful and substantial pursuit of educa
tional excellence
Ia*t us stop talking about educational
excellence on this campus and do
something about it! (I would have
prelerred to bring this issue to the
attention of the student government,
but we don't have one )
STEVE MICHALOVE
Senior, management information
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It’s our responsibility to think today
I'm not going to tell you who lo vote for today But I
am going to ask you lo do something For your own
sake, take a few minutes and do something very
important: think
Thinking is sometimes not an easy thing to do in our
society It's a harsh, scary world in many ways With
the possibility of the human race being destroyed
with little or no warning, it is very tempting to hide
from reality and live in a dream world.
Don't gel me wrong I believe in dreams I’m an
idealist at heart I believe there are times to play, to
dream, to be an idealist And there are also times to
be serious, to think, to be a realist Today is a time to
think, lobe a realist
This election is important Four Supreme Court
Justices will retire in the next four years. They will
be replaced by presidential appointees Supreme
Court Justices serve life terms, and these four ap
pointees will affect the nation (or approximately the
next JO years.
By then, many of you will have fully grown
children. Some of you will have grandchildren Think
about it.
Think about the world we are leaving to our
children During each of the past four years that
President Reagan has been in office, the national
debt has been greater than the debts of the four
previous presidents' entire terms combined. And he
says the economy is improving The debt is still
growing It can't continue in this direction forever
Do we want to leave this to our children? Think about
it.
Mr Reagan has cut educational spending, and the
public school system is in bad enough shape already
that it needs as much financial support as possible
Mr Reagan is also supporting legislation that would
make private school education tax-deductible If this
becomes law, the gap between public and private
Julie Horne
education would only become larger, thus widening
the gap between the upper and lower classes The
way things are headed with Mr Reagan at the helm,
the chances for the poor to get good education, good
jobs and provide support for their families is
diminishing rapidly
Mr Reagan and the political machine for which he
is a spokesman are trapping the poor into a vicious
cycle of being dependent on the rest of the country for
support through welfare and other public-supported
social programs Do we want this economic trend to
continue? Think about it.
There has been a lot of talk about patriotism lately
1 love America and the principles it was founded
upon The main reason that the pilgrims came over to
this country in the first place was for religious
freedom The Constitution says that we are to have
freedom of religion, yet Mr Reagan is doing his best
to take that freedom away from us
He. along with his friends in the Moral Majority
(which is not a majority), want lo pul "voluntary"
prayer in the schools If children want lo pray before
a lest, then they can do thai now There is no need for
this law It can only be abused to hurt children w ho do
not wish to participate in "a moment of silence" by
praying Children can be very cruel If a child doesn't
pray when the other children do. then most likely
he/she will be ridiculed by his/her peers This is not
promoting love and understanding between fellow
human beings
Mr Reagan and his friends claim to be Christians,
yet Jesus Christ said we should love all our neigh
bors How does separation of classes and less-than-
equal rights for all human beings fit this doctrine 0
What about warheads aimed al the Soviet Union"
Intervention in Nicaragua, El Salvador. Grenada,
Lebanon. Guatemala" Are these things promoting
love and understanding" Think about it.
Yes, 1 have been trying lo appeal to your emotions
I have been doing this to try to get you to wake up and
think about reality No. it isn’t a pretty picture, but it
is too important to ignore
If you have not voted yet. please take a minute and
think about where President Reagan and the other
candidates stand on major issues
There are alternatives to voting for Mr Reagan
vote for Mr Mondale and Ms Ferraro of the
Democratic Party, or David Bergland and Jim Lewis
of the Libertarian Party, or write in Mel Mason and
Andrea Gonzalez of the Socialist Workers Party Or
even write in Bill the Cat and Opus of the Meadow
Party You do have a choice
If you think that not voting is making a statement,
think again It will be interpreted as apathy Think
about it and do something about it today
Julie Horne is a tta/f photographer for The Red and
Block